We entered the mountain pass within the first week of fall. Since then a month has passed. The scenery is repetitive, yet it is awe-striking at all moments.

In the morning hours, fog rolls over the landscape, obscuring the ground and base of the trees. Mildew formed all over the ground outside of the cave where we rested for the night. Some condensation formed on my new staff, giving my hand a bit of a shock from the chill after I first picked it up.

We are not high enough in the mountains to experience snow, but it is still chilly at this elevation. If it were still summer, I imagine the weather would be perfect up here.

The first thing to do is to procure breakfast. We are hunting our food as much as we can in order to preserve our rations for a worst-case scenario.

I descend the mountain into the forest below. I can not see the trail from here, I will have to be careful to remember the route back. If I am ever gone for more than six hours, I instruct the two of them to burn a special wooden object I made. I would be able to recognize the smoke from many miles away.

There are various nut trees and berry bushes around. I start by collecting as many of those as I can. It’s alright for me to overstock on nuts.

While I was plucking some pink berries out of a bush, a crystal wolf attacked me. Using a fog spell in the already heavy environment helped me get away in a minute.

While fleeing from the wolf, a deer enters my sight. In this world, deer have 3 antlers of unique colors. I cast a binding spell immediately and capture it with ease.

With enough berries and a source of meat, I grab everything and start returning back to our camp on the trail. I sedate the deer to stop it from squirming around as I climb up the mountain.

The rocks are slippery, and on a few occasions, I find myself close to falling. I make it to the top in one piece and return to base camp. With my staff, I cast a spell to remove the barrier I placed around them as they slept.

I save quite a bit of mana by using the staff, even if it is a bit clunky.

Seraphina is awake, but Olivia is not. She sees the deer on my back and moves immediately, gesturing to hand over my dagger. Once she has it in hand, she drags the deer around the corner and kills it. The deer remained sedated during the entire process.

Cleaning the body of all its meat, she throws the bones over the mountain. She keeps the pelt and places it over her backpack, perhaps planning to make some use of it later.

Olivia wakes up to the smell of a campfire and takes over the cooking process, once again crafting an immaculate meal.

As we begin to eat, the sun makes it above the mountain range in the west. Morning light poured onto us, bathing us in needed warmth.

Once breakfast finished, we continued the walk along the path. So far we have run into very few people, and that will likely change as we approach the first trading outpost.

It’s a simple village of stone towers built into the mountains. The roads have rails on the sides of them to prevent children from falling off. Push carts are organized underneath shelters which keep the goods dry.

Along the main road, traders sit on mats against the hard ground. The rustic atmosphere contrasts carts and tents which I was used to in the cities and villages to the west.

The people are friendly, in sparsely populated areas, individuals turn to their few neighbors for company and entertainment, all the permanent residents were like brothers and welcomed us to that kindness with ease.

The goods were being sold at a premium, which was to be expected in areas like this, all things considered, the price is decent. The markup is one of necessity, not non-competition.

I give the extra meat from the deer to some of the local residents, we aren’t able to eat it all, and it is a good way to thank them for their hospitality.

6 hours at the outpost is enough to refill our rations and other consumable supplies and continue. We could have stayed the night, but I wanted to get back on the road.

“Hey Seraphina, what is this path called again?”

I was trying to remember but blanked on it. Usually, it bugs me if I can’t recall something so simple, so I just ask the knowledgeable girl in our group.

“Path of Wisdom. According to legend, this was the path the Progenitor of Wisdom walked to Enkantia during the Great War of Old. When the old great colleges were all destroyed, he sought this location, defended by the mountains and few ports, to build his grand new college.”

“So this place has a history like that, huh.”

“I don’t believe that though, I don’t really believe the whole progenitor thing either. Do you mean to tell me that God sent his children down to earth and all they do is start a war that destroys half the continent? That would be awful planning on God’s part.”

“Well, it is fitting… With great power comes massive egos.”

“You are really powerful though, and don’t seem to be egomaniacal?”

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“You should have seen me a year ago.”

I don’t like talking about the people I’ve lost, but I’ve come to terms with showing them who I was. All I have to do is speak in a self-deprecating way and the words seem to flow out with ease.

“Yeah, he kinda was a bit, um… self-assured?” Olivia chimes in, trying to speak as nicely as possible. “I only saw him once before everything happened though.”

“Well, I kind of want to see it to be honest. While I love the pathetic and overly-sensitive Cassius we have, a cool, absolutely confident Cassius could be a nice change of pace.”

“You don’t want that, trust me,” I respond.

While we were walking, Seraphina stopped paying close enough attention to her surroundings and got too close to the edge. Before I could warn her, rocks broke out from beneath her. Reaching out to me, she entered a free-fall. The ground, hundreds of meters below, would be certain death if I could not get to her.

I move quickly, tossing aside my baggage and staff, then jump off the ledge toward her. I used wind magic to propel myself at a high speed toward her. I catch her, but now I have a new problem, I have to slow us down.

I use wind magic to gradually negate the effect of gravity, if I do it too quickly that will bring harm to her no doubt.

We land on the ground at a slow speed compared to what we were going before, but it is still a rough landing. I take the brunt of it in my legs and am left with some minor pain.

“You ok?”

“Yeah… Thank you. Are you doing ok? That was a hard fall. How are your legs?”

“I’m alright, I’ve had worse.”

“As long as you're safe…”

I put her down after questioning to let her catch her breath. I sit down to cast some healing magic for the pain and take a deep breath of my own.

“Cassius! Check this out!”

I turn around to find Seraphina dipping her hand into a pool of water hidden by a tiny cave in the mountainside.

“It’s a hot spring! Perfect temperature too!”

I walk over and feel the water. She’s right, this is perfect for dipping in. After this stressful incident, I could use it.

“Let’s camp here for the night,” I tell her.

“Yeah, let’s do it.”

I put up a barrier around the area and leave to get Olivia. It will probably be six trips up and down this giant mountain just to spend the night by this hot spring, but I can handle it. Putting up with a little tediousness in order to make a night memorable and beautiful is worth it.

“How’s Sera!?” I am greeted with, it seems she is so worried she didn’t say her whole name.

“She’s fine, we found something special down there. Hop on my back, I’ll bring you down.”

She picks up my staff while I put on the backpack with our luggage. She sits on top of it, as it’s the only place she can rest.

I descend the mountain one ledge at a time. It was already hard to keep balance before, now, it is extra difficult. I manage to make it down with everyone and everything safe where Seraphina is waiting for us.

Olivia hugs her and expresses her worry before she checks out the hotspring for herself. With excitement, she turns around and begins getting ready to enjoy it. We each change into our lightest clothes.

Olivia is the first to get in, upon submerging into the water, she visibly melts into an empty-minded purely relaxed state.

Seraphina grabs something out of the bag and hands it to me.

“Can you use your magic to cool this down and make us some cups?”

I pull it out of the cloth wrapping it to find a bottle of expensive wine. She must have gotten it at the trading outpost. I do as she asks and make three cups.

Once the two of us get in the water, she begins the process of pouring.

“I… don’t… need… any…” Olivia notifies with slow mumbled words. She doesn’t drink.

I take my cup and try a sip. It’s a bit strong for wine, but that’s alright in this setting. It’s my first time drinking in this world, but I was fond of having mixed drinks while watching anime in my old world. Come to think of it, I never got to finish my favorite show… oh well, I read the light novel.

“Oh, you remember that guy… Cian! His mustache was so funny!”

We chatted late into the night. The only breaks we took were for dinner, needless to say, we just ate rations.

“I completely forgot!” Olivia chimed up out of nowhere. She exited the spring and ran off to where our luggage was.

What she pulled out from the luggage created an oddly ominous sight. It was scissors and a razor. If she pulled those out in front of a US police officer, she would surely have been shot.

“Let’s get you all cleaned up and groomed shall we?”

Both Olivia and Seraphina formed creepy grins as they moved me into position. Seraphina took the razor and moved in front of me, Olivia took the scissors and moved behind me.

“First, we need to get rid of a bit of this hair.”

In a bold maneuver, she removed half the hair that was growing down my back. Once shoulder length, it now reached halfway down my neck. She took to thinning out my heavy chunks before moving to the next part.

“Stay completely still…” Seraphina spoke as she lined the razor up to my face. She had already splashed me with spring water, moisturizing my face.

Surprisingly precise, she moved the thin blade down my face. Examining every inch, she did not let a single hair get by.

Once she was done shaving, she helped Olivia with the haircutting.

“You need to cut more right here.”

“Ah, you’re right, good eye Sera!”

“You really are skilled with those scissors.”

“I do cut my own hair. Do you want me to do yours?”

“Yes please!”

She finished up with my hair, then they moved to trimming my nails using the same scissors. With the precision one would expect from a master archer, she trimmed down every nail to the ideal length.

For the final and worst part, they pluck my eyebrows and nose hairs. The pain is worse than anything I experienced before.

Crafting an ice mirror, I examined my appearance.

The hair now reached just below my eyebrows and took a fitting shape all around. My skin was smooth and completely clear. There weren't any stray hairs that stood out to detract from the rest of my appearance. They did a masterful job and I felt good.

“Thank you girls.”

“No problem!”

“It was fun! Let us do it every week!”

“...alright.”

“No way! He actually agreed to it.”

Why not, it seems like a nice way to bond, and it is productive.

We retire for the night after this.