Shaking the thought from his mind, the director sighed.
“I suppose so. Since you have reached the highest grade, I’m sure you can access the manuals for mages. Though I’m not too sure if they’re useful for you since they’re for the…. More conventional mages I suppose.” He replied. Normally, a mage would use their spells and not their physical body to complete the test but Shiro had just proved him wrong so
“That’s fine.” Shiro nodded since she wanted to see what the manuals for the normal mages are. After all, she is a mage in this life so it would probably be good for her to study a little on how mages operate.
“But seriously, you’re a mage? Who taught you how to fight like that?” He asked curiously since mages don’t usually get the training to perform like how Shiro did.
“Who trained me? Well… I suppose my other daughter’s ancestor and just my friend’s butler.” Shiro replied since that was the truth. Yin’s ancestor, Fei Ling, taught her the phantom path and Lyrica’s butler/master, Yuan Tian, gave her the inspiration for Asura path.
Without these two, she wouldn’t have the Path of Ascendance martial art she had now. Of course, even without this, her body control was top notch but she wouldn’t have passed the test through just reaction and body control alone.
“. . . Seriously?”
“Yep.”
“. . .” Shaking his head, the director dispersed the crowd before leading the duo to the library where they keep all their manuals.
“To the left is the mages section and to the right is the fighter’s section. We’ll go to the fighter’s section first since that’s what both of you have completed. Also, Miss Lisa, you don’t have to fight anyone either since Miss Nytri has just broken the record and you’re allowed some leeway.”
“Thank you.” Lisandra nodded. Normally, she would have wanted the challenge but with Shiro promising to train her later, she was more than happy to give up this chance.
Should Shiro know what Lisa was thinking, she would just laugh with sadistic intent.
Since Lisandra wanted to learn how to enhance her senses without sight, the training that comes with it will naturally be harsh.
Shivering slightly, Lisandra wondered what she had just felt but decided to dismiss that feeling as cold wind.
Entering the library for the fighter manuals, the director had Hideo point Lisandra towards the A rank manuals while he brought Shiro to the S rank manuals.
“In the S rank section, we only have a few manuals since techniques of this grade are hard to come by. You’re allowed to choose whichever one you want and study its contents. But remember, you cannot take the book outside or teach it easily. This is not because we’re petty but the technique is dangerous for those who don’t know how to control their body to the standard of which you have demonstrated.” The director warned.
“Don’t worry, I know about the risks.” Shiro chuckled. After all, she also had a set of martial arts that had quite high requirements for the body. While she did teach it to Madison and Lyrica, she made sure to add warnings and points to remember in their books so that they can practice with ease.
‘Hmm… thinking of my martial arts, I wonder how Kanae is doing. I wasn’t able to find them in New York so they might be somewhere else.’ Shiro thought to herself curiously.
Shaking her head, she saw that they arrived at the S ranked section for the fighter manuals.
“Feel free to explore however you want and tell me when you’ve found one that you like.” The director smiled as Shiro nodded her head.
Walking through the doors, she saw a shelf with four manuals on them.
Looking back, she saw that the director wasn’t following her in.
“Are you not joining?” Shiro asked.
“No need since I already know their contents. Plus, I wouldn’t want to affect your choice of manuals.” He shook his head.
Raising her eyebrow, she only shrugged her shoulder and started to look through the manuals.
[Six Everlasting Desires]
[Drunken Dream Realm]
[Breath of the Ancients]
[Mystic Sensory Arts]
Reading through each manual, she got a gist of what they each did.
First was the six everlasting desires. This manual had six stances and each corresponded with the desires of L.u.s.t, Vanity, Dignity, Pleasant Sounds, Good Life/ Death and Sensual pleasures. As one worked through the stances and reached Sensual Pleasures, they’ll then be able to achieve a seventh stance which allows them to tap into their latent potential.
The ‘downside’ of this manual in Shiro’s opinion would be the side effects of having each of your desires enhanced to the point where you can no longer hide them. Should she even feel the slightest hint of romance towards Lyrica for example, it would result in her trying to seduce Lyrica as much as she could.
For someone like her who at times liked to act and trick her opponents, this would be counterproductive as it would take away one of her best tools.
The next manual was the Drunken Dream Realm. With this martial arts, you will manipulate your mana in a way that distorts the surroundings and confuses the opponent. During this, your restraints are removed and you attack without care.
‘This one is pretty much like a berserk mode but you also confuse your opponents huh?’ Shiro thought to herself since this one was quite a good manual.
{Indeed. Though you already have a few skills like that so it’s not too helpful.} Nimue said as she crossed her arms since she was also looking at the manuals.
‘Mn.’
Checking the next manual, the Breath of the Ancients, Shiro noticed that this was the rumoured skill. This was a rather strange skill since it allows the user to gain the experiences of their ancestors for a short period of time. It says that it’s mana manipulation but Shiro knew that there was more to it than that.
Since she already had plenty of experience and could technically be called an ancestor, this skill was quite useless for her as well.
Last and final manual on the shelf was the Mystic Sensory Arts. This was a passive skill that enhanced your senses. While this was good, there was also the downside of not being able to turn it off. Should you be in a place that stinks, that stench would be enhanced. Not only that, the same goes with pain.
However, for Shiro, this skill was almost perfect since her tolerances were quite high.
“Might as well go with this one. With my senses enhanced, I’ll be able to detect danger even faster than before.” Shiro muttered while picking up the manual.
{Shiro, what about that key? Don’t you want to see if there’s something in this room that you can use that key on?} Nimue reminded before she left.
‘Hmm… true. Since I got the key from the test, I should be able to use it in this room.’
Pulling out the key, she looked for anything that might fit this key.
Searching for a short while, she found nothing and decided to use her mana to scan the room.
Pressing her palm against the wall, she sent out a pulse of mana and made a quick blueprint of the room in her mind.
‘Hmm… There’s a chamber to the left.’
Walking over to where the chamber should be, she saw that there was just a blank wall and frowned.
But before she could even say anything, her key started to glow as a seal revealed itself.
Seeing the sudden presence of a light, the director walked into the room and saw the seal.
“Eh? When was this here?” He furrowed his brows.
“You don’t know either? It just appeared when I used the key I got from completing the test.” Shiro replied as she was a little surprised that not even the director knew about this place.
*Krrrr
The wall started to shake as a passageway was revealed. Strangely enough, the passage seemed to be a portal of sorts since there wasn’t enough space behind the wall to accommodate such a big area.
Frowning slightly, Shiro decided to enter it since it shouldn’t be too dangerous right? Plus, who the hell would even reward you with a key to danger in a place like this.
*BANG!
Hearing the sudden collision, Shiro looked back only to see the director rubbing his nose.
“You ok?” She asked.
“Urg… yeah. It seems like I can’t enter this passageway.” He replied with a frown.
“Hm, in that case then enjoy yourself. I’ll be right back.” Shiro shrugged since it wasn’t really her problem.
“Wait, are you just gonna leave?!” The director widened his eyes.
“Yup. Bye~”
Continuing down the passageway, Shiro ignored the director behind her.
