Chapter 176 - Class Up Choices

"First, I want to see what you can do with your mana control. Experience can be gained much easier if you have some foundations in mana control." Shiro said as she made herself as chair to sit on.

"So do I just do what I can?" Lisandra asked as she didn't know where to start.

It was like when you're cooking and someone just says to cook whatever. Out of all the options available, she didn't know which one she should pick.

"Hmm, then just show me an aura coating if you know what that means." Shiro replied after a short moment.

Furrowing her brows, Lisandra concentrated her mana to wrap around her body. A golden mana started pulse as it seemed like she was covered in a layer of golden flames.

Looking at the detestable elemental nature being wrapped around Lisandra, Shiro suppressed her disgust and walked towards her.

"Now this coat isn't too bad, but the overall enhancement and protection are too flimsy." Shiro said as she flicked the aura.

*PING!

Shattering into particles of light, Lisandra was surprised at how easy it was for Shiro to destroy her aura coat.

No one had managed to 'break' her coat when she was sparring the castle. Not to mention, Shiro was able to break it so effortlessly.

"As you can see, just by concentrating a bit of my mana on my fingertip, I was able to destroy your aura coat. With the way you've coated yourself, the defenses were weak and the main points of weakness were obvious. When you coat yourself in mana, it should be a thin layer rather than a fire."

Standing back a little, Shiro flared her mana and activated her own mana coat.

*BOOM!!!!!

"Wah!!" Lisandra fell backwards as the pressure that was released by Shiro slammed against her body.

"As you can see, upon summoning the mana to coat your body, you condense that in an instant to not only send out a pulse to push back your enemies, but it also hardens the 'armour' around your body." Shiro said as she gestured to the thin layer of blue mana that was coating her entire body.

"The faster you condense your mana, the better since the force created through this will push your enemies back a little, giving you the chance to attack them." She explained.

"But before you can get to this stage, we'll work on condensing your mana."

Helping Lisandra up on her feet, Shiro gestured for her to coat herself in mana once more.

"I'll help you condense it first so I want you to memorise the feeling ok?" She smiled.

"Un, got it teach." Lisandra nodded her head in seriousness.

Gathering her mana, she coated it around her body once more.

Shiro placed a hand on Lisandra's shoulder and started to apply pressure onto her mana.

"Urg!" Lisandra flinched back from the pain but Shiro didn't let go.

"Endure it."

The pain of having her mana condensed by someone else hurt more than what she had expected.

"ARGGGG!!!!" Unable to contain her cries, she howled at the top of her lungs in order to distract her from the pain.

Focusing her mind, Shiro could only condense it quicker in order for the pain to be over quicker.

"Ha…ha…ha…ha…" Panting heavily while laying her on her back, Lisandra glanced at the faint gold layer of mana that was coating her body.

"So I have to condense it to be this thin?" she asked with fatigue.

"Yeah, just focus on remembering the current feeling. After that, we'll be practicing with forming and condensing the aura quickly so that you can deploy it quickly." Shiro nodded her head.

Taking out a few chunks of wyvern meat, Shiro grabbed her sword and stabbed it through the meat.

Grabbing a few pieces of dried wood and other flammable foliage, she used combust and set them on fire.

The swords floated above the fire as Shiro started to roast the meat. She didn't have any seasoning on hand but wyvern meat was still wyvern meat.

"Smells nice." Lisandra smiled as she walked over slowly.

"What meat is it?" She asked.

"Wyvern meat."

"Wait what? Wyvern meat? Where did you get it?" Lisandra asked in confusion.

"I killed the wyvern in Harrow's Edge." Shiro replied while turning the meat over so that it was evenly roasted.

*bam!

"What!? But isn't the wyvern level 60 or something? How did you kill it?!" Lisandra asked as she lost her balance due to shock and was currently staring at Shiro with disbelief.

"Hehe, your teacher here is obviously skilled so the wyvern was nothing to me." Shiro chuckled as she continued to roast the chunks of meat.

"Don't worry about it too much. Once you master your aura along with your skills and battle instincts, you should be able to fight against stronger monsters without too much problem." Shiro encouraged with a smile.

She honestly believed that Lisandra could indeed fight monsters higher level than her, because from what she had seen, Lisandra's stat points were worth much more when compared to the average soldier.

They continued to chat for a little while as they waited for the meat to finish roasting.

Looking at the crispy exterior, Shiro got one of her swords and cut into the meat to check if it was fully cooked yet.

"Umu, not bad. Lisa, dig in." Shiro smiled as she handed Lisandra one of the larger pieces.

"Wow, that's quite a big portion…" She muttered.

"You'll finish it easily don't worry. The higher level a monster, the more mana their meat would contain. Not only that, but it would also empower your body hence the stat boost that you may receive from eating the meat." Shiro informed her as she opened her mouth and took a big bite out of the piece of meat.

Chewing a few times, she couldn't help but sigh inside her mind.

'Tasteless as always.' She thought to herself. It was like she was eating textured water, an odd sensation. Sneaking a piece of mana stone into her mouth, that she had retrieved from killing the generals and the wyvern, she enjoyed the taste that slowly merged with the wyvern's meat.

"OHHH!!!! DELICIOUS!" Lisandra cried out as her eyes were practically glowing.

"Of course it is." Shiro smiled. While chefs could make it taste better, the original taste was already amazing since meat with large quantities of mana flowing through them would be very refreshing for the person who was eating it. It was due to the fact that the mana would be synergizing with the consumer's mana and create an euphorical feeling with each bite.

While it could become addicting, the fact that adventurers burned off everything they ate made this addiction ok.

As Lisandra ate the meat in a frenzy, Shiro only chuckled as she ate the wyvern meat slowly.

As she finished the piece, she heard a series of notifications.

[Effects of Wyvern Meat are active: Gained 50 STR, 50 AGI (Stackable)]

However, Shiro didn't care about this. It was the next notification that dragged her attention away from the wyvern meat.

[Level up!]

[Level 50 reached – Class Upgrades Available]

"Finally." She muttered in excitement.

"AH teach, you leveled up, congrats." Lisandra clapped her hands as she smiled.

"Thank you, here, you make yourself some roasted meat. I need to see my class up options." Shiro replied, handing over a few more pieces of meat.

Looking at Lisandra who was busy roasting more food, Shiro smiled before turning her attention back to her class upgrade options.

'Hmm, only five upgrades. Seems pretty standard to me.' She thought to herself.

[ - - - Snow Girl ★★★★★ - - - ]

Class up choices:

1) Snow Woman

2) Winter Spirit

3) Glacial Ice Queen

4) Nanotech War Machine

5) Corrupted Elemental Sylph

Narrowing her eyes slightly at the options, she was surprised to see something to do with her second class within the upgrade options.

'Snow woman is self explanatory. It's just a buffed up version of my current class but instead, has more control over the ice element along with 750 points to spend per level.' She thought to herself.

'Same with Glacial Ice queen and winter spirit. These two are just evolved versions of the classes I was given before when I was level 20.'

Previously, when she had reached the peak of level 20, she was given the option of Snow Girl ★, Ice girl and Snow Spirit.

Out of the five classes she's given right now, three of them were the upgraded version.

'Hmm… I'm still offered the chance to become a spirit type monster since I'm still D class. But once I class up into C class, I can only stick with the upgrade tree that they give me unless a hidden class is achieved. Snow Woman is a no go since there's nothing after this. As for Glacial Ice Queen… Hmm… though I know I definitely don't want to be a winter spirit.' She thought to herself since being a spirit was simply too disadvantageous for her.

As for Corrupted Elemental Sylph and Nanotech War Machine, she had no knowledge about either of them.

'So out of the 5 classes, I can only logically pick 3 of them if I don't want to limit my growth.'

[Glacial Ice Queen]

As the royalty of all beings to do with Ice, you'll be able to recruit underlings that will be stored within your personal Throne World. All things made of ice shall be under your control.

Race Change: Snow Girl -> Ice Queen

+150% Ice Damage

+80% Fire Vulnerability

Skills: Imperial Glacier Magic, Frozen Decree, Throne World Manifestation.

Points per level: 750

Additional benefits due to user achieving 5★'s: Upgrade title (Ice Princess) to (Glacial Ice Queen), Upgrade points per level: 750 -> 1,000, Extra Skill: Ancient Glacial Weapons.

'Heh~ I even get a throne world.' She thought with interest.

A throne world was similar to a domain skill but it was slightly more powerful.

If one had to describe it, a domain would be a pebble that someone threw in the river known as reality. Whereas the throne world would be a giant piece of rock. The impact of the throne world was much bigger than the domain. 

After checking the description, Shiro turned towards the two that drew her attention the most.

[Nanotech War Machine]

In order to reach the apex of nanomachine magic, you convert your entire body into nanobots. You are a living war machine.

Merging Classes: Snow Girl★★★★★, Nanomancer

Race Change: Snow Girl -> Nanomachine

+200% Nanotech efficiency

+50% MP and MP regeneration

+80% Defence against Metal magic

+70% Elemental Vulnerability

Skills: War Machine, Constant Repair, Upload/Download, Constant Upgrade.

Passive: Limitless, Ageless

Points per level: 800

Additional benefits due to user achieving 5★'s: Skill: Constant Adaptation

Shiro frowned as she read the information the system provided about this class. On one hand, she was given the chance to become ageless and limitless along with the skill adaptation. As for what the skill did, it allowed her to adapt to the type of element/ damage the opponent caused.

However, and this was a big however, was the fact that she would no longer be classed as a 'living' being. Replacing her entire body with machinery and constantly uploading the main copy and making clones repulsed her to no end. It was basically what the scientists did when they were trying to make the class.

Experiment, upload the data, download the data onto a new body before experimenting on new subjects again.

It was akin to throwing away her sense of self which she didn't want.

That only left her with the final class up option.

[Corrupted Elemental Sylph]

You become the being that controls the elements. One that embodies grace and might at the same time. The elemental sylph. However, due to your nature, the once graceful Sylph has fallen to corruption.

Race Change: Snow Girl -> Corrupted Fae

+150% Elemental Damage

+90% Dark Affinity

+50% Light Vulnerability

+30% MP regeneration

+20% Elemental Resistance

+15% Hostility from light-based enemies

Skills: Corrupted Element Shift

Passive: Draining Touch

Points per level: 750

Additional benefits due to user achieving 5★'s: Title Gained: Corrupted War Maiden. Upgrade points per level: 750 -> 1,000

'Hmm… Interesting.' She smiled seeing the skill descriptions. Corrupted Element Shift was obvious since her sword has the skill, Element Shift and she could already guess what it did. However, Draining touch helped her out a lot in terms of self sustain.

[Draining Touch]

A chance to drain a portion of MP and HP from your enemies every time you make contact.

But in the end, the most surprising benefit was still the title, Corrupted War Maiden.

[Title: Corrupted War Maiden]

% based increments to your stats the longer you fight for. Increased effectiveness when attacking light based enemies.

The title allowed her to gain more power as the fight continues. Which in most cases is very helpful especially against tenacious monsters that she couldn't kill quickly.

Overall, it was a close tie between Glacial Ice Queen and Corrupted Elemental Sylph as both classes have their benefits.

Ice Queen for the extremity of an element while Elemental Sylph amplified her prowess with magic as a whole.

'Decisions decisions… hm…. It can only be you.' She grinned before tapping yes on one of the classes.

[Class Upgrade Option Confirmed.]