"Are you really sure you want to fight? I can guarantee that what youāre about to do is a terrible idea." Shiro chuckled while glancing up at the young man.
Hearing no reply, she only shrugged her shoulders before flexing her finger.
Suddenly, several nanotech nails appeared between her fingers as she threw them towards the portals.
*PING PING PING!!!
Shattering them to pieces, the man widened his eyes as Shiro cancelled his attack in an instant.
"Should we just lock him up for a bit or kill him?" Shiro asked as both she and Nan Tian appeared behind him.
With ice chains erupting out of the ground and a cage of light restraining the man, he was not able to move at all.
"Probably just lock him up since the government does need him after all." Nan Tian suggested as Shiro nodded her head.
Making sure that the chains wonāt be broken for a while, she dragged Nan Tian into the rift and disappeared from the spot.
After they disappeared, the man released a breath that he didnāt know he was holding. Cold sweat ran down his back as he clearly understood that he had underestimated the power of the young girl.
This wasnāt even including the man either since he didnāt do much.
Furrowing his brows, he sent a message to the government.
###
Leaving the rift, the two started to walk away as if nothing had happened.
"Are you sure you should let me tell the government about our identity?" Nan Tian asked as Shiro didnāt wear her mask at all so he had a good look at her face.
"Yeah thatās fine. Even if they know itās me, what can they do." Shiro laughed since her parents had probably done worse.
"Anyways, how is the map? Is it good enough?" Nan Tian asked.
"Mn... Somewhat. It shows a bit more but not enough." Shiro sighed since the map that she had retrieved from the governmentās database only had slightly more land covered than the map she already had. It was helpful but not as helpful as she had hoped.
"I suppose we can only uncover the rest ourselves then." Nan Tian said as Shiro nodded her head.
"Right then, how do you think we should look for the Shard of the Garden? Since we donāt know how the world looks, we donāt exactly know where to look do we?" Shiro asked.
"And if we randomly charge in a direction it would prove to be more annoying in terms of wasting time. Who knows if weāre actually getting closer or further away." Nan Tian sighed.
"Mn."
"Do you think you can track the energy of the shard? Or is that not possible?"
"Unfortunately no. Different anchors may feel similar but thatās only because the materials used are quite close. The shard is something unique and unless itās a smaller anchor of the same queen, no two anchors will feel exactly the same. So trying to track down the shard from our world is going to be hard." Shiro shrugged.
"I do have a skill I received from Hermes though. Iām not sure if I want to use it or not." Shiro sighed.
"What skill is it?" Nan Tian asked.
"Itās a gateway to any destination I have visited or know about so long as I have a clear understanding of its location. Since we have a map, Iām not sure if it counts or not." Shiro said as Nan Tian raised his eyebrow.
"Oh? Is there any more restrictions on this spell?"
"Well it is a one time use and Hermes said that this is a powerful spell. If I know where all mana originates from, I can teleport there." Shiro replied since this spell essentially allows her to go anywhere. She wasnāt sure if she should try to obtain the shard of the garden this way.
With time being limited right now, trying to find it manually may be more difficult than what she had expected.
But using this spell was akin to trying to kill an ant with a gun. Complete overkill.
"Should I give it a try?" Shiro asked.
"Itās up to you. However, we can fly around a bit and explore the world since our flight speed is fast. If we still canāt find it then we use the spell. How about that?" Nan Tian suggested.
While they were indeed short for time, they were still able to take a few moments to explore and see if they could find it themselves. Plus, with Shiro being able to teleport to Astral Horizons at any moment she wished, it was a simple task to teleport away right after they obtained the shard.
"AH wait a minute, your teacher said that he discovered Astral Horizons on his journey right? What if he had discovered more of the world. His knowledge of the map would be much better plus the map skill will show him what heās found so far." Nan Tian reminded as Shiro raised her eyebrow before nodding her head.
"Thatās right! Teach does have that! Let me call him."
Pulling out her phone, Shiro dialled Stanleyās number and waited for him to pick up.
"Hello? Stanley speaking." His voice rang out.
"Teach, itās me, Shiro. So you know how you travelled to the unexplored areas for a while right?" Shiro asked.
"Mn, I did. Are you perhaps curious about what I found?" Stanley replied.
"Kind of. You see, Iām trying to find this place which contains something very important and it seems to be in the unexplored areas. I was thinking if you have a more advanced map of the world or perhaps you might know of this location."
"Iāll see what I can do then. Where are you right now? I want you to tell me your coordinates on the map." Stanley asked as Shiro checked her map and told him her coordinates.
Not too long after she did this, she heard the phone hang up and a portal appear in front of them.
"So where is this place that you wanted to go?" Stanley asked curiously as Shiro paused for a moment since she didnāt expect Stanley to appear before them.
"Ah right, hereās the map."
Giving him the map that showed her where the shard is, Stanley frowned and examined it a few times.
"I know where that is." He said with a frown.
"You do?!" Shiro widened her eyes.
"Yes but teleportation doesnāt work there. This was the place where I found a few treasures including the dagger that I gave you. But the dangers there are insane. No spacial magic works there so you canāt jump into the rift or teleport out. Even the special magic circle that I use to help me ignore these restrictions is useless there. The best I can do is teleport you close to it." Stanley shook his head.
"Where is it exactly?" Shiro asked.
"Itās to the far far west of this world. I think it took me a few months of travel to find that place. I kept travelling west while hardly stopping to explore the other places I found." Stanley replied.
"I see..."
"But there are other problems such as the native race of the outside world. They are quite hostile and it took me a while to gain their trust."
"Eh? There are races that live outside in the unexplored area?" Shiro asked as Stanley nodded.
"Mn. Getting to the island would be hard if you have these races trying to kill you around every corner." Stanley replied.
"If we disguise ourselves do you think weāll be able to get past them?"
"Iām not sure since I wasnāt able to do it before I was discovered. There are also dangers at the island so you need to be careful. If you want, I can come with you. Iāll escort you as far as I can." Stanley offered as Shiro thought about it for a moment.
"Mn... Itāll be fine, teach. We should be able to handle it. Plus, youāre already helping by teleporting us over there. Oh speaking of which, are there any teleport shrines outside?"
"There are. I can transfer their locations to you while I send you to the island."
Nodding her head, the trio made their way to a teleport shrine.
Setting down some nodes, Shiro wanted to see how far each teleport shrine was so that she could start mapping out everything herself.
Spending the next hour teleporting around, Stanley transferred a total of 28 teleport shrines to Shiro.
"I donāt have any inside a town or city since I wasnāt trusted enough for that yet." Stanley sighed as Shiro shook her head.
"No this is plenty already teach. Having these 28 new places helps out a lot since itās much more than what the government has provided me.
Nodding his head, Stanley did one final teleport but this time it was with his own magic.
Finding themselves on a cliff near the sea, Shiro could see islands in the distance.
"Thatās where you want to be going."