8 days passed in the blink of an eye.
There were surprisingly no hitches in my journey anymore.
This was a land known for the number of bandit gangs that there were, but I hadn't even encountered one.
Not that it was bad, of course.
I quite liked the peace and quiet.
On a better note, my mastery over Telekinesis had improved drastically in the 8 days.
I trained by literally picking up nearby boulders and carrying them well past my limit. A couple hundred times later, and the progress was insane.
•—Amon Everness—•
Level 14 → 16 [Mid-Grade 1]
▷Stats
[Strength 3]
[Stamina 9 → 15]
[Speed 8]
[Perception 21 → 22]
[Vitality 27 → 30]
▷Inherent Gift
★Telekinesis [Beginner] (Lv.24 → Lv.76)
▷Special Abilities
★Blood-Sight (Lv.3 → Lv.4)
▷General Abilities
☆Sprint (Lv.9)
☆Pain Tolerance (Lv.15 → Lv.18)
☆First Aid (Lv.12)
•——•
Heh.
I could lift 10 boulders with ease. 16 if I pushed past my limits.
With every session, my Telekinesis grew noticeably stronger, and now I was sure that with just this alone, I would be able to pass the entrance exam with flying colors.
Hyping myself up for a little while longer, I eventually glanced out of the window.
"Woah..."
Seeing the mountains in game through my phone screen was one thing, but clearly, the game didn't do these mountains justice.
There were hundreds of mountain peaks scattered all throughout the horizon.
Every single mountain was jagged and tall. The mountains curved like serpent dragons and extended way beyond the clouds.
Because of how many mountains there were and their shape, this place was called the Ancient Dragon Mountains.
Aside from being the perfect location for isolation training, it also held really unique treasures.
I knew the locations of a few basic treasures.
Lifespan-increasing potions, strength-increasing talismans... There were a bunch.
But the tricky part about getting these 'basic' treasures was that I had to fight a few hidden dragonkin.
Since they were well above Grade 4 or even Grade 5, I valued my life enough not to approach.
As for the artifact I wanted, getting it was much, much easier.
The carriage finally stopped, and I stepped out.
I nodded at the coach driver, and he nodded back.
Honestly, we didn't even have a single conversation in those 8 days. Since I wasn't the most social of butterflies, I didn't mind it. Clearly, the coach driver was the same.
The carriage started moving, and soon, it was only a dot in the distance.
When it finally vanished from my sight, I turned back to the mountains.
Here came the tricky part.
There were hundreds of mountains, and the one I needed to climb was, well... one of them.
In the game, there was a cutscene. However, I did remember the main character mentioning a specific eagle rock formation on one of those mountains.
If I could find that, then I could find the cave and get my artifact.
Simple enough.
Thankfully, at least the terrain leading up to the mountains was flat, and not a single tree was in sight.
So, by trusting my gut, I made my way toward the base of a random mountain.
Climbing up the first bit wasn't that hard, but after the mountain turned into more of a slope, that was when the trouble began.
I put on a pair of gloves and a warmer coat.
After that, I steadied my breaths and started climbing.
I wedged my hand between rocks, using the jagged mountain formation to climb higher.
Every couple of minutes, I used Telekinesis to stick myself to the mountain so I could rest. When I rested up, I continued my climb.
This went on for nearly five hours until finally, I reached the middle point of the mountain.
The middle point of all of these mountains always had a massive opening.
It was like a giant tunnel, and when I reached it, I climbed through it.
When I got out on the other end, I saw the actual middle part of the mountain.
There were bright cherry blossom trees scattered around, and even grass.
I was honestly surprised grass could even grow this high up.
Still, after checking out the trees, the edges of this inner middle part, and even the soil, I was sure the artifact I was looking for wasn't here.
"..."
Six hours of climbing.
Hundreds of mountains...
I was already exhausted, but there really wasn't any way to sugarcoat it.
In short.
"I'm fucked."
Snow fell heavily this winter.
I would know.
After all, I had just accidentally slipped on ice, and now I was falling off a mountain.
The snow obscured my vision, but right as I reached the countdown of five inside my mind, I activated my Telekinesis, stopping myself in midair.
I slowly floated down, and it only took another second for my feet to touch the ground.
The snow piled up even more than I thought. It was all the way up to my knees.
If not for the 10 layers of warm clothes that I had, I would probably have turned into a popsicle by now.
Cracking my neck, I turned to the right, spotting a mountain that was slightly shorter than the others.
After climbing hundreds of mountains and finding nothing, I felt like giving up.
I was sure that two months had already passed, and if that was the case, I only had around 2 weeks left to get back to Aldraazan and take the entrance exam.
Was that even possible? Am I literally just screwed because I bit off more than I could chew?
Stomping my foot down in frustration, I propelled myself like a bullet toward a mountain.
Instead of climbing regularly, I was now like a frog.
I would latch onto the mountain, then kick off with Telekinesis.
Doing this over and over again, I could reach the middle part in about 30 minutes.
So I did it once, twice, five times... ten times.
And finally, when I was ready to call it quits, I spotted something interesting the moment I crawled into this mountain's inner part.
There were at least 20 cherry blossom trees, and to top it all off, near the walls, I saw something that made my jaw drop.
It was a rock formation in the form of an eagle.
Sure, it looked like a kindergartener's drawing of an eagle, but I got the gist of it.
The wings, the beak, and lastly, the human-sized hole to the right of it.
I tumbled flat on my ass as all the exhaustion caught up to me.
The nonstop climbing.
Sleeping two hours a day.
Eating whenever I could...
All that, and I finally found it.