Element Manipulation

Cien, Kirana, and Legia sat on the grassy area near Fenrir's dwelling, enjoying their lunch that Cien had bought from Yelina.

As for Fenrir, he didn't need to be worried about food, as the villagers always provided him with meals. Just like now, Terrion arrived with a roasted deer monster and handed it over to Fenrir.

The villagers didn't worship Fenrir, but they respected him greatly as he was the face of the Moon Goddess on the surface world. Their attitude had changed significantly from a few days ago.

Some other villagers were busy building a large one-room house for Fenrir.

To Cien, the design of the building was like an indoor gym or, more appropriately, a giant dog house. But as long as both parties were satisfied, Cien had no objections at all.

During their meal, Cien felt Legia's intense gaze, full of questions, directed at him. He also sensed the same from Kirana, although not as intense as Legia's.

"What's wrong, Legia? Is the food not to your liking?"

"Eh? No, it's not that, Lord Millard! It's just that I want to ask you something personal, if it's okay?"

Cien tilted his head. Something personal?

"What is it?"

"Has Lord Millard mastered Water Magic to the level of a Master?"

"Not yet. Far from being a Master. I'm only Competent at it."

Hearing that, Legia blinked repeatedly, feeling a bit strange. Kirana beside her just sighed deeply, as she had already suspected it.

Kirana was curious about how her father could stop the water dragon even though his mastery of magic was still low.

"Ah~ about that, huh. Are you both training in Elemental Manipulation right now?"

"! Father knows?"

"Of course. Wait, why are you asking as if you don't know? Isn't this taught at the Magic Academy?"

"Not at all," Kirana replied, "We've heard the term Magic Manipulation a few times, but from the instructions given by Fenrir, we thought it was different from the Elemental Manipulation."

"When we trained with Veronica as well, she never mentioned this Elemental Manipulation. So maybe it's not taught at the Magic Academy either," added Legia.

Cien pondered, feeling a bit surprised and curious. He didn't think that Elemental Manipulation would be something forbidden in the kingdom, just like information about Proxies. So why wasn't it taught?

'Wait, where did I learn about Elemental Manipulation from?'

Cien immediately recalled that he never attended a Magic Academy. His Mana Nucleus quality is so low that Magic Academy doesnt want him to attend their school.

So everything about magic, Cien learned it from his Teacher. And Elemental Manipulation, maybe one of the studies he learned from his Teacher.

'Proxies, and then this… She just became more and more terrifying. Well, for someone like her, something like this maybe not really important though.'

Cien briefly remembered his Teacher figure who taught him many things. And as he recalled his past as her student, his body suddenly shivered. Cien suddenly glanced at the woods.

"How did Father learn it?" Kirana asked after finishing her meal.

"Sigh…" Cien breathed a sigh of relief, then glanced back at his daughter, "Do you know the difference between Magic Manipulation and Elemental Manipulation?"

"No," answered Kirana. Legia shook her head as well.

"In theory, magic is a technique to conjure something from nothing. Creating fire, water, ice, and so on out of thin air. Of course, we are not gods, so creating something from nothing is just a metaphor. Magicians need material to create magic. We call this material 'mana.' They convert mana into the magic elements they can control.

"Now, there's something called Elemental Manipulation. It is different from magic or many scholars called it Magic Manipulation, where it involves controlling and manipulating a large amount of mana to conjure or create a magic spell. Elemental Manipulation is about controlling an existing element. It's not something you create. Hmm, for example..."

Cien then recited the [Waterball] spell.

He showed how Magic Manipulation involved slight changes in the spell incantation.

These changes could alter the density, volume, size, and even the function of the magic. Additionally, Magic Manipulation involved controlling the amount of mana used.

The strength of a spell would depend on this. If a spell was created with a lot of mana, its power would be significantly increased. If it used less mana, the opposite would happen. This is what they call Magic Manipulation.

"[Waterball]."

Cien created a water sphere the size of a basketball, which then floated above the palm of his hand.

"Now, let me show you Elemental Manipulation. Watch."

Cien then transformed the water sphere into a tube that wriggled like a worm. He also shaped it into a ring and finally into an arrow, which he shot towards a distant tree.

Splash!

Well, it's just a water ball, so the result is really disappointing. But what's important is that with this Elemental Manipulation, Cien can trap every enemy's head with his water ball.

"Basically, Magic is something you created from mana. And Elemental Manipulation is the ability to control an existing element. Not creating but controlling.

"Usually, once you've learned a particular element of magic, you're also blessed with the ability to manipulate that element. That's why you can direct magical attacks at your enemies," Cien explained further.

Kirana and Legia felt enlightened by this revelation.

"So that's why the accuracy of magical attacks varies from person to person," murmured Legia.

"If that is the case, then we already knew it, but until now, we were just doing it unconsciously. And now we have to do it consciously. This is fascinating. Now I understand why it will strengthen our magic as Fenrir said. There are so many things we can do to attack enemies with this manipulation," Legia remarked, visibly excited.

Cien observed their joy and then added, "Don't forget one more advantage of being able to manipulate elements."

He opened his wooden water bottle and skillfully made the water inside dance in the air before returning it to the bottle.

"You can control elements that already exist," he said, explaining that Elemental Manipulation also depends on the amount of mana within oneself.

Cien, having little mana, can only control a limited amount of water. The size of the water dragon from earlier might be his maximum limit.

If it weren't for this mana limitation, Cien would be capable of doing much more, like retrieving the Heart of Ice without having to dive yesterday.

"Father, how do we manipulate elements?" Kirana finally asked, eager to learn the process.

"..." Cien thought for a moment and then answered, "I don't know… with feelings?"

"..." Kirana and Legia were speechless by the response.

Cien wasn't quite sure how to explain it, but he remembered that it was indeed what his teacher said. With feelings. To know the element you wield well and embrace it as if it were a part of yourself.

After explaining this, Cien cleaned up the food box and headed back home. He advised Kirana not to practice until nighttime.

Now that Kirana and Legia understood the purpose of the training given by Fenrir, they became even more excited.

"Yup, this time the results will be different from before!" Legia replied enthusiastically.

Kirana and Legia smiled and replied in unison, "With feelings!"

Hearing those words, the eyes of the two girls sparkled with excitement.

Meanwhile, Cien had returned to his shop, cleaning the wooden food box and bottle he had used earlier.

After that, he told Sella to take care of the shop and not disturbed him as he would be busy in the forge.

Cien had now learned what he needed to create weapons for Kirana.

'It's time!'

Cien thought as he headed towards the storage room. He opened one of the drawers in the Spawn Storage, taking out the material called Heart of Ice with the use of special gloves.

These gloves had been with him since the beginning, seemingly just ordinary gloves that were provided by his phone.

Cien always wore them whenever he worked on something in the forge or workshop.

Little did he know that when he searched for information on how to handle dangerous materials for himself using the Help feature in the application, he discovered that the gloves he had been wearing were far from normal.

These gloves could touch any material, even the deadliest and most poisonous ones, without harm. Cien felt foolish for not knowing this sooner.

Now, with the magical gloves, Cien could handle the Heart of Ice without fear of freezing to death.

Not only were the gloves extraordinary, but the shop area itself could suppress the effects of any material stored within it.

Cien brought the Heart of Ice to the workshop and placed it on the crafting table.

He cut it into two pieces using the craftsman's table. After cutting it, he kept one piece back in the Spawn Storage and took the other to the forge.

However, a problem arose when Cien tried to melt the material.

No matter how hot the fire he created, the Heart of Ice didn't melt at all. He even tried to increase the heat with a Rank 10 magic spell from his Fire Gloves.

The result was that it melted slightly but froze again instantly.

Seeing the situation, Cien realized that he had reached a dead end.

The recipe specified that he needed the fiery breath of a dragon to melt the Heart of Ice. Since Cien couldn't accomplish that, he thought maybe another type of fire could be an alternative.

As he had done with some other weapons, he would use alternative materials when he didn't have the required ones.

Besides, he knew that Huntara could create a crown from the Heart of Ice. So, did they use the dragon's breath? Impossible.

Unbeknownst to Cien, the crown was not created by melting the Heart of Ice but by carving it after the energy from the Heart of Ice was completely absorbed by a Champion at that time.

"Ugh, is all of this in vain? I thought the Fire Glove would be useful, but apparently not. Should I make an even stronger Fire Glove... but there's no material for it. Dragon... I have no idea where to find one. Sigh... the dragon I know of are only the Lesser Earth Dragon and Hela, and both of them are already dead."

"!!!"

Cien's hackles rose as he stood, hearing a wicked laughter in his mind. He recognized the voice.

'Hela!'