Chapter 162: Strength in Numbers
When everyone finally found the weak points of the iceberg in front of them, they were ready to dig and open a passage to the inside.
The last method Alka used was to use the cross of normal fire, relying on his already skilled control ability to spray out a thick column of fire.
They kept burning the iceberg in front of them, causing it to melt. After burning for a while, the others began to dig.
Repeat this process.
If they didn't use flames to burn it, the hardness of the ice would be difficult to break, greatly limiting their digging speed.
Following this method, they worked together for about two hours until Alka's magic power could no longer sustain the flames, and he waved his hand, indicating that he needed to rest.
Although the flame was not maintained continuously for two hours, maintaining the flame for a long time still consumed too much of his magic power.
The total time lasted at least about 30 minutes.
Who would maintain jetting flames for 30 minutes in battle? Isn't that a pure waste of mana?
It is not an easy task to spray such a high-temperature flame out of thin air, and a lot of magic power is consumed every moment.
If Alka had not already reached the triple spiral and had a treasure that gave him slightly more magic power than others, he would not have been able to hold on for so long.
The others looked at the gap in front of them and saw that it was only about three or four meters deep.
"No, this efficiency is too slow. It will take us a long time to dig inside."
Xia Daiti looked at the efficiency and shook his head.
According to conservative estimates, the radius of this mountain is about 700 to 800 meters, and the ice surface leading to the pit below is in the center.
At the current efficiency, Alka has to rest for 3 to 4 hours after maintaining it for two hours. Even if it operates without stopping for a moment, it will take about one and a half to two months to complete the whole process.
Not to mention that this is impossible, the time will only double.
Such a waste of time is almost unacceptable to them.
Because the harder the ice gets the deeper you go, and mainly because you're getting closer to the treasure and having to endure the cold.
By then, the energy consumption to maintain the flame will further increase, and even the power of the flame will be weakened.
After all, the ice here is not formed by the natural environment, but is formed by the gathering of too many ice elements, which will cause the surrounding fire elements to be greatly affected.
Too many ice elements will even squeeze out the fire elements.
At this time, after Jason inspected the newly excavated depression for a long time, he couldn't help but say, "Did you notice that these ice blocks seem to be recovering slowly?"
When the others heard this, they gathered around and watched for a long time, and finally confirmed Jason's statement.
These ice cubes are indeed growing and solidifying slowly. Although the growth is very slow, it is still very obvious if you watch it for a while.
Seeing this, Alka shook his head.
"No, this method is totally unfeasible."
If the ice continues to grow slowly, the time required will increase even more, and it may not be possible in a year because they still have to dig through the ice in the underground pit.
I wasted two hours and concluded that the dumbest method didn't work.
Now we can only think of other ways to solve this problem.
Jason looked at the ground under their feet and couldn't help but use his feet to push away the snow. After stomping on it a few times, he said, "What do you think if we dig directly into the ground and dig into that hole?"
Alka looked at the ground beneath his feet and nodded.
“You can give it a try.”
This method sounds good, but I don’t know what problems I will encounter when I put it into practice.
Anyway, the ground here must be frozen hard.
Several people took tools and started digging the ground beneath their feet.
Because it is frozen soil, it is much more difficult to dig than the soil outside, but at least it is much better than the ice.
The ice that formed the iceberg was obviously abnormal and had an extremely high hardness.
With their joint efforts, a hole quickly appeared.
Pororo stood in the pit, facing the direction of the iceberg.
They started digging inside, and the pit expanded rapidly all the way to the foot of the mountain.
"when!"
The digging tool suddenly touched something like a stone, and there was a metallic collision sound from it.
"What happened? Did you find any rocks?"
It is normal to encounter huge rocks blocking the way when digging underground like this.
Pororo said nothing, changed his position, but the same thing happened.
At this time, the people who were digging noticed something was wrong.
They started experimenting on the area in front of them.
It's not a boulder at all.
The area in front of them was all ordinary soil, no, it should be said that it was frozen soil.
I don't know what it's made of, but this piece of frozen soil is even harder than the ice above it, so digging a tunnel downwards is simply not feasible.
Thinking of this, everyone couldn't help but stop what they were doing.
Jason sat down on the ground next to him helplessly and couldn't help scratching his hair.
Another method failed.
The people with mud on their faces looked at each other and shook their heads helplessly.
He climbed out of the hole with the tools.
"Is it possible that we can only rely on brute force to dig it?" Xia Daiti couldn't help but say as he sat on the edge of the pit.
It seems that this is the only possible situation now.
Spend a little more time digging downwards by brute force.
The others were silent when they heard this.
Because it seems that this is the only way.
Just now they had thought about cutting down the surrounding trees and burning them to melt the ice.
But to be honest, there are not many trees around here, and the islanders living on this island also need to use them.
Moreover, these trees are living, cold-resistant plants. If you want to burn them, you have to dry the wood, which takes a lot of time.
And their demand will definitely destroy the local ecology.
Alka sat beside the pit, his eyes inadvertently glancing into the distance.
Several children from the tribe were hiding in the snow and watching them.
To these children, outsiders like Alka were too strange.
Look at these children.
"I have an idea!"
"I have an idea."
Alka and Lucelia on his shoulder said it at the same time.
Hearing the sudden voices of the two, everyone else turned their eyes.
Lucilia on his shoulder patted Alka's face and said, "You go first."
Alka did not delay and nodded, saying, "Why do we have to dig into this cave by ourselves? Aren't there hundreds of tribal residents on this island? We can mobilize them to help us dig."
At this point, a silver snake appeared on the back of Alka's hand and began to roll left and right.
“And we just have to pay some compensation.”
Everyone's eyes lit up when they heard Alka's words.
"Won't it be exposed if I do this?"
Pororo folded his arms and said with a frown.
He felt that their action was to unearth treasures, and such an action should be concealed well.
Hearing Pororo's question, several people looked at him.
Jason couldn't help but say, "It's impossible to hide what we did just now from the residents of this island."
They were digging holes and excavating mountains. Each task took a long time, and it was impossible to hide their actions from the residents of the island.
This is something that will definitely be exposed.
Not to mention that almost every 10 years there were a group of people coming here with the same purpose as them.
Many people would also interrogate the islanders about what information they knew. Alka would not believe anything the islanders did not know over the past few hundred years.
But no one would have thought that they were looking for the treasure buried beneath the center.
After hearing this, Porro suddenly understood and nodded.
I see.
"This method is indeed feasible, and the compensation is acceptable to us."
To be honest, it doesn't cost much to employ the residents of these islands.
Not to mention that the tribal residents on this island are not closed-minded people. They still take boats to leave the Hunger and Cold Triangle and conduct some trade with the surrounding areas.
They also have ships, but there are no merchants willing to come to them.
The population is just too small and supplies are not abundant.
At this time, Alka shook his shoulders: "What about you?"
"It's similar to what you thought. I'll ask others for help."
But she just wanted to tell the archbishop this information directly, since the location of the treasure had already been determined.
It's no different from finding a treasure. Let the Pope worry about how to break through the ice.
But the rewards may be reduced.
However, after hearing Alka's method, he thought it was worth a try. After all, it would take several months for the archbishop to receive the news and come to help.
Since everyone thought it was okay, Alka nodded.
He said to Jason: "I'll leave the negotiation to you, is that ok?"
After hearing what Alka said, Jason adjusted the plush hat on his head, made a gesture that it was all right and said, "Don't worry ."
As he said that, he walked straight to the place where the children had been hiding before, ready for him to take him to their tribe.
The rest of the people waited where they were.
About an hour later, Jason came over with several tribal residents.
The leader was an old man wearing some ivory ornaments and holding a huge solid wooden scepter in his hand.
His left leg seemed to be not working well, and there was a young man next to him supporting him.
Jason came over, shrugged helplessly and said, "We had already agreed on the price, but he insisted on communicating with you."
The old man who came over waved his hand and asked the young man who was supporting him to wait beside him while he slowly walked over with the scepter.
As he walked, the ornaments hanging on the top of the staff swayed from side to side, making crisp sounds.
The moment he walked over, he stared at Alka in front of him.
He twitched his nose twice, looked at Alka and said, "Are you a resident of Home Island?"
Hearing this, Alka narrowed his eyes slightly.
This old man doesn't seem to be an ordinary person. How can he be a toucher?
Xia Daiti and others nearby showed dangerous looks.
"Don't be nervous. I dealt with many residents of Home Island when I was young, so it's easy to tell them apart."
As he said this, he staggered over to the pile of mud next to him and sat down.
He stretched out his dry hand and pounded his knee.
"You want to hire people from our tribe to help you dig out this iceberg, which means you have found the source of this cold, right?"
"Don't be surprised. This place has been trapped in the cold for 824 years. Almost every 10 years or so, the church would send a team to search for it.
Some people are responsible, just like you.
Some people are sloppy and perfunctory, like they are on vacation.”
The old man said this, trying to dispel the guarded movements of several people.
After all, they have lived here for 800 years, and countless church members have come here to explore.
Some people keep their mouths shut, while others don't mind revealing some of the information they know to the residents of the islands.
Over time, the residents of these islands learned some of the reasons why the surrounding environment had changed.
The information he knew was almost the same as what Alka and the others knew.
The old man in front of him said to himself: "You know, according to the records of our ancestors, more than 800 years ago, this place was a good place with spring all year round, and the grain produced could be sold to several surrounding countries."
"Legend has it that the Virgin Mary bestowed this blessing, and we do believe in the Virgin Mary."
The information provided by the church does say that the residents on this island are all believers of the Virgin Mary, so there is no need to be overly cautious, just say they are church members.
"Don't look at me like this. When I was young, I was also a member of the church."
As he spoke, he revealed a tattoo on his dry right arm.
Xiadaiti looked at the tattoo, turned around, and whispered in Alka's ear: "He is a lone missionary of the church. He is definitely a member of the church."
The old man continued, "So I have a deep understanding of this area. After all, when I was young, I followed a team that took on this mission and came here to explore."
At this point he opened his eyes slightly, staring at Alka in front of him with his cloudy eyes and said, "So, the source of the cold here is in the iceberg, right?"
There was a slight tremor in his voice, but it was so firm.
Alka nodded.
Not hiding anything.
Because there is really nothing to hide, just as the old man in front of him said.
The information they knew was almost the same as what Alka knew.
"Okay, okay, okay."
As the old man spoke, he stood up with the help of his cane, and the surprise and excitement in his voice could not be concealed at all.
"We thought we were on the Ice Island, but it turns out we are here? What's your name?"
Hearing the old man's words, Alka nodded involuntarily. It seemed that the old man had indeed taken on the same task when he was young.
The location given by the church is also believed to be the Icecap Island. Although it is called the Arctic Triangle, its overall neutral location is the Icecap Island at the top of the triangle.
According to normal logic, and the situation where the ice-capped islands are colder than other islands.
Normal people would think along these lines.
"Just call me Alka."
"Okay, Alka, I will get the people of our tribe to cooperate with you."
As he said this, he couldn't wait to use his crutches and limp back the way he came.
The young man immediately came over to support him.
After a while, a large number of tribesmen wearing various furry animal skins rushed over.
One of the sturdy men looked at Alka and said, "Are you Alka? The high priest told us to listen to you."
Looking at the various digging tools in the hands of these tribal residents, they even brought their own tools.
Nodded.
These people began to plan to dig into the interior of the iceberg.
…
The excavation operation is in full swing.
Even with the help of these tribal residents, it would still be difficult to dig through in less than 10 days or half a month.
Because the ice became increasingly harder the further we went inside, we had to slow down our speed.
When faced with these stubborn blocks of ice, Alka would use flames to burn out some fulcrums so that they could speed up the digging efficiency and save some energy.
Their ships had left the Arctic Triangle as early as the excavation began.
Jason and Porro on the boat were preparing to go to some supply islands outside to buy some food and tools.
The hardness of these ice blocks greatly increased the wear and tear of the tribesmen's tools.
Besides, there was not much food on the island, and Alka couldn't let them work for him while they were hungry.
As time goes by.
The progress finally advanced 600 meters inside. According to Xia Daiti's detection, if we dig about 160 meters inside, we will be able to reach the top of the pit.
But here we encounter a problem.
The hardness of the ice cubes reached an extremely exaggerated level. No matter how the residents manipulated it, they could only knock off some debris from the ice surface.
It’s not as fast as these ice cubes recovering.
"Your mission is complete. These food and tools are given to you as gifts. Leave the rest to us."
Alka took out a bag of gold coins from his arms, handed it to the man in front of him and said.
Looking at this situation, the sturdy man scratched the back of his head in annoyance.
“But we didn’t help you dig it in.”
He felt a little embarrassed.
Alka and his friends gave them new tools, enough food, and even money.
However, they have not yet completed the task.
Looking at the simple appearance of these strong men, Alka smiled, patted his shoulder and said, "It's okay, just leave the rest to us, just tell the high priest."
The sturdy man nodded and said helplessly: "Well, you are such a generous person. I wish you all the best. May the Virgin Mary bless you."
As he spoke, he crossed his arms over his chest.
Alka nodded and returned the greeting: "May the Virgin Mary bless you."
After watching the tribal residents leave, Alka turned to look at the tunnel in the middle of the iceberg.
He said to Xia Daiti beside him: "Let's go in and give it a try. Now we can only rely on ourselves."
As they spoke, several people walked into the tunnel, while Porro stood outside waiting.
He was too big to take a lot of time to expand the tunnel upwards because of him.
So even though he has great power, he can only stand guard and wait outside.
