“How the fuck can water get this cold? My little Raufy is shriveling up here!”

Owen didn’t pay attention to Rauf’s vulgar statement. Although he did end up thinking that Rauf should start to act his age according to his appearance. How many poor children would cry upon trying to befriend him? This was a matter for another time though as Owen was trying to comprehend how the cold ripple was affecting his Essence shield.

As the ripple collided with the shield he noticed a few things. One was that regardless the lake’s temperature was falling. At this point it was already below freezing point and if it wasn’t for the massive amount of water in this lake it would more than likely freeze instantly. The point was the Essence was only contained in the actual single ripple itself. Although Owen could still feel the fluctuations of the water underneath, only the original ripple contained any Ice Essence. The last thing was that this ripple was not actually very strong, but that was only assuming that the ripple’s size didn’t affect the amount of Essence contained within. If it came to the point where a bigger wave would hit then naturally the amount of Essence it brings with it would increase as well.

None of these were major problems at the moment. It wasn’t just him that thought so as none of the Pathwalkers were affected by the ice Essence. No ice fragments appeared on their bodies because they were already protecting their bodies with a shield. But that didn’t last long as another person felt that it was necessary to gain advantage after learning the secret, and the moment he crossed the 20 meter range from the lake shore the ice pillar started to gather Essence again.

Owen watched at the dark blue Essence started to flood into the lake and ripple outwards. This ripple wasn’t much bigger, but it was still definitely stronger than the previous one. Owen came to the conclusion that from now on a ripple would appear every time someone crossed 10 meters. As Owen wanted to gain more information and others weren’t going to move if Owen didn’t they all stood there watching what would happen to the next guinea pig. The ripple landed on the man, and at first it seemed nothing happened but suddenly the man started screaming for what looked like no reason at all.

“Aaah!”

As the man screamed he dived into the water disappearing from the sight of everyone, except from Owen’s vision. Although the water wasn’t murky it was still hard to see from their angles. But for Owen he was able to see the different types of Essence, and he could see that on the man’s legs were frozen stiff to the floor. It wasn’t a large change, but it was definitely surprising. The ice fragments were much larger than the first man and were growing exceptionally fast.

Even though that man had ice fragments appear he was able to retreat backwards. Even though some were reluctant to already continue, Owen couldn’t stop here and moved forward. This time after reaching the 20 meter mark no one stopped and they all reached the 30 meter mark. Preparing themselves from the next ripple that was visible on the water's surface. They prepared themselves as ripple smashed into their shields. All of the Pathwalkers looked fine until a woman near Owen who had entered before him screamed in pain. She then immediately retreated after ripped off the ice fragments that left her skin red.

“This isn’t good.”

Rauf spoke up before Owen had finished watching. Owen frowned at this and nodded his head. Rauf himself knew that Owen had secrets, that was the same for him, naturally they both knew what it meant to continue moving forward meant.

“So the first person receives the most Ice Essence.”

Owen calmly spoke after piecing all the information. This was what Rauf’s conclusion was as well. Although it might be too early to say, after seeing that the first wave was incredibly weak but still strong enough to affect that man, and now the other man was starting to freeze as well even while protecting himself. Furthermore the problem was that the power was exceptionally larger than the 10 and 20 meter one. Although it would still increase there should be no reason it increased this much.

“So, should we rock paper scissors who goes first? Naturally you have to pick rock because you threw rock last time. Ha…. get it? Cause you have a rock…. Okay fine don’t laugh jeez you’re too calm even in this situation.”

Rauf threw his head away in disappointment, folding his arms when he noticed that Owen only cracked a smile at his words. It was a serious moment but because it was serious Rauf needed some way to calm himself down. He wasn’t like Owen who was calm regardless of the situation. However Rauf didn’t expect that Owen would agree with his idea as Owen then yelled out.

“If everyone hasn’t noticed already. The first person to reach the next 10 meter mark will be hit by the strongest amount of Essence in the ripple.”

The Pathwalkers started to whisper among themselves when they heard this. Although they didn’t figure out what Rauf and Owen had found out, they knew that at this moment Owen was telling them because he had some sort of idea. With this Owen faced forward.

“So why not take the chance and run at the same time and hope that we aren’t the ones who entered first?