Whilst Shiro was making her way to the Ospar family mansion, she saw that the patrols were causing a small commotion.
"How did no one realise the man snuck in here and tried to kidnap a woman." A man asked as his face was stern.
The people that he was talking to hung their heads in shame as they couldn't understand how he was able to bypass all of them and kidnap a woman. If it wasn't for the fact that someone had killed the man and placed the woman on one of their patrol routes, they would have never known someone had actually snuck in.
"I want you to recruit more people to help patrol while you narrow down the patrol area. This way, we'll be able to react faster if they invade. We also need a few people up on the guard towers to oversee the entire situation. We cannot let another mouse like this one to enter our campsite."
"UNDERSTOOD!"
Smiling slightly at the fact that they were working hard to try to keep the camp safe, Shiro continued her journey towards the city.
However, even though she smiled at the fact that they were trying, she didn't put her trust in them. If anything, she believes that they are no better than decoration.
If she was the enemy, it would be an easy task to infiltrate the entire place and kidnap a few people. But she had to commend them for the effort.
Looking down at her phone, she glanced at the map to check how far away she was from the Ospar family.
'Oh? So that was the mansion. I had thought that was the city governor's hall or something.' Shiro thought as she saw the picture of the mansion.
It was one of the biggest buildings in the entire city. Made from polished white stone, Shiro could faintly see a few runes being etched on the pillars that decorate the outside of the house.
'Hmm… the runes seem like some defensive type runes, but there's also… attack?' Narrowing her eyes at the pictures, she realised that most of the pillars had obscured the more important parts of the runes.
"Ah, so it's a kind of front they're putting on. By exposing some of the runes, they let the city know that they're protected. But by hiding the main sections of the runes, they were able to conceal the main functionality thus stopping any thoughts of invading. However, the people who want to invade aren't able to set up an invasion due to the fact that they don't have the full idea of the situation." Shiro muttered as she got an idea of the situation.
She had to admit, it was a good move on their part since charging in blindly wasn't something the selfish people of the slums would do. Not only that, but from what she had read of the mansion, the defensive measures of the mansion would constantly change and no one but the Ospar family knew of all defensive measures.
Since the mansion was easily spotted, she didn't take long to arrive at the gate. And as the text had said, there was a man dressed in a suit waiting for her at the gates.
His hair was that of a silky black that had been tied into a low ponytail. A well-proportioned body that didn't look too muscular nor skinny.
[Gilbert LVL 65 – Mystic Knight Apprentice]
'A Mystic Knight Apprentice!' Shiro thought in shock. Mystic Knight type classes were no doubt one of the most wanted classes due to their overwhelming attacking power. A class that can be developed into an S ranked class was actually used as a family butler?! She didn't know if she should call the family impressive or stupid for wasting such potential.
"Miss Shiro, I presume? You look much more beautiful in person than your pictures." He smiled and bowed courtly.
[Thank you very much.] Shiro smiled and responded whilst making sure she hid her shock.
"As our appointment states, you will need to pay 21 million USD before I can allow you to enter the family mansion. After that, I will lead you to the mana springs." He said professionally and pulled out a payment crystal.
Shiro nodded and paid what she owed.
"Follow me please." Gilbert smiled once he made sure that the payment went through.
Opening the gates, a dense amount of mana washed over Shiro was she was shocked once more.
"If you're wondering about the dense amount of mana in our surroundings, it is a by-product of housing the mana springs. Naturally, this kind of atmosphere is most suited to nurturing powerful mages and increasing their perception of mana." Gilbert explained after seeing the slight amounts of confusion and shock that flashed on Shiro's face.
Nodding her head, Shiro somewhat understood why the Ospar family could stay number one. With a Mystic Knight Apprentice as a butler and a location that could only be described as a holy ground for mages, nurturing an expert was almost as simple as waving their hand.
Entering the mansion, she glanced around at the decorations and couldn't help but think of the palaces where royalty would live.
They didn't speak much as his job was only to guide her to the mana springs. A few maids could be seen around the house but other than that, Shiro couldn't see anyone who would be part of the Ospar family.
Arriving at a set of doors, Gilbert snapped his fingers and scanned a key card. The doors opened to reveal a rather high tech looking elevator.
"Once we take this elevator down, we'll arrive at the mana springs." He said with a gesture.
Walking into the elevator, Shiro could feel them descending towards the mana springs. In addition to this, the mana density increased the closer they were.
Since she was a monster right now, Shiro could feel her body getting reinforced along with the fact that her senses have been amplified.
"You'll get a total of 3 hours in the mana spring. After the three hours, the spring would lose effect as each person can only use it for up to 3 hours per day." He explained.
"Once the three hours are up, I'll be giving you 20 minutes to dress yourself accordingly and will then escort you out of the premises."
Shiro nodded in understanding.
The doors of the elevator slowly opened as they arrived at their location. Looking at the iridescent stalactites that glow with a multitude of colours, she couldn't help but marvel at its beauty.
Gilbert was used to the aesthetics of the mana springs and walked forward.
"In front of us will be the mana springs. There will be changing rooms for you to change out of your outfit along with some towels for your use." He said as they arrived at a neon blue lake.
Shiro could recognise the lake to be highly condensed mana that had the visual appearance of water. Such a dense amount of mana was rarely seen as this could be used to fuel a giant bomb that will wipe a city off the face of the planet.
"As a disclaimer, please don't think about taking the mana springs out of this location since the moment it leaves the area, it will be reduced back to normal water." Gilbert reminded her.
"And with that, I shall leave you to it and return in 3 and a half hours to escort you out of the mansion."
After saying what he needed to say, Gilbert turned around and left the area.
With gilbert out of the way, Shiro made sure that there were no cameras or anything of the sort before finally able to change out of her outfit with a peace of mind. Once she was completely nude, she grabbed a towel and wrapped it around her body.
Walking towards the springs, she could already feel her body relax.
Since she was currently a monster, it could be said that the mana was extremely intoxicating for her.
Dipping her left foot in the springs, Shiro could already feel the mana flow into her. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the sensation.
She somewhat regretted not taking Yin along with her due to the fact that she was contacted about not taking any pets along with her. Therefore, she could only leave Yin with Kanae and Madison.
"If that little glutton found out that I was in such a good location for us monsters, I think she'd cause a huge fuss." Shiro chuckled slightly.
Unwrapping the towel, she completely submerged her body in the mana springs, leaving only her head out.
However, the moment she did that, she could feel her mana links strain as if something was tugging at them.
Gritting her teeth, Shiro closed her eyes and sent her consciousness to her mana realm.
Once she arrived at the mana realm, she even had to shield her eyes due to the fact that each of the colours that were present in her mana realm seemed to have taken some medicine that made them glow more so than before.
"SSS!!!" Taking a sharp breath in, Shiro could see neon strands of light trying to separate the tangled mess.
"ARG!" She couldn't help but cry out since they were being rather forceful about separating the links and tried to reconnect them. The sensation was similar to someone digging their hands into her intestines and start to shift them around.
After several unsuccessful tries of reconnecting the links, the neon blue strands seem to be frustrated about not being able to fix her mana links and eventually settle with reinforcing her mana islands instead.
Finally relieved of the horrid feeling, Shiro took a deep breath and inspected her mana links. While they weren't able to fix the mana links, they were successful in slightly unscrambling the twisted paths. The flow of mana was a little smoother than before.
It was like when a blocked nose was finally unblocked. The feeling was extremely relaxing and the complete opposite of the torture that had ensued earlier.
In her feeling of relaxation, she didn't know how long it had been but when the feeling started to fade, Shiro knew her 3 hours where up.
Standing up from the lake, Shiro widened her eyes in surprise when she felt her body being more active than before.
'Perhaps it's because of the unscrambling of my links. It allowed for a better circulation of mana in my body. Maybe that's why I feel like my physical strength had increased.' Shiro thought to herself.
Not only that, the mana springs had also increased her attunements to the peak of tier 2.
With her attunements at the peak of tier 2, she had also unlocked their respective skill trees.
Lightning Magic Tier 2, Metal Magic Tier 2 and Shadow Magic Tier 2.
Flicking her wrist, lightning and shadow wrapped around her arm.
Smiling at the fact that this trip was rather rewarding, Shiro stepped out of the mana springs and dressed herself in her outfit.
'Although my mana links couldn't be fixed, at least I'll have an easier time casting my magic since the pathways are unscrambled.'
Previously, her links looked like a twisted ball of string where four colours were mixed together. However, after the unscrambling, it was akin to a pipe system. All of the paths were organised and separated from each other.
The only remaining problem was that there were parts missing along with cracks that littered the surface of these pipes.
"Well at least they're organised now." Shiro muttered.
Walking towards the elevator, she saw that Gilbert had just arrived as well.
However, when he saw her, he was stunned. She was already beautiful when she arrived at the mansion. But after she took a dip into the mana springs, her body had slight changes that made her seem more like an ethereal beauty. Her slightly pale but healthy complexion, when paired with a rose tint, made her extremely adorable.
"Ahem. The three hours are up Miss Shiro. I'll be escorting you out of the mansion." He said with a cough.
[Alright thank you.] Shiro smiled.
After escorting Shiro out of the mansion, Gilbert glanced towards her back while she walked away. Taking a deep breath in, he breathed out heavily and walked back into the Ospar family mansion.
As for Shiro, she was glancing at her arms. The skin was much more delicate but at the same time, it was harder to damage.
Yin Style Phantom Arts: 1st Phantom + 2nd Phantom.
Crouching down, Shiro jumped upwards to test her body out to see if her suspicions were true.
"AHH!" She cried out in surprise, seeing how far she had managed to jump.
Landing roughly on one of the roofs, Shiro panted for a moment and suppressed the excitement that welled up in her.
With her mana links unravelled, she was finally performing closer to what her body could truly output.
Even with the limitations of broken mana links along with them being scrambled, Shiro was still able to outperform adventurers due to her innate potential as a monster.
Everyone knew that monsters were more powerful than adventurers of the same level even though they were unsure of the cause.
However, Shiro understood the full picture now. With titles such as 'Monster' and her body physique, her body strength and stat point performance were off the charts.
The monster title bonus worked for her other stat points. She is twice as strong and twice as fast.
Now that her mana links were one step closer to being completely healed, she was finally discovering the potential of having the body of a true monster.