Mistake

"And it looks like you are gonna need a lot of work. Especially that mindset you have." The old man scoffed as he shook his head. 

Kurao ignored the old man as he got closer to the training hall archway,

'This old man is so irritating that is makes me want to pull my own hair out!'

But just as he was about to reach the hallway he feels a instant fluctuation in mana as a 5 meter tall wall blocks the door. 

"What the.." Kurao said as he turned around to see where the mana came from but only to see the old man just fiddle with the cane not giving any attention to him. Knowing that it was most likely this 'Mentor' of his that caused the wall to appear. 

"Get rid of this wall this instance I don't have time to deal with your antics old man!" Kurao glared daggers into the old man who was still not looking in his direction as he kept doing small tricks with the cane.

"Well just melt the wall brat if you got somewhere to be brat." The old man said not even glancing up at Kurao who was looking at him furiously.

Kurao was livid that this person beat him up and then proceeded to berate him as a person just to lock him in a room with him.

'I swear I am gonna get you back for this you irritating old man!'

Kurao was fed up beyond his heart, even swearing he would get this man back for this treatment. 

'Well if I can't go back to fill my mana I will just do it here, I bet this old man will bore himself eventually and stop bothering me!' 

Understanding that this old man was probably not gonna budge he decided to just out wait the old man, sitting down on the ground Kurao begins to gather mana to fill his mana source, but just as he started circulating-

*SPLASH* 

"Nu-uh, not gonna allow you to do that kiddo." The old man said as he started chewing on a snack bar which he had pulled out of his spatial pouch while making chewing noises to further irritate Kurao who staggered after being splashed with water.

"THEN WHAT IN THE ETHERIA AM I SUPPOSED TO DO!" Kurao was wet and angry as he yelled at the man who was further annoying him with loud chewing noises as to taunt him.

Seeing how infuriated he was, the old man chuckled as he enunciated what he said before.

"Melt, The, Wall." 

The old man looking at Kurao still staring daggers as to impale him with just his thoughts, just gave a smirk and added.

"I already told you if you got somewhere to be then just get pass the wall. Granted I don't think you will get anywhere unless you melt the wall as that's the only option available to you at the moment."

"I am not even a fire mage and or variant of the fire affinity. So HOW in Etheria am I supposed to melt THIS!" Kurao gestured with both his hands at the towering ice wall.

"Who said you needed to have the fire affinity to melt ice? You yourself are a variant of the water origin element, so you should be able to manage." he scoffed before pulling out another snack bar from his spatial pouch.

Kurao saw that the old man was now engrossed in his snacking then his pouting, so deciding to focus on the challenge he was given started to think about the problem, 

'Well I could break the ice wall if I had the earth element or if I was a higher source stage elementalist then 

I currently am. So that leaves taking his words at face value but that doesn't really help much, how am I supposed to melt ice made of mana its not as simple as freezing water into ice....'

Suddenly having a idea Kurao gets up,

'WAIT that is it! I just have to reverse the process and turn the ice into water like I would the other way! But can I control the temperature of my ice I have never tried it before..' 

Getting what the old man was hinting at decided to step closer to the wall, well circulating mana through the wall of ice, 

'Even though I haven't freeze water into ice enough to be an expert I would say I am proficient enough to attempt reversing the freeze and make the ice cool to around 0~1°C which should be enough for it to melt' 

Few minutes pass as Kurao concentrates his whole attention on lowering the ice's temperature. The old man 

who glanced up to see the how Kurao was doing stared in surprise as the ice wall start to defrost as water started pooling up. Slowly put surely the wall was melting!

'The kid isn't half bad... Being able to figure out how to reverse the process in such a short time for his age shows that he is more talented then the other newly awakened from noble families... Wait what is he do-'

---------

As the wall began to slowly become shorter the room began to fill with mana as more and more of the ice wall melted. 

Kurao who felt he was getting a hang of controlling the ice's temperature started feeling bored, he decided to try and cultivate as well, 

'It would be a waste to not try and take in some of this excess mana and make more use of my time...' As he started the process of intaking mana he could hear the old man shout.

"KID DONT DO THA-" The old man stopped shouting as he heard a gut wrenching cry

"AGGGGHHHHHHH" Kurao collapsed to the floor a moment after he attempted to multi task. Kurao who was now writhing in pain on the floor the old man came over and forcibly sat him in a meditative position well placing a hand on his back,

"Stay steady kid you look to be fine, just focus on the mana flowing in your veins. Ill take care of the rest." 

Kurao who was being bombarded by the pain of his insides burning was only able to hear parts of what he was saying, but got the gist as he hurriedly tried to flush the mana that was stuck causing him extreme nerve pain. After doing so Kurao instantly screamed out again feeling the pain of his veins being bloated.

"A-" 

Just before Kurao could scream the old man quickly knocked him out as Kurao's unconscious body falls to the floor. Looking at the body of Kurao who lied in the puddle of water, the old man shook his head while wearing a face of disbelief.

"Can't believe he would try something so stupid!" The old man muttered in angry bewilderment as he looked at the state he was in.

"This kid is unbelievable." 

----------

Kurao woke up in a slight panic state, but seeing that he was in his room he settled down a bit. Moving around a little he felt the slight pain coming from his chest a burning sensation.

Quickly getting up and seating on the bed with his back against the backboard he took off his shirt to find no injury but then quickly remembered what had transpired before he blacked out.

The pain he was feeling was phantom pain which reminded him of what happened before he blackout. Letting out a small grunt he glanced across the room as there wasn't much light in there except for a small candle that was illuminating a figure.

Just before Kurao could identify who the figure was a gruffly voice seeped into his ears.

"How you feeling kid'?"

Kurao instantly figured out that the figure in the room was the old man that he met in the training room.

"I am fine, I think?"

"That's good." The old man replied 

Seeing that he was the only person in his room. Kurao feeling a little awkward with the annoying old man that was with him earlier not acting that way and seem to be concerned for his well being even though he was a stranger, decided to ask something as to not be left in silence.

"How long have I been out?"

"I don't know, maybe probably about 28 hours."

Kurao recoiled at how long he has been supposedly been unconscious. 

"Do you know why I was sleeping that long or what happened to me in the training hall?" he asked confused on why he was out for that long and why he went through that sudden pain.

"Kid' what you did was extremely stupid. Granted I don't think anyone would ever try something as stupid as what you attempted, cause what you tried is so arrogant and reckless that even your father wouldn't even attempt to do it." The old man's concerned 

attitude went to a stern one as he continued

"What you did could've crippled you and left you as mortal for the rest of your life."