Once again, thick Frost covered this puppet.
This was a higher-Level prototype, more flexible and intelligent.
The only remaining issue was its imperfect fit for Lucilia; staying inside was less comfortable than being in a doll.
If it couldn’t perfectly match Lucilia, the puppet would lose much of its significance.
While the duration of use was still short, staying in such an incompatible soul-shell for seven, eight, or even a dozen years would undoubtedly cause the soul to develop problems.
Therefore, this was merely a prototype, not the first finished product; Alka was still working on improvements.
The puppet, holding the Mirror, jumped straight from Alka’s hand and plunged back into the magma.
Upon hitting the magma, the puppet immediately used its remaining Magic Power to activate the Mirror in its grasp, sending silver ripples expanding outward.
The range of expansion was extremely limited, only a radius of ten meters.
However, it excelled at scanning with extreme precision and could penetrate more Energy-infused objects, like magma.
Chadite’s silver ripples, when used for reconnaissance, would be greatly weakened passing through the magma, making it nearly impossible to detect anything within.
This would be the case unless Chadite used a more concentrated and precise, small-range reconnaissance ripple.
As the ripples spread, about fifteen seconds later, the puppet’s Ice coating dissolved, and the puppet itself melted into the magma.
The ripples did not detect anything in the magma.
Alka took another puppet from his ring and attached a Mirror to it as well.
Covered in Frost, it jumped down again, repeating the previous operation.
This time, they dropped the puppet in a different location, attempting to cover a more distant, unscanned area.
As the ripples spread, Alka closed his eyes.
An unusual image appeared in his mind: something that should absolutely not be in magma.
It appeared to be a rectangular object, about one meter long and half a meter wide. Its shape suggested it was a box.
This object floated in the magma, unaffected by its currents.
This must be the Treasure, he concluded.
"Found it! It’s a rectangular box, right in the magma."
As he spoke, a card appeared in Alka’s hand. It shot downward, landing precisely above the box’s location before vanishing instantly, but not before revealing the box’s position to everyone.
"Now that we’ve found it, how are we going to get it out?"
The problem circled back to the original question.
Who could enter the magma to retrieve the object? Setting aside the difficulty of entering, even if they managed to get it, how would they get out of the magma?
This was a difficult problem to solve.
The distance from their position down to the magma was at least twenty to thirty meters, possibly more.
They couldn’t fly, and there were no footholds nearby.
They had found the Treasure, but retrieving it was both the most crucial and the most difficult part.
Alka said, "This is indeed a problem. However, I’m prepared to have my duplicate, covered in Ice, go down and bring the box up. It’s worth sacrificing one life."
"Now we just need to figure out how to bring the box, and myself, back up."
Alka planned to use his Hand of Precision to create a sufficiently heat-resistant steel cable to pull the box up.
It wouldn’t need to enter the magma; the cable just had to withstand the temperature of the air above the magma without melting.
This was relatively easy to accomplish.
Alka shared his idea with the others.
They all nodded in agreement, as it indeed seemed to be the only viable plan. Moreover, only Alka possessed the ability to do it.
"Alright, then that’s decided," Alka said, noticing the sky was gradually turning to twilight. "Let’s return to the ship first; making this thing will take a bit of time. Let’s come back tomorrow."
No one objected. There was no need to rush.
Then the group descended the volcano, returning the way they came.
It didn’t take them long to get back to the ship.
"Why are you back so soon?" Pororo asked. "How did it go? Did you get it?"
Jason shook his head and began recounting their brief experience to Pororo.
Others started conversing on the deck.
Alka went directly into the cabin below deck to begin fabricating the steel cable. The source of this content ɪs novelꜰire.net
He began melting metal to create the high-temperature-resistant material. Fortunately, such materials weren’t difficult to purchase in this sea region.
Alka had anticipated needing such materials when they entered this sea region, so he had prepared some in advance.
Using his Hand of Precision, he began the operation.
The sun dipped below the sea’s surface. Darkness fell like a drawn curtain, and the crescent moon rose.
It wasn’t until nightfall that Alka finally finished making a sufficient length of steel cable. He wound it into a coil and carried it to the deck.
He found the deck unexpectedly deserted; it seemed the entire ship was empty.
Alka looked towards the shore, drawn by the glow of a fire and the sound of voices.
He saw Chadite waving, signaling for him to hurry over.
Seeing skewers of meat and various other foods beside the bonfire, Alka realized they were preparing for a barbecue.
Very nice, Alka thought with a smile in Chadite’s direction. He carried the steel cable into the captain’s cabin, set it down, and then ran over to join them.