Chapter 78 The Winter Magic

The next day, after Samiel woke up from his dream, he decided it was time to check out the Grimoire Lux Brumalis he obtained from the skeleton of the Frozen Court's traitor. Obtaining the Grimoire Lux Brumalis was pretty much a hassle, especially considering the crossing of the Snowridge Mountains.

So, he took out an enormous book and put it on his knees as he sat down cross-legged. It was finally time to take a good look at his spoils of war at last.

He put his hand on the Grimoire as he used the [Winter Ruler] onto the Grimoire, and instantly the temperature in the room dropped so drastically to negative that everything started freezing up, and Samiel suddenly found himself in an entirely different enviroment.

The place where he appeared was covered by ice where the eye could see, and it was constantly snowing. Everything around him was frozen; there was practically nothing that wasn't a piece of ice or snow. This was the empire of the frost and cold, one could safely say.

At the same time, Samiel felt immense cold penetrating through his very own soul. This feeling like he was completely seen through was not unfamiliar to him, and he felt like this several times over, especially when he met with his God. It didn't take him a long time to realize he was in something like a mindscape of the Grimoire.

Judging from this, he could instinctively see that the consciousness of the Grimoire Lux Brumalis should be an extremely powerful one, already reaching the Level where no mortal could peak, the reams of the higher beings and entities.

"Is anyone here?"

He shouted to the emptiness of the illusionary space, or was it really space just located in the Grimoire? Who knew? Samiel never studied these things, so he had only some sort of rudimentary knowledge of them.

He was still only learning the Arcane theories and the mysteries of the Cosmos; it was not something that could be learned quickly, not to mention some things like the Mysteries of the Cosmos, one needed strong enough mental fortitude.

Because the true insight of what is dwelling there, and how insignificant everything is, crushed not only one Transcendent. The true secrets of the existence were not something that was destined for everyone, but only a small group of chosen.

"Probably not... or should I take a look around this place?"

As Samiel did not receive any response from the Grimoire, he decided to take a look around the mindscape of the Grimoire and see if he could find the dammed consciousness that had let him wait or if there was still a possibility that it was watching him quietly.

He thought that this was probably some kind of test, but whatever. And technically speaking, there was nothing better he could do in this situation than just wait and look around.

He stood up and started walking in a random direction; it didn't really matter because everything looked exactly the same here, just huge icicles sprouting from the ground, which in truth was just a mix of ice and snow, and everywhere where one could see was either ice or snow.

As he was walking through the Grimoire's mindscape, suddenly, an enormous snowstorm descended down on him, but fortunately for Samiel, he wasn't that bothered by the incoming snowstorm as he went further and further.

"Very good, very good."

Suddenly, Samiel heard a voice; it was a neutral voice, neither female nor male, nor beast or monster, but rather similar to Artificial Intelligence he talked to in Zephystrand City. Albeit it contained a hint of emotions and feelings, not something like the completely emotionless Artificial Intelligence or Spirit Genies of the Magic Towers.

"Welcome to my domain, Samiel Zentuar."

Stated the voice, as suddenly the entire snowstorm dissipated, while the snow that was falling down condensed into a figure of a weird wolf-like creature, which was entirely created from the snowflakes. This was probably the form that the consciousness of the Grimoire took to converse with him.

"You know my name, but I don't know yet yours, Grimoire."

Samiel stated the obvious as the wolf avatar nodded his head, warily eyeing the consciousness of the Grimoire Lux Brumalis, but it was clear that the Grimoire didn't wish him any harm. What reason for this?

Judging by its strength and capabilities of it, if it wished for Samiel to die, then he would be dead by the second he took the Grimoire Lux Brumalis into his hands.

"I don't have one, and things like names are insignificant to us, consciousnesses of the Grimoires. Now, you are here because I judged you to be worthy of being tested as my new user, regardless of your background or origin."

The Avatar of Lux Brumalis said as Samiel nodded, anticipating such a thing, but there was a slight formulation that caught his interest.

"So you don't hold any loyalty towards the Frozen Court?"

He questioned, as the wolf Avatar of Lux Brumalis agreed with his statement.

"I was personally created by the Ymir, one of the Primordial Gods in the ancient Epochs. How can I hold a loyalty towards some measly mortal faction? I contain knowledge that even many of the Gods of Winter would covet with everything they have."

The Avatar proclaimed rather arrogantly, as Samiel was somehow impressed by that. He knew that Ymir was a very strong Transcendent and belonged to the category of the Primordial Gods, which was almost as old as the Tower itself.

The Primordial Gods, from what Samiel heard, were the strongest Gods, very mighty and powerful, but most of them were either killed or sealed and those who remained alive were very few. Most of those who were still alive decided to just slumber and wait for their time to rise once more.

One of the strongest Ultra-Order Transcendental Artifacts, Heart of Winter, was made from Ymir's corpse, so it tells a lot about his power and knowledge over conceptual Magic such as Winter Magic.

"Then how did you end in the hands of a mortal instead of someone at the Transcendental Level?"

Samiel questioned the consciousness of the Grimoire Lux Brumalis with great curiosity. It was bugging him how such a mighty artifact ended in the hands of something like

"Many of us are scattered through the mortal levels, and due to the Covenant, Transcendnts can't set foot on most areas in the Cosmos to not destroy all of them; of course, many would do in secret, but still, the chances that they will find some of us, is scare, ironically, most mortals are that lucky, and rarely the mortals would give us to Transcendents."

Explained the consciousness through the wolf avatar, as Samiel had many other questions he wanted to ask after hearing this.

"When you are talking about Us, you are meaning other Ultra-Order Transcendental Artifacts and sentient Magic Grimoire such as yourself, right?"

He asked to assure his concerns, to which the wolf avatar nodded his huge head.

"Indeed, there are several of them, many of them are hidden in depths and most unassuming places scattered across Lower Worlds, purposely hidden there by their original owners who either perished and are dead or perished and are scheming their revival."

Samiel listened attentively to what the Grimoire's consciousness was talking about, as that all were valuable information.

And information, if used correctly, is the most powerful weapon of all. And this kind of information was very precious; theoretically, if he could find about the locations of other Grimoires or Ultra-Orders Artifacts such as this one, his power would soar.

Of course, Samiel planned to search for those only after he reached Legendary Level and became a powerhouse on his own, mainly to have the power to protect his own treasures.

"I think we have already trailed down from the initial topic, so..."

Samiel stated, as the consciousness of the Lux Brumalis realized it and returned back to the business because that was the reason why it called Samiel here in the first place.

"See that you have Ultimate Ice Ability; I will allow you to use me and learn from me."

The consciousness of the Grimoire told him shortly after the reminder, as Samiel looked directly at it, thinking that this was easy, and his consciousness was ejected out of the Grimoire's mindscape and returned back to his body in the Citadel of the Zephystrand City.

"What a weird experience... now let us take a look at you."

He muttered to himself while he petted the Grimoire, and finally, he could open it and learn the basics of the Winter Magic.

Winter Magic belonged to the category of Conceptual Magic. In fact, all types of Magic could be divided into two, technically, three Categories.

The first one was called Elemental Magic; here, one could find Magic strictly based on elements, such as common elements such as Fire, Water, Earth, and so on, or more advanced elements such as Light, Darkness, or Ice.

The second type was Conceptual Magic, which was not tied to any element per se, and was more about some concept, like Winter Magic, which was about the concept of the Winter itself that included elements like Ice, Water or Wind.

And thirdly, there was a third category, which was called Edictual Magic, which was somehow a mix of the previous two, for example, his own Void Magic or Necromcany Arts; they didn't fit Elemental Magic and weren't pure conceptual Magic, so it fits more into the category of Edictual Magic.

Winter Magic was dangerous, even though, at first glance, one may find it more ceremonial and beautiful than a proper combat tool. But, as the combination of several elements used together, it was a very dangerous thing, especially for someone who had any kind of Ice or Frost related ability.

Samiel was even better on that because he had an Ultimate Ability related to the concept of Winter itself, so his compatibility with the Winter Magic was automatically maxed; maybe even thanks to that, he got the recognition of the Grimoire's consciousness so fast.

He then started studying the Grimoire and learned the Basic Level Magic, mainly those of the 1st Level up to the 3rd Level Spells, and naturally, also comprehending all theory behind the Spells.

With the Winter Ruler, Samiel knew that the destructiveness and power of these Spells would be way higher than their normal estimated power. After several hours of studying the Winter Magic from the Grimoire Lux Brumalis, he wanted to test out his newly found knowledge over and decided to cast his 1st Spell from the Winter Magic.

The one he chose was the 1st Level Spell called Bitting Arrow.

Soon enough, an artistically made arrow made from ice, looking like a grandmaster sculptor, made it right here and now, as he then dispersed the ice arrow.

"The Mana consumption is lower compared to pure use of the Winter Ruler by 30%, which is relatively good, but the power of this spell is higher than 50% of average Bitting Arrow Spell due to the presence of the Winter Ruler Ultimate Ability."

Samiel summarized his progress over the Winter Magic.

"The only downside is the time needed to cast; with the Winter Ruler purely, I can achieve essentially instantaneous results, while when using the Winter Magic, I cast the spell around 3 seconds, which is disturbing to a certain degree."

Indeed, this was because the Winter Magic Spell required some time to conjure. At the same time, the things he could create with the Ultimate Ability, it didn't, so basically everything had its own pros and cons.

'Hooman, it is getting too cold here.'

Nefertari said to Samiel, who was still in a trance because he was studying Winter Magic, not even noticing that his entire room was frozen, including the balcony and even the hallway, as some servants had already noticed this phenomenon.

'Hooman! Hooman! Hooman!'

She was flying around Samiel and shouting at him through their telepathic connection as she soon landed on Samiel's head, took out her sharpest weapon, and caught his attention in one swift slash over the cheek.

'Dammm, that actually hurt? What the hell are you doing, Nefe?'

Samiel screamed as he woke up from his trance of fascination over the Winter Magic; looking around, he noticed that everything was frozen, and the temperature in the room was in heavy minuses.

"Hmm... this could be problematic."

He said, putting aside the Grimoire Lux Brumalis while exiting his chambers, only to find out that even the hallways and corridors were partially frozen.

"Ok... I will need to change the rooms as it seems."

Samiel then just quietly said, while Nefertari, who was still standing on his head, nodded in agreement because even though if the ice is removed, which would very hardly be done, everything would be wet and basically inhabitable.

Not to mention, they would first need to find someone with powerful fire abilities or Magic, to carry out this task, but Samiel planned to delegate this to Estrid, who was lazying somewhere around in the Zephystrand City.

After that, Samiel exited his room and told about the situation to the nearest butler; fortunately, there were already a few people here, so he just gave them orders on what to do, whom to contact, and to prepare him a new chambers.