Now that I think about it, where is Shiro?

I haven't seen her ever since I woke up...

I tried sensing her presence as I was looking around for her.

[ ... ] ( Hatsuko )

Some meters away I could feel a small presence that was coming towards me.

I'm sure that's Shiro!

And in the next few seconds, I saw her running towards me. She was quite fast since the last time I saw her.

DId her stats change again?

After she reached a certain distance, she jumped and crashed into my face.

I leaned back a bit so I wouldn't hurt her from the speed she landed on my face.

As grabbed her body and looked at her. Her white fur had gotten a bit dirty, but she had an excited look on her face.

[ Meow! ] ( Shiro )

She reacted as she jumped inside my hoodie.

[ Shall we move then? ] ( Chloe )

She said as she finally gathered all of her stuff.

[ Yeah. ] ( Hatsuko )

I responded to her.

It was already morning and the sun could be seen clearly from this place. The view of the sun from this place made it look really special.

But as we were on our way up to this mountain, everything was becoming really weird.

It was too quiet...

[ You've been looking uneasy for a while, what's wrong? ] ( Chloe )

And on my side, as always was Chloe who was holding my arm as always.

[ I can't feel anything. ] ( Hatsuko )

[ What do you mean? ] ( Chloe )

[ I can't feel any monsters at all, even those monsters who were coming towards us, disappeared... ] ( Hatsuko )

[ Isn't that a good thing then? ] ( Chloe )

[ In this kind of place, no, it's not a good thing. ] ( Hatsuko )

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This kind of thing has happened to me before when those ants appeared from the underground. Those kinds of ants could multiply at an insane speed unless their queen is killed.

[ If you see an ant or a group of them, tell me! ] ( Hatsuko )

I told her as I was looking around.

[ O-okay! ] ( Chloe )

Without asking any other questions she responded to me.

Chloe knew that asking unnecessary questions was going to slow us down in this kind of situation so she did as I asked.

I can take out all the ants if I were by myself, but Chloe is here as well, and I'm not sure if she will be able to handle millions of ants on her own.

We kept on moving forward as we kept an eye on anything suspicious around us.

But as we kept moving forward, the situation was the same!

I couldn't feel any other beings around us except Chloe who on my right side and Shiro who was sleeping on my hoodie.

It's really weird because I was certain that mountains would have powerful monsters.

The harsh climate can cause animals to become several times stronger, so they can fit to live in this kind of environment.

Even the temperatures were becoming lower as we were going up.

If I could guess, the current temperature right now... I would say around 8 degrees celsius.

Even Chloe who was on my side was trembling from the low temperatures.

[ Here. ] ( Hatsuko )

I gave her the monster fur I was wearing as I said that.

[ H-huh? What about you? ] ( Chloe )

She immediately responded as she saw me with a bit of worry.

[ Don't worry about me, I can manage even without it. ] ( Hatsuko )

I explained to her as I put the fur around Chloe's shoulder.

She tightly grabbed the cloth I gave to her and looked the other way.

[ ...thank you... ] ( Chloe )

She thanked me as we kept going.

Even if I can feel my body cold, I'm sure that my stats can resist any sickness caused by the low temperatures.

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The path we were going, was becoming harsher and harsher as we were going up.

From all of the bushes and the trees or any kind of plants, the surface of the land was becoming deserted.

Anywhere I laid my eyes, I could see nothing more but dried dirt and rocks all over the place.

It was almost the same as those kinds of places where it was impossible for the plants to grow.

[ This place looks so dead... ] ( Chloe )

She said as she came closer to my side. I could feel her shoulders touching my right arm as we were looking around.

The temperatures in this kind of place were even lower than before.

I was sure that the temperature was at least zero degrees celsius!

Chloe would usually blow warm air from her mouth to warm up her hands. That's when I noticed that Chloe's hands were slightly red from the low temperature.

That's why I decided to create a small fireball near us so she wouldn't catch a cold.

[ Try warming up your hands on that. ] ( Hatsuko )

I said to her.

She was surprised as she looked at the fireball which was floating near us, then she placed her hands close enough so she wouldn't burn her hands.

[ It's warm. ] ( Chloe )

She said with a soft and calm voice.

But still, I found it weird that we haven't noticed any monster on our way. Not even the ants which I suspected as the cause of it.

Was coming here a waste of time?

I kept looking around, trying to find somewhere to rest.

I'm sure that even Chloe must be tired from this kind of place.

[ Let's find a place to rest for now. ] ( Hatsuko )

I said to Chloe as I was trying to find a place to take cover.

[ Then what about that cave over there? Even if it starts snowing we can take cover there. ] ( Chloe )

She suggested as she was pointed her finger towards a cave some meters away from here, while she was warming up her other hand on the fireball.

[ Okay, let's go there. ] ( Hatsuko )

I said to her.

I wasn't sure... but I could feel something weird coming from that Cave...

I'm sure there weren't any monsters since my skill would alarm me if there were one.

But still... I feel really weird about that cave over there.

It gave me a feeling as if that cave was telling me to go anywhere else besides that place.

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