Chapter 48: New Dilemma!

"One down, twenty-nine to go!" said Victoria as she readied the sword in her hand, ready to go again.

In the distance, Ethan, watching Victoria act, couldn’t help but be surprised.

He hadn’t expected her to use her ability in such a way.

’With the rumors about the Ice Queen in my past life, I expected her to freeze the Mana Zombies over.’

’But then again, an ice sword is not bad at all; it looks kind of cool, actually.’

’She probably felt her mana was not enough and decided to go for such a move.’

’A smart decision, if I do say so myself.’

Watching Victoria fight, like always, he once again gathered mana in his eyes and began to understand her abilities.

Looking at the mana settled in her core, the moment she activated it to form the ice sword, strange snowflake-like patterns appeared on its surface.

Not only that, but even as she held the katana in her hand, the pattern lit up, transferring mana from her core to her hands from time to time.

’This pattern, what is it? And how do I copy it?’ he thought.

Perhaps because he was reborn, but unlike Victoria, Elena, or other awakeners, he didn’t have an ability or mana core in his body.

At first, he guessed that maybe it was because he was reborn that his ability got carried through his soul, not his body.

But that then put him in another dilemma.

’If I don’t have a core, then how am I going to copy that pattern?’

’The mana circle is too thin to draw anything on it, then what?’

Recalling some of the novels he had read, some ideas ran through Ethan’s mind; however, he quickly discarded them for lack of practicality.

It was only after a few minutes that he came up with a somewhat viable option, but even that needed to be studied first.

’If I get a way to extract the mana from my body and control it as I wish, then it should be possible to write that pattern in the air.’

’Or if I add it on a piece of paper and channel mana into it, would that serve as a magic scroll?’

’And as an awakener, Marcus also didn’t have a core. Was that because the apocalypse hadn’t come and his awakening wasn’t complete?’

’Or is having a core unique to awakeners with elemental abilities?’

Watching Victoria’s fight intently, Ethan couldn’t help but sigh.

A situation like this just reminded him that in his past life, he was no more than an extra.

Because of that, he didn’t have any access to proper information and could only rely on rumours and hearsay.

Even the basics of how awakeners’ bodies functioned he had no clue about, and could only begin to observe and compare one by one until he mapped out the answer.

’Fortunately, if I add the remaining awakeners in the Smith shelter, then I should be able to come to a conclusion.’

Memorizing how the pattern worked, Ethan decided that once he broke through to the second circle and studied the others’ magic, he would understand the principle behind that pattern and make those ice abilities his own.

Just imagining the scene where he waved his hand and froze ten thousand people, Ethan couldn’t help but form a smile on his lips.

"Hey, hey, Brother, is Sister Victoria that beautiful? You’ve been staring at her and making all kinds of faces for a while."

"You know, back when you first brought her home, Grandpa and I thought she was the new Smith daughter-in-law."

"Tell the truth, you actually like her! Hahaha!"

Poking his cheek, Elena teased her brother as she saw him smiling at Victoria.

In all her years of knowing her brother, he wasn’t one to mingle with women too much, so seeing him bring back a woman a few weeks ago, how could she not be surprised?

Even if he told her that she would be very powerful when the end of the world came, she doubted that was the reason.

’However, an ice sword, what an interesting ability.’

’Looking at the wounds on each zombie, the sword seems to cover the wounds with a layer of frost, causing additional ice damage when cut.’

’Seeing her like this, I low-key want to fight her now,’ Elena thought.

Knock!

"Ow!"

Feeling a knock on her head, she couldn’t help but shout as she noticed her brother glaring daggers at her.

"Elena, my dear sister, can you not talk so much nonsense?"

"Sister Victoria was brought to the Smith family because of her strength, nothing else."

"Also, I can sense your fighting intent. Why don’t you calm down for a bit?"

"Neither of you has mastered your abilities fully; I don’t want you accidentally hurting each other."

He paused, turning back to look at Victoria.

"Now stay still and watch; she’s almost done, just five more to go."

"And her mana is almost exhausted. I wonder what she’ll do now."

Looking deep into her core and noticing it was about to be empty, Ethan focused on Victoria, ready to act if anything went wrong.

......

[Victoria’s POV]

On the other end, just like Ethan had said, Victoria was nearing her limits.

Despite having cut down twenty-five Mana Zombies already, she had only just awakened, so she had nowhere near enough reserves.

Not only that, but because these Mana Zombies were newly formed, they didn’t have any cores in them, so even with all this, she was still F-rank.

"Grrahhh!"

Roaring out angrily, a Mana Zombie launched toward her from behind, aiming to bite her neck.

"Damn it! Why won’t you guys just die already!" she yelled, using the butt of her ice katana to smash its head.

Bang!

Exploding with a loud pop, a chunk of flesh and blood splashed onto her clothes and face, making her want to vomit.

Now there were only four more to go, and they were each rapidly running toward her.

"Calm down, Victoria, just four more, you can do this!"

Trying to hold back, she wanted to call out to Ethan and Elena to help her out.

However, when she thought that she would disappoint them, she held back.

As someone who had been in an orphanage all her life, she knew how important a backer was.

Even if they were nice to her, if she didn’t prove her worth, no matter how strong her so-called talents were, she didn’t think they’d keep supporting her.

So, be it for the kids she had brought to the Smiths or for herself, she had to eliminate these last four zombies.

"However, the katana is already full of cracks, and I only have ten percent of my mana left. What do I do?" she muttered, her eyes gloomy.

If she dared to use any more mana to repair the katana, then her mana would be completely depleted.