BXBX NOVEL Chapter 417
Ester noticed the ice being held by Vincent was melting quickly. She knew Vincent had to keep holding the ice lance to absorb mana. Suddenly, an idea sparked in her mind, and she decided to use her Frost Sigils to slow the melting process.
When Ester touched the ice and controlled the output of coldness her Frost Sigils provided, the ice began to melt slower than before.
“Vincent, it works. ” Ester said with a smile.
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[The Host refined and assimilated 1 mana. Mana stat is now 53.]
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The notification window finally appeared. One mana was assimilated into his body with Ester’s support to keep the ice from melting too quickly.
This discovery made Kazumi remember how Sigil Mages find it challenging to learn the last of the four elements because the opposing element would be the last they could learn with great difficulties.
.....
On the other hand, the same could be said about mages since they can only use one element until they reach the final levels of the mage class line.
Everyone is born with an affinity to a particular element. Kazumi began to suspect that Vincent was born with fire affinity or gained fire affinity because of Overheat boiling his mutated blood.
After thinking about it, Kazumi remembered how Melissa’s Fire Ball was assimilated the quickest out of anything Vincent touched. Thus, assimilating a fire spell was the fastest, and an ice spell was the slowest.
Vincent stepped to the side and requested, “Ester, please, don’t do it again. You helped me, but you also scared the living lights out of me. One mistake, and you could’ve...”
“I trust you completely, Vincent. ” Ester said again with a smile on her face. After living through so many life-threatening events, Ester felt the safest with Vincent, even if they had no chance to survive.
Unbeknown to Kazumi, as her attention was fixed entirely on the living world, Freerie’s egg slightly shook once, and Wolfie’s egg shook later.
*Sigh* “Let me catch the icicle of the Ice Lance spell next time by myself. You can help me absorb it afterward.” Vincent requested after the hard-headed Ester didn’t mind experiencing danger if it was for Vincent.
Vincent looked at Maria and continued, “More power next time.”
“No, but how about I control the ice and make it slightly more difficult instead? It will be safer because I could control the movement of the ice.” Maria suggested an alternative to shooting deadly ice lances at Vincent nonstop.
[Hmm, this might be a better plan.]
[Vincent, I highly suggest you accept because, based on my calculations, Ice Manipulation causes the ice spells to become connected with Maria’s mana flow.]
[That is how Ice Manipulation allows mages to control ice to a certain degree. Do you catch my drift? Hehehe.]
-So, I can absorb Maria’s mana without touching her then?-
[Yep, so let’s begin sucking her up.]
*Clang* Vincent clapped his hands and opened his arms to catch the ice lance like a goalkeeper.
Ester understood they were about to continue, so she prepared herself to begin lowering the temperature again.
“Mana gather and mercilessly freeze, Ice Lance. ” Maria quickly shot a one-meter-long icicle at Vincent. He caught it alone while being pushed back only one-meter distance this time.
However, Vincent soon noticed what it meant for a spell to be connected to a mage. Maria was applying her mana to control the ice lance in his hands to keep moving forward.
“Vincent, I will help!” Ester grabbed the icicle and began lowering the rising temperature of the hot gauntlets. However, Ester soon noticed how the ice was melting slower this time. As if there was someone else lowering the temperature of the ice.
Vincent clenched his teeth and used all his strength to fight against the icicle in his hands from knocking him back. He glanced at Maria and saw her frowning as if she was giving her all. At a second glance, Maria looked like she was struggling.
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[The Host refined and assimilated 1 mana. Mana stat is now 54.]
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A mana increase notification appeared, yet the icicle in Vincent’s hands melted by about twenty percent. It meant Vincent could actually directly absorb a mage’s mana which is using a skill such as Ice Manipulation.
A smile appeared on Vincent’s face as he multi-tasked, keeping his body stuck to the ground and using Overflow to absorb the mana in his gauntlets. Additionally, while hopefully assimilating a little refined mana into his body to increase his mana pool.
Two lights flashed nearby, and two people appeared. Clair was blushing and moving quickly to get away from the frowning and sad-looking Nick.
“Is there a fight?” Clair shortly noticed what was in front of her.
Pussy noticed her master had arrived. She yawned and stretched like a cat. Then she jumped from the roof while making the ground look like it was a cushion. Afterward, she went to Clair while curiously wagging her tail.
“Vivid, why is teacher Maria attacking Vincent?” Nick asked.
Vivid approached from behind a tree. He came from the same direction he and Lupa spar every day. It was highly likely he was cleaning up after Lupa had other things to do, such as collecting small stones.
*Purr* “Meh. Boring training. It is so borning that I was about to sleep when master arrived.” Pussy casually said. She saw Clair looking a little bit anxious and slyly asked, “Master, did you have fun without me?”
“N-no!” Clair responded immediately. She peeked at Nick and rushed to her room.
Pussy looked at Nick and asked with a curious expression, “So. What happened between the two of you? Did you touch my master?” *Purr* “Inappropriately? Hehe.”
“It can’t be! My master isn’t that kind of man...” Vivid looked at Nick and continued, “Right, master?”
Nick looked down at the ground with a devastated expression and explained, “I walked a few meters behind Clair while going to the mailroom because I know she is wary of me. After I finished sending my letter, I didn’t see Clair anymore. I decided to look around the academy before coming here as a change of pace.”
“However, after turning around the corner, I bumped into Clair.” *Sigh* Nick shook his head and continued, “In front of Clair were three female classmates. I don’t know why they were there... but after bumping into Clair and screaming after seeing me so close, those three classmates accused me of touching Clair with a loud voice. The situation became worse, and I couldn’t explain myself...”
“Pussy, could you please tell Clair that it was an accident? Tell her I will never harm her.” Nick requested.
The girl Nick liked hated him. Watching Vincent and Ester train with Maria wasn’t important nor special compared to his broken heart.
Vivid and Pussy looked at each other. Both sighed and went to their respective master for emotional support.
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[The Host refined and assimilated 1 mana. Mana stat is now 56.]
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As the eighth minute passed, Kazumi notified Vincent to stop. He quickly told Maria that time was up, and she stopped using Ice Manipulation.
Vincent held the now one-foot-long icicle as he couldn’t store it. Because the ice had Maria’s mana still inside, Soul Dimensional Storage considered the ice as being used by Maria, similar to how Vincent couldn’t store equipment being held.
“Let’s make it a bit colder. ” Vincent said. He held the ice with a firm grip and continued, “Shatter.”
Just as the ice began to crack, Vincent threw the ice in the air, and it exploded into tiny fragments of ice. The temperature momentarily cooled after a brief hail of tiny fragments of ice fell on them.
Maria didn’t look too keen on going for another round, so they decided to spend some time meditating for a while. Later, Maria left, but before leaving, she asked if tomorrow’s training was going to be the same as today. Her sighs were about to cause a storm after hearing yes.
It had gotten dark. Vincent ate with his wives and Plow. Later, he went to feed the hungry Zero and sat near it.
Vincent looked at the nature in front of him while patting the satisfied Zero’s head and said, “I guess we need to experience and study Ice Lance many more times before trying to create an offensive ice spell.”
[Yes. I am still studying the mana following Maria’s command. It is going to take more time because I have found a problem with my Photographic Memory skill.]
“Problem?” Vincent became surprised to hear how there was a problem regarding such an overpowered skill. He hoped what Kazumi was about to say next wasn’t going to thwart his plans to have Kazumi expedite the process of creating a spell.
[Photographic Memory and Mana Sense conflict with each other... that means I can only study Ice Lance as it is being cast.]
‘Kazumi sounds heartbroken. I better change the subject quick.’ Vincent thought while standing up. He gently patted Zero’s head and headed to his bedroom. “Cheer up, Kazumi. We have four more months to go. I know that together we can do it. Now, let’s go call it a day.”
[Yeah... I guess so...]
Vincent was tried, and Kazumi was dispirited. They didn’t notice a mysterious gaze looking at them while walking to the front door.