“Brr… This is still summertime, right?” questioned Iryl as she wrapped her arms around her body, pulling the thick fur cloak that covered her form tighter. The group had traveled from their hiding place towards the part of the Elefas mountain range that lay within the Demon territories, and started their ascent from there. The first couple of days was normal enough, but as they climbed higher, the weather got colder and colder.
Once they reached the upper third or so of the first mountain, the rocks were buried within layers of snow and ice, and the group had to carefully tread their way around, since it was far too easy to lose one’s footing under such conditions, or to fall into a snow-covered crevasse. Fortunately, with their levels of power, even such incidents should be survivable.
At the moment the group was around three-quarters the way up the first mountain’s southern face, intending to go around the mountain where it was narrower and hop over to the next mountain, which was even taller than it. The first mountain was relatively uninhabited, probably due to its proximity to the demon territories, with mostly unthreatening wild animals living on its slopes.
What few monsters the group ran into escaped in fear the moment they noticed the group’s presence. Wild animals tended to have keen senses, and even the monsters would rarely try to attack creatures much stronger than itself. Because of that, their journey up the mountain, while rather tiresome and difficult, was quite safe and uneventful so far.
Although the bone-piercing cold at the high altitudes – despite it still being late summer – was starting to bother some of the weaker members of the group, like Iryl.
“Actually, why are you two so relaxed in this weather?” asked Iryl towards Mel-Ivas and Dai’Vasy who were walking near her with notably fewer articles of clothing on, unlike the bundled-up human girl shivering within the multiple layers of cloth and fur that covered her. “I can get that Tiesya and Resitia didn’t feel the cold that much, what with them having much higher Body stats and all that. Ila and Nali being unbothered also made sense, and I long stopped questioning whether Val and Legi ever felt cold since that time they had a snowball fight in their underwear that one time it snowed in the village, but what about you two???”
“Oh, one of my skills can passively adjust my body to its surrounding conditions, something about allowing me to do my job regardless of the situation,” said Mel-Ivas with a shrug of her shoulders. As a [Progeny of Yore: The Bringer of Mercy], apparently her class considered that she might need to help people in less than friendly environments, and gave her a skill to alleviate the issue. “I do feel the cold, but it’s not that bad, kinda like a comfortable autumn breeze, I’d say.”
When Iryl sighed and turned her face towards Dai’Vasy instead, she found the younger girl giving her a look that showed surprise that she even asked the question.
“I’m a [Mistress of Arcane Winter], Iryl. I’m pretty much immune to the cold. If anything, I could likely bring out more power from my skills in environments like this,” said Dai’Vasy in the end. As if to demonstrate her words, she conjured three orbs of ice and started to juggle them with one hand. “I thought the class’ name was obvious enough, you know?”
“Gah. I guess it did escape my mind for a while there,” admitted Iryl with a bashful look. The girl tightened her cloaks around her once more, still shivering in the cold as they carefully navigated through the rough terrain of the mountain. Fortunately the first mountain’s slope was not too steep, so rather than climbing it, the group could pretty much walk up the mountain instead. “Any chance you two got some skills that could make it more comfortable for me?”
“I can set up a ward that would prevent the cold from seeping in, but that's something meant to be stationary, so at best I could do that when you’re sleeping later tonight. As for something while we walk… I’m afraid I don’t have anything like that handy,” said Dai’Vasy after some thought, giving Iryl a somewhat apologetic look as she said so. “If you’re that cold maybe you should ask Miss Ani for more warm clothes.”
“I don’t think I’d be able to move properly if I add any more than this,” admitted Iryl with a barely perceptible shrug of her own. As it was, she already wore so many layers on herself that she almost looked like a ball of fur from afar, and all the clothing she wore definitely proved quite detrimental to her ability to navigate the terrain, though it wasn’t so bad to the point that she needed assistance… yet.
“Well, afraid we can’t help you much then, Iryl. Sorry about that,” said Mel-Ivas as she lightly hopped over a hidden crevasse that Tiesya had stepped into only moments ago. The half-nevilosk girl had somehow transferred her weight back to the foot that was still on solid ground and arrested her fall that way, before she leapt across the now-exposed crevasse.
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“Eh, was just hoping,” said Iryl in return. “Guess I’ll have to make do with shivering some more to keep warm till we stop for the night.”
The group continued to hike through the mountain until they reached the point where the first mountain met the second. The second mountain in the mountain range was even taller and larger, and where the first mountain met it three-quarters of the way to its peak, it was only around two-thirds the way up on the second mountain.
Instead of climbing further, since the next mountain in the range was shorter and lower, the group directly traversed around the mountain instead. The sun set before they managed to cross a quarter of the distance around the mountain, however, so they stopped for the night at a small plateau that was just large enough for them to set up tents on.
Part of the group set up simple tents – mostly just simple, low covers for them to sleep under – while another part began to set up the campfire and cooked for dinner as the rest kept watch around the area. That high up on the mountain, the icy wind was the only thing that made a sound most of the time, though from time to time they could hear the shrill cries of some kind of bird that happened to be passing by.
Dai’Vasy kept her word and set up a ward around the area the group camped in, one that prevented the cold wind from blowing in. Since the ward stopped most of the wind, that also made it easier for the members who were setting up the campfire, who gave the girl several grateful nods when she passed by. Before too long, a bunch of low tents were set on the plateau, while the smell of food wafted through the air.
Since they had pilfered quite a bit of fresh, good quality foodstuff from the bases they hit as well as the supply center, the group had no need to ration themselves much, especially since Esperanza’s [Storage Dimension] and many of the packs they carried were still filled to the brim with plenty more food to go. Fortunately, the cold weather of the mountaintops helped preserve the food they carried and made them last longer.
Of course, the items that were fresh were the first to spoil, so that night the group cooked the last of their fresh vegetables and meat into a hearty stew that they’d dip their hard bread into to soften and flavor it. The hot stew did a lot to chase away some of the cold, though as the night fell upon them, the temperature dipped further and the group quickly retired into their tents for the night, other than a few who were taking up guard duty that night.
None of the group complained about their sleeping arrangement. By that point, all of them were long accustomed to sleeping on hard ground – or as the case was that night, on the hard stone of the mountain – with little more than a thin bedroll as their bedding. The simple tent kept the air within the enclosure warmer than outside, and having them sleep two to a tent also helped.
Iryl was woken up from her sleep by Tiesya a couple of hours before dawn. She and Resitia – her tentmate – happened to have the last shift that night, so they quickly got up and vacated the tent to allow Tiesya and Mel-Ivas who had the previous shift to make use of it. That way the inside of the tent was already warmed by their body heat, which allowed for a more comfortable nap for the other two.
The night passed uneventfully until it gave way to dawn – Iryl watching with some awe as the morning sun crested the mountain peak to their east – and the rest of the group woke up. They made some quick and simple breakfast of porridge enriched and flavored with cheese and a bit of dried meat to warm themselves up before they packed up the tents and continued on their way.
It took them most of the day to circle around the mountain even with their high stats, mostly because of the difficult terrain. Some parts of the mountain had steep slopes that made the group cross it by clinging to the mountainside while shifting their bodies towards the other side slowly. For safety reasons, Esperanza had everyone tied to each other by ropes around their waist while they did that.
She herself was the only one who didn’t need the rope for safety, but also tied it to herself regardless as she led them across the section. Her amorphous body was a great help as she could simply grasp onto even the slightest protrusions firmly as she led the way for the others. As she did so, Esperanza also marked out handholds and footholds for the others, or created some in regions without any convenient ones to use.
Once they got past the steep section, the group found themselves within the territories of some monsters that engaged them shortly afterwards. The creatures they ran into reminded Esperanza a bit of the legend about centaurs, but with goats instead of horses. Also the “human” portion of their bodies were covered with fur while their heads were very goat-like as well, albeit with three eyes set in a triangular manner and a mouth full of dagger-like fangs.
Clearly no vegetarians, these.
The creatures themselves were mostly only mid third tier or so, so they posed minimal challenge to the group, despite the home ground advantage the creatures enjoyed. With the way the goat-taurs agilely darted around the mountain slope as if it was flat ground, it was difficult for most of the party to catch them, so they fought defensively and let the creatures attack them and break their bodies on the group’s defense instead.
In the end, after around an hour or so of fighting, the goat-like creatures fled back to wherever their nest was. Esperanza thought that the turning point might have been when she killed an early fourth tier creature that was probably the herd’s leader, since they retreated shortly after that, leaving the bodies of their dead behind.
Out of curiosity, the group dragged the carcass of the leader of the herd with them and roasted it for their dinner that night. The goat-like creatures had fought in a simple manner and didn’t show any sort of odd tricks, other than their uncanny agility on the mountain slopes. That sort of fighting style generally meant that the creature was edible, as poisonous creatures in Ephemera generally made use of their poison while fighting.
As for whether the meat was digestible or not, with the whole group being in their third to fourth tiers, even the weakest of them wouldn’t fall ill from eating bad food unless it actually contained poisons within them. Esperanza had tested the creature’s flesh first, since her body was the one that was less likely to be affected by such things, but didn’t feel anything odd, so they cooked and dined on the carcass that night.
The goat-taur’s meat was rather tough and quite gamey, but it was fresh meat after all, so that made it quite a treat to have. Some of the group favored that sort of meat anyway.