Legendary Traveler: By Earning Progress Points I will Become Supreme!-Chapter 206: Operation Set Up Cavern (4)

'The salt in the water causes its freezing temp to drop by several degrees, not to mention I am fighting against already warmed water, roughly 50 to 60 degrees this close to the source, which in and of itself is beyond freaky, either way, the third factor working against me is the current, moving water doesn't freeze easily.'

Eyes closed and hand extended, Aoni's mind mulled over all the different things working against him while picturing thin tendrils of ice extending out the tip of his fingers; however, upon opening his eyes and examining the outcome, he was displeased to find that while his idea was working, only the water touching his fingers and expanding out roughly a quarter of an inch was freezing.

That didn't mean it wasn't effective, but given the outside factors, the counter-forces acting against his ice were causing it to melt immediately.

'Damn, ung, need to breathe,' allowing his feet to touch the lakebed, Aoni then kicked off the ground and rocketed himself several tens of feet toward the surface; in doing so, not only did his body get pushed backward roughly 50 feet, but he was also able to break free of the current and back into the colder waters.

Now free of extenuating circumstances, he quickly pulled out the second of several "air boxes," caught his breath, and floated in place for a few moments to gather his bearings.

'Mmmmm tsk, I wanted to build a mini-ice cave on the lake floor, but that doesn't seem possible here.' Right as Aoni was attempting to locate a better place to set up his little den, Glacia's voice stole his attention in the cutest of ways.

{'Brodder, three big rock, five smol rock, and two pebbables.'} She said in a rather proud tone.

{'Good girl keeping track of the time Glacia, keep counting for me,'} Wearing a faint smile, Aoni thought back to the manner he'd taught his summons on how to keep track of time.

Pebbab…er…pebbles were indications of 10 seconds, small rocks minutes, and big rocks represented 10 minutes. It was a rather primitive means of calculating time, but since the floof and birb had trouble with larger numbers, he kept it simple and never went over 10.

In fact, each of them had the materials to count out an hour in their packs, so using that method, Aoni was able to understand it had been 35 minutes since he went underwater.

'heh, if I was a Mundane, Hypothermia would have kicked my ass and killed me by now, thankfully being in that current warmed my body up enough to keep going. Alright, back to work.' Extending his arms out to feel for the changing temperatures in the water, Aoni quickly headed back down into the warm water current and searched around until he found a spot nearby, yet in cold water, before beginning to transform the Salty water into solid ice.

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2 Breathing Cycles *8 minutes later*, Aoni had completed his task of making a stilted ice-dive bell at the bottom of the lake, and by utilizing the dead air box to drain out all the water, and a normal one to fill the four foot in diameter, 5-foot tall cylinder with fresh air.

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Treading water as he created a small ledge to sit on, Aoni then took a few minutes to stabilize his breathing after slowing it down to hold his breath longer. He untied the rope from around his waist and slipped back into the water.

Carrying the rope in one hand, he swam around the ice dive bell, looping it around the structure until it was taut, and then began the process of returning to where he had entered the lake.

Pulling himself hand over hand and kicking his feet, the trip back didn't last even a quarter of the time it took to reach the bottom, but Aoni didn't think much about that. After around 5 minutes, he was back on solid ice, lying beside his summons and gasping for fresh air.

Mind you, Nyria, being the caring birb she was, helped the Lad cover up with several fur blankets, and between her and Glacia, the two were able to warm up their lord using their own body heat quickly.

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Eventually, having felt back to normal, the decision was made to put his plans on hold until tomorrow since he hadn't come across any new bugs the entire time he was in the lake, so the trio made their way back to the Fort, defended it from the nightly beast tide, called it a night. The next afternoon, after going through their usual process, Aoni, Nyria, and Glacia stood back on the frozen lake, with several huge spools of rope surrounding the hole in the lake, preparing to finish what had been started the day before.

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With over 5,000 feet of rope and a guide back down to where he had left off, Aoni made quick work of returning to his Ice-dive bell. While being careful not to tangle his new tether with the one attached to the bell, he swam back into the warm current and headed upstream.

100 feet

200 feet

500 feet

1000 feet

The further Aoni got, the warmer the water got until it felt as hot as a summer day back on Terra.

To top it all off, the current was becoming increasingly stronger the closer he got to the source, but finally, after almost an hour of rough swimming, he came to what he was looking for.

Swimming out of the current, Aoni found himself floating before a wall, but that wasn't the important part; instead, it was the three massive holes large enough for two trains to go through side by side.

Each of these holes seemed to be expelling copious amounts of hot water, which was combined into a singular current.

Thinking back to how aquifers work, Aoni surmised that this was the connection point between the contained and uncontained aquifer, with the uncontained aquifer being what fed the lake. These three holes led to the uncontained portion, which was fed from some other outside source.