69novels Chapter 103: Wow, Rewards Pour In Aplenty! (3)
Chapter 103: Wow, Rewards Pour In Aplenty! (3)
✦ Chapter 103 – Wow, Rewards Pour In Aplenty! (3) ✦「Translator – Creator」
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A phenomenon where the entire forest freezes over was truly unusual. It was just as Greta was preparing for battle.
“Aaah!”
Something tumbled gracelessly from the sky, landing with a soft thud on the frozen ground. It wasn’t an object, but a person.
A young woman, to be more precise, her features vaguely resembling a rabbit.
*Thud!*
Three more figures descended from above, landing gracefully on the ice.
“Remember, the closer you feel to falling, the more you should lean into the descent. I told you about this technique,” one of the women said, shaking her head.
Yes, yes… My body just doesn’t seem to cooperate…”
“I’m glad you didn’t get seriously hurt.”
Greta’s gaze, however, focused not on the women, but on the man at the center. He seemed to be the key figure.
‘Strong.’
An overwhelming aura of cold surrounded him, meticulously controlled and refined. Even standing still, he emanated a sense of power that sent shivers down her spine.
With a sunweed in his mouth, he spoke.
“Freezing everything is quite exhausting.”
“…You… you
It seemed Greta had already made up her mind.
“We don’t understand. Giving it to these… strangers…?”
“Greta! Please reconsider!”
“Do not worry too much. I’m merely showing it.”
Ignoring the frogs’ continued protests, Greta turned toward Ezekiel, holding out the disc.
“Inspector of the Imperial Magic Tower, do you see a way to fill this?”
She asked the question casually, but then gasped in surprise.
The intensity in Ezekiel’s eyes was startling. As if he’d been transported to another world.
‘Taxidermy Magic…’
Ezekiel immediately recognized the nature of the disc.
Within its sections, flames danced, darkness swirled, winds howled. Pure, unadulterated elemental energies, preserved within the disc.
This was no simple channeling of elemental power.
This was something far more complex, far more intricate. Greta had captured a specific moment in time, preserving these elemental essences in their purest form.
Taxidermy magic, preserving not life, but the very essence of elemental energy.
Greta had evidently poured a lot of effort into this. The craftsmanship was beyond what a high-difficulty technique could describe.
“Ice is the only element I couldn’t capture,” Greta muttered.
Seina’s eyes widened.
“Why is that? Capturing the ice element should be the easiest task.”
“Ordinary ice just melts away. Simply capturing ice that doesn’t melt wasn’t enough. I believed there was a more exquisite form of freezing.”
Ice that doesn’t melt is just that: it doesn’t melt. Visually, it’s indistinguishable from ordinary ice.
Greta’s words conveyed her regret. Seina, who had a deep affinity for ice, also roughly understood her sentiment.
It was then that Ezekiel spoke.
“Black Tower Master, what kind of ice did you have in mind?”
Greta nodded slowly.
“I envisioned… a frozen waterfall.”
As if wanting to picture the image she had in mind in detail, the Black Tower Master closed her eyes briefly.
“Ice is inherently static, unchanging. It cannot move or flow. But what if the ice could flow? What could be more beautiful than that?”
Ezekiel quietly rubbed his chin, pondering the concept of flowing ice.
Flowing… ice?
It was Seina who broke the silence first.
“Incorporating a flowing element into ice is a nearly impossible feat even in the Blue Tower. For it to be on the scale of a waterfall, the difficulty would be exponentially higher.”
“I know very well that it’s almost impossible. That’s why I called it stubbornness.”
“It’s challenging. No, it’s unattainable.”
Tether and Agnes also wore conflicted expressions.
The more they thought about it, the more they realized just how absurdly high the difficulty was. Fire burns, wind spreads, ice remains frozen.
These were the basics. But how could one make ice flow?
At that moment, Ezekiel returned the disc.
Greta nodded, as if she understood.
“…So, it’s impossible after all?”
Ezekiel did not answer with words.
Instead, he focused his will, drawing upon his mana, and unleashed a wave of icy energy…