Roaring Heroes Battle the Overlord (Ainz)

Chapter 115: Infiltrating the Ice River

The magic crystals hadn't even been fully set up yet when the poorly constructed teleportation circle was accidentally activated. Magic flowed along the intricate runes, with a sizzling sound like gunpowder burning, but nothing was teleported away. Instead, it just scorched a patch of snow.

Barrett grabbed EeDeChi and pulled her back, retracing their steps. They ran back to the riverbank, with Barrett carefully erasing their footprints along the way.

EeDeChi asked, "Where do we go from here?"

"We..." Barrett pulled out a map. "We swim through!"

He used a thin cotton thread to measure carefully along the map, overlapping it with the river. Stretching the thread straight, he used a wooden ruler to measure the distance and then estimated the river's approximate length based on the map's scale.

The sounds of the battle between the treants and the Sorcerer Kingdom's army echoed faintly from the forest, but Barrett remained busy at the riverbank.

He used his sword to carve a small hole into the ice surface, then reached in to feel the water, trying to estimate the river's flow rate. This allowed him to calculate how long it would take for the water at their location to reach the river's end—the waterfall.

The water was painfully cold, like a school of piranhas nibbling at his hand. Barrett quickly pulled his hand out of the hole and wiped off the water droplets.

"About 40 minutes," Barrett muttered to himself. "With a margin of error of plus or minus 20 minutes. So let's say... 60 minutes."

EeDeChi stared at him, eyes wide with disbelief. "The other route you mentioned... you mean to dive under the ice and follow the river?"

"I can dive in the ice river for 60 minutes no problem," EeDeChi said, staring at him in shock. "But can you do it?"

Barrett pulled a small, grayish-white ball from his spatial ring. "This is a potion made from gillyweed. I only have one. Taking it will grant me the power of a fish, allowing me to breathe underwater for an hour and a half. I was originally planning to use it for an underground river expedition."

"Are you out of your mind?" EeDeChi exclaimed. "It's winter! You'll freeze to death in there, and the oxygen levels under the ice are way lower!"

"It's rare for you to care about others. But don't worry, I still have the equipment I prepared for the underground river expedition. I've got red magic crystals for heat and half a tank of oxygen," Barrett said, pulling out a few bottles and jars.

"Your spatial ring really is a treasure chest," EeDeChi sighed in relief.

"An elite adventurer always has to be prepared for anything. You never know what might happen next." Barrett boasted. "Like now, we were just trekking through a forest, and suddenly, we're about to dive into an ice river."

The two adventurers hurried to the frozen river, wiping away the snow on the ice. They had lost the cover of the forest, but fortunately, the skeletal dragon and peryton in the sky were busy hunting treants and hadn't noticed them.

Barrett used his sword to carve a narrow hole in the ice, just big enough for one person to squeeze through. A few fish leapt out of the water, and Barrett snatched them one by one, adding them to his outdoor cooking menu.

EeDeChi glanced at Barrett, took a deep breath, and slid into the ice hole, moving like a black fish under the ice.

Barrett swallowed the gillyweed potion, and in an instant, his cheeks split open as gills sprouted, transforming him into something resembling a kuo-toa from the sea. He strapped the red magic crystals to his chest, feeling the warmth flow through his limbs and bones. But Barrett knew he was about to dive into water below freezing for an entire hour.