3 The Boy and the Girl Meet 2

This conclusion made - The Mountain of Rose - go to the section of exotic methods to breakthrough while being stuck in a bottleneck.

The epilogue: "This is the first time I am writing a book. Why did I decide to do it? It's because I don't want to let my discovery go to waste. Since the healing properties of that land weren't worth the risk of transporting its earth from The Land of Monsters to The Continent of Civilized Races, then it wasn't done. Besides, the fact that there may be a legendary plant in that place is only my guess. I couldn't find any concrete proof of it. But you, my dear reader, if you think that you have the necessary strength and ability to solve the mystery of The Mountain of Rose, try it! And if you do it, and we live in the same era, please find me, then tell me what you've found in that place."

Rose, after she finishes reading the book, and having her eyes shining with stirred emotions, exclaims in her mind: (The first work of Lin the Lonely Adventurer! It seems that from here comes her unique style of writing incredible but real events and sceneries. This is too much of a coincidence: My name, my favorite author, the miraculous object that I need to make a breakthrough and the fact that it is in a place so close to where I am. Even though I am a very rational person, all these coincidences are forcing me to have the feeling that in The Mountain of Rose I will find what I'm looking for.)

After leaving the library, Rose goes to the inn to pick up her exploration equipment: Her backpack. Then she leaves Lurep Village, and runs northwest, of course, she remembers perfectly the path described in the book to get to The Mountain of Rose.

When the sky begins to shine, Rose is already in The Land of Monsters. Several kilometers later, she finally steps onto the region of the reddish earth.

Rose stops here, pulls out a dagger and uses it to make a small cut to her index finger of her left hand. After she put her dagger back in her backpack, she bends down and buries her left hand in the reddish earth. Fifteen seconds later she takes her hand off the ground and looks at her index finger.

"There is no doubt about it, low-level medicine." Rose says, with a big smile on her face.

Once this is done, she continues moving towards The Mountain of Rose. Upon reaching the mountain, she climbs it up and quickly finds a cave that had been mentioned in the book.

Just when she was about to enter the cave, she stops her steps because she had just heard particular sounds coming from the cave.

(There are several gorilla type monsters within the cave! But they are quite scattered, so I think I'll be fine as long as I stay alert. I'll go in.) Rose decides.

She enters the cave without hesitation because she knows that if that legendary plant really exists then it would have to be inside the mountain. Logically, a plant can grow in a cave but not underground without access to air, in addition, if the plant was on the mountain then the mountain would also have turned reddish but this is not the case. So it can only be somewhere inside this cave. The cave is large, it has hundreds of forks, and it is dark, there are also gorilla type monsters in it, so Rose will need a long time to fully explore it.

At the moment when the light is no longer enough to illuminate Rose's path, she takes out of her backpack a small transparent sphere whose interior has two parts divided by a thin glass, and each of these two parts has in them a liquid. Rose squeezes the small sphere, and then the thin glass that separates both liquids breaks. When these two liquids merge together, a reaction occurs: The small sphere begins to emit a faint sky-blue shining light. These liquids were obtained from a certain domesticated vegetable monster. The duration of the luminescence effect that these liquids produce is varied but in the case of Rose's small sphere, the effect will last five days.

Having his Luminous Sphere in hand, Rose continues walking towards the depths of the cave as she becomes very wary of her surroundings.

Four days later. On the outskirts of The Land of Monsters.

Rose is lying on the grass with her hands behind her head. During these past days, she has been exploring the cave and each time her Complex Energy was about to run out, she came to this place to restore it. Even though she has been working diligently, and she has already explored the entire cave twice, she has had no luck to find the legendary plant that she was looking for.

Rose looks up at the immense starry sky and murmurs with resolve: "I'm not giving up." Rose stands up and returns to The Mountain of Rose's cave.

The search continues smoothly as the previous days until Rose makes a big mistake, perhaps because she had some degree of uncertainty in her mind or perhaps because her sense of danger lessened with the passing of the days. In any case, she enters a dead end even though a gorilla type monster is not so far away.

Upon realizing this, Rose reacts immediately, and she runs towards the exit of the blind alley but after a couple of seconds, she stops. It was too late, the gorilla type monster is already heading to the entrance of that blind alley. Rose knew that she would not make it in time.

The gorilla type monster is a furry humanoid creature, two meters tall, and has the muscles of its arms more developed than those of its legs. All creatures that can cultivate either Mystical Energy or Complex Energy have a Racial Skill, the gorilla type monster is no exception, it has a Racial Skill and it is called Luminous Eyes, a skill that makes its eyes have the ability to emit a red light. Thanks to this those of its kind can live in dark places. The gorilla type monster comes to the entrance of the blind alley, and then it enters the blind alley.

*Pom* *pom* *pom* *pom*…

Rose can hear with extreme clarity the sound of heavy footsteps getting closer.

In the blink of an eye, the Monstrous Gorilla reaches ten meters from Rose, but it continues advancing at the same speed.

Now Rose closes her eyes with her head on the floor as she curses at herself: (What a good time to lose your caution, Rose! It's a gorilla type monster! That race of monsters are usually in the Fifth Level Advanced Awaken! If it kills me, I'll kill you, Rose!)

In the next moment the gorilla type monster reaches Rose but, without its red gleaming eyes showing any surprise, it keeps walking calmly and relaxed.

Meanwhile, Rose does not dare to move a single muscle and had already finished with her curses, so she started with her prayers: (Please cute little gorilla, don't kill me. I'm still young, there are a lot of things I want to see and do. I swear that if you don't kill me, I will not treat the gorillas badly for the rest of my life... No! If you don't kill me, I'll build to you a sanctuary for gorillas: With bananas and hot springs, so please don't kill me, cute gorilla!)

After being in the blind alley for a few minutes surrounding a rock, the gorilla type monster, for some strange reasons, feels that it should go so it follows its instincts and leaves.

Actually that 'rock' is Rose covered by her Earth Cloak that she got on the first day she arrived at Lurep Village. Since she can nullify the sounds, her body heat and her smell, she thought she could disguise herself as a rock! So she bought an earth color cloak.

When Rose realized that she would not be able to leave the blind alley in time, she threw herself on the floor in a fetal position, and then she plucked the Earth Cloak from her backpack and covered herself with it. After that, it was a matter of luck if the gorilla type monster would notice her presence or not.

After it had been some time since the gorilla type monster left, Rose manages to calm down and begins to feel the shame of herself for the absurdities in which she began to think when she was on the border of life and death. But then she forgives herself for that behavior, after all, it was the first time she had been so close to death.

The moment Rose regains her tranquility, while her ear is still stuck to the ground, she perceives a slight sound coming from the ground, in truth an almost undetectable sound. Upon hearing this, Rose's eyes open so much that they take the shape of a pair of lemons.

(There is something underground!) Rose exclaims.

Being overcome by emotion, she begins to track down the sound like a sniffer dog but instead of using her nose, she uses her ear. Then there she is on all fours trying to find out the place where the sound is louder.

A while later, after crashing her head against the walls a couple of times, Rose manages to find the place where the sound is clearer, and she could even understand some words: "... Alone... wounded..."

Rose, having her breathing accelerated and her hands slightly trembling with excitement, finally separates her head from the floor. She really has found something! Without further delay, she begins to dig with her fingers and fingernails.

As Rose goes deeper, the mysterious voice becomes clearer and louder.

Soon, the depth of the hole that she is digging is already about three meters… four meters… five meters.

When it reaches six meters, the ground ends and Rose falls into a room.

And as if that fall were a signal, the mysterious voice stops ringing.

Rose gets up while looking with extreme curiosity at her surroundings, and of course, she notices in an instant the mysterious young naked man whose body is pierced by swords that emit a mysterious white light.

The first thing that catches Rose's gaze is neither the mystical swords nor his ghastly wounds but his awfully deep violet eyes.

And then time stops, the world disappears, and all that is left is his eyes.

Both, Rose and the mysterious young man, looking into each other's eyes, remain silent for a long, long time...

And then there is a second thing that catches Rose's gaze, it is something that couldn't be overlooked, not this mysterious young man's and that is…

"… So… big…" Rose can't help saying it.