Close Combat Mage
chapter-352

Chapter 352 – Trade Route’s Secret Pt. 1

After eating honey, the Giant Icebear King practically seemed dead. Whenever it slept, it would sleep for an entire day, and, as soon as it awoke, it would ask Suo Jia for honey. In this kind of situation, Suo Jia didn’t even bother trying to resist, and directly handed over the honey. Upon finishing its honey, the Giant Icebear King would contentedly sprawl back on the ground and continue sleeping without paying any further attention to Suo Jia.

When Suo Jia looked at how relaxed the Giant Icebear King was as it slept, he couldn’t help but bitterly smile. He knew that the Giant Icebear King wasn’t paying him any mind at all; it wasn’t afraid of him running away or of him inflicting any harm to it. To the Giant Icebear King, Suo Jia was basically just a fly that provided honey.

Seeing the Giant Icebear King fall into deep slumber once more, Suo Jia refused to just stay idle. It was going to ignore him? Fine, he would take this chance to look around the shrine ruins. Although the sturdy ice blocking the way would keep others out, it definitely wouldn’t be hard for an ice mage like Suo Jia to get through. After all, he was an expert that played around with ice!

Suo Jia found a dimly lit corner, and ordered the Diamond Dragon to enter its combat state. However…before the dragon had even started to knock at the ice, the Giant Icebear King woke up. Although the fluctuations from the Diamond Dragon’s magic power weren’t very great, the Giant Icebear King’s acute senses still swiftly detected them. This was its den, how could it not stay alert?

Seeing the Giant Icebear King awaken, Suo Jia was alarmed and had no choice but to command the Diamond Dragon to directly drop its combat state. By the time the Giant Icebear King had rushed over in a frenzy, Suo Jia was carrying the little pet, sitting on a pile of sturdy ice with a content expression, showing no signs of abnormality.

The Giant Icebear King looked suspiciously at Suo Jia, and then back at the little pet. Most likely thinking that it had just been dreaming, it turned around and walked back to lie down and continue sleeping.

Suo Jia let out a breath of relief at the sight of the Giant Icebear King falling into slumber once more. Fortunately, although it had a certain level of intelligence, its mind was a bit simple, perhaps because it slept too much. It hadn’t been able to detect that the ice from underneath Suo Jia was actually the Glacial Armor the Diamond Dragon had produced in its combat state.

Suo Jia’s gaze remained on the sleeping Giant Icebear King. He knew that relying on the Diamond Dragon to chip away the ice wasn’t possible anymore. However…Suo Jia’s calculations were not that poor. In the blink of an eye, Suo Jia pulled out Baltic from his interspatial ring, and quickly assembled it.

Soon afterwards, a large mining tool appeared in Baltic’s hands. This tool wasn’t used to pick ice, but rather, to gather ores from mines. It was extremely sharp, and also very effective.

After setting up Baltic, Suo Jia also found another remote corner hidden from sight for Baltic to probe around before it began to spin the drill-like tool in its hands, drilling towards the sturdy ice layers.

The ice sealing off the shrine was probably over 30 meters thick. Ice of this thickness theoretically should’ve taken a few days to chip away, but Baltic didn’t know the concept of exhaustion. Moreover, it also had the tool that Suo Jia had personally designed; if its work efficiency was just average, it would still only need one day and night to successfully carve out a 30 meter long passageway through the layers of ice.

Although Suo Jia wanted to immediately squeeze through the tunnel and look around the shrine, but the Giant Icebear King soon awoke again. With a lack of better option, Suo Jia stored away Baltic, and returned to the Giant Icebear King’s side. After it awoke again the next morning and ate another large barrel of honey, it fell into a deep sleep once more. Only then did Suo Jia gather the courage to rush back over to the shrine.

After passing through the two meter diameter tunnel, Suo Jia finally entered the shrine. The rays of sunlight from the early morning were reflected off of the thick ice layers. Under the hazy glow, the glimmering shrine appeared before Suo Jia’s eyes.

There was an inspiring sculpture across the shrine entrance. It was a two meter tall god wearing divine leather armor on its robust body. One hand gripped a trident while the other was rested on its knee. It was sitting in a dignified pose, and its bright, forward gaze made it seem as if it were alive.

Although it looked to be alive, Suo Jia knew that this thing wasn’t a real person, but instead was carved out from a precious metal. It was just a statue; in fact, Suo Jia could carve something similar, although it wouldn’t be as god-like.

As Suo Jia was looking around, his body involuntarily shuddered as his gaze quickly locked onto the ground before the carving. There…a pile of some creature’s bones was kneeling. Judging from its pose, it looked as if it was praying to the sculpture!

Suo Jia cautiously advanced further into the main hall. Using the hazy rays of light shining in from outside, Suo Jia was shocked to discover that there were ten skeletons piled there. From their bulkiness and their physique, Suo Jia suspected them to be skeletons of Giant Icebears; moreover, these were skeletons of past Giant Icebear Kings!

Suo Jia’s eyes lit up, and he quickly ran over to one of the skeletons to find the large skull amidst the bones. He reached his hand into the pile of bones to pull out an egg-sized, ball-shaped object emitting a dim blue glow!

Suo Jia trembled as he looked at the ball-shaped item in his hand. He now knew, without a doubt, that this was a Giant Icebear King’s skeleton, because only they could condense together such a large rank nine monster core. This time, the Diamond Dragon was in great luck!

Without daring to waste any time, Suo Jia quickly ran to the other nine skeletons to pull out rank nine monster cores from the skulls, gathering ten of these egg-sized cores in total!

Suo Jia excitedly pocketed them, and continued to probe around the shrine, but, even after looking around for a long while, Suo Jia didn’t discover anything else. Since Suo Jia’s aptitude in magic automatons and mechanisms couldn’t discover anything, he could basically conclude that there were no usable mechanisms to speak of here.

Suo Jia’s gaze finally landed back onto that sculpture. It didn’t actually draw Suo Jia’s attention, as it was just a metal carving, but the trident it wielded in its hand attracted him!

This trident was completely azure in color. It had a deep blue gem embedded at the bottom that radiated a faint, blue glow under the sun’s rays. When one looked a bit closer, there seemed to be something moving within it!

Suo Jia unconsciously moved closer to inspect the gemstone better, and looked straight at the round, blue gem. His eyes were practically glued onto the gem’s walls as he intently stared into it.

Finally, Suo Jia was able to clearly discern the inner contents of the stone, and he couldn’t help but gasp sharply. Right now…before Suo Jia’s eyes was not the gemstone’s original body, but a strange transformation had occurred, and Suo Jia had completely lost track of his own body.

The instant Suo Jia’s gaze had crossed with the gem’s walls, Suo Jia saw a flash before his eyes, and a boundless sea with surging waves appeared. The roaring ocean with its blue water and violent movements incited towering waves, one after another.

Suo Jia understood that this wasn’t just a gem that looked like an ocean, as he’d seen a true ocean before. Right now, the one in Suo Jia’s vision was identical to the one in his memories. The only differences were that it was deeper, more restless, and vaster!

The sea wasn’t something calm, nor was it desolate. Rather, it was the opposite; there were large, magnificent glaciers floating atop the raging waves. Each of these glaciers was larger than Suo Jia, some an overwhelmingly large size!

Suo Jia sweated profusely at the images of the glaciers in his mind. What in the world was this? Why had these scenes appeared before him? They couldn’t be…illusions, right?

Suo Jia’s eyes snapped open and tiredly wiped the sweat off his forehead. What exactly was this, why was it so terrifying?! There was actually a surging ocean hidden within this tiny gemstone!

Suo Jia stretched out a trembling hand to grasp the sparkling hilt of the trident that seemed to be carved out of the blue gemstone and pulled on it slightly…and with an indescribable feeling, the trident in the statue’s hand ended up in Suo Jia’s hands.

Suo Jia gaped at the trident in astonishment. Although he didn’t understand what all of this meant, Suo Jia was certain that this was an amazing treasure. However, who would be able to tell him its exact identity?