This was for 2 reasons with the first being the party not being ready for anything higher.

Raids were commonly known to be higher in difficulty than dungeons since it required a huge group to clear it. Therefore, it would be best for her to go for one that was level 70.

As for the second reason, it was because the location of the raid was close to the Rising Sun's branch office.

It would increase the chances of her running into Keomi and talk a little about her ident.i.ty.

'Even if I don't run into her now, I'll probably see her later when the fight starts.' s.h.i.+ro thought to herself while playing around with her magic.

Thinking back to what Kuromi said, s.h.i.+ro decided to humour the idea of setting up for a kill.

'She wanted me to focus on Frozen Slumber more since it's very helpful in terms of setting up for kills. I don't disagree since I too know how helpful it is but when using it, I'm somewhat immobile since I have to focus on freezing the target.'

{Perhaps you can make a branch skill of Frozen Slumber? One that allows you to have the same effect but while you're moving?}

'Easier said than done. The problem with that is the effectiveness is much lower. The full potential of Frozen Slumber only appears when I'm stationary and focused on one target.' s.h.i.+ro shook her head.

The best part about Frozen Slumber was that it restrained the enemy while they're being frozen. If she was on the move, that restraint could be broken much easier and the enemy can escape the area of effect easily.

'I'll think of something later. For now, I just want to increase my proficiency with the skill. Once I'm more experienced, I can figure out a better mana path for it to travel so that the cost is reduced.'

Moving her fingers around, she had an ice chain flow through the gaps as if it was a snake.

Clutching her hand into a fist, she scattered the chain into countless sparks and looked towards the door.

*Clack

"Ah s.h.i.+ro, you're back." Lyrica said in surprise.

"Sup. How was your dungeon run?" s.h.i.+ro asked with a smile.

"It wasn't bad. With me and Silvi getting some upgrades, we could take most of the aggro and let everyone else kill the mobs." Madison grinned.

"That's good. I've got some decent upgrades too. What do you girls think about going for a level 70 raid? That way, when we do fight, you know a bit about what I can do and support me in the process." s.h.i.+ro said with a smile.

"Hmm… I'm fine with that. So when do we go?" Silvia asked with a smile.

Since she was the healer/support, knowing what s.h.i.+ro was capable of would make her healing and buffs more pivotal.

"How about tomorrow? You lot have just finished a dungeon run after all."

While the party was discussing the raid, Aarim activated her skill to have a look at s.h.i.+ro's nature. This was because she noticed a change with Madison and Silvia after their trial.

Their natures have become more refined and expressive, signifying their growth.

Since s.h.i.+ro's nature was just a black fog, Aarim was curious as to what it looked like now.

Glancing over at s.h.i.+ro, she saw a hazy version of her with black hair instead of white.

-Don't peak so often. A lady doesn't like a stalker.- The figure or rather, Kuromi, chuckled while shaking her finger at Aarim.

Floating over to her, Kuromi circled around Aarim and traced her finger along Aarim's chin.

Surprised at the fact that the nature had actually interacted with her, Aarim paled and kept her eye on Kuromi.

-Don't startle everyone. I just want you to know that it's rude to keep on peeking at a lady.- Kuromi smiled and made her way back to s.h.i.+ro.

Giving Aarim one more glance, she smiled and shrouded herself in mist before disappearing.

'She can hide herself?!' Aarim thought in shock.

Now that she knew the nature could hide herself, it meant that the previous times that she had revealed herself was on purpose.

Narrowing her eyes, Aarim disabled the skill and looked at s.h.i.+ro with a mix of confusion and curiosity.

"Is there anything wrong?" s.h.i.+ro asked as she sensed Aarim's gaze on her.

"Mn? Oh nothing." Aarim shook her head and decided to keep it to herself for now.

###

The next day, everyone left the castle and moved as a group. Guiding them to the raid, s.h.i.+ro brought up the information and did a quick run down.

"The raid is called Sunken Dynasty. It's one of the shorter raids with only 2 mini bosses and a main boss. There aren't many small details that we need to worry about so it's the perfect one for us to practice on our teamwork." s.h.i.+ro said with a smile.

Bringing up a detailed forum page in regards to the raid, she pointed to the first boss.

"Galia the Unbound Warrior is the first boss that we'll find. He's a boss that focuses on using area of effect spell so your healing must be on point Silvi. As for his attack power, it's on par with a level 80 or maybe even higher so you'll definitely need to parry his attacks well." s.h.i.+ro said while turning to Madison and Silvia.

"Got it." They both replied.

"As for his mechanics, there are none that will prevent us from damaging him. BUT, he does have a party wipe skill where he will call in a whirlpool to drown us all. To stop this, we simply need to knock him out of his casting phase.

"After Killing Galia the Unbound Warrior, we'll face Claudia the Siren Demoness. Her skill set is heavily focused on brainwas.h.i.+ng a teammate for a short period of time. The best way to snap them out of the brainwash is to either use a cleanse type skill on them or just hit them very hard. Once again, she doesn't really have any mechanics that we need to worry about but she's just annoying in general due to her skills.

"For the third and final boss, we face the Ancient Kraken. For this, there is a mechanic and that is the fact that every tentacle has its own heart. Unless we destroy all the tentacles, the Kraken will not die. There is also a time limit which is extended whenever a tentacle is destroyed. For this, if our damage is not up to par, he'll summon an army and regenerate his health once the timer runs out. This is continuously repeated until we kill him or he kills us. Understood?" s.h.i.+ro asked after briefing them about the bosses.

Seeing the party nod, s.h.i.+ro smiled.

"Good. Let's go then."

Putting her phone away, they queued up to enter the raid.

Looking around, they saw several people recruiting members so that they could make a party of 20.

'We must look quite weird as a party of 8 huh?' s.h.i.+ro mused to herself.

{Maybe they think you already have a group?}

'Perhaps.'

After waiting for a few moments, it was finally their turn. Upon entering the raid, they saw that they were in the middle of a ruined city which was located on an island. Rain poured down relentlessly as they were in the middle of a storm.

Tall broken buildings could be seen fallen on their sides while waves smashed into the cliffs.

"Hm… just our luck to get the one with the storm eh?" s.h.i.+ro couldn't help but chuckle softly.

This raid had three weather variations and storm is by far the worst one. Not only will their footing be slippery, their vision is somewhat obscured so they need to be careful.

"Well I'd say it's a good thing since it prepares us for moments when we do need to fight in extreme weather conditions." Madison smiled.

*BOOM!!!!

Before their conversation could continue, a beam of light shot into the sky as a portal opened up above them.

A spear fell out the portal and landed in the city while a hazy figure followed behind the spear.

"Well d.a.m.n, isn't he large." Lyrica muttered after seeing the first boss.

Standing at a whopping 10 meters, Galia the Unbound Warrior locked onto the party and readied his spear.