The Stonehearted Knight
Chapter 273: The Refined Stage

Chapter 273: The Refined Stage

"Please, connect tonight."

Hex spoke almost in a whisper. He looked at it. Caressed it. And even kissed it. For luck.

In response to his love, the light in the Ice element circle flickered. That could be a yes. Or a no. Hex went with yes.

Ever since he left Althea behind in that ruin, he had been trying to consolidate the memories of the Frost Dragon. The inheritance she left him contained her innate understanding of the Ice element.

Hex sat on the soft sofa chair and closed his eyes. A bright crystal appeared in his mind. He had to decipher its shape and process of creation.

This was the third one. Somehow, as soon as the first one appeared in his mind, he knew what to do. And for long he had to continue. He also knew if he succeeded with the third one, he would become a Refined Knight.

With the deal closed, he knew he had to reach the stage for real. Dessert spiders weren’t easy to deal with. Not even when their stage was lower.

According to the information Red Hare provided, dessert spiders hunted with numbers. A calamity spider might have up to ten thousand spiders under her. Plus, they would be inside a burrow. Even a Lord would be troubled if buried underground. The spiders didn’t have such problems. They lived inside the sand.

’Unless I wish to be buried and eaten by those crawlers, I must reach that stage.’

Hex focused once more on the third crystal. With his mind, he traced its shape. It had more distinct lines and shapes than the first and second crystals. The first one had been simply a blur.

Once he was confident about the shape and the process, he opened his eyes. The circle flickered and a little clump of ice appeared. He tried to keep the clump afloat while creating a crystal.

It took great control and focus to make even the slightest change in the shape. And there was a time limit to it. The shape of the clump changed under his control. From a clump, it changed into a flat piece. And then in an uneven pentagon. He wasn’t done yet.

But as he tried to change it further, he noticed the lower side elongate and then liquefy. The Ice was melting. Hex stopped.

The small shape drooped onto the floor and soon turned into a water stain.

’This is harder than I imagined. The Techniques just cluster all the Ice together. But I didn’t imagine the process of making one crystal to be this complicated. The shape, density, timing... all need to be precise.’

Hex grumbled but he remained seated. He wouldn’t give up, no matter how many times he had to try. He knew people spent years on this step without success. One of the factors was the lack of elements to keep trying. He didn’t have such limitations. His Ice element reserve seemed almost infinite.

Despite the late hour, Hex continued to train. Thanks to his training focussed on control, changing the shape and keeping the energy stable was easy. The hard part was to finish it in time.

It took him another hour before he could keep the density homogenous over the shape. Hex didn’t continue blind. After each failure, he closed his eyes and traced the shape. After two hours of trying he knew the shape by heart. He didn’t need to visualize it. It appeared in his mind even as he blinked.

But even after training for three hours, he failed to get the shape right within the time limit. His head hurt a little bit. The extreme focus he displayed without rest, took its toll. Hex ruffled his hair, tugging at it a bit. He was doing something wrong. But what?

’It isn’t a question of effort. Even people who trained for years won’t have control over the element like I have. That, I am sure of. There has to be a trick to it. But what?’

Hex stood up but wobbled at the first step. He had been on his ass for so long, his legs had gone numb. He walked in circles, racking his brains to find a solution. Or a direction to consider, at the very least. But nothing came to his mind. He could go to Sterling’s old grandpa but Hex didn’t wish to rely on outsiders. He still didn’t trust the Silver Serpents too much.

Sterling might say he preferred some other type of wealth. And he might have been serious when he said that he considered Hex worth the risk of involvement, but Hex didn’t buy it. He suspected that there was more to it. But for now, he went along with them. He needed them to understand the world outside of what he had known. If those people had bad intentions, he would deal with it when the time came. For now, he only wished to find the damn trick.

’I should be thankful to the Frost Dragon for bestowing such an opportunity but couldn’t she give a clue too? She might not have needed it but hello...did she consider not everyone is born with an innate talent? I am not a Frost Dragon –’

Hex froze. Not due to the ice for sure. He just froze from a sudden realization.

’I might not be a Frost Dragon...but I know one.’

Hex hurried into his inner space. The snow-covered landscape remained the same since he blasted the Frost Dragon’s Crystal. The impact knocked him out. Thankfully, his heart didn’t need him to actively suck things in. Somehow – Hex still had to uncover the secret behind it – it had suctioned off the immense amount of Ice element and energy into his inner space.

His Dragon Bear Soul underwent a change that day. It turned tangible and gained the ability to fuse with him. And the infant Dragon of the Queen had sprung to life. It was the only living sentient thing that wasn’t part of him, inside him. But the dragonling didn’t do much aside from sleeping and lying on the monolith.

It lay on the monolith, as always, when Hex approached it. She opened her eyes and then closed it. She often didn’t even acknowledge his presence. The Dragon Bear lay beside the monolith. It lifted its head and snoozed against him.

"At least one of you knows how to respect the landowner here."

His stern voice fell on deaf ears.

"Can you look at least?"

To his glee, the Dragonling opened her eyes. She didn’t move though. Hex didn’t mind. He took a clump of ice and started to transform it as he trained. And like several times, toward the end, it drooped to the ground. The Dragonling snorted.

"Don’t...make fun of me!" He said to her. "What am I doing wrong?" Seeing no movement, he folded his arms. "Consider this the rent for living in here."

The Dragonling growled. But she did lift her tail. A clump of ice floated up to her. She used the claw on the tail and touched the middle part. The clump flattened and gained five stumps. After that, she flicked the crystal and swirled while she adjusted the shape. It took her half the time Hex spent on creating a crystal.

When she finished, she turned toward Hex with a triumphant look in her eyes. But Hex stood there. His eyes seemed glazed and he mumbled.

"So, that’s how it is. Now, I get it."

After spending so long on it, he understood the trick and purpose behind the exercise at once when the Dragonling demonstrated it.

The snow around Hex drifted up. More and more Ice elements swirled in the air. It fluttered around Hex. The Dragonling watched with wide eyes as all the elements transformed into tiny clusters.

At the same time, the circle on the back of Hex’s hand flared up. After a while, the light faded, leaving the circle completed. Hex had done it. He reached the Refined Stage.