Frostbound [LitRPG Apocalypse]-Chapter 229 - Ignition

Igniting a Mana Heart is a process that demands extreme precision and effort of Will. It is not for the faint of heart and can even be deadly in some instances. I write this not to dissuade you from doing it, but to inform you of the possible outcomes.

To achieve even a partial ignition is to be celebrated. Most would be glad to make it to that point. A partial ignition is far from the best outcome but is still leagues ahead of the worst that can occur.

Similar to how there are grades for forging a Mana Core, there are grades for how well the ignition process goes. Scholars, if nothing else, like grading things.

The lowest grade possible is Partial Ignition. Any lower and the process fails causing extreme damage to the heart and mana channels, sometimes resulting in death. Bad ignitions can even cripple the user making them unable even to try again.

A Flickering ignition is a step above Partial but still far from the best. While Partial ignition has the capability of 10-50% of Perfect ignition, Flickering has 50-75%.

Sputtering ignition is 75-90% effective.

Full ignition is 90-99% effective.

Perfect ignition uses all of the available mana and turns the mana pool entirely into a mana heart, leaving no waste behind and using all there is to fuel the Heart that is formed.

Why the grades are divided how they are is simple. The ignition process is one of transformation first and foremost. It turns the previous mana pool that everything has into a roaring Mana Heart comparable to Mana Cores.

If the entire mana pool isn't transformed, the Mana Heart only runs on a portion of what it should causing the effectiveness to decrease.

-Excerpt from "Introduction to Mana Cultivation Techniques" by Master Arcanist Woodridge of the Beraxi Mage Tower.

~~

Chris

I slumped into the soft snow as exhaustion overcame me and blood dyed the white snow red. Both mine and my foe's. The last trickle of what had once been a full mana pool was cascading through me staving off hypothermia.

[Jotun's Resistance] was an amazing skill, one of the only reasons I was still alive, but it was a mana hog. If I'd had to use [Blizzard] and [Permafrost] on top of constantly running the skill at full power, I would run out in minutes.

As it was, the area literally couldn't be enhanced any further with my two beloved skills, leaving most of my mana available for other things. Namely, [Jotun's Resistance].

The practice I had gotten with the skill over the month of using it helped alleviate the cost as my mastery grew, but the increased efficiency gain was a drop in the bucket compared to the raging ocean of mana the skill sucked up.

[Frost Armor] lay in pieces with most scattered about the scene of the fight. Only a select few of the armor segments were still attached to my body. Even my Law and Spirit weren't enough to keep it from being torn asunder.

My hammer was buried spike first into the head of the body that lay beside me.

It was a tough fight. One of the most difficult I'd been in since... since ever. Even the fight against the Wave of Vine Bears didn't compare. I didn't count the Demons because I didn't end up fighting them. The explosion did most of the work.

The best part, and one I knew would make Austin giggle like a schoolgirl, was that my foe wasn't anything scary or ferocious. It wasn't the pack of Direwolves I'd run into nor was it the various feline predators that sleuthed through the snow and liked to jump at my back.

It was a Moose.

A very big Moose, taller than what my house used to be, but a Moose nonetheless.

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And it had nearly killed me.

Fighting the battle with reservations hadn't helped, but the fact I nearly died anyway was worrying. I was so worried about ending up on bedrest again causing me to miss my chance to ignite my mana heart forcing me to wait yet another year that I hadn't fought the same.

My style of fighting was smothered in the art of going blow for blow that trying to shy away from being hit nearly ended the fight then and there because of mistakes that I made.

I knew I was coming to the end of the line, but being stopped by a Moose hurt my pride. To cheer me up, I took the antlers from the towering beast. Matching the Moose in size, they were spayed out spanning over 10 feet wide and nearly half that in depth. They would be a nightmare when trying to mount and find a spot for them, but I wanted them.

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They were the perfect trophy to bring back.

They required a sled to haul and would slow me down tremendously, but it wasn't like I was traveling much further. Plus the sled allowed me to take a few more choice pieces that could be used in crafting.

After a rest, some light butchering, and constructing a sled out of Ice, I took off at the best speed I could.

It was only a few steps past where I ran into the Moose that I stopped dead. There was a change in the air.

One I'd felt before.

The common prey animals were silent, most likely missing completely. No birds called overhead and I couldn't spot anything loping about in the snow.

That wasn't all that uncommon, but what accompanied all of that was a stifling oppression.

One that marked the few times I had truly been frightened.

My body instinctively shivered at the memory and I couldn't stop the goosebumps that started spreading, and not from the cold.

I wouldn't forget that day anytime soon.

At the time, I had been running from a pack of wolves when all of a sudden they stopped chasing me. They acted like there was an invisible line they wouldn't cross even though I'd stopped running and stood only a few feet from them.

Much like the line I'd just stepped over.

It confused me at first, but then I heard it. The bear must've noticed my intrusion into its territory and belted out a roar that rattled my bones. The wolves whimpered and stopped dead while I froze completely, doing my best to remain still and hopefully unseen.

As I felt the oppressive aura near, both the wolves and I turned tail and ran for our lives.

That was an experience I wasn't fond of repeating.

I hadn't even laid eyes on it, yet just the power-infused roar was enough for me to know without a shadow of a doubt, the thing would kill me. It wouldn't even be a fight either. It would maul me with ease and then eat me for breakfast.

Before the same thing could happen again, I slowly backed away from the Bear's territory and made to create some distance so I didn't accidentally cross over it again.

I'm at my end.

The thought frustrated me but I knew there was nothing I could do about it.

It wasn't only the fierce fight with the Moose that forced my decision to stop pushing North. Hypothermia was becoming a major concern and I was running into more things that could kill me.

Like the bear.

If I kept pushing, I'd be forced into a fight I couldn't win.

While the Mammoths were the first, they weren't the only thing that threatened me up here and I had to run from a mounting list of creatures. Herds of Wooly Rhinos paraded around with dominance. A dominance I would be splattered against if I stood against it. Both the Wolves and Felines had grown past what I could handle.

Last but certainly not least, were the Bears.

Any altercation with one of those would be my end.

Knowing that, realizing that, and internalizing that fact was tough. I wasn't used to this. Not being at the top was a tough pill to swallow and it was rough on its way down.

With defeat and a slight bit of envy toward the aura of something so much stronger than myself, I ended my travels North.

Now all I had to do was find an open area to settle down.

Turning around hurt, but it made finding an area to set up in easier. I'd seen a few places during my short sprints that could work and it wasn't that hard to backtrack until I found one.

Using the hidey holes I had already carved out made things all that much easier and it wasn't long until I found one.

To prepare, the first thing I did was mark out a large circle around the area I had claimed.

Igniting my Mana Heart would both take time and leave me vulnerable.

To defend against that, I formed thick walls of ice mimicking a stout fortress around where I would sit. The ice formed easily, taking to what I envisioned with glee and there was abundant material to work with. The dome I ended up forming stood multiple feet thick and I doubted anything would be able to get through quickly.

A full charge of one of the Wooly Rhinoceroses I'd come across would shatter it with ease, but they didn't attack unless provoked.

I was also far away from any of the Herds that roamed.

When I picked where I was going to do it, that had been a major concern. I couldn't have things stumble upon me mid-process.

In addition to the thick dome of ice, I carved Runes along the inner and outer surfaces. They weren't my Runes, or ones I'd designed in any way, but they worked perfectly for what I had in mind.

They were originally from when I built the Wind Chamber. It was the store-bought Formation barrier that separated one area from another, but cut apart and repurposed. My increased familiarity was enough to pick out the section of the Formation I needed, but it was still a rough copy-paste situation.

I didn't care for the defensive barrier it formed and discarded that portion, only keeping the part that delineated one area from another. I didn't have the materials to power a defensive barrier and those were less than stealthy.

I'd tested the hack job I did to the Formation and it worked for what I needed it to do.

It separated what was inside the dome from what was outside the dome.

Second, I carved a generic Mana Gathering Formation running along the flattened ground and inner surface. The first formation on the exterior was to keep everything contained, the second was to draw in as much mana as possible.

The Gathering Formation without the containment would just cause the gathered mana to leak out again.

The Formation would increase the concentration of mana around it, but it wouldn't be able to stop the gathered mana from leaving.

Both combined and working together created an artificial mana chamber that ratcheted up the density of mana in a given area.

Similar to forming a mana core, igniting a mana heart took asinine amounts of mana and was why I was up here in the first place.

The surrounding Arctic mana was already thicker and more pure than anything I had ever felt, but this took that even further. There was no reason not to when I had the ability to create it.

The Dome took a few days to get right and iron out all the kinks, but as soon as the Runes were carved and powered, the area began to drown in Arctic Mana. If any beast sensed it they would come running from miles away.

Another reason for the containment Formation.

Now that the Formations were powered, I was technically on a time crunch. I'd snagged some mana crystals and packed them along for just this reason but they would run out eventually and the Formations would run out of power.

I'd planned for three months, which was overkill and what I was attempting should only take a week or two, especially with where I was, but it didn't hurt to be prepared.

As time went by and the Formations worked together, the mana became so concentrated it began to fog. It caused a frost to form in the air naturally because the area was so dense in the stuff.

During this time, I continued to work on my Bloodline and prepared myself for what was to come.

When the density peaked, and the Gathering Formation pulled in as much as it could, it was time to get to work.

I was going for broke and I sent off a silent prayer I wouldn't die.