Chapter 146- Far Between

Chapter 146: Chapter 146- Far Between

Chapter 146- Far Between

The plaza was completely empty and quiet except for the open shops and the lights within the buildings. Rize and Venera reached the destination on time and looked around. The city wasn’t fully dark yet, as the sun was still on the horizon, giving its last golden rays as the darkness slowly came toward them.

"Where is she?" Rize muttered as he looked around him for a second and checked the time. It was the agreed-upon time already.

"Maybe she changed her mind," Venera replied as she looked around her. Deep down, a part of her wished that Rose would change her mind, but she didn’t let those thoughts surface too much as she still knew that their priority was this test, not her own feelings. The two waited for a moment.

Then, as Rize was about to turn around, he saw Rose approaching them in a hurry.

"There she is."

"Tsk." Venera clicked her tongue under her breath as she looked at the girl approaching them.

"I’m sorry for keeping you waiting," Rose said as she finally reached them and stopped. "I had to get some things in a hurry before coming here."

"It’s ok," Rize replied. "We just came here anyway. Did you get what you needed?"

"Yeah, it wasn’t anything special. But what’s the plan now? Are we leaving immediately?" She asked as she looked over Rize’s shoulder at the massive mountain. At night, it looked even more terrifying and colossal than it already was. The darkness made it difficult to see it in detail, leaving its frame and shadow looming over them instead.

"We don’t have time left. We want to make it to the forest by tomorrow so we can start planning our climb." Rize said.

"I’ve brought climbing gear just in case. Even though we probably won’t need it that much." Rose said.

With their superior physical abilities, the climbing gear was essentially useless. They could climb several meters higher than the highest jump a normal human could pull off. They also could hold their entire weight on the tips of their fingers with ease and pull themselves up from almost any position.

They were certain that climbing, in and of itself, wasn’t going to be that hard. It was the weather, the lack of oxygen at that altitude, and the monsters lurking within these forests and the mountain itself that were going to make that challenge very difficult.

"Well, let’s go then," Rose said. "We have a very long journey ahead."

"Yeah, it would’ve been so helpful if we could use vehicles," Rize said. But no one there was allowed to drive, so they had to stick to their feet.

Venera didn’t say anything as she turned around and started walking. The two followed her, and the group started their long trip toward the mountain.

In the darkness of the night, they left the gates of the city and found themselves before the vast plains and the long road that led toward the mountain and what was beyond it. It felt so ridiculous to walk all this distance, but they knew that they had no other choice.

They started walking at a rather rapid pace but not too fast so that they could conserve energy for what was coming ahead tomorrow. They used the watch flashlight to illuminate the path ahead, which was surprisingly quite strong.

The weather was very cold, and as the night settled in, it only got colder and colder, dropping below freezing point.

"Rrrr, I’m getting cold," Rize muttered as he wrapped himself in a layer of essence to warm his body. The essence instantly made him feel like the weather was mildly cold rather than freezing cold, and it gave him a sigh of relief.

’There is nothing in this world better than Essence.’ He thought to himself. ’It will never cease to amaze me how magical this power truly is.’

It being blessed upon this world was the reason it gained everything. It was the cause of war, famine, atrocities, and so it was the reason heroes were born, empires rose and crumbled, and people reached peaks of power unattained by any mere mortal.

It was safe to say that the essence is the most important thing to ever exist, and its uses pushed humanity and every other race alike toward a new world they could’ve never imagined.

’If this world didn’t have essence, it would’ve been the exact same thing as Earth. This is the only difference between the two.’

As those thoughts were crossing his mind, Venera was busy scanning their surroundings and keeping an eye out for any monster. Even though they were still a bit far away from the forest, she still knew beasts could come out of nowhere and attack them so she had to remain vigilant.

Meanwhile, Rose just watched the two and their behavior with an amused look on her face. Each one of them felt unique in their own way. However, both were the least threatening people she had ever met.

For some reason, she knew they would never harm her or attack her. Having lived her entire life wary of people, having two who she could truly believe were good and would never do anything evil was certainly a change of pace.

She could see them as constant teammates she could work with in the future, and that gave her ease of mind.

With that, for the next few hours, the group walked in silence, only broken by occasional comments or small chats. They were able to steadily get closer to the mountain as its terrifying shadow grew bigger and bigger.

At the same time, the large trees in the distance grew closer and closer until they were finally on the edges of the forest. That was when they finally stopped.

"We should camp here for tonight," Venera said. "Tomorrow morning, we will walk into the forest and start our march to the foot of the mountain."

"That’s a good idea," Rose replied. "The monsters lurking at night are far worse than the ones you encounter during the day."

The group was already tired from walking for hours, and it was getting very late. Staring back, Rize couldn’t even see the lights from the city that well anymore.

’We have walked at least 50 or 60 miles.’ Rize muttered to himself before he put his bag down and pulled the tent out. They had bought tents for sleeping with somewhat comfy inflatable mattresses to avoid sleeping on the cold ground.

"I will go get some wood for the fire," Rize said as he moved a bit away from the group.

"Be careful, Rize." Venera asid.

"I know." He replied as he walked a bit into the forest and looked around him. "Hmm, there are quite a number of dry branches around."

But since these trees were quite tall, they were all out of reach. So, Rize decided to use his trusted companion. The Black Matter formed around his hand before it stretched forward, reaching several meters into the air as it grabbed the branch and pulled it down.

’This is why Endless Hunger is so useful sometimes.’ He thought to himself as he started collecting branches with ease while Endless Hunger slowly learned and improved how it grabbed and pulled them.

A few minutes later, Rize had a big pile that he walked back with and put in the middle of the camp. Venera and Rose had already set up the tents and put the food out, ready for eating. After putting the branches down.

"How are we going to lig-"

Before he could even speak, Rose snapped her fingers, and a fireball formed in her hand that she threw into the branches, igniting them instantly.

"Nice." Rize pursed his lips with an impressed look. ’I forgot that Rose has fire powers.’

Sitting down, Rize watched as Venera heated the food up while the other two enjoyed the heat coming from the fire. The weather was very cold, which made that heat even more pleasant, and the quietness of the night added to it.

"Has either of you been out camping before?" Rose asked.

"I have lived most of my life in the forest," Rize replied. "However, I didn’t have any equipment, so I had to survive on what I found."

"A part of my training required me to go out and survive on my own," Venera added. "It wasn’t a long stretch, but I did go for a day or two."

"I see. So we all had somewhat similar experiences." Rose said. "I used to leave our estate to go out on my own and camp for days. It wasn’t for training or anything, even though I did end up honing many skills. But... This atmosphere... It’s really peaceful in a way."

The two looked at her silently and then all around them. The quiet whispers of the wind, the rustling of the branches of the trees, and the fire cracking every few moments- it was indeed peaceful and quiet.

In this world that is ever-so-loud, moments like these were few and far between.