First, the Enchanter recalled the two Basic Elemental Enchantments that he had memorized that were related to water, so many months ago: [Frostbite] and [Water Resistance]. [Water Resistance] had already proven useful, and currently his entire Green Iron armor set was enchanted with it. So now James turned to the other Basic Elemental Enchantment: [Frostbite]. Unconsciously, James shuddered as he recalled both the long, narrow design of the enchantment and his own experience with frostbite, which had laid him up for over a month of recovery.

He intended to be extremely careful with testing this enchantment.

The design of the enchantment was laid out very similarly to [Heated Blade], so in the interest of doing a better test, the Smith quickly forged several strips of regular iron very similar to the heating strips he had grown very accustomed to, and then etched the pattern for the [Frostbite] enchantment into two of them.

Then he took out a water magic crystal and ground it to fine magic crystal dust, and started carefully filling in all the etches and grooves in the pattern on one of the strips. James had, at this point, an abundance of water and wind magic stones from all of the crab and bird monsters he had slain so far, and he had never tried using this enchantment anyway, so to establish a baseline, he wanted to do the first enchantment the "standard" way.

So thought the escaped former slave, in the depths of a dungeon, working with materials he harvested and processed himself, who had never even received any instruction whatsoever in Enchanting.

Regardless, the first enchantment was a success.

[Appraisal]: Cooling Strip, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 2/2, Enchantment: Frostbite (8)

Carefully, oh so carefully, and certainly without directly touching the strip, James used his skills to activate the enchantment at a distance and observed.

Nothing appeared to happen.

He carefully brought his hand close and waved it about in the air about an inch above the strip. The air felt, maybe, a little cooler? He wasn't sure. He gradually increased the amount of mana he poured into the enchantment and thought that the air above the strip might indeed be cooler.

With a small flash of inspiration, James took two of his cups and filled them with Pure Water, and then dipped the cooling strip into one (after safely deactivating it and waiting several minutes, of course). Now when he conducted his tests, it was clear: the strip was indeed cooling the water of the cup it was in, and this was easy to compare to the other cup of water.

After a few moments at maximum intensity, which unlike with the heating strips seemed to have no effect on the substrate and so did not damage the enchantment itself, the water in the cup with the cooling strip started to freeze.

Satisfied that he now had his baseline for the [Frostbite] enchantment, James turned to his new, as-yet-unidentified pale-blue magic crystals. He took one of the smallest ones and ground it down to fine magic crystal dust, and carefully applied it to the second iron strip. Once done, the dark iron looked as though it was inlaid with silver. Then with calm, long strokes of his brush, James applied the Aqua Magia, and he noticed the first difference. The Aqua Magia seemed to be settling deeper into the strip, as though the strip of iron was absorbing the Aqua Magia like a sponge, or perhaps more like how wood submerged in water absorbs it and swells.

James regretted not measuring the Aqua Magia ahead of time, but it didn't behave like normal water anyway, and perhaps measuring it would have been pointless. Setting that aside, he noted that the new magic crystals used more Aqua Magia than the water magic crystals had for the same enchantment.

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What was more apparent, as he held his hands over the strip of iron shimmering with a layer of Aqua Magia, was that the enchanting process took significantly more mana and effort than the last one.

Nearly ten times as much, by his rough estimate.

This was confirmed shortly after the enchantment was successfully completed.

[Enchanter] Class Skill [Intermediate Elemental Enchanting] has reached level 2.

James was, of course, confused by why his intermediate elemental enchanting skill had improved while making a basic elemental enchantment, but considering the effort he had put in, like when he had been producing his warding stakes, he supposed it made a kind of sense. At least it didn't feel as completely arbitrary as his magic bag, so he quickly put it out of his mind and resumed his testing.

[Appraisal]: Cooling Strip, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 2/2, Enchantment: Frostbite (24)

"Huh?" James couldn't hold back a gasp as he inspected the cooling strip he had created. It was way stronger than the first, and although he had used more Aqua Magia and mana in the creation of it, that was only what he could tell was necessary to complete the enchantment at all: not to improve the strength of it. And even then, he wasn't sure that enchantments could be strengthened by applying more Aqua Magia or mana. The enchantment either set or it didn't, like when he had tried to enchant his shield with [Earth Resistance] and failed.

No, he was certain the difference was the magic crystal he had used.

This time, James didn't even put his hands near the cooling strip he had created. He used his tongs to pick it up and place it in a cup of freshly collected Pure Water, and even pulled out his Green Iron Shield with [Reflect] to hunker down behind before starting testing.

He really didn't ever want to suffer frostbite ever again.

With his skill, he activated the strip with as little mana as possible, and it seemed nothing happened. He deactivated it and checked the water. It looked fine, and when he dipped a finger in, it was chilled. He nodded, then stepped back once again and activated the enchantment with slightly more mana.

There was a soft crack and the water in the cup flash froze instantly.

James blinked in surprise and hurriedly cut off his supply of mana, but it was already too late. His mouth gaped open as he looked at the chunk of ice that now filled his cup, with the cooling strip poking out the top. After staring at it for a good minute, he picked up the entire thing with his tongs and set it near the embers of his forge to thaw out.

And soon enough it did, trickles of meltwater flowing down the sides of the cup and the chunk of ice shrank, then started floating in the melt water, and then eventually disappearing until the water was entirely liquid again.

[Appraisal]: Cooling Strip, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 2/2, Enchantment: Frostbite (24)

And the strip itself was entirely undamaged from the severe temperatures it had produced.

James shivered. Even just as a strip of iron, this enchantment was dangerous. Definitely too strong to use just to stay comfortable in a suit of armor, and possibly too strong to even use as an enchantment on a hammer. At least, not with what James was now certain were Ice Magic Crystals.

But that was the [Frostbite] enchantment. It was, after all, an offensive enchantment, for weapons and the like.

There was also the [Water Resistance] enchantment.

Given that the Ice Magic Crystal had worked with the [Frostbite] enchantment, and indeed made it even stronger, was it possible that if he used one on a [Water Resistance] enchantment, that it would produce something like a [Frost Resistance] or [Cold Resistance] enchantment? Or at least the effect?

The simplest, and smallest, armor piece that James could think of for testing was the bracer he wore on his forearm, so he quickly forged two from regular iron.

[Appraisal]: Iron Bracer, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 10/10

[Appraisal]: Iron Bracer, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 10/10

And then he quickly etched a single, stretched pattern of the [Water Resistance] pattern onto both. This would produce a weaker enchantment, but since he was just experimenting, it didn't matter and was in fact better because it was faster and easier to enchant this way.

Again starting with the Water Magic Crystal, he proceeded through all the steps of enchanting and in the end inspected his product.

[Appraisal]: Iron Bracer, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 10/10, Enchantment: Water Resistance (6)

Then, the Enchanter turned to the other bracer and the Ice Magic Crystal.

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