344 Chapter 344: Thousand-year-old Ice Essence (1/2)
”Are you serious?” I asked disbelievingly.
”I'm never serious,” Ryan replied. When I gave him a look, turned around and began to walk out of the cave, he got flustered. ”All right, all right! Sorry! Of course I didn't mean it literaly. All you need to do is absorb the Thousand-year-old Ice Essence from this frozen pool.”
”Thousand-year-old Ice Essence?” I repeated incredulously. Now that was a term I had never heard of before, apart from a few obscure comics back in the mid-2000s. I wasn't sure if they were the same thing. With all the different stories out there, you would never know. I had a suspicion that I could guess what this one was.
But this was not a cultivation story, so I doubted it would work the same way.
”Hmm, how should I explain this?” Ryan Reynolds rubbed his chin and pondered for a few moments, and then he snapped his fingers. ”Well, to put it simply…this mana has been accumulating in all this ice for a thousand years, and has basically transformed into…well, sentience isn't the right word. A soul of its own? A spirit?”
I scowled at that. Spirits were something I really didn't want to deal with, especially after hearing what they entailed from my dad. Sacrificing someone I love in return for awesome power…what was the point? The whole reason for getting such power in the first place was to protect the ones I loved. Sacrificing them completely defeated the purpose of attaining such enormous power in the first place.
”Don't give me that look. I'm not talking about spirits from another dimension.” Ryan placed his hands on his hips. ”That's why I called it essence. It's almost living, but it's not exactly…sentient, tangible or physical. I don't know how else to describe it.”
”Okay.” I scratched my head. ”Let's say it is fine to absorb this essence. But mana and magic have only been around for 800 years at most. How did this conglomeration of mana manage to accumulate for a thousand years?”
”Ah…” Ryan appeared to grin, but as always, it was hard to tell with his mask on. He jabbed his thumb toward the entrance of the chamber. ”You might want to thank the Frost Dragon for that.”
I raised my eyebrow at that. It was true that the age of monsters were unfathomable, especially the high-ranked ones. Many of them were observed to live unnaturally long lifespans. Dragons, in particular, could live for centuries, if not millennia. Well, those were based on academic assumptions and studies, where scientists used carbon dating and other scientific-magical methods to examine specimens and monster bodies brought back by mercenaries. I was in no position to question the validity of their methods or investigations.
”The Frost Dragon, like all monsters, emanates lots of mana. The excess mana, as you know, bleeds off into the environments and diffuses normally. But in an isolated pocket of space like this cavern, the excessive mana gets trapped in here, with nowhere to go. So the mana ends up accumulating in this pool over here. Or ice. I also suspect that a significant amount of water was actually brought over by the Frost Dragon to this dimension. Meaning, some of the water is actually from another dimension. Don't worry, it should be watered down, though!”
At his words, I glanced at the ice once more. It was huge, about five meters wide and tall, and of a largely blockish shape. The edges, on the other hand, were rounded, so I didn't need to worry about cutting myself on it. Edgelords should learn from its example and stop whining about the lack of deaths or killing, or how I wasn't ruthless enough. Anyway, I could see a shimmering aurora inside the center. That must be the Thousand-year-old Ice Essence.
If there was indeed some water from another dimension mixed into the ice, I honestly couldn't tell the difference. Water was water…on the molecular level, it was made out of two hydrogen atoms bonded to a single oxygen atom. Whether it came from another dimension or was formed here, it didn't matter. Water was water.
Reaching out, I felt a tremendous amount of power emanating from it. A cool, almost comfortable sensation that washed over me, giving me the impression of drifting along the northern seas like…well, an iceberg.
However, as always, I was skeptical that things were this convenient and easy. Absorbing this thing? Getting stronger without needing to pay any price? Since when did something so good exist in reality? This wasn't a cultivation story.
Ryan noted my doubts and nodded.
”You're right. It's not as simple as absorbing it and becoming stronger.”
”So what's the point of absorbing it?”
”Oh, even though I say absorb it, I don't mean you literally suck the whole thing and suddenly get all that amount of mana added to your own existing mana pool. That's ridiculous. If it was so easy, people will go around absorbing mana from everything they can get their hands on. Of course you don't just suck the mana to amplify it.” Ryan jabbed a finger in my chest. ”Use your brain. Remember how you cultivated next to the Holy Spring?”
”DON'T USE THAT WORD!” I bellowed. Ryan actually flinched from that, and he quickly held both of his hands up in a soothing manner.
”Sorry. I mean, remember how you trained next to the Holy Spring? That helped you improve your magic, and gave you poison immunity, right?”
”Yeah.” I nodded, recalling the time when I trained next to the Holy Spring to improve my summoning magic. The coin dropped, and I realized what he meant. ”Oh, so I just need to train next to the Thousand-year-old Ice Essence, and my summoning magic will improve?”
”Not your summoning magic, you dolt!” Ryan smacked me…or tried to, but his ghostly hand went through my head. He threw his hands up and rolled his eyes. As far as he could, behind those white lenses, anyway. ”This is a Thousand-year-old Ice Essence. What kind of magic do you think it will improve?”
”…ice magic. But I only know the most basic of ice magic.” Then I thought for a moment, recalling Cetus. ”I have a few Constellation spirits that are of the ice attribute. I can use the Thousand-year-old Ice Essence to improve them.”
”Yeah, but this is also a chance for you to improve on your elemental spells. Other than your wood magic, all of your other elemental spells are pretty basic. Never mind that, your wood magic was basically ripped off from the Stuart Clan's techniques…”
”I didn't steal the Stuart Clan's wood magic,” I interrupted, annoyed. ”I honestly just read all that from a few books on wood magic, and learned that from Teacher Woodgate's classes at Jing Tian Academy. If you don't believe me, you can ask her.”
”Oh, that's not what I mean.” Ryan slapped his forehead in exasperation. ”But did you never honestly wondered where those books, or where your teacher learned and developed their wood magic from?”
”…eh?”
Now that he mentioned it…
”In fact, did you never wonder why the Ten Great Families became the Ten Great Families? And why five of them bear the emblem of the five Celestial Guardians? The same Celestial Guardians you learned to summon?”