Only Wisdom Awakened - Chapter 125

Chapter 125: Nature’s print
Couldn’t it be that… there is one of those beneath our feet?”

‘If that’s the case, this might be doable’

“Caleb, old man, hold it off, I’ve got something that’s worth a try”

“Hey, I’m not old! who gives you the courage to talk to me like this?” exclaimed the dean.

But as if he didn’t exist, Hans continued speaking:

“Don’t get too close, just one touch of his will be enough to freeze you on the spot, and if it tries to shoot some cold mana at you be careful, it will have the same effect, thankfully, its spells are quite slow so you should easily be able to evade them.

Now go! I need to concentrate.”

“This damn…. Fine! But as soon as this is over I’ll teach you how to respect your seniors”

Once again, the two melee fighters stepped forward, while Hans remained behind.

But this time, Hans had an idea, a plan to crack open that annoyingly tough exoskeleton.

The keys to the plan’s success lay in three things.

First of all, the monster was able to regenerate, but such a power undoubtedly consumed an incredible amount of energy.

According to the description given by his {mystic insight} all the powers gained by the man came from burning his own life energy, meaning that if injured badly enough, maybe over and over again, the monster would eventually run out of life force to burn, and fall to the ground lifeless.

Seeing how quickly the creature had regenerated from the superficial injuries dealt to it by the two men, it was unlikely that they would’ve been able to kill it just by insisting on what they were doing, not like they had the stamina to do that anyway.

That’s where factor two came in.

The only reason Hans could find to motivate the melting of the ice on the surface was unknown to most people, and even he had found it by coincidence while reading in the library at the New York Association branch…

A couple of months earlier, while Hans was living inside the association’s library, he found something interesting inside the book regarding mages’ interaction with nature.

He discovered that mages weren’t only limited to creating elements in their spells, but also altering nature’s ones, even though this was only limited to high-ranking mages.

The book was written by a fifth-circle American mage, who after receiving this revelation from one of the only seventh circles of the time, fantasized about the possible uses of this ability.

He wrote that for water mages, the best environment to fight in would surprisingly be a lake or a river, instead of oceans, which would be more difficult to manipulate because of their high salt density.

Then, he spoke about how thunder mages would find it easier to fight in the cities instead than fighting under a thunderstorm, motivating his reasoning by explaining that thunders would be too fast and high voltage to control and that instead, the electrical power flowing through the cities’ wires would’ve been more than enough to supply mage’s fight.

He then began speaking about cross mages, for example, mages who used both wind and water would’ve found an advantage while fighting under a rainstorm, and so on…

A specific mention that interested Hans was the advantage of a fire and earth cross mage.

After stating that the obvious choice would’ve been to fight in, or in the vicinity of a volcano, he started pondering how could such a mage possibly make use of the element manipulation everywhere.

Initially starting from the unrealistic idea of extracting magma from the depths of the earth, he then became more conscious and brought up the crucial subject of Hans’s interest:

Magma chambers.

Magma chambers are the reserves of lava under volcanos, but something that is unknown to most people is that not all magma chambers have interactions with the surface.

The underground magma chambers can be from 1 to 10 kilometers deep inside the earth, but if a high-ranking flame and earth cross mage had the intention to bring it out, that would’ve been possible.

It was still a difficult condition to fulfill, but if a mage managed to control magma freely, he would be able to face off against an SS-rank warrior.

There were two situations in which a magma chamber could be positioned beneath you, first, if the land was heated without any thermal sources around.

And second, if the land was infertile even if the conditions to cultivate it were all covered.

The second option was incredibly specific, but the first one could be used.

‘I need to confirm it first of all’

Hans began releasing his mana into the dirt, using it like a bridge to feel what was underneath the ground.

He dug deeper and deeper into the ground, but he still couldn’t find anything.

The road however was still long, since his mana had spread only one kilometer underground.

A few hundred meters deeper, Hans’ mana control was heavily influenced by the distance from its owner.

It was like a computer too far from its server.

The connection began to cut off, and Hans found himself blind.

But with even more mana poured into the ground, he finally managed to feel something.

It was hot, it was pleasant, it was a reserve of fire mana.

“It’s here!”

Exclaimed Hans, relieved.

Now the third condition to success: I need to manipulate the element.

Manipulating nature’s elements is something only a high-ranking mage can do, and the reason for that is their high mana affinity.

An incredible affinity is needed to modify already existing mana, and there is a reason for that.

If we take into consideration the world as a blank sheet of paper, casting a spell would be something similar to using some ink, which in this case would be mana, to interact with it.

The way a mage does that depends on the magic path they choose.

For example, a water path might be like a painting and a thunder path like writing, and then a fire path could be different brush strikes.

But changing the elements to use them in your favor is something completely different, it would be like changing the shape of already-dried ink, that has been in the same form for a long amount of time.

The mage has to take control of that ink, and then direct it the way they want.

That is what Hans had already tried to do, and failed.

The last time I attempted to do this… I was still a fifth-tier, inside the library, I tried to manipulate a glass of water, but instead ended up destroying the glass by smashing it with my mana.

This time, my mana affinity is higher, and I don’t have to control anything so precisely, so I might have a chance….

I hope at least’

He thought, catching a glimpse of the ongoing battle.

Saying that the two couldn’t continue like that was an understatement.

It was way beyond their capacities, they both felt it.

As the fight dragged on, the air they were forced to breathe in hurt their lungs like spikes.

Every single movement they did put an ever greater strain upon their bodies, widening the difference between their levels and the monster’s.

The situation wasn’t getting worse linearly, but exponentially.

‘They won’t hold five minutes’ observed Hans.

‘I must get it, and I must do it quickly’

Experimenting with the magma, Hans had now created a clear mana path between the surface and the chamber, the only thing he had left to do was to control the magma, and create an opening for it to reach the surface.

His mana path of the earth element, even if only fourth tier, was more than enough to open a fissure in the ground, what he still lacked was a way to control the magma.

Trying to modify the shape, he played around with the boiling magma but his efforts didn’t succeed, something still wasn’t right.

How could he even do something like completely erasing nature’s inscription to create new material? The book was wrong!

It had to be wrong!

But… if the book was wrong, what was of him now? What about these efforts to stay alive? Should he have just run away? Why was he here in the first place?

He only had one objective..he wanted to save his parents and his sister.

Is this where his goals brought him? To die at the hands of a worthless monster whose life was counted on a timer?

It couldn’t be!

It shouldn’t have been!

“There is no way.

There is no way I’m dying here.

If I cannot reshape the world’s mana…

Then… I will just…. Move it!”

All of Hans’ mana was released into the ground at once.

The energy sunk deep, reaching in a few seconds the magma chamber.

Once it came in contact with the magma, the mana wasn’t used to try and manipulate it, it was instead enveloped around pools of magma.

“Come to me!”

With all his remaining strength, Hans recalled his mana from the depths of the earth.

And at that moment, even if his eyes, covered in blood because of the incredible strain on his body, couldn’t see what was in front of him, a window popped up:

[congratulations! you have gained the skill: {telekinesis}

(Tier-….

….

..

7)

]