There were lots of ways to pass the time while remaining busy or moving, thanks to the System. I could interact with my mana or the mana around me to continually increase the ways in which I could use it. I had a whole inner world to cultivate or simply explore, not even counting the Mind Palace which could turn simple daydreaming into an actual learning experience. Arguably, I also had the surrounding landscape to marvel at, given that it was truly marvellous.

  There was just so much goddamn space that all of those tasks eventually ran out of avenues to distract or entertain me. The cold was all encompassing and the impossible blanket of pristine white snow was never ending. The blizzard which had assaulted me on the first day never truly let up, but there were minutes here and there when the sun managed to pierce the wintry veil and lay bare the frozen world.

  The impossibly large tower was the only real sight to behold. It became like a magnet for my attention. The Mind Palace was no use because despite knowing I was still many miles away, I felt danger from the place. I knew I needed to go there, and I was unwilling to put the task off any longer, but the closer I got the more sure I was that doom lay before me. It wasn’t until I noticed the dread was lessened when I used Mana Barrier that I realised the ominous aura was an intentional thing.

  Whatever was in that tower did not want visitors.

  Once I knew that the fear was something being done to me, it was easier to ignore even without the magical shield around me. There were only a few reasons which came to mind for why the final claimant would try to keep me away, and none of them were good enough to actually stop me. It was possible they were weaker than the others, at least comparatively. There was little chance I wasn’t dealing with a Grade One, but perhaps its skills were those of a wizard. It definitely had the right locale for it.

  Considering its size, it may not even have been a tower originally. Taller than the clouds which constantly released their snowy bounty, it could easily have been a mountain at one point. It was really only the straightness of the thing which informed the idea it even was a tower. Well, that and the general certainty within me that the claimant lay ahead.

  To break up the monotony of my journey, I occasionally allowed the elementals lurking nearby to spot me. I hadn’t defeated enough to reach level twenty eight, but it was close. After the first ambush, I had been much more careful to keep my mana from spreading away from myself. It was a conscious thing, but could mostly be left to Tag. My magical alter ego had figured out the quirks of elemental mana fairly quickly, and we were both disappointed by the findings. Oh, it was actionable knowledge and made spotting the elementals much easier, but I was downcast as the weather.

  I reached out with Mana Manipulation and grabbed a hold of some nearby snow mana. There was a difference between ice, snow, cold and frozen mana, each having their own unique signature. After a few days of exposure to it, I could pull them apart, but that was only necessary for some things. I only did it now because I could. I reminded myself that this was still very impressive as the collected mana turned into a snowball in my hand.

  With a growl, I dashed the flimsy projectile against the floor. Despite the mana used to make it, and my own mana working as fuel for the process, the result was a simple snowball. The entire thing had cost me about thirty units of mana. While less than ten percent of the maximum, I could easily shear off the side of a cliff with that amount of mana used more efficiently. Tag assured me that it should be technically possible to take command of the nearby energy, but I gave up after the second day.

  It seemed that I had absolutely no innate talent for controlling elemental energies. Instead of allowing me to turn my Magic Missiles into icy blasts to freeze an enemy, trying to draw the frigid mana through my channels had just given me a brain freeze. I tried it enough times to be completely sure. Tag tried to encourage me, but I wasn’t having any of it. My dreams of blasting forth an explosion of pure ice and cold were smashed like the snowball I could just barely make.

  Thankfully, the huge tower wasn’t an illusion. After a full day and night cycle in the tundra, I could start to see the details sometimes when light from the sun feebly shone upon the grey outer walls. Those features only served to twist my perception of the place’s size even more. While it was becoming easier to see the main doors to the place, that was because they were gargantuan. I could see squiggles and I had thought they were the places where stones were joined, but I realised they were actually large windows in their own right.

  I was still wrapping my mind around the implications of the main entrance’s size when I felt the presence of three elementals converging on me. Deciding that this would at least be interesting, I allowed them to get close enough to begin their assault. I found that if I reacted too quickly, the elementals would just disperse into the surroundings with surprising quickness. Those cores could move when they wanted to. Some of them were even capable of flying on their own, like one of the attackers was happy to prove here.

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  Bulky Ice Elemental - Level 30

  Sharpshooter Sleet Elemental - Level 30

  Vicious Snow Elemental - Level 30

  There were many variants of elemental, even without taking the actual element into account. Exploding out of the ground to my left was a humanoid form twice my height and completely transparent. The bulky ice elemental was very different from the snow one I had faced as my first enemy and it was likely to be a lot more durable especially against magical attacks. The ice seemed capable of reflecting some of the damage away in a way snow couldn’t, though it was much harder for the elemental to repair itself when damaged.

  Forming in the air around a wispy looking core, the sleet elemental cared less for a recognisable form. It didn’t need to create itself to physically attack, and I was dodging the icicles created within its large cloud-like shape even before the final elemental could form. The core inside wasn’t defended by anything like the ice elemental, but it would dodge even Magic Missiles once they entered its wide form. The lumbering ice elemental charged right for me, but it was slow. I barely paid attention to it while I kept my focus on the other two.

  The Jingu Bang thrummed with power as I filled it with energy. If the enemies were going to take their time getting their shit together, then I would take advantage of that. Every second I wasn’t forced to use my strongest abilities was another second of growth for the staff. Literally, sometimes, but in this case I meant personality. It hadn’t lost a degree of temperature since arriving in the tundra, and something was happening inside the weapon. For now, I wasn’t sure what, but it had made the weapon more demanding than before. I could do nothing but encourage it, so I chose to assume it would be a good thing.

  I held off on using my other abilities, even choosing to restrict the passive effects of Mana Manipulation. All at once, despite the thundering approach of the ice elemental, the world became less overwhelming. It was a little like turning off a light switch and stepping outside into fresh air at the same time. I loved the feeling of mana, but with these powerful creatures before me I was more of a distraction than a help. My body could handle the task of watching the fight.

  Surprisingly, it was the snow elemental who forced me into my first block. I had been ready to intercept the oncoming glacial giant when a small whip tried to wrap around my arm. I pulled away in time to see the full form of the final elemental. Vicious was an understatement, and it followed a pattern with the other snow elementals I had seen. Like a hundred long vines attached to the legs and body of a spider, the thing would have made an excellent woodchipper. Having no desire to be chipped wood, I smashed the nearest reaching tentacles and tried to make room.

  The angry thorn bush of snow wasn’t giving up easily and its allies had finally collected themselves enough to help. Forced to choose, I let the snow elemental land the first blow of the fight. A few tendrils of barbed ice ripped across my chest as I jumped, tearing them away and bringing the Jingu Bang around to clash with the massive fist of the ice elemental. Using the force from its attack to throw myself back, I narrowly avoided a spear of ice which whistled through the air at me.

  Even before I landed, the snow elemental was positioning itself to catch me. With the mental image of a food disposal under my feet, I decided to avoid that possibility. “Extend,” I whispered, my breath freezing in the air as I spoke. The staff happily did as it was told, punching down into the snow elemental and further, into the ice below. The Jingu Bang bent flexibly. Like a pea on a spoon, I let go of the staff just as it flung me backwards. My ankles groaned as I drop kicked the ice elemental, but I was happy with the move as its main body shot across the snow, leaving its limbs behind.

  It would take a minute for the ice elemental to reform, and while I had given the group a chance at the start, I was playing properly now that I had been harmed. It hadn’t inflicted any serious damage, but it had torn my jacket a little. I had a single spare but that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to absolutely take my frustrations out on the remaining pair of enemies.

  I was already twisting to dodge more projectiles from the cloudy form of the sleet elemental as I landed. A barrage of needle-like attacks flew my way and I was forced further from the Jingu Bang as a result. With no sportsmanship at all, the snow elemental began trying to close the gap. “I might not be able to do this with mana,” I quipped, reaching down, “but I don’t need to, either.”

  Using mana, I could only make a crappy little snowball with no effect. Using the physical ice on the ground along with my monstrous strength? I was more than capable of making a fist-sized ball of ice. I had lost the skill Mana Bolt, replacing it with Magic Missile, but the motion was entrenched now. I scooped my foot, twisted my hip and whipped my arm as hard as I could. The pain of overexertion caused me to wince, and I blinked long enough to miss the collision.

  I didn’t miss the surge of experience which flowed into me from the defeated sleet elemental, though. One thing I noticed when fighting them before was how easily they dealt with Magic Missiles. The sleet elementals were talented when it came to controlling mana, and it allowed them to dodge the normally undodgeable attacks. What it also meant was they didn’t really have much sense for the physical. The ball of ice smashed apart its core easily. As the energy from levelling warmed my body, I smiled and quickly dismissed the prompt.

  Ding! Level up! +16 Attribute points! +6 Command Attribute +4 Regeneration Attribute, +3 Strength and Recovery Attributes, +2 Agility and Power Attributes, +1 Perception and Resilience Attribute!

  “Cool,” I said, excited to finish the fight.