By the time Bones appears the drider is already charging towards us, Bones takes a defensive stance. Without me having to tell him to, Bones uses his shield to stop the drider, as he does I slash above his head and cut the drider's head off. Once it falls we start backing up towards the barrier, I don't want to take my eyes off the driders.

Watching them I find out how they caught up so fast, they don't bother moving the body and just use the walls to go around it. For a minute I forgot they were part spider and can walk on walls, and probably the ceiling if they want to. They are charging at us again when I feel my back hit something solid, but when I look back I don't see anything.

In fact I can see Kechara sitting catching her breath a few feet from me, but when I try to move backwards it is like there is a wall there. It must be the barrier, but why isn't it letting me through this time? The fact that Kechara passed it must be the key, she was able to pass it so I quickly call out to her.

Before she can reach me the driders launch an attack against me and Bones. Bones and I work together to kill the first couple of driders and let their bodies block the tunnel. When I look around I find Kechara is next to my leg so I quickly pick her up under one arm and try to go through the barrier.

'Unsummon Bones!'

Holding Kechara the barrier just feels like air as I pass through it, but the air on the other side is much colder so I know I am through. Looking back I again see a black wall across the tunnel, now that I am safe I let myself collapse to the ground. Kechara immediately wiggles free of my arm and climbs up to start licking the fur of my face.

Reaching up to pet her to reassure her that I am okay is about all I am capable of right now. I decide that we are going to camp right here, there is no way I can climb down the cliff right now. It takes a few minutes before I can muster enough energy to sit up and build a small fire to cook us some food.

At least we accomplished my original goal, we should have enough food for a few months now. Not to mention we won't be on a meat only diet during that time as long as I don't go overboard. As soon as I am done eating I curl up with Kechara, pull the hammock over us, and fall asleep instantly.

When I wake up, other than being sore from sleeping on rock, I feel a hundred times better. I think I would have been less tired if I just killed all the driders instead of trying to run away. Although, now that I can think, I can't help but wonder why Kechara was the key to passing the barrier.

Since the barrier is one way it is safe to assume that it was put in place to trap the driders, which means there were survivors from the city. If that is the case then maybe the guardian for the mountain has nothing to do with the temple. The guardian might just be here to make sure those things never escape this mountain.

I hope that isn't the case, because if it is then Kechara will most likely be stuck here. Another thing I am curious about is where did the living driders come from, I saw no signs of them on the way in. At this point I just hope all the barriers are holding strong, I don't want to think about what would happen if the driders got loose.

Once we are done with breakfast I clean up and then put Kechara on my back and head for the exit. The closer to the surface we get the colder it becomes, I am not looking forward to being outside. When we reach the tunnel entrance the wind instantly finds all the new holes in my armor and I can't help but shiver.

Lowering myself down I start to descend along the cliff face towards the ledge. Kechara is a nice warm weight against my back and she helps shield me from the wind. When I check she seems perfectly happy, the wind and cold don't seem to phase her at all, I am a little jealous.

Already, I can't wait to get back to her cave and start a fire, especially since I need to take my armor off. For now I focus on moving carefully, especially once the cold starts making my hands numb. I manage to make it down to the ledge without falling and then I start shuffling my way along the ledge.

Once I am off the ledge I let Kechara down and then race her back to the cave, she wins but only because I am slow in the snow. Once we are back in the cave I start a fire to warm the place up, only once it warms up do I take my armor off to check the damage. There are a lot of small cuts all over the armor, and I don't have any materials to repair it with since I gave everything to Walter.

Out of curiosity I try pushing some sacred power into the armor but it doesn't work, guess it requires mana as well to work. That means I can't enchant things myself since I don't have mana, but Kechara does. After a few minutes explaining it to her I teach her how to expel some of her mana.

Once she releases it I can gather it using mana manipulation and move it into my armor. Once there is mana inside I find I am able to add my sacred power to it, the two powers seem to merge. First I manipulate the mixed powers to repair all the damage done to the armor, this requires me to add more power several times.

*DING*

Congratulations! Skill Mana Manipulation has progressed to level 3!

Mana Manipulation

Level: 3

SP Cost: 20/2 minutes

The ability to manipulate mana into new shapes.

By the time the armor is completely repaired Kechara is showing signs of being tired so I tell her to take a nap. I am not surprised she ran out of mana already, she is still young after all. While she is napping I take out one of the books I got in the city and start trying to puzzle out the language.