Chapter 6: Magic-III
It had been about a month since Solid started classes with Amanda Lugner. Every day he would come to the training ground at five in the morning and every day he would be late. So why did he not come earlier if he was always late? He couldn't.
One time he had arrived at 3 am but the entire field was covered in a giant dome of ice that only disappeared after 5 am. Now how was that fair? "You should have broken the ice." She said. How was he even supposed to do that? He couldn't be late either because, for every fifteen minutes later than 5 am, one more lap would be added to the total count. He had spent an entire day running once.
The classes didn't even have a specified schedule. Some days it would last for only two hours while some days it would last the entire day. His training mostly consisted of freezing rocks and shaping ice without a Grimoire. In the one month that he had been training, he hadn't opened his grimoire.
Solid grabbed the fist-sized rock. Taking a deep breath he began to channel his mana inside the stone. He had done this countless times each time getting closer and closer to the centre. Layer by layer, his mana penetrated the stone until they couldn't anymore. 'Tch' Solid clicked his tongue. He had failed again. Amanda sat nearby and observed him.
Shaping the ice was easy, It came naturally to him but using it to freeze the rock felt impossible. He would lose control over the mana as it reached the core. But he was getting closer. His control over his mana had increased exponentially. And with each attempt, he was getting closer and closer to the core.
Solid took the piece of rock. He once channelled his mana through it. The outer layers froze immediately and a small layer of frost appeared on the rock. Pushing your mana through a solid layer required a lot of mana, especially for the rock that Amanda had given him.
'Just a little bit more.' Solid felt beads of sweat falling from his face but that did not break his focus. Controlling one's mana through stones, especially magic-resistant stones that Amanda gave him required precise control over one's mana.
And finally, after a month of trying and failing to do the same thing, the rock had completely frozen, every layer of it. Sure it wasn't perfect and it took a lot of time but Solid had done it. He looked expectantly at his tutor who was still sitting at her spot, expecting some kind of praise or acknowledgement.
"That confirms my hypothesis," Amanda said.
"Your hypothesis?"
"What you just did," Amanda pointed at the completely frozen rock, "Is something that even most senior magical knights struggle with,"
"Huh? But didn't you say that it's the most basic form of ice magic and that any ice mage could easily do it?" Solid said confused. All this time he had thought that his affinity with ice magic was bad but now she was telling him that it's actually pretty good?
"Meh, I lied," Amanda said matter-of-factly.
'You lied? This bitch. Do you know how many sleepless nights I had worrying about if I just sucked with magic.' was what Solid wanted to say but he wisely kept his mouth shut.
"That's not important." Amanda said as she pointed her finger at him, "Your mana is unstable."
"Unstable? What do you mean?" He asked, trying to feel his mana. It felt perfectly fine.
"You said that your mana changed after a fever correct?" She asked standing up from her position and moving towards me. "That your mana changed from water to ice?"
"Yes. I woke after a fever and my mana had changed from water to ice." Solid said, forming an ice block in his hand.
"Your mana hasn't completed transforming yet. It's still impure."
"So… what should I do?" He asked.
"I don't know." She said, "It's not every day I see someone's whole mana change. I will try to find something…"
…
Solid felt the cold air against his face as he rode a wyvern made of ice. Looking down all he could see was never-ending white. Located on the western border of the Clover Kingdom, there was the Kalps Range, one of the many Grand Magic Zones between the Clover Kingdom and the Spade Kingdom. It was considered a stable by the standards of Grand Magic Zones but that didn't make it safe.
The ice wyvern made landfall at the foot of the range. "We're here," Amanda said as the wyvern disappeared. She straightened her purple fur coat where the insignia of the Purple Orcas was embroidered on the right side. A nostalgic smile appeared on her face as she took in the cold chilly air. "It's been a while since I have been to this place."
Solid looked at the site in front of him. An unending field of white. As he stood in front of the towering mountains, he was reminded of the Himalayas, the place where he lost his life in the previous world. It was unnerving, how similar this place was to the Himalayas. The only difference was that this place wasn't completely devoid of vegetation. To his left he could see a forest of what looked like tall pine trees. This was the place that he would be living in for the next four months.
"Come with me." His tutor said as both of them walked to the forest. Tall pine trees that stood more than fifteen metres tall made up the bulk of the forest, but there were also multiple smaller trees with leaves shaped like stars.
"This," Amanda said pointing at the tall pine tree, "Is a Halnip." She raised her index finger and a layer of ice formed around it. She used it to slash a short but deep hole in the trunk. After a few seconds, a viscous orange-yellow fluid poured out of the hole. She took a little bit of the sap in a spoon made of ice. "Eat it."
Solid grabbed the spoon filled with the honey-like liquid. 'It doesn't smell bad.' Solid took a sip. He could feel the coarse thick liquid flowing through his throat. It tasted sweet salty and somewhat spicy.
It left a small burning sensation in the back of his throat.
"It has a unique flavour that you can use to season food. It can also be fermented to make beer. And it's a damn good beer." Over the last month that he had known her, she had become more and more expressive completely different from the cold stoic old woman that he thought of her as.
"Oh, and it's also toxic so never eat more than a spoonful a day, or you'll regret it." Her voice got dark while she said it, Solid could see that they were associated with a bad memory.
They continued their walk where Amanda showed Solid the edible things around the forest. Some mushrooms, berries and leaves around the forest. After a while of walking, they reached a clearing. Inside the clearing, there was a small wooden cottage.
"Ah, Haven't been to this place in a while," Amanda smiled. "This place hasn't changed a bit."
"All right," Amanda said looking at me with a smirk. "Let's start the actual training shall we?"
…
Solid looked at the giant bear in front of him. The creature was standing two metres tall with snow-white fur stained with blood. 'All right.' Solid cracked his knuckles. "Come at me bitch"
Solid taunted the bear that clearly couldn't understand it. Though Solid's smirk seemed to tick the bear off. The bear roared. Its fangs were longer than his fingers but that didn't matter to him. This wasn't the first time that he had fought a bear.
The bear lunged towards him. The ground was shocked with each step as a cloud of snow was left in its wake. This was probably the largest bear he had ever fought. But through his spars with his master, he had learnt one thing… 'Size didn't matter.' She was a foot shorter than him but in every fight they had ever fought Solid had lost. She was a magic knight captain after all.
Solid felt a layer of mana coating him. 'Mana skin' is an ability that allows the user to create a barrier of magic around them. It was mostly used defensively but it also strengthened the physical abilities of a user. In the four months that he had been here, he had mastered the technique. Well 'mastered' is a strong word.
Solid dodged the bear's initial lunge. The bear quickly turned around for a follow-up attack but before it could, Solid's palm connected squarely to its chest. All his time freezing stones hadn't been a waste. Solid's grimoire fluttered open.
Before the bear could even react, a spike of ice emerged from the bear's back. If one looked closely enough they could see a heart inside the ice spike completely intact.
The giant bear's body slumped down. "Well, that was anti-climactic." Solid sighed looking at the fallen bear. "At least, this one will make for a better fur coat."
Solid loaded the fallen bear into his icy bald eagle as they flew back to the cabin. After a short while, he reached the small cabin in the clearing in the woods. It looked the same as it did when he first saw it. The only difference was that the lights were on and Master Amanda was sitting on a chair drinking something warm.
He brought the bear to a table and formed an ice knife. He started skinning the bear. "It seems the hunt went well." Master Amanda said, looking at the huge bear. She walked closer. "Such great fur as well. You have brought this as a gift to your master haven't you?"
"There's enough for the both of us, Stop getting greedy." He said with a scoff. It didn't take him long to skin the bear, especially with her help. "Go prepare the bear, I'll prepare the coat." Without an answer she took the fur and left to enter the cabin.
"I swear if you use all the fur for *your* carpets *again*, I will.."
"I get it, I get it… Youths these days, no trust in their elders."
'You are the last elder I am going to put my trust in.' But before he could voice his thoughts, Amanda had already left.
Solid sighed as he began gutting the bear. A week till the four months ended. He had learnt much over the last four months. He learnt mana skin and could perform a rudimentary level mana zone. He also learnt various life skills like hunting and gathering. His mana had also stabilised a lot. It was still not complete but it was close.
The whole reason for the four month time limit was the entrance exam. As a royal, he was exempt from the exams but he had to be there for the last day anyway so he decided to just take part.
For two reasons, One, Amanda had challenged him. If he won the best candidate award in the entrance exam she would teach him a 'really cool spell.' It was probably going to be twisted into something else but he didn't care much for it as long as he learnt a new useful spell.
Solid had a bit of a reputation problem or rather his lack of reputation was the problem. He wasn't considered trash, but he wasn't considered a genius either. He was considered just average. And in the world of nobles where reputation mattered more than anything, being considered just average would hamper his plans. So he wanted to show that he was worth shit.
It was because of his plans that he had to show off, definitely not because both he in his previous world and Solid liked showing off.
He could understand why people in his situation often hid their strength. Especially in his situation where nigh omniscient beings existed.
But he wasn't about that life.
The simple reason behind this was if they could see the future then they would already know of his existence. And if they didn't, then the future they saw has already deviated from all the things he has already done. The Solid in the timeline definitely didn't go train in a Grand Magic Zone for four months. So hiding from them was simply pointless.
Maybe he was stupid but he wasn't someone who could pretend to be weak. He hated that.
In the course of the fourth month, he had also finally gotten the answer to the question of why he was doing all this. The answer was pretty simple now that he thought about it but also kind of boring.
He just wanted to get stronger.
Not just to protect himself. Not just to have a safe future. The ambition that had been extinguished after years and years of living in New York had reignited again.
He just wanted to get stronger and for him, It was reason enough.
Or maybe he was just a masochist.
"Stop with that grin on your face." He heard a voice from behind him. Amanda came back with a fur coat. It was different from the one he was currently wearing. It was much more better designed and looked very comfortable.
He took off his current coat, a coat made out of the hide of a moose-like creature, revealing his toned and muscular body. He had completely outgrown the clothes he originally came with. Turns out that eating a diet of exclusively bear and deer meat and training like hell was very good for building muscle, who would've guessed?
He still wasn't as muscular as someone like Asta, a limit of his genetics, but he was still very jacked. Combined with his height and his signature Silva face and hair. He looked like a supermodel.
Solid formed an ice mirror in front of him as he observed his body. It had multiple smaller scars from all the hunts that he had gone through.
"Quite humble, aren't we?" Amanda said.
"Aren't I charming?" Solid winked his eyes looking at the old woman before him, getting an eye roll in response. "My grandson is ten years older than you." She said.
Solid simply chuckled at the response and he once again looked at the small cabin that had been his home for the last four months which was the majority of his time in this world.
Tomorrow he would leave this place. Who knew when he would come to this place again? "It's amazing, isn't it?" He said looking at his master.
"It is." Amanda replied.
"When I was about your age." Amanda said, "I ran away from home, I didn't want to be forced into a marriage, I didn't want to be some livestock that they could sell to whatever man they wanted."
"So I ran. I ran to this place. I created this place by my own hands. Every single piece of wood and every single rock, I built it. I lived in this place. I learned to hunt, I learned to fight, I learned to cook, I learned to make clothes, All by trial and error. Saying that out loud, I am surprised I didn't die."
"But this place was my home. This place will always be my home." Amanda said a nostalgic smile appeared in her face, "Even now, after everything I have done in this world. This place will be my proudest accomplishment."
Both of them sat in silence for a while simply enjoying the view of the mountains and the cabin.
"Solid," Amanda said, looking straight into Solid's eyes. "I have a request."
"A request?" Solid asked surprised, he had never heard her voice so sombre before.
"After I die," Amanda said, looking at the small cabin by the mountains. "I want you to bury me in this place."
Solid was silent for a moment, trying to read her face. It was unreadable like always... After a moment of silence, he said in a dismissive tone "No. Get someone else to do it."
"Ha… ha.. hahahaha" For the first time in all the months that he had known her, he heard her laugh.
"Sure… I will find someone else." She said smiling. "Now go make that bear, I am hungry."
Solid sighed as he went back to his job of cooking the bear.
~X~
Solid: In his winter arc.
Amanda: Maybe if he was five decades older…
Unnamed bear: Turned into drip
…
A/N:
Couldn't post a chapter yesterday. Sorry.
Also I don't have much to say this time…
Well, have a nice day.
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Ferzd
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