Boom!
Following a loud explosion, Cage was thrown violently against the wall.
Cage winced from the impact. Taking deep breaths, he got his pain under control. Fortunately, he was uninjured, from the impact at least.
He looked down at his arms. His hands and arms got coated in what looked like black ice. Underneath, his veins had become visible and had turned a dark purple.
Cage flexed his hands and forearms, shattering the ice. After about a minute, the purple in his veins receded.
Cage stared at the remaining shards of ice as he contemplated what just happened, "Just what was that? Black ice? I've never seen that before, let alone heard about it."
Using mana vision, Cage began to inspect the signature of the black ice that remained on the floor. It was melting rapidly, so he had to observe it quickly.
Surprisingly, it had its own unique mana signature. Whatever it was, it wasn't a basic element. Cage picked up one of the rapidly deteriorating chunks of ice. The moment his hand touched it, the veins on his fingers began to turn the glowing purple that it was before.
His eyes opened wide, 'It makes them purple just from contact? Just what is it?'
Taking a moment to ponder, Cage stared intently.
"Hey! Are you okay? I heard an explosion and then..." Dan's eyes landed on the Cage-shaped indent on the wall.
Dan nodded in understanding, "I see, so you did something stupid."
Cage sighed, "Well, that's a blunt way to put it, but yeah."
It could have ended much worse. Worst case scenario, Cage could have died from the backlash and brought the rest of the expedition team with him.
Fortunately, that didn't happen. All that happened was an explosion that only woke up Dan.
Dan bent down and picked up one of the last remaining shards, but he suddenly shouted out, "What the fuck!"
Immediately dropping the ice shard, Dan reeled back his hand.
The veins running through his hand had turned a bright purple, similar to when Cage had been touching it.
"That ice shard drained some of my mana! Moreover, it seems like it used it to expand itself!"
Upon closer inspection, and if Cage squinted his eyes, he found that the shard had grown in size ever so slightly.
Looking at it, Cage couldn't help but wonder why that had only happened to Dan and not to him despite having his forearms covered in them earlier.
After thinking about it for a moment, Cage realized it was because it was his mana. His mana wouldn't hurt himself unless he wanted it to do so.
"So, what is it?" Asked Cage.
Dan chuckled with an excited expression, "I'm not sure, to be honest. But whatever it is, it is something entirely new!"
Sharing Dan's excitement, Cage said, "Really?! I'm gonna try it again!"
Like a mad scientist preparing an experiment, Cage brought his hands together with his mana rearing to go.
"Let's see what this does!"
Dan's complexion paled, "Ahh! Wait!"
Boom!
Dan sighed.
Cage had frozen himself... Again.
Everything below Cage's head got encased in the black ice, and all his veins from below his neck were a bright purple.
"Can you help me get out?"
Dan shook his head, "No can do. How am I supposed to do that when I can't even touch it?"
Cage rolled his eyes, "If you can't touch it, then just shoot it."
Dan raised his hand. Pointing to the block of ice, he activated a spell.
[Mana Shot!]
A small compressed ball of mana shot out from his finger. It looked like a gray sphere that was about the size of someone's palm.
It hit the ice.
The [Mana Shot] spell would typically be able to bore a hole through a tree with ease, but not this time.
Upon contact with the ice, it fizzled out into nothingness. The ice grew in length once again.
""Eh?""
Both were in an utter state of confusion.
The ice not only took mana from other people who weren't Cage, but it also seemed to take all mana upon contact with anything.
Dan smiled bitterly, "Well, I tried... You're by yourself now, try and get some sleep if you can!"
Cage watched as Dan disappeared back into the corridor leading to the male rooms.
"Get back here! What am I supposed to do!"
Not bothering to respond, Dan casually waved while walking away.
Cage sat there, frozen in the ice, for the remainder of the sleeping hours and into the time when they were awake.
...
"HAHAHAHA!"
Cage had been hearing Andrew laugh for the past ten minutes at this point.
Cage frowned.
In between laughter, Andrew said, "I can't believe you got trapped by your own compound magi-! *wheeze!* That's so fucking funny!"
If Cage could wield his compound magic properly and had complete control over it, he would be able to manipulate it to simply break away.
Earlier, while everyone else was asleep, he had tried using [Resonance] and [Burst] on it. Unfortunately, the ice had absorbed the mana. Once again, if he had complete control, he would be able to use his skills on it, and it would listen to his will. He didn't have complete control, though.
He also wasn't strong enough to break it with brute strength. He had tried to break it like last time, but he couldn't generate enough force.
No one else could touch it either, without the cost of losing some of their mana, that is. Furthermore, there was the chance it would just grow back using said siphoned mana.
Eventually, Andrew moved on from teasing Cage.
The ice was almost thin enough for Cage to break free, but he estimated he would still need another half an hour or so.
In the meantime, Cage had tried to understand what it was. He had assumed it was a compound element and had told Andrew such, but he didn't have the slightest clue on what exactly it was.
Regardless, he continued trying.
He gleaned from his efforts that he was so close yet so far from his compound element.
He was finally aware of just how large the gap is from his two natural elements and harnessing his compound element.
He was so far that he didn't even know the new element's name!
Names were sacred things, especially when it came to mana. The skills that he made named themselves. Cage had no input. The names were the activation keys. And without the keys, he wouldn't be able to launch the 'missile' known as a skill.
Having the element's name was like having the location and basic information of the missile silo location.
Even if he had an elemental skill for his compound element, it wouldn't do shit and would most likely either backfire or just waste mana.
Cage felt his stomach demand food. To summarize Cage's experience trapped in ice, it would be sufficient to say it sucked.
He was hungry, tired, and had to use the bathroom urgently. He had already been immobile for more than eight hours, and he was sick of it.
Time passed, and his bladder was pressuring him. The others had already left to hunt for more food and materials, so he was left alone. Be it good or bad has yet to be decided.
Finally, he heard a sign of the ice weakening.
Crack!
Cage reached into the depths of his will and muscles and used all his strength to break free.
Cracks webbed across the ice dramatically, like how they spread out when someone stepped on ice would.
Kish!
The ice shattered into small chunks and sprayed across the room.
"Ha, haha! Freedom!"
...
-=-=-[ Core region of Quadrant X ]-=-=-
Zaria stood on a mound of charred beast corpses and surveyed her surroundings.
"That makes around three hundred Stage Two, forty-five Stage Three, and twelve Stage Four..."
Her surroundings had flames lingering, and the ground was still red hot. There had clearly been a battle, and the victor had been Zaria.
A wolf four meters tall and with dark gray fur emerged from the shadows. It walked forward and snarled, "Zaria, The Insane Pyro Enthusiast..."
Zaria smirked, "It seems someone finally decided to show up. How do you do, Lycanius?"
Lycanius, the king of the Shadow wolves, is a Lord class beast.
Zaria smiled, "Can't you take your humanoid form?"
Lycanius melted into shadows and re-emerged as a man with deep blue eyes and gray fur on his calves and forearms. The fangs that protruded from his mouth gleamed in the light.
The king of the shadow wolves sighed, then pinched the bridge of his nose and said, "I'm going to get to the point; those humans that you said to keep tabs on have entered the Twisted Territory."
Zaria, who typically had a smile, frowned. If what Lycanius said was true, the Agrian forces had also moved into Quadrant X. On the off chance that any of the two sides met, a fight would undoubtedly break out.
Zaria went deep into thought. She tossed a small orb to Lycanius, "Thank you. Here is the payment, as promised."
Lycanius melted into the shadows once again and returned to wherever he came from.