Rex fixated his gaze upward and noticed the dark blue light above grow in size as it approached them.
"It's coming down!" he excitedly announced.
The blizzard began to clear, allowing them all to see the falling object: a glowing dark blue cone shaped fruit with scale like ice leaves encompassing the top half.
Seeing it in free fall, Sol leaped into the air and used his boots' [Magical Flight] to catch it before it hit the ground.
The moment his hands held it, he felt a burning pain in his palms.
'It's freezing!'
Even with his durable body, he feared he would lose his hands if he held it for too long, so he immediately stored it in his spatial ring.
Once safely stored, Sol gently flew back down towards his squad where Duncan had already deactivated his barrier.
Lapis was the first to ask, "Did you get it?"
Sol nodded and pointed to the spatial ring on his right hand, but he noticed something was off. The normally bronze colored ring had become slightly pinkish.
He didn't know what it meant, and before he could ask, Duncan approached and worriedly looked at the ring.
"This isn't good… the spatial ring can't contain the fruit for long."
Sol looked at the ring, slightly worried, and asked, "How long do you reckon it will take?"
"That depends. Did it hurt when you held it?"
He nodded. "It felt like my hands were on fire. I can maybe hold it for a couple of seconds before my hands freeze off."
"That's not good, but it should be safe for a few hours, a day if we're lucky. We need to keep an eye on the ring. There is no durability on its system description, so we can only go off how it looks. It will get redder the closer it is to breaking. When it reaches a deep shade of red, we'll have to transfer it to another ring before it breaks, or we will lose the fruit."
When the ring breaks, the contents wouldn't simply spill onto the ground but instead be lost forever. Spatial rings were connected to an unoccupied piece of space located somewhere unknown, and if it breaks, it would be dropped there. While theoretically it was possible to find the items once more, it would be incredibly unlikely as they wouldn't stay in one place but drift in the endless cosmos.
While worried about his ring suddenly bursting, knowing he had some time before that occurred eased concerns. After all, it would be a short trip back, and they could stop by a town or city on the way and buy something better to contain the fruit. For now, he transferred all his items from one ring to the other as a precaution so only the fruit was inside it. When he was transferring them, he noticed how some of his tools and items were completely frozen but should still be functional after letting them defrost for a while.
"I'll keep an eye on it, but let's head back fast. I don't want to break too many spatial rings before finding something else to contain it," Sol declared.
They all agreed, but there was still one more matter of concern. Rex pointed at the ice tree and asked, "So what should we do with this?"
He was thinking it could be another valuable material. Though the tree towered tens of meters above them and was definitely too big to take away, they could still harvest some of its "bark."
Nataly, being the biggest expert on trees, approached the tree and touched it to gain a better understanding. After touching it for a bit, to the point her hand felt a bit numb, she retracted it and shook her head.
"I feel it's no longer alive. I think all the energy it was using as nutrients to sustain itself all went towards the fruit, so now it's about as strong as regular ice. It's just an elaborate ice sculpture now."
Though disappointed, none were too hung up about it. After all, they got their main objective without a hitch. All that was left was to return.
With no more deadly hail or fierce blizzards to slow them down, they all assumed it would be an easy trip back.
...
On a nearby mountain peak, four orcs were keeping watch over what they called the unceasing blizzard. While the area was prone to natural disasters such as blizzards and avalanches, they found that this blizzard never ended.
The orcs did try to venture inside, but when they reached the deadly hailstorm, they stopped their advances. The region didn't have many B-Rank orcs, and the few that tried to venture inside couldn't last long under the barrage of icicles. Instead of assembling a better group to venture into the blizzard, they decided to call upon a Champion, an A-Rank orc, to investigate instead. Unfortunately, Champions were very busy, and since the blizzard didn't seem like an urgent matter, it was not until recently one was sent to investigate.
While three orcs were playing a card game to pass the time, the orc who was on watch noticed an abnormality. The large blizzard he had been watching for days suddenly stopped. With the snowstorm no longer obstructing their view, he could see the large tree made of pure ice and six miniscule figures next to it.
"Oi! Tuklar, get over here!"
Tuklar groaned in annoyance as he had a winning hand. He placed his cards face down and eyed them both to not peek before walking over.
"Why'd ya call me?"
"The blizzard is gone! Use those eyes of yours to tell me who those people are down there."
Tuklar's eyes widened in surprise as he looked and saw the blizzard was indeed gone. He then used his skill [Focused Sight], which amplified his vision greatly, allowing him a much better view of the situation.
"Those are… humans!"
"Humans?!"
Even the two playing cards yelled in surprise. They stood up and ran over to see the situation.
"We need to inform the Champion!"
"On it!"
One of the orcs took out a communication gem and activated it. Soon a bored voice was heard from the gem.
"What is it? I told you I would get there tomorrow."
"Champion Kirgar, the blizzard is gone, and a group of humans are there!"
"What?!"
Even Kirgar couldn't hide his surprise, but a moment later he gave them his orders.
"Inform all the orcs in the area! Do not let them leave these mountains! I will be there soon!"
With that, the communication gem's light dimmed, indicating the other side of the gem was no longer active. The orcs knew the Champion was now rushing his way over and didn't call back but instead pulled out other communication gems to inform the other orcs patrolling the mountain.