Lucas had multiple debates with himself in order to figure out how he should handle killing. He didn't find needless slaughter fun, since he would think of the dire consequences of that move. On the other hand, he simply didn't care about the people he didn't know. If someone he knew was about to die he would try to help out, but if some random person, whether child or elder, was in danger, he wouldn't bat an eye. If there was something to be gained from helping out, he would think about it. Killing was only an option if he could proceed with his plans, otherwise it would just be a bother.
This time, he chose a victim that wasn't very popular or unpopular. The people knew of her, but she wasn't a princess. If he went after the most popular ones, it could backfire. Some students had received protection from their families in the form of artifacts or hidden bodyguards. Luring out a single person to a deserted place while knowing how harmless they were was the best he could do in such a limited time. He was still a student and most people didn't know him that well, making it easy to gather a lot of information in a short amount of time.
Lucas was happy with the results of what he schemed, if he had more time he would find more ways to secure his wants. But now, he was practically as weak as any normal human. He did receive a lot of training when he was with Liam, making him at least sufficient to fight. When it came to magic, he needed to start over.
Every time he wanted to use magic, it would float around in his body, trying to find an exit, to no avail. He spent the following days cooped up in Elam's cottage, working on a way to use magic again. For everyone else the lessons simply continued, even Eleven was glad to have found what he wanted, but needed to grow stronger if he wanted to achieve his goals.
Elam wanted to train Lucas, but with his condition, there wasn't a lot he could teach. Lucas' body functioned differently, magicules had a forged and set path to go through before reaching the outside. If you put water in a tube, it would move around, but inevitably reach the other side. Now his tubes were replaced with a rough surface. Pouring water on it would make it randomly move around without direction. He needed to control his magic a lot more in detail if he wanted to do anything.
He spent the first few days figuring out how to move his magic around inside his core. While it proved to be a weak form of practice, it was better than risking his life with every attempt. Not long after, the guest teacher had arrived to teach Lucas about the theory of magic. He didn't know what to expect and was annoyed at the fact that it was free. There was no cost for his lessons, Elam said it was someone he knew, but even then he didn't like it. To him there were very few intentionally good people, and most of the time, they didn't look for power. A free meal had to be a cover for an ulterior motive.
"Ah, boy, this is my place and the guest teacher has his own place. It's at the top of this mountain."
Elam had stopped using Lucas's fake name as it didn't sit right with him, so he tried using other words to refer to his only pupil.
"You want me to reach the top of this mountain that's covered in an everlasting blizzard without magic protection?", he had to climb the mountain multiple times now. But the difference was that back then he could rely on fire magic to warm himself from time to time. Now he couldn't do the same without risking burning his insides.
"Yeah, good luck.", he said while giving a thumbs up from his sofa.
"Can you at least give me some directions or protection from the cold?"
"Hmm? Why would I, you won't die from climbing a bit. Plus, I know that you don't need any help from me to reach the top."
Lucas could only groan at that statement, he did have some ideas on how he could reach the top, but didn't want to risk anything.
"Don't look at me like that, Didn't I say I would be using your full capacity to reach my goal?"
"What is the prize of that contest even? What could be so important that you would need it."
Elam didn't reply, simply covering himself with a blanket and taking a sip from his freshly made tea.
"There are some clothes you can have in that cabinet over there."
Lucas knew he that was the best he was getting. Though it was subtle, Lucas noticed the slight difference in attitude. Elam had changed, like he had overcome something and gained back his initial confidence. He still acted lazy and liked his cozy place, but there was something else in his eyes. The apathy hidden within withered away like snow in the sun. Lucas felt Elam was happier, but he couldn't give it a place.
Reluctantly, he put on the winter clothes that were stored within the cabinet and went out to reach the top. Every time he exited the cabin, he was reminded of the comfort that warmth could give. The blizzard was atrocious to walk through, snow quickly piled up on him and made it hard to see. Luckily, he simply had to go up, since there wasn't a set path, he could blindly climb and still reach his destination.
Since he lost his ability to use even the tiniest bit of magic, he was extremely vulnerable. He had experience with meditating in the snow and achieving an unprecedented focus. When he was tasked to create a tiny flame in the blizzard, he started with emptying his mind and focussing on the feeling of conjuring a small flame. His mind didn't think anymore, needless thoughts were dispersed, and he didn't talk to himself.
He was focussed purely on the flame that stayed alight due to his constant fueling of the flame. At a certain point he was lost in his meditation, the only thing in his mind was the visual of the flame burning. This made him reach a flame that could resist the cold, a flame that didn't require warmth to burn. He didn't have the time to experiment with it further, and now would've been the perfect time if he could use his magic as he used to.
Sadly, any attempt at using magic could result in disastrous consequences. He only had a winter coat, leaving his hands exposed to the terrible frost. While the actual distance he needed to cover was small, the terrain he had to do it in made it seem like forever.
Due to the everlasting blizzard, snow had piled up to insane heights. The snow reached his abdomen, making his legs, but mostly his feet freeze. He kept moving forward, but his hands started to hurt, he could barely inspect his hands but knew they had to be a dark purple. At a certain point, he didn't feel them as well as before, like nothing was wrong with them. The blood had retreated from the cold, seeking shelter in the center of his body.
Lucas knew his mind was playing a trick on him, putting his hands in his armpits in hopes of keeping them warm. The moment he did so, his speed slumped. He needed his hands to create momentum to go forward. Moving forward in one direction made the snow in front of him pile up even more. He needed a sideways motion to lessen the pile somewhat.
He had been going for an unknown amount of time, but when he looked back, he could only see his own trail and the fury of the storm. If he bothered to look far enough, he would see his own trail being filled up by the storm, ending any kind of track he had left behind. His nose had frozen, feeling was lost, only the frozen eyelashes were visible. He didn't have the strength left to clear his vision. He could only move forward, and forward.
'We can't keep going like this.'
'I know, for all we know, we haven't even reached the halfway point.'
'Should we try using that?'
'You want to do that in the middle of the storm? Shouldn't we first look for some kind of cave or shelter?'
'What would it matter?'
'Are you seriously forgetting that this blizzard has magical properties?'
'So, it never stopped us from using magic, has it?'
'Still, now that we're in this state, I don't like our chances.'
'Fine, we'll find a safe place first.'
Lucas wanted to look for a place, but searching was impossible. His legs had given up, his hands didn't feel like they were there. His arms hurt, and his head was ringing.
'We don't have a choice, we need to do it here!'
His mouth had frozen shut, only his eyes were capable of opening up.
'Fine, let's do this as fast and safely as possible!'
Lucas had practiced hard to control the free flow of magicules in his body, slowly but surely creating a path inside his core. Sadly, the core had a stabilized area where he could practice without worry, the moment they left their safety bubble they could go ballistic.
He theorized that if he couldn't control the flow enough, he would simply use something that wasn't lethal if it was conjured up. His very first attempt was using water since he thought that even if water entered his body it wouldn't have such an impact, but he was clearly wrong. Once again, recognizing the ingenuity and complexity of the human body, only to hate how unstable and weak it was when exposed to reality.
This time he thought of it a little bit more, since every rune had its own function, he needed to find a non-lethal one. Looking over his spells, there were a few he liked to use more often than others. The blinding mist when combining a large amount of water with heat and the fire spear were his most used ones at the moment. Not that those were his strongest, since dark magic trumped all, nor were they his favorites. They were simple to use and could be activated in a quick manner while having a lot of use by themselves.
The mist cloaked his presence, while the fire spear could cause enough damage to his opponent or the environment, giving him space to breathe or run away. The one thing he needed to find was the rune that created pure heat. He knew a lot of runes out of his head, but that didn't always translate into knowing what each rune did. Before starting his climb, he figured out what rune he needed to use, the true challenge started now.
Chanting a spell would automatically consume the necessary magical energy in the core to perform it. Simply using a single rune didn't have these set boundaries, meaning he could pour all his energy into a single rune. Some runes simply helped with the speed of a projectile, so the energy would go to waste and enter the surroundings.
Using the rune of heat, he could make his flames stronger, but he simply wanted to use it to heat up his own body. So if the magicules couldn't reach the outside, they would warm up his innards. Still, suddenly increasing his body's temperature by 50 degrees would do more harm than good, really.
'Let's just hope we don't burn our innards...'