Chapter 700 Faidon's Armour
Collecting the pieces of the cyclops' corpse that would serve as proof of subjugation, Shiro unsummoned her blade with satisfaction.
With the addition of Error 403, its power had tremendously soared and she was somewhat confident in challenging the Primordial Trials.
While she could not use Error 403 with every attack, she understood how to charge the element so that it'd activate with her next attack.
Each monster that she kills gives it a minimum of 1 energy. Powerful monsters can grant up to 25. Once it reaches 100, Error 403 will 'wake up' and whenever it sees a powerful monster, it'll enhance Shiro's attack so that he could consume it.
As for what happens after he consumes it, Shiro didn't know but it didn't matter to her since there was still time to test that out at a later date. The most important task right now was to claim her armour and attempt the trials.
During the time that she had been working at the library, Shiro had asked Quella to talk to her about the Primordial Trials, what they give and their contents. Her reply to the question was "I do not know all of the details as the trials themselves change depending on who attempts it. It is not like the lesser trials that stay the same regardless. In terms of difficulty, I can tell you which is the hardest along with some of the basic benefits they give. However, the 'key' ability they give when you obtain them changes as well."
With the five Primordial Trials being the hardest task in the world, it was only natural that each trial was tailored to the individual.
In terms of ranking, the hardest trail was apparently Nyx's, followed by Chronos, Ouranos, Tartarus and finally Gaia. Despite Gaia being ranked the last out of these five, her trial was still one that many struggled to complete.
Out of the five, her best chance was probably the one with Gaia but there was one problem. While Gaia was one of the easiest, the enemies there are heavily armoured. Even with Nivlim's effect of ignoring a certain amount of armour and granting armour penetration, her overall attack was still a little too low for the enemies. It would take her forever to even kill one of them nevermind a whole bunch of them.
As for Tartarus, there were potentially some rather difficult obstacles aside from combat which was good for her but her current tool set might not be able to accomplish that so going it was a bigger gamble than Gaia.
With these two out of the picture, her first primordial trial could only be between Nyx's, Chronos' and Ouranos. Nyx's and Chronos' were definitely a no go right now since the monsters and powers inside those trials were the extremes of the extreme.
Going there is literal suicide. There had only been 3 people to have ever completed their trials. Two completed Chronos' while only one had ever managed to complete Nyx's. For the one that had completed Nyx's trial, he was essentially unkillable even by those that had Chronos' power.
Since Ouranos was her only logical choice, Shiro had to make some preparations for that.
"Say, Quella." Shiro called out.
"Mn?"
"Is there anything I need to prepare for Ouranos' trial?" She asked with curiosity since that's her next goal.
"Hmm… Nothing much really. Though I suppose you might want to improve your control over flying. From what I know, Ouranos' trial involves a lot of flying." Quella replied since there wasn't much one could do to prepare other than to train. After all, completing the trials were a matter of personal skill.
"I see. Hmm… Oh well. Once I get my armour I should be pretty set." Shiro shrugged and stretched her body.
Since the trials were a solo experience, she had to rely on herself once she entered the trial space.
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Returning to Vox, Shiro completed her bounty on the Cyclops as the receptionist had learned to just provide her with the information about the bounty spots. After all, Shiro hadn't failed to complete one yet. Even hard tasks like the Mysterious Monster and Hamoena were completed by her. There were a few Mercenaries that wondered when she was going to complete her other divinities since she had only ever displayed one and that was Nike.
Some even wondered about the legitimacy of her completions but after the Mercenary Hall had confirmed the killing of each monster, their cries of doubt were silenced.
After killing the Cyclops, Shiro had actually opted out of getting more bounties since she needed to practice with her Divinity of Nike more along with her sword skills. Her next trial was going to be a Primordial Trial so she needed all the practice she could get.
For Nike, her flight was directly tied with her stamina and body condition. If she was very tired, her wings would slowly fade away. Therefore, to combat this, Shiro worked on increasing her stamina along with her proficiency with using her wings so that it didn't take as much stamina.
She would occasionally fly through the city and turn through narrow corners at breakneck speed while making sure she didn't crash through a wall.
By the end of the wait for her armour, she had essentially mastered the art of flying through Vox.
Funnily enough, she had gained a nickname in the city since people would see her flying around every day.
Crazy flying woman.
She would hear mentions of this new nickname every so often whenever she flies through the city but she had gotten used to it now.
Flying through the town, she arrived at the blacksmiths and saw Faidon hammering away at a new set of armour.
Waiting in the queue, she watched as he glanced up.
"Ah it's you. Pass me your token and I'll go look for the armour." Faidon instructed.
Nodding her head, Shiro reached into her bag and pulled out the token that she had kept safe.
Checking the number, Faidon nodded his head and excused himself for a moment. Coming back with a dummy that was equipped with her armour, Faidon sat down and took a few notes.
"Do you need me to teach you how to put it on? It's not fancy like the sword that Maria gave you but it's above average." Faidon asked.
"No I'll be ok. Here's the payment." Shiro smiled and handed him the pouch with 200 gold inside.
Checking that the money was accurate, Faidon nodded his head and gestured for her to leave.
Furrowing her brows a little, Shiro shrugged her shoulders. Between Faidon and Maria, Shiro much preferred Maria not only because her weapons were good but also her passion for the craft was impressive.
For Faidon, it seemed like he was only doing this for money as he was better than average. Hence why he was essentially mass producing better than average armours every day.
But since she didn't know his situation, she didn't stick her nose in.
Looking at the armour, she placed it in her pack before flying back to the Library so that she could get changed.
After putting on the armour, Shiro adjusted some of the pieces and nodded with satisfaction. The armour came in two layers, the inner and the outer.
The inner layer of the armour consisted of chainmail that could be placed under the outer layer of her jacket since it would be rather uncomfortable to have chainmail constantly touching her skin. As for the outer layer of the armour, it was made up of 8 parts.
Two forearm pieces, two shoulder pieces, a torso piece, a waist piece and two armoured boots.
The armour itself wasn't exactly craved with art in mind since they were rather plain and worked around efficiency rather than fancy looks. The fanciest thing that Shiro could pick out was probably the waist piece that acted as a second skirt since there was cloth attached to the armour.
Donning the armour, Shiro was slightly surprised about how light the material was.
Making some fine observations, she recognised them to be made from Sky Metal that's harvested from islands that have been suspended in the sky for a long period of time. The main properties of this metal is that it is lighter and more durable than average.
However, it wasn't on the level of a unique metal like the one that Maria had used. Regardless, it was still a good set of armour.
While Shiro was changing into her armour, a group of two people had arrived at the city with a small sheet of paper in their hands.
[Shiro]
Dead bounty – 25 Gold.
Alive Bounty – 40 Gold.