Those small snowflakes didn't alarm people, and those who did took it as a prank from some kind of apprentice.
Although the ice wasn't as prevalent as other elements. The place they frequented became the center of talents.
Or at least those talents are unwilling to fight.
While the continent grew quiet after the commotion of the new rising enemy church.
People returned to their previous lives. Without a select few, most people saw it as a part of their life.
A proof that humanity still exists tall.
As the human race grew content and didn't fear the aliens as much anymore.
The frontlines began to pick up its momentum. Battles broke out every day and sometimes even an awakened elder fell.
Frequent loss of such a powerhouse brought burden to the entire race and rumours spread about another descent of the great spirits.
That never happened. No one knew if it acted as a deterrent, but the aliens already had spies in the human race.
After all, they picked up the rumours incredibly quickly. In no time, they were testing how far they can go.
Their attacks varied, but never went into an outright gigantic scale battle without thought.
With the loss of talents. Higher ups decided to invest even more into the research of mana and thus gave Liam even more power.
Seasons changed and Liam continued with his experiments.
4 months after discovering the ice bolt, he learned that while he couldn't replicate the exact pattern to create the fire bolt, etc.
He could extract the essence of it.
The progress of the spell continued at a moderate pace. However, they were not ready for battlefields at all.
Their power lacked a punch, and the cost outweighed the use for now.
Stuck with some weak magical bolts. Liam turned his eyes on the scale of the production.
Unless he got some kind of great inspiration. He'd have to dig into the darkness to find a similar spell and then deduce similar elements.
And that needed resources. His so-called passive production couldn't keep up with his experiments.
Furthermore, due to his special status. He couldn't use the outside mana grains that got produced to experiment, either.
The problem of out, he figured out, but the problem of getting something inside still proved to be a conundrum for Liam.
So, he chose to find the perfect ratio of combining mana liquid and the step-by-step process in order to not waste so much mana.
The extent of the mana grain prowess couldn't compare to the mana liquid they invested.
In raw numbers without any other elements. The ratio could be very well in hundreds to one or worse.
His experiments produced quick results at first. But slowed down a lot after the initial rush.
The entire accumulation he had over the years exploded and gave him some progress, but he felt like the ratio turned from hundreds to seventy-seven to one at best.
That became his proudest achievement in terms of the progress.
The yields in other fields, not so much. Liam and his modern knowledge couldn't make him an instant architect, and many problems sprouted up over time.
Few things weren't even possible. Like a blueprint coming to the hands of a professional who has to deal with an outrageous mess.
Things that would make it better by small increments added needless work, and Liam didn't know the basics.
Where he could cut corners and where he couldn't. Tapping into the first era became out of question for him as well.
Not only he couldn't bring himself into it, but the constructs he designed had mana in mind.
A lot of things didn't exist in this world. Things like simple iron ceased and got replaced by metals imbued with mana.
Sometimes, ore called mana iron had more durability and usefulness than some orichalcum.
Yet, it never got used. Because any smith alive couldn't forge that mana iron essence.
Too difficult.
Certainly Liam wouldn't become a smith any time soon...
Things like hundred layer tempering or getting rid of impurities held no meaning in blacksmithing.
There you had to cast spells. Like a professional with a microscope, blacksmiths often spent weeks just readying the perfect high tier metal.
Things like 10% impurity didn't exist.
The entire system had a much more elaborate system, however, Liam didn't care about it.
What caught his eyes were the tools blacksmiths used. The power to see the essence of high tier material might bring him some progress.
Another set of problems arose when he met one. Such techniques became the core inheritance that even the church didn't wish to touch.
To them, the thought of a lineage of reliable blacksmiths sounded much more pleasing than spreading blacksmith techniques needlessly.
Of course, the church held the top tier blacksmith records in their hidden libraries all over the world.
Just anyone couldn't access such knowledge. Liam himself held little to none administrative power yet.
With it gone, he turned his eyes to another potential source. Although lacking in quality.
Small blacksmiths that had the bare minimum level of inheritance might give up their techniques.
The search began. The three elders didn't expect any early fruits, however.
No matter how small. An inheritance that held the power to see the impurities held real value.
While they looked for small, legitimate families. They also began to look at those that began to fall.
Fall and rise of a faction always led to one result. Hungry wolves devouring everything without the bones remaining.
They themselves didn't think that they were some cubs. The spiritual implication of Liam held some power inside them.
To the outside, they were quite serious and held a lot of prestige.
After all, if they threw it away. They would throw away a useful weapon for no reason.
Even Blythe knew it and didn't go out often in fear of breaking character.
An unawakened elder with bad reputation might not gain power and they'll find themselves to be at the bottom unless an olive branch appears.
In the end. The real power rested in the hands of awakened elders, the true veterans.
No matter how much a person can talk and has a little talent. When they didn't have humanity in mind or real genius.
Then they might as well higher the next thousand other potential unawakened elders that might hide some secret talents.
The competitive environment itself gave rise to many later famous awakened elders.
For now, he tossed the thoughts of the blacksmith's inheritance away and focused back on researching mana.
His recent breakthrough came when he managed to create a tiny bit more dense mana grain.
It didn't reach a level on its own, but if one hundred of these got stacked together. Then they would have rivalled one hundred and one normal mana grains.
The cost of the mana liquid returned to hundreds to one again.
He didn't mind. On the contrary, he saw it as a great thing.
Right now he had a direction where he could go with his experiments and he plunged into it.
Liam focused on first reducing the mana grain consumption of mana liquid and then threw a lot more mana liquid with the same technique.
From there, he spent more time polishing the new technique, and the cycle repeated itself.
2 years later, he created the 8th prototype, which had a ratio of hundred to hundred twenty.
Not a staggering change. However, Talia and others noticed the slight budge in their bodies.
Liam hypothesised that if he could bring mana grains to the ratio of hundred to hundred fifty or two hundred.
Then, the awakened elder realm might be possible.
Or at least, the breakthrough itself would become much simpler.
His newest version entered the eyes of higher ups as well. A week later, after the breakthrough, went public.
An awakened elder finally entered the city.
This time, the influence behind Akand and Talia couldn't stop the interest of the higher ups anymore.
Maybe their main sources of income wouldn't get impacted. However, Liam always stood as the wild card and the foundation.
If they brought away the foundation. Then their city might as well vanish.
The elder in question didn't come from an influence from Talia's or Akand's families.
A real awakened veteran from the church with no influence behind him.
With some negotiations, it became a guarantee that he wouldn't dare covet the piece of pie unless he found a backer.
Liam didn't know what kind of families stood behind those two, nevertheless, he had a more important thing to focus on.
The version eight gave him some leeway. His mental strength grew even more and his spells, if he could call them that, held more power.
No more small snowflakes in the count of dozens. A real mana strike that almost influenced its surroundings.
The gate or entrance from where the spells came from was at the exact core point of the hill.
At the peak, the spell would appear and fly as long as it fell under Liam's influence.
This time, thousands of small flakes fell with some ice appearing on a small patch of grass.
It disappeared a minute later, and no one took notice of the ice with some noticing the snow fall...