Meanwhile, the Five Apprentices landed on the continent of Kiel at the same time, but in five different corners. Ash was placed near the north where it was extremely windy and full of storms, Reina was placed near the east which was full of slush and mushy ice that made it hard to do anything, Jonathan was paced in the west where the ice was solid and shiny, reflecting sunlight but very fragile.
James was placed in the south where the water had yet to completely freeze into ice and formed chunks of it that acted as islands, looking like an icy archipelago. As for Anthony, he was placed in the center which had the best weather and living conditions, but all 90% of the civilization and powerhouses stayed in this area including Jack Frost.
Each apprentice's area was carefully chosen by Darius after a period of research to suit their personality and provide a suitable challenge for them that would allow them to grow.
Of course, Miranda was always keeping watch on them at all times in case something beyond their means came up. The last thing Darius wanted was for his experimental mice to end up dying due to an unforeseen accident.
Ash frowned at his harsh surroundings and immediately touched the ground below himself. The ice was relatively normal, but the winds were truly harrowing and no human with stats ranging from Amateur to Journeyman could easily survive this.
As for normal people, unless they were born with ice resistance, it was impossible to survive even one night here. Ash could easily manage with his massive endurance that was at the peak of the Grandmaster stage, but that did not solve his main issue.
Darius stated that they had to build and optimize a territory of people, and then recruit natives from the continent as their people. They had 6 months to achieve this and then the other 6 months would be spent warring between their territories.
They were not allowed to directly get involved.
Ash sort of understood Darius' purpose. They, his apprentices, had been eating, drinking, and training in ways that would make anyone of their age envious. Sure, certain parts were tough, but that was a basic price to pay for the kind of resources they munched on.
They had proven their combat capability as peak journeymen when they fought a hundred Grandmasters and survived till the end. However now that they were Adepts, things were different.
An Amateur was a basic entity who was only finding his way in life and living off the legacy of others as well as the basic rules of the world.
A Journeyman was a semi-pro who had graduated from being clueless and having to be led by the nose, now discovering the power system of the world and how to create their own special abilities.
An Adept was a professional who had put together a framework of their combat and magic system and was now adding the flesh to it as well as refining their control over it.
These were the definitions Darius gave them during their lessons, which neither Ash nor any of the apprentices forgot. So he naturally was able to pick apart the goal and reason for this.
Refine their control.
As Darius stated they had great power, enough that apart from the False Gods of Elysium and the True Lords, no one was their match in raw power. However, what was the point of all that power with poor control?
Ash looked around and waved a hand. He used a wind element spell of the Adept level to manipulate the storm around him and create a barrier that filtered the wind pressure.
He had chosen the wind element when becoming an Adept, and it proved handy at this time. His spell consumed only a little bit of mana as it was of Transmuted quality, but its effect was powerful.
An area of 20 kilometers around Ash suddenly became calm and livable.
He then rubbed the back of his head and pondered. "Master Darius told us of his experience with the material element and gave us all a spell he crafted for us to use here."
[Ice to Stone - Level 1 Spell
Grade: Advanced
Cost: 100 MP
Description: Transform an area of 500 meters around you containing any type of ice to stone of any type (and vice versa) directly or remotely. The speed of conversion is 0.1 seconds per 500 meters and the effectiveness of the conversion is 500%.]
Ash did not have time to even practice and increase his familiarity with the spell, but since he was here, he could obviously do so now. He began to covert large patches of ice within the wind barrier he propped up into stone.
He opted to use white stone that was often used to pave the streets of top cities on Fallon, as he chose his territory to be here. As far as he could tell, the area around him was the same as this, so rather than find someplace after careful exploration and try to make something, he would rather terraform the land to suit him!
Arrogant!
Truly, these little fellows were Darius' apprentices. They had been influenced by him and Gunner, gaining their audacity and lack of respect for the hardship of the world and the rules of common sense.
Ash continued to work, turning the ice inside his barrier into a foundation for land while he turned the ice outside his barrier into stone that he would convert using the other material element spells like ceramic and the like.
Luckily, all the material elements spells needed for terraforming and daily life were between Amateur to Advanced. Master material element spells were Flesh to Stone or Stone to Bones, both of which the lads could not access now and did not need to consider.
As for Grandmaster material element spells, you were looking at Energy to Element and top-tier crazy abilities like that.
