After entering the portal, almost immediately Raze felt a shiver through his whole body. It wasn’t because his sixth sense was acting up or due to some food he might have eaten the previous day. It was because of the environment they were instantly in.
His feet felt heavy, and almost immediately, the cloth on his legs was wet. As he looked down, he could see a sea of white, and it was continuing to fall from the sky.
“Freaking hell, it’s cold,” Dame said as he stepped out of the portal and into the white snow. The snow was continuing to fall, but there was no hard wind, so it wasn’t a blizzard of sorts.
Not being able to handle the cold as much anymore, Raze summoned his black robe, placing it over him, but it did little to help him. When he turned to look at Dame, although he had stated he was cold, he didn’t look it. There was no shiver at all, and even when he breathed, his breath wasn’t showing in the air like Raze’s.
“Why aren’t you cold?” Raze asked, wishing right now that he had the fire attribute in his magic core. At least he could have kept himself a little heated.
“I told you before, this is the body of a stage six Pagna warrior, do you really think it would get cold?” Dame replied.
Looking around them, Dame was trying to get an idea of their surroundings. He could see tall trees that went up high in the sky. They were covered in snow, showing little greenery on the outside of them.
They also were on what appeared to be a slope. If he were to guess, he would have said that they were on a mountain of sorts. The thing was it wasn’t just the mountain that was snowy; all the area around them was covered as well.
“I’ll give you some good news: our portal is in the same place we came in,” Dame said. “So all we have to do is go back in here if we want to go back, and it will bring us back to where we entered from.”
“Sometimes the portal is in a different place from where we entered, but it being here means we can just remember where it is. The bad news is the whole area is covered in snow, so you’re going to be a little cold.”
After making a mark on some nearby trees and taking in the surroundings to remember where they were, the two of them decided to descend down the mountain. Going down was easier than going up. Although the argument could have been made that if they needed to run away, then running downhill would have been better.
There were no beasts in sight as they continued to head down through the thick snow, that was until they could see something moving under the snow. A mound was being left as it hurriedly came toward them from beneath.
“Brace yourselves and get ready!” Dame said.
Even if Dame saw the beast, he would have no clue what strength it was at until he fought it himself. The snow continued to move, and when it got close enough to them, it burst its head up from the ground.
A long body could be seen spiraling up, white in color, nearly matching the snow completely. Attached to the long body was a head with red-colored eyes and large fangs. It opened up its mouth, revealing a small split tongue and a hissing sound. It looked almost like a cobra, but it was giant in size, as it was half the height of the trees next to it.
It opened its mouth again, this time firing something out of it. One light blue liquid spit had gone towards Dame, and turning its head, it spat another one at Raze. The two of them were able to use their footwork to jump out of the snow, avoiding the hit.
When the spit hit the snow, they could see it had completely frozen over. The top layer of it was now just ice.
‘Damn, it’s a lot harder to move in the snow. Foot techniques will be hard to perform, or I just have to know that I’ll just be at around 70 percent because of the snow.’
Dame didn’t appear to like fighting in the snow any more than Raze did, but thankfully, due to his gauntlets, he was able to fight from a large distance. He was ready to throw out a Qi punch when he heard Raze call out to him.
“Wait, let me take this one on. If I have trouble, then you can assist me,” Raze asked.
Backing down, Dame saw no harm in that. From the speed of the attack, he could avoid its hit all day. He still didn’t know what its physical strength was like, but the snake beast seemed to not want to move. It just had its upper half on show, moving left to right, firing out its spit everywhere.
Another round of the light blue spit was fired out, and this time when Raze moved, he took out his wooden sword.
‘In this situation, a wooden sword is useless, but it’s the best I can do right now!’
Raze gathered his Qi, and also around it, he had gathered his wind magic as well.
“Wind strike!” Raze shouted.
Wind strike was a spell that Raze actually could use without his sword and just the palm of his hand, but he had learned that using such skills with other techniques and Qi made both the magic and the strike stronger.
Out from his sword, a line of wind came out, and it hit the snake, causing a small cut. Raze continued to swing his sword, saying the words “Wind strike” each time, as it helped picture the spell formation in his mind.
The strikes went through the air relatively fast, and each time they hit the snake, a new wound would be made. It didn’t look like Raze was struggling at all; he would continue to move, avoiding the attack, and continue performing his small wind strikes here and there.
‘The moves he’s producing, it looks like another Pagna skill, but I can tell that it’s not the same. It’s almost like projectile Qi, but it’s far weaker in power. I wonder what he’s doing though, is this all the strength he has?
‘No, Pagna skills would be more than enough to finish off the beast, so then why is he doing this.’
Of course, Dame had no idea, only Raze knew what he was doing. Judging from the fact that the beast wasn’t dead after several hits meant it had to be something of a somewhat higher tier, but this was perfect.
[Wind attribute 11 >>> 14]
In the world of Pagna, Raze was unable to use his magic freely, but in the dimensions, he could. So this was his chance. While he was here, he was going to increase his magic skills to the fullest.
The requirement for wind magic to increase in attribute was simple: to use spells more and more often.
Raze then held the wooden sword with both hands above his head. He performed the second step in the snow, pushing him forward, and swung the sword down, performing the first formation, the Blood River, with it. He lastly added a Wind Strike.
Out from his sword came a large line, a streak of wind but it was glowing slightly red. It hit the snake beast right in the center of the head, making a deep cut reaching its brain. The attack didn’t get to slice through it, but it had done significant damage.
‘That… worked out well,’ Raze thought as the dark mist raised from its body and started to enter his body.
‘Rather than remembering three different steps, I should remember a name for that move so it’s easier to use.’ Raze thought, just like he had done with the Dark Pulse and his punch, calling it Dark Strike. ‘Blood Swipe? Nah, that’s too obvious. Crimson Slash sounds better.’
Picturing it in his head, Raze had put three of the moves together. The second Descending Step, the 1st Devil’s sword formation, and the Wind Strike, all of these would create the move, the Crimson Slash.
Heading on over to the dead beast’s body, Raze started to search for the crystal. When he eventually found it lodged in the head, he pulled it out.
‘It’s as I thought, it’s a level 2 power stone! And not just that, it has the ice attribute as well. It looks like I’m going to unlock some ice magic now as well,’ Raze smiled to himself.