Setting off a day later than planned, the party made their way further into the eastern border. Since they weren't able to get any information from the first city, they decided to make a beeline towards the largest city in the eastern border, Halia.

The city was much bigger compared to New York and even had large defensive towers with weapons on top that were directed towards the sea.

It was a port city where quite a few boats were visible from the road.

With sea monsters attacking occasionally, the levels of the demons in the city was much higher. Most of them were ready to fight at a moment's notice since the sea monsters don't send notices of attack.

While driving to Halia, Shiro had sent drones to scout ahead and noticed that the most powerful mana signal here was only in the late 300's almost 400. But it belonged to a lone demon rather than a candidate which caused Shiro to wonder where the candidates have disappeared to.

"Seems like our movements have already been noted. I can only find a few candidates and none of the most powerful ones are around." Shiro said as she was finding a good place for them to start walking. After all, it would be a bit awkward to enter the city by car since the demons have wings.

"Eh? Why would they be keeping an eye on us though. We're just a small group from the south." Madison asked.

"Well there's been quite a few crows snooping around. I've killed them as soon as I sensed them but it seems like they still transmitted enough information. The owner of these crows is a demon king candidate in the north so I'm guessing that they probably sent down some intel and had the higher ranking demons leave for now." Shiro said since it was the most logical scenario.

When she tracked the crow back to the candidate, she could clearly sense several other strong mana signals which meant that he was probably in a meeting of sorts.

'Maybe we'll have to fight multiple candidates at once.' Shiro thought to herself.

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Remembering what she had sensed, she could estimate that the candidate who sent the crows wasn't going to be too much of a problem if she plays her cards properly.

While his mana signal was strong, she was confident that she could win.

"That's not exactly good news is it?" Madison furrowed her brows since they didn't even know how strong rank 30 was, nevermind those at the top. Sure, Shiro was with them but she didn't want to always rely on Shiro.

They needed to improve individually so that when the new age arrives, Shiro wouldn't need to babysit them.

"Perhaps we should bring the fight to them rather than wait around?" Lyrica suggested since the longer they wait, the worse it could get.

"That is true but we can't afford to rush things either. We don't have any information and we're also in their home turf. We're at a disadvantage so the best thing we can do right now is get some information on the higher ranks so we know what to expect. If they do come and fight, we'll be able to split the party up into favourable matchups." Aarim spoke up as Silvia agreed with her idea.

"Let's do that then. I'm not sure how much information can be gotten without arousing suspicion but right now anything would help. Even if a fight starts, just regroup and escape with as much information as you can get." Lyrica nodded her head.

Seeing that the party was already planning a counter plan, Shiro smiled since there wasn't much she needed to do. If anything, the main thing they needed to improve on was their senses since quite a few powerhouses would use familiars to scout out ahead to get information on their enemies.

They didn't get that powerful by running into things mindlessly.

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Thinking about this, Shiro wondered if she should work on a technique together with Aarim. One that would immediately attack all peering eyes the moment they spied on them. But making sure that it targeted the right ones was difficult since there was no way to know who sent the scouts without checking it manually.

If they just attacked indiscriminately, it could stop allies from getting an idea of the situation.

Right now, she was relying on her own senses and attacking them with her nanobots but that wasn't available for Aarim.

Her senses were a little weaker and she didn't have nanobots to kill the scouts instantly.

If their movements were discovered, the scouts could just disappear.

While the party made their way through the city, Shiro sat at the roof of the defensive towers and completely suppressed her aura so that no one could discover her.

Closing one of her eyes, she opened it back up and activated analysis on that one eye.

Seeing the party moving through the city while all of the demons were revealed, she could see everything that was going on.

'I don't know a spell that could counter scouts but I think I just made a spell that will give me a full view of everything that happens.' Shiro sighed since she theorised a new skill that uses her analysis skill as a reference to give her a deep scan of everything in an area. Everything will be revealed to her including underground areas, mana rich zones, barriers and so on. Every magic circle will be shown and she'll be able to cancel them at will with her celestial path.

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{The fact that you just casually created a limited area omniscient skill is crazy when you just wanted to get rid of scouts.} Nimue said with a twitching smile.

'You're exaggerating a bit with omniscience since there is no real omniscience in this world. Even if there is, it would be quite boring wouldn't it? Being able to know what happens tomorrow. You won't discover anything yourself.' Shiro replied.

{Do you think that's why gods like to do things on a whim? Because they might have a certain amount of knowledge on what happens but decided to change it to give themselves some enjoyment.} Nimue shrugged.

'Perhaps. Though this skill is far from omniscience. It's just something that lets me understand a place better. Think of it as a domain of sorts.' Shiro chuckled.

{I suppose that is the more accurate description. Going back to the topic of gods and omniscience, if you were given the choice of becoming a proper 'god' I suppose, one that is all knowing and all powerful, would you take that chance?} Nimue asked.

'Nah. It'll be boring. My only real goal in becoming strong is so that I can enjoy life freely without worry that someone will come kill me or decide my path for me like what happened with the scientists. Sure I enjoy battle but living without worry is better than battle. Plus, if I really wanted battle, I'll just make a clone of myself and fight me again.' Shiro grinned.

{Battle junkie as always then.}

'Maybe. AndI suppose it's a bit hypocritical but I do enjoy the uncertainty in life. Will I find something I enjoy tomorrow? Will it be sad? Of course, no one likes sad surprises such as big sis going away for real but that's just how it is.' Shiro smiled.

{Pft look at you becoming philosophical now. What next, are you going to question the meaning of life?} Nimue laughed.

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'Maybe, maybe not haha. But I'm saying this because with the rate I'm improving, I can say that there is a good chance for me to become a 'god' of nanobots I suppose. Though I'm not sure if I should even call it being a god. Sure you have divinity but gods are supposed to be this all mighty being. As far as I know, the gods of the system are far from all mighty. If they were, how would they be bound by the system.

'If anything, the closest thing to a god, is the system itself.' Shiro narrowed her eyes at the system.

Before, as a kid, she had always wondered where the system came from or who made it. However, after a while, she gave up thinking about that since it didn't concern her and she wouldn't be able to get an answer anytime soon.

But now, things were different.

The system fit the description of god. It seemed as though it knew everything, it could grant unimaginable power and it was unkillable. In the future, her future self said that she could get rid of the system but it didn't mean she 'killed' it in a sense.

Which just brings up the question of what do you call the 'thing' that created the system? Are they more powerful than this 'god' that they've been interacting with all their life?

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