North Sea Ice Technique
Hasina, coming to her senses with the North Sea Ice Technique, stared up at the unfamiliar ceiling and rasped in a cracked voice.
"Ugh... I'm gonna die."
Mana exhaustion screamed through every inch of her body, and her head throbbed like someone had stuffed it with sand and shaken it violently. She'd gotten carried away in the fight, unleashing spells without a thought for the backlash—internal injuries from mana depletion, plus bruises and creaking bones from that final sand barrage—all conspired to torment her.
"You're awake?"
Hasina barely turned her aching head and spotted Eira munching on fruit. A small bowl held ruby-red berries; as Eira nibbled one with her dainty mouth, her sand-reflecting porcelain skin contrasted beautifully with lips stained crimson by the juice.
Seeing Eira's big eyes fixed on her, Hasina dragged her sore body upright and reached for the bowl.
"Selfish much, eating alone? Gimme one."
"No, that's not allowed. I heard that with mana exhaustion symptoms, your organs slow down, so you should only eat things that are easy to digest."
"I don't listen to weaklings weaker than me."
Ignoring Eira's warning, Hasina snatched a neatly peeled fruit from the bowl, shoved it in her mouth, and chewed noisily.
"More importantly, you're holding up way better than I expected. I went easy on you, sure, but that should've laid you up for days at least. Tougher than you look?"
When Hasina had attacked Eira, "going easy" meant no permanent damage—not no pain. By her experience sparring countless foes, Eira should've had broken bones, bruises, and swelling everywhere. Yet here she was, barely scathed. Was Eira just that sturdy, or were Hasina's usual opponents that frail?
"I did have a few broken bones and some ruptured organs, but Suhyun treated everything except the mana aftermath, so now it's just a bit sore."
"That guy knows healing magic too? Impressive."
"He can't use it?"
"Of course not. That's hard stuff."
As Hasina casually reached for another fruit while replying, Belia burst in from outside.
"Ahh! What are you doing?!"
Belia had brewed herbs good for internal recovery for Eira, but seeing Hasina scarf fruit despite her fasting period made her yell.
"What, nagging me over food? It's tasty—want some?"
"Your digestive system's weakened from mana depletion! How can you eat that?!"
Belia rushed over, snatched the fruit from Hasina's hand, handed it back to Eira, and glared with axe-like eyes.
"How much did you eat?!"
"Dunno, just grabbed and munched."
"About seven or eight pieces, I think."
"Hey, you call that 'some'?"
"You have to answer your healer's questions honestly to get the right treatment."
"Haa... already that much?"
"Jeez, making such a fuss over food."
Belia lit up with fury at Hasina's grumbling and snapped curtly.
"Mana deficiency slows your whole body! Eating the wrong thing pulls recovery mana to your guts, delaying everything else!"
"I've had mana deficiency tons of times. Woke up and chowed steak and booze right away—fine every time."
Hasina smirked smugly and reached for Eira's bowl again, but Belia smacked her hand.
"That just boosts digestion but slows overall growth! Mana infuses your body during recovery—if it pools in your guts, what's the point?! Yours is already gut-heavy, so fasting a few days is mandatory!"
"What?"
"If you hate it, check out now. But in my clinic, you're my patient—follow my orders."
After confirming Eira drank her meds and even ate fruit, Belia left. Hasina muttered admiringly.
"She's got backbone."
Mages and knights weren't bossed by commoners due to status, but also their innate presence. Hasina's tough guy suitors went mute before her, yet this young girl smacked her hand and spoke her mind. Hasina smacked her lips and lay back down.
Normally she'd ignore the healer and sneak out for meat and booze, but as Nautilus staff under Suhyun, she stayed put and replayed her duel with him.
Knight had few tools for everything; mages prepped countless spells for optimal counters. But Suhyun handled all her attacks with basics.
Her strongest, Sand Spear Holding the Desert, via mana property shift and control.
Her sneakiest, most potent spell? Countered with a tiny, common spell everyone in Golden Sand Tower knew.
Curse and physical strike? Alchemy twisted the curse into simple swordplay.
And her Mystic Manifestation? He mocked it by manifesting his own as an artifact. Total defeat.
But in the blinding desert, she'd found a new landmark amid the endless path.
Hasina summed her feelings in one word.
"Fuck."
"Oh my, such crude language."
"You said it first."
She knew the path wouldn't be easy, but each step revealed how distant and treacherous it truly was.
"You two doing okay?"
"Much better thanks to Suhyun."
"I'm dying because of you."
Eira and Hasina gave opposite replies. Suhyun chuckled and checked Eira.
"Your mana's settled a lot. Rest more—review this duel mentally instead of physical training."
"I have patrol duty, so rest might wait—is that okay?"
"I'll cover patrols. Focus on recovery."
Watching Suhyun examine and encourage Eira, Hasina grumbled from her bed.
"He heals and advises her, but treats me like dirt. Heal me too."
"Eira followed her senior's sparring order, so I care for her as one. You sought me out, so bear your own consequences."
Hasina pouted slightly but grinned at Suhyun.
"Fine, but advice at least? That's fair."
"Hmm, take this as my personal take: don't fixate on one thing."
"Huh? My desert mystic is its duality!"
To gain her mystic, Hasina endured desert trials: scorching days incinerating all, freezing nights entombing everything. No one grasped that duality better—telling her not to fixate was like telling a biped to hop on one foot.
But Suhyun smiled.
"Magic's the study of exploration. What's taught is mere knowledge—I can't teach more."
She'd asked for a shortcut, got something unrelated. Hasina huffed.
"Ugh, annoying."
Anyone else saying "don't fixate" to her duality mystic would've gotten a scoff. But from Suhyun—the mage ahead of her who'd artifacted her own Mystic Manifestation—she pondered deeply.
Then exploded.
"Argh! Dammit, I don't get it!"
"Be quiet."
Eira scolded Hasina from her book. Hasina pursed her lips and peeked.
"What's that?"
Hasina eyed the unfamiliar script. Eira boasted proudly.
"A martial art Suhyun made for me."
"Oh, that."
Recalling Eira's magic disguised as martial arts, Hasina eyed her enviously. Eira ignored it, absorbed in reading.
Books on magic and mystics often embodied them. Suhyun's manual for Eira contained magic and mystic within, imprinting usage on the mind per read—yet each rereading sparked new insights.
Eira had questioned wedding philosophy to technique, but rumination revealed their profound link.
Flame melts iron into swords, heats ingredients for easy eating, alters nature's forms to cycle it anew—but chill freezes earth barren, preserves food undecayed, lulls nature to slumber.
Flame seeks to radiate its heat; chill yearns to steal ambient warmth.
Flame grows stronger the more it burns; chill weakens the more it freezes surroundings.
Chill quiets all heaven and earth, births stillness, calms the cold heart's every meridian—yet I would circulate it still.
If hot-boiled blood is life's vessel, I become cooled soul to hold all chill.
The world's chill spreads everywhere; I grasp it within me—not defying heaven, but aiding its flow.
As all things bloom, I alone remain still.
At first, Eira thought it meant devouring all chill. But the duel taught her: not absorption, but containment via self as vessel.
Desire to warm surroundings by imprisoning chill in oneself. Reciting that line, Eira closed her eyes.
Her dantian exhaled via narrow meridians; inner power in skin-near capillaries absorbed ambient chill, gathered via wide meridians to condense in dantian, then exhaled anew.
Thus wielding gathered chill was the North Sea Ice Technique.
Before, emitting chill meant unstable buildup to explosion. But her final duel strike absorbed all chill around the axe, cracking foes.
Absorbing ambient chill to forge razor edges—warming surroundings while chilling only the blade's touch, cracking and slicing between. Eira endlessly recalled, ruminated on that sensation.
Hasina watched, dumbfounded.
"A knight mimicking a mage."
Knights absorbed and controlled ambient mana; they didn't commune with it.
Chill-handling knights just intensified chill with realm growth—nothing more.
Mages, pushing mystics to extremes, wielded opposites: desert mystic birthing water from sand. Warming via chill absorption was pure mage territory—yet Eira did it sans magic.
Eira opened her eyes: surroundings warmed, cheeks flushed rosy, but her mana grew icier, quieter.
Unlike Hasina's split heat/chill, Eira extremed chill to birth warmth. Hasina pondered silently beside her.