Chapter 70: Adventure (4)

Lucid tried his hardest to pull back the veil clouding his mind, but it seemed to resist his every effort. Still, he gave it his all. Little by little, the veil started to give away, and with one final shove, it dissolved completely, scattering like smoke in the wind. With a deep breath, Lucid looked at what was hidden underneath.

There was nothing. Well, there was something, but it wasn’t visible to him. He could tell that it was there, he truly could, but he had no idea what it was. Like water, it was transparent, and like air, it was hard to feel its presence, but it was definitely there. Perhaps if he continued to stare at it, he could find out what it was. So, stare he did. He stared and stared, until…

Growl.

His stomach rumbled, and the noise was enough to snap him back to reality. It was dark, and the moon hung from the sky, only showing a mere fraction of its great sphere. He had been lost in his thoughts for longer than he had realized. His body was still too young to be able to withstand hunger, and it was especially hard now, since he had spent much of the day physically straining himself without having even one proper meal.

He was loathe to take his mind off of the invisible thing in his mind, but he had to let it go for now. There was a proper time for everything, and right now, it was time for food. He rummaged through his rucksack and took out a piece of dried meat. He had taken care to pack it when he had gone from house to house in preparation for his journey. Food was the most important things after all. Even from a distance, these mountains had looked desolate and lacking in anything that could be considered a foodsource. Having already tried to climb one mountain range without the proper equipment and preparations once before, he had decided to not make the same mistake this time around.

Though he didn’t quite know how to cook or properly prepare food, he had learned tips and tricks from watching others cook. When he had first taken the meat from his neighbors’ houses, he knew that it would be impractical to carry it in the fresh state it was. As such, he had washed it with water and cooked it over fire. Then, he had heated it thoroughly, effectively drying it out completely. In short, he had made a jerky out of fresh meat using his magic. Had he had any notion of spices or seasonings, it would have been a rather delicious jerky, but he hadn’t thought that far when packing. Still, he hadn’t forgotten to also take some dried turnips and cabbages just in case. Magic could really be handy sometimes.

As he filled his stomach, Lucid once again wondered about the thing in his mind. What could it be? But no matter how much he thought about it, the earlier feeling and image were already gone and seemed to not want to come back to him.

By this time, the moon was already high up in the sky, but still Lucid only thought about the elusive image in his head. Perhaps he had lost his chance, or perhaps it just wasn’t the right time anymore. In any case, he knew he had to give up on it, at least for tonight. If he spent any more time on this, the lack of sleep could seriously hurt him in the morning when he took off again. He would think more about this later. Though he didn’t know whether that was the right decision to make, he had to other choice. Even if he were to regret this later, he simply didn’t have time to waste like this.

The next morning, Lucid began his climb towards the peak of the rocky mountain. Everything went quite smoothly at first. The path was covered in gravel and small rocks, but it wasn’t enough to hold him back tremendously. However, around noon, he reached an enourmous cliff and sighed heavily before he could even help it. There seemed to be no way around it, which meant that he had to climb his way up the massive wall in front of him. Though the task at hand was herculean in every way, he had known things would turn out like this ever since he had reached the foot of the mountain. After all, the whole mountain chain just looked like cliffs upon cliffs. It was only obvious that he would come across such an obstacle eventually.

He remembered his first science experiment in the other world. He had made a small slope by tilting a book and then had rolled a pencil down over it. He had wanted to see how much friction the pencil would react to as well as what kind of reaction it would show. The cliff in front of him was the same thing, just on a bigger scale and with him as the test subject instead of a pencil.

Lucid took a big breath and raised his hands. If the cliff had just been a straight vertical drop, he would have hesitated for a bit longer, but luckily it had a faint slope. He patted the rock in front of him, testing to see if there was anything he could hold on to, and then raised his leg, stepping on the face of the cliff. With another deep breath, he began to climb the cliff, though it looked more like crawling than anything. Alternating his feet and his arms, he really did resemble a big lizard.

Had he been any heavier, perhaps this would have been impossible after all. Thankfully, however, with his current weight and the slope of the cliff, the conditions were just right enough for him to use his friction magic effectively. Increased friction was still only friction, however, and since he wasn’t physically sticking to the surface like an actual lizard, he was still very careful of his every step, and his whole body was tensed up.

The wind picked up. Though he was now resilient to heat and the cold, the strain of climbing such a precarious cliff was more than enough to make him sweat. The wind was a welcome relief as it dried out the beads of sweat gathering at his forehead, but he was also wary of it, and he stopped his ascent every time a strong gust blew on him, pressing his whole body against the surface of the cliff lest he lose his grip on it. His breath came out in heavy pants, but there was hardly anything he could do to regulate it.

As he neared the top of the cliff, both his arms and legs trembled uncontrollably. Climbing such a steep, tall cliff with just his strength alone had taken quite a toll on him, and he was fatigued. All his friction magic did was help him to not slip, so he had had to push himself up with nothing but his own muscles and sheer determination. He hadn’t been at all diligent with sports lately, so he was lacking in both muscle strength and stamina. Of course, starting now also wouldn’t be of any help at this point. The only thing that had allowed him to even make it this far was his base strength that he had acquired as a child, and for that, he was ever thankful.

As soon as he made it to the top, Lucid fell to the ground and spread his arms and legs out, trying to steady his breath. It took him several moments to get his breathing in order, but once he had managed to stop huffing and puffing, he sat up and rummaged through his sack again, taking out a piece of jerking and gnawing on it to fill his empty stomach. There was no seasoning on it at all, so it was just a flavorless, tough piece of meat that was less like food and more just a means to get some nutrition in.

He was suddenly reminded of Yun-jeong. She had graduated from the institute just last year, and she had been kind and caring up until the very end. She had taken Lucid to the library on weekends, sometimes buying him food. Though she was a third year in high school, she didn’t have plans for college, which meant that she had more than enough time to take Lucid to the cafeteria and cook for him.

“How is it?” she would ask every time Lucid took a bite.

She always liked it when people gave honest reviews of her food, and she was especially keen on hearing Lucid’s opinion.

“It’s good,” was the only answer Lucid ever gave, but she still delighted in hearing it every time.

On the day of her graduation, she had put her hands on Lucid’s shoulders and leaned down to meet his eye level.

“One day, when I open my own restaurant, I want you to come and tell me what you think of my food. Promise?” she asked, her small, cute face tilted to the side, “You have to tell me it’s good, okay?”

Lucid had finished his jerky before he even realized. He wasn’t full by any means, but it would have to do for now. It had taken him much longer to climb than he had anticipated, and he had to ration his food and water carefully. After all, no matter how much he looked around, there was no sign of anything or anyone that could possibly rescue him, or even be of use to him should he find himself in trouble.

Food was also not the only problem. There was also the issue of finding appropriate shelter every night, be it another crevice or even just a rock to curl up under. Even if it couldn’t be considered a shelter by any means, he would still need something over his head to shield him from possible rainfall. But no matter how many rocks and boulders he was surrounded by, it was hard to find an appropriate spot to rest under. He couldn’t crawl through narrow gaps between rocks, and even if there was a good enough boulder to rest under, he wouldn’t be able to do so if there were also sharp, pointed rocks under it. And so each night he looked for new shelter, and each day he rationed his food, until he finally reached the peak of the mountain.

Of course, his goal was to cross over the mountain, which meant that he didn’t actually have to reach the literal peak of the mountain. He had found a tall enough hill and climbed over that instead, and he finally found himself in a high enough position to look down over the other side of the rocky mountain. Still, he couldn’t see much at all, given how dark it had gotten by the time he had reached the peak. Even if he were to make a light sphere, it would hardly be enough to light up everything he needed to see. He would take a better look in the morning. For now, he needed to find somewhere to rest.

One good thing about this mountain was that there were no wild beasts roaming about, so he didn’t have to be afraid of wolves like he had last time. However, one bad thing about the mountain was that, again, there were no wild beasts around, which meant that he couldn’t hunt for food. In times like these, he actually wished that a wolf would come out and attack him.

“I’d burn them all to a crisp and eat them like steak.”

His last encounter with a wolf had been quite hard to forget, and he wanted to get his revenge. He was different now. He could take on a wolf and win. At least, he would be able to under normal conditions. He wasn’t sure whether he’d be able to under his current circumstances.

There wasn’t much food left in his rucksack. He had tried to save up on the jerky as much as he could, but with all the strain he had put his body under, he had still ended up eating most of it. Given that he had eaten more of the dried vegetables while trying to save up on the meat, it meant that he was also running low on those. Overall, he was low on food.

Lucid sighed and looked around in search of shelter, just as he had done these past few days, when something odd caught his eye.

“Huh?”

There, not too far away from where he was standing, was a cave. It was a little over two meters (6’6″), and though the entrance wasn’t all that big, it was still very clearly a cave, and it was the last thing Lucid had expected to find. Though he had an odd feeling about this, the cave was the best option he had to avoid the cold wind and the early autumn dew. He would use it as shelter, but only after a thorough inspection. The cave suddenly lit up, and Lucid stepped in, his light sphere shining brightly over his head.

The air inside the cave felt humid, likely due to the difference in temperature from outside, but it was still mostly composed of rocks and stones rather than soil or sand. It was uncertain whether the cave was a hole on a boulder or if boulders had gotten stuck on the cave, but in any case, it looked to be very sturdy, as densely packed as it was with rocks.

No matter how much he walked, however, he couldn’t see where the cave ended, and he wondered if he should go deeper inside. Part of him wished to rest for tomorrow’s journey, but it wasn’t enough to hold back his curiosity. He had already come so far, after all. Wouldn’t it be a waste to stop exploring now?

Lucid was sure that this was a natural cave, but the way it was so evenly shaped was still rather wondrous, not to mention the fact that there were no insects around despite the humidity and darkness.

He reached the end of the cave just as he began to tire, almost as if the cave knew that he needed rest and was cutting him some slack. By his calculations, he had walked for roughly thirty minutes. Did that make this a large cave? Or a short one? Lucid wasn’t quite sure. He was satisfied enough with the fact that the cave seemed to be safe, with nothing around that could pose a serious threat to him. He nodded to himself and turned back, but something at the corner of his eye caught his attention.

Lucid turned back around to examine what he had seen. There was something on the wall there, on the right. As he stepped closer, the light sphere above his head shone brightly, lighting up the wall and revealing what he had seen.

It was a drawing.

<Adventure (4)> End.