As soon as he stepped into the cold side of the pool, Elias’s eyes flew open and he sucked in a sharp, shivering breath. His skin tightened instantly from the abrupt temperature change, and his muscles began to contract involuntarily. Even his breathing, which had been slow and relaxed moments before, now came in short, heavy bursts.
While the hot water had been soothing and rejuvenating like a massage, the cold water was something else entirely. It was shocking, like waking up to a bucket of ice water. He felt more awake, more alert. His brain, his muscles, and his senses all seemed to snap into a state of heightened awareness, as if his entire body had shifted into high gear.
Taking a deep breath and gathering his courage, Elias dove beneath the surface, hoping to get over the thermal shock faster.
It didn’t work.
The magical properties of the water made it feel far colder than it actually was. It tingled uncomfortably against his skin, but his body temperature wasn’t dropping, nor was his skin going numb from the cold. The sensation wasn’t physical in the traditional sense—it was more like the idea of cold made real.
“Wow, that’s cold!” Elias exclaimed as he resurfaced, then burst into loud laughter.
Marco stared at him with a dumbfounded expression.
“You’re crazy. I’m getting out of here,” he said, stuttering as he spoke.
Without another word, Marco turned and started swimming back to the hot side of the pool, prompting Elias to laugh even harder.
Now alone on the cold side of the pool, Elias lowered himself until only his head remained above the surface and closed his eyes. He stayed there for a while, motionless, letting the water tingle against his skin like currents of cold electricity—shocking and energizing.
Eventually, he grew tired of sitting still. He opened his eyes and began making his way toward the center of the pool—the place where the cold and hot waters met.
While soaking in either the hot or cold halves of the pool had been interesting experiences on their own, being in the place where both sides met felt truly magical. Since the waters didn’t merge, Elias could feel both types embracing him at once, as if they were warring for territory over his skin. Every inch of his body was caught in that struggle, switching between feeling heat and cold at random.
What’s more, the sharp contrast between the two made each sensation stand out more vividly. The hot water felt hotter, the cold water colder, and somehow, those heightened sensations translated into even stronger effects.
Elias felt as if his body were expanding and contracting, heating and cooling, fully relaxing and tightening—all at the same time. His muscles vibrated with barely contained energy, yet they were also the most relaxed they’d ever been.
He felt powerful, but his senses were being bombarded with conflicting signals. It was overwhelming. So, he closed his eyes, controlled his breathing, and retreated inward—slipping into meditation.
To his surprise, slipping into that state felt effortless. The alternating sensations of hot and cold had overwhelmed his senses to such a degree that his mind had stopped trying to keep up. It was as if his body had gone numb, allowing his awareness to turn inward with unusual clarity.The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
That realization gave him a new appreciation for the waters. They could even help with training the Spirit attribute. Not that it mattered much for him, since his effective level in that attribute was already maxed out from years of training.
Regardless, Elias remained in meditation, letting the magical waters of the pool blanket him as he simply relaxed. At some point, he heard Marco join him, though the other man only let out a groan of appreciation before falling silent again.
The two of them remained like that for a while, sharing a quiet, companionable peace, until the high-pitched sound of a woman’s voice echoed toward them from the jungle.
Before he even opened his eyes, Elias grimaced and let out an annoyed tsk. He hadn’t expected to hear that voice here, of all places, but he recognized it instantly, and he wasn’t looking forward to seeing its owner again.
When he finally opened his eyes, Marco was already looking at him with a raised eyebrow. Elias could only sigh in response.
There was no time to explain before Melinda, John, and another man stepped into the glade.
Melinda was the first to arrive, slicing through a clump of vines with her thin rapier and stepping into the glade. She was followed closely by John, who stumbled out of the jungle and nearly collapsed onto his shield, clearly exhausted. The last of their group was a dark-skinned, sharp-eyed older man wielding a pair of black machetes.
He spotted Marco and Elias through the rising steam the moment they came into view.
Before the stranger could say a word, John let his heavy metal shield drop with a loud clang as it struck the roots of a nearby tree. The sudden noise startled Melinda, who jumped and immediately turned to glare at him.
Undaunted, John began shaking out his hands dramatically, groaning loudly with relief.
Watching the scene unfold, Elias couldn’t help but wonder how John managed to fight with that shield if he was having such a hard time just carrying it. He wasn’t surprised the man struggled to lug it through the jungle, but he also couldn’t understand why he was using such a massive shield in the first place.
There was a reason people didn’t bring gear like that into this kind of terrain: it was too heavy, too unwieldy, and more trouble than it was worth.
“Oh, don’t be such a baby, John. Can’t you even handle a little walk through the newbie zone’s jungle?” Melinda huffed, her eyes boring into him condescendingly.
“This shield is too heavy!” John protested.
Melinda snorted without a shred of sympathy and turned away, prompting an aggrieved look to spread across John’s face. Then, as her back turned to him, he shot her what Elias could only describe as a deeply resentful glare.
“Where did you even find this thing?”
“Hey, you’re the one who said you wanted to be a tank, and it’s only a Common-rank item!” Melinda snapped, narrowing her eyes at him. “What kind of tank can’t even carry his own shield?”
“Yeah, I want to be a tank, but my attributes clearly aren’t up to carrying this thing for hours at a time through a damn jungle. If it’s so easy, why don’t you try carrying it!?” John shot back.
Melinda’s eyes widened at John’s rebuttal, but before she could escalate the argument further, the man accompanying them cleared his throat loudly. When the bickering pair turned toward him, he silently pointed to Marco and Elias, who were watching the scene unfold in silence.
Both John and Melinda turned at the same time, and their expressions shifted the moment they recognized who they were looking at.
John leaned back slightly, his eyes going wide and his mouth falling open in surprise as he recognized Elias.
Melinda, meanwhile, spotted Marco first. Her eyes widened like John’s, but her surprise quickly softened into a pleasant smile. That smile faltered the moment her gaze shifted from Marco to Elias. Her brows knit in confusion for a brief moment—then her expression hardened into an affronted scowl.