Chapter 519 Entering The Dungeon
After helping Nan Tian into Estrella's Realm, Shiro allowed Estrella into her mana realm and let her stay on the shadow island for now. Walking through the now empty village, she took a moment to clear her mind so that she was entirely focused on the fight. In her focused state, she would be ok with sacrifices that were necessary in ensuring that the Light God didn't escape.
While she wouldn't be actively seeking ways to kill their troops, she was prepared to let a few die at any given point. After all, one or two deaths now will prevent thousands from dying later. In her opinion, a worthwhile trade.
Of course, she knew that it was easy for her to say such things since she wasn't the one being killed for someone else's benefit.
Shaking her head, she started to make her way to the dungeon.
'Actually, Iziuel!' Shiro called out.
{Mn? What is it?}
'Can you take Attie and get a bit further away from the dungeon? I don't want him or you to be included in the collateral damage. Neither of you have a contract with me so even if I somehow die, which I doubt, you two can still live on.' Shiro smiled as Iziuel immediately furrowed her brows.
{Y-}
'Iziuel. I'm being serious. If you're not going to do it, I'll get Nimue to do it. At least if you're the one to take Attie away, you won't die if I also died. If Nimue took Attie away, he would have no one else to look after him should anything go wrong.' Shiro cut her off with a frown.
{She's right you know.} Nimue nodded as Iziuel wanted to protest but seeing both of their stubborn gazes, she knew that Shiro would send Nimue if she was to refuse.
[Urg… At least give me something to watch the battlefield with. I want to witness everything that goes on.] Iziuel sighed. If she went, she could look after Attie if anything went wrong.
'Of course, you can take this. Press the button and you'll be able to watch the battlefield from my point of view.' Shiro nodded as she created a small metallic box that had a power button.
Sending both Iziuel and Attie out of her mana realm, she gave the two of them a hug before flickering towards the dungeon at full speed.
Looking down at the box in her hands, Iziuel gritted her teeth and started to run in an opposite direction with Attie in her arms.
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Arriving in front of the dungeon border, Shiro had a serious expression since she needed to make sure that she's not discovered upon entry. Understanding that this was one of the safer locations to enter from, as it was the furthest point from any of the skyscr.a.p.ers, she pressed her palm against the fissure and felt her body being dragged inside the dungeon.
The first thing she felt upon entry was the mana rich environment along with the snow that she was familiar with through the images of her drones. Looking up, she saw that night was soon approaching and sighed in relief.
'Once it's night time, the Light B*stard will lose a few of his benefits. Combat would be much easier should that be the case.' She sighed in relief.
Quickly suppressing her mana to the point where it was almost nonexistent, Shiro started to sneak her way through the blizzard.
While she wanted to fight as soon as possible, finding out the location of Yuki and the other high level captives was high on her to-do list. Should she be able to rescue them, it decreases the possibility of the Light God using them as EXP packs in the middle of the fight.
Looking at a mental map of the place, Shiro estimated her current location and started to make her way towards one of the missing areas that she was not able to scout out.
Making her way to the missing area, she created a few drones and sent them flying into the air while making sure that they were camouflaged.
Letting the drones scout out ahead of her so that she could prepare for danger, she took this moment to craft two items for herself. The first of which was a suppressed handgun that would send out a controlled shock to her enemy's brain depending on the situation and the second item was a multipurpose gauntlet. The gauntlet would help her manoeuvre around the area without using too much mana.
After all, using mana would give away her location easily.
Once she was sure that the road ahead of her was clear, Shiro started to dash towards the missing area in order to shorten the travel time.
When she was around 1 kilometre away from the border of this area, she tapped her gauntlet and had it transform into a pair of binoculars.
'Hmm… this tower is structured rather differently compared to the others. It's shorter than the other towers but it's more fortified. There are a few barriers already visible from the outside so I'm guessing that unless I'm registered as an ally by the barriers, moving around inside the tower would be dangerous.' Shiro frowned after a quick examination.
Not only that, but she could also spot a few guards patrolling around the edge of the tower while quite a few were stationed on the top. Her main goal was to see who was inside of this dungeon and an easy way to accomplish this would be to go to the roof and set down a scanner that picks up traces of mana.
As long as she allowed the scanner to scan the entire building, she'll be able to get an estimate on how many people there are, and their individual mana density to make an estimate on what level they are. If they're in the A class, she'll plant a few traps so that once combat starts, she'll be able to remotely help these people out of their prison.
Taking care to shorten the distance between her and the tower, she flexed her fingers and increased the intensity of the blizzard using her ice magic. That way, the natural blizzard could provide her with a bit of cover.
Forcing the guards to shield their eyes for a moment, Shiro then fired a grapple from her gauntlet and pulled herself against the wall of the tower.
Pulling herself up to the roof while carefully avoiding all of the barriers, she waited until the guards turned around before hauling herself over the edge.
Seeing that there were only 3 guards, Shiro wasn't too worried about her plan not working since they were barely over level 250. To make things easier, they weren't exactly on guard either since they didn't have any protective skills activated. If they did, the next step would be much much harder.
Dashing to the closest guard, she pressed the trigger against the nape of his neck and sent out a controlled shock. Making it so that the controlled shock knocked them out for a short moment, Shiro dashed to the next guard and did the same. Soon, all three guards were knocked out and she started to scan the building. She couldn't stay in one place for too long so she must be quick with her actions.
After a few short minutes that felt like years, Shiro saw that most of the people held captive in this place were B ranked and clicked her tongue.
'Tch, most of these guys are less than level 200. It's a bust.' She thought to herself.
Applying another shock to the guards, she woke them up before quickly vaulting over the side of the building.
Using her grapple to slow her descent, she managed to leave this area without arousing suspicion.
'Phew, 1 missing area down. 5 more to go.'
Unfortunately for her, 4 of the missing areas that she had scanned after the first one was in the same situation and the only remaining area was in the centre of the dungeon. One that practically screamed 'Enemy Head Quarters' on a neon sign.
Sighing for a short moment, Shiro started to make her way to the main building while making sure that she was ready to summon Estella at a moment's notice.
After all, the moment she was deemed a threat, she only had a small window of time for her to summon the attack force or else her head would be ripped off her torso, killing her before the battle could even start.
'Please let Yuki be in here…'