Chapter 24
He knew it was a crazy thing to do.
The very solid foundation he had built up until now could be shaken by this one action.
However, in the current situation, Kain had no choice.
The moment he gripped the Snow Blossom Ice Crystal, it felt as if everything around him had stopped.
The Ice Troll's foot, which had been moving with enormous strides, remained suspended in mid-air.
The club it had raised high also seemed to freeze, as if hardened in the air.
Not just objects, but the flow of the surrounding air.
And the flow of mana.
Everything had stopped.
His vision was tinged with a grayish-white, and he felt as if he had fallen into another world.
But Kain could tell.
'Time hasn't stopped. It's just flowing very slowly.'
No, to be precise, it felt like time was flowing slowly.
At this moment, Kain's perception speed, under the immense pressure of the high-purity mana, had temporarily become so fast that it far exceeded its limits.
But he didn't have the luxury to blankly stare during this long moment of an instant.
Because an enormous power was trying to surge in from the fingertips of the hand holding the Snow Blossom Ice Crystal.
'Kuh.'
Kain tried to widen his eyes, but his eyelids only moved very slightly.
Letting go of the Snow Blossom Ice Crystal now was also an impossible option.
Because by the time he let go, his hand would already have exploded.
The moment he released the Snow Blossom Ice Crystal's power, he had crossed a point of no return.
'I absolutely can't let it all come in at once like this.'
Kain focused all his mind to block the surging power.
His current body, only at the 3rd Circle, couldn't withstand this enormous force.
'Even if I somehow endure it, the foundation I've built up until now could be shaken.'
An immense pressure compressed his entire hand, as if he were forcibly plugging a hole in a massive dam.
His fingertips felt like they were being crushed, and his palm felt like it would burst open.
But Kain calmly and very delicately began to open the mana circuits at his fingertips little by little.
Whoooooosh!
As if it had been waiting, high-purity mana surged in through the mana circuits.
Even though time was flowing so slowly that it was almost as if it wasn't flowing at all, the mana instantly began to circulate through his entire body, passing through his arm.
Kain allowed the mana to circulate, but he controlled its speed and path to prevent the mana circuits from bursting, blocking, or colliding.
'Even with my perception speed this fast, it's still this fast.'
If time hadn't slowed down like this, the Snow Blossom Ice Crystal's mana would have burst all the mana circuits inside his body in a mere few seconds.
'It's a stroke of luck that my mana circuits are clean.'
If Kain's mana circuits hadn't been this clean, there would probably have been a slightly blocked section somewhere, and soon, a chain reaction would have caused some part of his body to explode.
'For now... this is the only way.'
The mana that was now directly emanating from the Snow Blossom Ice Crystal was so extremely pure that it no longer needed to be filtered.
In other words, if he immediately accumulated the water mana, which made up the majority of this mana, in his circle room, it would directly lead to an increase in his level.
'Though it won't be easy.'
He needed very delicate work to avoid shocking and collapsing the existing structure he had built.
'But I have to do it.'
Whooooooosh!
When the surging mana passed near his circle room.
Kain immediately separated the water mana from the moving mana and began to accumulate it in his circle room.
And fortunately, that first step was successful.
'Good. I'll continue like this.'
This was like inspecting and classifying the cargo of constantly arriving carriages at a checkpoint without stopping them.
Furthermore, he had to accurately throw the classified cargo directly and stack it precisely in the designated place, something that would be unimaginable for anyone but a highly skilled expert.
Kain continued this work without rest.
'The remaining mana after separation goes directly to the dantian.'
He accumulated the water mana in his circle room without a single error, and sent all the remaining pure energy to his dantian to be stored.
After repeating this process, Kain could tell that he was about to reach the end of the 3rd Circle.
'This is insane.'
He had completed work that would have taken at least several months in what was less than a second of real time.
'Then.'
Kain immediately created a fourth circle with the pure mana that continued to flow in.
And he began to add flesh to the framework that was the 4th Circle.
'I'd like to maintain a balance with the fire magic circle as much as possible, but...'
If he ignored the water mana, which made up the majority of the composition, and focused on extracting and accumulating fire mana, he would clearly not be able to handle the amount of mana flowing in.
The reason he had tried to maintain balance in the first place was because it was good for building a perfect circle, so since he was already achieving that perfection in real time, it probably didn't matter.
'...But seriously, when is this going to stop coming in?'
It was a good thing that his level was increasing correctly and quickly.
But the problem was that while he was doing that, the mana he could store in his dantian was almost reaching its limit.
'If I suddenly release the rest of it now, the pressure inside the mana circuits will change drastically.'
That was why Kain had been continuously storing the filtered mana in his dantian until now.
Unless it was after all the work was done, releasing the mana now would be like poking a needle into an inflating rubber balloon.
Having thought that far, Kain decided to take a secondary measure.
'I'll compress and store mana in the two empty circle rooms.'
Storing mana in empty circle rooms would make anyone who saw it think he was crazy.
'It's not theoretically impossible, though.'
While continuing to separate and accumulate water mana in his circle, Kain compressed and stored the filtered mana in the empty circle rooms.
Complete concentration had continued for an immeasurable amount of perceived time, pushing his mental fatigue to its limit, but Kain didn't stop for a single moment.
'This is the final stretch.'
That work continued until Kain had absorbed all the power of the Snow Blossom Ice Crystal.
When Kain succeeded in absorbing all the Snow Blossom Ice Crystal's mana without releasing a single bit externally.
Kain had reached the complete 5th Circle of ice magic.
***
Whoooooosh!
The Snow Blossom Ice Crystal.
The beautiful snowflake-shaped crystal, small enough to fit snugly in the hand of a boy who had just turned sixteen, had poured out all the energy it possessed.
Crack.
And like a flower past its prime shedding its withered petals, it lost its vitality.
Having appeared in the world after hundreds of years, the Snow Blossom Ice Crystal lost its light and crumbled from Kain's fingertips.
And.
That meant the stopped time had begun to flow again.
"Groooaaaar!"
"Kuluk!"
The monsters still didn't seem to realize that something was wrong.
'That's right. I absorbed the energy the Snow Blossom Ice Crystal emitted internally without releasing any of it externally.'
Tremendous things had happened inside, but from the outside, it would have just looked like Kain had briefly held the Snow Blossom Ice Crystal.
"Groooaaaar!!"
They charged straight in.
Watching the Ice Trolls simultaneously rushing in from multiple directions as if they were betting on who would smash Kain's head with their club first, Kain quietly chanted.
"Ice Square."
Crackle crackle crackle!
Along with the incantation, ice walls rose from all sides of Kain.
The rising ice walls bent inward at a certain height and firmly covered the ceiling, leaving Kain standing inside an ice cube.
Crash!
The Ice Trolls roared and wildly swung their clubs from the outside, trying to smash the Ice Square.
Crash! Bang! Bang!
"G-groooar!"
However, unlike the Ice Wall, which had crumbled after a few blows, the Ice Square didn't even develop a crack in the places that were repeatedly struck.
The troll that saw its mana-infused club break after hitting it with all its might was even bewildered.
And the next moment.
Kain cast his second spell from the inside.
"Icicle."
The 4th Circle spell, Icicle.
This spell, which meant icicle, wasn't actually used very often.
It was a projectile-type spell that reacted water mana through terrain or the surface of an object to summon and launch numerous sharp cone-shaped ice spikes. It had the advantage of consuming little mana directly, but the disadvantage of a slow summoning speed.
Even its destructive power was similar to the 3rd Circle spell Ice Spear, making it an unpopular, non-mainstream projectile spell.
But.
"Grooack...!"
"Groooarck...!?"
Thwack, thwack. Thwack.
Not using the existing terrain as a medium, but the Ice Square itself, which contained water mana.
By consuming the thickness of the inner surface of the Ice Square to drastically reduce the generation time of the icicles.
The projectile spell Icicle, which was originally a projectile spell, pierced the hearts of the Ice Trolls simply by instantly sprouting from the ice wall.
"Grooack..."
It pierced the head of the Ice Troll that had jumped onto the Ice Square and was wildly striking the ceiling from under its chin.
Having dealt with the entire Ice Troll horde with just two incantations, Kain canceled the magic.
Thump.
Kain lightly avoided the corpse of the Ice Troll that had climbed onto the ceiling of the Ice Square.
"...So it's finally over."
Kain looked down at the corpses strewn across the ground.
Then, he looked at the spot where the Snow Blossom Ice Crystal had been just moments ago.
Only fine ice fragments remained in its place.
The Snow Blossom Ice Crystal, which had summoned the monsters of the snowy mountains and disrupted the ecosystem, was now gone.
Even if he wanted to take it as evidence or sell it, it had already crumbled like withered petals that had turned to ash.
However, in return, Kain had been able to leap far beyond his expected level in an instant.
And since he had caught the Ice Trolls, who were the direct culprits of the ecosystem disruption, the ecosystem would gradually return to normal.
'I wonder if those guys caught a lot of Snow Rabbits.'
They weren't slacking off while he wasn't watching, were they?
'As for evidence, I can just take one of the Ice Trolls' heads.'
He should hurry back and show them the Ice Troll's head to tell them the good news of his success.
'But why does my body...?'
Thump.
It was the backlash from overworking his mana circuits while absorbing the Snow Blossom Ice Crystal's power.
"...I should rest a bit before going."
Kain, who had collapsed as he was, fell asleep.
***
"Fire Arrow! Nice, got them all!"
Bolio shouted, clenching his fist.
"T-this side's finished too."
"I only got two. There aren't that many on this side, I guess."
Edward and Fohn approached Bolio.
"That clears all the places Kain marked. Heh. He probably didn't think we'd finish every single spot, did he?"
"We should surprise him when he gets back."
"Ah, did we catch too many? Won't all the Snow Rabbit ears fit in the bag? Hahaha!"
"N-not that many."
"I know! I was just kidding."
Bolio snapped at Fohn's words.
The three returned to the cave where they had last been with Kain and waited for him.
"He said he'd be here by noon today, right?"
"Yeah."
"I-it's not much time left now..."
Looking at the sky, the sun was already almost directly overhead.
"......"
"...Could it be."
"Hey, don't say anything ominous."
"He'll be here. Who does Kain think he is?"
But the sun passed its zenith.
Even after 1 PM and then 2 PM, Kain didn't return.
"No, he's not coming?"
"W-what should we do...?"
"Haa... I knew it from the start when that guy kept acting tough!"
Bolio couldn't hold back any longer and jumped up.
"Where are you going?"
"Damn it, where else would I go? I'm going to look for him!"
"What? Kain told us to wait here."
"Y-yeah. If we get separated..."
"And Kain told us that if he didn't return by noon, we shouldn't go to rescue him but return to the clan and inform them. Maybe Kain, since he's late, might just go straight to the clan later."
As Edward and Fohn tried to stop Bolio, Bolio burst out angrily.
"Then you guys stay here if you want! You bunch of cowards anyway."
"Why are you suddenly like this? It's not like you. You said you weren't worried about Kain."
"I'm not worried, I'm angry! I thought that guy would pull it off! I'm angry that I was wrong!"
Bolio, with his bag already slung over his shoulder, began to stomp through the snow in the direction Kain had gone.
"Haa... what should we do?"
"W-we should probably follow him, right?"
"Yeah. Let's think as we go. If Kain is really in danger, we need to combine our strength to save him. And if... if he's dead, we should at least..."
"D-don't say that, Edward."
"Tch, do you think I want to say it?"
Tears welled up in Edward's eyes as he said that.
And as they were pushing through the snow.
"Where are you guys going? I clearly told you to return to the clan after the promised time had passed."
"Aaaah!"
Bolio screamed at the voice that came from the side.
