Chapter 372 - Kietoma

Feeling a tingly feeling on her skin, she knew that she was still in danger but couldn't make out what was endangering her. She tried to move around slightly but it didn't prove to be helpful.

'Damn… what's up with this stage. I can't see or hear sh*t.' She cursed in her mind.

Just as she was about to keep moving, she felt a light prick against the surface of her skin and instantly attacked whatever it was that hit her.

*BANG!

Unfortunately, her punch had only caused a shockwave to spread out in the area. She wasn't able to land a hit on her opponent.

'Calm down Shiro, so far the tests showed you what you need. The first was to test your body reaction. Second was to test mana manipulation. Therefore, I must use these two to help me pass this test.' She analysed while keeping her guard up. The moment she felt that something was off, she'd continue to punch while buying herself some time.

'The best way to utilise both of these with only my sense of touch would probably be a domain. However, if I use a domain, it will just increase the difficulty of this test.' She furrowed her brows.

She had thought of a domain because you needed to be able to react to whatever entered your area of control or else the domain would be broken. Not only that, you also needed to constantly circulate mana into the domain efficiently in order to maintain your domain.

Both of the tests seemed to be focusing around these areas so it would only make sense for the third stage to have something to do with domains.

Unfortunately, the enemy she was against didn't seem to want her to succeed so it started to attack her more often.

At times, there were even multiple senses of tingles all over her body. Sometimes on her face, sometimes on her back.

But she would react instantly to each tingle and push the enemy back despite not being able to feel its physical presence.

As she continued this back and forth with the enemy, she didn't realise that a stronger area of control was being developed as of this moment.

Outside of the chamber, everyone was watching in disbelief since they didn't think that Shiro could actually hold on in this level.

Her enemy was this thin assassin type phantom that would teleport away the moment it was about to be hit. As long as Shiro hesitated for a single moment, it would strike at her and end the test. But due to her fast reaction, she had been able to force it to teleport regardless of how many there were.

At this point, the room was filled with phantoms floating around but Shiro was still calmly fending them off.

"How quick is her reaction speed? When we did it, we were barely able to hold on." Hideo asked with disbelief.

"Inhuman that's what.  Since we never got past this level, I wonder what's beyond this…" The director muttered.

As they continued to watch, more and more phantoms flooded into the room as Shiro started to struggle more. There were times where she would almost get hit but recovered just in the nick of time.

Lisandra watched with determination since she knew that Shiro would find a way out of this predicament.

Time continued to pass as Shiro demonstrated her ridiculous stamina and reaction speed. The longer this went on, the stronger she became. The test had long passed the 2 hour mark as she had been fighting continuously during this time.

At this point, the director was no longer as excited as he was at the start since he could already tell that she far outclassed him. Both in terms of technique and stamina. If they fought on even grounds, he would lose full stop.

"Something's changed!" Someone called.

Looking intently at the screen, they saw a barrier of sorts flicker on and off around Shiro. While she was able to deploy it quick enough so that the system didn't change, it wasn't enough to go against the phantoms.

However, the director knew that she was onto something his thoughts were proven in the next few minutes.

Relaxing her body, Shiro stood in the centre with her guard completely down as the phantoms lashed out towards her. However, just as the first one was about to come into contact with her, a pulse of mana spread out and clamped down on the phantom's body, stopping him from moving.

*BANG!

Before it could even try to teleport, a fist slammed into its motionless body. The same situation continued for the rest of the phantoms.

Eventually, she was the only person left in the room.

"What… the… f*ck?" The director couldn't help but curse in confusion.

###

"Fu…." Breathing out in relief, Shiro was glad that her idea had worked.

Since her reaction speed and mana manipulation was quick enough, she was able to make it so that she sent out a 'net' of mana that would wrap around anything it touched. The instant she felt the first tingle, she deployed her net and it manged to wrap around her enemy.

Before the test could even discover her use of mana, she destroyed the enemy and retracted her mana.

[Congratulations host for creating a new domain type skill. Would you like to name it or should the system generate one for you?]

"Ah, it's been a while since I last saw this… Hmm. You know what? Nimue, why don't you give it a name?"

{Me?!} Nimue raised her eyebrows in surprise. She didn't expect that Shiro would actually allow her to give the skill a name.

"Yup. You've been with me for quite a while so I might as well let you choose a name for one of my skills. Of course, if you're uncomfortable, you don't need to do it."

{Nope. Who gets the privilege to name a skill like this often ay?} Nimue grinned as she tried to think of a suitable name.

{The skill discovers and wraps around your enemies, stopping their movements in that instant. Since that's the case, why don't we name it Kietoma? It means lockdown in spirit language.} Nimue suggested.

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

"Sure, let's call it Kietoma then." She said with a smile.

[Skill created – Kietoma.]

[Kietoma]

When activated, a pulse of mana will be spread out instantly and cover a 5 meter radius around you. Everything inside the area will be locked in place for 1 second. Their defences will be reduced by 20%

Cost: 5% of total mana.

Cooldown: 1 minute.

Looking at the skill Kietoma, Shiro nodded in satisfaction.

She never expected that a single expedition to the dojo would actually yield her such a good reward.

Looking away from her system, she wondered if there was anything else to the test.

Suddenly, a key appeared in front of her as it urged her to take it.

Raising her eyebrows, she put the key into her inventory and wondered what it was for. Shaking her head, she left the room only to be greeted with a gaze of reverence.

'What the f*ck!?'

"Miss Nytri, you have completed the highest grade of the test. Since you've completed the fighter route, you'll be shown to the S ranked fighter section for the martial arts manuals." The director bowed.

"Eh? I thought I had to fight someone before I could get the reward?" Shiro tilted her head since she wanted to give her new skill a try.

"*cough* There is no need." The director coughed since he knew that he would lose to her the moment they fought on even grounds. Might as well spare himself some bone breaking in case she punched a little too hard.

"Oh right, Lisa, what grade did you get?" Shiro called out.

"I got an A. I couldn't react properly in the darkness so I struggled quite a bit." Lisandra smiled apologetically.

"Ah if that's what you struggled on, I'll help you train your senses later ok?" Shiro replied.

Hearing that Shiro would be training her again soon, Lisandra nodded her head in excitement.

"Anyways, would you like to follow me and I'll show you to the S ranked section for martial art manuals." The director smiled.

"Oh right, about that. Are there any manuals for mages?" Shiro asked since she was curious as to what she could have gotten if she didn't go for the fighter route.

"There are indeed some manuals for mages, why do you ask?" The director tilted his head.

"Oh that's because I'm a mage." Shiro smiled.

Pausing in shock, he quickly checked her class and realised that this was true.

'Did… did a mage just outperform me in terms of physical prowess?'