Chapter 23: Eternal Ice
Inside the Forest of Echoes.
Helena's squad seems to be advancing steadily deeper and deeper into the blue zone.
After experiencing their first skirmish against the arctic wolves, the new warriors changed, they were no longer as naive and scared compared to before.
Their next battles against predators such as mutated arctic foxes and mutated wolverines could even be said to be a bit too easy for them.
After a while, they reached the entrance of a cave.
This place seems to be where the cold wind is coming from.
"Halt! Guard the entrance. Let me check first."
Again, for safety purposes, Helena took the lead in going inside the cave.
*ROAAAAARRRR*
Upon hearing the loud roar, Helena carefully advanced.
"Shit!"
Helena cursed upon finding out that she was already surrounded by three mutated arctic bears. Luckily, she was still near the entrance of the cave.
"Warrior squad leaders and the whole archer squad! Come in! I need help."
Although she was strong, Helena was not stupid to take on three mutated arctic bears alone.
She might be able to win on her won but she will definitely pay a huge price for doing so.
She was their strongest combat asset, if she gets exhausted or hurt needlessly, it might even cause the death of some of their warriors.
Even though she wanted to test her strength against three mutated arctic bears, she held herself back.
She was now the captain!
She cannot be irresponsible and lead her men to unnecessary deaths.
The arctic bears might be a bit too hard for the new warriors so she only called in the veteran squad leaders and the archer squad to help her.
"Alex! Flank the bear's left side!"
"Got it!"
"Leif I'll tank the swipe, you cut it's leg"
Not only Helena but also the squad leaders are communicating with each other effectively to safely tank the hits while dealing a little bit of damage to the mutated arctic bears.
Their main source of damage however, were the archers who continuously fired their arrows from the back.
A while later, one bear fell down dead.
Another short while later, the other two bears followed suit and lost their lives under the troops' coordinated onslaught.
"Haahh..Haaah.. It had been a while since we last fought a battle as hard as that one."
"Yeah, I didn't think those bears would be so sturdy."
The squad leaders were exhausted, although they were veterans, they were still not on Helena's level.
Eden and his archer squad seemed fresh though, all they had to do was keep shooting the bears since the warriors were doing a good job at tanking the hits.
After a bit of rest, the group continued deeper into the cave.
They encountered hostile mutated predators such as wolves, foxes, and wolverines but nothing on the level of the bears.
The group finally reached a spacious area where some kind of glowing crystals were growing everywhere.
"Shit! That burns!"
Helena tried to touch the unknown crystal and finally paid a price for doing so.
Because she tried to touch the glowing crystals bare-handed, a small part of her palm and fingers were frostbitten.
The crystals seemed to be the source of the cold temperature inside the blue zone.
"Eternal ice! There's actually blocks of Eternal ice here!"
While Helena and the others were pondering about how to harvest the cold crystals, Eden suddenly remembered the characteristics of Eternal Ice that he once read in a book.
Eternal Ice is not actually eternal, it's just that it melts in roughly around 9 months to a year after you harvest it from its suitable environment.
What's actually rare about this Ice is that the suitable environment and the cultivation method for it is not known to the public.
For example, In the whole Kingdom of Lockridge, only the Lockridge Royal Family knows how to cultivate such ice.
They have designated servants to handle the cultivation of the Eternal Ice and those servants have highly restrictive contracts.
The penalty of such contracts when broken is the extermination of their whole family.
Needless to say though, the pay for the job was ridiculously high as it involves a nation's secret.
Such extreme measures were taken because not every kingdom knows how to cultivate Eternal ice.
Most of the kingdoms and fiefdoms around the Lockridge kingdom didn't even have Eternal ice and they had to purchase it at a high price from the Lockridge Royal Chamber of Commerce.
And now, such a rare type of ice falls into the hands of their village.
"Eternal Ice? Quick! Alex! Leif! Help me get a few pieces as a sample, we need to bring this back to Blanc. If this is really the Eternal ice, then this will be another milestone for the village!"
Upon hearing that these glowing crystals might be another huge boon to the village, they enthusiastically harvested a few pieces and stored them carefully inside their bags.
They had to be meticulous in handling these few pieces since they could inflict frostbite if not handled carefully.
Meanwhile, as they were harvesting and storing pieces of ice, A huge shadow looms behind them.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Meowder
Meowder Third chapter for the day! Chapter 23 is out!!
Hope you guys enjoyed <3
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To everyone who supports my work, I will never forget to express my gratitude to all of you once every few chapters. Thank you for the love and support. <3
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Note: I apologize for these sorts of notes. However, I have to do this for the continuous progress of the story. I would be extremely grateful if you guys would be so kind as to allot a bit of your time to provide an honest review. Such reviews will help me improve as an author and see my work on a reader's unbiased perspective. As a rookie author, I'm very open to criticisms so do not hold back. Thank you in advance! <3
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