Chapter 16

He stood on a frozen lake. In the north from him was a mountain range with lots of high mountains. At this place it must be early morning, the sun was just rising. The ice was shining in the sun and it was cold. Naida were so kind to dry his clothes so he wouldn’t freeze to death instantly. He saw his breath in the air and started to shiver. When he turned around to look at Celia, he saw that she was quite happy to be surrounded by water even though it was frozen.

While he was shivering, he saw that Naida took a white crystal out. The crystal was probably out of ice. Naida turned her head towards the mountains and said: “Behind these mountains is a small hut. Walk to that hut place the crystal in front of the hut. And then wait until the door opens and then you will receive the blessing of the ice spirits. With the blessing you should be able to return. Here is the crystal. Don’t stop until you have arrived.” She gave him the crystal and disappeared. He and Celia looked at each other and then started to walk into that direction.

It was cold. That was all he could think about. The snow was crunching under his feet and the wind brought a cold breeze and snow. When the sun was high up in the sky, he arrived at the borders of the mountains. With blue fingers and shivering hands, did he start to climb the mountains. When he reached a mountain pass and made a break to catch his breath, Celia approached him. She hugged him tightly and he felt how her body started to warm him up. Even tough Celia was not a human she had a human like body temperature. They hugged each other for around an hour before they continued their arduous journey. The sun went down when they finally saw the little hut. From this point on, did Ragen run. He wanted to feel the warmth of the hut. When he stood in front of the door, he placed the crystal in the front and knocked twice. Celia stepped to the site and was curious what would happen now. After a short while he heard heavy steps and an old man opened the door. He had a long grey beard. His eyes were grey like steel and he wore a white robe. He looked at Ragen and then asked: “What is fragile but falls from the sky? It has all kinds of shape but its always the same. What is it?”

Ragen knew this was a quiz that he had to solve. So, he started to think. It falls from the sky? The only things that falls from the sky is rain? No wait, there is another thing. A snowflake! He replied: “It’s a snowflake.” The man looked at him and nodded. “Good young one. You have proven yourself. Take this scroll and read it. Then give your spirit this potion. That will be all.” The man gave him a scroll and the potion and then closed the door. He turned around and started to read the scroll. When was at the beginning of reading, he suddenly stood above the clouds? He was quite shocked to that sudden change. A voice spoke to him: “Calm down young one. It’s me the old man from before. I will now tell you some things through this scroll. That you see this vision means just, that you are worthy to learn ice magic.” Ragen calmed down and then looked at the scene which was unfolding in front of him. “Ice was at the beginning” said the voice and he saw giant asteroids out of ice flying towards a planet. The scene changed again, and he saw the planet coming nearer. “Ice gave life to this world, but it also took life.” The scene changed again. A white wall came from the north to the south. It destroyed everything on its way. Mountains, forests and entire continents. “Ice means calmness and eternity.” He saw an arctic landscape where months and years passed by. Nothing happened in this landscape. There was just ice and snow everywhere. “But ice and snow can also come and go in a short time.” He saw a landscape in the middle of the winter. There was a forest and plains which were totally under a layer of snow and ice. But suddenly the sun appeared, and he saw how the snow melted and the ice disappeared like they never were here before. “Now you know what ice is and what it can do. What you choose to do with this knowledge is up to you.” With those words he came back to the world and Celia. Before he noticed anything, he saw a message popping up.

Player has acquired [Ice Magic].

She already was shaking him like crazy and he said: “Stop everything’s fine.” She looked at him and observed if anything had changed inside of his eyes. “Master I thought you never would wake up from your trance. I was seriously worried about you.” He smiled at her and then gave her the potion from the old man. “Drink this Celia. It will help you and about the trance its alright now so don’t worry about it.” She was satisfied with his answer but followed his order. She opened the bottle and then drank the potion. He instantly could observe that she entered a trance like him. 5 Minutes passed and he finally saw a change. The iris of her eyes which were a deep blue before became brighter. While he was waiting for her to wake up, he noticed that he didn’t freeze anymore. No, it felt quite pleasant for him to be outside. He knew that it was the effect of the [Ice Magic]. Another two minutes passed, and she finally woke up from her trance. She looked at him and said: “Master I successfully acquired the ice attribute. I can now use both [Ice] and [Water Magic].” He nodded satisfied and said: “We should now head back. I think Naida is waiting for us.” He started walk back and Celia followed him.

On their way back, they just needed half of the time because the coldness couldn’t reach them anymore and he found out that he could now walk over snow, like it was normal earth. Naida waited for them on the lake and greeted them. She said: “Well done disciple of my master. You are alive and from the energy I can feel from you, you mastered the [Ice Magic]. We should head back to my master.” With those words opened another portal door. This time it was a plain brown door. He opened the door and Celia, Naida followed him.

On the other side of the door stood his master waiting for him. Bane looked intensely at him and then started to laugh. “My disciple you have done well. Not only did you master the magic from the elements. No, you also brought a beautiful lady back.” He grinned at his last words. It was a bit embarrassing for Ragen. With a small hint of red in his face Ragen answered: “I have come back master. Can we now continue my training?” Bane noticed the red in his face and his grin widened. He replied: “Before we start you should eat something and have some rest. In 5 hours, you can come back. Then I want to test you. I mean you were 6 months in that space.” Ragen was startled when he heard, that he was 6 months away from home. How could he even survive six months without food and water? Bane saw that his disciple was thinking about his words and so he said: “The time in the world of the spirits flow differently then the time here in our world.” Ragen nodded that was quite logical. So for him it was just around a few days but in this world it was a longer time. “Now go and rest. Eat something and then come back.” Bane turned around and went away. Ragen walked to his bed and sat down. Meanwhile Celia went to the waterfall. Water Spirits didn’t need to sleep so she went to play. Before he could sleep he heard a sound in his head. “Your lordship? Are you there? Can you please answer?” It was the mind communication skill which he had given to his commander. He answered in his head: “Yes I am here Unoreth. What is the matter?” He heard something like a sobbing and then a relived voice answered him: “Oh lord you are back. I thought something happened to you. You never answered when we tried to call you. Where have you been?” Right Bane had told him that six months had passed but he never thought that his underlings would start to worry. He sighed in his mind and replied “I was on a trip in the spirit world. But more importantly why did you call me?” There was a short silence before Unoreth answered. “You should come to us and see for yourself lord. It is a bit difficult to explain it.” He wondered what could have happened. He said: “I will look that I can come soon, but firstly I need to train with my master until then you have to wait. Unoreth seemed happy and said: “No problem. We will wait for your return my lord.” With that he finished the conversation and went to sleep.

When he woke up the first thing, he did was to check his status.

Name: Ragen Lv. 16 Title: None Race: Half-Demon Exp: 1400/8000 VIT: 1160

STR: 1240

WIS: 730

INT: 1320

AGI: 1050

LUC: 10 Skills:

[Archery] (adept)

[Language Translator] (passive)

[Demon eyes] (sealed)

[Shadow Knife] (master)

[Poison Resistance] (novice)

[Demons Wrath]

[Magic Arrow] (fire) (adept)

[Regeneration] (adept)

[Mind Communication]

[Ice Magic] (apprentice)

[Tracking] (apprentice)

[Learning] (adept)

[Domination] (rare) (adept)

[Appraisal]

[Magic Shield Dome] (apprentice)

[Soul Collection] (novice)

[Necromancy] (novice)

[Demon Voice] (sealed)

[Water Magic] (apprentice)

He had levelled up and that twice! Also, the two elemental magic were now shown in the screen and his intelligence increased remarkably. It was perhaps due to the visions and his new spirit which he had summoned.

When he stepped into the open and headed to the waterfall where his master mostly meditated, he saw how Celia followed him. She greeted him and then want ahead to his master. His master still in the meditating position greeted him and then got up. He looked at Celia and then at him. “My disciple. The first thing I must teach you is: how to summon and send your spirit back. You can’t let her run all day in our world. She will become weaker with the time flowing. You need to give her a rest in the spirit world. So, look closely.” His master told him that he had to think about her and then she would be summoned. The returning worked the same.

Every time you summon an elemental spirit it will need some of its own element to appear. While you have just to think about her she will appear but in returning she will need some elements of this world. Its like a shell for them. The element is their linking to this world. With that they can hold onto this world.” Ragen nodded he thought something like this was the condition for the summon. His master looked at Celia and then said: “Your element is water. So, it’s quite easy for you to summon her. But be prepared that she could take water from your body to appear. Don’t summon her too much in a short time or you will be dehydrated.” His master went to the nearby river and said: “If you are near some water like this than just summon her as many times as you want. She will always draw water from natural sources instead of her master.” He went back and looked at Celia then he said to Ragen: “Good now you can send her back. I want to train with you.” He followed his master commands and sent her back.

“Now that we are alone, I want to know how far you progressed with your magic. Show me what you are capable of. Attack me first with everything you have and then defend yourself.” Ragen looked at his master and then started. He first shot some water balls at his master which were quite useless against the almighty barrier of Bane. Then he created a 3-meter-high wave from the river wit his magic. When even that failed, he used his magic to turn the water into ice spears and throwed them at Bane. But it was all useless his master stood there like a rock. He looked at the magic and shouted: “You still have much to learn. Now defend yourself I will attack you!” Ragen instantly casted an ice barrier around him and hid himself in a giant waterfall. What he saw next struck him in awe. His master opened his hand and had a green flame in it. He hold the hand in front of his mouth and blow a bit into his direction. The green flame flew like a small leaf into his direction. Around two meters in front of his ice magic barrier it exploded into a green hell. The ice just evaporated in an instant. He felt how the heat came to him. The water around him started to boil and he needed all his magic to cool it down that his water ball didn’t turn into a giant stew with him as an ingredient. When the green fire went out, he fell on his knees. Most of the water ball had evaporated and the rest was hot water. His master went over to him and said: “You still have much to learn. That wasn’t even around 10 % of my power and you nearly died. First rest. I think you have around two weeks from for free time. I have something to do. Until I come back you can do what you want.” He looked up at his master and asked: “Where are you going master?” His master shrugged with his shoulders and then said: “I need to acquire some training material for you. Naida will take my soul to a special place. My body will be here, but I will sleep until I return.” His master wanted to get some training material for him? Whatever, he was pleased that he could have some free time and he now could visit his commander and the village. He told his master about his short plans and his master agreed to them. Then Ragen went back to sleep and rest for a bit.

After some hours of rest, he prepared everything and headed out towards his village and his commander. What possibly could have happened there that Unoreth told him to come?