Chapter 7

Item

Description

Usage requirement

Snow Yeti’s reinforced Leather helmet

(Epic)

A leather helmet made from the remains of powerful dwellers of the northern lands

+25 cold resistance

+1000 Hp

+250 Agility

+250 strength

+5 fortitude

+100 Hp Regen/minute

+10% resistance to curses/plagues/diseases.

Level 500.

Item

Description

Usage requirement

Snow Yeti’s reinforced Leather boots

(Epic)

Leather boots made from the remains of powerful dwellers of the northern lands

+25 cold resistance

+500 Hp

+350 Agility

+150 strength

+5 fortitude

+100 Hp Regen/minute

+10% resistance to curses/plagues/diseases.

Level 500.

Item

Description

Usage requirement

Snow Yeti’s reinforced Leather gloves.

(Epic)

Leather gloves made from the remains of powerful dwellers of the northern lands

+25 cold resistance

+500 Hp

+150 Agility

+350 strength

+5 fortitude

+100 Hp Regen/minute

+10% resistance to curses/plagues/diseases.

Level 500.

Item

Description

Usage requirement

Snow Yeti’s reinforced Leather armor

(Epic)

Chest piece made from the remains of powerful dwellers of the northern lands

+30 cold resistance

+1000 Hp

+200 Agility

+200 strength

+5% fortitude

+200 Hp Regen/minute

+10% resistance to curses/plagues/diseases.

Level 500.

“Interesting,” I said as I looked at the pieces made by the craftsmen,

“However, why don’t these items have a bonus skill like the other ones did?”

“My lord,” said the craftsmen, “the difference is because your equipment was made by a legendary creature, its whole body is of magical construct, thus it is not strange to have different skills to different parts, however the Yeti’s though strong, they are not as rare as a dragon. Yet the result is still amazing for a mere Yeti”

“Indeed, I never expected it to have this many resistances, especially to dark and diseases.”

“True, these Yeti’s lived long within these lands so they developed the needed resistances to live without the unwanted side effect of being close to the plagued north.”

“What do you know about the north old man?”

“Nothing much my lord, just that it harbors strong and powerful monsters, and rare are those that came back once they took the journey towards it, however, I doubt that would be the case for one such as you, my lord.”

“Thank you for having such high regards towards my ability.”

“With pleasure my lord, now can I have your armor to upgrade if you wish?”

“I don’t require any of that personally but you can ask the girls for upgrades, I am immune to poisons and plagues and I have a way around strong curses, so worry not about me.”

Misaka and Haruka heard me speaking with the craftsmen and decided to give him their armors for an upgrade. As for me I took the yeti’s armor set and gave it to Haru who was mouth agape once he began inspecting them.

“These are for me?”

“Yes.”

“Can I kiss you?”

“You want to die?”

“Not really but damn dude, this thing is epic! Get it? hehe because it's an epic item, hh”

I wanted to cringe from the lame pun he made but couldn’t reply… it was always the case with Haru, making the lamest of puns in the worst possible moment.

“I wanted to summon a soul eater for you guys to train again,” I said but before I could continue

“Please no!” said both Haruka and Misaka “I don’t think we can handle it without Haruna and the elven princess Daiki it is quite difficult without them.”

“I know, that is why we will be hunting monsters on our way to the mountain of glory. It should be fun.”

“I seriously doubt that your definition of fun is the same as ours,” said Haru who was squinting his eyes at me

“Common what can be more fun than killing monsters of legends while risking your life doing so.”

“Well you don’t really need to be bothered with risking your life, you are immortal…”

“That doesn’t mean that death is not painful, mind you,” I said sarcastically.

“Don’t worry I will try my best not to let any of you die.”

“That is really not assuring,” said Misaka

“Why are you saying that I saved you all many times haven’t I?” I said

“And all of those times you waited until the last possible moment… it is a bit heavy on the heart, spending time with you is bound to give us heart attacks, mind you I think I really need a heart doctor right now…”

“Well, don’t worry about that, at least it’s a good heart exercise. Now you guys will be needing to rest for a bit. We will be walking deeper into the mountain range tomorrow, I don’t know what will await us but I am sure it will not be something of compassionate nature.”

Everyone went to sleep while I remained awake, unable to feel any fatigue or tiredness from the day’s events, so I sat down and meditated, entering my subconscious to see the fate of one I needed to punish.

Once inside the torrent of souls I willed his soul to appear before me, however, nothing tangible did, a broken soul fragmented beyond recognition was all that was left from the hulking Renji,

“This friend of yours was too weak to withstand the shredding of the souls, too unwilling and too fearful that he gave up on his own soul to escape this prison,” said the sacrilegious king, who seemed to be brimming with energy.

“Your appearance seemed to have changed old king”

“They sure did,” he replied without trying to hide the fact that he consumed the weak souls within me

“So, tell me old king, why are you consuming these souls?”

“Don’t worry, no matter how many of these fragments I take in, I will be no danger to your control over your body, also, the energy I consume does not go to waste, you are using my own power as yours even if you do not know of it.”

“Then why are you doing this if it is not to control my own body then?”

“It is so that these feeble ones that cannot stand this ‘prison’ need not live or exist any longer, they are a burden that will only fog yours and my mind with their insatiable and relentless pleading. It is but a nuisance that I am taking care of, and of course, I gain more power in doing so, the power that is yours and will help in your task.”

“Do as you wish, however, if I ever feel that you are trying to do anything I find intolerable, then your end is assured,” I said

The king only smirked and disappeared in the dark.

I woke up when it was daytime. Everyone, however, was already up, it seems that I am still unable to control the time I am within my subconscious, it sometimes takes ages inside while only a minute had passed on the outside, and sometimes a moment there and days had passed…

“Time to go, everyone, we will keep going forward, this time, however, we will pickup the pace,”

We were already taking our time walking to our destination, we should hurry up. the faster we go the faster this whole shit ends. There was no need for us to take our time anyway.

Looking at everyone in their armors I felt a bit at ease, these things will keep them safer, I could also notice the upgrades on the girl’s armor set, the white fur of Yeti was covering their necks and noticeable leather was seen under their armor making the coldness of the air grow less as it was a great cold resistant material.

Haru’s armor set was a bit different, as it had two giant tusks like fangs that made the helmet look like a Sabertooth's head.

The rest of his armor made a perfect coat and armor set of pure white with a leather belt and tough looking boots.

“This thing is so comfortable I feel amazed at how skilled that forgemage is,” said Haru

“True, I also wonder how he managed to get such a high level of craftsmanship. It must have taken a lot of effort, time and patience. Something we don’t have right now let's keep moving.” I said as I willed the territorial skill to disappear and with it crumbled the forgmage after giving a formal bow.

Looking forward, we were met with nothing but cold weather, fog and a lot of distance to walk.

“Stay close, there seems to be an ice storm nearby, we don’t need to get separated less that you would freeze over.”

“These armors will help us against the cold right?”

“Yes, it will help you against the cold, but once an ice storm hits, your whole body along with that armor will be encased in ice, you will be unable to move and freeze to death even within your comfortable armor.”

“Yeah… Hearing this is not comforting at all you know…”

“I do, so let's get going before we all make some nice ice sculptures.”

Walking forward, I noticed that most creatures decided to remain hidden within the underground. I still don’t understand how come they manage to survive even under such low temperatures. But I guess that the reason behind it is that they encase themselves in a thin layer of mana that acts as an insulator to cold.

I should probably learn this technique…

It took us few hours until we were in the range of the ice storm, looking at it from afar and being inside it is two different things, snow and ice that was big as rocks were flying all over the place, while we could barely walk forward.

“This is too damn difficult! Couldn’t we have chosen another day to come here? I mean how the hell are we supposed to get to this mountain that we can’t even see it?” said Haru while screaming his lungs out, as the wind and noise from the bouncing debris made speaking a difficult task.

“This storm is forever present, I read about it before we left, it is always here, and the mountain of glory is located in the eye of the storm. It acts as a protective barrier to whatever is inside.”

“If this is just the protection, I really don’t want to see what it is protecting…” said Haruka who looked to be struggling with the storm.

“I think your prayer was answered…”

An enormous shade grew from the wall of wind and ice, it looked like a winged creature, it even screamed like a vicious eagle.

“Of all our stinking luck, this had to show up…” I said

The guys near me took a look at the appearing creature of legends.

“You must be kidding me…” said Haru

“No one mentioned this…” said Haruka

“I guess that it was a bad omen to speak about it that time…”

Ice Pheonix

Level

1750

(Legendary creature)

A legendary creature of enormous strength, Phoenixes are symbols of longevity, strength, and overpowering dominance

Snow phoenixes are able to control the weather, summon storms and conjure ice and hail with just their presence, their power is beyond human comprehension.

Hp 50 000 000/ 50 000 000

“I think we should run,” I said

“What, this is the first time I heard you speak about running away from something. How come?”

“Fighting this thing will undoubtedly lead to my and your death, it is a waste of lives, especially with how huge its Hp pool is. Let's try to find another way around and hope he doesn’t notice us”

I said as we took a detour and tried to escape, but before I could even move a shot of a freezing ice ray went past the fog of snow and shot right between us and into the distance.

The snow that was piled on the ground instantly turned to frost and ice.

“I think it noticed us, get away from here guys I will try to hold it off for a moment,” I said

“We can’t leave you here mate!” said Haru

“Don’t worry, I won’t die that easily, and even if I did I will rise back, you guys can’t. So RUN!” I said as I turned around and released my chains

Time to hunt down some mythical creatures.

Gilgamesh POV

Within my right hand a small orb like object that combines the wisdom and vast intelligence of a god in a human flesh, one that managed to transcend without ascending, one that managed to live thousands of years without ever feeling bothered by the passage of time, Solomon, the ruler of Djinn, lord over the desert and crafter of seals and magic.

This man sought knowledge for knowledge itself, wanted to know more, learn more and attain higher grounds, now at the pinnacle of humans he refused to ascend to be a god, and chose to remain a demigod, having such knowledge made him the source of envy of many divines, they wanted his knowledge and his ability to seal monsters of great might with the smallest of efforts, yet he refused to give them power over such matters, claiming sagaciousness as if his knowledge fell in the hand of a divine, it will only bring havoc to the land, forcing any that disobeyed them to be locked up like a prisoner, nulling the freedom of choice that is if they had any in the first place.

He was right not to give them his knowledge, but he shouldn’t have outright antagonized them, less that they wouldn't have taken his wife as a hostage and using her whenever they needed something of him.

Now having her soul released by the aid of Annwn, I had fulfilled my part of the deal.

“Gilgamesh,” spoke on of the giant orbs of might where I stood in the center of their attention.

“Yes, Dementi, what is it that you require?”

“My champion seems to have changed, what have you done to them?”

“I only gave him a way to become stronger, I have yet to check up on him, why is it something grave?”

“You should see for yourself Gilgamesh, if his current state is any danger to the essence I had given then you will pay for it with your own.”

Stingy old bastard, asking me to train his own hero then if things go south I will be paying for it.

“You already agreed to the fact that I will be the one to kill him if he proves useless to our cause, don’t start regretting your choice now,”

“You dare!” roared the orb as it glowed more and more”

“ Enough with the childish games!” cried out Nox “We have more important matters at hand, Shiva went down and I have yet to hear of her, while you are arguing amongst each other over useless matters, we need to get the Herald out of the way before we can rein the humans back to place. Most of them began to doubt our existence and it is ever so slowly weakening us”

“It is simple then, once the Herald is captured I will present myself to them, and force them back to worshipping you, be it with strength and fear or conviction and piousness, they will fall in line,” I said

“So be it, but first we must restrain the Herald, and now as I have seen through the world, he was headed toward the mountain of glory,”

“What?” I asked as I knew that no sane man should ever go there, only ones that want to die or truly want to die to go there, people, demigods, monsters and any that ventures out toward the homeland of plagues and monstrosities never come back. Either they remain there as a sculptor of ice or they die to face the horrible monsters of the mountain. That is if they are lucky if worst comes to worse, then a meeting with Pestilence will be their end, as he is not one to reason with.

He took only one disciple in all his long existence and even that disciple was almost murdered at Pestilence’s hand… that is no place for a sane one to go…

“I wanted to use the seal to lock the Herald in place, but it seems that Pestilence will be doing my job for me”

“The Herald can still escape Pestilence’s reach, would you risk that?” said Dementi

“I would, and if he did I will hunt him down and seal him myself, but I will not go to the mountain of glory, Abaddon and I have a bad history together, and going there will be like presenting Pestilence with a godly served dish of divine essence, I would rather wait than going there alone…”

“I won’t blame you, none of us dares go there, Pestilence proved to be hard to deal with since his first step in the world, going there is nothing short of a suicide so I will have to agree with your decision to wait. However, I only hope that the Herald’s journey ends with his demise, lest that he grows stronger from this encounter…”

“You cannot grow strong from impossible odds of survival, the herald shall perish or run, and in either case it is our victory, if he is trapped within the mountain, none shall save him, and if he escapes I will be waiting for him with my seal.”

“Then go, go check up on our hero, he seems to have been growing strong without our need to interfere.”

I then teleported out of the room and appeared within the white void of training. Looking at the level status I noticed a strange thing

Divine training room

Level 558

Occupant

Yuji Sakamoto

Deaths

0

Current divine energy harnessed

2200

Divine energy consumed

1 220 002

“Strange, by now he should have been dead many times, and what the hell is up with that energy consumed, did he use that much energy?”

Looking around the void I saw nothing, no monsters and no presence of Yuji.

“Hey there lord of storms,” said a primal voice that made me unconsciously be on guard.

Turning around I saw a monster appearing from thin air, a giant of a man, crude, bleeding, filled with blisters and rotting all over, his body barely containing itself yet at the same time brimming with energy, and in its mouth was a half digested gargoyle.

“What have you done Yuji…”

“What I was asked for, grow strong, however, it seems that the side effects are a bit hard on the eye… but looking at you, you seem…you seem… I wonder how you would taste.” He said as his hand grew closer to me.

“Insolent fool,” I said as I smote him down with a lightning bolt that shocked his body and turned him to ash.

He rose back a moment later screaming from pain

“You are a million year too young to try and challenge me…this state of yours how did you manage to become like…’this’?”

“I- I fought, and couldn’t win… so I ate…and when I did, I grew stronger, much stronger, the monster’s taste was horrible at first, but the more and more I grow to strength their essence became tastier, like a nectar of gods, making me crave more…and more, I want to eat more, but the room… the room refused to give me more energy…this can’t be the end can it?”

‘This man lost his mind…I wanted him to grow stronger, true, but not like this, he should have been blinded by the strength and chose the third option regularly, but it seems that consuming the beasts here gave him more than he was usually getting…well, this still serves my purpose this way he will be more of a distraction than what I envisioned…’

“Worry not lad, you will get to eat something delicious very soon, but you should hope that your prey is a coward,”

Indeed, if the Herald chose to go further in the north and into the mountain, then his death is all but certain, then I will be forced to dispose of this abomination myself. Something this repulsive and disgusting has no place here within the upper realms…