Getting his hand upon the snow wolves, Zick couldn't help but think about retreating first.
This was supposed to be a journey with no risk to his life originally. But with the intense snowstorm, the coldness rose to an extreme degree. Threatening to freeze him to death.
Though Zick wanted to gather talented people, he refused to do it at the cost of his life.
Just when he thought this, suddenly a realization hit him.
'I see...I have been putting my cautiousness in the wrong place all along. In the first place, it's not possible to gain something without taking any risk at all.'
Thinking of it for a while, Zick decided to keep moving. Without further ado, he started ordering the snow wolves.
...
Whoosh~
The sound of the snowstorm reached the cave. The storm was getting worse and worse by the passing moment.
The interior of the cave was dark, giving people an impression of never-ending darkness.
Within the darkness, two cold vertical eyes appeared.
The one to whom these eyes belonged to sat upon a huge wolf seemingly intimidating.
"Move out." Zick spat out coldly.
At a rapid speed, the snow wolves started exiting the cave one by one. They moved in perfect synchronization, turning their direction they started climbing up the mountain.
There were 32 wolves moving in the horde, which gave people an ominous feeling.
Zick had left all the snow wolves which were still immature and had low-rank strength. As bringing them would only slow him down.
In this horde, only wolves with middle rank and higher strength were present.
'With them, I should be able to reach my destination somehow....now all that is left is to find the place mentioned in the novel.' Zick held on to the wolf's tough fur as he considered this.
He had a thin layer of black mana on himself, protecting him from chills.
The howling sound of the snowstorm rang out as the snow wolf moved upward. They climbed up the protruding grounds with a simple jump, showing their adaptability in this kind of place.
Zick maintained a minimum level of dragon fear to not attract any powerful being to himself.
Moving for another two hours, they arrived at the peak of the mountain. Many places took them a while to climb so they were somewhat delayed.
And in some places, Zick had to order them to climb up by taking a roundabout way, seeing that it would take longer to continue forward.
"Move towards the next mountain," Zick ordered while looking at the view in front of him.
The snow fell in a high density even at this high above the ground. But he could still see the silhouette of the mountain in the distance.
There was a little gap from the mountain that Zick stood in.
Aeiron and one of his harem members crossed the lectic region from the Hevertec kingdom. Finding the mana crystal mine was a total coincidence led by fighting against an ice cyclops.
At that time, Aeiron was still a high-rank knight so it took a lot of effort for him to kill it along with the harem member. His strength was irregular from the day he became a knight so it wasn't weird for him to kill a peak-rank monster like this.
This monster was what worried Zick. Thus, after becoming a peak high-rank knight, some of his worries were alleviated. He wasn't sure if his dragon fear could work against this monster.
After finding the mana mine, Aeiron crossed two mountains before reaching Jeleat city. This was how Zick knew about the location of the mana crystal mine.
The snow wolf pack followed the leader as it descended.
But just after a few minutes, the sound of a wolf howling could be heard again.
'Another snow wolf pack? Well, it's not a bad thing, I needed shelter after a while to recover my mana anyway.' Thinking this, Zick waited for the right time.
This snow wolf pack probably came to take care of this snow wolf pack that entered their territory. In other words a turf war.
But this snow wolf pack was not brainless monsters. The moment they felt Zick's dragon fear, they started moving away.
Zick could not fully hide his dragon fear in this situation. If he did, the wolf pack in his control would run out of control.
"Follow them!" Zick ordered the leader of the snow wolf.
"Grrrrr....." Baring its fang, the leader snow wolf dashed forwards at full speed. It went zig-zag dodging the rocks on the ground.
Sitting upon it, Zick held tightly onto its fur. He released his dragon fear full power, not holding back at all.
"Stop!" Putting power into his words, Zick checked the movements of the snow wolf's presence.
They had all stopped in their tracks hearing his orders at once.
"Gather around me."
His voice traveled perfectly to the wolf. Hearing it, the snow wolves scurried towards him.
Slowly snow wolves with their heads down gathered around Zick one by one. He counted from upon the wolf leader, there were 15 wolves being led by a leader just like the other pack.
Zick decided to add them under himself too. They could come into use by becoming a decoy. He named them wolf pack one and wolf pack two without putting much thought into it.
Grawl! Grawl!
While Zick was thinking this suddenly the sound of growling reached him. He turned towards it, feeling multiple presences heading towards him.
"Kill them...ohh, you can eat them too," Zick ordered indifferently, feeling that the monster was in the middle rank.
The snow wolf can be said to be the ruler of these snow mountains unless a peak-rank monster showed up.
Leaving the leader on whom Zick sat on, all the other snow wolves moved out howling.
Slowly, Zick also headed towards the sight only to see the snow to be dyed in red blood. The fresh smell of blood reached him, making him remember the battlefield. That was a place where there was the smell of blood always present.
'That was also the place where I got the experience to fight the most too...'
It might have been a place where he was forced to go in, but it was still helpful to him.
Zick got off the wolf leader's back and ordered it to eat something too. He didn't want them to get exhausted before even reaching his destination.
The bodies of white bears with many claw marks on its body lay everywhere, with the wolf pack eating them. There were around 8 of them, they were hunted easily as the wolves attacked in a group, working together.
With the bear monster's big body, the two wolf packs were able to fill their stomachs.
With the only sound of the snowstorm and the chewing of wolves, Zick looked at his palm. It was extremely pale just like the snow.
A certain hand that patted him with warmth more than anyone came to his mind.
It was his mother's hand.
'I was only four years old back then, huh?' Zick didn't know why he remembered his previous life's mother, but he felt a sense of warmth in his head thinking of it.
It was almost like someone was patting him softly. It made him close his eyes and be lost in this feeling for a while.
The moment he snapped out of this weird state....
"Arghh!!" An ice spear was stuck in his left shoulder. A wild cold energy spread in his body prompting him to fight it using his black mana.
'What was that just now!?' Zick looked around warily while catching the wound on his shoulder after taking out the ice spear.
Seeing only the deep white snow all around him, he gritted his teeth. All the snow wolves were also in a dazed state just like him.
He didn't have any idea at all as to what was going on.
Suddenly his mind again became dazed, but this time he was able to snap out of it quickly. The whistling sound of an ice spear cutting through the air reached his ears.
With sharp eyes filled with concentration, Zick swung his right hand perfectly hitting the ice spear the size of half a foot
'There!' Zick dashed toward the direction the ice spear flew from without hesitation. Something entered his sight.
A blue wisp-looking life fire floating in the middle of the air.
Though he felt nothing from it and it even looked harmless. He horizontally swung his sword cutting the blue fire wisp in two.
After being cut in two by Zick, it vanished as it dissolved in the air.
He still had a vigilant look as he used his senses to the peak.
His mind became dazed again with a certain memory rising within him again. It was the moment he was able to break free from his past, becoming one with his broken side.
Whisss~
He snapped out of it fast too, but the enemy was quicker.
"Ugh!" Zick's body staggered forward.
An ice spear went right through Zick's abdomen, protruding from the other side.
'Fuck!'
Zick's clothes started getting stained with blood leaking from his wounds.
He moved his left hand even with the immense pain which came from moving his wounded shoulder. He removed the ice spear and took out a healing potion from his space ring immediately.
"Haaa....haaa...." his breath quickened.
He applied the potion to his both wounds without caring about how some of them fell on the ground. They slowly started healing visible to the naked eye.
The pain made his concentration waver so he had to heal it at all costs.
Zick got an idea about what type of enemy he was fighting against.
A mind monster.
They are very rare, so rare that they only appeared once in the novel even when Aeiron traveled to so many places.
'This has gotten tricky....it seems like there is more than one of them.'
Mind monsters were different from other monsters. They needed no flesh to survive, but instead the feelings of other beings.
They didn't have a physical body either, just like the blue fire wisp before.
Zick wanted to escape but without the wolf pack the chances of his survival were also very low. He needed a place to rest, with the amount of mana he had it would only last for around half an hour.
Both ways were filled with riddles. Whether to stay here and fight the mind monster or run away.
Zick could only choose to stay back as this was the way with the highest chance of survival.
"Come at me, this time I will find and kill you for sure."
With the sword held tightly in his grasp, Zick taunted the mind monster.
They had the same level of intelligence as a normal human so they would understand his words for sure.