Chương 193: Flyabout

The majority of the student body departed the campus over the following days and for the rest of the week Damion did little else but practice his new spells. Ice Armor was more convenient than he thought it would be. The layer of ice he created coated his body and actually offered him protection in areas his normal armor did not cover. Despite being ice, the spell made it flexible, and it was almost as if he was wearing a skintight suit over his entire body.

What Damion thought was the best part of Ice Armor, aside from the full body protection it gave him, was that once Ice Armor was activated, he was almost indistinguishable from his Ice Clone. Damion felt that since he looked so similar he might even be able to confuse people with which one he was and which one the Ice Clone was. It would certainly increase the usefulness of both spells. As he continued to practice, he also discovered a benefit to Frost Over.

The spell was meant to chill the area and slow opponents, but Damion figured out that once the spell froze an area over, all his Ice spells were more effective and took less mana to maintain. This was a great perk for his Ice Sword and Ice Clone spell as well as his other new spell Summon Ice. At first, he felt the spell was completely useless, aside from using it as an alternative to Ice Sword to fly, though at a higher cost, Damion did not see much use in it.

But once he began experimenting with it, he realized how diverse the spell was. The only thing limiting Damion on the use of the spell was his imagination. Anything he willed; he could make the cube of ice he summoned do. He could even form it into multiple pieces and control them separately. With the right focus, Damion was able to turn the spell into crystals of ice similar to his Ice Shard, but dozens and launch them at a target.

The best part of the attack he worked out, was that since he could control these crystals, he could track a target, meaning it became much harder to avoid. After a week of practicing his magic, boredom began to set in. No matter how much he practiced, he could not advance his spells without practical application. With the battle simulators closed for the term, Damion had no choice but to try and convince Teft to let him go out and explore or at least go into the C Rank floors of the labyrinth.

The next morning Damion headed over to Mage Teft's office to try and convince her.

"Excuse me, I'm looking for Dean Teft," Damion said to an attendant that was watching over the entrance to the faculty offices.

"Dean Teft has entered the Silver Serpent dungeon to complete her advancement and likely will not return for several days." The attendant replied. The answer left Damion a bit miffed. Mage Teft had gone off to the school's S Rank dungeon to advance without so much as a word. It was not that Damion thought she needed his permission or anything, but he would have thought she would have liked him to know she was advancing to S Rank.

Since he could not get his teacher's blessing, Damion decided to go and ask for forgiveness later. With the school campus deserted for the term break, he felt it was the perfect opportunity to slip away unnoticed. It had been months since his fight in the labyrinth with the young nobles and Damion had not heard anything from the Thorns or the Fontanes. Besides, with his True Sight spell, he was easily able to detect people lurking in shadows or following him and he had not noticed anyone suspicious.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

"Going somewhere?" Elicia asked when she noticed Damion putting his armor on in his dorm room.

"Just a bit of flying with Phil," Damion said with a weak smile.

'Fly!' Phil's voice echoed in Damion's head.

"With your armor on?"

"Just as a precaution."

"Damion," Elicia started sternly.

"Don't worry. I just need to get out and do something. I won't go far."

"And you aren't taking me with you," Elicia sounded slightly hurt.

"I can travel faster if it is just me and Phil. I can also flee faster if someone does decide to come after me."

"You've been well behaved for the second half of the term, even Thomas has stopped messing with you. I'm pretty sure the nobles all instructed their scions to stop antagonizing you. Especially now that they have seen what happens when you are pushed too far."

"So, you think they won't bother me anymore?"

"It was never in their best interest to 'bother' you. They wanted what my grandfather wanted, to control you. To add you to their own forces. I think, they have figured out that isn't possible and now are working out how to slow down your growth."

"You mean keep me out of Breaches and not sell me any good artifacts."

"Precisely. If they truly wanted you dead, they could have sent an S Rank mage into the school at any time and killed you before any of the school staff could do anything. Doing so would be bad for their image, but killing you really isn't that hard. You haven't pushed them to the point where they want you dead, most likely they are still concocting some plan to trick you into joining them or an Order or a guild."

"And as soon as I do that I will find myself so busy that I don't have time for anything else." Elicia did not reply to Damion, only giving him a helpless shrug that told him he was right.

"What did Dean Teft say about you going out?"

"She is busy advancing to S Rank in the school's dungeon."

"I guess I will wait here and tell her where you have gone when she comes out."

"Wait… you aren't going to try and stop me?" Damion asked suspiciously.

"I can hardly stop you. And trying would likely just draw unneeded attention, you do, after all, intend to slip away unnoticed."

"Right… well… I will see you when I get back then," Damion said as he headed to the door. As soon as he opened the dormitory door Phil flew out. Circling around the dorm until Damion exited and started running towards the forested area of the school grounds. He disappeared in the trees and dashed off as fast he could once he was out of sight. A few minutes later Damion was sky surfing on his Ice Sword over the perimeter wall of the school grounds.

While technically once he was outside Silver Spire's grounds and away from Argentum Damion was in the wilds, but he was still in a White Zone and there was very little danger from Ferocious Beasts or Demonic Beasts in White Zones. It was actually quite common for ordinary people to build country houses in the wilds of the White Zone as vacation homes outside of Argentum and as Damion continued to fly away from the school he could spot several in the distance.

There was of course still the danger of those who choose to live their lives contrary to the rule of law, but in White Zones that was difficult given routine patrols. Most outlaw groups and factions preferred preying on Yellow Zones, less likely to run into an Order patrol. Phil flew alongside Damion as they put more distance between them and the school and after about an hour of flying, they spotted mountains in the distance. If there was anything worth exploring in the White Zone it would be the mountains.

Damion altered his flight path and sped towards the mountains, intent on finding something interesting.