The next 30 minutes passed quietly for Arthur, with no major events occurring as he continued his path to the foot of the mountain. The forest was brutally quiet, almost to an unbearable degree.
Arthur would rather sense things around him than be completely alone in a quiet world while knowing he wasn’t safe at all. The situation was far from favorable.
‘Well, if something is going to attack me, then I’ll be ready,’ he thought to himself. With his sword in his hand and his mana moving slowly through his body, Arthur was prepared to make split-second reactions in case of an ambush or attack.
However, that attack never came, and he simply walked for a long time. He kept trying to sense or smell blood for any other corpses in the vicinity.
The footsteps were still scattered all over the area, so he was certain the battle had escalated beyond what he had expected.
‘But the fact I only found two corpses so far is good news. They might still be alive somehow,’ he mused as he opened his map to check his progress. Surprisingly, Arthur was very close to his destination after traveling for almost an hour.
Looking up, he finally saw the end of the forest in the distance. It was a rather short trip compared to what he had prepared for. Still, Arthur didn’t let his guard down, even when he saw the end of the forest.
Eventually, he took the final step out of the forest, ready to embrace the light of day again. However, much to his surprise, the light didn’t come. The world was still as dark as ever, even though it was the middle of the day.
“Huh?” Arthur frowned. ‘Are there still trees abov—’ Before his thought could even finish, his eyes widened to the extreme. Then, he completely froze in place.
The sight before him was simply incomprehensible. The map had given him an indication of how truly huge Frozen Peak was, and he thought he was ready to see it. However, all of those ideas were shattered when the true sight of this colossal mountain manifested in front of him.
Towering beyond comprehension, the mountain pierced the heavens like a jagged fang of the world itself. Its base sprawled across the horizon, stretching so far that Arthur couldn’t even see the end of it.
No matter how high Arthur looked, he couldn’t see its peak. It almost seemed as if the mountain had no peak and continued rising into the endless sky. The sun slowly disappeared behind this giant behemoth, turning the world completely dark around him.
“…” Arthur sucked in a deep breath to calm himself as he blinked slowly. The mountain had given him an instantaneous feeling of intimidation and sheer insignificance.
Compared to this thing, Arthur wasn’t even an ant… He was a speck of dust.
“… So this is the Frozen Peak… No wonder the entire floor was named after it,” he muttered under his breath. Suddenly, the name of the first floor made complete sense to Arthur.
There was nothing as eye-catching as this mountain, and it was clear people considered it the most important location here.
“… This isn’t even the full scale of the mountain.” Arthur opened his map again and realized that he was standing near the foot of the mountain, which was already at least a few hundred meters high, if not more.
“I guess since I’m already here… I might as well climb up there,” he muttered. Although the climb wasn’t particularly easy, Arthur wanted to get a better look at the area and perhaps figure out if there were any more traces of the squad that had disappeared here.
So, with that in mind, Arthur approached the steep slope and touched it to assess the nature of the rock and the snow accumulated on it.
‘Hmm… This seems sturdy enough,’ he thought to himself. ‘I just hope nothing attacks me while I’m climbing.’
Sucking in a deep breath, Arthur lifted his leg from the ground and latched onto the slope, carefully beginning his ascent. Using the protruding rocks, he leaped from one place to another with agility and precision.
His control over his body and all the muscles in it had reached a new level with his ever-increasing strength. Now, he could do far more than any normal human. Mana had fused well with his body, strengthening his muscles and bones, and shifting them into the perfect state for combat.
They could bear any stress, and perform most moves with the greatest range possible, and Arthur wouldn’t suffer any injuries because of it. That was particularly helpful, as the battles Arthur got involved in would easily tear someone apart.
So, a climb like this was nothing to him, and in less than 20 minutes, Arthur found himself near the top. He didn’t face any problems with fragile rocks or snow falling on his head.
Stopping midway, Arthur looked over his shoulder at the forest behind him and the vast stretches of land. The wind blew against his face, whistling loudly, and the atmosphere grew colder and colder.
‘Nice view…’ Arthur thought to himself. ‘But I can’t really see anything with these giant trees covering the area. I need to get higher.’
Turning around, Arthur continued the rest of the path to the top. He knew that searching for the squad in a place this big was going to be extremely difficult. Still, Arthur decided to give it a try.
‘I might be able to trail their path if I look close enoug—’
Before Arthur could even finish that thought, he suddenly heard a loud screech piercing through the area. Stopping in his tracks, Arthur squinted his eyes.
‘Shit! That’s loud!’ he cursed. But he still ignored the noise and focused on the source of the sound.
That was when he realized that, apart from the monster’s cries, there were human noises mixed in. The sound of a battle could be heard clearly from above.
‘Could it be?’ Realizing the possibility, Arthur started climbing again, but this time, he didn’t hurry. Instead, when he reached the edge, he stopped and peeked over at the area.
Almost immediately, he saw a lot of activity in the distance. Large explosions of snow and rocks erupted as several silhouettes clashed in a brutal manner.
‘What the hell… is going on here?’ Arthur frowned.
***
“Deka!! Behind you!!”
Standing up slowly, Deka heard a loud yell behind her that snapped her out of her daze and made her jump to the side purely from instinct. Her body ached greatly from the sudden movement, but her jump saved her life as, in the next split second, large fists slammed into the spot where she had stood.
‘Dammit!!’ Rolling on the snow, she gasped for breath. Looking down, she saw a gaping hole in the side of her abdomen, oozing fresh blood.
Then, her eyes shifted up only to see her teammates in similar situations, with varying degrees of injuries. Her gaze then fell on the giant, rampaging Yeti in front of them.
The creature was slamming its fists on its chest as it breathed loudly. Behind it, several dead corpses of its kind could be seen lying motionless on the snow.
‘This thing won’t fall easily… Time is running out.’ Deka wiped the sweat off her face and tried to think of a solution.
Meanwhile, her companions tried to fight back the monster as it attacked them relentlessly. Their injuries made it extremely hard to dodge or even attack. They were in a very sticky situation, and any mistake could cost them their lives.
“Think, Deka… Think…”
BOOOOOM
“AGH!!!”
“No!!”
Snapping out of her thoughts, Deka looked up, only to realize that one of her friends had fallen to the ground, and the Yeti was about to attack him. Immediately, Deka tried to rush toward him, fearing that he might also die.
However, she quickly realized that she was too far away to make it in time. Her eyes widened as she watched the monster’s claws descend upon her friend. She tried to channel her mana and do something, but she wasn’t fast enough.
‘Not another one!!… Not another casualty!!’ She felt tears well up in her eyes. Deka was already broken, having seen many of her friends die over the years while she had to stand and watch.
Her powerless body couldn’t protect them, and the past two days had only further proved that. Fangs, one of her closest friends, had died trying to pull the monsters’ aggro away from the rest of the squad, and she couldn’t even bid him farewell one last time.
Now, she was about to lose another one due to her inability to fight these monsters and defeat them.
‘Dammit… Dammit all!!’
Yet, at the very last moment, before the claws could sink into their target, a silhouette appeared out of nowhere like a flash.
BANG
“ROAAAR!!!”
Then, the Yeti was thrown back several feet as it fell on its back with a loud cry of pain.
“… Huh?”
A//N: Thank you all for the gifts, golden tickets and ps. Let’s keep it up!