Black Mountain

"What happened, Ray?!"

I saw baldie and the others in the distance as they were walking closer to us.

"Well... A Boss Monster suddently appeared and attacked me." I said while looking once again at my ripped and blood dirty clothes.

"What?! A Boss Monster?! Like that red creepy thing that looked like a spider?!!" Asked Domo, shocked and a bit scared that another monster like that might appear again.

"Yeah, i somehow managed to defeat it though." I responded.

"But we gotta get stronger, next time we might not be so lucky..." I said while recalling the fight with the Boss Monkey.

Had i made a single mistake, i would have been dead...

I managed to win only because i had the necklace artifact, the best i could have done without using it would be parrying the monster's attacks and dodge...

"Ray is right, when we get back we are going to use the training ground so much that you guys would wish to burn it down!" Esclamated baldie.

That's actually a pretty good idea...

I could change the monsters in the training ground so that it would match the challenger's level and train until we're exhausted.

"For that, we have to find a way out first." Said Akira while looking towards the only part of the cave that we had yet to explore.

"That's right, let's find the exit first. Everyone, bear with this cold a little bit longer and stay on guard, we're gonna get out of here!" Esclamated baldie while carefully walking in between two lines of crystal clusters wich aligned, creating some kind of snow path ahead.

We silently followed after him and, after a while of walking, got to the end of it.

The path brought us to a beatiful and mysterious place.

There were flowers made of ice, with petals of snow, all around us. It was like a snow garden.

At the centre, there was an ice statue. It represented a knight with a sword kneeling to a girl.

The girl had small spheres of ice floating around her, they looked like frozen droplets of water.

She also had a thin veil in the form of a scarf, floating behind her shoulders.

Wait, isn't that the Tear Of Pure Sadness?!

I noticed that the girl had a necklace in her hands that was the same as the Tear Of Pure Sadness, it looked like she was handing it to the knight.

I took a closer look to the statue out of curiousity and noticed that the sword the knight was wielding was the same as the white greatsword that was floating at the centre of the cave.

So the kight had some connection to this place and the girl gave him the Tear Of Pure Sadness...

Just who is she?

"This ice sculpture is beautiful! Look at this level of detail!!" Said Domo while admiring the ice statue in front of us.

"This really is a piece of art... I've seen a sculpture this well made only in a few art galleries back on Earth." Said baldie while walking around the statue to look at it from all angles.

"Even i can't make small details this fine and precise on something like ice. The repeated impact from the hammer would crack it apart, no matter how weak the impact is." Said Darius while looking closely to the statue, trying to analyze it.

"..." Akira was staring at the statue suspiciously.

"What's wrong?" I asked Akira.

"That statue gives off a strange feeling..." Responded Akira.

"A strange feeling, huh..." I mumbled to myself.

[Analyze]...

Name: Ice Sculpture Of Reminiscence

Type: Object

Description: a sculpture made out of the coldest ice. The person who sculpted it wanted to commemorate one of his most precious and old memories.

Durability: [Error: a Higher Being's energy is blocking part of the skill]

What?! A Higher Being?!

I tried to focus in my Mana perception as much as possible and i could feel a dim, unknown energy similar to Mana coming from the statue's necklace.

It felt like a liquid and wet Mana, similar to water, but it had something mysterious to it.

Could that be a Higher Being's energy?

What if i tried to...

Absorb it?

*Kiii!!*

*Kieee!*

*KIII!*

As i was thinking, i heard noises from all around us. It was the Snow Monkeys, they had surrounded us.

"Quick formation!" Shouted baldie while taking his warhammer in his hands.

I took my spear and went near baldie and the others, assembling the formation.

1, 2, 3, 4...

I tried to quickly count them, but after 50 i stopped, thinking it was futile to keep counting them when their numbers were so big.

*Stomp*

I heard a huge stomping noise in the distance, as if a giant was walking.

*Stomp*

*Stomp*

They were getting closer and closer, until we could see its figure clearly.

It was a huge monkey, about 40 meters high.

It had black fur and black skin.

Its eyes were as blue as the deep ocean and in his hand was a large blue crystal, it was probably going to use it as a weapon of sorts.

*Kii...*

The other monkeys were scared by its greatness, but they did not retreat since it was on their side.

"Is this the end...?" Mumbled Akira to himself, looking frustrated and sad as well as scared.

"We have to get out of here, even the entrance of the cave is fine, just run!!" Shouted baldie while turning around, but, as he started running, three monkeys jumped towards him.

*Throw*

"Don't let your guard down like that" said Mia after throwing theee kunais at the three monsters.

She had hit their right eyes perfectly, so the kunai pierced their skull, and hit the third one's heart, killing them all in one shot.

"Thanks, Mia... Let's go now!" Esclamated baldie after thanking Mia.

Since we had a team formation, we could easily push through the monsters' lines and get out of the snow garden. We then started running towards the entrance of the cave.

*Swum*

I heard a strong noise from behind and, an instant later, saw a huge crystal flying towards the entrance.

*Crush*

*Crumble*

...

That giant monkey threw the crystal it was holding to block off the entrance by making it collapse.

"No! The entrance!!" Shouted Domo while looking at the now collapsed entrance.

"This is bad..." Mumbled baldie, "Now we have two choises. We can either run around while searching for a hidden exit or something like that, or we fight that colossal thing... We can't even hide because it would find us easily since it's constantly looking at us." Continued baldie, proposing two choises.

"I vote to fight it, if we manage to climb it in one go, we could easily catch him off guard and pierce its eyes, wich are directly connected to the brain." Said Akira.

"I will go wherever you guys go!" Said Haru, referring to everyone, with a smile.

"I would have voted to run away... But after that day, i decided to not be a coward anymore... I want to help you all!!" Said Domo, determined, while remembering what happened on the Fifth Floor.

"Let's kill that damn thing!! I see it as nothing more than a mountain of high quality materials!" Esclamated Darius while smirking out of excitement.

"I want to see if i can dodge its attacks with my speed." Says Mia with her empity expression.

"What about you, Ray?" Asked baldie.

Everyone was looking at me now.

...

For some reason, instead of fear or doubt, i felt happy and excited like never before...

Is this what having close companions you can trust feels like?

I smiled a little.

"Obviously, let's crush that overgrown monkey!" I responded with excitement.

"It's decided then!" said baldie while smirking, as if he already knew what i was going to say.

"Let's kill that mountain of a monster!!"

Chapter 29-End.