I, Stone Golem, only want to forge.

Siri felt the coldness on the ice crystals for a while, until the chill subsided, before withdrawing his fingers.

First, let's look at the performance just now.

This thing can boil water; it absorbs heat, so it must be hot itself.

But it feels cold to the touch.

The senses are controlled by a person's mind, meaning that these ice crystals can alter one's mental state.

This situation may sound mysterious, but it is actually quite common.

Many fungi or plants can produce hallucinogenic or euphoric effects when consumed.

Essentially, they all have an impact on the mind.

It's just that this ability to convert heat into cold is rather strange.

"Does this thing feel cold to the touch?"

Sylph approached the ice crystals, but only looked at them, not daring to reach out and touch them.

"But it was able to ignite boiling water just now, which means it's hot, right? So, is the temperature inside really low, or is it just a perceived low temperature?"

She thought for a moment and then voiced her doubts.

"It's probably just that the temperature is low."

Siri pondered for a moment before answering.

"When we went in, the temperature inside was almost freezing. If the cold was just a distorted illusion, then the temperature before the distortion was already considered high."

He pointed to Sylph's pocket.

"You're carrying that hot stone with you. Under such double the heat, even with your strong constitution, you should experience some adverse reactions."

Sylph thought it made sense and nodded.

"That's true, so it's definitely cold inside?"

"It's cold inside."

Murphy then retrieved the ice crystals and waved towards the cave.

A small stone figure thumped over, then suddenly leaped up and plunged into Murphy's body in a perfect fish-like pounce, before disappearing.

It just had its clone bring in a basin of water to test it.

There was obvious frost on the water's surface, indicating that the temperature had dropped below zero.

"If it's indeed cold inside... does that mean this thing still generates cold air when it's not in contact with heat, right?"

Sylph nodded thoughtfully, and then said.

However, after she finished speaking, she noticed that Sri was looking at the ice crystal with a serious expression, and her brows furrowed instantly.

"Why... is that look in your eyes? Isn't it supposed to be like this?"

Siri took a deep breath and slowly said:

"Hiss... I didn't say anything was wrong, I was wondering why this thing is so eager to absorb heat?"

Sylph hadn't expected this and was slightly taken aback.

"Huh? Isn't it because this thing is its food?"

Siri shook his head and gestured to the ice crystals on the ground that had just been burned to charcoal.

"Judging from its behavior, this thing is clearly harmed by fire, but it still rushes into the fire like a madman."

"It is a bit strange..." Sylph nodded.

"Miss Sylph, have you ever heard of curses?"

Siri's expression grew increasingly grave as he spoke. As someone who was on the front lines experiencing the cold wave, he understood far better than those living in the south what made this cold wave unique and dangerous.

Murphy was also drawn to the word, temporarily halting his thoughts on how to utilize the ice crystals, and asked:

"curse?"

Siri looked around and then nodded.

"This cold wave is different from others, not only because of the extremely low temperatures, but also because the monsters appearing in it are more powerful than ever before. Even more terrifying is that this cold wave carries a curse!"

He paused, then spoke slowly and deliberately.

"A life is being continuously plunged into cold."

"So you mean this thing is cursed?"

Sylph immediately realized what was happening.

Siri nodded, then shook his head.

"However, I am not an expert on matters of curses; the Vatican might be more knowledgeable about them."

"The Vatican... We do have that there too, but should I go ask them?"

But as soon as Sylph finished speaking, Siri suddenly thought of something.

Holy See?

Didn't I happen to know a legendary paladin who was born into the Church?

His gaze fell on Murphy.

"Do you know where Mr. Ke is right now?"

Reminded by this, Murphy remembered that Old K was a paladin, and casually remarked.

"The mass grave, are you going to go find it?"

After being abandoned in the goblin tribe, Old K disappeared without a trace.

However, it had previously stated that it wanted to return to the mass grave, so it should still be there now.

Siri was somewhat familiar with the place, so he didn't ask Murphy to explain further and instead confirmed it once more.

"How about we ask it to come and take a look?"

"Can."

Murphy had been drawn to the curse, but seeing that the matter had been resolved, he turned his attention back to the ice crystal in his hand.

"I need to study it; you go find it."

After Murphy finished speaking to Siri, he immediately turned to Sylph.

"Could you help me bring some ice crystals back with me?"

"Ah, no problem!"

Sylph immediately agreed, but after hesitating for a while, she finally voiced her thoughts.

"The Mr. K you're talking about, you wouldn't happen to be that skeleton, would you? Is he a paladin?"

Sylph blinked.

This skeleton paladin seems just as eerie as the stonemason.

Of course, she would be even more surprised if she knew that the guy in front of her was a druid who only knew how to kill.

The fact that these three unusual guys—Siri, Murphy, and Old K—are together makes the already strange combination seem less odd.

"Yes."

Seeing Sylph's reaction, Siri smiled and then continued speaking to Murphy.

"Then you can go ahead and attend to your business; I'll take care of things here."

……

Soon after, Sylph and Murphy returned to the cave.

Murphy commanded his stone golem clones to continuously unload ice crystals from the carriage.

Meanwhile, they created a relatively large magic chamber in the desert.

This thing can precisely control the concentration of magic power inside, which is an advancement over the previous ones.

As for why it's necessary to control the magic concentration?

Murphy had actually thought of something when he saw the ice crystals being burned by the fire.

While this thing prefers high temperatures, is it also afraid of fire?

And what is the threshold for this thing's preference for high temperatures?

How will their enthusiasm change when faced with different temperatures?

These three questions seem unimportant.

However, things get interesting when combined with a cave spider.

Based on the information Murphy currently has...

The reason why cave spiders prey on stone men is that they are parasitized by these ice crystals.

Ice crystals crave high temperatures, so spiders prey on stone golems that have high core temperatures but won't catch fire.

Meanwhile, in Lynn's village, the miners were also killed because they had the high temperature of the red burning stone on their bodies but no fire.

On the other hand, the Goblu people suffered no casualties because they had nothing to generate high heat except for torches.

As for the cave giant spider, according to Siri's description,

In essence, it does not have any independent consciousness; its spiritual composition is that "essence" is greater than "spirit".

In other words, its movement patterns are not primarily determined by the consciousness represented by the spirit, but rather by the body structure with essence as the main component.

It's like the difference between deliberate behavior and muscle memory.

So let's combine the above content.

If Murphy can understand the properties of ice crystals and decipher the structure of the cave spider.

Could it use ice crystals to control the cave giant spider?

This is obviously possible.