Chương 37

The five Ice Wargs had dropped a single item between them, which Alex had picked up while he and Beckett were recovering—a claw frozen over with tiny crystals of icy mana. It was the first item they'd picked up as they entered the rift's second half. A minute in, and Alex was already tangibly feeling the increasing density of the ice mana in the air.

"We'll probably need a few Skill evolutions, as well as the second Class Level," said Alex.

"In the next forty-ish minutes?"

"Yea," Beckett agreed.

"I think so." Beckett flashed a grin.

"I have a few ideas."

"Same. I'll refine my Pure cycling," Alex decided; he was already cycling Pure as they walked.

"And see if I can practice infusing my body with Force sinks." He'd also probably try working on his Shields' shatter resistance, and refine his Spears as well. After his Shield evolution just now, he wanted to see if he could achieve a second level in shatter resistance relatively quickly. Force Augmentation, which was the marquee aspect of Force cycling, was also on his mind—as well as potentially using Force as a deflection tool. But supposedly they were more complex, especially augmentation.

His thinking was, I'll focus on what I know works, and also tinker a bit with experimental stuff on the side. Beckett told Alex he'd probably try to refine his lances and his lightning infusions, and potentially try a few new Mana Manipulations. The idea was they'd practice their Skills under pressure against live resistance, which should help with breaking through. It wasn't long before their first new encounter. Thirty seconds later—"Incoming," said Beckett quietly, eyes flickering to Alex's.

Alex nodded slightly. His sword slicked with Swordforce. In seconds he glimpsed two Wargs, both Level 5, flanked by a Level 4 Gelid. His Mana Spears were already made, as were Beckett's lances; the two made eye contact, and he was pretty sure he knew what Beckett was thinking, and vice versa. Instantly as the fight broke out, every single projectile the two of them had went straight for the Gelid. By the way the fire lances flew, Beckett seemed especially keen on taking it out quickly.

Alex used two Mana Shields to hold the Wargs a little. It was a lower-leveled Gelid than before, but due to sheer randomness and the way the Gelid screeched and dove, it took two flights of projectiles to finish. In the ensuing fight with the Ice Wargs Alex received a chance to practice his Force sink a little more, and after his previous Mana Shield skill level, Alex was also consciously focusing on increasing his Shields' shatter resistances over time.

Actively willing his shields to resist the Wargs' force, and shatter less, seemed to help its progress. He was aware it'd be an incremental process. As Alex worked on his Skills, Beckett seemed to be refining his lances—every lance casing was tweaked a bit, like he was tinkering with the lances' structures.

He also seemed to be experimenting with infusing lightning into his muscles in tiny bursts—the guy had to be more careful with his mana now, since the lack of ice mana in his body meant he was also less insulated from his own lightning mana. Ice mana wasn't a positive for lightning cycling; it simply blunted both the positive and negative effects of lightning mana. Which might be helpful if, say, you were somewhat reckless with lightning cycling as you started with it, since it allowed a wider margin for error.

But in the long-term, all being filled with ice mana did was make cycling significantly more mana-intensive. After seeing Beckett's display Alex had wondered, very briefly, if he should look into hugging an Ice Slime if he started trying Force augmentation. Yeah, probably not. It would've been kind of funny. Well, at first, anyway.

"It's crazy how much easier that was," said Beckett after the fight finished. He was checking out his spear, slightly in disbelief. Alex agreed. True, their Class Levels and Skill evolutions helped, and they were facing fewer creatures, but their strategy was also much, much better. Which nicely reinforced Alex's worldview that Levels were important, as were Skills, but you could never underestimate the value of actually using all that effectively in a fight. Which was strategizing. Alex glanced at him.

"Should we rest a little, or are you good?"

"Let's keep going," Beckett said quickly. Another minute in, and they discovered their second chest, which, like the first chest, was sidled against a frosted-over tree trunk. This time, Alex did the honors and opened it; there was a satisfying click, in his soul and in reality, as he injected mana into the clasp. Within, on plush white cushions, there were six bars of gleaming, silvery steel in a stack. The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

Crafting ingredients? Hopefully they're decently valuable. They kind of look like precious metals, at least. Alex pressed a hand to them, and felt the steel was unusually bright to his soul senses. He pursed his lips at that, but there wasn't much else visually to indicate what their properties were and Beckett wasn't certain either. He quickly stored the items, and the two went on. The density of the ice on the trees kept increasing. Less than thirty seconds after their second chest, a second encounter.

At first Alex thought they were Gelids, but upon closer inspection they were half as large, and their icy bodies were lighter in color. Six of the creatures flitted toward Alex and Beckett. Iceling Level 4 Iceling Level 4 Iceling Level 4 All six were Level 4. In the subsequent fight, it turned out the Icelings were very fast. Except they attacked with diving pecks and sharp claws, rather than giant walls of ice, which was lucky; the two of them were rather on edge at first.

Six Gelid-showers, at the same time, was nightmarish. The Icelings, it turned out, were pretty much a dream to fight. When they dived, their bodies folded in, so they looked kind of like icicles; their bodies also shone halfway through the dive, accelerating them significantly. CRACK-CRACK-CRACK-CRACK-CRACK!" Man, that thing's a cheat code,"said Beckett." I'm jealous."

"Shield's a default Skill, you know," said Alex.

"You could probably ask Echelon for it tomorrow, and they'd give it to you."

"Yeah, but—" Beckett threw his Lightning-tipped spear, shattered a dazed Iceling as it tried to fly away, while also adding a little Lightning to the Iceling beside it.

"I feel like it's less fun if it takes a few seconds to summon. You could probably use the things like lily-pads if you wanted."

"I've considered that, actually," said Alex, new spears materializing above his head.

"I might use it as a way to escape? I feel like it'd be more useful for a more acrobatic, jump-y style."

"I see." There was another series of CRACK's as the Icelings tried again. Beckett winced.

"They're… not the smartest, are they?" said Alex, who felt similarly speechless. The Icelings were quite useful for his Mana Shield's shatter resistance; he focused on consciously willing the shields' internal structures to tighten up, willing the structures to resist fracturing as the Icelings crashed in. Alex was liking how this fight was going; there was a psychological element of slight pressure, because it was still a fight, and one he wanted to finish up relatively quickly.

Except it wasn't particularly high-pressure, so it was still plenty possible to tinker and discuss. He also watched as Beckett threw out what seemed to be a very thin arc of lightning, which forked to strike two Icelings.

"I'm trying a faster ranged attack," said Beckett. He glanced at Alex.

"What do you think?"

"I like it," said Alex, after a second.

"Can I see it again?"

"Sure, I'm hoping I can use it as like an area-of-effect attack." There was a series of CRACK's as a third wave of Icelings ping'd off his Shields, and Beckett took the chance to try again, zapping a few more.

"Wait, so you're basing it off the very end stage of your Lightning Spear," said Alex.

"When it forks."

"Yeah, you got me," said Beckett, grinning.

"I'll say, I'm not an expert on Lightning," Alex began.

"I feel like you'll say this, but you'll also have spent a couple hours memorizing Lightning mana skills."

"It's really not like that," said Alex, a bit amused.

"I look into stuff that's relevant to me, sure. The rest, I have like, a surface-level understanding of, at best."

"But you have an idea?" said Beckett.

"My understanding is lightning propagates very well, through material and through mana," said Alex.

"Chaining—I think how it works is, you can use either the enemy's mana, or life-force, to help 'conduct' lightning mana—what's so funny?"

"I knew it," said Beckett.

"What?" said Alex, smiling a little.

"I knew you'd say something—""Dude, this is basic knowledge," said Alex.

"I swear. I'm actually shocked you didn't—""You're such a nerd, dude!" laughed Beckett. Alex was also grinning.

"I mean, yeah."

"I didn't mean that in like—" Beckett seemed to realize how it might sound.

"I like nerds. I'm a nerd."

"I get it, we're cool," said Alex, as two Shields and a few fire lances finished off what was left of the Icelings. An Iceling dropped what looked to be a beautiful, speckled marble of ice, which Alex kept. A core, or possibly an egg. As they went, they speculated a little about how to will lightning to 'chain,' which Beckett saw minor progress with; which was useful, since the same principle would apply to Beckett's Lightning Spear Skill.

A third chest, hidden in a swaddle of iced-up shrubs, held two very basic steel daggers, of a quality Alex was pretty sure was about similar to his sword, if not slightly worse—a bit of a dud chest. A Gelid and three Icelings accosted them next, two Level 5's, two Level 4's.

"You really went heavy on the Spears there," said Beckett as the last of the Icelings fell.

"I feel like I should be close to getting another support Level for Pure Mana Manipulation," said Alex. He hadn't gotten a Level in it since his first; with how Mana Shield had gotten a second support Level, he felt like it was probably due.

"Kind of focusing that, as well as the shatter resistance thing."

"That feels like a good idea." They were a bit less than three-quarters into the rift, by Alex's guess? And the ice mana density in the air was so high, his sleeves and pants kept frosting up; he was having to constantly brush it off. Beckett, with his full set of actual treasure gear, didn't have this issue. Glancing down at his body, he winced; it was a lucky thing he hadn't worn anything he was attached to.

He'd barely been hit, relatively speaking, but his clothes' future prospects were already looking pretty bleak.

"You said you were thinking of a few Force ideas to tinker with?" said Beckett.

"I've always liked the idea of deflection," Alex admitted; he'd seen a few videos of martial artists slapping Skills straight out of the air, or shrugging Skills off with well-timed deflections. It was pretty timing-dependent, to his understanding, but he liked the concept when pulled off well.

"Augmentation's nice, but ideally you'd be decent with Force sinks before you try it... wait."

"What's up?" Alex gestured up and to the left—a chest, peeking out of a snowdrift, somewhat hidden between two trees. They tried to open it and discovered it wouldn't open. A layer of some kind of specialized Pure mana flashed over the lock as Alex tried to open it, like a mana seal. After a little confusion, they realized this was because there were living rift creatures within a certain radius of it—four Icelings, to be precise. They hadn't seen an Ice Slime since the rift's opening areas.

After the Icelings were dispatched, the chest opened fine, revealing a pair of steel bracers. This steel was also unusually bright to his soul senses, gleaming a little to his soul. They quickly decided Alex should use it for the rift, like with the circlet. It was when he first started feeling it out that he realized what this kind of steel actually did.