One by one, the rest of the party woke up and decided to have a taste of Yin’s cooking. Aside from the fact that it was only a little salty, it was a good first attempt.
“Mum, where’s dad?” Shiro asked after noticing that he was absent from the dinner table.
“Oh him? He’s just out welcoming his friends. They did take the Teleport Shrine here after all.” Mio smiled as Shiro nodded.
Waiting for a little while, Shiro eventually sensed her dad’s man signature approaching along with four others who were equal if not a little weaker than his signature.
“I’m back.” Koji called out with a smiled as the four teachers followed behind him.
“Are these the kids that we’ll be teaching?” Lin asked while examining them one by one. Narrowing her eyes at Lyrica and Lisandra, she understood that they’re the ones that she’d be teaching for the next three weeks.
“Yup. Their potential is pretty good you know? I’ve had a small spar with each of them.” Koji smiled, reassuring his friends of their prowess.
“If you say so.” Lin shrugged. She’d make her own judgement after a few lessons to see if they’re worthy of being taught. After all, 3 weeks of their time is no joke and if it wasn’t for Koji, they wouldn’t even think about it.
“You two follow me, we’re starting straight away. I’ll be taking your training hall 3.” Lin said and gestured for Lisandra and Lyrica to follow her.
Raising their eyebrow, they nodded their heads and followed after her.
“Hasty as usual.” Koji chuckled since Lin was a woman who preferred to act quickly.
“I don’t blame her. Now which one am I teaching?” Fin grinned before making eye contact with Chen Yu.
“So it’s him. I’ll take training hall 2 then.” Fin laughed as he flickered besides Chen Yu and dragged him away by his collar.
Silvia only gave Chen Yu a loving wave and a smile while whispering, ‘I’ll revive you if you die.’
Naturally, that didn’t escape Fin’s notice.
“That’s good to know.” He grinned which caused Chen Yu to pale.
“So which midget am I teaching?” Chelsea asked as Shiro had to quickly stifle her laugh and acted natural.
After all, she was the shortest out of everyone here and yet she was calling them midgets.
“That’ll be the two over there. One’s a tank and one uses an axe.” Koji said while pointing towards Madison and Helion.
“Ok. You two shorties follow me. I’ll take your training hall 1 ok?” Chelsea crossed her hand as Helion and Madison followed behind her. With Helion’s height, he looked like a giant towering over a blade of grass.
“Sure, take it easy on them.” Koji chuckled.
“Looks like I got three students now.” Stanley swept his gaze across Yin, Aarim and Silvia before making eye contact with Shiro.
Furrowing his brows for a moment, he opened his mouth.
“Your hair, it has changed. Your mana quality seemed to have soared beyond the human average. Have you been practising your mage craft diligently?” He asked with a small smile.
“Of course. As for my hair and mana, some things happened so I’m stuck like this now.” Shiro replied with a chuckle.
“Stanley, she’s also been studying the blade too you know? If anything, I’d say she has been focusing on the blade rather than magic since her experience isn’t something that can be obtained offhandedly.” Koji informed with a smug smile.
“Oh?” Frowning slightly, Stanley glanced towards Shiro with slight traces of disappointment but sighed.
“After I train these two for a session, I want to have another teaching session with you. I want to see the current state of your magic.” He shook his head.
“Sure.” Shiro nodded her head.
“I’ll be taking your biggest training hall.” Stanley said as he walked towards the three magic users of Shiro’s party.
Waving his hand, a tier 5 magic circle opened up beneath them and he teleported away with his new students.
Now that it was just the three of them, Shiro looked over at Koji.
“Did you have to be so petty dad?” Shiro sighed.
“What? He’s been boating about magic all these years and yet he still struggles while fighting me.” Koji shrugged.
“Ignore your dad. You know how their rivalry on which is better had lasted for quite a few years. I think the reason he started to teach you magic was to spite your dad since you wanted to learn.” Mio chuckled as Shiro nodded her head.
“Mn, anyways, shall we go as well?” Shiro smiled.
Making their way to training hall 4, Koji prepared a few swords for them to use.
“So what am I going to be learning first?” Shiro asked while grabbing two long swords and twirled in her hands.
“What do you want to learn first? Both me and your mother can teach you something new.” Koji replied with a smile.
“Hmm… I haven’t sparred with mum yet. So maybe we start with that?” Shiro suggested as Mio nodded her head.
“Sure, we can do that. You can go all out darling. You don’t have to worry about hurting me.” Mio chuckled.
Nodding her head, Shiro was still going to hold back a little since it was her mother after all. Even if she was stronger, she still didn’t want to harm her by accident.
Reaching into her inventory, Mio pulled out an abnormally thin sword which seemed like it was made from a very thin sheet of glass.
Seeing this, Shiro summoned two copies of Athera into her hands along with the remaining 5 which floated around her.
The moment her mother pulled out that sword, her aura seemed to change as cold sweat dripped from Shiro’s back. It was a similar feeling to when she stood in front of the tier 6 guardian only she felt like her mother was more dangerous.
“I heard from your father that you like to use magic but there were some gaps so I’d suggest sticking with pure sword techniques for now.” Mio suggested as she gestured for Shiro to make the first move.
Nodding her head, Shiro narrowed her eyes and activated her Divine Raiment in order to boost up her speed. Choosing lightning as the base element, she was about to dash forward when Mio waved her hand slightly and the sword seemed to disappear from her hand.
The next thing Shiro knew, she was surrounded by a web of sword cuts that would lash out at her the moment she approached Mio.
Widening her eyes, she had the five copies of Athera protect her while jumping into the rift.
Opening several entrances around Mio, Shiro flickered between the openings in order to throw her off.
However, it seemed futile as a sword would always appear in front of Shiro whenever she decided to exit, forcing her to stay in the rift for longer periods of time.
‘Damn… Despite being a heavy offence based fighter, mum’s defences are crazy.’ Shiro thought to herself.
Jumping out of the rift and forcing some distance between them, Shiro frowned and tried to think of a way to attack her.
However, no such opportunity arrived as Shiro wasn’t able to exploit such gaps with her current skill level.
“Shall I attack now?” Mio asked with a small smile.
“Yes.” Shiro nodded with a serious expression.
Nodding her head, Mio slowly walked towards her.
With every step that she took, her speed would increase. By the time she took the tenth step, she had already disappeared from Shiro’s sight and flickered behind her.
Feeling her instincts screaming at her, Shiro bent her body to the side and tried to counter attack with her spare sword.
*CLANG!
Flicking her wrist, Mio disarmed Shiro and pointed the tip of her sword at Shiro’s nose.
“My win~” Mio smiled before putting away her sword and hugged Shiro.
“Fufufu, how was it darling?” Mio asked while patting Shiro’s head.
“Damn, both you and dad are crazy strong.” Shiro sighed.
“Well of course. We’ve spent our lives practising with the sword. Though I’ve noticed something darling. Why does it seem like you’re more used to the dagger or hand crossbow? Well not exactly the hand crossbow but something similar.” Mio asked.
During the fight, she noticed that Shiro’s movements with the sword seemed to have been adapted from some other fighting style which worked with different weapons.
“Mn? How do you know?” Shiro raised her eyebrow in surprise.
“Well your last move gave it away. Normally in that situation, you would want to use your sword to block rather than counterattack since you wouldn’t be able to generate enough force to harm the opponent. Second, there’s a chance that they can disarm you with them being so close to the handle and guard of your sword. Unless you’re using a poison dart hand crossbow and wanted to shoot them from up close, you wouldn’t usually use that move but you used it instinctively. Meaning, you are used to using the hand crossbow or something similar.” Mio explained as Shiro nodded her head.
“Yeah. I’m used to a different weapon. I’m sure you’re familiar with the rumours of a gun being able to kill high level monsters and adventurers right? Well I’m the source of those rumours.” Shiro replied as nanobots surged around her hand and formed a hand cannon.
