Treasure Hunting, Foraging, and Material Farming

Chapter 112 - Treasure Hunting, Foraging, and Material Farming

-

The frigid breeze of cold howls within my ears, along with my footsteps as I quietly wander around the Igloo. Both the outside and the interior of this place looked brand new. As if, it had returned to its former glory. Not like I know what it originally looks like, but you get the point. And so, within the time of who-knows how many hours of working, I could finally take a sweet rest.

"Hm, I should take a shower first before I head to bed..." I mumbled. Despite the cold temperature we are in, I still excreted quite a sweat while I'm working. Ah, now that I think about it, the buff that gave me an immunity to cold was probably the reason I'm so sweaty right now.

Now with a plan in mind, I headed to the bathroom and took a hot shower. Ah, what a bliss...

I gave the igloo a complete interior refurbishing. I started by renewing the walls and restored it with smooth snow bricks. I also changed the flooring and turned it into wood planks, creating a pleasant feeling of home. As for the furnishing, I didn't bother mending with them for now. But for starters, I used one of the rooms as my working station.

Ahh, for careful considerations, I decided to put an alarm to the girls' room in case those guys do something behind the scenes. Forgive me but protection is my number one priority. I'm not so naive that I'll let you guys do whatever you want here if you ever wanted to...

Well, enough about that, once I was done taking my shower, I went to an empty bedroom and lay myself finally. The moment the soft bed enveloped me, drowsiness assaulted me. Hm, it seems like I won't be having any hard time sleeping now. A mimir!

* * *

Fortunately, no problems appeared during our sleep. It was already late when I woke-up, but to my surprise, so does everyone. The gap was only half an hour when I woke and the girls. Hm? How did I know, you say? There's a grandfather's clock in this igloo so I was able to tell it. Pretty convenient especially inside the cavern, no?

Anyhow, were back to our main purpose of coming here. After a quick preparation, we started on our trek on finding some treasures. Just like what we carried-out last night, Luna will I take the front leading the group.

Incidentally, we let those guys at the igloo for them to take a rest in the meantime. Seymor, was it? The Old Man was fully exhausted. Mikael and Lara were fine, so I'll let those two tend the igloo for the meantime. There's also no need to be worried about. After all, there's nothing for them to steal into. Each of us (except Astra and Lemuen) had our own Magic Pouch, so leaving our items there was unnecessary.

Nonetheless, back to the current situation,

"Gyaar!!"

"Khgh..."

A hasty approach with her hands ready within her sword's reach, Luna dashed her way towards the Mahaha along with a Frozen Elemental who had already begun chanting behind the creature.

"Don't stop. I'll cover you!" Assured by Lily who then precisely shoots a bolt of arrow into the Frozen Elemental's head, cancelling her chant and knocking her back partially.

"Got it!" Now Luna doesn't have anything to be concerned about. Just as Mahaha was about to wack Luna with his fist, Luna came first and stabbed it with her sword. With her sword's unique skill, the Mahaha was electrified, rendering him paralyzed.

"Kuh—?! It's hard..." The unfortunate similarity of yesterday, Luna's sword was stuck inside Mahaha's abdomen. It was too solid. Luna tried to pull it off, but it was stuck.

Not long after, the Mahaha was finally off to its paralysation. In furious state, the Mahaha tried to land a punch against Luna who was pulling her sword off.

However, it's Luna were talking about.

Wasting no fraction of time, Luna leaped and used her sword to change her position and strongly kicked Mahaha straight to his jaw. In midair, Luna then put her foot into her sword and propelled herself once again, took the Gleam Sword, stabbed it into Mahaha's head and kicked it downward.

The Mahaha died immediately on the spot without creating any form of pained sound. His death was so quick that it didn't have time to wail in response.

Fight over, Luna looks around to see if there's still monsters in her side, but it seems like everything is completely finished.

"I'm done here," Luna informed and turned to Lily, but it appears she was also done on her end. Did they finish at the same time? "They sure were quite tough, huh."

"Right. It took me a number of arrows just to finish that Frozen Elemental," They sure were quite the formidable monsters. Not it a sense of strong but...they're uhh... tanky? "At any rate, how's the other girls doing?"

Luna turned to the girls who were still occupied fighting a number of monsters. Her eyes centered at mine lastly, watching me while I help the girls behind by throwing a sharp turquoise scale at the enemies.

"...Should we help them?" Luna asked.

"Nah," Lily shook her head. "They're in the middle of testing their new weapon. Let them. Besides, they'll probably get mad if you steal their kill."

"I get what they feel but... Was there some competition?"

"Beats me," Lily replied. "Shall we get wait for them then?"

"Yes. But still be careful, though." Luna warned. "For now, I'll go to Master."

Looks like she's coming here... Oh, well. Were pretty much already done here anyway.

* * *

"Hey, everyone. I got something!" At present collecting our spoils of war, Lily managed to pick-up a monster drop and started flaunting it excitedly. "Look!"

"Oh, that's..." She was flaunting a weapon—a turquoise-colored stave that sported a beautiful gem-like ice on its tip, "The 『Wintery Stave』, huh... That's actually a good magic weapon."

A minimalistic weapon design-wise. It fires a bolt of frost which deals quite the nasty damage. Small chance it gives a Frostburn debuff that burns more damage than burned debuff. With the similarities, it was pretty obvious that it was dropped from a Frozen Elemental.

"Oh, by your description, it's definitely strong," Lily enthusiastically replied. "Although quite sadly, I probably won't be using it. I focus on Bow Class after all."

"Oh really? That's unfortunate." I replied. "How about you store that Staff for now? For starters, let's start and finally open this Treasure Chest."

Were all presently located on a ruined cabin. It was different from yesterday mind you. Anyway, we already removed all the traps present here so all we need to do is open this box of treasure.

  "What do we have here..." I mused as I open the Chest. A number of loots can be seen here: A gold bar, Potions, Coins, and also,

"A Shoestring?" Lemuen asked in a bewildered manner. The rest of the girls (with the exception of Akari) also seemed puzzled.

"The Frozen Shoestring," I pointed-out. "It will provide you an extra mobility on ice when you use it. It will also improve your movement control on ice... You know, slipping."

"That's...kind of situational only, isn't it?" Lemuen replied. "I mean, unless were in a snow, but it's not like we'll always be here so...a niche item, no?"

"There's more than that actually." I pointed-out. "This item is a recipe to upgrade our Mobility Boots to Fourth Tier. Including the ice-related buff, it will also increase our initial speed by a number."

"Oh, really?" Lily asked, surprised. "So, your plan of coming here was to upgrade our boots, huh."

"Part of it. Yes." I nodded. "There's really more here than you girls might actually think. All the good reason for this place to be considered very dangerous."

"Then you better promise that to us, though." Astra interjected with a grin.

"Of course." I replied. "Didn't I tell you we'll be returning home with a pack and souvenir."

"Ah, you said something like that, did you?" Astra tried to reminisce but shrugs it away after. "Well, looks like we'll be expecting more interesting experience from now here."

"Yeah." I nodded. "But before that. Akari."

"Yes, Aruji-sama." Even without me explaining, Akari just nodded and went in front of me. So, she's aware of what were about to do next, huh. As expected of my companion!

"Alright," The next thing I did, was took-off my 『Thunderboots』 and gave it to Akari along with the 『Frozen Shoestring』. Not explained of any context, the girls looked at us completely baffled.

"...Master?"

"No questions need to ask, Luna." Lily interjected. "It's probably one of his shenanigans."

"You know I'm here, right?" I retorted but heave a sigh after. "Upgrading an equipment means merging two correlative items together. By that I mean, is the 『Thunderboots』 and the 『Frozen Shoestring』 I mentioned earlier. To do that, we'll need something of a Crafting Station that can do those things as if it was for that purpose. If you guys remember, there's a certain Crafting Station fit to do those things, no?"

  The girls began pondering to my questions. I'm sorry Astra, Lemuen, you guys still weren't present at that time, so I doubt you'll know anything about my question.

Shortly, Luna finally understood what I meant...along with Seia who visibly seemed to also get it.

"... The [Demon's Tusk], huh..." Luna muttered. Seia also seemed to want to say something but kept herself in silence after.

"Correct," I nodded, then turned to see my impassive cute companion. "Then, Akari..."

"Yes, Aruji-sama." Holding both the 『Thunderboots』 and the 『Frozen Shoestring』, a blinding glow assaulted our eyes as Akari use her skills to merge the two items. Ah, I forgot! Goddammit! My eyes!

That's right. If you remember, Akari has the ability to assess and use the [Demon's Tusk] skill for us to be able to use it. Unfortunately, Akari can only copy those things so long as it's in relation with metaphysical phenomenon. I don't remember if there's still something like that, but we'll know that later for sure.

Mind you, the [Demon's Task] ability to craft an equipment is only exclusively possible for a Tier IV equipment and above. In other words, an alternative. The reason for that is, that the item ranging from Tier IV and above has now consist of a metaphysical property. Hence, the possibilities to craft. I can still craft it on Mr. Fjell's workstation. Normally that is.

Shortly after, the light finally diminished. The two items that Akari was holding had now turned into a single equipment—a cyan-colored boots added with a bit of white design, a footwear that literally complements the theme of ice.

Tier IV Mobility Boots, The『Icethrottle Boots』

Although I only get to see it a bit later since I'm blinded. Ugh, goddamn! That flash, though...

"Ugh, unless its intentional, maybe we can get a head-up first before you do that?" Astra retorted as she exasperatedly wipes her eyes.

"Ugh, my eyes...." Luna.

"W-What the hell even was that...?" Lily.

"Oof, I'm feeling dizzy..." Lemuen.

"I'm really sorry, you guys..." I was the first one to recover which made me see a glimpse of their reaction. It seems that everyone with the exception of Seia was blinded surprisedly.

Seia was the only one who didn't get flashed, huh. So, she remembered...

"I'm sorry, Aruji-sama...everyone..." Akari apologized.

"No, it's okay." I took the boots and wore it as I replied. Man, it really feels so goofy as ever. "Once you guys recovered, we'll continue hunting some treasures. The buffs still haven't worn-off so let's take as many treasures as we can."

""Yes!""

Thus, we continued our treasure hunting for a while. The treasures aside, I hope more monster drop show about. Besides, we still haven't found that place.

The Arctic has many more things to offer us. Moreover, that monster, huh... We'll surely encounter it sooner or later. Well, I'm pretty confident about our current strength so we can probably manage.