“I don’t have to throw them,” Amelia countered.
“Wow,” I said. “That was impressive. It looks like it does much less damage than your ice spear attack, but they fly a lot faster. Helpful to think about. You’ll have to use the different spells for different occasions.”
“It took a while to cast,” Amelia said. “The same thing happened when I summoned the blade on its own.”
“That’s just because you need more practice controlling your Mana,” I said. “While we walk you can practice that. You’ll need to get quick summoning that blade so that you can do it in combat. I would practice just summoning the blade without a projectile too, that way you’ll use less Mana.”
“We still have two cold Beast Cores left over, William,” Amelia said. “Anything else you want to try out before we head to town?”
“Beast Cores fetch a high price, right?” I asked.
“That’s right. Enough to pay for a room in the town’s inn for a while, as well as some food.”
“We might need to purchase some new clothes, too,” I said. “I certainly will.”
“You’ll have earned more than enough for that with just one Cold Core,” Veronica said.
“Then we’ll only need to keep one,” Amelia said. “We can use the other Core now, before we enter Brightwater.”
I nodded. “We need to be as prepared as possible for any danger we might face there. There’s no sense in hanging onto Cores unused if we don’t need the money they fetch. And besides, if I have more abilities, we can kill monsters more quickly and collect more Beast Cores.”
“You’re definitely right about that,” Veronica said. “I always like to turn in my Beast Cores as soon as possible and upgrade my equipment. I’m always investing back into the business, so to speak.”
“I like the way you think,” I said.
“But William, what about the Lightning Core?” asked Veronica. “You will be able to sell that, too, won’t you? They’re very valuable.”
I looked her in the eye. “To be honest, Veronica, I’m hoping that we’ll find a different use for that in time.”
Instead of being repulsed, Veronica actually smiled. Amelia and I shared a look. We were both becoming sure Veronica would come around to getting a tattoo in the end.
“But in the meantime,” I said, “I think I’ll use one of the Cold Cores to retrace my existing tattoo. It did wonders for my Fire tattoo, so I imagine it’ll do the same. And I’d much rather enter Brightwater with spells I’ve used before rather than having to learn how to cast a new one.”
“Good idea,” Amelia said.
I went to work retracing my existing Cold tattoo. The outline flashed blue as I finished it. I wanted to test out the new rune, so I got up and walked down the hill toward the lake from which Brightwater got its name.
“You’re not going to try to freeze the whole stream, are you?” Amelia called out behind me.
“Maybe,” I yelled back over my shoulder.
She came running after me and tugged on my arm. “You can’t do that! You might use up too much Mana. You might pass out! Veronica and I will be forced to carry you to Brightwater.”
“I was only joking,” I said.
Amelia slapped me playfully on the chest. “Don’t scare me like that. Now, what exactly are you intending to do here?”
“I want to compare the results with what we did this morning. I promise I won’t try and freeze the whole lake.”
“As long as you’re careful,” she said.
“Are you going to try this new tattoo or not?” Veronica asked as she made her way down the hill.
“Look who’s interested in tattoos now,” Amelia joked.
Veronica shrugged. “It would be difficult not to be at least a little interested; you two have been talking about them for almost an hour now. I’m almost wondering if we’ll ever enter Brightwater.”
We all walked down the hill and stopped at the edge of the vast lake. The last time I’d attempted this magic, the ice had slowly spread out from the edge, forming a thin, flat sheet, with water still flowing underneath.
This time would be different. I could feel it.
I pushed Mana into my right arm, feeding it into the snowflake rune, then into the freezing droplet I’d just drawn. I stuck my hand into the water. It was reasonably warm and flowing swiftly.
I increase the flow of Mana through the droplet augmentation rune and out into my hand. Immediately, I felt a strong sensation of cold, as the magic passed from my hand to the water.
I heard a gasp from both my companions as the water immediately solidified around my hand. There was a crackling sound, and a chunk of ice the size of my clenched fist formed in the water. The ice quickly grew, and I could barely feel my Mana depleting. Before long, the ice had expanded 30 feet away from my hand. If I kept it up for much longer, it might reach the other side of the lake, so I removed my hand and pulled back my Mana.
“Well done!” Veronica said.
I considered pointing out her obvious approval at the effects of my tattoo but held my tongue. Better to let her conclude that tattoos were ok in her own time.
“Thank you,” I replied, standing up and drying my hand on my trousers. “I don’t think we’ll be needing to wade through any streams anymore.”
“What else will that be useful for?” Veronica asked.
“I can think of several things. It could allow me to trap people. I can throw water on the ground and snap freeze it. Their footing will become unstable, and they might even slip. Either way, it’s going to be much harder for them to maintain their balance. Hells, maybe I could even freeze their boots to the floor if the water is deep enough. And if there’s lots of moisture in the air, I might be able to create fog.”
“You’ll even be able to do what
