For the next several days, Gray spent time surveying the allotted area around him. Although he was able to go out once. It wasn't enough time to properly survey what he had.
He used this opportunity to study the area outside the outpost properly. Every evening after finishing his work, he signed himself out with Mara, turned on the GPS FrostBITE had given him, and headed out into the darkness. He reached the end of the boundary shown on the device until he understood roughly how much space he had to work and where he could go, then began walking through the different sections of the area given.
The land was mostly what he had expected. Most of it was open snow and ice, though he noticed in some areas, his boots had sunk deeper than normal. There were shallow drops where the snow had collected unevenly, and long stretches where there was essentially barren. Another realization on why no one lived here.
He was thankful for the GPS since there were no reliable Landmarks. But in hindsight, since there were no buildings, roads or anything in the way. He could just speed back to the base as long as he traveled in a single direction. Thanks to it, he didn't have to keep track of his steps. Not that it mattered since the wind erased them pretty quickly. The darkness was also especially thick. Even the aurora lights would barely make a difference. Gray was lucky to see a few feet in front of him. The facility itself remained visible from some parts of his allowed area, but it was essentially a small dot in the distance.
He kept the GPS with him at all times. He was brave but not stupid. If he lost it and was late back to the facility, he could kiss his privilege goodbye.
FrostBITE didn't seem like someone who would go back on his word.
Gray also avoided the wildlife whenever he noticed any signs of it. There were not many animals this far inland, especially during this part of the year, but he occasionally found tracks or noticed distant movement near areas where the terrain changed. He never approached it. The entire reason FrostBITE and the researchers were here was to minimize unnecessary interference, and Gray had no intention of messing with the animals.
Even just walking around, he felt himself improving. He constantly released streams of ice while walking around. But he kept it minimal to understand the area first.
Excessive usage of his quirk here was dangerous. Despite his awakening, his body would still start freezing after extreme usages of his quirk. Although his capacity was much larger, it was still present. He hoped this training would also help that capacity increase. And he was right, using his quirk here was far more dangerous. Thankfully, as long as he didn't use his quirk the sensation was mild, like if someone was standing in front of a refrigerator.
On some of the nights without the wind and blizzard, he also viewed the auroras.
They did not appear exactly the same every night, but when the sky was clear enough, Gray sometimes stopped walking just to watch them. Long, stretching bands of green moved through the darkness above him, occasionally joined by faint blue or violet lights near the edges. The colors shifted slowly enough that it was easy to lose track of time if he stared too long.
Gray had seen many unusual things in his two lives, but he still enjoyed the view.
There was something about seeing it out here, with no city lights or buildings around him, that reminded him of his old training days with his teacher in the mountains. He would usually allow himself a few minutes before checking his watch and continuing his route.
After several days, Gray began searching for a place where he could train without needing to move constantly. He was about to give and just pick a spot when he found something.
It was a shallow basin of water. Most of the surface was frozen solid, but one section near the center contained dark water beneath a thinner layer of ice. The water itself remained partially liquid, likely because of its composition and the way it moved beneath the surface.
Gray returned the following day to examine it more carefully.
He crouched near the edge and placed his hand in the water. He could work with this.
Gray had spent most of his recent training increasing the strength of his quirk. His output had improved, his ice formed faster, and the amount he could create at once had increased considerably.
The problem was that most of his techniques were still too rigid. It worked before with magic, but now it was time to adapt and evolve.
He had noticed a faint connection whenever he created ice and deliberately maintained concentration on it afterward. It was not a physical sensation in the normal sense. Gray could not feel texture or pain through it. Instead, there was a vague feeling like he was grabbing it with his mind.
The connection was weak but it was definitely useful and he wanted it was time to make it stronger.
Gray sat near the edge of the basin and allowed his breathing to settle. He created a small knife and caved a circle over it. The sheet of ice crumbled into the water. He concentrated. It was easy since it was quiet and he was alone.
Once his thoughts had settled, he placed his palm against the water.
A narrow strand of ice moved from beneath his hand and slipped through into the water.
Gray kept it thin and maintained the temperature.
He already knew he could freeze the entire pool if he wanted to. But that's not what he was training here.
Instead, he guided the strand through the water while trying to maintain awareness of where it was. He started moving it around, forcing it slither around through the water like a snake. He extended it a little bit further. Then he created a second Strand.
He attempted to move it in a different direction then the first, trying to move them at the same time in different directions. Immediately, the exercise became much more difficult. He felt he was trying to do two different things with each of his arm.
When Gray focused too heavily on one strand, his awareness of the other weakened and his control slipped. Sometimes it stopped entirely. Other times, one of the two just drifted.
Eventually he was able to properly control two. He started weaving them around like a Strand, in completely separate directions. Finally, after training it enough, he added a third. The difficulty went up again, all the existing ice lines weakened and fell limp. He practiced it some more. Suddenly, all of his lines snapped. His body felt cold. His head was hurting. He sat back to catch his breath. Suddenly, he felt his watch buzzing in his pants. His hours were up and he had to return to the outpost.
'Shit' he was too focused and missed the first alarm. An idiotic move. He instantly rushed back to the base. His control was almost seamless even with his exhaustion. Perfect. He made it back just in time. He signed back in, ate a heaping pile of food and went straight to his room. He finally relaxed, sinking into his mattress. It was a good day.
–
Gray returned to the same place the next day. He started the same training, he started with two, it was as he remembered, he continued his training. Eventually he added the third. He went through the same struggle as before, but eventually, he got the hang of it. Once he freely manipulated three, he added another. The water was a great idea, beneath it, he needed to account for depth, resistance, and the position of every strand at once.
If he created five strands of ice, he wanted all five to move almost independently. If one turned left, the other four wouldn't. Eventually, he wanted to maintain dozens of separate movements without needing to devote his full attention to every piece. These ice Strands were small, what if he created larger objects, like swords or cannons.
That kind of control would change the way he fought. He imagined a scenario where he could attack, defend instantly and control the battlefield. But that was just a dream.
For now, even five Strands was too difficult.
Gray spent the rest of his session, eventually ending with 9 Strands.
The next several days followed the same pattern.
Gray returned to the basin every evening after finishing his work. It was the best place he found and he was going to make sure he did everything he could. He signed himself out, checked to make sure he had his GPS, made sure his watch was set properly, and headed out the door. By now he could reach it without checking the device. The route was now just muscle memory, although he still kept the GPS on him. Familiarity wasn't enough of a reason to be careless.
Once he reached the water, he sat down in a meditative stance and continued where he left off.
Ten Strands had been difficult the previous day. The next evening, they were noticeably easier.
Gray sat beside the basin with one hand against the water and spread the ice beneath the surface. Ten lines separated from one another and traveled in different directions. One curved upward, another swept along the bottom, two crossed without touching, while the others moved in slow circles around them. There was no path. It looked like they were all moving randomly.
He could still feel the strain in his head, but it wasn't as bad as before. Finally, he was able to full control 10 at once. He added an eleventh.
Then a twelfth.
The difficulty rose almost immediately. His awareness became crowded again, forcing him to slow everything down until he could properly distinguish one line from another. Gray stayed there until he could move twelve without accidentally causing any two or three to collide.
The following day, twelve became twenty. He was slowly becoming familiar with the process.
Then it became thirty.
Gray quickly realized there was little benefit in adding more if he could not actually control what he already had. Whenever he reached a number that caused his movements to deteriorate, he stopped increasing it and spent time perfecting it before moving on. There was no need to be impatient. He had time.
He did not count it as a success if it was just floating around limp. He made sure to move every one of them.
Thin white lines became visible beneath the dark surface, forming increasingly complicated patterns as they glided through the basin like snakes.
Gray began weaving them around one another. He was trying something.
At first, the result was terrible. The lines crashed into each other and shattered. Some combined into a single line. It was terrible.
But he kept going.
Every evening, the movements became a little cleaner.
By the end of the first week, Gray could easily maintain 40 ice lines. If he pushed himself, he could reach 45-50. It required much more concentration, and he made a lot of mistakes, but it was possible.
He pushed beyond fifty several times.
The results were immediate. The recoil hit him hard. He had a sharp pain in his head and the cold hit him like a truck. He could see his breath. 'Ah shit.' He stopped after that. He made his way back to the outpost. He did the one thing he told himself not too. Pushed too far.
Gray considered fifty his actual limit.
For now. There was a new change. He felt it instinctually. He recognized individual strands, but he no longer had to list them each time. He just felt it. They were simply there.
Once Gray became comfortable with that stage, sitting beside the water no longer felt difficult enough. He needed to add something. Then it hit him. It was so obvious.
Until now, Gray had still been wearing most of the outdoor gear he brought along and some that Mara insisted he take. He had been wearing it throughout his training.
So one evening, Gray reached the basin, set his things beside him, and started stripping.
He took off his layers until he was bare. Everything till all he had were his boxers. He put all his clothes away in the pack and sat down.
Cold air pressed against him more directly, but it wasn't a big change. It still did not hurt. There might have been a slight difference. Maybe?
That was enough. Even though his resistance was absurdly high, it wasn't perfect. Eventual usage of his quirk would slowly start to freeze him after an extended period of time.
In Antarctica, his weakness was much more noticeable.
He continued training with his boxers for the next few days. Eventually, he stopped bringing the heavy coat to the basin entirely and trained with only the lighter clothing. Mostly, because setting them to the side froze them within minutes. He showed up back to back to base with frozen clothes and in his boxers. That one was hard to explain. His face turned the color of Natsu's hair as he ran past everyone to his room. He saw everyone trying their best not to laugh.
The next time, he started bringing a separate bag for his clothing.
Eventually, his underwear training became manageable. So, once again, he tried something new.
He began with something simple. He started doing squats.
Thirty Strands moved beneath the water while Gray repeatedly lowered and raised himself beside the basin.
The first attempt was embarrassing. Several Strands immediately stopped moving, he couldn't keep his focus. Gray stopped, reset everything, and tried again.
The problem was the attention
Part of his mind automatically focused on his exercise, which meant less attention remained available for his quirk.
Eventually, he got the hang of it. He reached 50 Strands while doing squats. He started adding more work outs. He started doing push ups. Then lunges. To an observer, he would look like an idiot. They would see a fourteen year old boy doing push ups in his underwear next to a pond. Then he added running.
The number of Strands he could control dropped dramatically whenever he exercised. Fifty while sitting and now 50 while doing basic exercise. When he ran at a decent pace, he started at 30 again. Maintaining 50 while running was a lot harder.
He didn't see that as failure. It was what he had to perfect. It might even be the most important. After all, in a real fight, nobody would allow him to sit cross-legged in silence while carefully controlling his quirk.
He would be moving, defending or attacking. It had to happen all at once.
So Gray trained until movement became another part of the exercise.
Every day he attempted slightly more.
Sometimes he focused on quantity and filled the water with as many lines as he could control. Other days he deliberately reduced the number and made complex structures using the individual Strands. Sometimes it was simple circles, or a complex helix.
He also changed their size and shape.
Eventually, Gray began forming small blades beneath the surface and moving those instead.
That was much harder. Much harder than he expected. Creating a unique shape and maintaining multiple like a Strand was much more taxing then he expected.
He liked that. It gave him another scale to work with. Quantity was only one part of the technique.
Just like that, a month passed.
Gray continued working and training. As the days passed, his "daytime" work became easier.
It definitely went noticed.
"You're getting fast at this." Mara commented
Gray continued typing. "I've done it enough times."
"Thats good."
Eventually, his efficiency went noticed.
Gray's original two-hour limit gradually became less strict. FrostBITE did not simply remove the rules, but as Gray continued returning on time without incident, he was allowed to stay longer on some days.
Eventually, on days where Gray finished everything early and the weather reports were clear, FrostBITE gave him close to three hours outside.
The conditions remained the same. Gray made sure to sign out everyday, and take all of his equipment with him.
Gray never gave them a reason to take the privilege away.
However, not every day was easy.
There were several evenings when the wind became too strong for anyone to leave the facility. During one particularly nasty storm, he was forced inside for two days.
It was horrible. It was just when he was making real progress.
The first day was tolerable. By the second, Mara caught him staring out one of the reinforced windows while snow blasted across the facility hard enough that the outside lights completely disappeared.
"Stop staring, you aren't going out."
"I wasn't going to."
"You've been staring out that door for 10 minutes.."
Gray looked at Mara. "Please, just an hour?"
Mara returned to her paperwork. "Nope, too risky. Find something to play with inside."
Gray ended up practicing in his room instead. He applied what he learned to the outside world.
There was nowhere near enough space for his normal training, so he reduced everything to precision. He created tiny pieces of ice and attempted to keep them moving around the room without touching anything. It was definitely much easier than in the water. He even used his quirk to fold his clothes and grab his books. It was a novel idea and it helped him take his technique further.
It was not the same, but it was still helpful to see how far he had come.
When the storm finally passed, Gray was outside almost immediately after finishing work. He took a deep breath and laughed.
"Finally!" he accidentally shouted. He heard some laughs but he didn't care.
"It was only two days, Haise."
"Two days felt like forever."
He stepped out once again.
–
Eventually, September arrived.
The night was fading.
At first, Gray was not certain whether he was imagining it. During certain hours, the horizon no longer looked completely black. There was a faint blue-gray glow in one direction that had not been there during his first weeks at the facility.
Every few days, it became more obvious.
The twilight lasted longer.
The stars faded earlier.
Even the auroras became less dominant as the horizon gradually brightened.
Summer was coming.