[What I need is a level 25 and two level 30 set armour, a level 25 and level 30 pair of swords and shields.] Shiro typed out.

“Now normally I would have probably done everything separately but just for you, and the fact that ass plates are driving me insane, I’ll do it all in one go. Describe them to me.” Helion said as he pulled out a notepad and pencil.

[For the armour, the level 25 must be defensive orientated as it is meant for a tanker. However, it must also hold some attacking capabilities since she is a mix tanker. She can act as both attack and defence. For level 30’s, one of them should be a mix like the level 25 and the other one should be only speed and power focused. As for the sword and shield, just make them as best you can with both attack and defence in mind.]

“Hmm, so I’m guessing that one is for the Madison girl and the other for the elf? I’m honestly surprised that you’re already asking for level 25 and 30 armours for them.” Helion said as he started to sketch.

[Well I took them to a level 30 dungeon and levelled them up.]

“Hahaha, that’s just like you. Taking them into a dangerous dungeon to level up.” Helion chuckled.

Finishing his sketches, he showed them to Shiro.

“How is this? If I started to make them now, it’ll take me around a day or two to make them all.” Helion said.

[We’re not in too much of a hurry so it’s fine. How much do I have to pay?]

“The ass plate business boom gave me more than enough materials and money to last me a few months. Don’t worry about it.

“And before you say anything, just know that this business boom is due to a certain… tendency of yours.” Helion said before Shiro could reject his offer.

[Fine. Just text me when the items are done.] Shiro typed out.

“Alright. Just give me a second.” Helion said standing up.

Walking out of the store, he saw the queue of people waiting and could only give up on this business opportunity.

“ALRIGHT GUY LISTEN UP!!!! I GOT A BIG COMMISSION SO IF YA WANT ASS, PLATES GO LOOK FOR SOMEONE ELSE FOR NOW!!!” He shouted out.

Closing the shutters, he ignored cries of injustice.

“Well, I should make a start on the armours now.” Helion said with a smile. 

[I’ll leave you to it. See you later.]

“See ya Shiro.”

Leaving the store, Shiro made her way back to the dorms.

Returning to her room, she sighed seeing a certain figure floating near the window.

Giving Shiro a wave, Nan Tian gestured at the window.

Pulling up a chair, Shiro sat down with her legs crossed. Resting her head on her hand, she pulled her phone out and started typing one. Letter. At. A. Time.

[You should be able to open that window yourself right? Why are you waiting for me to open it?] Shiro asked.

“Well, I wouldn’t be a gentleman if I didn’t wait for your permission would I?” Nan Tian chuckled while opening the window.

[And you stalking a little girl is being gentlemanly?] Shiro raised an eyebrow.

“Well… if you put it that way, then it’s not gentlemanly at all. But unlike a certain someone, I don’t watch you while you sleep do I?” Nan Tian laughed.

[Urg. Both you and him are the same in my eyes. Stalker to the bone.] Shiro rolled her eyes.

“But would you rather a gentlemanly stalker or a creepy stalker?” Nan Tian asked as he sat on her windowsill.

[Like I said, both are the same in my eyes. But enough about your creepy tendencies. Tell me, what are you here for?] Shiro asked.

“What am I here for? Hmm… would hanging out with a friend need a reason?”

[Yes.]

“Tsk. Fine, let’s just say you should be careful. This city might take a beating in a few days and that might even be the best case scenario. In the worst case scenario, it may start as early as tomorrow.”

[Take a beating?]

“What I mean by that is a group known as the Black Monarchy has a ritual being set up in this city. As for the contents of the ritual, I have no idea.” Nan Tian said with a serious face.

[Black Monarchy? Sounds edgy.]

“Hahaha, yes. Yes it does.” Nan Tian laughed. He found it amusing how she wasn’t focused on the city-wide threat but instead, the fact that their group title is edgy.

“You aren’t curious about the ritual they are holding?” He asked.

[I am. But, what can I even do? If they’re planning a ritual in this city, then it’s not something a level 35 like me can stop. The most I’ll do is give my friends a warning about it and nothing else. Plus, with you and other factions in the city, we should be relatively safe.] Shiro shrugged.

“True.”

[Also, can’t you pinpoint their location? If you look at the ritual areas you’ve discovered so far, you can reverse draft a ritual diagram and find out the activation sequence. Disrupt that correctly and you stop the ritual.]

Nan Tian was taken back by her line.

“But how would you even know what kind of ritual they’re planning.” Nan Tian asked curiously. He had his own idea but was curious to what Shiro had thought about it.

[Well it’s kind of obvious. Once you find a few of the base nodes, you’ll be able to reverse guess the type of ritual. First off, you need to know the types of rituals. The most common ones being an attack, defence, summon/sacrifice and totem rituals. Let me ask this first. How big is the ritual and how long has it been since the start of their preparation?] Shiro asked.

“I’d say it covers around 60 to 70% of New York City and that they’ve probably started for almost a month I would guess.” Nan Tian replied.

[Well then it’s a totem ritual.] Shiro rolled her eyes. If was very easy to guess what type of ritual based on prep and the size of the ritual.

With the size being 60 to 70% of the city with a preparation of 1 month, then the only option would be totem ritual.

“Why totem? Why not attack ritual?” Nan Tian asked curiously.

[Well, since you’ve discovered tracks due to your estimates, it means they also know. If an attack ritual really took 70% of the city, the materials required would be astronomical. Not to mention, the conditions of an attack ritual is stringent and with you in hot pursuit, they wouldn’t be dumb enough to continue with such a strict ritual. Therefore, it could only mean it’s a totem ritual.]

“If it is as you say, then the only problem left is what kind of totem they’re making.” Nan Tian sighed as he leaned back.

[So why are you telling me this?]

“Like I said, it’s to warn you. Get your friends out of the city or something before anything begins.”

[Urg. Read carefully would you? I wrote WHY. So give me your reason as to why you are warning me.]

“Hmm… you can guess yourself.” Nan Tian replied.

‘I can already imagine this asshole grinning…’ Shiro thought, pulling an annoyed face.

Seeing her face, Nan Tian took it as a cue to stop for now.

“Well, since I did what I wanted to do. I’ll leave for now.”

[Before you go. Does the governor of this city know? And if so, are they planning an evacuation procedure?]

“Yes, they do. And the evacuation procedures are underway.”

[Alright, you can go now.] Shiro waved her hand dismissively.

“Ai… so hurtful to your future sect branch master.” Nan Tian sighed with a shake of his head. Flickering away, Shiro only rolled her eyes.

There wasn’t any point to warning Lyrica and Madison about the ritual. The only thing it’ll do is serve to add stress. 

With the ‘higher ups’ already planning everything out, Shiro decided that she shouldn’t meddle with it and add more variables to their plans. 

###

The next day, Madison and Lyrica followed Shiro since they were going to be spectating her fight this round. After their quick elimination last round, they had nothing else to do.

[See if you can learn anything from the fights.] Shiro typed out simply. There wasn’t really any secret to getting better at fighting other than to experience more fights and learn from others. That was it.

“Alright. We’ll cheer you on.” Lyrica smiled before walking to the spectator stands.

Walking towards the main plaza, Shiro waited for her spot to be assigned.

Seeing a sign that says, [Those who are waiting for slots please check in here.], She immediately knew where to go.

‘Well, that sign says plenty.’ Shiro thought. Queueing up at the booth, she didn’t need to wait too long for her turn to arrive.

“May I have your golden badge as proof please.” The receptionist said.

Nodding her head, Shiro handed over the badge.

“Hello miss Shiro. You’ll be assigned to area C, slot 210.” She replied whilst giving back the badge.

[Thank you.]

Looking at the signs that are scattered around the place, Shiro found area C without much difficulty. Especially considering the fact that there is a huge banner with a C painted on looming over the area.

Finding her way to slot 210, she saw the mini arena she had to be put in. The arena itself reminded her of gladiatorial arenas due to the fact that the main area itself was surrounded by several gate ways.

‘I’m guessing that these gateways will dispense the puppets that will be attacking me in waves.’ Shiro thought to herself.

Walking up to the arena, she saw a device stuck to the side of the entrance of her arena.

[Insert Badge to confirm attendance.]

She reached out and inserted the badge as the device instructed.

*Bing~

A soft ring rang out as the panel lit up with a green light.

[Attendance has been confirmed. Please enter the arena and wait for the round to start.]

‘Hmm, I guess having key panels that instruct the people will save them a lot of manpower.’ Shiro thought whilst entering the arena.

Looking at it from the inside was different compared to looking at it from the outside.

Only from the inside, did she realise how much space she actually had.

‘With such a limited amount of space, it’ll be a pain trying to get a moment of rest between the fights.’ She analysed.

With space like this, even if she used large scale magic, it would get filled up in no time.

As Shiro stepped into the arena, a camera lit up to broadcast her participation.

“Nan Tian. That girl had entered the arena.” Huan Er reported.

Currently, they were on the roof of the skyscr.a.p.er.

“Hou? Pass me the tablet. I’ll watch it while we work.” Nan Tian said with slight anticipation.

Nodding her head whilst feeling annoying inside, she handed him the tablet.

‘Little Snow should be able to hold her own against the puppets. But the problem comes with her physical attributes. The level 50’s have an advantage over her in terms of stats and stamina, I wonder how she’ll fare in this round.’ He thought, looking at the live feed of her arena.

Meanwhile, Madison and Lyrica were looking at the participant’s list. When they saw Shiro’s name light up, they immediately tapped it and watched the broadcast.

“Hey Madi, how well do you think Shiro will do?” Lyrica asked.

“How well? I’d say around mid to low? Since the level 50’s have ridiculous stats compared to her.” Madison replied, analysing the chances of Shiro’s victory.

“Really? I’d say she’d be mid to high.”

“Why?”

“Well because she has great stamina doesn’t she? Have you seen her tire herself out when fighting monsters? The only time we see that is when she uses her martial arts a lot. But other than that, we’ve seen her fight at full capacity for more than an hour. In my opinion, Shiro’s strength lies in stamina conservation along with sudden bursts of attack power.” Lyrica explained.

“…!!!” Madison paused in shock seeing a sudden burst of wisdom from Lyrica.

Blinking twice to make sure she wasn’t hallucinating, she wondered about what just happened.

‘Well, people tend to have odd moments of intelligence at random times.’ Madison thought.

“So you believe that she’ll outlast the level 50’s?”

“Yes. That’s because of the fact that they’re level 50. With large stat’s, there is an equal amount of energy usage. They are like engines that go from 0 to 100% power with each attack. It’ll tire them out quickly whereas Shiro is an engine that keeps a constant 70% output and can change to different output values depending on what she wants to do.

“Naturally, this only works if you consider Shiro’s already huge stamina pool and her fine control of her body. Anyone else and they’d definitely rank lower compared to the level 50’s.” Lyrica concluded.

“When have you ever talked this much?” Madison muttered.

“When it comes to Shiro I always talk this much.” Lyrica smiled.

“Hmm.”

Ignoring the fact that Lyrica seemed to have had a strategist possess her for a moment, they waited for the commentator to start the round.

“WELCOME ALL!!! Today, we have the survival test for our adventurers. Each adventurer will have to fight against waves of puppets that are matched to their level. Ranks will be determined by how long you actually survive for. To make things fair, all of the puppets will ‘level up’ after a certain amount of time for every participant.

“However, even though we have a surprise contestant that is under levelled, we’ll keep the puppets at level 50 even for her.” The commentator said.

Madison and Lyrica frowned hearing this as Shiro was only level 35. With the puppets being 15 levels higher than her, it was going to be a hard fight.

‘Level 50 huh? Seems like I’ll have to focus my attention on making the puppets hurt each other.’ Shiro thought with a frown.

“With the introduction finished, LET THE ROUND START!!!”