Chapter 81: Nightfall

As Jay chatted with Kesar as they moved along, James walked through the woods along with the young man he had caught, and Sarah tested her theories for passing the exam with the unfortunate red-haired girl, the afternoon came. 

"Haa... is it just me or do you also think that we've been walking in circles...?" Said Kesar, who had a somewhat tired look on his face,

Even though he had rested less than 15 minutes ago, his physical energy was already starting to deplete again.

However, he couldn't be blamed, he was used to simply spending his time immersed in the study of elemental magic or learning and improving his spells, so a long walk through a forest whose terrain was uneven was quite exhausting for him.

"It shouldn't be the case, we've been checking the path every so often after all..." Jay replied.

Although his tone was confident, the reality was that he was also thinking the same thing.

It had been a couple of hours since they had escaped from the Aqugas snake, during which time they had been walking through the forest so that they could find somewhere else to stay until the next day.

Unfortunately, no matter how much or which direction they walked, the forest didn't seem to have an end, creating the false impression that they were walking in circles.

As for why they were going together, it just came naturally, not that there was much of a problem with this either since teaming up at this point was beneficial to both of them.

"Ahh, I can't take it anymore!" Said Kesar as he sat down abruptly near a particularly large tree.

Although he was a rank (C) super and his physical condition was superior to that of a normal person, it was no joke to say that they had been walking all afternoon, so he had inevitably reached his limit.

Seeing this, Jay couldn't help but smile uncomfortably in his mind, if he hadn't seen his status window beforehand, he really would have thought that this magician was just a normal person.

'And to think that a dual mage has such a bad physical condition...' Jay thought as he once again opened the mage's status window.

_____________

[Kesar Ghale]

Mana Control: (C-) 

Elemental Magic - Frost: (C)

Elemental Magic - Water: (D)

Trait - Cold Body (Passive): The user has a body which shows its best potential when in contact with cold. +15% power when using cold-related energy, +50% resistance against cold, +20% improvement to all attributes when in an icy environment.

Condition: Healthy.

Parasites: 2

Assimilation Status: 0% (0.5% per day per parasite)

(Warning: As the difference in energy between the [Carrier] and the [Host] is too big, the assimilation process has a high probability of failure).

_____________

Now that he was once again glancing at his status window, Jay couldn't help but continue to be impressed by Kesar's talent.

Although the Trait he possessed was basically a perfect complement to his spells and also the reason why he could ignore the cold, what surprised Jay the most was the fact that Kesar could also use elemental water magic.

According to the system, even though he could only use it at the level of a rank (D) mage, that alone was an impressive fact in itself. 

He had learned from both Sarah and his own research about the branch of elemental magic that the vast majority of its practitioner mages could only use one element, this commonly being one of the 4 main ones, earth, fire, wind and water.

However, there were always exceptions to everything, this time taking the form of mages who could not only use one of these elements, but also one of its variants, an example of this being the elemental magic of wood from the element of earth, frost magic from water, among many others.

Taking this into account, it was obvious that Kesar belonged to the latter category of outstanding magicians.

Putting that aside, Jay again focused on the current situation.

"How about using this stream so that you can establish your elemental zone...?" Jay suddenly said, looking at the small stream of water they had stumbled upon at the moment.

Since apparently walking around aimlessly wasn't yielding the best results for what they had planned, the idea of simply establishing the elemental zone in this place crossed Jay's mind.

Hearing Jay's proposal, Kesar began to consider it.

The main reason they had been moving after resting was so they could find a body of water large enough to be able to establish a strong elemental zone so they could both protect themselves from whatever they encountered, but unfortunately, they had had no luck so far.

The most they had found was a couple of small streams through which a thin stream of water ran and most likely came from the lake that the Aqugas snake inhabited.

Although these were also bodies of water, they were too small and could not help Kesar at all, making setting up an elemental zone near them the same as setting it up in the middle of the forest.

"Hmm, I'd at least like to find one a little bigger..." Kesar replied, somewhat reluctantly.

This was understandable, since doing it in this place would be difficult and take longer than the time he set up an elemental zone near the lake.

Even though both places were forests, the surroundings of the lake were much wetter than this place, so it was much easier for him to freeze his surroundings.

"Ah, I just had an idea." Said Jay, who had been watching the small stream intently.

"What is it?" 

"If we can't find a bigger creek, then we'll just have to create one."

After saying that, Jay walked over to the stream and activated his wind gloves, changing the shape a bit so that they were larger than normal.

He then crouched down and began to dig, creating a small path that diverted the stream towards another way, specifically, to the center of a particularly clear area that was nearby.

*Chak chak chak chak!*

Because his hands were not the most appropriate tools for it, he had to dig several times in order to make a more or less deep path.

"Ohh, good thinking!" Kesar said as he saw what Jay was doing before pulling out his wand, "But instead of using your hands, I think there's something better we could use." 

Drawing a simple magic circle, two ice sticks appeared, unlike the ice he had made earlier, this one looked quite a bit more sturdy.

"...Magic sure is convenient huh..." Said Jay, who was just thinking about plucking a branch from some nearby tree so he could use it as a shovel.

"To be honest, it's the first time I use this spell..."

After that small exchange, they both took the ice sticks and stuck them into the ground to drag them tightly, creating a path much more easily than when Jay was doing with his hands.

That way, they both began to make changes in the area, mainly focused on the creek.

***

After an hour and a half, the place that Jay and Kesar had designated as their temporary base was already showing noticeable changes, among them being the fact that in the cleared area there was now a large square hole at least 4 meters long and wide, as for its depth, it was only 2 meters.

However, although one could only see dirt on both the walls and the bottom of this hole, there was a thin layer of ice covering everything, with a small magic circle located at the bottom that gave off a faint light blue glow.

On the ground near this hole, there was a path about 50 centimeters deep that connected directly to the stream, its walls also covered by ice that did not melt.

The only reason that water was not yet flowing through this path was because there was a small piece of ice covering the connection between the dirt road and the creek.

As for the creek itself, this had also changed, mostly because it no longer followed downstream, but had been blocked by a large chunk of ice.

This caused the water to accumulate at one point, but they had also made a small hole for it, also covered with ice.

This was the product of tireless effort by a young man with a great deal of energy and a mage who tired too quickly to do manual labor but wanted to help anyway by icing everything in sight.

"Haa, good, I think it's all finished now, just need to break the blockage and the water will start filling the well." Said Jay, who had now taken off his tank top due to feeling too hot when he was digging.

Although he could use his wind control to cool down, he preferred to rest naturally as it was more comforting.

"Hm, we definitely did a great job!" Added Kesar, admiring the small earthen pit before undoing the ice blockage, "Now it's just a matter of waiting for it to fill up and my elemental zone will finally start to take shape!"

Just like that, water began to flow into the earthen well, since the stream didn't have too much water in the first place, it would take a while before it filled up, but the important thing was that it was already underway.

As for the magic circle at the bottom, this served the purpose that when the well was completely filled, all the water that came out would turn to ice, slowly spreading to the surrounding area.

This was the advantage of having a body of water nearby for a mage who belonged to an elemental branch of magic derived from water magic, only needing a magic circle to do all the work.

'...It wouldn't be a bad idea to find some rank (D) mage to be able to assimilate his skills...' Jay said as he looked at Kaser, quite interested after seeing what he could do. 

Even though the well had yet to fill, he felt the temperature in the surroundings gradually decrease, showing that it was already starting to take effect.

As for why he wasn't assimilating Kaser's abilities, it was simply because he would have to use all the parasites he had for it, besides, there was a high probability that the assimilation would fail, just as the system was warning him, and Jay knew very well that the system never lied.

"Is something wrong?" Kaser asked as he saw Jay staring at him.

"No, it's nothing, I was just thinking that magic really is convenient." Jay replied nonchalantly.

Without much else to do, the two began chatting as they waited for the well to fill, causing a couple of hours to pass without any interruptions.

Thanks to that, slowly but surely, almost at the same time as nightfall, the elemental zone of the rank (C) mage, Kaser, was finally completed!

***

At the same time that both Jay and Kaser were glad that their "line of defense" had been completed, other applicants were also relieved that the day was passing without much trouble, especially for those who decided to hide from the moment they were transported to the island.

"Heh, this test is simply too easy." Said a slender young man with brown hair who was currently sitting on a branch at the top of a tree, "Now I can just sleep for a few more hours and I'll have passed the test."

If anyone else heard what he had just said, they would no doubt think that he was a reckless person at the very least, after all, no one could really guarantee that some monster couldn't appear at any moment.

However, this young man could afford this because his esper ability was something special, granting him the ability to hear everything around him much better, from the small stream of water moving on the ground, to the wind lightly moving the leaves of the trees.

Thanks to this, he had already avoided encountering both postulants and some monsters that passed through this place.

"Ah, it seems that nature calls..." He said suddenly, interrupting his happy time and descending from the tree to the small river while unzipping the zipper on his pants.

*CHAK!*

"Agh-!"

Just then, when he was only a meter away from the stream, much faster than he could react, a transparent colored tentacle lunged towards him, wrapping itself around his neck and immediately beginning to exert pressure.

The young man quickly began trying to free himself, but the tentacle was simply too strong for him.  Gradually, despite his fervent efforts, he was losing his strength, until he finally lost consciousness.

*Thud*

With that sound, his body fell to the ground, the tentacle ceasing its grip on his neck and returning to the stream.

The next moment, a thin column of gelatinous mass that had the shape of an ice-covered snake rose from the thin stream of water, watching the unconscious young man for a moment before lunging towards him and swallowing him whole, its body growing in size so that it could completely cover the young man.

However, it did not stop there; the snake then began to move slowly upstream, carrying the young man's body until it reached the same lake from which Kesar and Jay had escaped.

In the middle of this lake, a particularly large concentration of gelatinous mass could be seen, which contained not only the pugilist it trapped several hours ago, but several other applicants, unfortunate victims who had either gotten too close to the lake or trusted the stream too much.

Most frightening of all was perhaps the fact that the weakest among them was a rank (C) super.

Although the Aqugas snake was special, it should also be taken into account that it could not have managed to catch so many victims in its normal state, but right now it was strengthened, being much faster and stronger than the time when it confronted Kesar and Jay.

The strengthening was due to nothing more and nothing less than the fact that it had gotten dark, which gave certain monsters an increase in all their attributes, the only consequence of this being that they became much more aggressive than in daytime.

This was a characteristic that only certain species of monsters possessed, but to the bad luck of the applicants, the whole island contained this kind of monsters.

As a result, not only had the Aqugas snake obtained several prey, but other strong monsters had also obtained a considerable harvest.

For the first time that day, the scales began to tip to the side of the monsters.