Demon's Virtue

To Eiro's pleasant surprise, he didn't really feel all that uncomfortable as he stepped into the snow like this. He still felt that it was cold, obviously, but it just didn't bother him anymore. Without his shoes, it would probably be a lot easier to grip onto the ground, right? At least that's what Eiro figured should be the case... Well, he would see later, for now he just had to make his way through the forest like this.

He had his cards, his Dagger, his bag to carry something to drink and a little to eat in, as well as the seed right there in his left hand. There was a spot that Eiro figured would be a good place to go to plant this, but first, the young Demon wanted to go check up on a different place, as long as he actually managed to find it again.

Although in the end, that wasn't necessarily all that hard, considering how the body of the 'Frozen Monstrosity' was still there, with a few parts that weren't covered in snow still sticking out here and there.

But sadly, Eiro had to see that the Stag didn't return here anymore, so maybe he just had to hope that it would return sooner or later. Hopefully sooner than later. He did really want to know whether he actually managed to save it or not, after all, and the fact that he didn't know which it was really made him feel uncomfortable.

Either way, before the Imp would then make his way to the spot where he wanted to plant the seed, he kneeled down right in front of the frozen monstrosity and took a look the few parts that were still sticking out from the snow, and then ended up choosing one of its large fangs as a bit of a 'trophy'.

He didn't really know why, but his 'habit' that had been formed over the past few months felt even stronger now. It might have to do with his evolution, but he couldn't really know that and just stuffed the fang into his bag after cleaning some blood off of it with a bit of loose snow that quickly melted inside of the Imp's hand.

Soon, Eiro found the place where he wanted to plant this seed, the place he had been spending a few hours each and every day for quite a while now. The small bank in the middle of the river. The stump that was there hadn't really been attached to the ground for a while now, because most of the roots were already rotten. And at some point, the Imp was just too annoyed with having the stump wobble around all the time and properly cut it loose to be able to set it into place at least temporarily.

And so, after making his way over the fallen log, Eiro simply used his Dagger to melt away the frozen snow around the base of the stump so that he could actually push it away. It would probably be a bit tough, but last time he just did it by pushing a stick underneath it and trying to push it out from the bottom, so Eiro figured he could just do the same again.

To his luck, it seemed like some of the roots continued rotting even more ever since Eiro cut everything loose, and the only thing currently holding the stump up was the ice, so he could actually just somewhat kick it over to the side and then roll it into the water.

It splashed over his legs a little bit, but the Imp figured it was fine. After all, the cold didn't bother him anymore.

Then, the only thing that Eiro had to do was pull out the rest of the roots, which didn't take even nearly as long as the Imp had initially expected. He was already done after an hour! Although, he was pretty lucky that tonight was an especially bright full moon and that this place wasn't really obscured by any trees, so he didn't have to worry about light all that much.

Soon, Eiro just had cold, wet dirt in front of him that was mixed with a few chunks of ice and slowly getting muddy the more Eiro was using his dagger while 'heating it up'.

Either way, it was still alright like this, so the Imp just placed the seed into the center of that spot of dirt and covered it in some more dirt, before sitting down right on top of it.

One thing that he noticed during his constant, daily meditation was that he was able to use his mana far easy when he was meditating. The first time he controlled water that didn't come from his own body was actually on coincidence when trying to somehow interact with the seed more easily.

And the other thing that the Imp found after that was that he could make his mana 'speed up' pretty easily. He was mostly still letting it flow through his blood, but there were some certain paths that he noticed a little while after that his mana could flow through without affecting his body in any major way no matter how slow or fast his mana moved.

It mainly went around a few specific paths, at least as far as Eiro could tell so far, and there was one path down each of his limbs, and if he pressed his bare feet together, the paths going into his feet would actually touch each other, so he could just let his mana from one foot jump into the other one.

If he let his mana move from his right foot into his left, and then up his left leg into his chest and back down into his right leg, he could create something like a 'circle' that he could use to let his mana speed up a fair amount.

And Eiro didn't exactly know why this happened, but at a certain speed, he always got the notification that his Mana Regeneration increased momentarily, although it would stop again when his mana slowed back down.

Like that, Eiro had already come up with a method that he used to practice connecting with the seed that was now underneath him. While letting his mana move in a steady circle around his legs, he would let a part of it constantly split off into his left arm and right into the seed.

Now, the Imp wanted to do the very same thing, just that he wouldn't let the mana come back out of the seed again and would just continue to fill it up, even if it couldn't take anymore. Then he would just fill the dirt around the seed with mana instead.

The benefit of this method was very clear. To be able to move his mana across any of these 'paths', he always needed a certain base amount of mana to be moved like that. And that base amount was just a slight bit more than Eiro's Mana Regeneration in this 'increased' state.

While it still didn't mean that Eiro could just do this all forever, it still let him keep pushing his mana out constantly for at least two to three hours until he became completely exhausted. Eiro hadn't actually tested completely getting rid of all his mana yet, but his instincts told him that he seriously shouldn't even think about doing that, so he usually stopped after roughly two hours.

And Eiro was trying to be even more careful now, considering that he couldn't have his status open in front of him to let him check up on his mana every once in a while now.

For the next few hours, Eiro really just continued pushing his mana into the ground, and although not much seemed to have happened so far, the Imp was sure that this would work... He hoped, at least. If not, then he just made the biggest mistake he could have, and Jura practically led him into making that mistake.

What if he really was just really angry about how Eiro acted yesterday..? Considering that he never saw Jura so genuinely annoyed before, that could be the case, couldn't it? But it was too late now... He just had to continue trying to let this seed grow somehow, in any shape, way or form.

Now that Eiro took a short break to stretch a little and properly inspect if everything was alright with the seed, he did notice something else that might be a bit annoying. Parts of his pants were frozen after getting the cold water from the river on them.

Luckily the Imp could just make it melt with his Dagger and partially got everything dry just like that as well, but it was still pretty annoying, simply because it made it hard for him to move, an action that was tough as is with the subtle growing-pain he was in anyway. Although that did make him think of something else as well.

As the ice was a literal layer on top of his legs, when he was tapping the frozen parts, he couldn't actually feel the tapping on his leg. It made sense, it was the basic concept of 'Armor' as the Imp learned, but he didn't really think about this when it came to the seed so far.

Maybe he should use his mana to protect the seed, or to let it grow in a safe manner. He was still able to sense his mana in the ground like this, and while it was really, really tough to move it through dirt considering that he didn't have Earth Magic, because the dirt was mixed with ice and water, he could actually do so to an amount. It was what he did to let his mana get to the seed in the first place, after all.

Slowly, he tried to let his mana move through the water properly to gather as tightly around the seed as possible, and while that in itself did also seem to use up a little of his mana, Eiro figured that it wasn't that bad yet. He actually stopped pushing his mana into the ground a little early because he was too careful, so he had a fair bit too spare.

"Now... What did I read in those books again?" Eiro asked himself, trying to remember the specific parts written in some magic-related books before, and then sighed deeply as it returned back into his mind. "Magic is a representation of your will in the physical world, and Mana is the carrier of that will." He repeated, and then crossed his legs as he dug the tips of his fingers a little into the slightly muddy dirt.

"If that's so..." As the Imp started to mutter, he tried to follow exactly what that book told him. He made his mana carry his will, and his will was to make this seed grow.