Chapter 291: The Nether Ice Sea
"It worked!" Ayrin exuberantly cried out as he watched the domain around him get sucked into the book between his hands. Afterwards, he turned to Malcolm and asked, "Mister Malcolm, what does your domain do?"
"The rumors were true. He has actually managed to learn Liszt's Holy Gate of Life," Malcolm inwardly exclaimed. A complex look emerged in his eyes as he observed Ayrin and slowly replied, "Spiritual Wheel, Domain of the Lost forcefully restricts an opponent's mind, making it more difficult for them to invoke and control their arcane skills. Some might not even realize they have fallen under the domain's powers."
"Restriction?"
"Yes! Furthermore, it will affect anyone, even if their mental strength is particularly strong or if they possess an artifact which defends against mental attacks. This is because the domain doesn't accomplish this through attacking neurons, but through a special arcane energy enchantment."
"So powerful!"
Ayrin's face was full of admiration as he stared at Malcolm and said, "I didn't expect for mister Malcolm to be so powerful. I had thought you were much weaker than Teacher Liszt."
Malcolm was rendered completely speechless by Ayrin's straightforwardness, "……"
"Ayrin." But he managed to quickly regain his composure as he turned serious once more, "Although my domain is quite unique and powerful, you must understand that every arcane master within the Abyss of Evil has also mastered similarly strange and powerful domains and taboo skills. These skills and domains all interact with each other in different ways, sometimes positively, sometimes negatively. Just know that it is impossible to predict what opponents you will encounter within the Abyss of Evil. If you enter, you must be resolved to fight for your lives, just like your Teacher Liszt and the others."
"Mister Malcolm, we are arcane masters. Of course we have the courage to put our lives on the line." Ayrin's face filled with fighting intent as he continued, "If one is afraid of danger and afraid of fighting, then one is not qualified to call themselves an arcane master."
Malcolm and Lucius silently stared at Ayrin.
"This fellow who doesn't know fear, he will definitely become an incredible figure in the future when he grows up," the two arcane masters thought to themselves.
"Mister Lucius, what kind of domain taboo skills do you know?" Ayrin asked, his face full of curiosity.
Lucius' face filled with embarrassment as he responded, "This… not every arcane master has mastered a domain taboo skill… you know, for every ten four gate arcane masters, there are only two or three who can comprehend and master taboo domain skills. This also depends on innate bloodline talents and arcane energy affinity."
"Then… then can mister Lucius help me with another favor?" Ayrin awkwardly scratched his head. "Can you hit me with some of your less powerful arcane skills?"
"What?" Lucius and Malcolm were flabbergasted. "Hit you?"
Stingham immediately rolled his eyes as he cried out, "Ayrin, this pervert, he is making strange requests again!"
……
……
"Avarice – Beast of Fear!"
"Ayrin, I'd advise you to stop trying. It won't happen."
Ayrin, Stingham, Rinloran, Lotton, and the Dark Queen Mermaid walked atop a slope which led down into the abyss, their figures somewhat obscured by the dark purple gases and flames around them.
After bidding their farewells to Malcolm and Lucius, they had begun their descent into the Abyss of Evil as per Lotton's instructions. As of right now, they had reached an area of black rocks formed from the cooling of lava. The only way forward was to squeeze between the thin gaps between the rocks like ants crawling through dirt.
The harder the battle, the more experiences gleaned. After battling the Allen Brothers, Ayrin felt as if his understanding of the world around him had broadened. He felt as if a door had suddenly opened before him, revealing many new things to him.
Gaining wisdom was more important than learning new arcane skills and increasingly physical abilities.
"Avarice – Beast of Fear!"
Lost deep in thought, Ayrin remained silent as Stingham made fun his repeated failures.
As they marched down the slope, Ayrin continued to invoke the arcane skill.
There were no significant arcane energy fluctuations as a shadow releasing a strange aura emerged from within Stingham.
Stingham's body abruptly froze.
Afterwards, he stiffly cocked his head towards Ayrin, and expression of shock on his face.
"Success!" Ayrin shouted as he jumped in the air.
"Ayrin, I'm going to kill you!"
"You scared me! You scared me to death!" Stingham angrily roared.
"You actually succeeded. Just what bloodline do you have?" Rinloran couldn't help but think to himself once more as he too turned and looked at Ayrin after realizing what had just happened.
Lotton merely lowered his head as he remained silent.
But one could see the traces of happiness flashing through his eyes filled with death.
"Is this happiness? This feeling. Is this happiness?" Lotton wondered to himself.
"We've arrived." Just as Stingham grabbed Ayrin by the back of his neck, Lotton abruptly spoke, his unique, death filled voice emotionlessly ringing through the gas around them.
"We've arrived?" Stingham asked as he released Ayrin.
"We've already reached the Land of the Undead? It hasn't even been half an hour yet. Is it really this easy?" Stingham exclaimed as he thought they had arrived at their destination.
But he immediately realized his mistake upon looking at Lotton and seeing the black lines on his face.
Before Lotton was a deep black hole. It was just large enough for a person to fit into and seemed to lead straight down into hell.
Stingham's face turned green as he asked in disbelief, ""We are jumping down from here?" He waited, but no one responded to him for quite a while.
Finally, Lotton replied, "Yes."
"If we jump from here, we really won't turn into a pile of flesh at the bottom?" Stingham doubted Lotton's words, "You aren't trying to trick us even after dying, are you?"
"There are no dangers in this portion of the journey," Lotton confidently replied.
"……" Stingham audibly gulped as he firmly replied, "Either way, I will not be the first one to jump. This way, at least, there will be others padding the bottom for me."
"I'll go!" Ayrin shouted, his face full of fighting intent.
Before Stingham could even respond, Ayrin had already disappeared into the darkness within the hole.
Lotton silently followed afterwards.
"Follow up!" Rinloran shouted as he jumped in as well.
"None of you guys are willing to wait a little for me?! What's the rush?!"
Stingham looked to be on the verge of tears as he looked at the Dark Queen Mermaid and nodded before closing his eyes and jumping.
Whoosh!
The moment he jumped, Stingham felt like he was one of those people committing suicide by jumping off a building. There was only an endless void beneath his feet as the sound of wind rushing past him rang through his ears.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…"
Stingham let out a miserable scream.
After an unknown amount of time, the rocks around him began levelling out.
"Ah!"
Stingham let out yet another shrill scream as his ass began scraping across the rocks, sending a burning sensation through his body.
Another unknown amount of time later, Stingham suddenly felt the ground under his ass turn soft, as if he had arrived in a new world.
"Ah ah ah ah ah ah…" Stingham screamed in succession in between breaths.
Then, a familiar cold voice interrupted him, "Stop screaming you idiot!"
"Eh?"
Stingham opened his eyes. Unable to believe the scene before him, he rubbed his eyes and then opened them once more.
Ayrin, Rinloran, and Lotton were all standing perfectly fine before him.
Behind them was a vast, seemingly endless lagoon of water.
The water was a milky white and very shallow. It looked as if it was barely covering the earth below.
A cottonlike grass grew within the water, covering the bottom of the lagoon like a blanket.
Meanwhile, a layer of faint fog persisted above the lagoon.
The Abyss of Evil before them didn't look evil at all, but like a land plucked out of a fairytale.
"This is the Nether Ice Sea. Only by passing through this can we reach the Land of the Undead." Lotton turned around and looked at Ayrin as he said, "We will be relying on you to pass through here."
"Me?"
Ayrin looked back at Lotton in surprise as he asked, "This Nether Ice Sea, what is special about it? What dangers are present which require me to resolve?"
"Countless Nether Ice Flying Fish preside within these waters." Lotton slowly explained, "These fish attack by shooting out Nether Ice. In all honesty, their attacks are not terribly strong. However, it will take us at least half a day to traverse this sea. Of the four of us, you, Ayrin, are the only one who can endure their attacks for so long. Thus, we will be relying on you to defend us as we move through here."
"At least half a day?" Stingham's eyes bulged in shock, "This abyss is so large?"
"Such a long period of time, will you be okay?" Rinloran asked as he furrowed his brows and turned to look at Ayrin.
A continuous battle, even against the most ordinary low level creatures such as Toutous, were extremely taxing on an arcane master. For normal arcane masters, they would only be able to last about thirty minutes max, even if they limited their arcane skills to the most inexpensive ones.
"Half a day… using Dragon Scale Absorption…" Ayrin himself felt doubtful.
"I believe you can do it," Lotton said. "You must. This is the quietest path we can take. This is the only way we will not encounter any powerful Evil Dragon Followers."
Lotton's voice was cold as ever, but it also contained a hint of pure confidence in Ayrin.
"Alright! Then let us try!" Ayrin confidently nodded as he waved his fist and walked into the shallow water before him.
"So cold!"
There was no coldness radiating out from the water, but the moment Ayrin entered the water, he trembled as an intense cold pervaded his body. He felt as if he had fallen into a pile of ice.
"Try it? You want to just try it? Our lives are on the line!" Stingham shouted in annoyance.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! …
Ayrin began wading deeper into the water. But before Stingham, Rinloran, Lotton, and the Dark Queen Mermaid could follow Ayrin into the water, countless white streaks abruptly burst out of the water in the distance.
Swoosh…
As Ayrin came within ten meters of the white streaks, the air abruptly whistled as numerous half meter long white fish shot towards Ayrin like currents of electricity.
"This many? Only madmen would walk through here!" Stingham screamed, completely dumbfounded.
In the short span of just a few seconds, so many fish emerged that it seemed like several white walls had erupted out of the water before them.
