Treasure-hunting: Into the Unknown

"Zachary, are you cold?" asked Elva. The two walked forward together while Elva tucked her arms firmly under her armpits for extra warmth.

"No, I'm not." Zachary gently shook his head, and turned to look at Elva. He sharply took in a breath when he saw her face. She was pale as a ghost and her chest rose and fell quickly as she gasped for air.

"Elva, you seem not okay." Zachary could tell that there was defiantly something wrong with Elva.

"I'm fine, really. Let's just continue walking." Elva forced a smile.

Zachary scrunched up his nose while pondering over the situation. After a minute, he quickly reached out and grabbed Elva's hand.

"What are you doing?" Elva could barely speak as her whole body froze under the touch of his skin. She felt as if there were bolts of electricity coursing through her body all at once.

"Come here, don't be like that! I just want to give you some warmth." Within an instant, Zachary released martial energy from his body that radiated from his hand. The warm energy flowed into Elva's fingertips and traveled quickly through her veins. It was as if he dipped her whole body in warm honey.

The energy fire that Zachary cultivated made his body quite unique. His core body temperature ran significantly higher than most ordinary people. Anywhere on his body that was touched felt like the heat from a burning furnace. There was no way that the cold could affect him.

Elva closed her eyes as she adjusted to the heat of Zachary's martial energy. The warm flow felt foreign to her body and she took her time to adjust to this new sensation.

The pair walked for what seemed like an eternity down a long winding path. Before they realized it, Zachary and Elva approached the presence of an intense aura. As they walked closer, the air slowly became much thicker and colder. With each breath, the heat from their breath instantly condensed into tiny ice crystals. Even under the protection of Zachary's martial energy, Elva's face grew paler with each step, and her lips turned a distinct shade of purple. She did her best to conceal her freezing body and remained silent as they kept moving forward. She did not want him to worry about her with this threat looming nearby. Regardless, Zachary didn't notice the change in Elva. He was acutely concentrating on the potent aura he could feel in the distance.

When they finally reached the end of the icy forest, they had to squint to see a few feet ahead. The ground and sky were covered in a blanket of fog, it was as if everything ahead was covered in a thick wall. All that Zachery could see was a giant arched gateway made of ice.

"Elva, you'd better wait for me outside." Even from outside the wall, Zachary could clearly feel the intense aura that lurke

tombs. This formation might have something to do with the treasure.

Then he used Shadow Pace and jumped high into the air. He flew through the ice tombs and looked down at all of them from above. From this bird's eye view of the ice tombs, he saw that the shape looked like an emblem. Among the perfect rows that formed the emblem, he could see one tomb stood out among the rest. It seemed that this tomb was built in a hurry. This was odd, considering the time and effort that was put into the other tombs' placement.

"Ah! That is it," Zachary said confidently. In an instant, he headed straight for the tomb and stood before it. "Master, I am truly sorry to bother you during your rest." He paused to gather his martial energy and blasted it directly at the ice tomb with all of his might.

With a big bang, the ice tomb exploded in an instant. Large stones of ice rushed around him and a thick fog briefly enveloped the whole space.

After a while, the icy mist dissipated and Zachary took a closer look at the demolished tomb. He did not suspect he would see an almost empty tomb. There was no warrior buried inside. Instead, there was a long object in the shape of a spine that was buried. It was like one of those MH weapons, but there was no special aura within it. It was dim and dull with nothing of note on it. Zachary sighed and wondered why he wasted his energy.

Before he could completely dismiss the tomb entirely, Zachary noticed that beside the spine-shaped object, there was a very strange compass. It appeared to be as big as his palm and had three layers. Each layer was densely packed with ancient patterns and three silver needles rotated ceaselessly between the upper and the third layer. It was unlike anything Zachary ever saw. Most of all, it was really strange that it didn't emit any weapon's aura at all.