Liam hummed lightly and wandered deeper into the crater towards the few mountains. He was in a much better mood lately as a chore that occupied a corner of his mind was taken care of.
When he went closer to the mountain, he slowed down. He could feel the temperature becoming hotter and hotter.
Liam took a deep breath and then started circling the mountains once.
The information he had about this place was that there was no entry to these mountains like a cave of sorts except one at the very top.
So he moved around searching for this cave and managed to find it after a few minutes without any issue. But the real challenge only began now.
To reach a cave of that height, there was only one way! And that was to climb the whole damn thing!
Liam rubbed his two hands and then placed his right hand in a small crevice. He then placed his left hand a bit higher in another crevice, pushing himself up.
His body casually obeyed his command, his muscles working the weight with ease. This was not really a surprise to him, but it still made him happy to do something like this casually.
It even provided a kind of release. The more he climbed the more relaxed he felt. Falling down from this height would surely mean his death, but it was still quite enjoyable.
In a few minutes, he had already climbed halfway without any issue. Liam then quickly took out a berry and tossed it into his mouth to recover some energy.
Things were about to get tricky. When he climbed up for another minute, suddenly loud screeching noises started to sound and a group of birds descended down.
"Wind rippers!" Liam muttered as he looked up. These were common aerial mobs that one had to deal with at an altitude.
The bluish grey colored birds had medium-sized bodies like that of a common dog and their feathers were sharp and metallic which gave them the name, wind rippers.
The four birds immediately started attacking Liam, surrounding him on all sides.
They did not seem to possess any special attacks but their physical strength was commendable and they drew blood quickly.
Liam was already prepared for this so he as well immediately started attacking them back.
And since he was dangling midair, he didn't plan on using this as a training opportunity. He quickly spammed some of his mage skills.
[Ice shard]
[Lightning bolt]
[Fire ball]
Damage numbers immediately began to float atop the birds and injuries on their bodies piled up. Their movements as well were disrupted, especially because of the slight freezing effect the ice shards possessed.
However, Liam was also taking equal parts of the damage. He was after all clinging to the sides of a mountain and there was only so much he could evade from that position.
But the birds were only Level 10 so the damage he was dealing was higher than the attacks coming from the other side.
Otherwise, he would have grinded a bit more and increased his level before starting this expedition.
After casting the spells a couple of times, Liam noticed that [lightning bolt] had the highest damage numbers among the three spells he had, so he spammed it more.
"Is this because I practiced it a lot more? Hmmm."
The fight continued on for a few more seconds when the birds eventually dropped dead, unable to handle the attacks any longer.
[Ding. 10 Experience points have been rewarded]
[Ding. 10 Experience points have been rewarded]
…
…
Two of them fell down along with the loot while the other two fell nearby landing on the mountain itself.
"Awaken." Liam quickly muttered and the dead birds once again looked alive. They flapped their bleeding wings and flew next to him, waiting for his command.
Liam nodded contently and then began climbing once again. If more birds come, he at least had these two to deal some extra damage and lighten his load.
As he once again resumed the climb and went higher, soon another issue began to crop up. The sturdy wall of the mountain became somewhat difficult to touch as the rocks were sizzling hot.
"There it is." Liam chuckled.
He grunted in pain as he took his next step but he kept pushing himself, climbing further up and faster than before.
With this speed, even with his physique, now he was starting to become out of breath.
But this couldn't be helped since the slower he was the more the rocks burned his hands. At this point, just the act of climbing started nibbling away at his health.
Adding to this, another wave of birds next appeared.
Fwooosh! Fwoosh! Fwoosh!
Their metallic wings sliced the air as they dived in to attack him. Liam paused with a bitter smile, once again beginning to spam his mage skills.
The two undead birds fought on his behalf as well, but this time apart from the attack of the birds, the hot sizzling rocks were chipping away at his health as well.
Liam knew that he couldn't afford to let this continue. He looked around and saw a bigger crevice and quickly swung himself up to hold that.
Since the holding was firm, he only needed one hand. He took out his sword from the inventory using his other hand and started slicing the birds with his crimson blade.
The tables suddenly turned and the birds were now quickly pushed back.
He easily gained the upper hand again and soon, with a very dangerous balance of losing health and dealing damage, he slashed down all the birds that were coming at him.
One by one all of them dropped dead and his 2 undead summons were still active, though one's wing was badly shredded.
[Ding. 10 Experience points have been rewarded]
[Ding. 10 Experience points have been rewarded]
…
…
"Not bad. That was so close."
Liam quickly took out a health potion from his inventory and recovered his health points as the next second another damage number showed up for him from holding the hot sizzling rock.
His hand as well was stinging with the pain of holding the scorching hot object.
"Fuck!" He switched his hands and used the other hand to hold onto the crevice and looked at the dead birds sprawled
"Awaken." Four more undead birds were summoned but since his current limit was controlling only 5 undead, one fell back down.
"Alright. Time to finish the last stretch of the climb. Huaaa" Liam sucked in a big mouthful of air and stretched his chest before sprinting upwards with a burst of energy.
He was clearly pushing his limits and for someone looking at him from the ground, it would seem like he was running up the mountain, rather than climbing it.
He focused all of his mana on his hands and his feet, moving up with the utmost strength and agility that he could muster.
This would be difficult even for him to maintain throughout the entire climb but now he could almost see the cave opening so Liam sprinted up without holding back.
By the time he reached the cave, he almost crashed into it.
However, he was not done yet as a huge bird stared back at him from inside. It was guarding a bunch of eggs near it and a silver glow covered its body.
[Twin-tailed Wind Ripper]
(Elite Boss)
Level 15
Health: 50000
This was the regular elite boss, twin-tailed wind ripper. As one of the elite bosses in this area, it was obviously a famous one and Liam was already aware of its attack patterns.
"Huff… Attack… Huff" He readily sacrificed his undead birds to catch a breath.
His vision was also blurry and his body was also feeling faint, both because of the altitude and exhaustion, not to mention the heat.
Without hesitation, he downed another health potion and then joined the fight after a few seconds. Three of his undead were already dead.
Since the undead summons was weaker than their original counterparts, it was already enough that two of them survived, probably because the elite boss was guarding its eggs while it was also trying to fight.
Liam was still surprised to see the eggs near the elite because eggs were rare, to begin with, especially that of flying pets.
Even if the pets did not transfer from the virtual game world to the real world, flying pets were still very valuable as they saved a lot of time if they were raised to be mounts.
But the previous time around, there hadn't been any news about anyone finding eggs in this cave.
"Eh? So many people hid things I see. First come first serve I guess."
Liam grinned and then unsheathed his sword to deal with the huge bird in front of him. This time there was no other restraint and he was able to finally fight freely.
Slash! Slash! Slash!
The crimson blade flashed as he danced around the bird, especially from an angle as if he was targeting the eggs.