Close Combat Mage

Chapter 299 – Thousand Year Monster Core Pt. 2

After hearing Xiang Yun confidently guarantee this result, Nicole and Roger stopped trying to hold Suo Jia back. They doubtfully watched Suo Jia shoot out Mysterious Ice Arrows one after another, with absolutely no clue about what Suo Jia was doing.

Each of Suo Jia’s Mysterious Ice Arrows accurately shot the same exact position. They would all form a cold mist on that patch of skin after striking it, but from the outside, the sandworm didn’t seem to be getting injured at all.

Despite this, Nicole and Roger had noticed that the sandworm’s actions had grown slower and slower. A little while after, the sandworm began to draw back into the sand, seemingly about to flee.

Suo Jia roared angrily at this sight. His right hand stretched out once more, sending out another Mysterious Ice Arrow. That piece of skin that had been struck by over a dozen Mysterious Ice Arrows finally shattered, forming a cavity a meter in diameter. Sensing the wound on its body, the sandworm’s actions became even faster. It probably also knew that if it didn’t run now, it would lose its life.

With a dark smirk, Suo Jia exhaled as a blue light appeared above his palms. In that moment, Ice Roar was instantly activated. Its vicious, freezing winds shrieked through the air as it burst outwards from inside that opened cavity.

Having suffered from such a strong attack, the sandworm had no choice but to stop its advance underground, focusing entirely on resisting the Ice Roar. Suo Jia’s right hand flashed blue multiple times as he constantly devastated the sandworm by activating multiple Ice Roars in succession from inside its body.

Nicole, Roger, and Xiang Yun watched as the sandworm’s body gradually turned rigid. The color of its outer skin turned from earth-yellow to pale blue, to azure, to finally…the point where its entire body was glowing blue like a gemstone.

Suo Jia confidently declared, “Xiang Yun, it’s time for your turn. Go…blow it up into pieces with your slashes!”

Xiang Yun happily brandished the large blade in his hands, and his body jumped into the air. With a wave of the warblade, he heavily chopped downwards on the sandworm that had stiffened in its spot.

“Clang!” With a loud sound of metal meeting metal, Xiang Yun’s mighty blade struck down hard on the sandworm’s body. Afterwards…Xiang Yun’s body recoiled backwards, lightly falling next to Suo Jia.

“Haha…” Nicole teased, “Little Yun, it seems you weren’t able to split it open. Isn’t that super embarrassing?”

With a proud smile, Xiang Yun casually replied, “Nicole, it’s best if you look at it properly before mocking me. Otherwise, you could very easily become the one being mocked instead!”

At this, Nicole couldn’t help but turn around in confusion to look at where the rigid sandworm was. Under Nicole’s gaze, a clear sound of cracking rose up into the air!

First, a small broken chunk fell from next to the sandworm’s mouth. The next moment, countless blue cracks quickly spread outwards starting from that broken off chunk extending all throughout the sandworm’s dozen meters long body. In the span of mere seconds, those cracks densely covered the sandworm’s entire body.

“Crash…” Finally, a clear sound rang out as the giant sandworm’s body fell apart and filled the sky with blue pieces, reflecting the sunlight as they drifted onto the ground like a million jewels.

After witnessing this scene, Nicole finally realized what had happened. Suo Jia had first used his Mysterious Ice Arrows to freeze that portion of skin, then opened a cavity. Suo Jia had then activated Ice Roars countless times inside the worm’s body through the cavity. Once the entire sandworm had been frozen into a huge ice cube…Xiang Yun had finally acted, shattering the ice into pieces!

Suo Jia smiled in satisfaction at the sight of the millions of frozen corpse pieces on the ground. Just as he was about to turn around to heal Nicole and Roger, an emerald-green glow amongst the pieces caught Suo Jia’s attention—a monster core!

Suo Jia’s eyes locked onto the green glow, and his body burst forwards. After a few weaving jumps through the air, he landed in front of that emerald glow.Cupping it in his hands, his body flipped backwards, landing next to Xiang Yun.

When Nicole saw the goose egg-sized, emerald-green crystal in Suo Jia’s hands, her jaw dropped open in shock. After a long period of silence, Xiang Yun asked in confusion, “Leader, what’s that thing you’re holding? Is it a gem?”

Suo Jia shook his head and furrowed his brows, “No…this isn’t as simple as a gem. It should actually be that sandworm’s monster core! However…why is it so large? Something seems a bit off!”

After hearing Suo Jia speak, Nicole seemed to have finally regained her senses. She shook as she said, “Young Master Suo Jia…quick! Hurry up and hand that over for me to see!”

Suo Jia’s eyes lit up at this. There wasn’t anyone more suitable for appraisal than a treasure hunter. Nicole would definitely be able to determine what this thing was.

After shakingly receiving the goose egg-sized object, Nicole excitedly flipped it back and forth. Eventually, she joyously cried out, “Boss, this is really a rarity. This is the monster core of a thousand year sandworm! We’ve struck it big!”

Suo Jia nodded and bitterly smiled, “It’s a pity though. If it was a water elemental monster core, it’d be much better. Getting an earth elemental monster at this point doesn’t seem very useful!”

Nicole couldn’t help but freeze at Suo Jia’s words before tightly grasping the emerald monster core in her hold. “How could it be useless? Even if you don’t use it, you can sell or exchange it for other things! No matter what element it is…a thousand year monster core is a priceless treasure!”

“Tch…” Suo Jia tsked in disdain. He knew that Nicole had already developed these kinds of money-grabbing habits after all these years. No matter what, she’d always be able to connect anything to money.

After seeing Suo Jia’s expression, Nicole seemed to have regained her senses. She passed the monster core back to Suo Jia in embarrassment and said, “Hehe…sorry, I’m used to looking at everything in terms of money. But this monster core will definitely be of some use, so you should properly store it away.”

Suo Jia took the sandworm core and casually tossed it in his interspatial ring. He then rushed over to the sandworm’s carcass. Such tough and durable skin was definitely good to use, especially because it was from a thousand year old sandworm. Its skin was basically indestructible.

With Xiang Yun’s and Roger’s help, Suo Jia managed to gather dozens of square meters of sandworm skin. He’d originally wanted to collect some more, but the parts on the ground had already broken into pieces, and the skin below the sand was buried too deeply to be dug out. Thus, Suo Jia could only begrudgingly give up.

The rest of the journey went extremely smoothly. The only thing was that they encountered hundreds of quicksand patches, and some sandstorms. Any normal people would’ve died a hundred times over by now, but to Suo Jia’s group, this was only slightly challenging. It wasn’t anything so bad that it could potentially take their lives.

Finally, after constantly being on the move for 3 painful months, Suo Jia’s group had successfully passed through the Tagan Desert. After crossing over a mountain range at the edge of the desert, lush, green plains appeared before them.

Wildflowers were in full bloom across the verdant plains, and some clear pools of water were dispersed across the land like jewels, adorning the entire plains so that it was unimaginably beautiful.

They’d spent the last three months facing the yellow sand with the sky behind their backs. Having grown used to the desolate desert, suddenly seeing such a lush plain, as well as the blossoming flowers atop it, their spirits couldn’t help but soar. Nicole in particular cried out joyously, and ran towards the hillside with arms open wide.

Suo Jia, Xiang Yun, and Roger couldn’t help but smile at each other after seeing Nicole rush forwards so happily. However…when everyone turned to look back at Nicole, they suddenly realized that there was something wrong with the situation!

At the same time, Nicole had also finally discovered something was wrong. As she bounded to the foot of the mountain, Nicole abruptly noticed that the lush grasses suddenly moved without any wind. When she looked closer, she realized that it wasn’t anything like a grassland! The boundless field was actually formed by a ton of mouse-type magical beasts with green fur, while those flowers were actually spots on their bodies!

Nicole froze for a moment…before a sharp scream tore out through her throat. Nicole immediately turned around to charge back up the mountain with an unprecedented speed. Behind her, millions of green-furred mice wildly chased behind her, rushing up behind her.