Chương 134: Better Knuckles

After unlocking Earth Creation, Sieghart naturally turned his attention toward Ice Magic, the remaining elemental branch whose current techniques offered control but very little variety. Frozen Floor controlled terrain, while Ice Shuriken supplied cutting and piercing damage. Both remained useful, yet neither felt like the kind of new tool his arsenal currently lacked. Before committing to another experiment, Sieghart wondered whether Black Magic contained elemental branches he had never encountered.

Poison had appeared only after someone explained its principles properly. There could be metal, light, darkness, acid, sound, smoke, gravity, or something considerably stranger waiting behind concepts he had never attempted to shape through mana. Normally, Sieghart would have searched the library until he found something useful. Unfortunately, records describing unusual combat magic were scattered, restricted, or written by people who enjoyed avoiding practical explanations.

For a change, he decided to ask Mira directly, leaving the basement during late afternoon with several carefully worded questions already prepared inside his thoughts. The door stood open when he arrived, but the office beyond it was completely empty, with Mira's chair pushed beneath an unusually organized desk.

"Weird." Sieghart remained beside the doorway and examined the room. No abandoned meal waited among the paperwork, and none of Mira's personal notes remained open. She was almost always there during this part of the day. Mira regularly continued working after sunset, organizing guild missions and correcting whatever disasters other members created.

Sieghart considered waiting, but sitting inside her office without permission would make him resemble Ronan, and that possibility was unacceptable for several unrelated reasons. He returned to his room and decided to ask later. Ice Magic did not require Mira's assistance, especially when he already understood enough basic principles to begin experimenting safely. The larger problem was choosing what to create.

Ice could cut, pierce, crush, trap, preserve, reinforce, obstruct, numb, freeze, and occasionally make people regret standing on floors. Another blade seemed redundant beside Ice Shuriken and Wind Blade. A spear offered better penetration, but Mana Sword could already become almost any piercing weapon he required. Creating defensive ice armor sounded useful until Sieghart remembered how quickly the Orc King shattered thick frozen layers simply by flexing his muscles.

He wanted something simpler, faster, and satisfying enough that repeated practice would not become unbearable after the first several hundred attempts. Sieghart crossed his arms and imagined an enemy standing several meters ahead. Then he pictured an enormous fist of ice appearing beside that target and punching it directly across the face. For some reason, the image felt strangely refreshing, as though the spell would allow him to express several opinions without uncrossing his arms.

There was something appealing about remaining still with his arms crossed while a floating guardian delivered every necessary punch on his behalf. It reminded Sieghart of stories from his previous life, where spectral warriors appeared behind dramatic people and handled violence while their owners focused on looking unnecessarily confident.

"Worth trying." The first attempt produced a misshapen block with four uneven cylinders attached. It looked less like a fist and more like frozen vegetables attempting organized crime. Sieghart dismissed it before anyone could enter and misunderstand what he considered acceptable magical craftsmanship. His second attempt included recognizable fingers but lacked a functional thumb. Shaping a fist required more precision than expected.

Every finger needed proper proportions, the knuckles required reinforcement, and the wrist needed enough structure to survive impact. A solid block would have been stronger, but Sieghart wanted the shape to guide force naturally instead of striking targets like an unusually decorative brick. He created joints inside the fingers, compressed denser ice around the knuckles, and left narrow channels through the center to distribute mana during movement.

The first completed fist floated above his desk and rotated slowly. Sieghart admired it for several seconds before realizing he had no idea how to launch it efficiently. Pushing from behind made the fist wobble. Pulling it telekinetically worked better, but using Psionics would prevent the technique from becoming a proper Ice Magic spell. Sieghart instead formed a continuous stream of cold mana through the wrist, treating it like the pressure behind Water Cannon while preserving the fist's physical shape.

The construct shot forward, crossed half the room, turned sideways, and struck the training board with its smallest finger, which immediately shattered upon impact.

"So much for dignity." He spent the rest of the first day adjusting balance. The wrist became narrower, the knuckles heavier, and the mana channel shifted toward the fist's center. By midnight, the construct could travel straight and strike correctly, although its speed remained slow enough that an ordinary person could avoid it by becoming mildly attentive. The second day focused entirely upon acceleration.

Sieghart increased pressure behind the wrist, reinforced the outer surface, and repeatedly punched stacked boards from different angles. Too much speed shattered the fist upon impact. Too much reinforcement made it heavy, slow, and expensive enough in concentration to become impractical. Sieghart eventually learned to freeze the target at the instant of contact rather than filling the entire construct with maximum cold from the beginning.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. That change preserved stability during flight, then released a burst of freezing mana through the knuckles once the fist struck something solid. The impact crushed the outer board, spread frost through the second, and briefly left the entire training stack stuck together beneath a thin layer of ice. More importantly, the sudden cold numbed whatever the fist touched.

Against living targets, that should interfere with muscles and nerves long enough to produce a brief stun. Sieghart visited Mira's office again that evening, only to find the room empty for the second consecutive day despite her usual schedule. No guild member nearby knew exactly where she had gone, although one receptionist mentioned that Mira had left early and taken several sealed documents. Sieghart found that strange but not alarming.

The guild master occasionally handled matters outside Lunar Arc, even if she usually informed him whenever her absence might matter. He returned to training on the third morning. The spell now possessed proper shape, impact force, freezing effects, and enough accuracy to strike moving targets. Sieghart created three wooden pendulums, set them swinging at different speeds, and practiced summoning the fist from angles that avoided predictable frontal attacks.

The construct missed repeatedly at first, smashed one rope, punched a wall, and forced Sieghart to repair another section before Mira eventually discovered the accumulating damage. By afternoon, the fist could curve slightly during flight. By evening, Sieghart could create it beside a target and launch it before the target completed one full movement. He crossed his arms again, summoned the icy fist near the final swinging board, and gave the construct a single command through mana.

The fist accelerated, and its reinforced knuckles struck the board's center, shattered the wood, and released freezing mana through every broken piece before continuing another meter. A notification appeared while frost drifted through the room and the fist slowly dissolved into glittering fragments above the floor. New Ice Magic spell acquired: Glacial Fist — Level 1. Creates a dense ice fist that strikes through remote control, inflicting blunt force, freezing tissues, and briefly stunning targets.

Grants +2 Magic per level. Sieghart smiled while examining the notification. Two Magic per level made the spell worth training, while its impact, freezing, and stunning effects filled several gaps simultaneously. Glacial Fist lacked the penetration of Water Jet or the range of Giant Fireball, but it activated quickly and could attack from awkward directions.

With enough levels, Sieghart might create larger fists, launch several together, alter their trajectories, or keep one floating nearby like an extremely aggressive bodyguard. The idea pleased him more than it should have, especially when he imagined silently crossing his arms while frozen fists handled every inconvenient conversation. He dismissed the remaining ice, recorded the spell's first measurements, and headed toward Mira's office for the third time that week.

Once again, her chair was empty, and Sieghart stood in the doorway longer than before while the guild continued moving normally behind him. Three consecutive absences could still mean ordinary guild business. Mira had responsibilities beyond watching Sieghart invent new ways to damage underground walls. Even so, Mira usually left messages when she expected to remain away for several days, particularly after repeatedly trying to push Sieghart toward outside work.

This time, she had said nothing, leaving Sieghart to wonder whether her disappearance involved business she considered too sensitive to mention beforehand. Sieghart slowly turned away from the empty office, deciding that learning about additional Black Magic elements could wait until Mira finally returned. Unfortunately, curiosity about her absence had now become considerably stronger than curiosity about whatever spell he intended to create next.

The following morning, Sieghart cleared the center of his room and arranged several wooden targets around the walls, intending to continue refining Glacial Fist before attempting another technique. He had barely formed the first floating fist when someone knocked three times, waited several seconds, and knocked again instead of opening the door without permission.

Sieghart dismissed the spell and looked toward the entrance, mildly surprised that Ronan had finally developed an instinct for self-preservation after years of deliberate ignorance.

"Come in." Ronan opened the door cautiously and examined the floor before placing either foot inside, apparently confirming that no layer of ice waited beneath the threshold.

"You knocked."

"I got tired of slipping whenever I didn't."

"That consequence was intentional." Ronan entered carrying a travel pack, two short blades, and a folded cloak rather than another ordinary mission notice, making the visit immediately more suspicious than usual. Sieghart glanced over the equipment, then toward Ronan's expression. The man looked casual, but his shoulders remained too controlled for the visit to involve burrowing beasts or merchant wagons.

"I've got another job for you."

"I'm still training."

"You can train along the way." Sieghart turned back toward the nearest target and began gathering ice again, deciding that refusing without further discussion might save both of them several predictable arguments.

"We're going to help Mira." The forming ice collapsed into water and struck the floor. Sieghart slowly looked back, raising both eyebrows while Ronan watched him with unusual seriousness.

"Help how?" Ronan closed the door behind himself before answering, then leaned against it as though preventing anyone outside from hearing mattered more than pretending the conversation was casual.

"For once, your deeply unpleasant disposition toward social interaction is useful. You don't spread information, mostly because you avoid talking to anyone who might listen."

"That sounded like an insult."

"It was also praise." Sieghart crossed his arms and waited. Ronan's humor usually became more frequent whenever something bothered him, making the forced casualness considerably less reassuring.

"Mira rarely leaves Seraphina personally unless something important needs to be handled quickly, quietly, and without giving anyone enough time to interfere." Sieghart remembered the empty office, the sealed documents missing from her desk, and the fact that nobody nearby had known where the guild master went.

"This is one of those times?" Ronan nodded once, losing the smile entirely before reaching inside his coat and removing a narrow strip of paper covered with coded marks.

"A distant relative of hers was kidnapped because of an inherited ability. Mira left immediately after confirming who had taken him and where they were moving."

"A descendant of Seraphina?"

"Yes."