Shizuka stared blankly at the door after the prince left.
'He seemed better than the other people I met so far, but he really is just a cute kid... well, like I'm one to talk currently..' glancing at the mirror she guessed she looked like she would be 9 years old based on her height.
Sighing she focused her attention back onto her current situation. No matter how cute her current 'Master' was she refused to stay at the mercy of someone's whims.
'First I need to get stronger, from that memory I received I am lacking a lot of strength right now. First I need to figure out if and how I can use my skills.'
She once again brought up her status and looked at her skills.
[Skills:
Ice Creation Magic: As a Snow Girl you can freely use and create ice to create anything you can imagine. Increased scale of creation increases mana cost.
Cost: Depends on Creation
Cooldown: N/A
Frosty Aura (Passive) - As a Snow Girl your skin is always cold, depending on your anger the aura can expand, covering your surroundings in a layer of ice and snow.
Cost: N/A
Cooldown: N/A]
Closing her eyes she focused on her aura, based on her two skills, the passive seemed easier to control and might give her insight as to how to use her other skill.
Remembering how she felt when the people in the auditorium were looking at her like a piece of meat, the guards looking at her in disgust and the prime minister describing her as an object, her frustration and anger started to build up.
As her anger built up she noticed a cold, soothing 'stream' moving around in the core of her being, spreading, until it flowed throughout her entire body. Opening her eyes she saw that the bed she was sitting on was covered in a layer of frost and snowflakes were falling around her head.
'It must be tied to this 'stream' inside me.' She thought looking around her in wonder.
Dragging her finger along the frost coating the bed she realized that it didn't feel cold to her. In fact it felt soothing to be surrounded by it, like she was where she belonged.
Suppressing her anger she watched as the snow stopped and the frost slowly disappeared.
'Ok now to try to create something.. let's start with something simple.' Closing her eyes once again, she tried to search for the origin of that soothing 'stream' in the core of her being. However she couldn't find it no matter how much she searched. Deciding to do things a bit differently she released a bit of her anger at a time until she could feel the 'stream' moving around inside her. As she suppressed her anger she would follow it back to where it came from.
It took a few tries but eventually she tracked it back to it's starting point which seemed to be a pool. realizing this was probably where her MP was stored she opened her eyes and tried to control it to make a 'stream' to her hand. The first attempt it wobbled a bit, the second attempt she could create the stream but accidentally cut it off to soon. On the third attempt she was able to get the 'stream' to reach her hand.
Opening her hand she imagined a ball of ice forming in the center of it. Slowly but surely a ball of ice started to form in her hand until she had a ball the size of a baseball laying in her hand.
'It's a bit on the slow side, how do I speed it up?'
Thinking about it Shizuka realized that when she was using her passive the 'stream' filled her entire body on it's own, rather than her manually forcing it to only one part of her body.
Acting on this idea she released her anger and frustration, letting the 'stream' fill her entire body. She then imagined the same ball being formed in her hand. This time it formed almost immediately.
'It's much faster this way, having it move on it's own rather than moving it myself is much better.'
After that she spent the next hour practicing with her ice creations, trying to get a feel for how much MP each creation cost. She noticed that she could also compress each creation, making it harder to break if she focused on the creation process itself. Rather than just imagining the object as a whole, if she imagined the layers used to create the object the creation would become much sturdier.
So far from what she could gather creating a dagger would cost her 10 MP, a sword would cost her 20 MP and a spear would cost her 25 MP. With 825 MP total and her MP regen speed she could almost create these at will. However she would need to learn how to use each individual weapon if she wanted to go that route.
Next she attempted to create something out of thin air, rather than in her hand. Surprisingly it wasn't all that hard to do. All she needed to do was imagine it, which meant it didn't need to come from her hand. Playing around a bit more she realized she could summon her ice swords and spears in the air and control them at will. Once again all she had to do was imagine it.
Next she summoned an ice wall that covered half of her room, she would need something for defense if she was to eventually escape this place. Summoning a wall or a pillar took a lot more of her MP 50-100 MP depending on the size she imagined. And this was in a small room, so if she used this outside it would take a LOT more MP.
'Looks like what I said in my memory was correct, although I can control my ice pretty much freely, my MP pool is not that big so I will need to conserve and be smart with how I utilize each creation. I should focus on my passive more because it uses no MP. It does say that the angrier I am the bigger it gets.. I wonder if I can control the anger or use something similar so expand the radius instead. I don't want the anger to take over and make a stupid mistake after all.'
'I should also try to learn how to wield each weapon, that would help me conserve my MP rather than using it all on disposable creations.'
Shizuka stood up and stretched, looking out the window she noticed the moon was high in the sky.
'Time to get some sleep...' she thought laying down.
***********************
*KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK*
"Hey new girl, it's time to get up! The masters get restless if we are late!" a sweet sounding voice called out from behind the door.
Shizuka opened her eyes and sat up, reaching her arms up to the sky and stretching with a yawn.
"Hey new girl did you hear me?" the voice asked.
Shizuka stood up and started walking over to the door.
"You aren't dead are youuu?" the voice said as the door opened and they peeked their head inside.
Shizuka stopped as her and the other girls eyes met.
"Ahh...." the girl said with her mouth open.
'Ahh?' Shizuka looked over at the girl peeking her head in.
"AAHH!! MAH GAWD YOU'RE SO CUUUUTE!!!" The girl yelled as she flung the door open, rushed in and hugged Shizuka.
'What the hell is going on?' Shizuka thought to herself as she stood there stunned.
"Oh wow and you're cold too! That's a Snow Girl for you! You're like a never-melting popsicle!" The girl exclaimed as she rubbed her cheek on the top of Shizuka's head.
After a second Shizuka collected herself and reached up and tapped on the girls arm.
"Huh? Oh yeah! We gotta go! The masters will punish us if we are late! Come on!" The girl said grabbing Shizuka's hand and quickly pulling her along.
As she was pulled along Shizuka looked up at her sudden assailant. She was several heads taller than Shizuka, looking to be in her mid teens. She had bright golden hair reaching just below her shoulders. Her white top was covered by a metal breastplate, she wore a white skirt with metal greaves protecting her shins as well as metal boots. The most surprising thing though, were the white wings coming out of her back.
The girl looked down at Shizuka with a big grin. "My name's Aurora! Oh the wings? I'm an angel!" She giggled. "Just kidding, I'm a demi-human, we're called Nephilim. We're quite rare, our race usually doesn't show themselves due to our innate divine power."
"You're new here right? I Heard they just bought you in the other day. I've never seen a Snow Girl before. Seriously though, why are you so cute?!" She continued as she pulled Shizuka along.
'This girl talks a lot....' Shizuka thought as she listened to Aurora continue to talk about how cute she was.
Soon they reached a cafeteria like area. There were a few other demi-humans who sat at the tables eating while a dozen guards patrolled around keeping an eye on them.
"Let's grab some food and sit down, we only have a few minutes so we need to hurry." Aurora stated as she pulled Shizuka towards a table with some food.
Picking up the food Shizuka saw that it was some watery porridge and some bread on a plate.
They made their way to a table and sat down.
"By the way why haven't you talked yet? I just realized you never responded to me!" Aurora asked.
Shizuka looked over at Aurora and opened then closed her mouth and shook her head.
"Oh you're one one those huh? Yeah, I heard that when you piss off the slavers they will pour something down your throat that destroys your ability to talk. Self centered assholes!" Aurora frowned and then started eating.
"But that's ok I talk enough for the both of us!" She continued.
'Tell me about it.' Shizuka smiled slightly as she ate her bread.
"I'll be your big sis! You stick with me and I'll take care of you! And then you'll heal me with your overwhelming cuteness!" Aurora looked at her with expectant eyes.
After a second Shizuka nodded her head.
"Yay!" Aurora cheered.
***********************
After they finished their food everyone was herded out of the cafeteria. They went out the double doors leading to a courtyard. Looking around they were in a walled off area, Shizuka could see a barrier above the walls creating a dome over the entire courtyard, including the building they just came out of. There was a training ground to the right, it had some dummies lined up along with a pile of assorted wooden weapons laying in a corner. Straight ahead she could see some targets set out for ranged practice. To the left there was a set of gates and beyond that she could see a huge castle made of white marble stretching up into the sky.
Shizuka, Aurora and the other demi-humans were lined up in rows of two. Looking at the others Shizuka could see that there were 10 of them in total, including her and Aurora.
A large man in royal guard armor walked up in front of them and looked them over, not even bothering to hide his disgust.
"We have a couple more of you disgusting creatures here now." He said as he spat on the ground. "Just what we need. More monsters. There's a training are over there. I suggest you get used to a weapon, we will be sending the new ones into the level 20 dungeon to see if they are worth anything. You are dismissed. Snow Girl I want to talk to you so stay here."
The other demi-humans dispersed, some of them going to the training area and some others going back inside. Aurora glanced over at Shizuka in concern before joining the demi-human over at the training area.
"I am the captain of the royal guards. While the prince is away at the academy you will be reporting to me or my subordinates. What I say goes. Your job is to get the prince EXP while he is away. Once his royal highness gets back you will be charged with being a meat shield while he goes into the dungeons." the captain said looking down at Shizuka.
"You will be joining the new ones in the level 20 dungeon tomorrow. I don't know what the prime minister sees in you to have you be a guard for his royal highness, but I hope you die in there. We don't need a filthy lowlife being around his royal highness, meat shield or not." He continued, spitting on the ground again.
"I suggest you learn how to wield a sword in the next 24 hours. Level 4 going into a level 20 dungeon, you'll need it! Haha!" He laughed as he walked away.
'Fucking asshole! Are all humans like this? Every human I've met so far besides the prince seems to be a piece of shit.' Shizuka thought, glaring at the captain.
Shaking her head she walked over to the training area. 'Regardless, he was right about one thing. I need to learn how to wield a weapon'
Aurora glanced over noticing Shizuka walking over. "Are you alright? These guys can be harsh if you annoy them. It's best to stay under their radar." She said walking over, her face full of concern.
Shizuka nodded then pointed at the pile of weapons in the corner.
"Yeah of course! I'll teach you as much as I can before tomorrow!" Aurora replied looking where she was pointing.
"You're a Snow Girl so you mostly utilize magic, your power with magic will come from your INT stat. However your power with a weapon is based on your STR stat. I'm a swordswoman so I have my stats in mostly STR VIT and AGI. VIT will give you more HP, AGI will let you move around faster and dodge attacks. DEX is mostly reserved for people who use bows." Aurora stated walking over and picking up two wooden swords.
"Defense you can only get from equipment, titles or buffs from someone in your party. Your fight style will highly depend on how you distribute your stats." Aurora said smiling at Shizuka.
'Hmm.. so I will need to be extremely careful in how I distribute my 30 points... I'm only level 4 so I need to make every point count. STR is my lowest stat so I will put 10 points into that so I can actually swing my weapon. I'll put 10 into INT so I have more MP... 5 into VIT and 5 into AGI for some survivability.'
Shizuka nodded her head and mouthed "Status".
[ Name: Shizuka
Race: Snow Girl
Titles: Beginner Monster (3/10 Humans killed, +10% all Stats)
Level: 4
Class: Snow Girl, Enslaved
HP: 550/550
MP: 1100/1100
VIT: 15 -> 20 (22)
STR: 10 -> 20 (22)
INT: 30 -> 40 (44)
DEX: 15 (16)
AGI: 20 -> 25 (27)
MDEF: 200
PDEF: 100
Unassigned Points: 30 -> 0
(): Finalized stats after factoring in equipment, titles and buffs (Rounded down).
Skills:
Ice Creation Magic: As a Snow Girl you can freely use and create ice to create anything you can imagine. Increased scale of creation increases mana cost.
Cost: Depends on Creation
Cooldown: N/A
Frosty Aura (Passive) - As a Snow girl your skin is always cold, depending on your anger the aura can expand, covering your surroundings in a layer of ice and snow.
Cost: N/A
Cooldown: N/A ]
Dismissing her status window Shizuka grabbed the wooden sword Aurora offered her.
'I'll need to learn as much as possible before the dungeon and I need to be extremely careful when I'm in it. Hopefully I will level up fast inside or I won't make it out alive.' She thought nodding towards Aurora.
"Ready?" Aurora asked smiling. "Then let's get training!"