A few days later...
At the church in Hage Village, the priest, a white-haired man dressed in a black clerical robe, stood outside, staring at the dried-up pool with furrowed brows.
Next to him, a nun, also dressed in a black robe with a black veil covering her head, approached.
"Father, is something wrong?" the nun asked as she noticed the priest's concerned expression.
The priest, pacing around the pool, muttered, "Strange... Why has the water stopped flowing into the pool?"
The nun was taken aback. "Could something have happened upstream?"
"Perhaps," the priest said, deep in thought. "But... something like this hasn't happened in years."
The nun's face grew serious. "Could the stream have dried up?"
"Don't be ridiculous! How could the stream dry up?" the priest replied sharply. Then, after a pause, he added, "I'll be heading out today. Take some time to check upstream, will you?"
The nun nodded. "Understood, Father."
A few hours later, after completing her tasks, the nun set off upstream.
The journey wasn't far, about 3–4 kilometers, and after some time, she arrived at the riverbank.
However, the sight before her left her stunned.
The once-flowing stream had turned into a frozen river.
The nun stared in disbelief. "What's going on? Could someone have deliberately cast magic to freeze the river?"
She continued walking along the riverbank. As she moved, she noticed the temperature steadily dropping. What she saw next astonished her even more.
Everywhere she looked, trees, the ground, and other objects were covered in ice.
If she hadn't been familiar with the area, she might have thought she had wandered into an arctic region.
Amidst the frozen scenery, she spotted a figure. A man stood still, his body partially encased in ice—it was Lin Hao.
Lin Hao was training, pushing the limits of his ice-based abilities granted by his Ice-Ice Fruit.
"Haah!" Lin Hao exhaled a breath of cold air, gauging the limits of his powers.
Although he couldn't yet match the abilities of Kuzan (Aokiji) from One Piece, he knew the system had only given him the fruit's potential—it was up to him to develop it further.
Currently, large-scale freezing was beyond him.
As for his natural magical attribute, it was plant-based.
Lin Hao opened his grimoire, which floated in mid-air, glowing with a green light.
"Wood Creation Magic: Bind!"
Thick vines shot up from the ground, wrapping around an ice-covered tree.
Lin Hao sighed. His plant-based magic paled in comparison to the powers of his devil fruit.
Still, he admitted the system had been kind in gifting him the Ice-Ice Fruit. Without it, relying solely on his plant-based magic, becoming strong would have been much harder.
"Excuse me?"
A gentle voice came from behind him, breaking his thoughts.
Lin Hao turned around instinctively.
"You're the one from the grimoire tower the other day," the nun said, startled.
Lin Hao looked at her, puzzled. "Do you know me?"
The nun shook her head calmly. "No, but I saw you at the tower that day."
"The grimoire tower?" Lin Hao recalled the event vividly. It was hard to forget.
"This is your magic? Incredible," the nun said, admiring the ice sculptures around them.
Lin Hao nodded.
He recognized the nun from the anime Black Clover. She had appeared early in the series, and he remembered how Asta had once proposed to her, only to be harshly rejected.
"Are you training?" the nun asked.
"Yes. Is something wrong?" Lin Hao replied.
"You froze the river. The water upstream is now diverted to another channel, leaving Hage Village without water," the nun explained calmly.
Lin Hao simply said, "Oh." He had frozen the river and its surroundings only to test his limits. Now that the test was over, he had no reason to repeat such an action.
He released his freezing powers, thawing the area, and chatted with the nun for a while.
During their conversation, Lin Hao noticed a small tear-shaped mole beneath the nun's eye, a detail he hadn't paid attention to while watching the anime. It added a unique charm to her composed demeanor.
Their exchange was interrupted by shadows passing overhead.
Lin Hao instinctively looked up.
In the sky, five figures riding broomsticks descended and landed near him.
The scene grew tense as new players entered.