The Mysterious Black Magician

In the cave, they could not tell the difference of day and night, as it was mostly dark inside.

The group decided to take a detour when they passed by a small swamp. Above it, on the ceiling, there was a leak where water dropped from it towards down below. The water was clean and clear, edible to drink.

They again gathered some protruding roots around and scattered woods to make another bonfire.

Tiafel was boiling water. Aegor was sitting with close eyes, and Taflas was lying on the ground using the skin of a beast. An edible to eat beast in this world would not disappear after they died. Only the not edible one would become light particles. After all, they needed food too. Most of them used the skin as a blanket while making meat jerky from their flesh.

Cinder was giving tips to Crimson.

"Actually, there are two ways to power-up your elemental magic. The first one was the safest and simplest one. It is to increase the effectiveness of [Mana Coating] ability.

Like for example the fire element. You can't cast a strong fire if you can't handle the heat of it. So in order for you to materialize a strong fire, you needed to resist the heat first.

Increasing the resistance wasn't an easy thing. But if you use [Mana Coating] ability, you could easily bypass the needed resistance," she explained in detail to make sure he understood what she wanted to convey.

'Although her explanation was lengthy, what she truly meant is, the more heat I can handle, the stronger flame I can materialize. It was a basic knowledge of the Outerworlder magicians to learn [Mana Coating] ability first before using elemental magic.'

Well, he could probably do it. But, the demon's mana was still unstable.

He remained quiet as he noticed her mouth was about to open. Probably, she wanted to add something, "However, this option would never allow you to use your 100% elemental magic."

Under the hood, he was a little puzzled, "Hmm….. why?" He stared at her and waited for her answer.

She showed a serious face.

"Because you are multitasking two different abilities. So your focus was slightly off," she said with seriousness.

Yman understood what she meant. However, it wasn't the case to him. Because he liked using multiple skills at the same time to create a new ability. No, not only him, actually, most humans from the Outerworld did it.

However, he did not argue this to her. He had the feeling that it would be a long debate if he did so. In honesty, most of what she said was also true. 

In addition, he also agreed to what she said, that focusing your magic in a single element would have a good result. Looks like people in the Empire when casting a spell, they gave their all to it.

Hmm….. it was also the reason why their elemental magic was stronger.

"Ah, I see… then….. What is it that you recommend to me?" he replied.

After hearing his question, "Hehe," she giggled. "The more effective way to increase your fire element power was to own your own fire magic," she said.

"What? I need to own my own fire magic. What do you mean by it?" He asked puzzled. "Aaah, do you mean I needed to buy a skill scroll?" He added with a frown because a skill scroll wasn't a cheap item that anyone could buy on the spot.

She giggled further at his puzzled face, "Fufu."

Yman wondered if she was serious or just playing with him. But he noticed again when she opened her mouth.

"To make it more vivid. I mean, you can create your own fire technique without the need for skin contact but the quality was stronger than what you can do at the moment."

Yman was stunned and widened his eyes. He finally understood what she meant. She was right! Why it did not come to his mind in the first place! He was too focused on trying to combine skills that he forgot to improve the things he already had.

"I see….. that is indeed a good idea. But the problem is….. how to do it?" he said unsure.

This made her giggle further. She felt she was finally able to grab his attention.

"In order to do it, you needed the four aspects: to visualize, to feel, to control, and lastly to own. Based on what I noticed in you, you have fairly decent visualization in your magic, but you are weak in the aspect of 'feel'. I can't say for sure in the aspect of control. Lastly, you lack the aspect of 'own'," Cinder, who was sitting opposite to him, was explaining the reason why he had weak elemental magic.

"To visualize, feel, control, and own…" he repeated.

"Fufu, for you not to forget, just thought it like this….. to visualize my feelings and control my own," she said with a wink, which made her look cuter.

"To visualize my feelings and control my own. To visualize my feelings and—" he repeatedly mumbled the words.

Yman who was currently sitting in front of her was listening to her every word. In the midst of them was the bonfire.

She was right. Looks like he overlooked the other things that he already had and forgot their significance.

In the aspect of control, because of his Channeling Talent, he had high control with magic. So he believed he passed this aspect.

In the aspect of 'feel', this was where he failed and he knew it. The reason behind it must be because he had a high tolerance for pain. He lacked feelings. Even if he was getting mocked by others, it wouldn't affect him. If sometimes he tried to retaliate, it was because he just wanted to.

Yman stared at her eyes, "Do you mean, I needed to feel my own element?"

He noticed her lips curled into a smug. "To make it more specific, you needed to be the first victim of it. In order to create a strong connection with your own power. Well, it was the most shortcut way," she said, which made Yman gawk.

"Eh?!"

"Fufufu," finally, she was able to witness a surprise in his expression. 'So even this guy could have such a face. Hehe,' she laughed inside.

"Hehe, don't worry, you don't need to light up your bare skin. You just need to get used to it. Like for example surrounding yourself with fire in a slight unbearable state," she further explained.

Yman showed an understanding look.

"Hmm, I see, so I just need to burn myself right?" He replied with a serious face.

"....."

She wondered what he meant by his words — burning himself. She believed that what he meant by burning himself was — as she said, to surround himself with fire.

Well, who would be in their right mind would actually burn themselves.

"Yeah just the bearable heat," she replied.

She noticed him nodding his head slightly. 'So it was the shortest, huh,' he thought.

Then, Yman without a second thought took his gloves and gauntlet on his hand.

Cinder wasn't puzzled by it. As he needed to be in a half-naked state for more effectiveness.

But what the guy in front of her did, dumbfounded her.

"Hey, what are you up to?!" She shouted when the smell of the burning flesh had reached her nose. Her shout caused the others to glance at them. They too were shocked by what they witnessed.

'What? Is he so hungry that he grilled his own hand?!' They thought.

"Nhg!" Yman let out a groan.

"Hey stopped that!" She stood up and shouted. But it was too late. His hand already was on fire. He put his bare hand on the blazing fire of the bonfire.

The fire burnt his skin. The odd smell of it had reached to everyone's nose.

"Hey stopped!" They shouted. They thought that there was something wrong with his mind. Yet instead of stopping, Yman also put his other hand on the fire. His companions were in chaos of how to stop him. Out of reflex, Tiafel splashes him the newly boiled water.

"Urgh!" It made him groan further. Good thing he was wearing elemental armor. The heat wasn't so strong. However, it wasn't Yman's aim. He wanted to do a shortcut on how to increase the power of his elemental magic. His whole body was enveloped by fire.

They gawked when he stood up with his body covered by fire. However, instead of getting charred, his body was repeatedly healed using his healing spell and regeneration passive skill. 

They looked at him with dumbfounded faces.

At this moment, outside the cave, the surrounding was already dark. It was night time. The second night after they went inside.

Most of the participants already hid to rest for a night. To recharge themselves for tomorrow's search. This second boundary was littered with a strong beast. And they still needed to find the barrier.

However, in the midst of the forest, one silhouette jumped higher into the air. He condensed water element on above his head. Then fired it at the big boulder on the mountainside.

From the condense water, hundreds of needle-like raindrops were shot rapidly towards it.  "Aarrrgh!!" A cry followed after the boulder was carved with countless holes.

The poor victim spawned in the spawn area of public square. He was greeted by solemness. A moment later another participant spawn beside him while swearing, "What the f**k! Who the heck killed me!" They died without them knowing who killed them.

Many other dead participants spawn after them. They glanced at the monitor and only saw a shadow leaping from here to there, assassinating the resting partcipants without them knowing.

"W-Who is that…..?" A newly respawned participant subsconciously asked.

"T-That's G-Gath, Gath Rainripper….." answered the person next to him.