Chapter 638 Astral Horizons

During the second week of training, Shiro started to show signs of achieving the lowest level of Mio's Absolute Defence. Even though she couldn't block everything, she could now find one or two gaps to counter during Mio and Koji's barrage of sword attacks.

In addition to this, thanks to Koji's training, it was now harder to divest Shiro of her sword and even if they did, she could summon a new one straight away. Rather than using all the copies of Athera straight away, she'll keep one just in case she's disarmed so that she could rearm herself quickly.

As for the one that was knocked away, she would unsummon it so that she could act as a spare. That way, she could always make sure that there is a sword in her hand.

There was a point that Mio brought up during their training which caused Shiro to wonder about the possibilities of her sword with her class and that was, can she change the structure of Athera.

Since her sword had the properties of Element Shift and she also had the Nanotech attunement which was tier 6, there was the chance that she could convert her sword into a gun while maintaining the stats. This means that she could take people by surprise when the sword grows a barrel and shoots them in the face.

With this knowledge, Shiro decided to do some late night training so that she could make use of this. So far, the biggest success that she had was converting Athera into different forms of blades. There was still some difficulty with shifting the blade into a gun as it would shatter apart the moment she tried but Shiro understood that the cause of failure was her control.

As for her magical training, Stanley was surprised when she revealed her crazy INT stat but became a little annoyed when she couldn't make the most out of it. Watching her cast a few spells, he couldn't help but sigh when he saw the amount of strain that she was putting on her links with each cast. It was akin to thrusting a large chunk of tissue down a small pipe and Nimue was the plumber who made sure it never got stuck.

In other words, if not for Nimue, half of her casts would be impossible to pull off.

Therefore, their training also consisted of making sure Shiro didn't explode her links once more by forcing mana through the links. Kuromi never had this problem as her mana and skills weren't as insane as Shiro's.

The only reason that this is even a problem is due to the nature of Shiro's skills. They were percentile based.

If a spell takes 50% of her mana to cast, it means that she is thrusting a minimum of 700 million points worth of mana through her mana links.

Hearing her teacher's evaluation of her situation, Shiro's smile twitched as she was essentially playing a roulette of who could kill her the fastest.

However, if it was just Nimue, she would still have trouble surviving the surge of mana which is where her monster skill came in. Rejuvenation EX's passive put her in a constant state of incredible healing which helps relieve the stress her links were feeling.

In the end, despite her powerful output, Shiro was actually quite weak if one thinks in terms of efficiency. If she could study the correct casting techniques along with making sure she makes the most out of her 1.5 billion points of mana, then she could truly shine as an outstanding mage.

After breaking this news to her party, they were speechless knowing that Shiro had so much room for improvement. Both in magic and swords.

As for her parents, Mio was overjoyed as this meant that Shiro could become much much stronger. In the future, when the new age arrives, there was a higher chance Shiro could protect herself from danger.

During these two weeks, Shiro had stopped herself from using the dagger since she wanted to see what she lacked after the training. That way, she could make the most out of it. For example, if she could not learn Absolute Domain completely, she could use the dagger to find a better defensive skill that suited her.

Naturally, she was not the only one to have benefitted from the training.

Under Lin's guidance, Lisandra had developed a new sword style which takes advantage of her insane affinity with Light magic. The new style was focused around versatility along with pure offensive power. Her light could either blind her enemies or increase her speed which allows her to dance around her opponents while they struggle to hit her.

On the other hand, Lyrica developed a defensive stance since she is a highly adaptive fighter. She called the technique All Guard. It was a neutral stance which allowed her to adapt to the fight depending on her opponent's movements before switching to a more aggressive stance. It was perfect for when she doesn't know her opponent's skill set.

Unfortunately, it wasn't as effective against large monsters so Lin conducted a few extra sessions after the lessons had ended to help her in that regard. The result of which is a branch technique that was similar to how her Phantom Path worked. This branch technique was specifically designed for Lyrica to fight against larger opponents and they decided to call it All Guard Form 2.

Chen Yu managed to improve his overall skill set such as stealth and scouting. However, he managed to surprise everyone when he discovered an S ranked technique which the system registered into his skill set.

[Reaper's Hand]

You increase your understanding of the enemy's anatomy with every attack you land. Once you reach a certain point of understanding, your next attack will gain a 400% boost in attack and guarantee a critical strike and ignores 90% of all forms of defence.

Your understanding increases faster the longer you keep in contact with your enemy.

Chen Yu's acquisition of this skill caused Fin to suggest accepting Chen Yu as his personal student and take him away for a longer period of time so that he can train him more.

Unfortunately, since they were going to go to Mount Olympus in a week, Chen Yu had to disagree but Fin didn't mind. Instead, he was going to cramp as much as he could into this week.

The expression that he had while saying this made Chen Yu fear for his life but Silvia only gave him a loving smile, 'reassuring' him that even if he dies, she can bring him back.

The remaining party members received an overall boost to their skill set but Helion and Madison seemed a little stuck. That was because Madison wasn't too good at being an offensive tank while Helion's defence was lacking. This caused Chelsea some annoyance but Koji wasn't worried. After all, she gave him her word that she'll bring them up to standard even if she has to pay a visit to Hades himself and get him to help.

After that last meeting, Chelsea dragged them away to a different place to continue their training and they haven't been seen since.

With this being the final week of training, the teachers wanted to make sure they learned as much as they could so the training was especially hard but the party powered on.

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"Fuu….." Breathing out roughly, Shiro was out of breath while laying on her back.

Today was the final day of the three weeks training and during this time she had improved massively. At the start, she struggled to keep up with her parents but now, she could counter and land a few hits back which was apparently very impressive according to Stanley since they had the level advantage which boosts up their perception.

As for her magical training, she had finally fixed her issue with thrusting large amounts of mana through her veins and the result was that she could now multicast large spells at the same time. This wasn't the same as the hundreds of small spells she could do but rather 100 Wrath of Stars at once. The only problem with this is that she had to make sure she regulated her mana properly during this or else all the magic circles would shatter and cancel itself out.

Otherwise, she could finally be called a proper mage in Stanley's eyes.

"Are you going to use the dagger now? You've finished your parent's training haven't you?" Stanley asked as he was sitting down on a boulder with sweat dripping off his face.

"Mn, I just need to take a moment to get my breath back." Shiro replied with a soft chuckle.

Looking at the orange sky that had tints of purple, Shiro had a small smile on her face since the short moments after training were quite relaxing. Cold winds brushed against her while the sea of mana drifted around them.

"After three weeks, we still haven't named this place yet have we?" Shiro reminded.

"Mn, what should it be called?" Stanley asked as this wasn't really a priority for him. All he knew about this place was that it was a perfect location for a mage's training.

"Hm… Why don't we call this place Astral Horizons? After all, the stars cause the clouds of mana to shimmer with a soft light at night." Shiro suggested with a grin.