Hopping on the edge of the window of a hotel room, s.h.i.+ro peeked into the room and saw that Lucius was laying on his back on the bed.

Thinking to herself for a moment, s.h.i.+ro grinned then hopped into her rift. Of course, she made sure to hide her mana fluctuation so that she wouldn't be detected.

Reappearing above him, she stomped down onto his crotch and used him as a platform to jump onto the floor.

"GAH!!!! CRAZY WOMAN!" Lucius shouted out in a panic. Curling his body up in pain, he tried to get himself ready for combat.

"That was just a small task of the payback I have for you. Remember how you stalked me back in New York?" s.h.i.+ro smiled coldly as cold mist flowed from her hand.

"*cough! About that, I actually have something serious to discuss with you." Lucius widened his eyes after realising who she was.

"Hou? I give you 10 seconds to intrigue me. Be warned though, that 10 seconds is strict since you're already cornered." s.h.i.+ro replied.

Looking down between his feet, Lucius could see an ice spear being formed as he gulped.

"You know how the faction I'm in is called Shadow Temple, you might have some unknown connection since your martial arts an- HOLY SH*T LET ME FINISH WOMAN!" Lucius was cut off when the spike shot up just as the 10 second mark was reached.

Quickly hopping out of the way, he dived into his shadow and tried to avoid the cruel fate of being pierced.

"You can run but you can't hide, boy. Come out and your pain will be quick." s.h.i.+ro chuckled while keeping an eye on his shadow.

"Did the first part I just said not intrigue you woman!?" Lucius asked as he made sure he was out of danger.

"Nope. I know where I got this martial art and your faction does not intrigue me." s.h.i.+ro shook her head.

"What if it has a connection to your phoenix daughter as well?"

"The only thing I need to know about my daughter is that she is my cute glutton and nothing else. If you want to use her as blackmail, you can bet that I'll kill you before you can shout out my name." s.h.i.+ro narrowed her eyes.

"G.o.d no, what I'm trying to say is that you and your gluttonous daughter might have more in common with the faction than you think. You see, a few weeks ago, while I was dealing with the internal conflict of the faction, I had chanced upon some carvings and tablets. There's an unmistakable connection with the history of our faction and the dungeons. Since the faction has some connection to phoenix's, especially dark phoenix's, some of my followers have been urging me to come find you." Lucius explained as he slowly peeked his head out of the shadows after seeing s.h.i.+ro retract her spells.

'Hmm… since this might be something that ties into Yin's origin, it might be good for me to explore this. However, I don't really want to poke my head into the business of another faction. Especially since I'm the guest elder of Winter's Grace and my cousin is the leader of the Rising Sun.' s.h.i.+ro thought to herself for a moment.

"How about this. First, you sort your sh*t out with your faction since I want none of that. Second, you stabilise your position so that when me and my daughter visit, we won't be killed on sight by a level 200 elder of yours.  Only once these two are done will we visit, ok?" s.h.i.+ro proposed. She had other stuff to tend to.

"I can somewhat do the second task but the first is a bit more annoying. You see, the internal workings of the faction is a little different and they also offer a different kind of service. To become the faction leader, you need to complete a few tasks before you're endowed with the role. Even now, I'm trying to complete the tasks but the other elders are hindering me. This is also the reason I was on the run in New York since I was halfway through one of the tasks. So in order for me to fulfil both of the roles, it'll take a while, more than a few months if I had to guess." Lucius replied.

"Hmm… in that case then I suppose we can drop by. But first, I have one big question for you. What do you gain out of it? If the other elders in the faction don't want Yin to come, that must mean it's detrimental to their benefits. So why are you trying to get me and Yin to come to the faction when it's clearly bad for your benefits." s.h.i.+ro asked with suspicion.

". . ." Staying silent, Lucius didn't exactly know how to react.

"Mn, seems like you haven't thought it through yet. I'll give you a way to contact me but remember, it's one time use so think carefully about it. In the meantime, I'll take my payment for putting up with your bullsh*t back in New York." s.h.i.+ro said while placing down an earpiece on his desk.

Jumping out of the building, s.h.i.+ro left the confused Lucius in the room alone.

"What did she mean by payment? She didn't take anything." Lucius frowned while looking at the earpiece.

Sighing to himself, he wondered how he should convince her and decided to sit down for now. However, just as he did this, he felt something cold poke his rear as his face paled instantly.

Feeling her little trap activate, s.h.i.+ro's lips curved into a smile as she had claimed his first time in the rear. Of course, it might not be his first time, she didn't know and she wouldn't judge.

Thinking about what he said for a moment, she wondered if it would be worth giving the faction a visit. While it was a little annoying, it was something that had direct links to Yin. Since she also had a month to spare, it might be a good chance.

But on the other hand, she could also use this time to help the other party members reach B rank and go to the faction after she cleared the celestial trials.

*Sigh…

"So many troublesome things to deal with. What should I even deal with first?" s.h.i.+ro muttered to herself.

{Maybe improve more on your martial arts? Either that or you can do the hunts on monsters outside of dungeons with the rest of the party.} Nimue suggested.

'Hmm… I'm not too sure about that since we're all at level 100. Levelling up would make things harder later and right now efficiency is what we need. We need to level up when we can as well as cla.s.s up in the shortest time possible. That way, we can be somewhat prepared for the next age I suppose.' s.h.i.+ro replied with a shake of her head.

{Hmm… true. In that case then let's just hope that Keiko can get you some of the items that you need for cla.s.s up eh?} Nimue smiled.

'Well even with her connections, the items that I need are extremely rare so she hasn't been able to acquire any of them. Not only that, they're also celestial items so the sources of which one can find them are already limited. I'll be surprised if she brings me more than two of these items.' s.h.i.+ro shrugged.

Deciding to look for Keiko and Yin since they've gone to a restaurant to eat, s.h.i.+ro scanned the city and tried to look for their signals.

Finding their location, she made her way towards them.

Upon arriving at the restaurant, she saw a disguised Keiko and Yin. Keiko didn't have a pleasant expression on her face while Yin was just looking around in a hungry manner.

"What do you mean we've emptied out your pantry?! Surely you can make more right?" Keiko frowned.

"I'm being serious miss! A chef can cook but with no ingredients, he can't do anything. Even though we've prepared to accommodate miss Yin's eating habits, we weren't prepared for you to take so much!" The owner replied helplessly. Normally, Yin would be restrained by the amount of money she had so they could somewhat accommodate the other guests. But with that problem taken out of the equation, Yin had literally eaten more than a weeks' worth of food through speeding up how fast she could eat. Not only that, they had also got some emergency help with extra food supplies but even that wasn't enough.

"Tch, fine. Come with me Yin, aunty will take you to another restaurant." Keiko furrowed her brows and looked towards Yin.

"Aunty is the best." Yin smiled eagerly and hugged Keiko.

Nodding with satisfaction, Keiko indulged herself with the thought that this was similar to Kuromi when she was younger. Of course, that was only appearance and not eating habits. G.o.d forbid if Kuromi had the same eating habit in the Asakura family when growing up.

As this was happening, s.h.i.+ro couldn't help but look at the situation with a deadpan expression.

'Did Yin really just empty out a restaurant with Keiko basically giving her infinite money?'

{I do believe that's what I just witnessed.}

'. . . What the f*ck?'