93 - freeze expansion

The broken outer shells of the beetles fall to the ground one after another, raising a cloud of dust.

Moe shouted in surprise as the rocks collapsed in a flash.

"Whoa!　Did you do this, Grandma?"

"Yes, that's right."

"Amazing!　That's what I'm talking about!

The child jumped with joy and hugged Yuril vigorously.

He rubbed his cheeks together and clears his throat, with his head buried just below his chest.

You're so soft. Soft, soft, soft."

"Oh, my God, that tickles, Mumu."

Moo, who had been playing with her like a mother and child, suddenly looks up and asks curiously.

"What's so cool, Grandma Yu?

"Oh, I'm sure it's because of this."

With these words, Yuril pulled down his collar to reveal a grayish-silver sheen wrapped around his neck.

It was the neck chain of ice and frost, an altar that had been given to him at the Temple of Quest the other day.

This neck-ring-shaped jewelry, made by carving out the backbone of a Frost Giant, a higher species of spirit that lives in the north, is said to have the effect of raising the power of ice-based magic to a higher level.

"It makes me feel a little cooler when I wear it. It's quite dry here, so you can see the difference.

"Mmmmmm, it's so nice and snug and warm when you stick to it!"

"Well, Moo-chan is the only one who doesn't like it. I'm not fair to you, Moo-chan.

Yuril's white skin rises a little as he is clung to by a girl and a child with high body temperatures.

Thor approached the three jostling each other and praised the results of their tremendous magical skills.

"I've heard about it, but it's really powerful. I was surprised.

"Yes, with this and my wand, I think I can manage here."

Thor nodded deeply at the silver-haired beauty, who smiled at him dependably.

He had managed to slaughter a solid monster that had seemed to be a rather poor match for him, using only the magical skills of his Shimojeda skill.

With the presence of his reassuring companions, Thor once again realized how wonderful it is to have a party.

Returning his gaze to the rock beetle, he saw a strange block of ice peeking out from within its crumbling shell.

It looked somewhat like a tree, with transparent branches extending here and there.

"That's ......."

"Yes, it's the body fluid of a rock beetle. I was told that they have a tendency to store a considerable amount of water in their bodies.

That story was also taught to Thor in the course.

He said that the outer shell is robust, but the inner structure is watery and quite fragile.

Freezing its body fluids would expand its volume and break the rock from the inside.

Thor quietly approached the monster that had collapsed from the inside.

The beetle, which had been stripped of its outer rock shell, showed no sign of movement.

He observes it for a while, but it seems to be completely dead.

A peek inside the rock reveals its macabre internal structure.

The head, with its large jaws, was snugly tucked inside the shell.

The two long antennae are folded into a spiral.

The six legs were completely stuck into the ground, probably because the creature had abandoned the idea of moving.

It is said that the six legs are used to suck up water from the ground.

The parts of the body that looked like internal organs were in a very bad shape, probably because they had ruptured.

Every organ had been crushed by the ice tree.

Thor was about to let out a sigh as he struggled to find the part he was looking for, when Sora, who had also come by, spoke to him.

Thor, you forgot this.

The girl held out the dismantling knife she had just thrown at me.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Let's get the parts with the proof of defeat first.

Where is this monster?

"That's where it's curled up. Be careful not to cut your finger if you touch it.

"Yes. Wow, it's a little soft, but it's kind of hard. It's a strange feeling.

The two antennae are of different lengths, and only the right one is jagged with an elongated tip.

It seems that this double-edged saw-like blade is used to cut off the prey, and the other antennae are used to retrieve the cut-off parts.

It is highly possible that Thor's left hand would have been eaten, too, if it had not been for Sola's as described above.

After cutting off the tip of the right antenna, Thora carefully puts it in a leather bag.

She then follows Thor and looks inside the rock beetle.

"Are you looking for something?"

"Yeah, there should be a chunk of whitish stone ......"

"It's too messy, I don't know. I don't know, it's too messed up..."

Sola suddenly puts his hand into the body of the insect and lifts up a large lump.

She tries to lift it up, and her face turns surprised at the weight of it.

"What's this, it's so heavy!"

"Oh, there it is. That's hard albite."

Hard albite is the ore from which hard white copper is made.

This rare mineral is produced not in the ground, but in the body of the rock beetle.　

"Which ......,mmm, is really heavy."

The ore that I managed to pull out was so large that it could fit in the palms of both my hands.

It was so heavy that it looked as if the bottom of the bag would easily fall out if it were carried on one's back.

I put it on the sled for the time being, but it seemed a little cumbersome to pull it around in this wind.

"Tor-chan, I'm hungry!

Moo was playing with Yuril, but then he remembered that he was hungry.

He looks out from beside Thor and points to a crumbled rock beetle carcass.

"Aren't you going to eat that, Tor?

"I don't know about that. I don't think there's any part of it that's edible.

"What, that big?"

"I heard it's mostly rocks. We're going to take a break in a little while, so just hang in there until then."

"Mwah, mwah!"

In the end, we decided to leave the raw materials for hard white copper, which was one of our objectives.

However, we did not abandon it, but rather, we would retrieve it if it remained on the way back to the site.

It seems that there are probably a large number of rock beetles lurking in this rocky area.

It seems to be easy to capture them with Ulill's magic technique, so we decide that there is no need to rush.

If we have a tailwind on the way back, we will be able to carry them a little better.

From then on, it was fairly easy to proceed.

Moe used to detect their location, and Thor acted as a decoy to attract their antennae.

Sora secures the safety by or , and Yuril puts the stop to it.

Gathering only the antennae, the group finally arrives at a place lined with large rocks that had been visible near the center of the area after noon.