Chapter 5

“Tell me.”

“Firstly, I want a copy of all the array blueprints involved in this project. I need to study the underlying logic of the ice arrays.

“Secondly, I want to stay in the central area of Icicle Mountain during the project. The living area will need to be maintained at a temperature above 59 degrees Fahrenheit.

“Anything below 50 degrees Fahrenheit makes my hands shake. Thirdly…”

I paused.

“You will have to be here every day during the project work. You won’t be there to monitor me, but I need you to help with testing.

“Your cold is a natural source, like a ‘compressor.’ Without a compressor, I can’t modify the temperature.”

Bear glanced at me for three seconds before agreeing. “That can be done.”

“Then let’s sign a contract.”

“What’s a contract?”

“It’s… A verbal agreement is fine, too. You’re the boss.”

Bear looked at me again.

“Wisteria,” he started, “you’re the strangest person I’ve ever met.”

“Thank you. You’re also the first client I’ve met who most needs to have floor heating installed.”

Bear chuckled but did not correct me.

The ice dungeon was 300 feet below Icicle Mountain. Its entrance was a stone door perpetually sealed in ice.

When Bear opened the door, a blast of ice assaulted us.

It was not the typical kind of chill but rather the kind of cold that struck the bones. Frost covered my eyebrows in about three seconds, and I was cold all over.

“Can you withstand it?” Bear asked, his voice threaded with worry I had never heard before as he stood beside me.

The interior of the ice dungeon was a lot bigger than I had expected. It was like a giant underground dome. In the middle was an ice-covered lump.

It was the ice wyvern.

It was curled up in the ice and looked as though it was sleeping. However, I could sense movement under the ice.

It was like a heartbeat.

The heartbeat was very slow and seemed to pump once every thirty seconds. However, every time it did, the layer of ice would tremble minutely.

I bent down and checked the seal array.

The more I saw, the more worried I got.

The intricacy of the array design was very high, but the problem was that it relied too much on brute force.

It was like using a commercial AC unit to cool down a room. Its efficacy was set at 100% and ran twenty-four hours a day without end. In this way, it forcefully froze the ice wyvern in place.

This method worked in the short term, but in the long term, the AC would break as the compressor could not handle the strain.

I walked in a circle, following the array, and found three critical issues.

Firstly, all the power of the seal came from Bear’s own ice energy. No external energy supplemented it. It was akin to an AC unit that only used electricity. Without a new source, it would give out sooner or later.

Secondly, the ice energy of the seal was perpetual. However, the ice wyvern’s power was fluctuating. When the ice wyvern was weak, the array was wasting power; when the ice wyvern was strong, the array could not handle it.

Thirdly, the most critical aspect of the array, the fulcrum, was Bear himself.

He had put in his own core as the fulcrum, acting as the seal’s “compressor.”

What did this all mean? It meant that Bear’s core would always be incomplete as long as the seal existed. He could never achieve his ultimate goal of becoming a deity through his training.

It had been 300 years, and Bear could not complete himself. Instead, he used his core to seal an ice wyvern.

I stood up and looked at Bear.

“Master Windom,” I said, “this seal can’t be changed into a variable frequency one.”

Bear’s expression did not change. “Why not?”

“Because you used part of your core as the fulcrum. If you take it out, the array will collapse immediately. If you don’t take it out, you will never regain it. This is a closed cycle.”

Bear was quiet.

“I know,” he admitted.

“Why did you ask me to modify it then?”

Bear stared at me. The look in his eyes still held that something that I could not parse.

“Because you’re the first person who could see this problem. Everyone else either thinks this seal is ingenious or dangerous. Only you could tell that it’s killing me.”

My heart thumped loudly in my chest. Bear knew what I was talking about!