Chapter 1 - Snow Girl
Chapter 1: Snow Girl
"Where do we start? How about at the beginning?
"I was a village girl. Typical except for the fact that I was a little prettier than average.
"Normal family, normal life. I wasn't that interested in a partner. But then again, I was still just a child. Romance wasn't really on the table.
"It was during my 14th birthday that my village was raided. Parents were killed yadidadida… you get the idea. I was shocked at first but got over it since I had more important matters.
"I was taken into an underground facility. I was blindfolded at the time so I didn't know where, though now I do and it was so far away from my village I never bothered to return.
"They experimented on my body. I'm pretty sure they said something about there being millions of previous experiments as well. I forgot the number. But would you believe it if I told you those scientists or whatever didn't give me anaesthetic!? Ridiculous right? I could have died from shock.
"Alas, I didn't.
"So there I was, the first success of their experiments. I became the first Nanomancer. A mage wielding the powers of science along with magic. I could theoretically make anything I want should I have both the mana and the understanding.
"And obviously, as the first success, they put some fail-safes into me. Made it so that I couldn't revolt.
"Time passed, I continued to improve and they never gave me a chance to learn something to help me leave their control.
"Then Mr Hero came with his posse. Raiding the lab as he had the understanding of the underhanded deeds they have done.
"I was sent to intercept them as a defence but Mr Hero took pity on this missy. Disarming me, he proceeded to destroy the labs before he came back with a device to free me from control.
"I was grateful yes, but I didn't feel a blind worship to Mr Hero. I mean sure he saved me, but I didn't mind being killed you know.
"He offered me a place into his party and I accepted since I had nothing else to do.
"We levelled up together, grew stronger together. Well, I grew a little too strong.
"Ah, if you're wondering about levelling then I'll tell you about what everyone calls the system. Though you probably already know. We receive it the moment we are born. Our attributes, our race and our growth is recorded by the system.
"I did wonder where the system came from at one point of my life, but the more hung up you are about these details the more restricted your life will become. So I just accepted it as a part of my life.
"So I was saying, I became too strong and the Hero became wary of me. His own ego and Hero complex couldn't stand someone stronger than him so he recreated the device and tried to block my powers.
"The device only took a little of my power making me just a little weaker than the hero.
He killed me in the end and I woke up again here. Out in the snowfields with Mr Wolves growling at me.
"And the rest you know. Well 'knew' since you are in fact the skull of the wolf I killed." A girl said as she looked at the decapitated head of a wolf amongst other corpses.
"Goodness. Not even an hour here and I'm already talking to a bloody head." She muttered standing up.
She had long black hair and azure eyes. Her skin was pale as it made her seem like a doll. Currently, she was wearing a silk-like white dress which fluttered gently. She was roughly 5ft 3 a little on the short side of height. But then again, she was a snow 'girl' at this moment in time.
[Name: Shiro
Race: Snow Girl (Evolution Criteria yet to be met)
Level: 3
Class: Snow Girl, Nanomancer
HP: 190/250
MP: 390/500
STR: 10
VIT: 10
INT: 30
AGI: 20
DEX: 15
DEF: 10
Unassigned points: 15
(Adult Human Male Average: 20 points)]
"I'm a god damn glass cannon." Shiro muttered sitting on a corpse.
The most important stats for a Nanomancer was no doubt INT, AGI, DEX and STR.
INT/ Intelligence to provide her with the mana needed to formulate her equipment. AGI/ Agility so that she could dodge. DEX/ Dexterity so she is able to handle the weapons with better proficiency and reload faster. STR/ Strength so she could actually lift the weapons.
Though that's not to say VIT/ Vitality and DEF/ Defence were not useful. They were, but the four aforementioned stats were the focus of her class, Nanomancer.
However, with the addition of Snow Girl. She wasn't too sure how to distribute her stats. From what she knows, Snow Girls were a low class monster ranking roughly in E ranks. The ranks go from the lowest E to the highest SSS.
Although Snow Girls were the lowest rank of E. When they become a Snow Woman or Yuki Onna, they belong to the C to B ranks. This was one of the main reasons as to why people would kill Snow Girls when possible to avoid them evolving.
Snow Woman were known for their magic as it allowed them to wield the power of Ice. They were annoying foes since they would slow your reaction time down or even downright cause you to fall into a coma due to the drop in temperature.
From what she understands of the Snow Girl class, it would probably be most beneficial to juice up the INT stat due to the fact that they would give her both mana and magic damage.
"Since Nanomancer is already a MAX level SSS tier class, most of the skills are unusable due to my lack of mana and strength." Shiro muttered looking at her class skills.
[Snow Girl:
Available Skills-
Tier 1 Ice Magic, Passive Regeneration, Blessed by Ice]
[Nanomancer:
Available Skills-
Dagger Creation]
"Hmm… I'll put 10 points into AGI and 5 into INT first. I'll focus on the rest later since these two matter the most to me right now." Shiro muttered. Her dagger creation was redundant at this moment of time. She neither had the strength or mana to sustain the dagger or multiple daggers for that fact.
Therefore, her best bet was to go with a Snow Girl's magic offence for now.
[Name: Shiro
Race: Snow Girl (Evolution Criteria yet to be met)
Level: 3
Class: Snow Girl, Nanomancer
HP: 250/250
MP: 430/600
STR: 10
VIT: 10
INT: 35
AGI: 30
DEX: 15
DEF: 10
Unassigned Points: 0]
Due to the nature of the Nanomancer class, each of her skills needed an insane amount of mana to sustain since the class itself wasn't meant to be possessed by a low level person. It's not a SSS class for nothing.
*GRRRRR~
Shiro paused when she felt her stomach rumble with hunger.
Looking over at the wolf corpses, her mind started to drift.
'What do monsters eat in the first place? I don't think I've heard of Snow Girls being carnivores.' Shiro thought.
"Hmm… Mana stones maybe?" She muttered as she reached out for the wolf's heart.
*PSSHT PSSHT PSSHT
The sound of flesh and blood rang out while her hands searched around inside the wolf's body.
Crushing the heart, she sighed since there were no mana stones to be found.
Low level monsters like these wolves had low chances of dropping mana stones to begin with.
"Urg. I want food." Shiro complained whilst she searched the other bodies.
Yet none of the corpses had any mana stones.
"Haaa…. Just my luck. Forget it. [Collect]." Shiro said as she collected her loot from the wolves.
Mana stones had to be manually excavated because the moment she chooses to collect, the wolves bodies would disintegrate into natural mana before scattering. This includes the mana stone which would just be a waste.
"Mn?" Shiro paused when she smelled an enticing aroma. The source seemed to be the mana the wolves disintegrated into.
"Ah! I can eat this!" Shiro exclaimed as she quickly sucked all the mana into her mouth. Though she pouted a little since she had reacted a little too slow causing her to waste the mana from the start.
Rather than a meal, it was like she drank a soup. Neither filling nor unfilling. She was satisfied for now.
Turning back to her inventory, she had a look at the bounty.
[Wolf Fangs x4]
[Wolf Pelt x4]
[Wolf Eye x7]
[Broken Bones x10]
"Che, just a bunch of miscellaneous items. This missy isn't a blacksmith nor a pharmacist. Give me a weapon or something." Shiro complained before she scrapped the items for some gold coins.
[Currency Gained – 40 USD]
"USD? Isn't the currency of Aria; gold, silver and copper?" Shiro muttered seeing the unfamiliar currency.
"Maybe I'm far into the future and the currencies changed?" Shiro concluded. She did have another theory which was world travel, but that was a bit ridiculous.
Sitting down, Shiro hugged her legs as she finally decided to look at her surroundings.
While it was a snow forest, Shiro knew she was in a dungeon. Probably around the low to mid levels of the tower due to the low levels of the wolves.
"[Location]" She commanded.
[Snow Forest Dungeon 2F]
"Snow Forest? Doesn't that mean my magic would be weak to the dungeon boss?" Shiro said seeing the location. Even if she did spend all of her points to focus around her Nanomancer class, using a cold weapon such as a dagger would do minimal damage to the boss. Heck, unless she creates a gun, she wouldn't be able to use her Nanomancer class to clear dungeons.
"No! This missy has just received a second chance. I refuse to be trapped in this dungeon… wait. Since I'm a Snow Girl am I a monster spawned in the dungeon?" She paused in realisation.
"Can I even get out? Killing the boss means a dungeon reset. A dungeon reset means wiping all the monsters before restoring them again. Wiping all the monsters means also wiping me out. ARG! HOW DO I LEAVE!" Shiro shouted in frustration. She had just been given her seco- no third chance if you included her escape from the facility. How could she let a dungeon lock her down?
Though it seems like her shout had attracted unwanted attention. Or would it be wanted since she was needing food anyways.
More wolves seemed to have appeared as Shiro turned towards them.
"Come here Mr Wolves. This missy is just a harmless lady." She smiled softly. Though the scent of blood on her just made the wolves bare their teeth.
'Why aren't they attacking yet?' Shiro thought since they seemed to be wary about something.
She decided to turn around and run before 'tripping' over nothing.
"Aiya~ I've tripped. How can I run away~" She said peeking over at the wolves who did nothing.
"Seriously?! You did nothing?" Shiro said and she crossed her legs.
She seemed to have gained an idea as she waved her hand around before laying on her back.
"Since you mutts don't want to attack, this missy will sleep. I need some bodyguards anyways." She said closing her eyes.
[MP: 250/600]
During her wait, she heard the sounds of flesh being ripped causing her opened her eyes to five wolves being impaled by the traps she set down earlier.
She wasn't afraid of them not working since she had already tested out the traps on the first batch of wolves. The only downside to this was how much MP it would use. It was a combination of spells which when combined, expressed more potential than normal Tier 1 spells.
The idea of combining spells was learnt during her time in the hero's party. Even though her Nanomancer class didn't need it, the mage had always said it was better to learn as much as you could in case of unexpected situations.
Looking through the hearts of the five wolves, she found a single piece of Mana stone the size of a pinkie.
Throwing the piece in her mouth, she chewed it as she found the taste similar to candy.
Licking her lips, she couldn't help but complain at the low drop rate of the mana stone.
"[Collect]" She said once more causing the wolves' bodies disintegrated. This time she made sure to drink every last drop of the mana.
Scrapping the miscellaneous items once more, she gained 50 USD.
[Name: Shiro
Race: Snow Girl (Evolution Criteria yet to be met)
Level: 3->4
Class: Snow Girl, Nanomancer
HP: 250/250
MP: 430/600
STR: 10
VIT: 10
INT: 35
AGI: 30
DEX: 15
DEF: 10
Unassigned Points: 5
Balance: 80 USD]
Each level up from 1 to 20 gave a person 5 points. The first 20 levels were more of a testing period as it didn't really matter how one distributed their stats. The levels after 20 were where one would start to focus on their main attribute. It is also at level 20 when a person would get their first class up. At the class up, they would start to gain a certain amount of passive points per level which shows you which area you want to place your focus in.
Plugging the points into areas she knows she would have to place her attention on, Shiro nodded at her stats.
[Name: Shiro
Race: Snow Girl (Evolution Criteria yet to be met)
Level: 4
Class: Snow Girl, Nanomancer
HP: 250/350
MP: 480/650
STR: 11
VIT: 11
INT: 36
AGI: 32
DEX: 15
DEF: 10
Unassigned Points: 0
Balance: 80 USD]
Dusting herself, she looked around for a temporary home as camping in a dungeon wasn't uncommon. Therefore, the knowledge about how to camp safely was required to be learned.
Due to a lack of resources, as well as the fact that she can't be bothered. Shiro decided to perch herself on a tree.
Hugging the tallest branch, she looked for the obelisk. The obelisk was a panel which allowed you to either climb higher into the tower or lower.
Her aim was to see if she can leave this dungeon as it was disadvantageous for her class to combat the boss.
"Found it." Shiro smiled seeing the tower towards her left.
The tower seemed to be made from a matt black material as the neon green lights made it stand out against the surroundings. When the light is red, it means you cannot use the obelisk. There are a few situations concerning the inability to use the obelisk. The most common being a boss fight. Unless the party is dead or the boss is dead, they wouldn't be able to use the obelisk.
Due to the lighting getting darker, the monsters become more frenzied. Therefore travelling to the obelisk right now would be a bad choice.
Laying her back on the branch, Shiro looked up at the starless sky. Her peaceful aura made her seem profound right now as if she was thinking about something deep. Something that would make a person question the very meaning of life.
'I wonder if I can eat a wolf should I cook it, though it seems like I'm living off mana instead.'
...or not.
Monster meat can be collected and cooked. Though without sufficient storage, most would just choose to [collect] the drops as the body would disintegrate.
There are benefits to monster meat, some grants temporary buffs to stats whilst some were poisonous.
There were some monster meat that even granted permanent increments to one's stats such as dragon flesh which increases DEF, STR, AGI and VIT. Which is why every part of a high-ranking monster was precious and should be harvested without failure. Though raw flesh would be more harmful than beneficial.
Naturally, humanoid monsters didn't escape this fate either. Snow Woman flesh seemed to grant a significant increase to one's INT. That being said, female humanoid monsters like the Snow Woman were also used as high quality 'stress relief' for the high-level adventurers.
Shiro wasn't unfamiliar as she has seen humans mating with a humanoid monster weaker than them.
The most common monsters to mate with were beings such as Elves and Female Beast kin who retain more human features than beast.
But due to the uncomfortable terminology of monster's, they were more widely accepted as Demi-Humans or lesser humans.
Looking at her arm, Shiro couldn't help but wonder if someone would try to eat her. Both figuratively and literally.
'If they try to 'eat' me, freezing their crotch and crushing them should do the trick.' Shiro thought with slight humour but understood the consequences of being caught when she is still weak.
Setting a few traps around her, Shiro closed her eyes as she fell asleep.