Chapter 163 "Dang!"
A crisp sound was heard.
One end of the pickaxe used to dig the iceberg broke directly, and the broken pickaxe head flew out in a spiral, leaving only a very shallow pit on the ice in front of it.
Looking at the pickaxe in his hand, Alka helplessly threw it aside.
The same was true for Xia Daiti and the others next to them.
The ice pick in his hand could not have much impact on the ice in front of him at this stage.
The only thing that could have any effect now was the flame in Alka's hand.
But the impact is limited.
At most, you can burn a thumb-sized dent. It is simply a pipe dream to want to melt the entire ice surface.
"What should we do now?" Jason asked, looking at the broken pickaxe in his hand.
They were in trouble again.
These ice cubes are really difficult to deal with, and their hardness is ridiculous.
Now that it has come to this, we can only find a way to dig up the ice in front of us.
Look at the pickaxe in your hand.
Now it is the tools that limit their opportunities to explore forward. With their strength, if they had better tools, they should be able to break the ice in front of them.
Arka thought for a moment and said, "You guys temporarily limit the speed of the ice surface's recovery. I'll go prepare some better tools."
Hearing Alka's words, several people nodded.
Alka returned to the ship and came to the studio in the cabin.
The right arm was covered with the Hand of Precision, with blue stripes flickering on it.
Alka planned to spend some materials to make a few magic pickaxes. Although this was a bit extravagant, it was still worth it for a treasure.
At worst, I can ask the church to reimburse me later. After all, I am taking on their mission and doing things for them.
Thinking of this, Alka went to the workbench and started making it.
About a day passed.
Alka then returned to the excavation site with the tools.
At this time, Xia Daiti and others were resting in the tent nearby.
Seeing Alka coming, they all came out of the tents and took the new ice-digging tools from his hands.
Jason swung the pickaxe in his hand twice.
"How do you use this thing?"
Because this pickaxe looks no different from an ordinary pickaxe, except that the materials used seem to be more advanced.
There is also a logo of an eye in a square frame on the handle.
Alka simply put the pickaxe on his shoulder and walked into the cave.
As he walked in, he said, "Come in with me. I'll show you."
After arriving at the previous ice surface.
Alka held the pickaxe high with both hands, and the magic power flowed along the handle to the pickaxe head facing the ice.
A thin layer of silver light appeared on it, and then Alka smashed it hard onto the ice.
The 30-centimeter-long pickaxe head pierced directly into the ice, and Alka once again infused magic power into it.
I could see the pickaxe vibrating visibly several times, and then I gripped the pickaxe and exerted force.
A large piece of polar ice broke into several pieces and fell off, revealing a conical pit about 40 centimeters deep.
Looking at the effect in front of him, Alka nodded with satisfaction, turned around and said to everyone, "How is it? Not bad, isn't it?"
This icebreaker was carved with spells by Alka. In addition to the stronger material, its function was to increase its sharpness, and it had a strong shaking structure at the back.
When one end is inserted into the ice, give it a few quick vibrations to pry the ice straight up and down.
Greatly increased the efficiency of ice breaking.
Looking at Alka's behavior and then looking at the ice pick in his hand, Jason walked forward.
Take action as well.
However, due to the difference in physical fitness and magic strength, Jason only made a 20-centimeter hole.
But that's enough, it has fully proved the effectiveness of this tool, which will greatly speed up their progress.
Efficiency is significantly improved.
"Okay, everyone, come on, let's get started."
As they spoke, the four of them began to swing their ice picks and dig at the ice in front of them.
"Come on! Come on!" A childish voice came from behind.
The doll Lucilia was standing next to them, holding two ribbons and cheering them on.
Alka made a lot of strange things for Lucia.
…
"Finally, we have dug here."
Jason panted and threw the badly worn magic pickaxe in his hand aside, then sat down on the ice and took a rest regardless of the coldness of his butt.
The rest of the people were not much better than him.
They all leaned against the ice and began to pant.
The exhaled breath immediately turned into cold mist and dissipated in the air.
They finally dug to the top of the pit, and the coldness here had reached the limit that several people could bear.
Even though the three of them were wearing thick clothes and were in such a pit, they still felt the biting cold penetrating into their bodies.
In order to avoid illness and frostbite, one has to use magic to drive the biting cold away from the body.
This further increased the consumption of their magic power.
Even Julia, who is relatively cold-resistant, put on a thick layer of clothes to keep warm.
But for her, this is enough.
It took them a whole week to finally reach the distance of 160 meters.
Because the hardness of the ice would increase slightly every time they dug 10 meters deeper, greatly slowing down their speed.
Apart from resting and eating, they kept digging.
But it took a whole week, because it took them three days to dig the last ten meters.
Those last few days it was almost like they were digging ice with a little spoon.
This week's excavation has taken its toll on their physical condition, and even caused blisters on their palms.
It can be said that I have honestly experienced the feeling of being a miner.
Fortunately, hard work pays off, and finally when the pickaxe was severely worn, they dug to the destination.
The chill coming from below was so obvious and biting.
But there didn't seem to be anything special about the ice beneath their feet.
Of course, that's just the naked eye.
Xia Daiti half-knelt down, padding his body with thick clothes, and touched the ice under their feet with his hands.
The ice below is so cold that if you don't put on some clothes, you are likely to get frostbite on the skin of your hands.
Silver ripples continuously transmitted downwards, exploring the environment below.
Due to the stimulation of the treasure and the so-called attack, the energy below is abnormally chaotic, which will interfere with Xia Daiti's detection.
Before, she could only detect obvious potholes here, because the gap between the ice and the soil was very obvious.
Now that we are at the top, we can explore more carefully.
"That's right, it's right under our feet. This is the entrance to the cave."
As he spoke, Xia Daiti took a pickaxe and drew a circle of one and a half meters between them.
The mark disappeared within a dozen seconds.
Xia Daiti continued: "There is still a thick layer of ice here, about 20 meters deep. Below 20 meters there is a hollow layer with no ice, but full of energy."
That is their final destination this time, and they still have to dig 20 meters deep.
This is not an easy thing to do.
The further down you go, the closer you get to the area where the treasure is, and you can imagine how hard the ice is.
Looking at the location marked by Xia Daiti, Alka stood up after resting for a while, held his pickaxe with both hands, poured magic power into it, and smashed it down with all his strength.
With a crisp sound.
But the effect is not satisfactory.
Only a small dent appeared and a few ice chips flew out.
The hardness of the ice below increased again, once again exceeding the range that the tools in hand could dig.
Looking at this scene, Jason next to him sighed helplessly.
Although they had expected it, the thing they feared most still happened.
"This 20 meters is a really long distance."
Alka said helplessly, then threw the pickaxe in his hand aside.
The harder the ground gets the deeper you go in these 20 meters, the harder it will be. Even a magic ice pick would hardly be able to produce a better effect.
I knew it wouldn't be that easy.
It’s really troublesome.
To be honest, it would be better to place a few powerful monsters waiting for them next to the treasure.
Even a puzzle will do.
Alka would rather decode the code and fight the monsters than face this outrageous blockade.
This is not consistent with the actions of a treasure hunter at all.
What stood in their way was so plain and simple.
I never thought that one day I would be troubled by the hardness of ice.
Very good, this will exercise their patience.
I couldn't help but start organizing the known information in my mind, looking for a better way.
First of all, we can know that he definitely cannot go down there. If he does, he will definitely be beaten, and his life may even be in danger.
The task of going down and shutting down the ancient guard can only be given to Xia Daiti and others who have no treasure.
From the difficulty of the task, we can know that the ancient guards will not attack them as long as they do not hold the treasure.
Otherwise, the difficulty level should be marked with the number of spirals.
If they really got through and came to the pit below, the first thing that would stop them should be the biting cold brought by the treasure in its activated state.
By enduring this icy chill and turning off the Ancient Guardian, the treasure's activated state will be removed.
That's it, you're done.
It sounds simple, the ice below has already stopped them.
Thinking of this, Alka couldn't help but turn his head to look at Lucilia who was sliding on the ice.
Wouldn't it be easier to just make a tunnel through which Lucelia could pass?
Let Lucelia shut down the Ancient Guardian.
It seems feasible, as long as we provide Lucilia with protective measures to ensure her safety.
Thinking of this, Alka decided to dig a small tunnel downwards so that they could observe the situation below.
If the situation is optimistic, let Lucilia go down through this tunnel and close the ancient guard.
"Let's dig a small tunnel, 20 centimeters wide, and see what's going on at the bottom first."
At Alka's suggestion, the others turned and stared at him.
Although I don't know why I have to do this, but since Aka said so, I can only give it a try.
After all, there is no good solution now.
We can only take one step at a time and see what happens.
Flames began to surge from Alka's palm, burning at the location marked by Xiadaiti.
After burning for most of the day and resting for a while, they finally burned out a 10-centimeter-deep hole.
Okay.
Even a 20 cm wide hole may be able to be dug.
"If it only takes 20 centimeters, I'll try."
Julia suddenly spoke, magic power surged, a halo appeared behind her and three liquid ribbons flew out.
How is she going to operate?
As she controlled it, the liquid on the three ribbons took on a metallic luster, then overlapped with each other and formed a cone shape, pressing against the hole that Alka had just burned with flames, and then spun wildly.
It turned into a tiny drill bit.
The friction between the drill bit and the ice surface made a harsh sound, but it could be seen that the broken ice was splashing around madly.
It works.
This small drill made of is much more powerful than they thought.
It drilled downwards almost smoothly. Although the progress was slow, it was visible to the naked eye that it was getting deeper and deeper.
Two days passed like this.
Took several breaks.
Julia wiped the sweat from her forehead. The meditation during the rest period restored her physical strength and magic power.
But controlling herself like this all the time made her mentally exhausted.
"Almost. Get ready."
As the words fell, the three ribbons that were gathered together suddenly became empty and fell down one section.
This indicated that they had bored a tunnel.
A shock of energy surged out of the tunnel.
The ribbons were immediately scattered, and several people leaned together and retreated backwards.
Gray energy and light blue ice energy kept emerging from the small tunnel which was only about 20 centimeters wide.
The biting coldness surged out madly.
The surrounding area was visibly starting to freeze again.
Alka could feel the surging gray energy constantly impacting his body.
And it only hit him alone. These energies did not cause any harm when passing through Xia Daiti's people.
Only Alka was beaten back step by step, with numb hands and feet.
He quickly stretched out his hands, magic power surged out, and a layer of water-like shield appeared.
However, under the biting cold around, it immediately froze into frost and turned into an ice shield.
This actually strengthened his defenses, holding back the gray energy that was rushing towards Alka.
The silver ripples under Xia Daiti's feet continued to spread around, bringing up layer after layer of holy light and flames.
Clearing away the chill around here.
Otherwise, the hole would freeze over again, and all the time they had spent would have been in vain.
When the energy gushed out wildly, the 20-meter-wide hole was shattered before it had time to freeze.
The accumulated energy gushed out crazily, and after about 10 minutes, it finally completely dissipated and poured out of the tunnel.
Because of the surging energy, a blizzard blew up outside, forcing Porro, who was on guard outside, to huddle up to resist the violent wind and snow.
Alka then sat down on the ice helplessly.
The gray energy that just surged out must be the energy used by the ancient guards to attack.
The goal is very clear, which is to beat yourself.
Just as the information said, they targeted people who possessed treasures and attacked them.
The few people who had lost their energy immediately came to Alka's side to check on the other people's conditions.
Alka waved his hands to indicate that he was fine and said, "I'm fine, I just feel a little weak."
"Why do those energies have to attack you?" Xia Daiti couldn't help but ask.
Because several people saw it with their own eyes. The gray energy did not cause any harm when it passed through them. However, when it passed through Alka, it hit him like a sledgehammer.
Moreover, it would be fine if the energy was far away, but if it was close, even if it just passed by, it would turn a corner and hit Alka.
It was like he was attracting fire.
Alka shook his head helplessly.
"I don't know either. Maybe there's some different energy down there, or maybe it's because some of my physical characteristics attracted them, so I was attacked."
After resting for a while, Alka finally recovered a little.
Several people came to the pit.
Xia Daiti's silver ripples passed downwards once again.
This time the detection was more thorough and the energy in the cave below had little impact after it gushed out.
"The pit below seems to be some kind of ruins. There are two high-energy objects facing each other. One of them should be the treasure that the church mentioned. It exudes a very obvious chill."
"There's something nearby attacking the treasure. It's a sphere with four legs. It's very big, about three meters."
After hearing what Xia Daiti said, two cards appeared in Alka's hand, with 1 and 2 written on them.
Alka threw card number 2 directly down into the pit.
As the card fell, it turned into a mirror with a thread hanging from it in Alka's hand.
Card No. 1 in Alka's hand also turned into a mirror, but the image displayed in the mirror was the image reflected on mirror No. 2.
However, all that could be seen below was a blue ball of energy and a gray beam of light.
The rest of the place is very dark and can't be seen clearly.
The two objects facing each other were emitting light, but it was not scattered.
Alka controlled the lantern to float down and provide light.
Only then did the picture below appear in the mirrors in their hands.
Several people looked towards the screen.
Alka used silk threads to control the mirror to rotate slowly, attempting to completely record the environment below.
It can be seen that there are obvious ruins below. Although the ruins are dilapidated, they are definitely man-made.
Or it could be created by other intelligent creatures.
A ball of blue energy floated above a corpse, and the original appearance of the ancient guard was revealed.
A thick sphere with serious defects on its side. It was tattered and even exposed its internal structure. A glowing component was so conspicuous on the structure.
There is a small depression in front of the sphere, from where the gray energy is ejected.
At this time, the ball was lying at an angle on the ruins, and its two thick mechanical cylindrical legs were still holding it in place.
The other two had been completely destroyed, and they had to lean on the ruins to keep their balance.
Through the situation seen by everyone.
Alka began to tell all the information he knew, comparing it with the scene on the screen.
