Nanomancer Reborn - I've Become A Snow Girl?-Novel

Chapter 701 Maria's Discovery

Now that she had everything prepared, or at least as much as she could prepare, Shiro packed her things up and got ready to make her way to the Tower of Ouranos.

"Are you leaving now?" Quella asked with a small smile.

"Mn, I can’t be wasting any more time. It’s already been a few months since we saw the Ancient Terror so I should get a few Primordial Trials under my belt before I face him." Shiro smiled.

"Confident now are we?" Quella chuckled as Shiro nodded her head.

"Confidence is good but make sure you take care ok? Since it’s a solo trial, the most I can do is wait for you outside with some food since the trial itself will heal you if you complete it." Quella smiled.

"That’ll be rather handy." Shiro replied since having some food after a long workout would be good.

"In that case then I’ll let my familiar follow you for a bit. Once you enter the trial, I’ll start preparing since it’ll take you a while to complete it." Quella smiled.

At this point, despite only having one divinity, Quella had confidence that Shiro could complete the trial despite the high difficulty mainly due to her weapon Nivlim. The fact that it can reinforce her body is extremely helpful along with soul steal which will kill the enemy instantly if she manages to rip out their soul.

"Alright, I’ll talk to you later then." Shiro gave her a small wave before jogging out of the library.

Glancing at the huge tower in the distance, a smile formed on her face since one of the things that she could obtain after completing the trial was equal to complete rule over the sky.

She would be able to fly without any restrictions such as stamina. In addition to this, she could also hinder anyone else flying and if they were weaker than her, she could even stop them from flying completely.

This would allow her to always have the high ground against her enemies since she can fly freely.

While she was thinking about the good things that she could get from this trial, she felt a pair of eyes lock onto her with mild killing intent and curiosity. As if trying to understand and observe her, they made no movements and only observed.

’Hmm... strange. I haven’t had this kind of stare for a while. Is there a bounty for me or something?’ Shiro wondered to herself since the ones that looked at her with such eyes usually had a grudge against her or wanted to kill her for money.

Narrowing her eyes for a moment, she wondered about their power since she might be able to deal with them properly if they only have two divinities. However, if they have three, this could be a bit harder.

Thinking to herself for a moment, she decided to just act neutral for now and do nothing that might give away her power.

Walking through the city, she happened to pass the blacksmiths as she saw Maria out the corner of her eye and made contact.

"Oh Shiro! Come come! I want to show you something!" Maria shouted out before dragging her into the workshop.

"Err... what do you want to show me?" Shiro asked as she could still feel the gazes on her.

"You know how I told you that I was going to do more experiments with fusing blessed weapons and my weapons yeah?" Maria reminded with a shine in her eyes.

Shielding her eyes from Maria’s enthusiasm, Shiro nodded her head.

"Well I haven’t got my hands on a blessed weapon yet but I think I understand now. I’ve made something I like to call an attachment or physical enchantment. You can either put it with a normal weapon or a blessed weapon to improve its power.

"There’s only been one successful reusable attachment while the others are one time use. If you want to remove it, it’ll destroy the attachment." Maria explained while grabbing a spear and some chains.

Wrapping the chains around the body of the spear, Maria snapped her fingers and a magic circle appeared underneath the weapons.

Suddenly, a flash of light appeared in front of them as the two fused together.

Looking at the final product, Shiro raised her eyebrows since it looked like a normal spear only with another spear head on the bottom.

"Now look at this." Maria grinned and grabbed the spear.

Twisting the shaft of the spear, it suddenly split into three sections with chains connecting the pieces together.

Realising that it could convert between a normal spear and a three section staff with spear tips, Shiro raised her eyebrow in surprise.

"Now here’s what I mean by the attachment isn’t reusable." Maria returned the three section staff back into its spear form and placed her hand over the top.

Creating a magic circle under it, she pulled back with her hands and a chain could be seen being pulled out from the body of the spear.

*CLING!!!

Shattering into ash, the chain disappeared completely and the spear returned to normal.

"This is only a prototype but I suppose the reusable one is somewhat of a success even though it’s still a bit weak. I haven’t tried it out on a weapon yet so I’m not sure about how well it’ll work." Maria shrugged her shoulders.

"Do you want to know how I made it?" Maria asked eagerly.

Furrowing her brows, Shiro leaned towards Maria and whispered in her ear.

"There are two people following me right now so are you sure you want to say the secret?"

"Ah don’t worry, it’s not like they can reproduce it with their crummy techniques even if they know the process. All of it is about feeling and how well you can manipulate the metal." Maria whispered back with a grin.

"Go for it then." Shiro chuckled and saw down on a chair.

Listening to some of Maria’s experiments with different metals and their compatibility to be made into attachments, Shiro was rather surprised by the progress she had made in a short time along with all the precious metals that she had used.

While they were talking about the one time use attachments, they eventually started to talk about the reusable attachment.

"Right then. The reusable attachment that I had created is this." Maria said before presenting a small box to Shiro on the table.

The box itself was nothing special but when Maria opened it up, Shiro raised her eyebrow in a mix of confusion and surprise.

"I know what it looks like and don’t worry, it was something I forged." Maria reassured.

The item that Shiro saw was a withered finger that was made from a black metal similar to Nivlim.

"As you can guess, it’s also made from soul metal and the shape of this was caused by one of the components that I used during the making process since I was focusing on making this attachment apply an effect focused on cursed effects, it just kind of became a withered finger." Maria shrugged.

"I see... I wonder if I can apply it to arrows." Shiro muttered while summoning her bow.

"You want to try it out?" Maria asked while gesturing towards her bow.

"I’m not sure though. Since the properties are rather different? Artemis isn’t exactly known for curses after all. Plus, I’m worried that it might ruin this weapon if I did." Shiro frowned.

"It’s a reusable attachment so you should be able to take it off right after." Maria persuaded.

Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro caved in and nodded her head.

"Is there a dummy that I can test the effects out on?" Shiro asked since she was also curious about this.

"Oh of course. Give me a moment, try not to fire the bow at full strength though." Maria nodded her head.

Bringing a steel dummy, she hammered it down on the floor and passed the withered finger to Shiro.

Taking a deep breath, she placed the finger on top of the bow and watched as a magic circle constructed itself around the bow.

Furrowing her brows, she watched as the finger sank into the body of the bow.

[Artemis’ bow is now enhanced with the cursed attachment – Withered Touch.]

[Withered Touch – each of your attacks now corrode the opponent’s armour and deal necrotic damage to them should the armour be ignored.]

Reading the notification, Shiro looked down at her bow and noticed the crystal body of the bow turning black with neon green streaks through the body.

Pulling back lightly on her bow, she watched as a green arrow was formed.

*BANG!

Firing the arrow, she saw the steel armour slowly change colour as the surface was being corroded away.