Chapter 204: shelters layout across the everest

A few hours later, Clark was on the mountain peak, still climbing with his soldiers. This time, they were luckier as they encountered no beast horde, exobeasts, or natural hazards.

After honoring their dead comrades and building a snow grave as a legacy for them, Clark finally led his soldiers away.

This time, he took the Northward direction as the map indicated that the next nearest mountaineers’ shelter was located in that direction.

Through the map, he was finally able to get a preliminary understanding of their current location.

The great peaks of the Himalayan ranges already expanded countless times, during the last century. Currently, their size and territory were at least a quarter bigger than it was in the 21st century.

Research results back in the 21st century showed that Everest and its environs have a steady growth and expansion rate. Though the growth rate is small, the proof is there that the Himalayan mountains grow every year.

After countless exploration expeditions by soldiers during the period of the great battle of supremacy, a general map was made which was widely acknowledged by all countries as the norm.

With the map, Clark deduced that the legally established and recognized shelters were of different sizes and grades, according to the height where they were planted on the mountain wall.

The shelter was divided into 3 grades, according to their sizes and their location in the mountain.

The first grade was the peripheral level, which was the level that they were still in currently. The shelter that they just rested in was in the ranks of the lowest graded shelters, which are based at the periphery of the mountain peak.

The lowest graded shelters, are also normally the ones with the smallest sizes, least budget, and are the easiest to build. Most countries, including those with low-grade military strength, have their army strongholds here.

The second grade was in the middle level, which was the level between the middle heights of the Himalayan peaks.

As expected, the dangers, cold, and natural hazards in this region are more extreme than those of the level below it. This was the level that made Everest the dreaded Everest.

Shelters that are built here are larger and require more resources and manpower to build. Here, countries with low-grade military strength are directly relegated from the race for exotics.

Only countries with middle-grade strength and higher, are eligible to build shelters and man them up here.

The third grade, which was the last and highest level, was the level at areas between the absolute zenith of the Himalayan peaks.

Naturally, the danger of this zone was countless times more extreme than those of the middle level. This was the level that gave this place the status of a frontier region, this was the death zone of Everest.

In this zone, only the stronger ones among the countries with high-grade military strength and super-high-grade countries could build shelters here.

This was the operation ground of the bigshots.

The Spartan team that discovered the ruins that brought this mission took refuge in one of the Spartan shelters located in the middle level, which meant that the location for this mission was also in the middle level.

At this current age, the highest temperature of Everest can be as high as a thousand minus degrees centigrade. This horrifyingly cold temperature was only recorded at the mountain’s highest peak though.

Though it was possible to be made, the big 5 were too lazy to build a shelter at this extreme zenith of the cold Everest to protect explorers and adventurers. They were not babysitters.

To them, if they needed to get there, they had the equipment and technology to get there safely, so why bother themselves by building shelters that would have practically no meaning to them?

And also, though it was just a rumor, it was once circulated that one of the 5 primordial exobeasts, Cold Kong was staying at this zenith.

This was his territory, so most soldiers tended to avoid this region even if they had the requirements to get there. Here in the frontier, only the brave souls could go far, there was no place for cowards.

Cold Kong was the exobeast that was ranked 3rd among the 5 primordial exobeasts, only below Drakonous and the 2nd ranked Sabertoothed Targaryen.

Though most countries had shelters built all over the Himalayan peaks, the shelters mostly used by wanderers are built by large organizations that took this mountain region as their business region.

These organizations already built dozens of shelters, if not hundreds around the mountain. Every mercenary had a place to take refuge so far as he/she had the magic tool, money.

In this era, apart from strength and power, money was everything. Take it or leave it, this was the truth.

Without money, the big 5 would not be what they are today. Without money, Sparta would be just a sorry loser country that stole ancient names for their grandeur. Without money, Clark was a fish out of water.

Water is life, but money is the driver of life.

…

After Clark went through the map, he took one of the only 3 large shelters that were built in the middle region by business pursuing organizations as his target.

Though there were Spartan shelters here, the Spartan army strictly warned all the leaders of the squads to never go near one.

According to the predictions of the leaders of the army, only a few countries with high-grade military strength got the information of the discovered ruin, so they intended to keep it that way.

Though the Spartan shelters were safely hidden from enemies, the Spartans were not conceited enough to believe that their lousy stealth measures were worth a fart before the big 5’s surveillance.

If by mistake, any of the big 5 got information about this rare meat that they got to vie for within themselves, then they were doomed.

The big 5 would just clap for them first. Then, like a big brother who saw that his kid sister found a thousand dollars on the floor, they would politely take the money while patting the sister on the head fondly.

In this case, they were the young and innocent sisters, while the big 5 were the overbearing big brother.

No way would they want the big 5 to take this meat and horde it to themselves, so preventing them from knowing early was the best that they could do.

Though one of the large public shelters was Clark’s target, the journey to get there was not beans despite their advanced tech equipment. It was a journey of weeks, if not months.

“Soldiers, pick up the pace, we have to leave this region and find a good place to rest before the night comes”.

Clark barked orders at his soldiers, as he led them forward tenaciously, trudging across the deep snow-filled pathway.

They were currently moving up a slope, so the resistance to their progress was stronger as most of the soldiers were already feeling tired. No one complained though, as they all persevered and continued forward.

A few hours later, they finally left the area where the shelter was located. They could finally see the rocky mountain wall again; they were still in the Khumbu icefalls pathway.

The slopy region that they just crossed was one of the few flat surfaces in the mountain, where adventurers can rest and build temporary shelters.

Seeing this familiar glacier-filled mountain wall again, the soldiers of Squad 6 all heaved a sigh of relief as they followed the lead of their Major and started climbing.

Though it took them some time, they finally crossed their first flat surface.

After the last experience with the Himalayan black bears, the soldiers were more cautious as they listened attentively to the directives of their leader and second in commands while watching alertly like hawks.

They climbed with much less grandeur and noise this time. Despite this, their efficiency was faster than the rate they moved at in their first time climbing.

Their 4 comrades who died because of being slow was still fresh in their minds, so they did not need the reminder of anybody to know that they had to strain their legs and move faster.

Clanking sounds rang out repeatedly, forming an organized melodic rhythm as the soldiers gradually scaled the mountain wall with their sickle-like climbing equipment.

2 hours later, they finally arrived at another cave in the wall before the day could get completely dark.

Due to their experience of last time, they were now knowledgeable as 5 soldiers were appointed by Clark to go inside and carefully scour the cave for signs of any activity.

The others did not rest despite this, as they were not ready to rest before the results of the search came out. In this frontier, it was not safe until it was confirmed safe.

Diana led the 4 soldiers, as she silently trudged deeper into the wide cave. The cave was wider than the one they encountered previously, which gave them more options on how to respond in the case of any emergency.

It took them a whole 30 minutes, but no impatience was shown by them as they finally scoured the cave to its very ends. Seeing this, she heaved a sigh of relief inwardly.

“Sir, it's safe”. She quickly spoke into her comm.

“Thank God”. The soldiers responded even before Clark could react, as they all plopped down to the floor exhausted.

Seeing this, Clark only smiled before permitting them to eat. The already famished soldiers reacted enthusiastically to this, as they quickly started the wrestle with food.

…

Just like the remnants of a world war, or soldiers that were stranded on another planet, for the next few days, the soldiers of Squad 6 scaled the mountain like their life depended on it.

It seemed to them that the hours of the days were flying, as just like in a flash, they already spent a week climbing the mountain.

Their daily routine was to climb, look for a cave to rest, eat, continue climbing, look for a cave to spend the night, eat, sleep, wake up and repeat the cycle.

Though none of them really said it, they were ambitious and were all yearning to complete this mission and make a name for themselves.

Their leader, Major Clark, was an example of a soldier who got fame through undergoing dangerous missions, so why could they not do it? All of them were optimistic about their chances, as this pushed them to move faster than estimated.

Though they have not reached the middle levels of the mountain peak yet, they already scaled a significant distance from their starting point.

Today, when they were going through their routine, they were surprised to find a cave that was different from the others. Not only was it a cave, but it was also a tunnel that led to another part of the mountain.

“Benny, what’s the situation there?” Clark quickly spoke into his comm. Benny was the leader of the vanguard group this time.

“Major, the tunnel is not as good as a discovery we thought it was”. Though Benny felt a little awkward calling his friend by his title, he had to do it as he was in front of many soldiers.

“Tell me”.

“The tunnel seems to have been abandoned, and it is now occupied by others. It serves as the home of another group of mountain beasts”.

“Which one?”

“Mountain cats”.

[Thank you for reading this chapter, I really appreciate it. Sorry, there was a mistake here, I just rectified it. If you love this book, please leave your power stones behind to support it. Purchase privilege for The Conspiracy Of The Elites and read a varying amount of chapters ahead of regular readers.]