CHAPTER 371: TIRING TRAINING?

"Well... Is there really a reason for that?" Lillian tilted her head, scrutinising her current loadout. The real reason why anyone would keep weapons inside their Shard slot would be to have them repair slowly inside their Mana Realm.

But unlike these Items, her Black Maw had an enchantment completely dedicated to keeping the weapon’s quality in peak condition.

’Although... I don’t really know the extent of that...’

Besides that, it shouldn’t really matter. Currently, her mind had shifted onto another thought. Would the Alpha be considered a powerful foe for the odachi?

If Lillian managed to slay the Alpha, would it cause the weapon to lessen in weight?

Recalling back, Lillian remembered that the Spider she had fought back in the Forest of Disruption counted as a powerful foe, although the weapon didn’t exactly lessen much of its weight.

Lillian exited her thoughts and threw a look towards the black-jagged shortsword. Her brows furrowed for a moment.

Lillian strided forward, flashing her hand towards her shortsword and popping the bubble it was in. Once grasping its hilt, a surge of electricity erupted and wrapped around her body.

The thin layer of electricity shocked the sea under her, causing it to disperse into a small perimeter around her that slithered like miniature golden snakes.

[Electrifying Aura] not only did it increase her speed by 20% but it would also shock those that made contact with the thin layer wrapped around her. But not only that, but it also gave her a decent resistance to electricity.

Lillian swung her sword around, her eyes following the trail of arcs her sword made through the air. After practising for a little bit and working on her footwork, Lillian couldn’t help but feel bored.

Although Lillian’s Mana Realm was an excellent place for serenity and relaxation, it didn’t prove useful in terms of physical training... Well, combatwise.

Breathing a sigh, Lillian scanned her seemingly never-ending surroundings.

After a moment of silence, a thought popped into Lillian’s head. With a tap of her right foot, which caused ripples on the surface of the sea, a liquid double of Lillian sprouted next to her.

At the moment of its birth, Lillian’s sword had abruptly cleaved diagonally through its entire body.

Steam bled out of its chest as it fell back and collapsed, breaking apart and merging with the ocean beneath it. Lillian gave a small hum as she saw this.

"It’ll do. Now, then, I wonder if my next experiment would work."

Appearing 5 metres away from her was another liquid double, except this time, it moved and twitched on its own. And after it was completely imbued with Lillian’s Parasitic element, it dashed towards her with a ferocious speed.

Lillian beamed at the sight of her own clone coming at her. This was her solution to the boredom within the realm. If she didn’t have any guardians to spar with, why not create some of her own?

Using her knowledge and experience of previously creating autonomous clones when she fought with Thalrek, Lillian had devised that if she were to reverse the target of its desire, wouldn’t that make it target her?

With a single pounce, Lillian closed the several metres between them in a single moment. Then, with her sword raised over her head, Lillian swung down.

Bzzt.

Her sword sliced into the centre of its head, causing it to cave in, and the centre to split and its body to bubble and steam. Lillian’s lips momentarily curved downwards as she saw this.

Lillian’s immeasurable disappointment flashed through her eyes. Perhaps these liquid doubles of her could only stall and do nothing more...

Splash!

However, this feeling of disappointment was short-lived as she remembered the following reason why they were special and unique.

After her sword had split its body, the remaining parts of it splashed against her body and sucked out her mana. Not a moment later, two other duplicates popped out of her body like parasites.

Lillian’s eyes widened, the sense of weakness appearing with the duplicate’s birth. But that didn’t stop the toothy grin she now wore.

After distancing herself from the duplicates and engaging in close combat again, Lillian now realised how awful it felt to feel yourself drained of both mana and stamina—simultaneously.

An hour later, Lillian muttered inside her mind:

’So, this was how it felt to fight against me...?’

Lillian’s arms drooped to the side as she became the sole focus of an army of autonomous clones, numbering a hundred or maybe just a bit more than that.

Completely geared up with her gauntlets, boots, cloak, and chestplate, Lillian fought off the horde of ’Her’.

She could feel her eyelids drooping as another two clones bursted out of her like aliens. Lillian now realised how dreadful it would be to fight against a horde of enemies by herself, especially ones that would constantly grow in numbers.

After another hour or two... Or maybe even 3, a massive hill of approximately 20 metres grew at the centre of the ocean. Made with hundreds of liquid mannequins, whose arms wriggled as they climbed to the top.

It was an eerie sight, but luckily, before the hill could reach another dozen metres in height, it suddenly collapsed on itself.

The liquid hill fell apart and merged with the sea underneath, freeing a white-haired girl with blue eyes, who was trapped under.

Lillian panted harshly.

"Huff... Huff..."

Taking off her gear, Lillian laid splayed on the surface of the water, getting back her breath after experiencing... Whatever she had just gone through. If Lillian still didn’t have control over the clones, she feared she might’ve actually suffocated there.

While a person was within their Mana Realm, they would be given a variety of buffs, the default being able to store double the amount of mana they could usually and being able to restore it 25% faster.

Although Lillian hadn’t measured her mana restoration, she knew her rate of regeneration was much quicker than the average man. Most likely 50% faster than the average person.

So, on top of all of her buffs that were related to her mana, Lillian had been sucked dry of it all. Lillian could even feel the sky and sea feel a lot paler and whiter than before—a contrast to their vibrant blue previously.

Using the back of her hand to wipe her face, Lillian murmured with wide eyes and a shocked face:

"D-damn... I really think I am a bit stronger now..." Her voice filled with pessimism. After an attempt to sit up, Lillian fell back down on her back with a deadpan and tired look in her eyes.

Lillian gave out a yawn and said:

"I think I’m a bit tired..."

And as Lillian said that, her eyelids dropped, closing and causing her to drift into a dark land of fatigue. Lillian didn’t know exactly how long she had slept, but after opening her eyes, she exited her Mana Realm.

Lillian looked around, finding her surroundings normal and unchanged—except for the curtains being shut and Viesta seated at the desk with a laptop out.

Viesta, peeking out from the corner of her eyes, found the curtains shifting. Viesta turned to the side, finding Lillian slipping a look outside and finding that it had turned dark.

Watching as the girl widened her eyes, Viesta couldn’t help but laugh, "It’s evening now. Let me guess, you were so engrossed on something that you hadn’t even noticed how long it had been?"

Lillian turned back and nodded her head slowly, "Yeah..."

It had been a while since Lillian had truly been so focused on something that didn’t have to do with being lazy or going out to have fun.

"H-how long have I been out?"

Viesta thought for a moment, "When I woke up from my focus, you were already like that, so I’m not sure. But what I do know was that you’ve been out for like 4-5 hours."

"I-I was out for that long!?"

If Lillian had known she could both improve her skills and also skip time doing something productive, she would’ve done this on the train!

Sighing, Lillian strolled back to her bed. At least she was now rejuvenated from her nap.

Lying down, Lillian pulled out her phone and checked the time:

[21:03]

Lillian hummed at that before swiping to the message app. Lillian wondered if she should send Marionette a call and talk for a bit.

After a moment of thought, Lillian nodded to that idea and held her finger over the call button, but then was interrupted at the sound of Viesta hopping into her bed.

Remembering that Viesta was in the room, Lillian felt that...

’Eh... It may not be a great idea, after all...’

With how Marionette had felt about Viesta, Lillian didn’t think it would be best to talk with each other while she was in the room. Especially with how much Lillian knew that Marionette might ask for a FaceTime.

’Hm... Now that I know I can train inside my Mana Realm... Maybe I should focus more on that a bit.’

After shooting Marionette a quick Goodnight and chatting with her for a bit, Lillian fell back into her Mana Realm, intending to develop her combat skills and further the fighting style she had slowly been developing.