It so happened that Althea had an atmospheric water generator (also available in the Specialty Store) in her space.

Humidity in the area was low, but even in deserts, this medium-sized AWG could produce at least 10 liters. This area, which was a bit hot and arid but not exactly desert, should produce even more.

There were also two water elementalists in their team, though one of them wasn’t even level 15.

They continued with their experiments for a while. It was a bit of a tangent to the targeted task of the moment (i.e. scanning the place with the earth element), but this had long-term implications and would make the rest of their mission easier.

The women experimented with the other forms of water attacks; they needed to understand what was most efficient. Water was, after all, a finite resource, especially so in this place.

One form was a slash attack, which was a direct physical attack, and the other was a mist, which did not have inherent damage but required far less mana and energy to create. They used the same one liter of water for each experiment.

They quickly discovered that long-term exposure to water was indeed affecting their movements, causing them to grow more slowly and even stop moving.

The mist she created slowed down the enemies by more than 60%, especially when targeted at the important joints. This effect was inconsideration to the fact that she was a water elementalist. Normal water, when they created a mist out of it, had less effect at around 40%, which was still substantial.

She took some normal water from her jug and got someone to boil it, and they gathered them there. Too bad there was no wind elementalist to control them better.

Thanks to their height, it was easy to see the effects.

To summarize, the different usage of the water also affected them differently. The slash, if it didn’t kill them, would make them pause for a few moments, as if shocked.

Mist had a minor but elongated effect, while damaging attacks could make them completely stop moving, and the duration depended on the power and damage.

Another important note: the effect was permanent.

One of the most annoying facets of dealing with the undead was that they were extremely tanky and did not feel pain. If one didn’t disconnect it with the core, no matter how many stabs and slashes it suffered, it would keep moving, and it would keep attacking.

Now it was good. Water was like acid to them, keeping them from recovering.

"More accurately, it seems like the body tries to repair itself, but at the expense of other outlets like movement."

Interesting.

Ice had an effect on them, too, but water was far more effective. It was like the water’s liquid form was absorbed by the Undead’s skin more efficiently.

Anyway, now that that was done, it was time for Althea to start scanning the place.

Althea jumped down the area that had been cleared out. She swiped her feet to push away the ash in an area, touching the ground with her bare hands.

As before, since the soil here was more solid, her scanning ability was much more efficient. She could see more than a hundred meters below the ground and around her.

As before, she didn’t sense much except for the usual rocks and soil. Except for that interference she had sensed before.

This time, it felt clearer and closer. She realized that rather than interference, there was a sense of...amplification? It was difficult to describe. She’d have to get closer to know more.

She wondered if it was the Elyssian stone or something else, but when she realized there was a cave full of it, her intuition was telling her it was something else. Not to mention, the so-called interference wasn’t that intense, certainly not legendary-level.

Still, it was an anomaly, so they naturally had to check it out.

"Did you find something?"

She nodded. "I am unsure what it is, but it’s notable."

The anomaly was about a hundred meters away from two directions. Calculating, this was a long way to dig.

Fortunately, through the earth scan, they found a cave somewhere, and it had a thin wall separating it from a tunnel. Through it, they did not have to dig much to get to the mystery cave.

The group immediately headed to the cave with elementally-enhanced pickaxes, digging through the cave wall. The thinnest sector was about ten meters deep, which was not shallow, but only took the two level 30s a few hours to dig through.

They also knew to avoid standing in the mouth when the cave was completely opened.

While she detected that there were plenty of openings, just very small ones, and the tunnel was not completely isolated from outside air, they still wore their radiation suits, just in case. Fortunately, nothing too dangerous for their level was detected by their equipment. This was just purely for safety.

The group of four headed in together. Their suits had built-in lighting, so they didn’t have to worry about their vision.

Althea also made sure to extend a thin portion of her vine and tied it to a sturdy rock outside. She then tied independent ropes on all of them, just in case they needed to be pulled. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

The ’rope’ would continue to expand as they continued to walk deeper, its length fed wholly with Althea’s wood ability. She was also the primary person responsible for mapping the place.

Basically, Althea was the lead logistics this time, so the others had to be wholly responsible in case of attacks.

Fortunately, there were no other living things (other than the small critters) inside except for them. Without much complication, they arrived at the mysterious cave a few hours later (with a bit of digging involved, as some paths couldn’t fit a person).

On the surface, it was just a normal stalactite cave. However, such crystals wouldn’t react differently with her elements.

She wondered what it could be.