"Roland Blackhand is definitely a bastard."
Anyone who knew Roland Blackhand from back in the day would most likely come to such a conclusion if they interacted with him for a long time. Even I became more and more certain of this conclusion the more I recalled the past in my dream.
"… Even if he's not a bastard, he's most likely a scumbag."
Stealing, cheating, robbing, assassinating, extorting, kidnapping, and rape … alright, I didn't mention the last one. That was because there were no benefits to be gained from doing such things. Pure physical pleasure would be meaningless to Roland Blackhand from back in the day. That was why since he could gain benefits from doing such evil deeds, and he could also obtain Life Points from the System to strengthen himself, he naturally had nothing to fear.
In order to obtain the power to take revenge, Roland Blackhand hid his identity in the Cloud Tower. He unhesitatingly betrayed Amelia, whom he owed a debt of gratitude to (but judging from the witches' actions, Amelia wasn't wronged). He even felt that taking the righteous path was too slow, so he secretly took Harloys as his teacher and researched forbidden undead magic and life modification techniques. It could be said that he had no bottom line at all for the sake of obtaining power.
In order to find his mortal enemy, Roland Blackhand had no taboo at all. He had also accepted his former disciple with a purely utilitarian attitude. Perhaps in the end, Roland Blackhand had been deserted by all his friends and family. From a certain standpoint, he had deserved it.
Even I didn't expect that the former Child of Light would fall so far under the influence of hatred. The more I recalled the past in my dream, the more I remembered his shameless actions, the more I discovered the difference between my past self and my current self.
Hatred could drive a person insane. It could even turn a Holy Disciple into an unforgivable villain. Now that I thought about it, perhaps Roland Blackhand's personality had become completely twisted after he returned from Hell with such deep hatred.
Perhaps I should even thank Roland Blackhand's final ending, thank Roland Blackhand's incomplete soul, thank Roland Blackhand for successfully taking revenge and eliminating part of his hatred (he thought he had succeeded because he didn't discover the true mastermind behind the scenes). Otherwise, there would have been no Roland Blackhand.
The Holy Knight Rolo was actually an existence that was even closer to the original Roland. If he still had the twisted personality of the Black Hand and met Adam and Little Red, it was likely that something terrifying would have happened.
But from a certain standpoint, perhaps his dark personality was even more attractive. At the very least, he had only befriended Amelia, Harloys, Evelyn, Cher, and the others in his previous life. He seemed to have been the only winner in life out of all his previous lives. Could it be that the legends really said that if a man wasn't bad, women wouldn't love him?
"The Roland of the past is different from the current Roland. We need to look forward." Perhaps I was deceiving myself, but that was all I could think of.
However, there was one thing that was the same. The Baron Blackhand was still Roland, the incredibly sly transmigrator. How could the Illusion of Ice that he had spent his entire life searching for be simple?
The transparent droplets condensed on the ground, and she turned into an ice-crystal-like seed, burrowing out of the snow and slowly germinating. The small roots were ice crystals, and there was still dew flowing on the leaves. When the clouds in the sky started to drizzle, under the nourishment of the rain, the flower bud finally gradually opened, but the ice-crystal-like petals were cold mist of frost.
"You're actually able to use simple ice and snow magic to such an extent. You're truly amazing. You actually hid such a trump card back in the day." The silly cat's evaluation made me feel rather proud of myself. As expected, experts knew best.
This seemed like a simple performance of ice and snow, but it actually displayed all the different forms of water — snow, frost, ice, cloud, rain, dew, mist, and steam. This required a deep understanding of the various forms of water as well as an incredibly high level of magical control.
In Aichy's magic system, the four major elements of wind, fire, water, and earth were the basic elements of everything. Ice and snow magic was actually classified as an extension of water magic. Actually, most ice mages would need to learn water magic for a period of time before they could specialize in ice and snow magic. Before they could summon ice and snow, they would first need to learn how to use magic to summon and control water.
And for water mages, understanding the various forms of water was very important. Controlling water's nature would allow one to achieve twice the result with half the effort. There were also some special magic spells that were required, such as "Summoning Mist" that could create large amounts of mist, or water illusion magic that could create illusions.
This was also how Roland Blackhand became an ice mage. But as a transmigrator, his understanding of the various forms of water far surpassed that of ordinary mages. His research on magic also combined the concepts of physics from the past. Unlike other mages who only focused on temperature and water's form and adjusted their mana output to increase the temperature of ice and snow, Roland Blackhand knew that the various forms of water were only random forms of the current environment (pressure, gravity, etc.). He had also personally measured the conditions needed to achieve each form, such as the relationship between mana frequency and the pressure of the environment.
Of course, if that was all there was to it, it would only increase his understanding of water's form and perhaps slightly increase the power of water magic. It wouldn't be very meaningful. However, Roland Blackhand found an alchemist to make a magic ring. Not only could the ring fix a special pressure, it could also save the mana required for conversion, and it could also record the fixed frequency and mana output on the ring. The meaning of this was that as long as Roland Blackhand used his mana, he would be able to choose a form of water to transform into. For example, he could transform his mana into ice, but the temperature would still be below zero degrees Celsius. In this way, Roland Blackhand's mana conversion rate and spellcasting speed would far surpass ordinary mages. In fact, he could even transform his mana ten times more efficiently than ordinary mages of the same level.
Roland Blackhand created eight of these rings. Together with two other magic rings, Roland Blackhand wore all of his fingers. In order to conceal his "Lord of the Rings"'s specialty and weakness, Roland Blackhand wore a pair of black magical gloves. Using these gloves as a disguise, Roland Blackhand called himself Roland Blackhand. Later on, he became Baron Blackhand.
Archmages would often use their highest-level spells to prove their own abilities. Being able to transform quickly didn't mean that they could use higher-level spells. Being able to win in a duel was only a minor advantage. However, Roland Blackhand used this as a foundation to create his own combat style.
The scene before Roland Blackhand was a perfect example of his "Blackhand style."
The berserk red dragon displayed her outstanding combat talent and techniques. However, she was still unable to catch her sly opponent. Her heavy punches were all deflected by the swirling icy water around her. Ice would mysteriously slip under her feet and trip over her feet. When she finally managed to catch her opponent's shadow, her dragon breath was focused on a shadow created by an ice mirror. Meanwhile, her opponent was only an ice sculpture made of snow.
"Bastard, get out here!"
The more he fought, the more anxious and impatient he became. However, he was still unable to catch his opponent.
Meanwhile, the surrounding mist was unknowingly becoming thicker and thicker. However, the cold mist that was intentionally meant to kill only prevented the humanoid red dragon from seeing what was happening before him. Finally, a sharp ice blade slowly extended from the mist behind him without him realizing it.
"Do you think I'm an idiot?!"
Little Red turned around and punched. However, she missed. The ice blade instantly shattered and transformed into an avalanche of snow. It was nothing more than an empty shell.
However, five ice spikes suddenly extended from the ground and stabbed into Little Red's thigh …
* Clang! *
Unfortunately, the ice blade still didn't break through Roland's defense. When the furious red dragon turned around, she lightly touched something on her neck. That sharp line of ice was right there.
* Crack! *
The ice line, which was powerful enough to cut through the ground, directly broke apart. It still didn't break through Roland's defense …
But then, a sudden rainstorm fell from the sky, and the cloud that was more than three meters high suddenly covered Little Red's head. The falling rainwater only covered Little Red. Before she could break free from the predicament of being a drowned rat, a ball of cold water suddenly wrapped around her head, making it hard for her to breathe.
"Wahhhhh!"
Little Red was having trouble breathing. She was furious beyond belief. She hadn't even managed to touch her opponent since the start of the battle. The ball of water on her head made her feel even more displeased. She completely forgot about her promise of "not transforming into a dragon" and "not using any power above Legend" and directly transformed into a dragon, and then …
In midair, Ein Mezus took a deep breath.
After the Immemorial Dragon used her dragon breath to completely destroy the land where the duel was taking place, she was slightly worried that she might have gone overboard. However, she discovered that the man who was supposed to be fighting her was currently drinking tea with the black cat and the White Dragon in a nearby mountainous area. And so …
Ein Mezus took a deep breath …
Ein Mezus took in a deep breath again …
Alright then, when the furious red dragon transformed back into her human form, the ground had completely transformed into a sea of flames. At that time, she happened to hear Harloys's comment on Roland Blackhand's Ice Illusion.
"How dirty. He doesn't have any dignity or presence that a mage should have. His techniques are purely for killing. He's no different from those rats (thieves) in the sewers …"
That's right, Harloys was correct. Ice Illusion didn't specialize in power. Although Roland Blackhand had reached the Legend rank, he didn't know any forbidden spells. In fact, he didn't even know any large-scale AOE spells. All of his abilities were focused on creating illusions to confuse his opponent, obstructing his opponent's attacks, and small tricks to obstruct his opponent's attacks. And his ultimate ability to kill his opponent was his "Blackhand style" of attacking from behind.
"… Although it's dirty to the point where it's impossible to see, it's powerful, fatal, and difficult to defend against, especially against mortals. Your attack style has given me quite a bit of inspiration. Not bad. "
White Dragons were Ice Dragons to begin with. Sam, who had already reached the Supreme Immemorial White Dragon level, was doubtlessly one of the best ice mages in the world. I silently nodded at his comment.
That's right, this was a pure killing technique. Everything was created for the sake of killing enemies, especially weak humans. There were countless ways to confuse the enemy, and the hidden ice blades that directly reaped the enemy's life were actually nothing more than a disguise. The various forms of water vapor, mist, and raindrops were actually subzero temperatures that would paralyze and freeze the enemy to death without them realizing it.
"Rather than calling him a mage, it's more accurate to call him an assassin who uses magic."
Many powerful individuals far stronger than Roland Blackhand had died to him. Even Myth-ranked archmages could lose their balance if they weren't careful and were killed by a thin thread covered in mist. "Baron Blackhand" definitely wasn't an honorable title.
I was quite proud of the fact that even Little Red was defeated in her human form. Of course, I knew that even in her human form, Little Red could easily beat up human Saint-rank warriors. But no matter how much power she had, it would be meaningless if she couldn't land a hit. And if I could break through her defenses, this fighting style would perfectly counter brute strength warriors.
The moment Little Red landed on the ground, I smiled and gave her two bottles of century-old wine. After successfully calming her down, Little Red went to drink by herself.
"How is it? Is there any advice you can give me? "
I had asked Sam and Harloys to spectate the battle, as well as to spar against Little Red. Naturally, it wasn't just for fun. Rather, it was because I hoped that the two master mages would be able to give me some pointers. After all, although Roland Blackhand's power had almost completely recovered, he still didn't have any way of fusing all of his past ice power to break through to the Legend rank.
Of the two archmages before me, one was a genius mage who was known as the Omniscient One, while the other was a Supreme Immemorial White Dragon who was at the peak of ice magic. If even they couldn't find a way to reach the Legend rank, then I could only go to the Great Snow Mountain and try.
But when I saw both archmages silently shaking their heads, I could only helplessly give up.
"It's not that I don't have any ideas …"
Harloys's words caused my eyes to light up. However, I could already guess what she was going to say next. It was likely something that I didn't want to hear.
"… It's that everyone has their own path. I'm afraid that saying it out loud will affect you."
Sam's reply was within my expectations. Actually, I had long since understood what he was going to say.
Every powerful individual reached their current power level step by step. None of them had reached their current power level by luck. Of course I knew that "everyone has their own path. Others' paths will become narrower and narrower, and their achievements will be limited." But the problem was that if it wasn't for the fact that I was at my wit's end and couldn't find my own path, I wouldn't have asked for help.
I didn't have much time left. If I slowed down, all of my plans might go awry. Naturally, I became even more anxious.
[Perhaps I have an idea.]
My System, which had been abnormally silent recently, suddenly spoke up.
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