I’M MOUNTAIN CLIMBING
After spending the night in the abandoned village, we set out into the Mystic Mountains.
Huh?
Did we see any ghosts?
Of course not, dummy!
No matter how creepy and ill-fated this place might be, there’s no such thing as ghosts in this world, period.
’Cause when you die, you’re forcibly sent home to the goddess.
If you wanted to stick around here as a ghost, you’d have to be able to defy the gods somehow.
In fact, if you were strong enough to do that, I don’t think you’d even be a ghost anymore.
That would be a serious problem.
So yeah, our night went perfectly fine, thank you very much.
The puppet spiders are one thing, but I don’t know whether to be impressed with how fast Vampy passed out or appalled by her lack of girliness.
Wouldn’t that have been the perfect time to go up to Mera, like, I’m too scared to sleep. Can I stay with you?
She’s still just a little kid, so it wouldn’t be that weird to sleep next to her caretaker.
Even without a paranormal encounter, we could at least get some drama going.
Anyway, that’s the kind of stupid thing I’m thinking about as I bounce along in the carriage.
It’s cold out, so I’m all wrapped up in a blanket.
Why don’t I walk, you ask?
Yeah, right. You think I could walk on a mountain path like this?
I guarantee you I’d be down and out in less than an hour!
The Demon Lord knows that, too, which is why I’m on standby in the carriage right from the start.
My role in this mountain expedition is to sit still inside the carriage, just like this.
Yep. I’m basically luggage!
While everyone else laboriously drags themselves up the mountain, I get to ride in luxury all by myself.
Mm, it’s good to be me.
Still, I wouldn’t say the journey is very easy.
For one thing, it’s cold.
Weather in the Mystic Mountains is so intense that the snow never melts here.
We’re still traveling at a relatively low elevation, but it’s already pretty damn cold.
Even wrapped up in this blanket with heat-emanating magic stones, I’m still freezing in here.
Okay, technically, this used to just be an ordinary stone.
But with the help of Magic Conferment, a skill that lets the user fill an object with magic, it’s been imbued with Fire Magic.
The Demon Lord made it, of course.
Since it was just some rock to start with, it came at the low, low price of absolutely free.
Talk about a bargain!
She made a bunch of these magic stones while we were in town, so each of us is carrying a few.
Incidentally, I got the most, since I don’t have stats to protect me from the cold.
I’m still using only one right now, but when it gets colder, I’m planning on using a bunch at once.
To be honest, I’d like to use all of them right this second.
I’m cold!
But if I start complaining when we’ve just gotten started, I feel like I won’t be able to make it through the rest of the trip, so I’m forcing myself to bear with it.
The cold isn’t the only problem, either.
I’m getting carriage-sick.
I mean, this thing really sways.
Back and forth, back and forth.
Can you blame me for feeling gross?
Urp!
Why is it swaying so much? Because this carriage isn’t touching the ground.
For those of you who are thinking What the hell are you talking about? your reaction is justified, but think about it for a second.
How would a carriage be able to traverse an uneven mountain path?
It can’t, that’s how!
So how is this carriage moving, then? Good question.
The answer is: It’s being carried.
By whom? By Ael.
She looks like a little girl, yet she’s carrying this carriage on her back as she walks.
If any outsiders saw this, I’m sure it would look pretty crazy.
But despite her appearance, she’s actually a monster with stats in the quintuple digits.
Lugging a carriage up a mountain is a simple task for her.
Unfortunately, that means that jostling around a bunch is all part of the ride.
Of course being carried on someone’s back means bouncing around a lot.
In fact, she’s actually being pretty careful, or I’d probably be suffering even more.
If it was any of the other puppet spiders, I’m sure they wouldn’t even think to carry it gently.
Yeah. Without going into too much detail, that wouldn’t end well.
Urp!
I have to bear the cold and the swaying somehow.
That might sound like a nice problem to have compared to the others who are walking outside, but I don’t have stats, so gimme a break.
If I could walk on my own two feet, I’d be doing it right now!
Besides, technically they’re not all walking on their own feet, either.
Vampy and Mera are riding on the earth wyrms that were pulling the carriage.
Since Ael’s carrying the carriage now, that frees up the two earth wyrms for riders.
Mera tamed the pair with a skill.
While he was a human, he apparently boasted all kinds of butlering skills, including driving a carriage.
A butler as a coachman? Yeah, I know. Don’t worry about it.
Anyway, that’s why he had the Creature Training skill to start with, but by taming the earth wyrms, he was able to evolve that skill into Summoning.
See, there are two ways to win over a monster.
One is using a skill to force them to obey you.
That means Creature Training or its advanced form, Summoning, to force the monster to do your bidding.
The other option is to get them to acknowledge you and enter into a contract with you.
With the former, you’re basically enslaving the monster by force.
Of course, the tamer has to be stronger than the monster in this case, or the skill will bounce right off.
If you weaken the monster beforehand, though, sometimes it’ll still work.
You don’t need the monster’s consent, so you can just force it to do stuff right away.
But since you’re forcing it, that means you’re suppressing the monster’s free will.
After it’s enslaved, it’s practically a whole different being that happens to have the same specs.
Once you control its free will, the monster is like a machine that only obeys orders.
On the other hand, if you get a monster to recognize you as its master and enter into a contract, then that monster retains its free will.
Of course, that means the monster might rebel against you.
But since you have a real bond linking you together, you gain a far more formidable ally than if you just force it to obey you with a skill.
Ah, the power of friendship!
So Mera is using the latter, a contract with monsters who’ve accepted him as a master.
Earth wyrms as a species tend to be loyal for life to anyone they acknowledge as their master, so it’s much better this way. They’d probably fight to the death for him now.
Although frankly, they’re the next weakest members of this party after me, so they probably won’t get the chance to do that anytime soon.
Their main job is to be beasts of burden.
That being said, if it gets too hard on them, the two riders will probably get down and lead them by the reins.
After all, the riders have higher stats than the wyrms.
Even when the earth wyrms get tired, the bloodsucker duo will probably still be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.
So far, though, the earth wyrms’ steps seem light.
Straining my ears, I can hear the bloodsuckers and the Demon Lord chatting.
“Are there any monsters we should be wary of up here?”
“Hmm? As long as I’m with you, you don’t need to worry about any monsters, but I suppose this is ice dragon territory.”
“Anything else?”
“Well, I suppose there’s always goblins.”
“Huh?”
Huh?
I’m just as confused as Vampy.
Aren’t goblins basically the poster children for super-weak monsters?
“They’ve got just as much warrior spirit as any old dragon. Or should I say determination? They’re weak on their own, all right, but they’re not afraid to stare death in the face. And they always attack in groups, so they’re a pretty serious threat to an ordinary human.”
What kind of a world has goblins like that?!
This world, I guess!
But that doesn’t sound like the goblins we all know and love.
Unreal.
“Oh, and I guess there are the monkeys.”
The Demon Lord and the baby bloodsucker keep chatting as they walk.
Yeah, they’ve got enough energy to spare for chatting as we climb this mountain, if you can believe it.
I guess that’ll probably change when we get higher up, though.
But that’s a long way off, I’m sure.
Oh boy, do I miss the time when I still believed that.
It’s so c-c-c-c-cold!
Not just cold, it’s freezing!
In fact, it’s straight-up painful!
I knew these mountains were gonna be rough, but this is way worse than I thought.
I’m wrapped up in a blanket with all my magic stones, and I’m still freezing my butt off.
Just bouncing around inside the carriage like this seems to be draining my stamina.
This is rough, all right.
It’s been a few days since we started our trip across the Mystic Mountains.
We’re still moving at a steady pace, but the farther we go, the colder and more painful it gets.
The snow whirling around in the air is pretty, sure, but it’s also the worst thing ever.
As the snow falls, it piles up on top of the carriage.
Too much would make the roof collapse, so it has to be periodically removed.
Which Ael accomplishes by shaking the carriage around.
Really, just whipping it back and forth.
It’s like some kind of amusement-park ride, except I’m not sure I’m gonna survive.
I feel like I’m gonna be sick.
So every day I beg the snow: Please just stop falling!
My prayers go unanswered, though…
I’m still getting whipped back and forth!
Ugh, this seriously sucks.
And of course, snow is piling up on the ground, too.
It’s piled so high, it’d practically be up to my ears if I was walking.
And since it’s new snow, it’s super-soft, too.
If you dropped Vampy on top of snow like that, she’d probably be buried on the spot!
So the Demon Lord is leading the way, tunneling through the snow for everyone else.
Damn, she’s more efficient than a snowplow.
Must be nice having stats like that.
“Hrmmm. This is a little bit strange, though. I wonder what’s going on.”
The Demon Lord mutters to herself as she forges a path through the snowdrifts.
I’m guessing she means it’s strange that the snow is falling nonstop like this.
The biggest reason the Mystic Mountains are considered impassable is because of the dragons that make their home there.
A whole family of ice-controlling dragons lives up in these peaks, encamped right smack in the middle between human lands and demon lands.
If the humans or demons want to invade each other, they’d have to cross through ice dragon turf first, making an invasion by way of the Mystic Mountains nearly impossible.
In fact, the ice dragons are the reason it’s so damn cold.
They perpetually generate cold, freezing the land around them.
Of course, the closer you get to the source, the colder it gets.
So going to the heart of the mountains is especially scary.
But that’s exactly where we’re headed—in fact, we’re nearly there—but apparently this situation is unusual.
I guess I can see that.
I’m using all these magic stones that the Demon Lord made, but I’m still shaking like a leaf in here.
The outside of the blanket that I’m wrapped up in with the stones is actually starting to freeze.
So without the magic stones, this blanket would probably be a block of ice, and so would I.
And yet, it’s snowing outside.
At this temperature, it should definitely be hail by now.
Talk about a fantasy world.
That means this snow must be a magical creation, not natural.
So who do you think is making it snow, hmm?
Obviously, that’d be the lords of the mountain, the ice dragons.
“Maybe they’re trying to keep you away, Miss Ariel?”
“Nah. Even the ice dragons must know they can’t beat me. Plus, we have an unspoken agreement that I won’t pick fights with them. They didn’t try to intercept me last time I passed through this way, so I’m guessing we’re not their target.”
Outside the frozen blanket, I can hear Vampy and the Demon Lord talking again.
It’s way too cold for a conversation at this point, but I am interested in what they’re saying.
I open up a tiny gap in the blanket so that I can hear them better.
Immediately, cold air blows in through the hole.
Too cold!
I’m gonna freeze!
“There must be another outsider in the mountains right now besides us. Maybe it’s that ogre?”
Without waiting to hear more, I plug the hole back up.
Whew. I thought I was gonna freeze to death.
That ogre again, though? This guy’s pretty aggressive.
It’s causing problems all over the place.
Must be nice to be so young and carefree.
Although I’m technically a little kid, too, like the baby bloodsucker.
Still, first elves and now dragons? This ogre must be a battle maniac.
Why does it keep challenging one strong opponent after another?
Is it on one of those “gotta find someone stronger than me” types of quests?
If so, I’ve got news for you, pal: The Demon Lord, the strongest person in the world, is right here.
She’ll be so much stronger than you, you’ll be saying lines like, Ngh! I can’t get in a single blow…!
That is if you even have a chance to say anything before she turns you into mincemeat. Either that or smithereens anyway.
If that ogre is the reason for this freakish weather, then frankly, I hope that does happen.
This ogre has been a huge pain in the ass, to be honest.
First we get stuck in that town, then we have to deal with this godawful weather, all thanks to one stupid ogre.
Oh, I guess it did kill those elves for us, so that’s one positive.
Still more negatives overall, though.
Like, can’t it just disappear already?
If this was a hero story, the ogre would probably defeat the ice dragons and stand in our way, and we’d have to drive it away with the power of friendship or whatever.
Although if the imperial army was able to chase it off, then I don’t see it beating a dragon anytime soon.
Dear ice dragons, please just smack that ogre down and put a stop to this snow already.
Otherwise, I’m seriously gonna die out here!
I can hear my teeth chattering.
“Guh?!”
Just then, the Demon Lord makes a most unladylike noise.
I dunno, I don’t think girls are supposed to say “Guh!”
I create a little opening in the blanket to peek outside.
Guh?!
The scene outside is so shocking that I forget about the blast of cold air for a second.
Monkeys.
My worst nightmare.
My deep-seated trauma.
How could I forget? It’s the same monkeys that once surrounded me and nearly killed me in my weaker days in the Great Elroe Labyrinth’s Lower Stratum!
If I remember right, they were called “anogratches” or something.
At some point during our journey, the Demon Lord told me that they’re also known as “revenge monkeys.” If one of their own is killed, they’ll form huge groups to try to get revenge on whoever killed it.
To make matters worse, once they’ve set their sights on revenge, they won’t give up until their target is dead.
If you see one, you should never, ever kill one.
Even if you kill only a single individual, they’ll attack you in swarms.
Right.
I did find it strange at the time that they were so determined to kill a single spider, but I guess that’s just their nature.
Are you kidding me?!
What kind of crappy game sends a bunch of enemies to attack you but you’re not supposed to kill any of them?
How terrible do your survival instincts have to be to keep trying to avenge a single individual until every last one of you is dead?!
And those same monkeys are coming toward us right now.
Not just one or two, either. They’re coming in droves.
Um, what’s up with this tidal wave of monkeys?!
Are you for real?!
Nobody told me these damn monkeys lived in the Mystic Mountains, too!
““““““““““““““““OOK, OOK!””””””””””””””””
Don’t OOK, OOK me, you stupid monkeys!
Seriously, why can’t I wake up from this nightmare?!
Is this because of that stupid ogre, too?!
Did the whole swarm of monkeys run this way to escape from the battle between the ogre and the ice dragons or something?!
This ogre sucks!
“Wha—?! Yeesh!”
Even the Demon Lord is freaking out at the sight!
The baby bloodsucker and Mera are totally freezing up.
Hey, no freezing just ’cause it’s cold out!
Aside from Ael, the puppet spiders are all in battle-ready positions.
At least we can count on them in times like this!
“Oh, this isn’t good. Nope, nope, nope. Here goes nothing!”
As the sea of monkeys closes in, the Demon Lord starts preparing magic.
At least, I assume so. Without my skills, I can’t even see the magic the Demon Lord is constructing.
I can just kinda tell from her pose that that’s what she’s doing, I guess.
Huh?
Wait a sec, though.
Isn’t using magic in this situation, like, a really bad idea?
“Eat this!”
I realize this just as the Demon Lord unleashes her spell.
A torrent of darkness rushes from her hands.
What is this, an evil k?mehameha?
With the Demon Lord’s crazy stats, the Black Magic causes a huge explosion, sending the giant horde of monkeys flying every which way.
No matter how strong the monkeys might be, I was able to defeat them one by one even back when I was a total weakling.
The Demon Lord’s magic wipes them all out in one clean sweep.
The problem is what happens after that!
The shock waves from the Demon Lord’s spell spread through the area, causing a certain chain reaction.
A mass just as big as the swarm of monkeys, or maybe even bigger, bears down on us.
A mass of what?
Of snow, duh!
It’s an avalanche!
This is weird magic snow that stays soft and fluffy even in temperatures cold enough to freeze my blanket.
If you cause a big explosion on a mountain covered in that stuff, of course this is gonna happen! Come on!
Sure, an area-of-effect spell was the only way to get rid of all the oncoming monkeys at once, but now it’s caused a disaster even bigger than that.
The Demon Lord’s looking at the snow like, Oops, now I’ve done it!
You sure have, dude. Not that I can blame you for freaking out and reacting poorly with a huge swarm of monkeys coming at us out of nowhere like that!
The snow closes in on us like a tidal wave.
“RUN!”
The Demon Lord’s shout is almost as loud as the deep rumbling of the avalanche.
At her command, everyone jumps into the air!
With their leg strength enhanced by stats, the spider crew moves so fast, it’s like they’re flying.
Then they use Dimensional Maneuvering to keep fleeing through the air.
The bloodsucker duo jumps up, too, avoiding the avalanche by a hairbreadth.
Riel and Fiel carry the earth wyrms to safety.
And I…am falling straight toward the avalanche.
Oh. Wait. What?
I’m sailing through the air.
Ael is a short distance away, holding the carriage.
Hmm?
Hmmmm?!
This is a record-scratch moment if I’ve ever had one.
Okay. When Ael jumped up, the recoil must’ve sent me flying right out of the carriage.
Even Ael wouldn’t have the spare brainpower to worry about me at a time like this.
I get it now. Ha-ha-ha.
Um, this isn’t funny at all?!
Jesus Christ!
Shit, shit, shit!
At this rate, I’m gonna swan dive right into the snow!
And since I’m wrapped up in this blanket, I won’t be able to do a damn thing about it!
Not that I’d be able to do much of anything even if I wasn’t!
“Sael! Help White, quick!”
The Demon Lord shouts an order at Sael, the only puppet spider with her hands free.
Sael, bless her heart, is always quick to act as long as she’s been given orders.
She reacts immediately, catching me in midair.
But it’s a second too late!
Sael grabs me right before I get swallowed up by the avalanche.
Her hands close around my blanket.
But then the blanket comes right off with an ominous ripping sound.
Frozen or not, a blanket is a blanket. It’s not built to support a person’s weight.
My body falls right into the avalanche, sinking into the snow.
I reach up instinctively, and by some miracle, Sael grabs my hand!
But my body’s already being carried away, and the momentum drags Sael right down with me.
As we’re crushed along in total confusion, Sael manages to drag us back up to where we can see the sky again.
She must have managed to push back to the surface of the snow somehow.
My arm is experiencing some distressing pain as I get dragged along, but that doesn’t matter right now.
“Grab my hand!”
Speeding toward us, Vampy reaches down from the sky.
Still being crushed by the snow, I don’t have the strength to reach up.
Luckily, Sael manages to grab the baby bloodsucker’s hand, and then Mera grabs on as well, trying to pull us up.
But then—something slams into the baby bloodsucker.
“Ah?!”
“Young Miss?!”
It’s a monkey, carried down toward us by the avalanche, and it’s clinging to the baby bloodsucker!
Wait, what the hell?!
Where’d you come from?!
Why is there another monkey here?!
The monkey’s tackle sends Vampy’s small frame flying into the snow.
Taking Sael, Mera, and the stupid monkey right along with her.
Me? Yeah, me too, of course.
Damn you, monkeeeey!
Maybe you were just trying to save yourself from getting swept away, but now we’re all getting swept away, toooo!
Still grasping one another’s hands, all of us get swallowed up by the avalanche.
Isn’t the Demon Lord gonna save us?!
I cast a desperate look up at the sky, and just before the snow covers my vision, I see a vast swarm of monkeys throwing themselves at the Demon Lord.
Seriously?
How are there still that many of them?
And wait, what the hell, monkeys?!
You’re seriously still trying to get revenge even in the middle of an avalanche?!
What the hell’s wrong with you?!
The Demon Lord won’t be able to help us now.
Just as that realization hits me, the snow swallows up my body completely.
And as my vision blackens, my consciousness blinks out as well.
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