Chapter 59: [59] : The Bone-Ash Wastes, Absolute Zero Aura

Declan stood at the edge of the barrier of the Iron Bastion. He stared out at the dark and toxic mud of the Ashen Bog.

He had a problem. He needed Void-Ore to kill Abyssal demons. Void-Ore was located in the Bone-Ash Wastes.

He opened his system interface and pulled up the Global Auction House. He typed ’Bone-Ash Wastes’ into the search bar to see what he was dealing with.

[Zone Information]

↳ Entered Area: The Bone-Ash Wastes

↳ Warning: Level 25 to 35 Extreme Hazard Zone

↳ Environmental Debuff: Searing Heat. Deals 50 points of true fire damage per second. Melts standard armor. Drains stamina by 10 percent every second.

Declan let out a low whistle. Fifty points of true damage a second just for standing there.

Even with his massive health pool and his Abyssal Sovereign stats, that would cook him alive in a matter of minutes.

He looked at the gear players were selling to survive the zone.

[Item: Heavy Frost-Plate Armor]

↳ Tier: Forged

↳ Description: Bulky, insulated armor infused with basic ice magic. Reduces environmental heat damage by 80 percent. Reduces movement speed by 40 percent.

↳ Buyout Price: 50,000 Origin Points. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

"Fifty thousand points for a bulky suit that makes me walk like a turtle?" Declan muttered. "Yeah, no thanks."

He didn’t want to spend his points on overpriced and ugly gear. He was a hacker. He didn’t buy solutions. He broke the game to make his own.

He cleared the search bar and typed in ’Ice Skill’. He filtered the results by the absolute lowest price possible.

He scrolled past the high-tier Blizzard spells and Frost Nova ultimates. He went straight to the bottom of the garbage pile.

[Skill Book: Lesser Ice Ward]

↳ Type: Active Spell

↳ Tier: Scavenged

↳ Description: Consume 10 Mana to summon a small, floating ice crystal that drops the temperature by a few degrees. Lasts for 30 seconds. Mostly used to cool drinks.

↳ Buyout Price: 10 Origin Points.

"Perfect," Declan smiled. He tapped the buyout button.

The cheap and pale blue skill book materialized in his hand. He pressed it against his chest.

The book shattered into light and absorbed directly into his skin. It instantly downloaded the basic magical formula into his neural link.

[Skill Learned: Lesser Ice Ward Level 1]

Declan didn’t even test it. He just pulled up his enhancement menu. He linked the new skill to his Origin Point treasury.

"System. Apply Boundless Enhancement to Lesser Ice Ward. Push it to plus twenty. Ignore all safety protocols."

He didn’t care about the cost. It was a Scavenged-tier skill, so the points required were practically nothing compared to upgrading a Relic weapon.

[System Enhancement Initiated]

↳ Lesser Ice Ward +1... +5...

[Notice: Maximum safety threshold reached. Neural corruption imminent.]

[Talent: Boundless Enhancement activated. Cap removed.]

↳ Lesser Ice Ward +10... +15... +20.

The familiar and splitting headache slammed into his brain. It felt like someone had shoved a spike of solid ice right between his eyes.

The core code of the game was screaming. It was trying desperately to prevent a basic utility spell from breaking the server limits.

Declan just gritted his teeth and pushed through the pain.

[Lesser Ice Ward has reached +20.]

[Triggering Conceptual Mutation...]

The system text in his vision flashed a brilliant and blinding white.

The headache vanished. It was replaced by an overwhelming sensation of pure and absolute cold radiating from his chest.

[Skill Mutated: Absolute Zero Aura]

↳ Type: Passive Skill (Toggle On/Off)

↳ Description: The user becomes a localized epicenter of frozen void. Generates a permanent 5-meter aura that drops the ambient temperature to absolute zero.

↳ Special Effect: Completely nullifies all environmental heat, fire magic, and thermal hazards within the radius. Hostile targets entering the radius suffer extreme movement speed reduction and continuous frostbite damage.

Declan read the text and laughed out loud. He didn’t just buy an air conditioner. He bought a walking glacier.

"Activate," he commanded.

Instantly, a faint and shimmering dome of icy blue light expanded exactly five meters around his body.

The muddy ground beneath his boots instantly froze solid. It cracked with a sharp snapping sound.

The air inside the bubble was incredibly cold, but Declan didn’t feel a chill. The system recognized him as the caster, rendering him perfectly comfortable.

"Time to go mining," Declan said.

He tapped his Ring of the Void-Hoarder and targeted the coordinates for the Bone-Ash Wastes.

"Void Blink."

The world went pitch black. A second later, he materialized in Sector 5.

The environment was brutal. The sky was an angry and burning orange.

The ground was made of cracked black rock and rivers of slow-moving and glowing red magma.

The air was thick with gray ash, and the heat distortion made everything look wavy and blurred.

Normally, stepping into this zone would trigger the massive 50 HP per second drain.

Declan looked at his health bar. It didn’t move.

His Absolute Zero Aura pushed back the searing heat effortlessly.

The magma river flowing just a few feet away from him instantly hardened into black obsidian as soon as it touched the edge of his five-meter bubble.

The falling hot ash froze mid-air and dropped to the ground like tiny snowflakes.

He started walking. He was wearing his pitch-black Predator’s Coat and his casual tactical gear.

He didn’t look like he belonged in a volcanic wasteland. He looked like he was taking a stroll in a park.

Up ahead, he spotted a group of three players. They were fighting a Level 28 Flame Hound.

The players looked miserable. They were wearing the heavy and ugly Frost-Plate Armor he had seen on the auction house.

The bulky suits made them incredibly slow. They were sweating profusely.

Their health bars constantly ticked down despite the protection of the armor. They were struggling just to lift their swords.

Declan walked right past them.

The players stopped fighting. They stared at Declan in sheer disbelief.

Here was a guy in a light trench coat walking through a sea of fire. He was completely surrounded by a perfectly pristine bubble of winter.

"What the hell is that?" one of the players gasped while wiping sweat from his eyes. "Is he cheating?"

The Flame Hound was annoyed that its prey had stopped fighting. It turned and lunged at Declan instead. The beast was made entirely of jagged rocks and burning fire.

Declan didn’t even pull out a weapon. He didn’t slow his pace.

The moment the Level 28 Flame Hound crossed the threshold of the five-meter Absolute Zero Aura, the fire on its body was instantly snuffed out.

The extreme magical cold shocked the system of the monster. Its rocky joints froze completely solid.

It crashed into the dirt. It slid right up to the boots of Declan like a heavy stone statue.

Declan looked down at the frozen dog. He raised his +10 Spiked Striders and casually stomped on its head.

CRACK!

The frozen monster shattered into a million tiny ice cubes. It instantly dissolved into blue pixels.

[Flame Hound Level 28 Killed! Origin Points +80]

Declan kept walking. He left the three exhausted players staring at him with their jaws hanging open.

"That’s so cool," Declan smiled to himself. He needed to find a magma vent. He had demons to kill.