On the next day, early in the morning, Edward left to explore the mountains. Since he didn’t want to risk going into the forest yet, to let things settle down, he had set his sight on the mountains instead. He had been there for roughly two weeks now, and he had only explored the forest, it was time to change that. It would be silly not to delve into the mountains while he was right at their figurative doorstep.

He took his time climbing the stone scree near his base, careful not to trip on an insecure stone, even though now, it was a lot easier for him since he could see the stones in his aura perception, and check if they were loose or not. From time to time, he even cheated a little and teleported to avoid a particularly treacherous area. He was glad that his physical capacity had improved compared to back on Earth, he was already quite fit before, but climbing a mountain with a lot of positive drops was supposed to be exhausting. However, now that he was on his path to becoming superhuman, at least compared to a normal man on Earth, he could climb the mountain without getting excessively tired.

Whatever you say about this world, getting stronger is a nice boon. Edward looked behind him, he had already climbed around one kilometer of vertical drops. Phew, that’s a nice climb, and the view is worth it. And I still can’t see the end of the forest even though I’m a lot higher. If I follow the direction I went into the forest, I should have entered around this spot. I can see that the forest is less dense a little further away. That should be where I found that stupid beetle and the beginning of the marsh area. If I go further from this, the marsh is ending and the forest is back, and then…Wait, what is this? The forest is turning white. Are those…webs?

No way!! Are you telling me that there are spiders than can cover trees of more than thirty meters of heigh in webs? No, no, no. I’m blacklisting this spot. I won’t ever go there. One huge beetle is already enough, I don’t want to encounter huge, meter-wide spiders. If I get stuck in a web, what would happen? Would the web still stick to me if I teleport away? I’m keeping my clothes between teleportations, so that is a disturbing possibility. I don’t know how my power decides what to teleport or not. If a simple contact with me is enough to get teleported with me, I would still be in the web after my teleportation. Edward shuddered. Nope, I don’t even want to think about it. Let’s just ignore this spot and continue with the climb.

Edward turned back toward the mountain to try to forget this gruesome realization. By now, he was almost outside of the scree, and he was arriving on a short grass slope. He spotted several burrows here and there in the grass. Burrows? Yes! There are no spiders here, only cute critters. I hope I can get marmots. He approached one of the burrows quietly while canceling his aura, he leaned over it to see what was inside. From his spot of view, he wasn’t able to see anything, the burrow was too dark, so instead, he released his aura perception to try to sense what was inside. Since he broke through as an awaken, he could now sense things up to fifty meters if there were no obstacles. It was the first time that he was trying to release his aura perception inside of the ground. He realized that he couldn’t sense things as far as the usual, all the earth was obscuring his senses, and he could only sense things until five meters into the ground.

However, this distance was enough to sense the small mammal residing inside the burrow, it was taking a nap at this moment. Aww so cute. It is way better than spiders and beetles. I’m not able to determine what it is exactly, but I can sense its cuteness. It looks similar to a Quokka. Ok, I will let it sleep. I don’t see any of them outside right now. I don’t think I made enough noise to make them hide, so they are probably nocturnal. To say that I would have missed them if I had stuck only to the forest. I should continue to climb, I will come back either when the night is falling or when I start to feel cold.

Edward continued his ascension, not encountering any of the mammals, which were all still resting inside their burrows. After some time, the slope started to become less slanted and Edward reached a plateau. He stopped, seized by the sight of a majestic pristine lake in the middle of the plateau. Its water was so clear that Edward was able to see the bottom of the lake. Its sky-blue water was glittering under the light of the sun. Wow, this is so beautiful. It is not a view you can see every day.

Edward walked closer to it, he could see some small fishes swimming lazily inside. I wonder how those fished even came here in the first place. While watching the lake, he noticed that one river was beginning from the lake to hurtle down the mountain slope. This must be the river which I take my drinking water from. As the sun was already high in the sky, and since it was such a nice place, Edward decided to take his lunch break over here. That would give him more time to appreciate the view.

While eating, he was observing the landscape, behind the lake, the mountain was continuing to rise with a vertical rocky outcrop. Well, I won’t be able to go that way. I’ll have to circumvent it. He noticed that one part of the outcrop was darker than the rest, but he couldn’t see clearly as he was still too far away. Is that a cavern? Or is it just that the rock is darker? I’ll have to see it from up close to check. He finished his lunch before walking alongside the shore of the lake to reach the outcrop. This is indeed the entry of a cavern.

He stopped at the entrance. I don’t have a torch or any flashlight with me but I can still check the entrance quickly without going too far in. I can rely on my aura perception too. It is not the same thing as my eyesight but at least I won’t be stumbling around like a blind man. He activated his aura perception. Still perceiving everything in shades of greys is not fun, it’s like I’m in a horror movie or something. It gives a new meaning to fifty shades of grey. He had walked for just a few meters when he stopped.

Something is wrong. I can feel…death in here. With his aura perception, he was able to sense small clouds of a dark aura lingering near the ground in the cavern. This is not good. I should go back. I don’t know if this aura is being sent as a warning, or if it is the remnants of living beings getting killed, but it is bad in both cases. I am out of here. Edward quickly left the cavern and walked a good distance away from it. He shuddered while looking back at it. This landscape feels just like paradise, and this cavern, seemingly innocuous, is reeking of death.

It actually makes me remember the flowers' trees inside the forest. Death hid among the calm and the beauty. Next time I go into the forest I should check if I can sense the same death aura from them. The only time I went near them I wasn’t able to feel auras yet.

Edward got away from the cavern to pursue his ascension, he mentally noted the grotto as a place to avoid and maybe to come back once he was stronger. However, he didn’t want to bite more than he could chew right now. As he was walking upward, the slope was getting steeper, at one point he ended in front of a vertical rock wall. Time to do some climbing. This rock wall is only four or five meters tall. I don’t have any protection with me, but it should be okay even if I fall, it is not that high, besides, my body should be tougher now too. After all, I’m already an awaken, I took my first step toward becoming a superhuman.

He went near the wall and tried to find a foothold that could bear his full weight. He wasn’t used to climbing, the only limited experience he had with it was some indoor climbing at school. He at least remembered that you were supposed to climb with your feet and not with your arms. One’s legs were a lot stronger than arms, if you try to climb with your arms, you would get tired very quickly. Finding footholds on a natural wall wasn’t easy for him. In indoor climbing, at least at school, the holds were very prominent and gave you a could handle. Here, in the wild, the holds were a lot smoother.

I would have preferred to have better holds, but those will do, I guess. He began his climb, posing one foot after the other on the wall and searching for the next foot and handholds. It wasn’t as hard as he feared and he quickly reached the top, although he felt as if he sometimes brute-forced his way up the wall. He wasn’t at ease climbing. Phew, admire the thing you can do Edward. Now even a rock wall is not enough to stop you. It is not the kind of thing I would have dared to do alone in the wild before without any equipment. Once you feel more confident, you realize that a lot of obstacles aren’t that tall and can be overcome. The only thing preventing you from doing it is your fear.

He looked around him, there were patches of snow in several places, and the grass was becoming rare too. Instead, there were a lot more rocky outcrops, with only naked stone without any soil on it. In front of him, the peak of the mountain was still going up, covered in snow. Besides this peak, the mountain range was continuing, with other peaks further away. I guess that’s it. I’m not equipped to go treading into the snow. Actually, I’m surprised that I am not feeling any colder. Sure, it is cold, but my clothes aren’t that thick, and there are patches of eternal snow only a few meters from me. Actually, this gives me an idea.

Edward walked to the nearest patch of snow, and took some snow in his hand, beginning to make a snowman. He didn’t have any carrots for the nose, but he used some pebbles for the eyes and the mouth. Done, behold the first snowman of this mountain! He looked at it, it wasn’t a perfect snowman but it was good enough for him. I miss having a camera. This would have been cool. I could have taken a picture to keep as a trophy for climbing the mountain. Whatever, it is still worth it even without any pictures. As he couldn’t really go further away, and since it was already starting to get late, he had to climb down the mountain. Edward turned to go back to his hideout.