Chapter 163 Exploring Vericia
"Since that's settled, I'll show you to your room." Natash smiled and grabbed Shiro by the hand.
Looking down in surprise, she didn't expect Shiro's hand to be so cold.
"Shiro, why is your hand so cold?" She asked. While ice type mages do possess a cold body, that's only in combat. Their body temperature is pretty much normal outside of it.
"Ah just a passive skill of mine. It makes my body cold all the time." Shiro smiled lightly.
"Ah I see. I suppose a skill like that will boost your power with ice magic am I right?"
"Pretty much." Shiro nodded.
Bringing her through the main tower, Natash introduced her to their facilities.
The tower is split into 3 main sections. Commerce Floors, Activity Floors and Research Floors.
The commerce floor is a gathering hub where the different blacksmiths and alchemists can meet to sell their items. The activity floors are where they would find jobs that they could do. These jobs include hunting, escorting and the such.
Not only that, the activity floors contain a few sparring rooms along with simulation pods for those who don't want to spar in real life.
As for the final room, it was the one which Shiro had the most interest in.
"In the research room, it is divided into 3 main sections and 3 subsections. The 3 main sections are the mages research, warriors research and crafts research. The subsections are libraries where members can post parts of their research as exchange for materials that they may need."
"So can I visit here at any time?" Shiro asked curiously.
"No, you have your own research room in your accommodation so you don't have to worry about that. But if you wish to see what other people have done then feel free to drop by here." Natash smiled.
Walking up a set of spiral staircases, they arrived at the very top of the tower. There was a total of 5 doors and the centre one was much bigger than the other four.
Decorated with rare materials and rune formations, Shiro could already tell that it was protecting something precious.
"The four smaller rooms are rooms for us elders. As for the one in the centre, that's something you're not allowed to know just yet I'm sorry." Natash said with an apologetic smile.
"No worries. I am getting the privileges close to an elder while not being tied to the faction after all." Shiro shook her head in understanding.
Bringing Shiro to one of the doors, Natash pulled out a golden key card and scanned the electronic pad beside the door.
"This is the elder's key card. It allows access to everything in this branch apart from a few areas that are off limits. This is also a proof of your identity."
Stepping inside the room, Shiro could see a queen sized bed, a large desk and a doorway leading to what seems to be the research room. But what attracted her attention more was the sheer amount of mana floating around in the room.
"Seems like you've noticed." Natash said with a smile.
"It would be ridiculous not to." Shiro replied with a shrug.
"The room is reinforced by several defence formations along with mana gathering formations. This will help you when you're trying to make more spells or improve your current spells. You can customise this however you want. As for the recruit demonstration in a week or so's time, we'll remind you a day or two before, so don't worry about it.
"Here's a map of Vericia and if you want, I can take you around the city." Natash offered.
"If that's not too much trouble, I'll take your offer." Shiro smiled whilst glancing at the map that she gave her.
The map was quite detailed in the fact that it showed which factions had which mountain peak along with their general description. It also contained their general use of magic and skills.
Of course, it was nothing in detail due to the fact that the factions had their own secrets.
"It's not troublesome at all. We'll be taking one of the mounts so that it's easier to get around the mountains." Natash chuckled before leading Shiro to the stables.
They could see faction members walking around and they would greet her one by one. Of course, they were curious about the beauty next to their elder, especially the boys.
"She's the new guest elder. Don't be rude." Natash said with an air of authority.
Shiro only raised an eyebrow to this as she was very relaxed when they were alone.
"She's the new guest elder?!" They asked with uncertainty.
Scrutinizing her with their stares, the faction members slowly surrounded the duo.
Natash furrowed her brows in annoyance.
"Enough! Do you not have anything else you need to be doing? If so, why don't we go for a few rounds and let me educate you." She shouted out as the faction members flinched in fear and quickly scuttled away.
After she was sure that they went away, Natash sighed and looked at Shiro apologetically.
"Sorry about that."
"Don't worry about it. Though I have to say, seeing your personality change all of a sudden was quite the eye opener." Shiro replied with a smile.
"Ah well with how things are, you need to be dominating for them to actually behave. You know the saying of give them an inch and they take a mile? Pretty much that." Natash shrugged.
"That is very true." Shiro nodded.
*Chirp!
Popping her head out from behind Shiro's neck, Yin pointed at her mouth.
"Eh? When did you bring a pet?" Natash asked.
"I've always had her on me. She's just too lazy to greet anyone." Shiro chuckled and handed Yin a C ranked mana stone.
"Wait! She's only level 49, if you feed her a C ranked mana stone, won't the energy harm her?" Natash warning quickly. She could feel the mana radiating from the stone and knew it was a C ranked mana stone.
"Ah, about that, Yin's somewhat special. She can eat C ranked stones." Shiro replied with a smile but deep down she was frowning.
'Seems like I can't be eating in front of them. They might notice the lollipops are actually mana stones.' She thought to herself.
Eating the mana stone, Yin's level increased to level 50, shocking Natash in the process.
"It worked?!" She exclaimed in confusion.
A purple glow encased Yin's body and slowly solidified into an egg, similar to the condition of which Shiro first received Yin.
'She's classing up already?' Shiro thought with shock. She didn't expect Yin to be able to fulfil her class up options so quickly which resulted in her becoming an egg once more.
"It seems like I must offer you a congratulations." Natash smiled.
"Thank you." Shiro said as she pulled out a bag and placed Yin carefully into the bag.
Arriving at one of the stations, Natash took the manta ray mount and gestured for Shiro to hop on.
Controlling the manta ray to survey the city of Vericia, Natash explained what each mountain peak contained in brief detail. She couldn't possibly remember everything on the spot now could she?
"Would you like to go anywhere before we return to the faction?" She asked.
"Can we visit the auction house? I want to see what kind of items they have."
"Of course.
Making a u-turn with the manta ray, Natash parked the mount at a private location that is given to the faction.
"Ah, before we go, do you have a face mask or something similar? As a woman, I can say that there would definitely be men who would keep an eye on you if they knew you were this pretty." Natash warned. Since Shiro was in the same faction, she was naturally going to help her out.
"I do, but it's only a lower face mask." Shiro replied, pulling up her black face mask.
"Hmm… how about I give you something extra." Natash smiled.
However, Shiro narrowed her eyes at that smile since it reminded her of Aarim.
Natash pulled out a pair of glasses along with several accessories.
"Now hold still." Natash grinned.
"Sure I guess?" Shiro replied since she realised why Natash reminded her of Aarim.
'She also likes to dress people up huh?'
After adjusting Shiro's appearance, Natash couldn't help but give her a thumbs up and pulled out a camera.
"Do you mind if I took a picture?" She asked.
"Go ahead." Shiro nodded since she could just think of it as repayment for showing her around the city.
*Snap snap snap
The sound of the camera shuttle could be heard as Natash made sure to take as many pictures in different angles as she could. Obviously all safe for work.
Her current appearance was mysterious in a different way.
Round glasses that seemed to be quite popular for girls in east asia and a face mask that obscured her true beauty. Of course, it only made one want to remove the mask to see what was hidden away.
As for her dress, Natash had decorated it with attachable frills and skirts that completely remade her dress into a hybrid that gave the feeling of a mage's robe. Of course, the colours were mainly black to match her current colour scheme.
As for her other accessories, it was just a bag that contained Yin, who was in egg form, and a spell book.
"Perfect." Natash smiled with satisfaction.
"Ah, if you can, try to act out of the norm for you so that they don't know who you are."
"What kind of persona would you suggest? Playful? Kill hungry? Shy?" Shiro asked.
"Shy!" Natash widened her eyes in excitement.
Nodding her head, Shiro transformed her entire aura in an instant. It was now meek and blended with the surroundings making her very hard to notice.
"Oh wow. And here I thought I was good at disguise." Natash clapped her hands with praise.
"Um… Thanks." Shiro smiled embarrassingly under her mask whilst fidgeting her body slightly as if she was truly a shy girl.
"OH! MAGNIFIQUE!" Natash's eye's glistened.
"Oh my god that just made me wanna hurl." Shiro suddenly said with a face of disgust. Being meek wasn't for her and even trying to act that way made her want to stab someone.
"F*ck it, imma just go with the silent type." She shook her head and corrected her aura one more.
'Note to self, never try the meek type again.'
"Shame. Oh well, the silent type also works. Here's a shade stone. It will hide your name and level from people. One time use item and will only last for 3 hours." Natash sighed and handed her the item.
"Shade stone?" Shiro raised an eyebrow since she didn't even know this item existed.
[Shade Stone – Blue]
A stone that will hide your information under a veil of shadows. The effects last for 3 hours and can only be used once.
Shiro only nodded her head whilst following behind her.
Entering the auction house, there were people who were naturally curious about who Shiro was but her uninterested blank stare caused them to recoil in fear for a moment.
When they made eye contact, the first thought they had was that she was a doll. No emotions.
To make matters worse, her void black eyes made it even harder to discern her emotions.
Checking the terminals to see what was on sale, Shiro saw that the range of items they sold in the auction house was many times more than New York and Cairosa.
It wasn't surprising considering the fact that this city was something similar to a gathering hub for factions.
High level items were constantly appearing and disappearing with purple being the most commonly bought items.
Anything under the purple grade would be forgotten should they not have any interesting skills that warrant attention.
"Have orange grade items ever been sold here?" Shiro asked curiously.
"There has, but…" Natash smiled awkwardly with a scratch of her cheek.
"The problem with selling orange grade equipment is that everyone was going for it and it was a giant catastrophe. The city lord was absolutely pissed hence why he now collects them all and hosts an event every year where people would compete. There is still 5 months left before the event starts so you have plenty of time to train for it."
"Heh~ Maybe I might even get an item myself." Shiro joked.
"Well depending on what happens, you might actually have a chance. But I don't know what the event activity will be this time so we'll have to wait." Natash shrugged slightly.
"I see. Well that's something else to look forward to then." Shiro nodded and continued to browse through the catalogue.
Looking at the prices of the items, she could help but sigh at how little her current balance is in comparison.
She was just about to stop browsing when she saw a notification for rapid discount.
"Say, what's this rapid discount?" Shiro asked.
"Rapid discount? It's when a bunch of expensive items are put on sale! It comes at random times so we must make the most out of it while we can!" Natash grinned eagerly and started to warm up her hands.
Looking at her eagerness, Shiro couldn't help but picture the image of a tiger that's about to pounce on sleeping prey.