Kai is currently storing his items into the pendant and making sure that the whole to the cave was hidden and only for him to see. Reo added a spell inside that would alert Kai if anyone opened the door and would show the faces of the people in the doorway.

"I guess it's time to train my magic power."

Kai was stretching outside the cave and was looking back at the cave.

"So many memories happened in this shoddy place..."

"Though it's only roughly been a year and two months."

"Nn. That means it took me a year and two months before I started training in magic."

"Hahaha."

Reo gave a dry laugh and began to head further into the forest.

"The best place to train your magic in a forest is near a waterfall!"

Kai and Reo were walking towards the lake that Kai used for necessities and followed the line.

"We should be able to find a river if we follow along the shore and then in the mountains."

They travelled for an entire week, they stopped each night as Reo taught Kai about magic and spirit magic.

Once they found a river, they increased their pace and finally found a waterfall at the end.

"That's it!"

"It is!"

Kai excitedly walked up to the end of the river and turned his back to Reo; which could be considered his biggest mistake yet.

"Oops."

"Eh?"

Kai was suddenly pushed from behind and was heading straight for the bottom of the waterfall.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"

He screamed as he plummeted down with a huge splash.

After a few seconds, Kai's body floated up the water and drifted to land.

"Kai, wake uppp!"

Reo used magic to press down on Kai's chest which made water burst out of his mouth.

"Ptoo ptoo! Reo I'll kill you!"

Kai aimed his index finger.

"[Dark Railgun]!"

The beam of dark light merely passed through Reo.

"Dammit! I swear one day I'll spank your ass!"

"I'm just a head though. Anyway, let's immediately begin training."

Reo vanished and appeared near the flowing waterfall.

"Kai, first of all; you have to master patience and control. Your goal about magic isn't to get stronger, it's to prevent yourself from going out of control again."

"Nn. I know."

Kai nodded firmly.

"Then, go under the waterfall and sit cross-legged there for half a day."

"Hah?"

 Kai paused for a bit then made a confused noise.

I mean I expected some more difficult stuff... That seems pretty easy.

Kai shrugged his shoulders and walked under the waterfall. He took off his shirt and put both his hands together.

"Now, channel the magic of the surroundings into your body. Mold the power of nature into one."

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"Nn!"

Kai nodded and started to gather magic from the surroundings.

"Good, stay like that for half a day. Afterwards, you'll eat and we'll do the second part of training."

Kai who was under the waterfall didn't feel any sort of pressure. He was someone who could adapt to twenty times the gravity with [Body Enhancement], how would he be defeated by a mere waterfall?

Twelve hours passed without any incidents and Kai stood up and hunted for food.

An hour later, Kai had eaten and went to find Reo who would give him his second part of training.

"Reo."

Kai walked up behind Reo who was looking at some papers on a stump.

"What are those?"

"Some notes. Even if I have a great memory, I still tend to forget a lot of stuff."

"I see. Anyway, what's the second part of my training?"

Reo grinned and made a hand of darkness and pointed it on Kai's heart.

"We're going to unseal the ice element and let you harvest its power."

"Eh? But it was out of control back then..."

"That was then, this is now. You're many times stronger than before, you would knock your former self out with a mere flick."

"That is true."

"Now, let's go back to the waterfall and unleash it."

Kai and Reo moved towards the waterfall and Kai sat down under it once more.

"Now, it's time!"

Reo vanished into smoke and went into Kai's body.

Kai let him do what he wanted and just continued to concentrate on the changes occuring in his body.

After a few minutes, Kai heard something shatter. Another few minutes passed as he heard something shatter once more. This continued for an entire hour and consecutive shattering sounds resounded in his body.

The final shattering sound was louder than the rest. After the final sound resounded, his body began turning cold and the surrounding water became colder and colder.

"I-it's happening again..."

Kai tried restraining the ice attribute but it kept becoming stronger and stronger as the waterfall became ice slowly. The rock that Kai was sitting on had also turned into ice and his body was slowly being covered.

"Dammit! The same thing is happening!"

"Kai! Don't be afraid!"

Kai suddenly opened his eyes and looked at his surroundings, the entire waterfall was encased in ice. Any water that fell from the river froze and shattered as they hit the waterfall made of ice.

"It's beautiful..."

Kai said as he looked at the surroundings, his heart calmed down and the ice slowly began cracking.

When he thought about the ice attribute, Mio's face came to his mind. The way she used her power of ice and the way she trusted the power. He remembered the way she used her power and raised his hand, the hand had cyan light as his eyes also turned cyan. His hand had snowflakes and chilling blue wrapped around it but strangely, he didn't feel cold at all.

"So this is the power of ice."

"I had finally figured out why the power of ice was in turmoil."

Reo went outside of Kai's body and began talking.

"You fear the cold. I have no idea why but you don't like the feeling that your body would turn cold; you reject it. What could the reason for that be?"

Reo questioned Kai but was actually questioning himself.

"I fear the cold?"

Kai asked as he stared blankly at Reo.

Ah, now I remember why I fear the cold.

Kai's eyes widened and ice began spreading once more.

"Kai, what's wrong!?"

Kai was shivering in the ice and passed out with his eyes wide open.

Reo took him out of the ice and near the fire. Kai's eyes slowly began to close as he fell asleep.

Kai opened his eyes and was met with the sight of his hand latching on a leg. There was a woman on the other side of the room; injured. There were five people beating Kai up with weapons and spat on him multiple times. Each time they pummeled Kai and his hand fell, he would latch back.

The woman on the other side of the room had her hands covering her mouth and tears were streaming out of her eyes.

"...Run..."

Kai's hoarse voice told the woman as he was gazing into her eyes.

The woman didn't hear him and continued to cry as she looked at him.

"...Run...!"

Kai's voice was even hoarser and he spat out blood. He began crawling towards the woman.

"...Run...!"

Kai was yelling with all his might but the words wouldn't go louder than a whisper.

Laughter could be heard from his surroundings as they stopped beating his body. When he raised his arm to reach out to the woman, he suddenly felt a sharp pain on his back and through his chest.

Kai spat out blood but this time, in large amounts on the woman's shoes.

"...Run...!"

Kai let out his final warning before his vision faded.

Kai suddenly stood up from his sleep and realized he was sweating all over, his breathing was ragged, and he was shaking.

"Kai! What happened!?"

Reo appeared in his field of vision and had a worried face.

Kai was still shaking as he faced Reo.

"...Reo..."

Kai weakly let out his words.

"I'm right here! What's wrong?!"

Reo went near and grabbed Kai's hand with an illusory hand.

Tears began falling from Kai's eyes as he desperately tried to wipe them off.

"...Why am I crying?"

"Kai..."

Reo stopped talking and just watched Kai worriedly.

Kai clenched at his chest and wiped his tears with his other hand.

"...I'm fine... Just, give me... some time..."

Kai weakly let out those words between double breaths and stopped talking.

It was only after a few minutes did Kai's sobbing stop and his breathing went back to normal once more.

Reo watched Kai in silence.

"Was it a nightmare?"

"...Yes."

"Is it related to the fact that you fear the cold?"

"..."

Kai didn't talk and it was like giving silent affirmation.

"Do you want to stop learning about ice?"

"..."

Kai shook his head weakly.

"Then, learn to conquer your fear of the cold and make a new you. I won't try and dig deeper into your nightmare because it feels like a scene of your past. But if you stay like this forever, you'll always be weak."

"..."

Kai was silent and clenched his fists.

"Alright, I'll do it. I'll become strong. I won't back down now that I've made it this far."

Kai slapped himself in the face with both his hands and made an oath.

On that day, unbeknownst to anyone; a countdown started that signified one of the greatest tragedies to ever happen on the continent in over a hundred years.