Chương 195: Breaking Out

'Stay away for now,' Damion sent to Phil. As far as he could tell, the Snow Hawk was still exploring the dungeon looking for Demonic Beasts. Until he figured out what this still area was, Damion wanted to keep his companion from also being trapped inside.

'Danger?' Phil questioned back.

'Maybe. Stay away from snow that doesn't fall.' Damion was not sure how else to explain what was going on where he was, but he hoped Phil would understand and avoid the area.

'Will wait for you.' Damion took Phil's message to mean it understood and would not be entering the stilled area. Now all he had to do was figure out what this area was. Trying again to pass through the barrier where he entered, Damion found he still could not pass through, even when he tried to force his way through. His next attempt was to try and break his way through the barrier, but even punching the barrier resulted in nothing happening.

His fist collided with it, but it was not like punching a wall, Damion's fist was just stopped on the surface of the wall, it did not even hurt when he struck the barrier. Since he could not punch through the barrier, Damion decided to try and break the barrier with magic. Stepping away from the barrier, he channeled his magic into Ice Shard and raised his palm to launch his attack at the barrier. However, as soon as Damion cast the spell the ice crystal he created just hovered in the air.

'This area must stop Ice magic or maybe all forms of ice or water,' Damion thought as he eyed his Ice Shard. He took hold of it, and like the snowflakes, he could move it around, but as soon as he let go of it, the ice crystal just hung in the air. Walking back to the barrier, Damion reached out and placed both his hands firmly on the surface. With a thought, he activated his oldest spell, Mana Absorption. As soon at the spell flared to life, Damion could feel the mana pouring into him.

The mana continued to flow into his core faster than anything else he had ever siphoned mana from. Recalling the spell description, Damion remembered that the higher the concentration of quality of mana in an object, the faster he could pull mana from it. This told him, that whatever this barrier was, it was powered by something with a lot of mana.

'System, status.' [Magic System] [System Level: 2] [User: Damion Wells] [Age: 18] [Magic Talent: EX] [Magic Affinity: Ice EX] [Mana: 4790/3084] [Magic Power: 7266] This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

[Mana Recovery: 53 P/S] [Strength: 114] [Dexterity: 124] [Vitality: 165] [Intelligence: 144] [Experience: 5, 700/10, 000] [Store Credits: 18, 538] When Damion saw his current mana was so much higher than his max he realized he probably would not be able to suck whatever this thing was dry. He deactivated Mana Absorption, not wanting to risk crossing the threshold of oversaturating his core. He could try again later, once his over charge of mana had bled off, but for now, Damion had a new plan to try.

From the Magic System's Inventory, Damion pulled out the sword his parents had given him. Ice magic was stopped in this place, but did that mean all magic was? Channeling his mana into the sword, he activated the fire attack glyph. The sword burst into flames, this was step one of his plan, confirming he could activate the sword. Damion did not want to use his fire pillar attack if the flame was going to get stopped as soon as he released it like his Ice Shard had.

The fire danced on the surface of the sword and as Damion wove the blade through several arcs and small bits of fire were separated from the blade to wink out, no flames became frozen in the air. He hoped this meant that his fire pillar attack would work. Damion moved a dozen paces from the barrier and turned, pointing his sword at the barrier and unleashed his attack. A torrent of fire shot from his sword and hit the barrier.

The fire splashed against the invisible wall and ran along it for several meters in all directions from the point of impact. As the flames spread out across the surface of the barrier, Damion continued to channel mana into his sword. He already knew this was a strong barrier, but he did not believe it could forever withstand his assault. All he had to do was punch a hole in it.

After nearly two minutes of spewing flames on the barrier, Damion began to wonder if his plan would work, but he was finally rewarded for his perseverance. A small hole formed and small stream of fire was shooting out from the other side of the barrier. Keeping his focus, Damion continued to channel mana into his sword and kept his attack pinpointed on the breach.

The hole began to expand and when it reached about a quarter meter wide, Damion rushed forward and stabbed his sword into the hole and slashed down, cutting a gap. Not wanting to find out how long the hole would remain, Damion darted through. Once back in the falling snow Damion looked at the stilled area. The gap he had made was already sealing up and if he was not careful, he could easily walk right back through the barrier and be trapped again.

Damion reached out with his hand and it passed right through where he knew the barrier was. Now, since he knew what to look for, he could see the snow on the other side of the barrier floating and not falling. After storing his sword back in the Magic System's Inventory, Damion raised his palm and cast Ice Shard into the stilled area. The Ice shard stopped midair as soon as it passed through the area.

'Well, at least I can tell where the edge of this thing is,' Damion thought as he raised his palm and cast Ice Shard a dozen times angling each one further down the edge of the barrier. As long as he could see into the barrier, he could use his own Ice magic to discern the edge of the thing and keep himself out.

'Phil, come to me.' Damion sent to the Snow Hawk. He was not sure where the Ferocious Beast was, but he did not want Phil to accidently get stuck in this barrier if it came looking for him later. Once Phil was perched on Damion's shoulder, the two set off along the outer edge of the stilled barrier. Every so often he would cast a dozen or so Ice Shards to mark the edge of the zone as the searched the dungeon for signs of life, or at the very least, the dungeon core.

'Strange,' Phil sent to Damion as the Snow Hawk watched Damion's Ice Shards stop midflight.

"Strange indeed," Damion answered. As Damion and Phil kept walking through the dungeon along the edge of the stilled area, it became apparent that the stilled area was circular. This led him to believe a couple of things. One was that, roughly judging from the circumference of the barrier, the stilled area took up most of the dungeon. The other two things Damion believed were that the source of the barrier was at its center and that most likely in that same area he would find the dungeon core.