Unlimited Power - The Arcane Path

Looking for a hole in that massive chunk of earth hadn't been easy, but Leon eventually found it after feeling the wind getting sucked by it. He had to complete three laps around that creature to feel it, though.

After entering the cave, Leon noticed that only the breathing of the creature was enough to make the entire mountain tremble. It wasn't that surprising, considering the size and possibly weight of the beast. Although Leon didn't feel it, even a single step of it could cause earthquakes.

As Leon had expected, the cave had turned into an ice cave, the humidity and cold made everything slippery or sharp. Leon wouldn't be impaled by those ice stalactites thanks to Mana Armor, but he didn't want to risk slippering either. So, he just flew toward the end of it.

Eventually, Leon found the end of the cave and the temple of the spirit of ice. As usual, he saw the spirit sitting on an altar. The spirit had a humanoid form, and Leon could see small shards of ice floating around the light-blue spirit. However, unlike Sylph, the spirit of ice was sitting cross-legged as if it was meditating. Ilyana said the spirit of ice was female, but Leon couldn't see that just by looking.

"Excuse me, my name is Leon," Leon said.

After waiting for a while, Leon decided to greet the spirit since the spirit didn't move an inch. After hearing Leon's voice, the ice spirit opened her eyes and looked at Leon as if he had just woken her up.

"What?" The spirit of ice asked.

"... I have come to request your help," Leon said.

"Go look for another ice spirit. I don't have time to waste with you," The spirit of ice said.

Leon scratched the back of his head. It looked like that spirit was difficult in another way. Silph almost looked like a reasonable adult in front of the spirit of ice... Still, Leon had no intention of leaving without receiving her powers. So, Leon decided to activate Zen and wait.

Congratulations! The skill Zen has leveled up.

You obtained 01 status points.

Congratulations! The skill Zen has leveled up.

You obtained 01 status points.

Congratulations! The skill Zen has leveled up.

You obtained 01 status points.

Congratulations! Your intelligence has increased by one point.

Congratulations! Your intelligence has increased by one point.

Congratulations! Your intelligence has increased by one point.

...

Three days passed; Leon continued to wait patiently. Although he felt like he was wasting time, it was a price Leon had to pay. He already learned the lesson that some sacrifices had to be made. Although Leon could obtain more status points and increase his intelligence by training his spells, it wasn't a good idea to leave that place or cause a ruckus.

One week passed, and Leon was starving. Surviving only drinking water was hard, but he was already used to that feeling when he spent several months inside the galactic snake. Regardless, Leon's perseverance finally paid off. The spirit of ice finally got up and stomped on the ground right in front of Leon.

"For how long do you intend to annoy me?!" The spirit of ice asked.

Congratulations! The skill Ice Resistance has leveled up.

You obtained 01 status points.

Congratulations! The skill Ice Resistance has leveled up.

You obtained 01 status points.

Congratulations! The skill Ice Resistance has leveled up.

You obtained 01 status points.

...

"Achoo!" Leon sneezed.

The temperature decreased a lot just because the spirit of ice moved a few meters toward Leon. For a few seconds, Leon felt his legs growing numb due to that cold alone. The spirit of ice took a few steps back when Sylph suddenly appeared.

"Celsius, don't get too close, or you will end up freezing him to death," Sylph said. "If you do that while I'm inside him, I will die too, you know."

Leon didn't like Sylph's choice of words, but he decided to keep quiet because there was no one nearby who would misunderstand that. Besides, there was a chance that Sylph might help in obtain Celsius cooperation... however, there was also a chance that he could make things even more complicated.

"You... you are intermediate spirit just like me," Celsius said, surprised.

"Oh, boy... you waste too much of your time meditating that you never noticed any spirit nearby?" Sylph asked. "How can you do such a boring thing for so long?"

"Shut up," Celsius crossed her arms and looked away.

"... Just give your powers or at least test him," Sylph sighed. "As you already noticed, he won't leave this place unless you cooperate with him. Also, it is about time for us to play. You should come with us. It is so much fun!"

"I don't have time to waste with you guys," Celsius said.

"Considering the only thing that you did over the last days was to meditate, I can say for sure that you have a lot of free time," Sylph said.

"... If you want to obtain my power and cooperation, then you will have to move this creature to a world that is warmer and has a lot of food," Celsius looked at Leon, annoyed.

"What does this monster eat? Why do you want to move it to another world?" Leon asked.historical

"This monster protected my temple for many years, even though it did unconsciously, I owe it a lot," Celsius explained. "This creature can eat anything, monsters, plants... it doesn't matter, everything that has mana can be its food."

Leon wondered why Celsius would ask for something like that, she didn't know even the name of the monster, and by the look of things, they never talked to each other. But in the end, it doesn't matter. Leon received the test, and he would do anything to succeed.