Chapter 111: Warmth

"She's only up by two points, really. But we may need to stop our little games soon. From the map, we're not that far away from that ape's igloo. Let's get back on course."

Darcel told the girls after taking one quick look over the map. The map he was given was exceedingly detailed for this one path they took.

For anything else in the Wild Snow lands, it was either vague or lacking information. Though, the map did detail the icy roads that led to other towns.

Aniela and Yasami nodded at Darcel. They had then ignored the Spirit Monster wolf corpse and continued on their trail.

Shifting through the snow, Darcel's eyes once again landed on Yasami.

Although he had already guessed they would get along with the girl because of the sensation in his soul. Darcel didn't expect for her to fall in line so swimmingly with him and Aniela.

She certainly had a more feisty temper than them combined and can put out the energy to even match their pace. Any time they talk, Yasami had never missed a beat to respond and provide her own amusing input.

Darcel had even got more surprised since Yasami could not only match their pace but also somewhat matched the eagerness of Aniela.

Although, unlike Aniela, Yasami was a lot more bashful than her.

With striking and unexpected compliments, Yasami would usually stutter out and try to hide her embarrassment.

Compared to Aniela, who can be just as shameless as him. It was quite honestly cute to see in Darcel's eyes. All in all, Yasami was a joy to talk to.

Taking away his attention from Yasami for a moment, Darcel put his mind towards the Wild Snow land. And how a bit disappointing these wild lands were.

The only somewhat challenging component was the weather here.

As expected, the further they travel in the wilds, the colder it gets. The temperature even dropped so far down to a point where Darcel and Aniela now had to surge a more generous portion of their soul's pure essence black flames to contend with the cold.

Now Darcel was really starting to see the reason why cultivators here bundled up from Mage's clothes.

Still, this didn't impede their pace, and Darcel's team kept their stride, walking through the snow and killing Spirit Monsters.

Besides the cold, as their game showed, the Spirit Monster here didn't provide them with any challenge.

Nor were there any bandit group of humans waiting to rob and kill out in these wildlands.

The only worthy thing to note about the Spirit Monster here was the fact every one of them was coated in pure white snow fur. It didn't matter what type of creature it was; everything had a snow fur here.

Now that they were getting closer to the ape's igloo, creatures like that fifth rank Innate Core Spirit Monster wolf were popping up a lot more frequently.

Furthermore, the cold also drastically increased as they near the igloo.

At this point, Darcel trailed his eyes over to Aniela. She, of course, had a small smile etched on her lips and appeared to be doing just fine under the cold.

Even as all she and Darcel wore were still just the Zakira Academy clothing, their souls kept them warm.

However, when Darcel trailed his eyes over to Yasami, he can tell it was a different story.

Seemingly a comfortable silence washed over their group as they traveled and Yasami appeared to just be in contemplation about something.

However, Darcel had keen eyes. Yasami's body was slightly shivering from the cold, and he could spot cold breath spewing from her mouth. It was somewhat surprising seeing this from her.

Considering the fact that Yasami was born with the Element of fire in her soul, or at least Darcel assumed so. He thought her body would have natural high heat resistance to the cold.

But since it appeared, the cold was affecting her, a great idea popped into his mind then.

A slight mischievous smirked curved up Darcel's lip with this idea. It was time to take it a step up with Yin's pleasures abilities.

Unknown to the girls, Darcel silently surged his bloodline, causing a small portion of cooling black flames to swirl inside his palm. Compared to the black flames he usually used, these flames were entirely harmless and only filled with his soothing warmth.

And without warning, Darcel quickly put his hand on Yasam's shoulder, but he did it very gently.

Immediately, Yasami reacted to his gentle touch. Her eyes lit up in shock for a brief second.

But swiftly then, Yasami's body melted into a relaxed stance.

Incredible warmth smoothly spread throughout her body and soul. It got rid of all of the shivering colds her Innate Qi was working hard to fight off.

At this very moment, Yasami honestly didn't want Darcel's hand to let go.

But at the thought of Darcel's hand, Yasami abruptly froze up and snapped her head over to him.

She was greeted by the charmingly handsome face of Darcel, and Yasami had nearly forgone all of her embarrassment about this situation. But quickly, Yasami sobered up and pointed at Darcel.

"Wh-what are you doing so suddenly?!" The voice she let out was several pitches higher than Yasami wanted to be.

Moreover, during this whole time, Yasami made no attempt to move from Darcel's hand despite her accusing question.

Darcel's smirk only grew wider, seeing her reaction. He was going to smoothly answer her until, "Hehehe~! Don't get so surprised, Yasami. Darcy is just warming you up! It was too obvious you were putting up a tough girl front, but you don't need to bear the cold with us. See, just watch this!"

Darcel and Yasami quickly look over to Aniela. Once their eyes were on her, without warning, she had put her hand on Darcel's shoulder.

With a quick surge of her own bloodline, Aniela interjected her warming black flames inside him.

Although Darcel merely raised his eyebrows at what his energetic girl was planning to do. He felt no different from Aniela's black flames since his own body was already warm.

But right then, his ears picked up on a pleasant sigh escaping Yasami's lips.

"Haaah~. Ooooh~."

The sigh she made almost sounded sweetly erotic and was like music to Darcel's ears.

Darcel quickly tossed a look over to Aniela. And all he was greeted with was a slight mischievous knowing smile from the girl. Darcel had smirked back at her and quickly caught on to what she was doing.

"Soo, enjoying ourselves, are we?" Darcel's teasing voice caused Yasami to lock up again.

Taking a peek at her face, Darcel now could vaguely spot a hint of a red hue poking out of her face of where the hoodie covered.

Combined with the double warmth of Aniela, Yasami nearly wanted to collapse in their embrace from the soothing flames.

Darcel and Aniela's black flames mixed together perfectly like they were made for each other. But when Darcel spoke up, he instantly cut off her trance.

This time Yasami instantly reacted and mustered all of her energy to not stutter out when speaking. "Fine! But only because it's cold, you can hold on to my shoulder!"

The embarrassment was ever apparent in her voice, and Darcel assumed her gorgeous face had a full on cute blush.

Darcel knew if Yasami honestly didn't like his touch, she would've shrugged it off at first contact. She wasn't the one to hold off on her more aggressive feelings.

Still, Darcel had only smiled in understanding, saying, "Alright then. But you need to ease up, you know? It's not good to have tension before fighting."

As Darcel spoke, his hand began to lightly massage Yasami's shoulder. To which, Yasami felt her body relax even more.

"Darcy makes a great case Yasami. Just let us help with loosening up those tightened muscles and joints to make this mission go even easier!" Aniela chimed in, causing Yasami's mind to fall even further.

"Hmph! Whatever, let's just keep walking."

Yasami leaked a small sigh at the end and contented herself to be under the warmth that was Darcel and Aniela.

The duo sneakily smiled at each other, and they all began walking again.

Their pace was a bit slower than before, given their current arrangement. Still, nevertheless, the trio was quickly approaching the ape's igloo.

A few Spirit Monsters tried to ambush and attack them, but everything was quickly dealt with by them.

And after a few more minutes of comfortably trudging through the snow, Yasami suddenly pointed ahead of them. "Ah! There it is! And talk about distinct first impressions."

A lone sizable igloo that looked large enough to fit at most a couple of people sat in the middle of the snow. At the entrance of the igloo, an ominous shade of black could be seen.

Around the igloo, Darcel, Aniela, and Yasami sensed there were zero Spirit Monsters in this area.

Noticing this oddity, the trio had then zeroed their Spirit Sense to go inside the igloo.

But, upon doing so, all three of them wrinkled their eyebrows. There was….absolutely nothing they could sense in the igloo. It really was like nobody was home in there.

Still, this was nowhere near enough to raise concern for Darcel, Aniela, and Yasami.

Darcel took his hand from Yasam's shoulder while Aniela took her hand from Darcel's shoulder. Yasami felt a slight loss from the loss of warmth, but she quickly diverted her attention.

All three of them had then prepared their bodies for battle and tense for any surprise attacks.

Slight anticipation swirled in their chest as they wondered what kind of Spirit Monster would it be given the ape had its very own title.

The trio made it to the entrance and briefly paused for a moment. Their eyes stared into the deep Darkness, and they couldn't obverse at all what was in the igloo.

"Ready?" Yasami threw out her question to the duo while cracking her knuckles.

"More than I need to be," Aniela spoke with absolute confidence.

"Let's see just what this terrifying killer ape can do," Darcel said without a hint of genuine worry.

Darcel, Aniela, and Yasami quickly shuffled into the igloo. Immediately their visions were shrouded in complete Darkness. Strange energy washed over them, and neither Darcel, Aniela, nor Yasami could identify it.

But after only a split second, the Darkness and strange energy went away.

Their eyes blinked open to a pretty spacious but empty room and pure snowy walls all around them.

Initially, Darcel, Aniela, and Yasami were puzzled as they expected a killer ape to be here.

But right then, all their Spirit Senses suddenly spiked up!

The snowy walls burst open, and numerous snow chains blitz towards Darcel, Aniela, and Yasami! The speed of the chains would catch even a sixth rank Innate Core cultivator off guard.

And the snow chains neared the trio in just a couple of seconds.

However, Darcel, Aniela, and Yasami didn't show any panic on their face. Yasami had even smirked at impending danger.

She had quickly burst forth her Innate Qi and surged out blazing blue fire aura!

'Sssch!!'

Yasami's powerful blue fire aura quickly sizzled the snow chains, making them all turn to ashes.

That kind of instantaneous reaction wouldn't even be seen in a sixth rank Innate Core powerhouse!

Although the party was just beginning for the trio. Their Spirit Senses went off again, and Darcel, Aniela, and Yasami snapped their heads up to the ceiling.

Some shock flashed into their eyes as what sailed down at them was a vast, thick tail that covered Darcel, Aniela, and Yasami. The tail was pure white and had striking vibrant red streaks in it.

The red streaks almost look too vibrant and bright, as if they were beating like an organ.

At the sight of the white and red tail, Darcel was the next to gain a battle-hungry smirk.