Chapter 396 Start Of The Event
In the time leading up to the event, Shiro had scouted out the people who had joined. She would then categorise them into two sections, the idiot section and the normal section.
The idiot section were those that blatantly radiate their aura and try to eliminate some people before the event even starts. They're the ones that don't know about the people stronger than them and were quite naïve in thinking that their power could suffice without any strategy.
In addition to these two sections, Shiro had also managed to figure out some who seemed to be quite powerful despite their lack of aura. That was because they had this special kind of 'intensity' to them that can't be seen in inexperienced people.
During the time leading up to the event, Shiro had almost camouflaged herself and started to observe the party from afar. She was glad that everyone had reached level 100 and now all that remains was for them to class up.
And before she knew it, the two weeks had passed and the event was about to begin.
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"Well damn, first thing in the morning and you can't even see the pavement anymore." Shiro muttered while looking out of the window.
*Yawn~
"Because today is even day isn't it? Most people like to just arrive on the day so they don't have to buy lodgings when the price is clearly higher than normal." Keiko replied a little absent-mindedly while rubbing her eyes.
Stretching her body, Keiko got dressed.
On one of the other beds, Lisandra was still sleeping since Shiro didn't forget to train her in these two weeks. While they were limited in what they could do, training was still training.
"Let's go sign up now. One of the booths should have opened nearby. But damn, why the hell would they have them open on the day rather than the days before the event. It's just gonna make things annoying." Keiko complained.
"Well maybe that's how they wanted it. Those that arrive late or wake up late would find a harder time to register and in turn get eliminated indirectly." Shiro shrugged.
Changing into a different outfit that she had obtained, she was going to participate as an archer. Since her magic was quite recognisable, going as an archer would make it harder for her identity to be discovered.
Her new outfit consisted of a red and black jacket with silver armour adored around the shoulders, elbows and waist. The hem of the jacket was extended to around her knees. She wore some black leather pants along with a pair of red armoured boots.
Tying her hair into a ponytail, Shiro changed her disguise so that she had black hair and black eyes. Her face was also changed so that it was more of a reserved beauty that would slowly show itself the more you look.
With the Asteria's Embrace strapped to her back, she looked at her appearance in the mirror and nodded her head.
"What do you think?" Shiro asked with a smile.
"Pretty good but Shiro, do you even have any archery skills?" Keiko asked since a disguise is all well and good but if she was going as an archer, she needed to use skills that don't expose her identity as a mage.
"Ever heard of unconventional archers?" Shiro smiled.
"Yes, I have but even if you go as an unconventional archer, you still need some skills." Keiko raised her eyebrow.
"That's where this bow comes into play. At day, my arrows are changed into powerful one shot arrows. With my body control, I can be a hit and run archer. Plus, I have a few decorations that have some archery skills embedded into them so it's fine." Shiro replied.
Her silver armour was actually created from her nanobots and each of them had a different archery-based skill embedded into them.
3 were passives that helped out with her handling of the bow while the other two were active skills that she had recycled previously.
The first active skill was one called Sequential Exploit. If your arrow lands a critical, you fire a second arrow immediately. Should that get a crit as well, a third arrow will be fired. With every subsequent arrow after the third, your crit chance will get a penalty of -10%. However, Shiro had a way to somewhat counter this decrease in crit chance and that was one of her passive recycled skills.
Archer's sight. Every time you manage to land a critical strike on a crit chance of less than 20%, you'll gain a 100% critical chance for a short period of time.
As for the second active skill, it was Snare Arrow. Firing an arrow in the nearby area would instantly explode into a snare trap. Should a person be snared within the first 5 seconds of activation, they'll be rooted for 1 second. Should they be snared after the 5 second mark, they'll be rooted for 3 seconds.
This skill prioritises the tactic of setting up traps but Shiro can easily deal with them in this second. Plus, even if she did need to set up the trap, she can synergise her illusion skill and trick them into entering her 3 second snare.
{I swear, at this point, with the amount of skills you've recycled from armours, weapons and items, you can effectively play as every class should you want to. Only hindering factor would be your stats but archers only really need dexterity and agility, so you have that covered.} Nimue sighed and couldn't help but think that life is unfair.
'Well the Nanomancer class was a triple S class before upgrading to EX. This much is to be expected, you know?' Shiro replied. While she cannot modify or recycle set based items and equipment, singular pieces are easily within her grasp.
It was just a matter of finding the right equipment to recycle and getting the most out of them.
{I get that but to think that this is a manmade class with such power is just inconceivable.} Nimue shook her head.
'Well life is unfair I suppose haha.' Shiro replied before returning her focus back to reality.
"So, while me and Lisa go to this event, what are you going to do?" Shiro asked.
"Me? I think I'll probably pay the city lord a visit then watch from the stands." Keiko shrugged.
"Heh~ well I suppose I'll be regrouping with the party after this so it should be fine." Shiro nodded.
Giving Lisandra a disguise along with a new outfit, they made their way out of the inn and towards the registration stand.
Since they woke up early in the morning, the queue wasn't as daunting, and it only took them around 45 minutes to reach the front.
Signing up with the name Kasumi and the class Grand Archer Sage, Shiro then had Lisandra sign up with the name Chizu and a Grand Sword Master class.
After some verification procedures, of which Shiro tampered with, they were given two badges and signify their admission to the event.
"Please stand by for now as the event will start at 12pm." The person smiled.
"Ok." Shiro nodded.
Leaving with Lisandra following behind them, they spent this time just going around and checking out the stalls that foreign adventurers had set up.
There were a few pieces of equipment that had rather decent skills so Shiro decided to purchase them and recycle it into her database. With all of her skills in the database, she could theoretically pass off as an archer, swordsman, tank, spearman and assassin. The only one that's difficult would be support since her buffs were quite self-orientated and she only had one decent healing skill that can be used constantly.
Around 11pm, the ground started to shake as Shiro wondered if it was an attack. The first thing that she did was get some high ground and prepare to attack with her bow. But when she saw the source of the tremor, she couldn't help but raise an eyebrow.
The ground beneath them split apart as a giant tower of sorts could be seen rising into the sky. Eventually, the height of such a tower surpassed the tallest point of Vericia and continued to rise. Understanding that this may very well be the event location, Shiro wondered why it was different to the past years despite the previous consistency.
"Seems like this year's event is a little special." Shiro muttered with a smile.