Chapter 201 - From Climbing the Mountain to Being Sabo (1/2)
And so, they arrived at the foot of the mountain.
Considering the direction they were going in, Loren had already had a sneaking fear that their destination would be THAT mountain. As his fear came true, he let out a deep sigh at the sight of the mountain towering over them.
“We really have to climb this?”
Loren muttered this to himself. It was no wonder that he did: to put it simply, it was one rocky mountain range.
The area was made up of a series of mountains, but Loren’s gaze was drawn to the highest of them all.
“Are you kidding? We’ll climb this?”
Next to Loren, who had just gotten off the carriage and was looking up at the towering mountain, Gula let out these words with a hint of disgust in her voice.
It really was a rocky mountain.
The mountain itself was so desolate that there was no vegetation in sight. The slope was steep, but not so steep that it was impossible to climb. The problem, however, was the height of the mountain.
From the foot of the mountain, no matter how high they casted their eyes up, the surface of the mountain seemed to stretch on and on uninterrupted. As they turned their heads to look up, they saw that the mountain was covered in thick black clouds half-way up, making the summit invisible.
They definitely couldn’t scale this mountain with a wagon, so Lapis went to hide the vehicle in a small forest nearby.
“Since we need to reach the crater, we’ll have to climb all the way to the summit, right?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
After hiding the wagon, Lapis brought out bread and drinking water from the back of it and handed them to Loren while replying casually as if it was a matter of course.
It was just about noon, and as Loren took the food from her, he assumed that he was supposed to have them for lunch.
“For Gula, some baguette and ham.”
“Are you bullying me?!”
Thinking how rare a sight it was to see the Evil God of Gluttony refuse the food offered to her, Loren bit into his hard bread. The thing was tasteless, but it could fill his stomach, and that would have to do for now. As he gnawed on the bread, Lapis forced a baguette and a chunk of ham on Gula. Then she came to his side and looked up at the towering mountain, holding the same food as Loren.
“‘It’s called Mount Sverg, the Mountain Where the King Sleeps.”
“I don’t really care for the story of this mountain.”
“The ‘King’ is the Ancient Dragon.”
“It’s even less important.”
It was the kind of information that one couldn’t do anything about even after knowing it.
And staying here looking at the mountain would make any progress. He had no choice but to resign himself to it and climb.
“I don’t think we’ll make it to the top before dark even if we start now.”
“Rather than that, we won’t make it within a day.”
“So we’ll have to spend the night on a windswept mountain face?”
“We’ll have to make use of Gula’s power to dig a hole.”
The surface of the mountain was mostly bare rock. If they wanted to dig a hole in it, they would have to work for a long time and make a lot of noise with hammers and pickaxes. However, with Gula’s power, it would probably be much easier to dig a hole quietly and quickly, and the dug out rocks would be eaten up.
“Aren’t you being too mean to me?”
Gula complained while gnawing on the baguette that she had eventually ended up accepting, but she didn’t seem to truly reject Lapis’ proposal. Loren chewed on his own bread, thinking that they might not have to make Gula go that far – finding a cave would do too.
After finishing their tasteless lunch, they immediately began their preparation by taking out whatever seemed necessary from the wagon and stuffing them into their backpacks. These backpacks, which were also prepared by Judie, were quite sturdy and much better than what adventurers usually used. Loren was impressed by how far ahead the demons were in terms of manufacturing technology in comparison to humans.
“We can also use these even after returning to the other side, right?”
“These are all stuff you can get by paying money, so it should be fine.”
Lapis shouldered her backpack. It was filled with supplies such as food, medical supplies, and sleep bag. Loren couldn’t shoulder his as he was carrying his greatsword on his back. Instead, he grabbed it by the shoulder straps and carried it like a sack. Gula, who was carrying a backpack slightly larger than Loren’s and Lapis’s, tried to sound as cheerful as possible as she gazed with genuine disgust at the direction of the mountain peak, which was obscured by clouds:
“Well then, let’s go have some fun climbing the mountain, shall we?”
This was how they began to climb the rocky mountain.
Unlike traveling in a wagon, the climb was extremely strenuous. Just climbing a mountain was tiring enough, but when you were equipped with a backpack filled with enough supplies to last three to four days, the amount of energy consumed is proportional to the weight. In addition to that, they had to be on the lookout for the dragon that was supposed to live in this mountain. It would be strange if it wasn’t tiring.
“Being cautious or not, if we’re discovered, we’re done.”
There was no place to hide on the bare rocky face of the mountain. The shade of a large boulder wasn’t bad to hide behind, if your enemies were monsters on the ground. But if you were hiding from a dragon flying above, you would be in full view. And there was no sign of any other monsters on this mountain. Loren was sure that since this mountain was home to a dragon, the most powerful monster of all, no other demons would even come close to it.
“Rather than proceeding cautiously, it’d be better to hurry ahead, don’t you think?”
“‘That’s right. If there’s no way to hide from detection, we might as well focus on gaining distance.”
“I don’t like the idea of fighting a dragon either.”
If even an Evil God like Gula wanted to avoid an encounter with a dragon, they all agreed that they should quickly finish their business and leave the mountain as soon as possible.
They started to climb up the slope of the mountain, but the distance to the top was too great, and after they reached a certain height, the sun went down.
“Gula-san, a hole.”