Third Person’s POVOnly within the foremost academy of the entire Northern Glacial Region, where the finest teachers, the richest magical resources, and the greatest opportunities gathered—could her talent truly flourish and eventually shine upon the world.
"What is your elemental affinity, young man?"
The old artifact master suddenly broke the silence.
Although his voice remained calm, there was now a faint trace of impatience hidden within it.
For the past several minutes, he had quietly observed Ethan inspecting each weapon one after another without uttering a single opinion or showing the slightest intention of making a choice.
Instead of asking about the quality of the weapons or seeking the opinion of their creator, the young man simply continued studying them in silence, as though evaluating them according to standards known only to himself.
Master Drogo found that behavior increasingly displeasing.
To him, every weapon displayed inside the wooden case was the culmination of years of his painstaking effort, countless failures, and decades of craftsmanship.
They weren’t merely tools forged from rare ores.
Each one represented a masterpiece that embodied his life’s work.
Yet the young man before him examined them with an expression so casual that it almost felt disrespectful.
However, Ethan behaved as though he hadn’t heard the old man’s question at all.
His crimson eyes continued moving across the display of magical weapons.
For a brief moment, they paused upon the sinister purple scythe before shifting toward the icy-blue broadsword resting nearby.
Compared to the other weapons, those two attracted his attention the most.
The scythe emitted a sinister aura that reminded him vaguely of darkness and death, while the broadsword radiated an incomparably pure ice-element aura that resonated faintly with his own affinity.
Neither of them was ordinary, and Ethan naturally sensed that much.
As for Master Drogo’s question, he deliberately ignored it.
It wasn’t because he hadn’t heard it.
Rather, he simply had no intention of answering.
From the old man’s expression and subtle change in tone, Ethan could already sense the dissatisfaction hidden beneath his words.
More importantly, Ethan wasn’t foolish enough to casually reveal something as important as his elemental affinity before a room filled with people he neither trusted nor understood.
To him, revealing such information was no different from exposing one of his own weaknesses.
He had absolutely no intention of presenting himself before them like some precious commodity waiting to be examined and evaluated.
Not to mention, the true person Ethan remained wary of wasn’t Master Drogo.
It was Shixea, and he knew perfectly well that she already understood one important fact.
Her father had personally sealed every one of his mana veins.
That alone meant she had undoubtedly spent considerable effort trying to determine where his current strength actually originated.
Despite those seals, he had defeated Elis, a genuine Sky Realm expert who had already stepped into the Realm of Blue Heaven, while remaining completely unarmed.
From an outsider’s perspective, Ethan’s fighting style resembled a strange fusion between that of a warrior and a mage.
He wielded ice-element mana naturally, possessed terrifying physical strength, and demonstrated soul techniques that shouldn’t have belonged to someone of his age.
Anyone would become curious, and a schemer like Shixea was no exception.
She undoubtedly wanted to know everything.
His elemental affinity.
His talent grade.
The wondrous magical path he followed, which was definitely very different from the traditional magical path followed by the world’s mages and warriors.
The cultivation manual through which he refined his mana.
The origin of his extraordinary physical strength, and the mysterious techniques he continuously displayed, including those strange soul abilities that seemed completely detached from ordinary magical systems.
Every one of those secrets possessed immeasurable value, and Ethan’s instincts told him that Shixea wasn’t merely curious.
She wanted to uncover every secret hidden within him.
After all, extracting everything useful from Ethan had always been one of the primary reasons she had coerced him into working for her.
His strength was valuable, his potential was valuable, and even more valuable was the mystery surrounding his very existence.
Who had sealed him inside that ancient ice coffin?
Why had someone gone to such extraordinary lengths to preserve him?
Where had he originally come from?
And who had taught him everything he currently possessed?
The answers to those questions could very well explain the origin of his terrifying potential and his mysterious strength.
Naturally, Ethan had no intention of satisfying anyone’s curiosity.
After another few moments of silent observation, he finally raised one hand.
"I like this one..."
His finger pointed directly toward the sinister purple scythe.
"And this one."
His hand then shifted toward the icy-blue broadsword resting beside it.
A faint smile appeared on his face as he looked first at Shixea before turning toward the old artifact master.
"Pack these two for me, old man."
He spoke as casually as though he were purchasing ordinary goods from a roadside merchant.
"Make it quick."
The moment those words left his mouth, the entire study fell into complete silence.
Everyone present, including Shixea herself, was momentarily left speechless by Ethan’s outrageous display of arrogance.
An awkward silence descended upon the study.
His words had been spoken so naturally and casually that it almost felt as though he genuinely saw nothing inappropriate about ordering one of the most respected artifact refiners in the entire Ice Emperor City to pack away two of his finest creations.
To Ethan, it had been nothing more than a simple request, but to everyone else, it bordered on madness.
Even Erius, who had been burning with hostility towards Ethan ever since their first meeting, found himself completely dumbfounded.
For the first time since meeting him, he began questioning whether becoming angry at this man even made sense.
The more he observed Ethan, the more he felt that normal logic simply didn’t apply to him.
It was as though Ethan genuinely lived in a world where status, age, authority, and etiquette simply didn’t exist.
A strange thought even surfaced inside Erius’s mind.
’How could anyone seriously argue with such a madman?’
Chapter 823: An Unreasonable Young Man
5 min read