Chapter 126 Beach Episode
"Urg…." Shiro groaned a little since it was extremely hot today.
When she had agreed on the time with Aarim, she didn't expect there to a heat wave on the same day.
Even though she was using ice to help her cool down, it was still annoying to be constantly cooked by the sunlight.
"Hahaha, Shiro come join us and stop being such a party pooper." Aarim laughed as they were currently waiting on the beach. The boat had yet to arrive and they were a little early so they decided to have some fun at the beach while they wait.
Currently, Aarim was wearing a bikini that was coloured entirely black with a few frills around the edges. Not only that, she also had a waist cloth that covered a bit of her right thigh.
As for Lyrica and Madison, they both wore bikini's as well but theirs were a little more simple. Lyrica just had a normal white bikini whilst Madison decided to go with a red bikini.
However, to Lyrica's disappointment, all Shiro wore was her white dress that she woke up with and a straw hat to block out the sun.
[I don't have a bikini.] Shiro shrugged as she made up an excuse on the spot.
"I got a few bikini's for you!" Lyrica shouted out as she pulled out five sets of bikinis from her inventory.
". . ."
'Why does she have five bikinis that fit my size?' Shiro thought to herself.
"See? You have a bikini now." Aarim chuckled.
'Well I guess it's good to burn some time right now.'
Giving up, Shiro walked over to Lyrica and had a look at the bikinis. Finding one that she felt would suit her, she made her way to the changing rooms.
When the group saw her, they couldn't help but drop their jaws in shock.
The bikini Shiro chose was a plain black bikini like Aarims. She had a waist cloth that reached her knees as her delicate thighs would occasionally peek out due to her movements.
Even Aarim couldn't help but stare at her smooth skin that lacked any sort of blemish that would ruin her appearance.
As for Lyrica, a trail of blood was slowly dripping out of her nose.
Shiro only raised an eyebrow when she saw all of this.
[So what are we doing?] She asked.
"Ah right. We were going to do some beach volleyball." Aarim snapped out of her daze and pulled out a volleyball.
[If I remember, we can only touch the ball once and we aren't allowed to let it hit the ground right?]
"Yep. I'll teach you the rules whilst we play."
As they made their way to the nets, they received countless stares from the surrounding people. Especially Shiro. Whilst her body figure wasn't devilish like Aarim's, her own charm was enough to draw all of the stares.
Meanwhile, Lyrica was feeling both glad and annoyed. Glad since she isn't receiving a lot of stares. If she did, she would start blushing due to embarrassment.
However, at the same time, she was annoyed due to the fact that they were staring at her precious Shiro.
"I see that you don't mind the stares." Aarim spoke up as she saw how composed Shiro was.
[Just ignore them and you'll be fine.]
When they arrived at the net, they split into two teams.
Lyrica was paired with Shiro, to her absolute delight, while Madison was paired with Aarim.
"Remember, you can only touch the ball once and you have to get it over the net. If the other team lets it hit the floor on their side of the court, you win a point." Aarim called out as she reminded Shiro about the rules.
Shiro made and OK sign to show that she understood.
"Great."
*Pa!
Aarim hit the ball over the net as Shiro dashed towards the ball.
However, Lyrica was also dashing towards the ball. But before they could collide, Shiro flipped her body up and avoided Lyrica at the last moment.
"Tsk!" Lyrica clicked her tongue since she was somewhat hoping for a collision. At least then, she'll be able to use it as an excuse to feel Shiro up a little.
Shiro, who was still in the air, looked at the volleyball and punched it with all her strength.
*BANG!
". . ."
". . ."
". . ."
Her punch had caused the ball to explode due to the excessive amount of force she had applied to the beach ball.
"I'll take that as our point then." Aarim smiled wearily and took out a second volley ball.
Shiro landed on the sand softly and looked at her hand.
'Hmm… Maybe I should reduce the amount of force to 10% and slowly increase if the ball can take it.' Shiro thought to herself.
###
In the end, Shiro managed to average her strength around 45% to get the maximum efficiency out of the ball. After she managed to find the sweet spot, they never lost a point.
Shiro was mostly the defender whilst Lyrica was the vanguard. Naturally, Shiro would also attack but after a certain amount of points, they all agreed that Shiro will be defending since Lyrica had almost nothing to do other than watch Shiro.
"I'll go get us a few drinks." Aarim said as she wiped off the sweat that had built up.
Strangely enough, Shiro didn't sweat at all to their surprise.
Sitting back down at their folding chairs, Shiro waited for Aarim to return.
Naturally, there were a few people that worked up the courage to approach them but a sliver of killing intent was enough to dissuade them.
Ironically, every time she used her killing intent, she would create an ice cube and put it into an empty glass.
"I'm back~" Aarim called out as she returned with a tray of drinks.
"The boat should be arriving in ten minutes. We'll finish the drinks then head over to the docks." She continued whilst handing everyone their drinks.
Looking at her drink, Shiro shrugged her shoulders and drank all of it in an instant.
[Alright, I'll go get changed and wait for you girls.]
Watching her leave, Aarim and the duo blinked before looking at each other.
"Well you saw what she typed. Let's go." Madison spoke up as she drank her drink quickly.
###
After everyone had changed back to their usual outfit, they made their way to the docks.
"Oh wow, I can see the ship from here." Lyrica said in surprise.
"Nope. That's not our ship. Our ship is the smaller one next to it." Aarim chuckled lightly.
"What? There's only the four of us. It's not like we need anything bigger." Aarim shrugged seeing their stale reactions to the smaller boat.
[She's right. We don't need a big ship to begin with.] Shiro agreed.
"Pft, you know I'm joking right? Hahaha, the big ship is ours." Aarim grinned and lead them to the ship.
Lyrica and Shiro looked at each other with a blank face. Both of them were tricked by a few sentences from Aarim.
"Let's just be patient and keep our mouths shut next time." Lyrica sighed.
Shiro nodded her head in agreement.
"Let me introduce you guys. This is the captain of this ship, Captain Sanders." Aarim gestured towards a muscular white man.
"Hello, my name is Sanders and I'll be taking you to the ruins today." He smiled.
He had scars running down his face and some connecting to his arms. In addition to this, he had a strong jawline along with a face full of brown facial hair.
"And these are my companions for this trip. Lyrica, Madison and Shiro. She's mute so she'll communicate to you with her phone." Aarim said whilst gesturing to the group.
After some short introductions with the rest of the crew, Shiro sat herself down on the tallest point of the ship and waited for them to set off.
Once again, there were a few individuals who tried to talk to her but she only listened for a short moment. If it wasn't important, she'll ask them to leave.
"Set sail!"
Hearing the captain shout, Shiro set her eyes out to the sea.
Feeling the wind blow against her hair and the salty smell that naturally came with the ocean, she couldn't help but look up at the clear blue sky.
"Hmm… I wonder what kind of loot the ruins will give me." She muttered softly.
*Chirp~
"I have no idea what you just said and I'm not even going to try guess." Shiro chuckled and patted Yin's head.
*Chirp!
Yin pouted a little since she couldn't talk and could only chirp.
What Shiro didn't know was that after she had reached a certain level, she'll be able to materialise a human body and converse like a normal person. But that will have to wait until they enter the C class territory.
"Here, will this make you happier?" Shiro asked as she handed Yin a mana stone lollipop.
Giving the lollipop a side glance, Yin nodded happily and put it into her mouth.
Smiling softly, Shiro stroked Yin's head whilst they waited for the ship to arrive at their destination.
After travelling for around 1 hour and 30 minutes, the captain stopped the boat and stepped out of his cabin.
"Alright! We're here boys. Get the submarine ready!" He shouted out.
Looking around, Shiro could see that there were quite a lot of people were treasure hunting today. The closest ship to them was only 100 meters away from them.
'Hmm, there are at least 20 sh.i.p.s here.' Shiro thought before flipping her body off of the roof of the ship and landing next to the captain.
"OH MY GOD! Jesus christ can't you appear normally?!" Sanders said as he patted his chest.
Shrugging at his response, she walked over to the group since they were preparing to get changed.
"This here is a special suit that I have managed to procure. Using your mana, you'll be allowed to create small footholds that are made from air and it will be your main source of transport inside the ocean.
"Shiro, I'll need you to hold off on using your ice and lightning magic if you can since they aren't the best elements to use in the water. Especially since you may accidentally cause friendly fire." Aarim warned whilst showing them the suit.
[I'll just use my blades then.] Shiro replied as she tapped her necklace.
Shining with a soft light, the necklace transformed itself into four floating swords.
". . . That is fine. Though I have to say, you've never told me that you had floating swords. Good to know." Aarim nodded her head.
As she guided Lyrica and Madison on how to put on their suit, she had asked Shiro to stand by the side for now since her suit was a little different.
"Since we both know your physique is that of a child's, I had to custom edit one of the suits to match your size."
*Puchi
Shiro couldn't help but feel like a vein had burst after she was reminded that she was essentially in a child's body right now.
'God I hope I can get an a.d.u.l.t body faster.' Shiro thought to herself in annoyance.
Looking at the suit in Aarim's hands, Shiro could see that it was rather well made.
The suit itself was an airtight underwater suit that was coloured black and red. There was an utility belt on the waist along with a few devices connected around the arms and legs.
"These devices here will filter out the oxygen for you when you're in the water. These will be the ones that makes the platforms and this one is to help you reach the surface by surrounding you with a bubble of air. Remember, all of these cost mana to operate so you'll need to manage your mana a little better ok?"
[Understood.] Shiro nodded and took the suit.
Once Aarim had made sure that the three of them knew how to put on their suit along with their functions, she took them to the changing rooms.
Lyrica took a lot longer to change since the suit had highlighted Shiro's body proportions in its entirety.
After they got changed, they walked back up to the deck and saw that the submarine was already prepared.
"We'll wait for you up here while you go search the ruins. Just remember, you only have a 3 hour slot to try find anything you want before you are needed to come back up. If you are late, we'll wait at most 30 minutes before leaving ok?" Sander's warned since death in the ruins weren't uncommon. Just general fights between adventurers could amount to 60% of the casualties while the other 40% was death just to traps and monsters.
"Aiya, don't worry. We know." Aarim grinned as she had a specialised watch to help notify them of when they should head back up to the surface.
Looking at the rather impressive submarine, Shiro couldn't help but feel a little excited since this will be her first underwater ruin exploration.
Even in her past life, she only ever went to normal ruins.
"Let's go." Aarim smiled and activated the submarine.
*CLACK CLACK!
The claws that held onto the submarine unlocked, causing them to plunge into the ocean.
The lights of the submarine turned on as bright lights pierced the dark oceans.
"Let's go." Aarim smiled as they descended into the deep below.