CHAPTER 239: CHAPTER 163: STRENGTH IN NUMBERS

Once everyone had identified the weak points of the ice mountain before them, they prepared to excavate and open a passage leading inside.

The method they ultimately adopted was for Alka to use the Cross of Righteous Fire. Relying on his already adept control, he shot out a thick column of fire.

He relentlessly burned the ice mountain in front of him, causing it to begin melting. After a period of burning, the others would start excavating, repeating this process over and over.

Without the flames, the ice’s hardness was indeed difficult to break, greatly limiting their excavation speed.

Using this method, they cooperated and spent about two hours. Alka’s Magic Power began to wane, becoming insufficient to sustain the flames, so he waved his hand, indicating he needed to rest.

Although he hadn’t maintained the flames continuously for two hours, the extended period of sustaining the fire still consumed a great deal of his Magic Power.

In total, he had maintained the flames for at least thirty minutes.

Who would maintain a jet of flame for thirty minutes in battle? Isn’t this just a pure waste of Magic Power?

Conjuring such high-temperature flames out of thin air was no easy task; every moment consumed considerable Magic Power.

If Alka hadn’t reached the Three Spirals and possessed a Treasure that enhanced his Magic Power to be slightly greater than others, he wouldn’t have been able to endure for so long.

The others looked at the gap before them, which had only penetrated about three to four meters deep at most.

"No way, this efficiency is way too slow. By the time we dig through to the inside, who knows how long that will take," Chadite said, shaking his head as he looked at their progress.

Conservatively, the radius of this mountain was around seven to eight hundred meters, and the ice surface leading to the cavern below was located at its center.

At this rate, Alka would need to rest for three to four hours after sustaining the flames for two hours. Even if he worked non-stop without any rest, it would take about one and a half to two months to dig through to the center.

Not to mention, that was an impossible scenario; the actual time required would likely double.

This amount of time was almost unacceptable to them.

The deeper they went, the harder the ice would become. This was mainly because they were getting closer to the Treasure and would have to endure the intensifying cold.

At that point, the Magic Power consumption for sustaining the flames would further increase, and the flames’ power might even weaken.

After all, the ice here wasn’t formed naturally but by an extreme concentration of Ice Elements. This would greatly affect the surrounding Flame Elements.

An overabundance of Ice Elements might even suppress or displace the Flame Elements.

Just then, after inspecting the indentation they had just excavated for a while, Jason couldn’t help but say, "Have you all noticed? These ice blocks seem to be slowly regenerating."

Upon hearing this, the others clustered around to look and eventually confirmed Jason’s observation.

The ice blocks were indeed slowly growing and resolidifying. Although the growth was very slow, it was quite obvious if observed for a while.

Seeing this situation, Alka shook his head.

"No, this method doesn’t work at all."

If these ice blocks can still slowly regenerate, then the time required will increase even more. We might not be able to penetrate it even in a year, because we still have to dig through the ice within that underground cavern,

Alka thought.

They had wasted two hours, and it was now clear this laborious method was unworkable.

Now they had to think of other ways to solve this problem.

Jason looked at the ground beneath their feet, brushed aside the snow with his foot, and after a few stomps, said, "What if we just dig straight down and try to reach that cavern from below?"

Alka looked at the ground beneath his feet and nodded.

"We can give it a try."

This method sounded promising, but it was unclear what problems they might encounter during execution.

Regardless, the ground here is definitely frozen solid.

The group took their tools and started digging into the ground at their feet.

Because the ground was frozen, it was much harder to dig than ordinary soil, but it was still significantly better than the ice blocks.

The ice forming the mountain was clearly abnormal, its hardness ridiculously high.

A pit quickly formed under their collective effort.

Pororo stood within the pit, facing the ice mountain.

They began to dig horizontally towards the mountain, and the pit rapidly expanded, extending all the way to the foot of the mountain.

CLANG!

A digging tool suddenly struck something that felt like stone, and a metallic clang resounded.

"What happened? Hit a rock?"

Encountering boulders blocking the way during underground excavation is quite normal.

Pororo didn’t say anything. He moved to a different spot and tried again, but the result was the same.

This time, the others who were digging also noticed something was amiss.

They all tested the area in front of them.

It wasn’t a boulder at all.

The entire area before them was ordinary earth—no, it should be called frozen earth.

It was unclear what constituted it, but the hardness of this frozen earth surpassed even that of the ice blocks above. Digging a tunnel downward was simply impossible.

At this realization, everyone couldn’t help but stop what they were doing.

Jason slumped onto the nearby ground, helplessly running his hands through his hair. Yet another method had failed.

The others, their faces smeared with dirt, glanced at each other and shook their heads in resignation.

They climbed out of the pit with their tools.

"Does this mean we can only dig with brute force?" Chadite asked, sitting at the edge of the pit.

It seemed that in the current situation, their only option was to spend more time and rely on brute force to dig downward.