"Once again Raoul, good luck in your training. Jonas, stay healthy and you too Liam." s.h.i.+ro gave them a wave before hopping onto Yin's back. Naturally, this was when she is in phoenix form or else someone would have had some problems in regards to the scene.

Waiting for everyone else to say their goodbyes, s.h.i.+ro checked the map and made sure she knew which route to take for them to make it back to Vericia.

Giving the trio one last wave, the party set off to Vericia.

###

While they were making their way back to Vericia, s.h.i.+ro spotted quite a few natural monsters roaming around in the forests. While their levels weren't too high, she knew that they were much more powerful than dungeon generated monsters since they weren't limited.

"Hmm… girls. You know what I just realised?" s.h.i.+ro called out.

"What?"

"We've never actually done a out of dungeon or rather, a natural hunt now have we? The only thing we've done is dungeons, raids or emergency battles should the situation arise. For as long as we've been together, we haven't tried natural hunts of monsters in the wild."

". . . Holy sh*t you're right." Madison looked at s.h.i.+ro in realisation.

For parties, natural hunts were just as, if not more rewarding than dungeon hunts. They gain the experience of hunting strong monsters in the wild that use the surroundings to their advantage.  

Normally, they would have done this earlier but due to the situations they were in, going for natural hunts were problematic. In New York, they had the faction recruitment which took their priority. In Cairosa, the slums and the underwater ruins stopped them from doing the natural hunt. In Vericia, they were focused on guild tasks while s.h.i.+ro had obtained Lisandra.

Last but not least, they had Miriel where they had to be careful since conflict between the princes could have broken out at any moment so leaving on a natural hunt would be counterproductive.

"Well… are we going to hunt now?" Lyrica asked.

"Hmm… not really. I'm just mentioning it so that we can keep it in our minds. After all, a natural hunt is quite productive in terms of your battle experience." s.h.i.+ro shook her head. There was a time and place for everything and right now is not the time. If she could help it, she'd rather not delay the process of finding out more about herself. Plus, Yuki's probably got more information on Duan Han Ying, who is Kuromi's killer.

"I see. Do you want me to keep an eye out for any decent natural hunts while we're in Vericia?" Lyrica asked since she knew that s.h.i.+ro was only going back to Vericia so that she could find out more about 'herself'.

"That would be helpful. Preferably something that's on the way to j.a.pan since we'll be going there right after this." s.h.i.+ro nodded.

"Got it." Noting it down mentally, Lyrica nodded her head.

The rest of the trip to Vericia was relatively relaxed with some small talk along the way. For those that were a bit tired, they had the other party members look out for them in case they fall off.

###

"Urggg!!! d.a.m.n, I can't feel my a.s.s anymore." Madison stretched as they had finally arrived in Vericia.

"Tell me about it." Aarim nodded while rubbing her back tiredly.

"Not much we can do about it. Anyways, you lot can do whatever you want for the next few hours. I'm going to quickly sort out what I need then we can make our way to j.a.pan." s.h.i.+ro smiled.

Saying goodbye, s.h.i.+ro made her way to the elder's tower.

"Is anyone home?" s.h.i.+ro called out with a smile.

"Yeah yeah, I'm her-? s.h.i.+ro? What in the b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l happened to your body!?" Natash widened her eyes in shock at her new appearance.

"Oh this? You haven't seen me after I went through a few upgrades have you? Like the new look?" s.h.i.+ro grinned while giving her a small pose.

"d.a.m.n girl, what caused you to change like this? Got someone ya like? Maybe the blossoming of love made your body change to adapt so that your partner doesn't look like a d.a.m.n lolicon or something." Natash chuckled.

"Not exactly. Anyways, do you have a way that you can help me contact the faction master? I got some important information I need to ask her about." s.h.i.+ro asked.

"Ah I see. She told me that you may need it soon but are you sure you want it now? Yuki did say that there is only one chance you get at contacting her." Natash frowned.

'Hmm… it will take a long time to reach B cla.s.s considering the items that I need. HOWEVER, since I'm at 38% recovered, I should be more or less ready for anything that she throws at me.'

"Yeah, it's rather urgent after all." s.h.i.+ro nodded.

"Got it. She mentioned that you want to be in a secure location where you are alone when you use this item." Natash replied while gesturing for her to enter her office.

Sitting behind her desk, she pressed her palms against the corner of the table as a magic circle expanded out.

Opening up a secret compartment, she took out a small box and handed it over to s.h.i.+ro.

"Much like how you would have opened the letter, the faction master stated that the way to open this box is the same."

"Thank you. Taking the box, s.h.i.+ro talked to Natash about her adventures in Miriel before leaving back to her room.

Securing it with formations and some traps, s.h.i.+ro set the box down on the table and made a small dagger. Piercing her finger, she dripped some blood on the surface.

Watching the seal break off, the box unravelled itself to reveal an item.

[Spiritual Connection - Purple]

A one time use item that will connect you with the designated target and allow communication between the two of you, regardless of distance or s.p.a.ce.

Designated Target: Yuki

Raising an eyebrow, s.h.i.+ro contemplated about the item. Since it's a one time use item, does she really want to use it now?

A part of her says yes since it may take quite a while for her to get to B cla.s.s while part of her says no and be patient.

"Tch, I'll just use it anyways. Plus, since my memory is good, I can just ask her to tell me about the prison and I'll break her out when I'm in B cla.s.s." s.h.i.+ro muttered.

{Say, didn't you forget that you had to be VIP to get the item last time?} Nimue raised an eyebrow.

'. . .Look, my memory doesn't exactly work like that. It's like a database or rather a book. Sure I'll 'remember' the thing but I still have to look for it myself. If I don't look for it, it's just information that's stored away for later use. So if I 'forget' what to search for, I'll have to rummage through everything just to find it again.' s.h.i.+ro replied with a shake of her head.

{So you're like a computer then? As long as you know what to search for, the information can be found easily but if you don't know, then you'll have to look through each file to eventually b.u.mp into what you needed to search for? Is that correct?}

'Yes that's correct.'

{Hmm, I suppose that's only natural. Your mind would be quite overloaded if you doc.u.ment everything in detail and think about it all the time.} Nimue nodded.

Shaking her head, s.h.i.+ro decided to go ahead and activate the item.

*BOOM!!!!!!!!

Light shot out of the item as it enveloped everything in the room.

Feeling her conscious fade, s.h.i.+ro closed her eyes and sat down in lotus position and focused her mind.

Elsewhere….

Feeling a connection try to reach out to her end of the Spiritual Connection item, Yuki opened her eyes and smiled lightly.

"Seems like Kuro-chan should have reached B cla.s.s for her to use that item." Yuki muttered with a smile.

Flicking her wrist, she set up an illusion around herself and activated her own item.

Once she was in the spiritual plane, she opened her eyes and saw a confused s.h.i.+ro.

While her hair colour and eye colour differed a little, that appearance and aura was definitely the same one that she recognised to have belonged to her best friend. Tearing up a little, she couldn't help but to immediately rush forward and hug her.