Receiving her 10 C ranked mana stones, s.h.i.+ro couldn't hold back the grin and the sparkle in her eyes.

"Wow, you must really have wanted those mana stones." Helion said seeing s.h.i.+ro about to drool.

[Yeah I did.] s.h.i.+ro typed out as stored away the C rank mana stones. Keeping 4 out, she put them in her pocket as Yin chirped happily.

"Oh were they snacks for your pet?" Helion asked seeing Yin.

[4 of them were. The rest are for me.] s.h.i.+ro smiled.

She wasn't lying. Just that they weren't used for any other purpose other than filling her stomach.

"Heh~ Is that so." Helion nodded in understanding.

It wasn't uncommon for people to keep a few mana stones on them as they never know when they want to commission a weapon or armour to be made.

Yin popped his head out the pocket and swallowed one of the finger-sized mana stone in one go.

s.h.i.+ro was surprised how it didn't choke on the stone but what did she know about monster physiology.

[Yin LVL 5]

HP: 5,000/5,000

MP: 10,000/10,000

"…"

'Did the little guy just almost catch up to my MP in one go?!' s.h.i.+ro thought in shock.

"Hey, little Yin. Why don't you eat another mana stone to level up again?" s.h.i.+ro asked.

Yin made a painful expression as it pointed at its bloated belly.

…

'He wasted the C ranked mana stone!!' She thought realising this fact. A low level monster couldn't possibly absorb everything the mana stone gave, therefore, it was surprising Yin didn't explode into chunks.

"Greedy little fellow. I'll confiscate your stones for now so you don't waste them." s.h.i.+ro said storing away the stones.

Yin wanted to grab them but was too bloated to move. It was as if Yin transformed into a grenade.

To Helion, s.h.i.+ro fed a stone to Yin who became bloated. She then opened her mouth a few times before closing them again.

"Anyways, I'm going to go back to make a new weapon using my new materials. If you need anything commissioning, just come to me." Helion smiled and patted his chest.

[Alright. I might need you for something else, but not right now.] s.h.i.+ro smiled.

Helion felt excited on the inside but curbed it once he remembered that she was 13.

"Sure. Just look for me and I'll help if I can." He said before walking away.

Now that she was alone, s.h.i.+ro decided to explore a little before going home.

Before the faction recruitment, she had a few goals in mind.

1) Reach level 30+

2) Complete E rank raid

3) Raise Lyrica's level to 20+

These are the three tasks she wanted to complete before the faction recruitment. Not only will it give Lyrica the edge in the recruitment, but she will also have a head start.

By doing a raid ahead of time, she is able to get a feeling for how the quests are.

As for why she wants to reach level 30, it was because she gets her first mini cla.s.s up.

Since she chose to become a Snow Girl ★, she has smaller level ups that allow her to eventually reach 5 ★'s if she wished.

The tests are given at level 30, 35, 40, 45 and finally, 2 tests at 50. 1 for the ★ and one for the cla.s.s up.

Walking back to the adventurer's guild, s.h.i.+ro looked for the receptionist.

[Hi, I'd like to update my status.] s.h.i.+ro smiled.

From what she's read, once she cla.s.ses up into D cla.s.s, she'll gain access to more missions, raids, commissions and information access.

"Alright. Can you give me your ID card and place your hand on the crystal please." The woman said as s.h.i.+ro nodded.

"It says here that you registered a two weeks ago when you were level 20, is that correct?"

s.h.i.+ro nodded as a response since her only free hand was holding the crystal.

"Alright…. Done. You're now a level 28 D ranked adventurer. You now have access to D rank quests and E rank raid party leader status. With this, you're able to lead an E ranked raiding party." The woman said as s.h.i.+ro nodded.

[Name: s.h.i.+ro

Estimated Age: 13

Rank: E+ -> D-

Cla.s.s: Ice Mage

LVL: 20 -> 28]

Seeing her updated ID card, s.h.i.+ro thanked the lady before walking over to a terminal.

The terminal was easy to use as she had to scan her ID card to gain access to the quests.

There were several types of quests ranging from the easy collection to the hardest Raids.

One could also find commissions from other cities but they were extremely dangerous.

Clicking on the raiding tab, s.h.i.+ro searched for an appropriate raid.

[E rank raid - Knight Garden LVL 20]

No noobs under level 18!

Adventurers: 29/35

[E rank raid - Knights Garden LVL 20]

Need healers and tankers!

Adventurers: 25/35

[E rank raid - Goblin Castle LVL 20]

Just need to fill numbers! We got D cla.s.s helpers! (Must be level 15+)

Adventurers: 34/35

…

…

The list went on as s.h.i.+ro looked for a suitable one. She needed to make sure the raiding party wasn't too high levelled due to backstabbers. And that the party wasn't too low either to not party wipe.

[E rank raid - Spiders Whispers LVL 20]

New party mostly made up of level 20's.

Adventurers: 22/35

Finding this one to be quite suitable, s.h.i.+ro decided to apply for this along with a letter.

[I'm a level 28 ice mage with 20k MP. I want to bring my friend who is a level 15 Elven Swordswoman. I can guarantee her combat abilities myself and I will also look after her in the raid. This is to just give her some experience.]

s.h.i.+ro sent over as she waited for the reply.

After the Shadow Temple, Lyrica managed to level up to 15 by the end of the trip. Boosting her stats by a decent amount.

Since the raid party request was put up not too long ago, the time to wait for the reply was short.

In just a few minutes, s.h.i.+ro already received a reply.

[We don't mind that she's a level 15. However, she'll have to take care of herself. Not only does she need to do that, we'll also need to conduct a little test on her if that is fine. Since she needs to that the basic survivability even with you looking after him her. We'll also need to sign a contract saying her death is not on us. It'll be on you as you were the one to bring her to the raid.]

Seeing the reply, s.h.i.+ro nodded in understanding. It made sense. Having a level 28 on the team helped a lot and can help boost the survivability. Even compensating for a level 15.

However, if the level 28 focuses on keeping the level 15 alive then it may put the entire team in jeopardy. Therefore, a test was needed to make sure the level 15 can survive on their own.

[Yes, that isn't a problem. Can you give me the time and date of this test?] s.h.i.+ro asked.

[We'll do the test tomorrow as we are still waiting for people who meet the bill. The time of the test is 1 pm in the afternoon and the venue will be the training facility just down the block of the adventurer's guild. Can you give us a basic description of you and your friends as we know who you are tomorrow.]

[My name is s.h.i.+ro and my friend is Lyrica. I'm 5ft 3, black hair and blue eyes. Lyrica is an elf around half a head taller than me. She has blond hair, green eyes and a pretty good figure.]

[Ok, see you tomorrow and we hope your friend can match up to the bare minimum. Since an adventurer like you will be a great a.s.set to our party and help boost the survival rate.]

Saving the information to her phone, s.h.i.+ro walked out of the guild.

Another thing she wanted to do today was to buy the level up requirements for Lyrica's weapon. Get it to level 15.

The requirements needed to level up Lyrica's weapon was;

5x E rank Mana Stone

2x LVL 15 Sword type weapons

The E rank mana stones were easy. So was the level 15 sword types initially, but due to this city being quite a low level city, the lower level equipment had priority. Therefore, what would be a easy weapon to get became hard to get.

Walking to the auction house, s.h.i.+ro smiled remembering how she scammed them last time.

Entering the auction house, she walked to one of the terminals and scanned her ID card.

Searching up level 15 sword type weapons. s.h.i.+ro frowned seeing none being available.

'Do I have to get Helion to create them again?' She thought. The most important fact was the materials as she didn't know what he needed.

Not to mention, he was probably making his C cla.s.s weapon with his newly acquired materials.

Sighing to herself slightly, she walked over to the blacksmiths area and looked for anything that fit the bill.

Level 10 spear, level 12 bow, level 8 dagger, level 20 rapier….

There was a myriad of weapons as only a few matched the requirements. s.h.i.+ro knew that the higher grade the weapon used for upgrade, the better the stat increment.

However, due to the fact that her Nano Growth Infuser was just a prototype. White weapons do an ok job while green would do it perfectly.

Seeing a level 15 green cleaver, s.h.i.+ro waited in line.

[Can I have that green cleaver.] s.h.i.+ro asked.

"Gimme 100k USD and it's yours." The man said as he knew the swords were in demand.

[Sure. Give me the crystal and I'll pay.]

"?!"

"I've changed my mind. Gimme 150k." The man said surprised at the fact that she didn't even bat an eye at 100k.

s.h.i.+ro only smiled before looking down on her phone.

[No thanks. I'm not that desperate. 100k was me being nice. Since you don't want it, I don't want your sword either.]

She turned around and started to walk away when the man tried to grab her to make her stop.

Dodging out of the way, s.h.i.+ro looked at the man blandly.

"Ahaha. I was wrong. 100k no problem." The man smiled shamelessly.

[I gave you the chance and you didn't take it. 50k, take it or leave it.] s.h.i.+ro grinned.

The man was about to reject when he realised she might leave for good. The cleaver had been there for a while now. Even if the blades are in demand, a cleaver wasn't the best blade.

"Ah ok. Sure. 50k USD no problem." The man hurriedly pulled out the transaction crystal.

s.h.i.+ro nodded as she transferred 50k over. Storing the sword in her inventory, s.h.i.+ro walked away calmly.

The man thought he got a good deal while really, s.h.i.+ro was the lucky one. She made sure to put pressure on him by agreeing easily to his first price and left as soon as he changed the price. She made sure her demeanour was unchanged as it put the pressure on him that she'll leave if he hesitated. With that blocking his rational thought, he would only hesitate for a moment before agreeing to her second price. 50k.

She smiled to herself as the occasional scam felt good on the inside.

'Hehe, who else to sc- persuade next.' She thought as she wasn't scamming. Just persuading in quick succession.

Her next victim was just as short-lived as her first. This time only worse as she managed to persuade the blade off him for only 40k.

She was about to head home when she and Helion came face to face again.

He had the face of a broken child who had his heart broke.

[Are you ok?] s.h.i.+ro asked.

"Why didn't you come to me if you wanted the swords? I would have made you 2 easily." He said feeling a little betrayed.

[Because I didn't want to bother you. You also had your new materials so I wanted to see what you did with them first. Not to mention, I'd rather watch you focus and make a masterpiece than to make throw away trash.] s.h.i.+ro typed out as it was the truth. Well…. It included truths.

"Ah I see… Then you should have just told me." Helion shrugged.

'Too easy.' s.h.i.+ro thought.

'No, that's bad. Don't think like that.' s.h.i.+ro reprimanded herself as it was a bad thought process to have with friends or friends to be.

[I still need to go back to Lyrica so I'll commission something next time.] s.h.i.+ro smiled as she bid Helion a farewell.