Chapter Forty-Eight: Ice Crystals

"Whew, it's so high. ¢ ̧ ̧ ̧ ̧ ̧ ̧ ̧ ̧ ̧ ̧ ̧ ̧ ̧ ̧ ̧ ̧ ̧ ̧ ̧ ̧ Vivien was lying on Catherine's back, and the last one of them slid across the icy rift along the safety rope, three ropes hanging side by side in the air, two of which could be slid in a loop, which became the motivation for the girls to slide across the rift. It wasn't until after crossing the rift that Vivien looked back and sighed, "But I suddenly thought of a question, if the Ninth Research Laboratory we are looking for is buried deep under the ice, what method can we use to enter through the ice?"

"It's my own, I haven't heard of anyone who can cut through the ice and go underground, but we can ask for help. Catherine replied, "Have you forgotten what the head of the chapter told us?"

"Do you mean those ice spirits? Of course I remember. Vivien sighed and said, "The problem is, such a large ice field, where to find them, even if they do, it will not be easy to win their friendship." ”

Ice Spirits, similar to the Sand People and Fire Elementals, are a variant of water-based elemental creatures, which only exist on the permafrost ice field, and these elemental creatures do not have their own civilization, but are scattered in the ice field in the form of small-scale settlements. Their lifespan can often reach hundreds or thousands of years, and they live by absorbing ice attribute free elements on a daily basis, and occasionally ask for food like other creatures that enter the ice field, although the energy obtained after completely transforming those foods is far less than absorbing ice attribute elements, at most it is just to satisfy their curiosity. That's right, these creatures are curious and interested in something unfamiliar on the ice field, so they spend their days wandering the ice field. In addition to sleeping and playing, he is the freest and happiest group of creatures in the Yara world. What's even more special is that the Ice Spirits have no natural predators on the permafrost ice field. No one will attack the ice spirits on the ice field, because for those who are stored in the ice field, the ice spirits are a group of hard ice cubes that can move, and who would be stupid enough to attack the ice cubes for no reason?

"Actually, it's not too difficult to find the Ice Spirit. As he retracted the rope hanging over the Rift, he coiled around it and said, "They're curious, as long as we can get their attention." Naturally, they will take the initiative to move closer to us. However, it is not so easy to attract their attention, and even if the Ice Spirits are curious about the alien race on the ice field. They often only observe from a distance, and rarely get close to us aliens, so it is difficult for most adventurers to find those strange elemental creatures when they come to the ice field. ”

That is to say. Just let's do something weird. Could it be that attract their attention?" Lina asked curiously, "What kind of thing is weird, like deliberately jumping from here?"

"Hey, that's suicide. Pannis rolled his eyes and said, "You can't judge this strange standard by the way humans think, such as walking upside down with your hands, maybe it's strange in the human world, but in the world of ice spirits, it's not worth being curious about at all." Only by applying the idea of the Ice Spirit and looking for things that they might find curious about can it be effective. ”

"Oh, what are they curious about?" Lina asked, with a curious light in her eyes that was stronger than that of an ice spirit, "Then if we put a fire here." Isn't that going to be able to get their attention?"

"Impossible. Freya said, "Aren't the ice spirits living on the ice field instinctively afraid of fire? How dare they come close? Vivien, you're biologically better than I am, do you think that's biological?"

"Of course it does. Vivian replied: "Although the two attributes of water and fire restrain each other, but it also depends on the total amount and concentration, on the ice field, the fire attribute elements will definitely not pose any danger to those ice spirits, after all, the concentration and total amount of ice attribute elements here are too high, it is just a fire, and they have nothing to dare to approach." ”

"Pannis, no wonder you have to ask if I'm going to make goblin fireworks. Freya was stunned for a moment, and suddenly said: "That's to attract the attention of the ice spirits, after all, if you want to light a fire that can be seen in a large area around you, just counting the combustibles is a big problem, so it seems that it is easier to use the goblin pyrotechnics." ”

"But there is still a difficulty, which is how to build a friendship with them. Catherine glanced around her in the mist, as if looking for the shadow of ice crystals: "According to the head of the chapter, those creatures are lively and active, but they are very indifferent to life, and if they do not gain their friendship, even if someone dies in front of them, they will not lend a hand. I didn't even want to help with such things as responding to the first responders, let alone helping us get under the ice together for no reason. ”

"That's how people misunderstand those guys. Once again, Pannis threw a snowball into the mist, and this time, there was an eerie sound in the mist, as if something was fleeing into the distance. Dusting off the snow on his hands, Pannis explained, "Those guys are not indifferent to life, but they have the common problems of elemental creatures. You also know the characteristics of elemental creatures, as long as their cores are not damaged, their lives will not end, even if they are dead, they will be resurrected after tens of hundreds of years, but their memories are gone. So for them, unless they die young, dying a few times is just an interesting process in life, not to be surprised and should not be stopped. Because of this, they ignore those who are about to die, which is determined by the characteristics of their lives and is difficult to change. ”

"Why, you've had a relationship with the Ice Crystals?" Catherine asked suspiciously, "Listen to you, you know a lot about Ice Crystals, but didn't you say that you only came once, and it's still very short." ”

"Well, I happened to encounter a medium-sized community of ice crystals. Pannis shrugged his shoulders and said lightly, "It was only a few days, but I talked to them a lot, and those guys were actually quite interesting, and they weren't as weird as the chapter leader described." So you don't have to worry too much, if you really meet them, just keep your usual behavior, and there is no need to try to please them in order to gain their friendship. ”

"Wait, how many times did you talk to them?" Catherine asked in surprise, "Do they also speak lingua franca?" didn't the person in charge say that communication with them is often only through gestures?"

"Some will. Pannis explained: "I don't know how they did, but it's not a minority that has lived in ice crystals for hundreds of years, although they can't leave the frozen ice field for a long time, but how can they have a lot of opportunities to see other intelligent creatures, it shouldn't be difficult to learn the lingua franca, just like in the human world, there are very few people who can speak the language of ice crystals." ”

"Huh?" Lina asked curiously, "Will you too?"

"How could it be. Pannis shook his head with a smile and said, "Ice Crystal's language is too out-of-the-box, and it's weird, I can only hear simple words once at most, and as for letting me say it, it's even more impossible." ”

A few people casually talked about the ice crystals and continued to wander the ice field. In fact, everyone doesn't have a definite goal, and no one knows where the Ninth Research Laboratory is, so they can only rely on Eva's induction. However, Eva's information is not comprehensive, and she can only know the geomorphological characteristics of the small area directly above the laboratory, and there is no obvious reference on the ice sheet, so she can only confirm it if she is close to that location. As a result, people have to explore in a circular area with a radius of 30 kilometers in the form of a net, in order to find the destination of the adventure.

The surrounding environment,Still hidden in the mist,The girls can't see the scenery in the fog,Always feel that there are heavy black shadows writhing in the fog,This feeling between the visible and the invisible is the most entangled,Sometimes the girls think,The fog is so thick that you can't see anything clearly, but the heart can be a little more relaxed。

The ice field is actually not lonely, in addition to the ice crystals wandering around, there are also many strange creatures. It doesn't seem appropriate to call them creatures, they do have some creature characteristics, but they are more incomprehensibly weird. These strange beings have all kinds of strange appearances, and they will also attack other creatures that come to the ice field, but they do not eat their prey, no one knows what they rely on to survive, and no one knows why they are so keen to attack, but it must be admitted that they are the second leading cause of high mortality in the permafrost ice field, and even above hunger.

"Be careful. Pannis was giving the girls a brief description of the death traps that were entrenched in the ice field, when suddenly her body stiffened, her ears moved, and she grabbed Vivien and ran forward with her back on her back: "Run, run, don't stop." ”

No one asked Pannius why, and no one hesitated, and when Pannis grabbed Vivien and shouted to run, the other four people moved immediately. They didn't know what was going on, but their trust in Pannis kept them from hesitating for a moment, and they started running forward.

Running on the ice field is quite painful, the smooth ground makes it impossible to increase the speed at all, it is said to be running, but the real speed is not much faster than walking on normal ground, and even then it often slips. Fortunately, everyone has the corresponding physical reactions of high-level professionals, and even if they lose their balance, they can quickly adjust and not fall to the ground for half a day and be unable to stand up, so they have bought a lot of time.

After running for less than two minutes, the girls heard a loud rumbling sound coming from behind, accompanied by the crisp sound of the ice breaking. (To be continued......)

ps: Thank you for the support of the book friend Long Xiaohai with a monthly pass.

Thanks to the book friends zywwill123 and Jia Yunye for their respective two monthly passes for support.

(l~1`x*>+``+