Controlling the boat towards the docks, Shiro could see the residents of this port village waiting by the road, looking at them with curious eyes.

Seeing that there was a gap, Shiro docked the ship before jumping over the side and landed on the wooden walkway.

"Greetings, my name is Ilathintra. I'm the village head of Port Rath' Tael. May I know who I'm speaking to right now?" An old man asked as he walked up to Shiro.

"I'm Shiro, the leader of this expedition and we were planning on making our way towards the centre so that we may gather knowledge for our healers and alchemists. I take it that you understand the country of Vrish' Lir is akin to a trove of knowledge for people of these professions." Shiro smiled as Ilathintra nodded his head.

"I do indeed. However, it is quite strange for you to travel through here by boat. Most would be coming here through land towards the east. Plus, they are usually in smaller parties rather than in a group like yours." Ilathintra smiled as he glanced behind her and saw the 30+ people getting off the ship.

"Would you like to stay for the day and perhaps commence in some trade with our local wears? We are rather interested in the items from the outside world." He offered with a smile but Shiro shook her head.

"I would love to but unfortunately, we're working on limited time. We'll be making our way to the centre immediately." Shiro smiled as she snapped her finger.

Just as she did this, the boat disappeared as she returned the nanobots back to mana. Seeing this, the village head and the other villages looked around in surprise as they started to discuss amongst themselves.

"Everyone, I'll give you 5 minutes to browse around if something does catch your eye but we'll meet up outside the village." Shiro clapped as she gestured for the people to make their way through.

Nan Tian glanced towards Shiro but she only gave him a smile and gestured for him to go too.

Walking past her, Silvia leaned over and whispered into her ear.

"If you are going to fight don't make too much of a mess and maybe keep it down if you can. Some of the healers here might not be too appreciative of slaughter unless you give them some context."

"Don't worry I know. Plus, it'll be a warning at most." Shiro nodded.

Hearing this, Silvia sighed in relief as she joined the rest of the group and left.

"Village head, if you don't mind, I would like a quick word." Shiro smiled as the village head nodded.

Walking over, Shiro flexed her finger as nanotech wires spread out like a spider's web.

"Now then, everyone here should be marked by my wires. Why don't we have a nice short chat since I won't be around here for long. I saw your look towards our ship. Seems like you want to leave very much don't you?" Shiro smiled as the blatant greed from both him and the villagers was a little concerning since she didn't like slaughtering a village the moment she entered a new country but if she had to she didn't mind getting her hands dirty.

"Now don't make a sound. If I notice you or any villagers here make a move that might cause me to raise my suspicion, I'll have to cut a few throats if you understand what I mean. Feel free to nod since I've already sealed your voice." Shiro chuckled softly as the Ilathintra immediately nodded his head with cold sweat dripping down his back. He didn't think the newcomers from the outside world would be this scary since they're just healers, alchemists or druids!

"Perfect. I shall be on my way too now. There will be a great battle in a few days that will drag all of Vrish' Lir through hell so you might want to prepare for that. Who knows if this village becomes a zone that needs to be captured." Shiro smiled, waving her hand and retracting all of the nanotech wires.

She had to get that warning of the way since their main goal was knowledge and not slaughter.

Walking through the village, Shiro had her book out and saw both Silvia and Nan Tian waiting by the side.

"You done?" Silvia asked as Shiro nodded.

"Yup. Gave him a small warning, they shouldn't have any thoughts anymore unless they want us to take care of them." Shiro smiled.

"However, let's ignore them for now. I'm more interested if there are any runes in this place. The last one that I had just deciphered allowed me to store spells. So! If I drink a potion and store spells in the runes, I can use it without drinking another potion even if I run out of mana. Of course, the level of the spell varies on my proficiency and right now I can only store one or two simple ones in the rune but they're enough for now." Shiro's eyes flickered with excitement as she showed them her palm where there was a faint glowing rune.

"Right now I have nanotech wires and vehicle construction stored so I should be fine without drinking a potion for a while." She said as she started to look around the place for anything that could possibly match up to become a rune. But since it was just a small port village, there was a slim chance of something like that happening so she wasn't too bothered if she found nothing. It was just a shot in the dark after all. Her main goals were to find where the author of the book had taken these images so that she could find out the full rune rather than half of one.

Five minutes passed by shortly as the three of them made their way out to the front. Doing a headcount once more, Shiro nodded her head after making sure that all 37 of them were still around.

"Alright, since everyone's done, let's set off. Again, I'll give you two choices. Flying or driving?" Shiro asked with a smile.

Thinking about it carefully, they figured that it was probably better if they chose the sky route since it might be less of a bumpy ride.

However, since they weren't sure, they looked towards Silvia for help.

"Don't look at me, it's not going to be fun regardless of what we pick. Look at that face and you can already tell her sadistic intent is brewing." Silvia rolled her eyes as she pointed at Shiro who only smiled brightly and waved to all of them. For those that weren't familiar they would think she's just waiting for their response but those that were familiar would be able to recognise the look in her eyes as she stares at her victims.

They knew that hundreds of ideas on how she could torment them without going over the line were brewing in her mind right now with each second they spend on thinking about which one to pick.

Eventually, they settled on flying since at most they'll be pressed against their seat.

But the moment they chose this, Shiro's smile widened as they panicked and picked land.

This however, just caused her to smile more as she even started to chuckle.

The 37 victims struggled and eventually picked two people to play rock paper scissors. If the left one, they go by air, the right won, they go by land.

Neither of them wanted to win as they didn't want to take responsibility. When they tried to suggest walking or going there manually Shiro shook her head and said it'll take too long.

"You better f*cking win." The person on the right hissed as the left rolled his eyes.

"Right back at you. You've always beat me in rock paper scissors before, don't like that change now!"

"Yes but my breakfast wasn't on the line! If I win, I swear to the goddess that if I vomit, it'll be on you!"

"Alright, stop complaining. Rock! Paper! Scissors!"

The moment someone shouted scissors, they both threw their hands down as they analysed their past matches and tried to devise a strategy.

Both of them picked rock as they sighed in relief however, they noticed something to the side.

A delicate hand that made the gesture of paper.

"I win. So we pick both." Shiro grinned as her eyes flickered with sadistic joy. Despite her joyful expression with light blushes on her cheeks, they felt like they were looking at the devil.

Their collective faces paled.

###

If one was to pass by this area, they would see the strange scene of an abnormally large monster truck propelling itself into the air in a flash before transforming into a jet, blasting itself towards the light in the distance followed by the faint sound of screams.

In a few short moments, the jet transformed itself back into a monster truck as it slammed against the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust. WIth this, they've arrived at the centre of the country.

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