The next morning Ethan felt refreshed, his mind was occupied with so many things, even one night of rest was better than all the sleep in his entire life, at least it felt that way to him. For the first time he also noticed the lack of hunger and thirst, ever since the day he entered the tutorial it was absent. When looking around the swamp he was glad the system did something because nothing looked edible in this artificial world. He shudders thinking back to that mimic deer.

  Nora was awake too and not deep in thought than the last few days, it was an improvement, especially now, that he understood her predicament. He gave her a small gentle nudge and she nudged him back, waving the tip of her tail. They didn’t need words, both knew that challenges laid before them and that time was the only resource they had enough of.

  While Ethan thought about today he had one goal in mind, while throwing around ice spikes was fun he promised to focus on the important part of ice magic, to use gaming terms, crowd control. For that he needed more than throwing around waves of ice or frigid wind to target his enemies. It wasn’t efficient enough and had a limited range.

  Thinking back to his early days, if you can call one week ago your early days, he managed to mold caltrops from his ice, it was a spur of the moment kind of thing that worked out. It was also the first time he had a revelation, that nothing was system bound, you can create and experiment to your heart's content. Even get rewarded for it if you have understood the structure behind it.

  So that's what he did again, when thinking about a way to slow somebody down his first thoughts were chains, they restricted moments, limit your range and can hurt you if you decide to struggle. But the most important part, if you had enough of them they could even hold a dragon. He concentrated on his mana and reached inside, in his mind mana was like a lake, it was big and imposing, the mana of this like was still like a mirror, it already felt vast to him even if he knew it was basically nothing compared to his patron, for example.

  Using his magic instinctual now than before so with his mana ready on his fingertips he worked his magic. On the palm of his hand a chain link appeared, thin and brittle but the next one was already stronger, looking solid, the third increased in size, growing thicker, by the tenth chain link it could have been used to anchor a ship but this drained him completely.

  While it would be fun to throw chains around to hit people he wanted to immobilize them, that’s why he picked the fifth successful chain. The ice was as thick as his thumb, the links round and smooth, the ice felt solid and radiated a cold that would seep into an enemy. A smile formed on his lips as he let the chain glide through his hand and once past his palm small spikes covered each link, not many, only four on each link but it could make a difference when digging itself into a monster's body.

  A stray thought snuck into his mind and the chain drifted away in tiny ice crystals. Standing up he grabbed his staff and at the end of it he summoned a chain, after ten links he attached a spike covered ball to the end. The jewel glowed as he spun it around. The chain linked with each moment and with a downwards chop the spiked ball slammed into the ice wall around his camp. The ice cracked and it left small holes from the spikes.

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  “It seems I should modify my weapon more often, this would work well against armored enemies.” He exchanged the flair for a spear tip, followed by a long blade and stopping on the complex head of a halberd. It was a fun practice but during combat he wasn’t sure he could keep the ice weapon strong enough to not break on impact, still something he should keep in mind.

  With Nora around his arm he left his camp, the ice would soon vanish if he didn’t maintain it with his aura so he wasn’t worried about it. They continued the journey to do one lap around the swamp, it would take a few more days so Ethan settled into a slow pace. At some point they found a dead try standing on a small pile of mud, Ethan stood on its branches, even now the boots adjusted the environment to keep him on his feet. Nora slithered down his arm while talking to him.

  This is where I leave you Ethan. I need to go and gain experience for myself, the decision is not easy and I think time alone will give the matter a new perspective from which I can look at it. When I find my answer I will return. He wanted to say something, ask her to stay and consider her choices, even when sharing a life she was weaker than him and she knew that too. Still he kept his mouth shut and nodded, watching her reach the muddy ground, her slender body moving gracefully towards the water. She vanished in the depths and he jumped from the tree and continued on his path. “I wish you luck Nora, return safely.” he mumbled and took the next long jump.

  Seeing her go was hard but it was the right way for both of them, with each step the connection between them got weaker, it was a new and uncomfortable feeling but he was relieved that it never truly vanished.

  While skipping over the water he noticed a goblin zombie in the distance, it seemed like a good target for his new ice chains so he stopped around fifty meters away and raised an ice pillar under him. Focusing on the goblin was easy in the empty swamp and with a thought, and totally unnecessary snap of his fingers, he activated his magic.

  Chains erupted from the water like snakes, the sharp barb covered hook on the front was an idea he had while travelling. He focused and the chains wrapped around the goblin, the spikes on each link sawed through skin and flesh while wrapping around the zombie. He saw the barb covered meat hook slam into its flesh and the loose chain pulled tight around its feeble body.

  Three chains in total surrounded the goblin and he watched as the cold penetrated the goblins body, a thin mist was coming from each link and while sleeping it the grey flesh turned to white and blue as it froze solid. A small nudge and the chains tighten and the goblin bursts into hundreds of tiny shards.

  Ethan approached the small heap of goblin crystals and smiled. It worked like a charm and he was excited to test it on larger groups of stronger monsters. He was already walking when a voice called out from behind. It was a man and he sounded really pissed off.

  “Hey you motherfucker! What do you think you’re doing killing my goblin?! You know how much mana it cost to raise them you asshole! First that stupid snowstorm and now some dude decided to slay my summons!”

  Damn he was angry, was Ethan’s first thought but when he turned around a hint of recognition appeared on his face, even twisted in anger he knew the boy. But he looked different now.

  “Aren’t you that boy…James right? What happened to you man?”

  But before he could get an answer a cursed bolt of magic was shot directly at his face. More seemingly undead goblins and even a stupid ogre appeared behind James.

  “Alright…let’s beat some sense into you.”