Earth and Ice

After Leus settled on his plan, he started a series of trial and error.

The more he experimented with the spell, the better he got at it.

And also, he came to know something

'Extremely sharp spears consume a ton of Mana to maintain'

'If I create as sharp daggers as possible and keep them active long enough, then I will fully deplete my Mana Pool without having to waste much time'

This was his new way to deplete his Mana Pool, which would increase the speed of his training by a lot ...

And like that, another session of relentless training began ...

This one took him one and a half months ...

After he was done, he was pleased with his progress

'The results are pretty good.'

'My mana pool is quite big now, also, creating two sharp daggers is really cool!'

Leus adjusted the length of Spear to be the size of a hand knife; to him, that was more effective and also

'It looks much cooler than spears'

Regardless of what Leus found cool, he decided to learn the second spell, Shield. So he went back to the book and began reading the details about it.

(Shield: Summons a rock barrier/wall for defense or strategic maneuvers. Customize its size, strength, and placement distance by adjusting the Mana spent.

Note: Just like spears, once you stop controlling it, it will disappear)

'Well, that sounds pretty easy and straightforward'

'It shouldn't be hard'

Leus quickly memorized the incantation, then went outside and repeated it

As soon as he finished the incantation, a rectangular rocky wall materialized in front of him ...

The wall was 2.5 meters high, 4 meters wide, and 15 centimeters thick ...

'So that's the standard version without any adjustments'

'If I try, I can change a lot about the characteristics of the wall'

'But there's no point in focusing on that'

He tried the spell a couple of times then decided to silently cast it

'It's not that hard'

'It feels just like adjusting Spear's length and hardness, though in a slightly different way'

'I only need to learn how to alter the width and the thickness of the wall'

It took Leus only two weeks to perfect that spell, and after he was done, he was very satisfied with the results ...

'It can be useful in blocking spears if I make it thick enough, and it probably completely blocks fireballs ...'

' ... The first fireball at least'

He was getting closer and closer to his goal, which made him very excited

'Only two elements are left, Ice and Water'

He decided to start with Ice, so he opened the book and flipped the pages until he reached the Ice chapter

(Icicle: An icicle that can be thrown at enemies. It is just like a Spear, but it is smaller, thus faster.

Note: Learning Ice spells becomes easier if you're already familiar with Earth spells because they share similarities, which makes the transition much easier than learning an entirely new spell.)

When Leus read that, he became more excited

'This should take even less time'

He memorized the incantations then went outside and used the spell, and as expected

'It's just a smaller spear in a different element'

There was basically nothing new for Leus to experiment with as the coldness of the ice was not a variable he could alter.

Slowly, his excitement faded

' ... This isn't just easier, it's also pointless'

Icicle simply taught him nothing new, which took away the fun of learning ...

'Well, it can't be helped'

'Arno said to master all the spells, so I've to master all, even the pointless ones'

'Maybe learning more Elements has its own value'

He tried to find solace in that thought and kept training ...

After training for a while ... Leus realized something

'Controlling Ice is easier for me than controlling Earth or Wind, but it's harder than controlling Fire'

' ... It's somewhere in the middle'

He started silent casting

'As always, I have to first learn how to transform Neutral Mana to Ice Mana, then learn how to control it'

At this point, Leus' Mana Pool was relatively big, which allowed him to train for much longer than when he first started.

At the same time, Ice was easier than Wind but harder than Fire ...

Because of all this, mastering the creation of Elemental Ice Mana took Leus only one month and one week.

After that was over, he began to silently cast the spell itself

'Well, there's not much to do here'

Leus found the overall experience disappointing ...

Each element he learned so far provided a sense of accomplishment; Wind boosted his speed, Fire enhanced his attacks, and Earth allowed defense, attack, and weapon creation.

'Apart from my affinity for Fire, or at least what I think is my affinity for Fire, I think Earth is the best element so far'

However, with Ice, he felt like he achieved nothing

'Ice taught me nothing new ...'

'It feels like it was just a waste of time'

' ... Maybe it'll be useful in the future'

Honestly, he didn't enjoy training on Ice at all, so he decided to quickly learn the last Ice spell ...

'Let's be done with this boring element ...'

He went back to the book and opened the Ice chapter

(Ice Wall: A wall of ice that can be used as a shield. There isn't much to say here)

' ... Very creative indeed'

' ... How exciting'

Leus chanted the spell only a single time then started silently casting it ...

'Yep, just like Shield'

'Honestly, my only solace is that ice consumes a little less mana than Earth'

'Ironically, I dedicated all my efforts to make mana consumption a non-issue for me, so even that is of no use'

Leus smiled wryly

'Maybe if I need to create a 100 wall or something I'll use ice instead of earth ...'

Regardless of how he felt, Leus kept on training for two more weeks to master both spells ...

At this point, Leus was three years and two months old ...

He quickly brushed off his disappointment and got ready to learn the last element

'Water'

'Keeping the best for the last'

But before he could immerse himself in training with Water, something happened ...

After about six months of his departure to the Strife Zone, Blaze returned.