22. Frozen Sea

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*Chirp*

*Chirp*

I woke up to the chirping noises of the birds.

I looked around, only to find myself sleeping on the table.

So was Brandon and Claus.

“It seems you are awake, you’re going to give extra for treating the restaurant as an Inn where you can sleep.”

Spoke the angered bartender, while polishing the glasses.

“Yeaah sure” I said as I let out a long yawn.

*Paw*

*Paw*

“Wake up idiots.” I yelled as I slapped the back of their heads.

“Ugh”

“Ouuuch”

“What happened?”

“What the hell was that for?”

Brandon and Claus groaned.

“We ended up falling a sleep.” I said.

“Oh..”

“Let’s go and see if Beatrix has your adventurer’s card ready for ya.” Spoke Claus as he stretched his back.

I nodded and proceeded to pay the bartender what we owed and a bit extra for borrowing a table to sleep in for a whole night.

“Bye!”

“Don’t bother coming again!”

“Tsk” Such a fun killer of a bartender.

We left the restaurant and headed to the . ..

We entered the guild and Claus immediately went to Beatrix’s side with a flower.

Isn’t that the flower he picked on the road?

I looked at Brandon.. and he just nodded.

“Hello Beatrix, is everything ready for me?”

She looked at me and replied, “Yes your adventure card was done just a few minutes ago, just wait a second..”

She left towards what looked like a backroom and came back with something on her hands.

A piece of gold that was shaped like a card.

She came near me and gave it to me, “Congratulations! Leonidas, you’re a gold ranked adventurer from today.

I took a look and I saw something written on it.

‘Leonidas’

Thats it ?

I looked at Beatrix for an answer, but it seems she doesn’t understand what I mean and just tilted her head.

But now that I look at the card, I get it.

The gold symbolizes my rank, which also tells around where my level is, and lastly my name which is written.

There was no photo though, “Isn’t it a bit too easy to steal a card? And get away with it.?”

“What do you mean?” Asked Beatrix as she tilted her head.

“The is no foto.” I said with a deadpan face.

“Oh, there aren’t many cases that getsomeone gets away with stealing a card. But you are indeed right, most adventurers also want a photo in their card, but that takes a lot of time, I thought you would like the card sooner, that’s why I didn’t say anything. But If you want, we can put a photo of yours there so nobody can steal your identity.” She finished her words.

I waved my hand, “there is no need, I was just asking.”

If anyone even tries to steal anything from me, I’ll break their fingers first and then shove their face in horse shit.

I simply put my gold card inside my storage.

“I’ll be going somewhere for a while, I don’t know how much I’ll begone for…”

I said those words and left the guild.

“You forgot the membership fee-” yelled Beatrix as I left, until she probably saw 10 silver coins at the stool.

The reason I left is because I needed to train. That’s right, I may be stronger than others my level stat-wise and level-wise, but I will still need to train.

Train until you get skills from them.

Something I did in my training days.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

What do I need skills for?

That’s simple. That would be Ice spells.

What I used against that hound was the spell Ice Spear, but that’s not my skill.

I was able to use Ice spear, because of my racial skill [ Ice Crow Magic ].

But I want more.

By using [ Ice Crow Magic ] to do Ice Spells.

I will create skills for those spells. By repeating them enough, I will be able to create a skill card from them. Which I will integrate with.

Simple but time consuming.

I headed out of the city, quite sneakily so the guards won’t see me and headed to where the bandits previously attacked us.

I started with something I already knew.

[ Ice Spear ], I focused on my ice mana which had been turned with [ Instant Ice Mana ].

And started visualizing a spear. Unlike before I tried making it more refined and added more detail to it. Before I just made long ice with a sharp tip at the top.

A good thing I didn’t need to chant, because the skill [ Ice Crow Magic ] was apparently chant-less magic. It was something that I felt I just knew.

I removed unneeded thoughts out of my head and focused on my visualization.

Slowly I made a perfect spear.

It was refined and was smooth to to look, but when touched it’s sharp and really cold, not for me though.

When my Ice affinity was at Max-grade, I felt that me and Ice were companions till death.

But now that my affinity is at the grade of Divine.

We are like master and slave, the Ice will serve me as its master. The difference between the two grades are quite huge.

After I was done with the Ice spear, I dematerialized the Ice spear and started doing it again and again.

[ Ice Crow Magic ] isn’t like Thread Creation, it won’t permanently create ice, It’s more like temporarily creation, if I don’t dematerialize it, it will do it itself even if I channel mana continuously.

2 days passed. I looked at the pocket watch. Right now I had a white shirt and black pants worn, as for my feet, I had to cut my long toe-nails before I could fit in my shoes. My nails were getting in the way so it’s fine.

2 days had passed as I started training and I finally got it.

[ Skill Card ] - [ Ice Spear ]

I didn’t infuse it directly. Because I still wanted to learn new spells.

I started to read a book that the old man particularly told me to read if I wanted to advance in Ice Magic.

The name of the book was ‘Visualization and Imagination’

‘Visualization refers to the process of creating a mental image or picture in one's mind, often as a way of focusing one's thoughts and directing one's imagination. Imagination, on the other hand, is the ability to form mental images or concepts of things that are not present in the immediate environment, or to transform or manipulate existing mental images or concepts.

In other words, visualization is a specific type of imagination that involves creating a mental picture. While imagination can encompass a wide range of mental activity, including visualization, it also encompasses other forms of creative thinking such as idea generation and problem solving.’

…

I read through the book and these sentences were the ones I was most curious about.

To create spells, I need to imagine and visualize.

Imagine as in, using mana, imagine what I want and what their effects should be.

On the other hand, Visualization is how I use the mana and visualize what I imagined and apply their effects.

Such obvious words yet.. I didn’t think of them before.

Following the lines, I imagined.

The frozen sea and the amount of mana I would have to use.

And then visualized how I am going to do it.

Cold temperature of the water.

Next, spread the mana at every part of that sea.

How quick I do it and how fast I would have to do it.

Right now, I was sitting in a lotus position on a huge rock.

I was using [ Meditate ] to help me think more clearly.

I received the answer that I wanted.

I stood up from the rock and took water from my [ Dimensional Storage ] that I head.

There was a bottle in my hands. Inside that bottle is water. Just like a person’s body.

Skin, bones, organs etc etc.., yet 70 percent water. I practiced with the water bottle.

I tried freezing the water, without freezing the bottle. It required massive control.

I tried again and again until the bottle just disintegrated. Good thing I had a lot more of them.

Another 4 days passed. I managed to do it. Finally after 4 days of practice. Even when my mana was out, I didn’t sleep, I just meditated at that time to strengthen my Visualization and Imagination. Without sleep or rest I finally did it and gained a skill card.

[ Skill Card ] - [ Freezing Sea ]

Unless I devour someones skill it is me who names them , when I create skills, I can choose to name them.

Usually I give simpler names, but I had to name this one like this, In the future freezing the sea is not the only thing it will be able to do. I could tell it’s a skill that will stay with me for a while.

Unlike the [ Ice Spear ] skill. I immediately integrated the skill with me.

I felt relieved.

Right now this skill gives me the ability to freeze everything that has water.

For example if I activate my skill, If I touch something or someone that has water inside, which most creatures have. I would be able to freeze their whole body in a matter of seconds.

Unfortunately I can’t do that with those stronger than me. The reason for that is because they can use their mana to overpower mine. The way this skill works is that I send ice mana into something and freeze all the water in the insides, so someone that has purer mana than mine can easily remove it before it even causes any damages.

The skill can also be used in hand to hand combat. When the skill is activated, every punch I make, will freeze that part of the body I hit on the enemy.

Truly a useful skill.

I still wasn’t satisfied with the number of my Ice skills. So I continued to try things.

Now that I had the hang of it, I could try to make simpler skills like Ice Spear.

Long range combat is what I am trying to master for now. Which means more magic for me.

Projectiles are needed, so I started with creating swords, arrows, axes and even chains.

15 days passed until I could do them flawlessly.

I had to give attention to every detail of the weapons I made. I got skill cards like [ Ice Sword ] [ Ice Axe ] [ Ice Chains ] [ Ice Arrow ].

But there was one thing I was more surprised about.

The [ Ice Crow Magic ] Skill leveled up a lot. Going from Level 1 to Level 4. Now my control over the Ice Is much clearer. Before I could levitate my Ice forward and backwards. But now I could move the Ice like I was using Telekinesis, although it was only a certain area around me. I felt much more free when I controlled it.

I looked at the skill cards I have and was surprised. They were fusible?

[ Ice Sword ] [ Ice Axe ] [ Ice Chains ] [ Ice Arrow ]. These skill cards were all fusible. They are made from the same skill [ Ice Crow Magic ]. But I couldn’t see what skill they will become when are fused ? Ice weapons? I guessed the first thing that came to mind.

If the product of these skills isn’t very good, all the progress I made to get them as skills will begone to nothing.

Of course I can still use them, but I would have to do it manually every single time. Something that isn’t very good in combat. The mages do it all the time, but if they had the ability to get them as skills they would all give up all of their current levels without a second thought.

Such is the wonder of a skill. Something that you can do every time successfully, no mana leakage, no need for chants, only a though and it will happen.

Miraculous.

I still can’t believe there exists a ring that can make me have unlimited skills and yet has even more functions.

Truly the biggest cheat ever. I found this ring when I was exploring parts of the amazon, in a ruined temple that was hidden underground.

There I found a machine that can camouflage a certain area. It was deactivated of course. Otherwise I wouldn’t have found it.

The ring was on the ground near it, it didn’t have any precious materials, no hidden functions. I had researched it back then. But I found nothing special about it.

Yet here, it’s the biggest helper.

I guess It needed a change of worlds to shine.

Just like me…