When it was almost time for the trials to open, s.h.i.+ro had only managed to charge up the lotus to around 99.5 billion MP. With only 500 million to go, s.h.i.+ro could manage it should she have another day or two. However, with the celestial trials opening soon, she wanted to make sure that her mana was at max.

Putting the lotus away, she left her room and started to walk towards Mount Fuji. Naturally, she had her disguise on so that no one knew it was her.

She had a dark hooded jacket that was lined with some purple. The hem of the jacket reached her ankles as it was a little ripped for aesthetic choices. Not only that, from the edge of the jacket, purple slowly blended into black as the same was happening on her sleeves.

On the jacket, there were some trinkets to make it seem less simple. They were mostly coloured silver to contrast with the dark colours that make up her jacket.

Under the jacket, she wore a simple black t-s.h.i.+rt with a medium length skirt and black tights.

Pulling her hood over her head, she let a few strands of her white hair flow out of her hood.

Walking on the road towards the bottom of the mountain, she saw that the people who had been recruiting for members had stopped their recruitment and started to make their way to the mountain.

With how many people that were walking the same way, it was rather creepy from s.h.i.+ro's point of view.

'Doesn't this remind you of a scene where people are brainwashed and forced to walk the same direction?'

After a while of not receiving a response, s.h.i.+ro couldn't help but glance into her mana realm and saw that the two were a little occupied with playing around with Atesh. Even Nimue, who was a little reserved earlier, was now calling Atesh by his nickname.

Raising her eyebrow, s.h.i.+ro only smiled softly before shaking her head.

With the two of them occupied with Atesh, s.h.i.+ro was now back to thinking to herself without anyone responding.

She had to admit that after getting used to talking to Nimue in her head, not hearing anything back was a rather strange change. If anything, it felt a little lonely as she had gotten used to Nimue's presence.

'Oh well.' She mused to herself before focusing her attention back to reality.

Walking along with the crowd, she soon saw that there were a few guards opening the gate to Mount Fuji as people walked through with seriousness on their faces.

Following the crowd, she soon entered Mount Fuji once more and started her hike to the top of the mountain.

As the time for the trial to open comes closer, s.h.i.+ro could feel the mana surrounding them increase as a faint halo could be seen, slowly forming above the mountain.

Narrowing her eyes, she could see a few strange runes that were foreign to her. Even with her records of runes from her world, she couldn't find a single match for them.

Not only that, but the halo exuded a strange aura that was reminiscent of the energy that she could sense whenever she used her Celestial Raiment EX.

'Seems like this is the real deal. From what I know of this energy, it is more potent than mana and is also more destructive. In a way, I suppose this Celestial energy is like a condensed version of mana.' She mused to herself while adding some of her observations and theories into her database. After all, with how things are right now, it wouldn't hurt to make some notes on Celestial Energy so that she could teach it to the rest of the party.

Once she reached the top of the mountain, she saw a giant stone gateway that was directly beneath the halo of light.

"A gate?" She muttered while looking around for a place to sit.

Sitting down on one of the boulders, s.h.i.+ro watched as more people started to gather at the mountain top.

"Say, there are quite a lot of partic.i.p.ants eh?" A feminine voice called out as s.h.i.+ro turned towards the source.

A woman was leaning against the boulder she was sat on and had a similar outfit to her.

[Sharis LVL 100 Sage of Shadows]

"Sharis huh? So what do you want?" s.h.i.+ro asked with a slight tilt of her head.

Due to her illusion, her iris was currently a deep shade of red.

Seeing her red eyes peek out from under her hood, Sharis couldn't help but s.h.i.+ver for a moment.

"Well I just thought I should say hi considering that we're both people who are dressed alike." Sharis shrugged her shoulders.

"Mn, I suppose so. Though I doubt we'll talk after this considering the fact that the gate will be opening soon."

"Yikes… a brutally honest one aren't you? Ever heard of having a chat to pa.s.s time and perhaps make a friend?" Sharis chuckled.

"Perhaps. Make it past a week and I'll consider the proposal." s.h.i.+ro smiled lightly.

"I suppose that's just natural. So, what exactly is your cla.s.s? Despite my skill to see through disguises, I can't see past yours." Sharis narrowed her eyes.

Furrowing her brows, s.h.i.+ro glared at Sharis as a dagger suddenly appeared next to her neck.

Her figure blurred for a moment as Sharis realised that it was an illusion.

"Let's just say a.s.sa.s.sin for now, how's that?" s.h.i.+ro's voice rang out beside her.

"A little hostile for sure, but I suppose that's what I get for peeking without permission. Though if anything, we have more in common than you expect." Sharis grinned as her form exploded into mist, revealing her true body to be sitting where s.h.i.+ro had been sitting.

Raising her eyebrow, s.h.i.+ro only smiled before storing her dagger away.

"Well I suppose if you believe that we have things in common then I won't shut down the thought." s.h.i.+ro shrugged before walking away to a different bolder.

Shaking her head, Sharis snapped her finger as a bird made from shadow was created on her palm.

Bringing it close to her mouth, she whispered something before letting it fly away.

Naturally, this didn't escape s.h.i.+ro's attention but she wasn't able to hear anything that she had said despite her senses.

Guessing that she must have used something to prevent sound from escaping, s.h.i.+ro ignored the strange woman and sat down at a different boulder and waited patiently.

After waiting for around 30 minutes, the halo of light above the gate shattered to pieces and started to float towards the gate.

Connecting together as if it was broken shards of gla.s.s, the halo of light filled the empty gaps in the gateway.

Looking at the portal that opened up and how some of the adventurers had already entered, s.h.i.+ro jumped off her boulder and walked towards the portal.

[Entering Celestial Trial… Please choose your difficulty.]

With Celestial Ruler being the one that gave her the highest chances of receiving an item that she needed, she tapped the option without hesitation.

[Celestial Ruler difficulty chosen. Due to certain abnormal conditions, modifiers shall be applied.]

[Key Abnormal Conditions - Fragmented Soul, Race Queen Ascension Quest] 

[Minor Abnormal Conditions… 20 Conditions have been discovered] 

[Calculating… Due to the modifiers applied to the trial, the difficulty has upgraded from Celestial Ruler to Celestial Immortal.]

"Ha?" Widening her eyes, s.h.i.+ro couldn't believe that the difficulty had just been upgraded to Celestial Immortal without her permission.

Before she could even shout in protest, she was overwhelmed by a falling sensation that brought her attention to the current situation.

She was currently falling off what seemed to be a cliff and towards a lake. Narrowing her eyes, s.h.i.+ro wanted to figure out what was happening but before she could even think about that, she was rudely interrupted by a voice next to her.

"Wait… what the f*ck? Why am I here in physical form?"

Looking at the person who was talking, s.h.i.+ro couldn't help but blink in disbelief.

With long black hair that fluttered in the wind and features that were very familiar to her own, the woman was falling while in a sitting position with her legs crossed. Despite the current predicament of falling off a cliff, the woman's sitting form was not interfered as s.h.i.+ro couldn't believe who was next to her.

"Kuromi?" She called out hesitantly.

"Sup. Through a few strange events, I seemed to be in this trial with you huh?" Kuromi smiled.