Chapter 234: [234] Olivia’s Delivery Service

After Yrsa’s revelation, the party had to stop moving, at least until they figured out just what was going on.

"Constant?" Olivia turned to the dwarf.

He walked up to the wall and stared at it intently while stroking his beard. As a dwarf, he probably had insight for these types of things.

After a few seconds, he said, "Oh."

Olivia frowned. "Oh?"

Constant turned around, still stroking that obnoxiously long beard. "The cave is indeed new, but it is not exactly odd, nor is it a cause for concern."

"What do you mean?" Rodolph asked from the very back of the group.

’When did he get there?’ Olivia thought.

Constant pointed at the cave wall. "Notice the patterns?" They were groove-like and incredibly smooth, almost as though it had been melted off...

"This could not have been done by a pickaxe. Meaning it was the work of the spider." Constant glanced at Yrsa. "You said the spider feasts on ores, right? Spiders digest their food with harsh fluids before eating them."

Yrsa nodded. "Yes, I guess that makes sense."

"We should be at the end of the cave soon," Constant assured them. "My only hope and prayer is that it hasn’t eaten all the ores in the cave..."

Olivia stared at the wall for a moment longer, then turned back to the path in front of them.

"Inquisitor, join me in the front. Cici, stay in the middle. Yrsa, you will be at our rear," she instructed.

Although Constant was definitely right, if there was to be any sort of ambush, their formation would protect them.

They ended up walking for what must have been ten minutes, more or less. So much time in a cave would normally have been more than enough to make Olivia feel claustrophobic.

She had never liked confined spaces...

Thankfully, since the Arctic Spider built the mine, it was sufficiently larger.

At the end of the cave was something nobody had expected. There were tons of shiny orbs stacked up against each other and coated with webs that kept them in place.

Behind these perfectly spherical, gleaming orbs was the deposit of Frost Fall ores. Olivia could see a few sparkling tips from the ores deposited within the wall.

But to get to it, they would have to cross... whatever those were. These orbs, there were likely hundreds of them present...

"What the hell are those things?" Rodolph stared at them in disgust, his nose wrinkling. "Spider eggs?"

Constant immediately pushed past everyone and fell to his knees in front of the pile, his eyes wide. "It... it can’t be!"

He reached out and plucked one of the orbs, raising it to the sky, and then a smile blossomed on his face.

"Constant. Do you know what these orbs are?" Olivia asked.

He immediately turned around, an animated look on his face as he hurriedly began his explanation.

"When Yrsa said the spiders ate the ores, I was worried that the spider might have just eaten through everything, but I was wrong!"

"Who would have thought! The monster does not eat the ores, it eats the rich, but useless minerals surrounding them!"

Olivia cocked her head to the side. "Huh?"

"You mean..." Rodolph frowned. "The impurities?"

Constant nodded, his eyes still glittering. "And since it ate out all the impurities..."

Rodolph’s eyes went just as wide as Constant’s. "It means that the ores were never lost. Instead, they were purified!"

"Ahahahaha!" The two men laughed fanatically as they began dancing from side to side in front of the orbs.

"Do you know how hard it is to get orbs at 100% purity?!" Constant cackled.

"Nearly impossible, of course, bwahahaha!" Rodolph replied.

Meanwhile, Olivia took a step away from the orbs, then two, then three. Then she pinched her nose with a frown.

"Doesn’t that mean that everything here... is spider poop?"

<•••>

Ark and the village chief were seated just outside his compound, right next to a bright, toasty flame.

Unlike the black fire he had summoned on the first day, this one was orange, just like the fire they were accustomed to.

Galdener took a sip out of his cup, his face brightening up a second later. "What was it you called this drink again?"

"Coffee..." Ark began swaying back and forth on his rocking chair as he watched the village.

In just three days, the gloomy, depressed village had completely been transformed. The sick people had been healed by Thalia, and while they waited for Olivia to return with the orbs, Ark and Jenna burned their mana to handle the heating issue.

Ark picked up a small piece of bone from his pocket and stared at it for a second before popping it into his mouth and crunching down on it.

Galdener let out a sigh.

"You’re worried, aren’t you?" Ark asked. He had been making those annoying sounds for more than an hour.

Galdener was silent.

"It’s about Yrsa, isn’t it?"

"I seem selfish, don’t I? Worrying about my daughter when you also have your people on the same mission."

Ark shook his head. "Not really, I can’t expect you to have the same level of concern you have for your daughter for strangers."

"Even I worry about Olivia most of the time." Ark paused and stared up at the sky. "But this is not one of those times."

Galdener’s brows creased with worry. "How? How can you kill the fears you harbour each time she goes on missions... on dangerous missions?"

Ark glanced at him and smiled internally. "Because, Galdener, there is a time to worry, and there is a time to have faith."

Throughout the time Olivia had been gone, Ark had not worried one bit. Because he had absolute faith in her.

VWOOSH!

A gust of wind suddenly cut past them as something descended from the sky, landing right in front of them and causing their fire to flicker.

Olivia’s large wings fanned out by her sides just before she folded them at her back with a frown.

She dropped Yrsa and Cici, who looked as excited as though they had just been on a rollercoaster, then turned her attention to Ark.

Olivia reached out her hand by her side, and suddenly, the large corpse of the monster appeared out of thin air...

Booom!

The sheer weight of the beast caused the snow to blast into the air and a gust of chilling wind to cut right past them.

Olivia folded her hands across her chest, a cocky expression on her face as she smiled.

"Did anyone order an overgrown spider?"

The village chief immediately fell backwards, scrambling to his feet, his mouth wide open as he stared at the monster.

"By the gods..."

Ark got up to his feet and walked up to the monster, placing his hand on its body.

[Harvest successful! You have successfully received A-Rank skill, Web Missile!]

[Player, do you wish to merge (Web Missile) and (Steel Webs)?]

’Yes.’

[Skill merger successful! New skill, Steel Web Missile (A-Rank), is now available!]

Ark dusted his hands. "Well done, Olivia."