Icy Barrier

Once Leus willed the Mana Crystal to release all of its mana, the Barrier's color turned bright cyan on the outside.

Inside it, it was just a snowstorm, but without any snow.

'This feels just like the Earth Mana, but much colder'

Sand-like pieces of ice were whirling fast inside the barrier, but the fur coat stopped it from hurting his covered parts.

'It still injures my face and palms...'

What Leus didn't know is that The Fur Coat had defensive magical properties, so it protected his body just like armor, but no matter how good it was, it couldn't protect the uncovered parts of his body.

Leus quickly noticed that the Fur Coat was providing too good of protection, so he came up with a plan

'This coat is huge, I can literally just use it as a cover, after all, the only part I need to be exposed to the Ice Mana is my palm'

Leus laid down on the floor and covered himself with the coat, then wrapped it around his body like a blanket.

'Ugh, now breathing is a little difficult'

But still, it was better than before, and he would quickly get used to it anyway.

Leus then pushed his left hand out of the Coat, exposing it to the Ice Mana.

Immediately, he felt that it had become very cold, but he ignored the pain and discomfort

'I need to focus on my goal'

Leus switched his mindset to focus only on his target, he took a deep breath and then began trying to control the Ice Mana around him with his mind, manipulating it to gather around his palm.

'All I have to do is amass as much mana as possible on my palm and control it'

Leus felt that his control over Ice Mana was somewhat better than his control over the rest of the elements

'I remember that since I started training, Ice consumes less mana than Earth, I also feel more attuned with it, maybe because it's close to Water or something.'

Nevertheless, he didn't dwell much on that and focused back on his goal.

'Slowly and steadily, gather the Mana'

As more time passed, Leus' hand became colder and colder, until at some point he stopped feeling it

'This is problematic, injuries are okay, but I don't want to get frostbite or something.'

Leus' spells could heal outer wounds and bones

'But I do not know how to heal internal organs, and I'm not sure about tissues and muscles'

Can tissues and muscles be healed by the spell (Healing), or not?

'Well, I do not know, but I'm not willing to risk my hand by betting on that'

Leus sighed and brought his hand inside the coat again.

'What I hate the most is the interruption of my training ... if I can just focus on my goal without any problems, I can easily achieve it, but external factors are just so bothersome.'

Leus started warming his hand while thinking about a solution to the dilemma.

'I'm certain that no matter what happens, the damage won't be permanent.

Worst case scenario I'll have to heal it with Life Force, but still, I don't want to take risks if it could be avoided.'

After a while of thinking, Leus came up with a strategy

'I'll use Light-Shield on my hand'

He cast the spell on his hand, covering it in an armor made of Light Mana that would instantly heal it as soon as it got damaged, preventing the damage from reaching the point where it'd affect internal tissues or muscles, then he put his hand outside.

Leus' ultimate goal wasn't to heal his hand

'After all, in a bit of time, the spell will be consumed anyway'

His goal was to expose his hand to the Ice Mana as much as possible

'The book said that eventually, I'll get used to it, so all I have to do is just do my best to bear the first while, then it should become easier'

Whenever the spell got consumed, Leus cast another one, he didn't really like this strategy, but he didn't have anything else on his mind so far

'This plan constantly interrupts my focus on the Abstract to cast the Light Spell, and its progress is very slow.'

But still, he kept doing it.

Leus cast Light Shield nonstop on his palm and kept controlling the Ice Mana to make it denser and denser around his palm.

He had no idea how much time passed like this, but he could tell

'Not much time, just a couple of days at most'

His feeling of time wasn't as vague as always.

Because he had to focus on casting the spell as much as he had to focus on unlocking the Abstract, his sense of time was quite vivid.

Eventually:

'I don't think I can condense any more mana around my palm'

Leus guessed that the mana had become dense enough and that he was ready to move to the next step, however,

'I'm afraid...'

Although he thought that he was physically ready, he knew that he wasn't mentally prepared

'My instincts are telling me that once I do it, I'll feel immense pain'

'The book said that I have to make the Mana go in and out of my palm'

This means that he had to make the Ice Mana pass through his hand, but he wasn't sure that he was ready to do it.

'It's scary...'

Leus spent years elevating his mind.

In fact, Leus spent most of his life manipulating and controlling mana.

He spent more time around mana than around humans, and his efforts paid off.

His mind reached the level of being able to silently cast spells with 7 different elements, and on top of that, his mind attained the power of 4 Elemental Abstracts.

All this honed his instincts regarding Mana REALLY WELL.

And right now, when he thought about making the Ice Mana pass through his palm, the only thing his instincts relayed to him was

'The feeling of doom'