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“There were no bodies?”

“No, sir, the place was found like this. Apparently, they took off again through the trees when the adventurer tried to hide his tracks by going above.”

Koise looked up at the branches, his sharp sight picking out various points where twigs had been snapped and where the snow had been disturbed on the branches above.

He was more worried about the circular depression in the snow with the surrounding blood splatter. It was more blood than a normal human would have been able to live without.

Either someone had died there, or they had both received grievous wounds.

But if someone had died, where was the body?

If they had both received grievous wounds, how was there not more blood spread after that point, and how could the two of them continue their chase?

The scout he was speaking with had reported finding the area, but he had unfortunately not seen the two, which was to be expected if the chase was still ongoing.

‘Something’s off about this…’

Koise rubbed his chin and let his mind wander as he stared at the blood splatters and the depression in the ground.

Had it been some sort of skill? He couldn’t think of a skill that would cause such a large radius of effect from someone below level five.

“Good work. Head back to the main group for an official debriefing.”

He ordered the scout back and set another group on tracking where the two had gone through the trees.

‘But where is he going?’

Koise’s eyes wandered over the drifting snow, over the dimly lit woods, and settled on the great mountains that dominated the near distance.

It was the only obvious destination, but why was the man headed to the unexplored mountains where even those approaching level 10 were known to vanish from? It was a question he couldn’t answer with what knowledge he had.

As he pondered the question in his mind, he forgot about the scout.

***

I let out a deep breath after the encounter with what appeared to be their leader.

He had been suspicious, and it would likely only be a short time before they found the corpse that I had hidden in the branches of a tree not far off. I had been careful getting to that tree after creating as obvious a path through the trees as I could in a separate direction.

Luckily, the Lion Scout armor was much warmer than my previous outfit had been. The concussive force of my punch hadn’t done much damage to the soft leather of the armor where I had struck the scout, so I had been able to pass as one of their members.

Though he hadn’t given me a direction, I made sure to go through the trees towards where I felt the largest concentration of heat in my senses for a short distance, assuming it to be the main group, before I veered off again and used the very tactic I had described to the expedition leader—I took to the trees.

While I had never had much experience in practicing my balance or performing much in the way of acrobatics, I found that it was almost too easy. There were moments when I unexpectedly slipped on a branch that was icier than expected, but I made sure to stick to the thickest offshoots of the trees so that nothing would break under my weight.

Not only that, but whatever aid the Second System granted me in fighting also seemed to extend somewhat to general control over my body—as I had the intent in mind.

It wasn’t that I could suddenly perform backflips through the trees or perform great feats of acrobatics as I had done in a certain assassin video game back on Earth, but it was closer to having an improved sense of space and depth perception.

I instinctively knew which leaps I could make and which ones would be more difficult, and I didn’t hesitate as much as I would have initially imagined.

Taking what paths I could through the trees so that I wouldn’t leave obvious tracks behind in the snow on the ground, I eventually dropped back down after a short distance, sacrificing some stealth for speed.

I doubted that the group would chase me past the mountain range. It was known for being dangerous, after all.

A few spare rations had been stuffed into another pouch at my waist from the man I had killed, enough to last me for a day or two, and I hoped that I would be able to reach the mountains towering in the visible distance by then.

Either way, I would be putting my stamina to the test. While the Second System had never stated as much, I guessed that it also granted me an extra stamina reserve that had gone unused so far. Perhaps it was due to how the Second System almost seemed unfinished?

I realized my tactic would only work once, so I made the most of it and went as far as I could before stopping for a brief rest.

Like that, I continued through the snowy woods. Luckily, the armor that I had taken was much more suited to the cold weather; the thick padding of the coat, the gloves, and the fur boots made it seem almost balmy in comparison to what I had worn before.

One thing that I hadn’t quite expected before making the journey was the smell.

I knew that adventurers often carried magically enchanted devices that could release water with a bit of mana, and it wasn’t unheard of for them to bathe themselves in the water from those devices. However, because I was unable to use such a device due to my issues with externalizing mana, I would have to depend on finding a stream or water source for bathing and refilling my canteens.

Even if I did find such a water source, it would have been a death sentence to try bathing myself in the cold.

As such, I was stuck with the smell of dried sweat, grease, blood, and smoke that had built up in my hair and on my body. My hair was almost dripping with it, and my skin was so oily that it was moist to the touch, a consequence of how much I had enjoyed regular bathing back in the city.

Eventually, my body would grow accustomed to not bathing and wouldn’t secrete as much oil, but the transition was extremely uncomfortable.

It was a lucky thing that their tracking magic (probably) didn’t work by sniffing me out, or else I would have been caught almost immediately.

I also had no way of knowing how far behind me the Lion Guild would be, or how fast they were moving to catch me. Had they opted to stick together in a single group, or were they pursuing me in smaller, faster groups?

With all of those worries in mind, I abandoned trying to mask my tracks or be stealthy, as they would only be amateur attempts anyway. I went on full speed ahead towards the sheer mountains, drawing on my reserves of stamina.

Finally, when my remaining water was running low and the rations had all but been consumed, I reached the cliff face.

From a distance, I had seen it more as a mountain.

I had hoped that, upon arriving at its base, I would find the side of it angled well enough to traverse without too much difficulty.

Unfortunately, that was not the case.

‘Shit…’

The face of it was much closer, in fact, to a cliff face than a mountainside. It was akin to a sheer wall that shot upwards into the distant sky, extending to the sides as far as I could see.

It didn’t help, of course, that what steep slopes of rock I could see jutting out from the cliffside were coated in layers of snow and ice, which would make the climb even more difficult.

Looking over the side of the cliff’s face, I spotted pieces of metal impaled into the steep rise at regular intervals—signs of a previous climb.

If I were to take a guess, Bernard and Velle had either used or created the handholds or had their own separate way of scaling the mountain. Either way, it was the best chance I had of scaling the cliffside before the Lion Guild could catch up to me.

With a cold sweat clinging to my back, I approached the first of the handholds and gripped the metal rod before resting my weight down on it to ensure it could bear me.

…It was solid.

Huff.

I pulled myself up and began using the rods like a sort of ladder to scale the side of the cliff.

***

Koise and the Lion Guild saw a figure slowly rising above the trees as they neared the cliff.

He was far enough away that he would have likely been slightly difficult to spot with unenhanced sight, but Koise’s eyes picked him out easily.

The man was using pitons impaled into the wall to climb the cliff otherwise unaided, and it didn’t appear that he had a skill assisting him, either.

Koise contemplated for a moment before extracting a weapon from his Item Pouch, a bow almost as tall as he was with a thick string.

Along with the bow, Koise pulled out an arrow with a shaft thicker than his thumb, using a specialized hold at the end to rest it against the bowstring as he planted himself and took aim.

He could have told his archers to fire at the man, or he could have had the mages fire spells, but magic was known for its inaccuracy at a distance, which mages usually supplemented by making the areas of effect larger. It wasn’t Koise’s intention to bring down the entire mountainside, and even if he were to take the chance, most of the magic users in the advance party weren’t proficient with such area-affecting magic.

Magic spread over an area naturally lost its potency with the wider area, so he couldn’t be sure that a large enough fireball to accurately hit the man wouldn’t just leave him singed.

As they always said: If you want the job done right, it’s best to do it yourself.

Koise breathed in and activated the first part of his multi-chain skill attack.

[[«Draw»]]