As they made their way through the forest, towards the next camp, Shiro was currently checking the changes brought to her own body due to Yinâs evolution.
The biggest change was certainly the fact that she now had a fire type attunement. Unfortunately, it seemed like she could only enhance her skills with the element rather than create skills with the element as the main component.
An example would be her Ice Drakeâs Feast.
If Yin were to try to recreate the skill, she could be able to reconstruct the entire drake out of her Dark Star element.
On the other hand, if Shiro were to try the same, all she could accomplish would be to include orbs of dark star around the drake to deal more damage.
Another problem was that she still took a little bit of damage from the fire. Sure she may have the attunement and some resistance to fire, but it didnât mean she was no longer weak to it. So using the Dark Star element was advised against for now since it was a double edged sword.
Of course, things would change once she classed up. She would gain an overall increase to elemental resistance along with removing some of her innate weakness as a snow girl.
Not to mention, she was still allowed to keep her Ice Princess title meaning her ice magic was still empowered. Obviously, if she was to lose access to her ice magic, the title would disappear as well.
Flexing her fingers, Shiro summoned a small flicker of dark star element so that she could see what it looked like.
The flame was a mixture of black and purple along with some white dots that made it seem like it was made from a galaxy.
Seeing Shiro play around with the new flame, Yin stuck her head forward and blew the flame gently.
"You know mum, if your curious about what it can do you can just ask me right?"
"Fine Iâll entertain you. What does it do?" Shiro smiled lightly.
"Fufu, the Dark Star flame can consume other fire elements and empower itself to burn harder. When I hatched from my shell a second time, a single spark of the Dark Fire was able to consume the entire pillar of fire. If mum didnât send more fire, I might not have gotten this many benefits." Yin said as she relaxed herself on Shiroâs shoulders.
"Oi, donât relax too much. Youâre gonna fall." Shiro reminded.
"You can hold me tighter so that I donât fall~ This baby is tired. I was just hatched not too long ago." Yin grinned.
"Hou~ Didnât you say you want to demonstrate your power? If baby is tired then how can you demonstrate your power." Shiro raised an eyebrow.
"*cough* Oh wow, Iâm suddenly filled with power. Letâs hurry mum." Yin said as she instantly sat up straight. She wasnât about to miss out on the opportunity of showing off to Shiro now was she?
Lisandra giggled slightly at Yinâs antics while Shiro only rolled her eyes.
âAt least she aint a baby.â She thought to herself.
If Yinâs humanoid form was that of an infant who couldnât talk, she didnât know what she would do.
"Oh? I see the camp." Yin called out.
"Letâs stop here then. If you show of when Iâm near, Iâm pretty sure that Iâm gonna melt. (Literally.)"
"Mn, fine. I donât need to be in human form for this anyways." Yin shrugged as she hopped off Shiroâs shoulders.
Landing softly, she closed her eyes as a purple phoenix mark slowly appeared in the centre of her forehead.
"By the way mum, how much of my power do you want to see?" Yin asked.
"Well a decent amount I suppose." Shiro smiled.
"Got it."
Purple flames wrapped around Yinâs body as she shot into the air.
*KI!!!!
Spreading her wings, Yin gathered the surrounding mana.
*BOOM!!!!!
A tier 3 magic circle suddenly appeared above the camp.
*KII!!!!
Following her cry, the magic circle glowed with an ominous light. Hundreds of orbs started to form around her as she flapped her wings and sent the orbs flying towards the camp.
*BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!!!!!
The scene was reminiscent of a meteor storm.
Even Shiro was taken aback by the power that Yin demonstrated with a single spell.
However, this was just the beginning. Once the orbs crashed against something, they would ignite into a giant fire tornado that started to run rampant around the camp.
The flames started to converge towards the centre as Shiro felt a large cl.u.s.ter of mana being sucked towards the convergence point.
âOh sh*t!â
"Get down!" Shiro shouted out as she quickly grabbed Lisandra and made an Ice Wall to protect them from the heavy gust of wind that would follow after the huge body of mana detonates.
*BOOM!!!!!!!!
Once all of the flames converged in the middle, they started to merge and sent out waves after waves of Dark Star Fire around it.
After a short moment, there was nothing left of the camp par from the giant crater that made it look like a bomb had just landed on the camp.
*KI!!!!
Crying out happily, she made her way back to Shiro.
Shifting her body in mid-air, she landed with a soft tap.
"How was that mum?" Yin asked as her eyes showed that she was clearly expecting praise.
"Impressive. But how much mana did it use?" Shiro replied as her smile twitched slightly/
"Errr not that much." Yin coughed lightly.
"You know I can check myself right?" Shiro raised an eyebrow.
". . . Mum, believing in your baby is an important step in parenthood ya know? Benefit of the doubt?"
". . . hais."
Sighing slightly, Shiro patted Yinâs head.
Yin thought that Shiro was about to believe her without checking as he felt slightly emotional at the fact that she was indeed giving her the benefit of the doubt.
"Mum..." Yins said emotionally.
However, that was soon changed as she paled from feeling Shiroâs grip tighten instantly.
"You little sh*t. Did you just use 3 million MP on a f*cking demonstration? Ahhh?!" Shiro said as her aura took a complete 180-degree turn. Just looking at Yinâs current stats gave her urge to give Yinâs head a slap.
"Ahhhh!!!! Go easy on this babyâs head! Iâll lose my IQ at this rate!" Yin cried out as she tried to get Shiro to let go of her head.
"Hah???? IQ? Whereâs the IQ when you decided to use 3 million MP for a single spell. I can see your debuff you know?!" She said whilst tugging on Yinâs cheeks.
"Um tea-"
"Hush Lisa. Iâm gonna teach this unfilial daughter how not to be a dumbass." Shiro said, cutting her off mid speech.
"First, your skill is a tier 3 advanced destruction magic from what I can see. This kind of skill is used to finish off a fight not start one. I can see that you have a debuff called Mana Fatigue that lasts for 5 hours. You decided to use a spell that made you almost useless for 5 hours? What are you thinking?!" Shiro berated.
Letting go of Yinâs cheeks, she massaged her eyes.
"If youâre going to demonstrate at least show what you can do in a 1v1 situation and not just bombing the whole area." Shiro continued as she glanced back at the teary eyes Yin.
"But didnât you tell me to show you a decent amount of my power? This isnât my best skill you know so itâs still classed as decent. Plus, you never told me to go for 1v1âs." Yin pouted as she rubbed away her tears.
Pausing for a short moment, Shiro suddenly had the urge to say âlisten here you little sh*tâ.
"Hais. Forget it. Come on, weâll go to the next camp. Since you have the debuff, youâre going to watch us for the next 5 hours." She said as she helped Yin stand up.
"Hmph, give me another lollipop. This babyâs emotional state is in turmoil because of you." Yin huffed whilst climbing back on Shiroâs shoulder.
"Fine, here." Shiro rolled her eyes as she handed Yin another C class lollipop.
"You really are embracing your role as a mother arenât you teach." Lisandra raised an eyebrow.
"Of course. Itâs because this baby is cute and mum canât resist me." Yin grinned.
"As if." Shiro smiled lightly as she knocking Yin on the head.
"See? Playful affection." Yin said while rubbing her head.
"..."
:Just ignore it Shiro and itâll be fine.â She thought to herself as they made their way to the next camp.
Splitting up once more, Shiro created her sniper and laid down on a high vantage point.
"Say mum, is Lisandra like Lyrica?" Yin asked as she squatted next to Shiro.
"What do you mean?" Shiro replied without turning her head.
"Well, you teach her how to fight and look after her. Kinda like what you do with Lyrica."
"Hmm... I guess? But itâs more for the quest than anything." Shiro shrugged slightly as she shot one of the demons that Lisandra failed to hit.
"Heh~ is that so. Oh yeah, when are you going to open up to Lyrica and the others? We canât hide the fact that weâre monsters for long, mum." Yin asked as she lay on her back.
"..." Shiro stayed silent.
"Or is mum scared?"
"What are you trying to say Yin?" Shiro frowned slightly.
"I may be a baby but Iâm still intelligent you know? Youâre always hesitating about showing off your powers in front of others. Even in dangerous situations. Whyâs that?"
"... I suppose itâs ok if you know. So you know how I got you from a different world?"
"Yeah, and that mumâs a snow girl but is also âsomething elseâ at the same time." Yin nodded.
From as far back as she could remember, she had always seen Shiro use metal to create all kinds of stuff. She knew it wasnât metal magic since it felt different and foreign. It felt âoff.â
"Well itâs my second class. Nanomancer, a class from my past life. The one I had before I died." Shiro confessed since Yin was going to be with her till death. Literally.
"Wait what?! Mum died once already?!?!" Yin widened her eyes in confusion and shock.
"Yeah, I was a little surprised as well. But ignoring that, the cause of my death was in the hands of someone who I had once recognised as a âfriendâ. He saved me from my prison and gave me freedom in a way. But because I was too powerful and surpassed him to become the first one in our world to become a tier 6 legend, he decided to turn his sword against me. Normally I would win, but he created a device to exploit my weaknesses.
"But now that I know that dungeons are connected, there is the chance that I can visit Aria in the future." Shiro narrowed her eyes at the thought of revenge. Her only hope was that she could kill the real him with her own hands and not a simulation type setting like this quest.
From her own estimations, she guessed that the quest had a pool of rewards for first clears or ranks. For Yuan Tian to be able to leave, that meant that the main characterâs in quests could be âtaken outâ in a way.
Another example would be Yin. She believed that she was the first one to clear the shadow temple quest to that degree hence she was rewarded with Yinâs egg.
But if someone else managed to clear the quest to the same grade before her, there would be no way that Shiro could have received Yin.
âWhich means that if I can find a quest that led back to Aria, thereâs a chance that no one had killed the hero yet. But dungeons are inconsistent. I canât guarantee that I will be able to arrive in the same time frame. The best way would be trying to move into the world manually. If I can be reborn in a new world, the reverse should also be possible.â
"Mum, if youâre not careful you might âfallâ." Yin warned.
"Fall?" Shiro paused hearing the word.
"Your names turning black mum. I donât know what it means but something is telling me that once it becomes permanent, youâll âfallâ." Yin said, sitting up straight. There was no more signs of playfulness as Shiro knew that Yin was being serious.
"... Iâll try." Shiro nodded her head after seeing Yinâs concern for her.
Crawling on her back, Yin sighed as she buried her face into Shiroâs hair.
"When your name turns black itâs eerie mum." She muttered as her breathing became rhythmic.
After a few short moments, Shiro realised that Yin fell asleep.
âShe really is tired.â She thought with a soft smile.
Flexing her fingers, she created a bedsheet and covering Yin inside it. Since she had created it using nanofibre, she didnât have to worry about it being uncomfortable.
Gently laying her besides her, Shiro created a pair of ear muffs that blocked out the sound so that her gunfire wonât startle Yin.
âSo whenever I think of killing the light hero my names turns black and it risks me âfallingâ huh?â Shiro thought with narrowed eyes.
She had a few theories in mind but that was it. They were theories and nothing more.