However, Atticus suddenly remembered the little experiment he had carried out earlier when he was learning the earth element at the Earth Sanctum.
When the earth molecules got separated in the air, they lost their ability to join together as time passed.
‘It’s not exactly the same case here, but they’re not far apart. What if I join the molecules together before the frost forms around them?’
This thought required accurate timing and actions.
Atticus couldn’t control the water molecules, but he noticed that when the molecules got cold enough, he would gain control over them.
Atticus immediately put this to the test and started the process all over again.
The result was the formation of a small round icy ball in front of him.
Isolde’s eyes narrowed. ‘He got it on his own?’ Her shock was evident.
She began thinking about how it was possible. He might have breezed through the other sanctums, but the ice element was a variant. It required an extra process, absorbing the heat from the molecules.
Had she been arrogant to think that Atticus wouldn’t be able to do the same with the ice element?
Atticus didn’t stop once he got the gist of the creation of ice.
His assumption had been right. Joining the molecules at the right temperature was the key to creating the ice.
He went ahead and created more balls of ice in front of him before making them swirl around him at a moderate pace.
Isolde soon came out of her thoughts and regained her composure. ‘I still have to teach,’
Isolde hated the fact that she had to do this, but she knew she had no choice. It was her duty, and she could feel that man’s gaze on her. She decided to stop wasting time,
“Good, you’ve achieved the creation of ice, so let’s move to the next lesson. Freezing water.”
“As you already know, water is simply the combination of mana and multiple water molecules together. Our ice element gives us the ability to form ice by extracting the heat from the water molecules using mana. The rest should be straightforward.”
Atticus nodded. It really was straightforward. All he had to do was extract heat from the water molecules utilizing the mana that each molecule had absorbed.
Atticus did exactly this, and a small portion of the lake became frozen.
Isolde wasted no time and moved to the next lesson. It was one that he had gone through numerous times already: forming different structures with the ice element.
Atticus created weapons, barriers, and sculptures from ice, increasing his proficiency in creating and manipulating ice.
Then Isolde moved to one of the advanced manipulations: increasing the hardness and density of ice.
The principle of this had turned out to be simple. It made him remember what he learned with the air element when the Sanctum master had created a barrier made of air.
To create very durable ice with high density, all Atticus had to do was utilize mana to make sure that the iced water molecules were tightly packed together and formed stronger bonds.
In essence, Atticus had to reduce the space between the water molecules, compressing them closer together. After doing this, he would have to utilize mana to strengthen the attractive forces between each molecule.
This had taken quite some time because of its processes, but he had eventually achieved it, creating multiple durable ice objects. Afterward, Atticus moved to another lesson.
Isolde took Atticus away from the lake to another location in the sanctum.
Atticus found himself inside a pristine white room with the temperature rapidly changing by the second.
Soon enough, it stopped, and Atticus felt the heavy moisture in the air.
He heard Isolde speaking from far away, “You have to learn how to form ice rapidly in different environments. This will be your next lesson.”
‘I see. Training in different simulated environments, huh,’ Atticus calmly thought.
He closed his eyes and felt the moisture in the air. Heavy moisture meant that there were a lot of water molecules in the air.
His next move was straightforward, so he immediately focused and created ice from the water molecules.
The environment changed once more, and Atticus could feel the intense cold air. The water molecules were scarce, and instead, there were only ice molecules.
This process was even easier, and Atticus simply controlled the ice molecules and created multiple spears around him.
Not a second was wasted before the environment once again changed, and Atticus instantly felt the air become even colder.
Just like before, there were ice molecules in the air, and as he attempted to connect with them, Atticus was met with his first conundrum: the molecules weren’t joining together because they were already frozen and had thus lost their ability to connect.
Atticus immediately entered into a deep state of pondering.
‘She wouldn’t give me something impossible to do. Which means there’s a way to go about this,’ Atticus thought raced before something popped up in his head. ‘Wait. The reason why they lose their ability to connect is because they’re frozen, so what if their temperature increases?’
This idea was backed up by another. If the ice element gives them the ability to absorb heat from the molecules, then shouldn’t they be able to insert heat into them?
Atticus felt it couldn’t be as straightforward as this, but it was worth a try.
Atticus went to work and instantly did exactly as he had thought. As it turned out, he had been right. But during the first attempts, he had increased the molecule temperature too much, thereby making him unable to control them.
He eventually got the hang of it, and an ice sculpture formed in front of him.
The shock that enveloped Isolde was intense. To think he would figure it out so soon. She eventually recovered once more and approached Atticus after some seconds.
‘The last should be a hot environment, but since I already learned how to form ice in the lake, then it’s not needed,’ Atticus thought.
“Good job,” Isolde praised, but there was no smile on her face.
“Now let’s move to the last aspect of the ice element.”
