Chapter 838: Dead Ice

' Dead Ice Skeleton

This skeleton has been frozen in the ice for generations. The desire to find and search for what it had set out for when it was alive had brought it back to partial life with a vengeance. The dead ice skeleton gets its name from the ice that permanently encases its brittle bones. Wherever the skeleton touches the bones will freeze and kill. Some may be able to use water magic spells in the form of ice.'

Walker read this out as Gil fired a second arrow at the skeleton only to see that it barely pierced the ice that was surrounding the bones. It was indeed much tougher than the normally easy to beat skeletons than before. 

"I can't punch that or else I will freeze myself." The entire party could feel the cold coming from the skeletons' bodies as it came closer. Remey knew that if she dared to touch it even with her gloves and knuckles on she would take damage. 

"Can't you use the fire affinity knuckles?" Gil thought that the fire elemental knuckles would be enough to counter the ice on the skeleton but unfortunately, Walker was shaking his head. 

The ice is too condensed and cold. We need some blunt damage to shatter it and break apart the skeleton completely." The skeleton was taking another move towards the group causing them to retreat down the path to keep figuring out how to deal with it.

"Blunt damage. That means Walker and myself can handle it." Su stepped forward and charged while holding her shield. The shield bash skill was one of her earliest skills but most useful. It never seemed to fail her and did not here. 

The sharp crack of ice and bone was enough to show off the strength Su had. The skeleton did not fair well under her attack and its arm fell to the ground unable to be reattached. Walker did not hesitate to pull out the larger of his hammers and grasp it within his hands. He used all of his strengths to channel some fire elemental mana in to it and raise it straight over his head. 

The dead ice skeleton was not a wise undead and before it could react, Walker had slammed the hammer down in to the frozen skull. The small burst of flame furthered the crackling sounds as ice shatters and bone cracked in a spiderweb pattern. But miraculously, the dead ice skeleton was still struggling to stand. It had not been defeated even after all that. 

When he saw this, Walker had no choice but to jump back and dodge the swipe of the skeletons' only arm. The slight cold breeze it made was enough to put a small amount of frost on his hammer showing just how deadly and cold the bones really were. 

"If regular arrows won't work," Gil let loose and Zephyr had charged with wind elemental mana, "I will use some extra strength." The arrow hit the weakened skull and the dead ice skeleton lost all control and life it had left. The clatter of frozen bones on the rocks in front of the party was enough for them to finally relax a little and gather their minds. 

"So, are you going to jinx us again?" Gil gave a knowing look to Remey who denied any causality when it came to the skeletons' appearance in front of them. 

"The water elemental mana in these bones is extremely condensed. It's almost like an elemental crystal has been made inside of them." The mana radiating from the bones caused Walker to examine them more carefully. 

'Dead ice skeleton bones

The long period of freezing had left the bones of the dead ice skeleton with two very powerful effects. They had long been saturated with high amounts of water elemental mana to their very core making them an ideal water elemental material. Due to this, it has the second characteristic of freezing things in contact. This fact has made it known for the frozen mines it is often found in and around.'

The wandering blacksmith waltzed forward with his forging gloves on and started to pick the bones up regardless of what Walker had just explained. As the materials disappeared in to a small back everyone realized that this was the famed blacksmith vault skill. This was a skill some master blacksmiths would gain that stored all of their materials within a magical vault in their minds. It was very valuable to have since it reduced the need for a storage room. 

The forging gloves that were on the wandering blacksmiths' hands were incredibly tough and resistant to all elemental mana. It was a precaution that any blacksmith would take and if the quality was high enough they would not need to worry about most materials damaging their valuable hands. 

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief when they saw that no damage was coming from the bones on to the wandering blacksmith. "I will check ahead. There might be a mine as it says. Midnight, come and watch my back." Gil and Midnight headed up the path. 

Midnight had not been able to help with the last battle but it was alright since she would have taken damage due to her attacks on the dead ice skeleton. She had significant resistance to elements but not complete resistance. 

"If there is a mine up there, will we risk exploring it?" Remey was skeptical. She thought that one of the dead ice skeletons was bad enough. Multiple dead ice skeletons within a small cramped cave sounded much much worse. 

The look of desire in the wandering blacksmiths' face made Walker decide on a compromise between the two, "If Gil comes back and there is one we can give it a look. But we will not go deep in to it since it has most likely sat vacant for a long time and will be at risk for cave ins." His decision was made and it was a fair point. They would not take a great risk when they did not need to. 

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