Currently, Nameless and Gomchul are standing near the Malta Mountains with me. I had very particular memories of this place.
Like the time when a crow cursed at me, or a mountain snake bit off my precious jewels, or the time I fell off the mountain.
So basically, none of the memories were good. I had told Nameless and Gomchul to follow me in the princess quest. Nameless agreed without a second thought while saying how righteous I was to be thinking of saving a person's life without even knowing them, and he would gladly join me in my endeavours.
But Gomchul was different. He hesitated for a long time because I was the murderer of his prince, no matter how much trash that prince was. But after he realised that he had already died for the orcs of the southern tribe, and going back only meant death for not being able to protect Zultan, he agreed to follow me for now.
Looking around, I felt like I shouldn't even try to climb again, remembering the bunch of red mountain snakes that lay in ambush.
"I get the point of saving the princess, but why are we here again?"
Nameless asked, making me a bit surprised that he could talk normally too.
"I have already searched the forest's perimeter before, and I feel like something is off. Not to mention the number of snakes here is unusual."
I replied, and Gomchul's orc eyes seemed like they would pop out of their sockets.
"S-snakes? This place has snakes?"
"Yeah, snakes? What about it?"
"I am going back."
"What? What happened?"
"I was bitten in my wee wee by a snake back when I was a kid. I am scared of snakes."
"Oh, poor guy. There, there, I totally understand how you feel. I can even relate…"
I comforted Gomchul as a fellow victim of the nut-cracking snakes. Nameless just stared at a human and an orc bonding over a story of how they had gotten bitten in the nuts by snakes.
Cough!
I coughed a bit as Gomchul, and I backed off, then I looked around for a bit before saying.
"Don't worry about those damned snakes. I have a way of climbing the mountain faster than they can catch us. Not like I am that weak either, these are all low levelled snakes, we all can easily deal with them as long as they don't group up."
Both of them nodded their heads. Of course, none of them was obliged to help or be with me, but they still were, which somehow made me warm up to them.
"Do you have ropes?"
I asked Nameless, as all players carried essentials like ropes. Unfortunately, I lost mine when I lost my previous class, and I forgot to buy them afterwards.
"I might have a bundle or two."
Nameless commented as he checked his inventory and brought out three bundles of thick rope. As I looked above, I immediately put them in my inventory without asking him for permission.
"I want to try something."
I said as I started channelling my mana in both hands, imagining water as a violent and chaotic vortex forming around my palms, making Nameless and Gomchul back off a bit.
This was the elemental vortex I learned during my fight with the Grivantula.
As the vortex grew, I put more focus into compressing it, just about a foot in thickness, and maintaining the high pressure.
Aiming both my palms at the ground, I finally released both the vortexes as they hit the ground with unimaginable pressure, causing a crater in the ground. The pressure was so much that my hands, which were the root of this vortex, felt like they'd break.
The pressure would have at least dislocated my arms previously, but I could handle it right now due to my sturdy and scaly arms. The water from the pressure finally started recoiling my body as I struggled to keep directing my palms at the ground.
My body started feeling lighter and lighter, and before I knew it, my legs had left the ground.
Nameless and Gomchul stared at me speechlessly as the amount of water gushing out of my hand made them back off with every passing moment.
'Follow current novels ON N (ovelB in.)',
"The pressure isn't enough."
I thought, but I couldn't do more than this due to the lack of mana.
'Or can I?'
Something suddenly clicked in my mind as I tried to 'add' something to the turbulent water vortex. Unfortunately, I only had half of my mana remaining, so if I failed right now, I would have to waste mana potions and wait a bit before trying something else.
I started adding 'wind' into the 'water' vortex. This was a fantasy world with the logic of science, albeit really low. Since the water's force alone wasn't enough, I wanted to add the 'wind' element and see how it works.
The wind around me started turning increasingly chaotic as a tinge of green, the symbolic colour of the wind element, started adding to the turbulent water vortex.
[Congratulations, you have learned a new function of the Elemental Vortex skill.]
[A sub-skill, 'Dual Elemental Vortex' has been added to 'Elemental Vortex'.]
'A sub-skill, huh?'
It was rare to get a skill which can have sub-skills, turns out Elemental Vortex was one of them. The vortex spinning out of my hand and hitting the ground became more violent and carried more force than before. Its speed was so much that my barely floating body suddenly shot up like a rocket.
"He flew!"
"I can see it too. How magnificent!"
I could hear Gomchul and Nameless's voices, but they were too down on the ground to be heard clearly.
"Woohoo! I am a bird!"
After saying that, I felt a weird sense of deja vu as a crow passed by me.
Caw! Caw Motherfucker! Caw! You'll fall again! Caw!
Did he just…?
[Less than 10% mana is remaining, cancelling the Dual Elemental Vortex skill.]
Suddenly, all the water and air gushing out of my hand stopped, making me pause in the air for a bit.
"Okay, that crow is a big jinx. Fuuuuuck!"
I couldn't help but shout out loud as I started falling to the ground at a breakneck speed.
"Not happening again, no, no, no."
There wouldn't even be any abyss portal to save me this time. Last time it appeared out of the blue. Winning the million-dollar lottery twice is nothing but a myth, after all!
I was already quite high in the sky, even higher than the mountain's flat peak since I had no control over my skill. Nevertheless, I could clearly see the bunch of trees on the flat peak, so I took out Eclipse, which I had formerly tied to a rope from the redhead.
I channelled my mana and added a layer of hook on its sharp edges. As I swung the rope once and threw it on one of the many trees, doing all this in a matter of milliseconds.
The hook made out of Eclipse rushed through the air as it pierced right through a tree's trunk.
AAAAAAAA—-Hup!
My body dropped to the ground rapidly, only to hang midair as I clung to the rope and hung from it.
Thud!
As soon as my body hit the mountain, a groan escaped my mouth.
"Well, it wasn't that bad. Was it?"
"Shura! Look around you!"
I heard Nameless shouting at me, and I looked around.
'',
A bunch of red mountain snakes were slithering towards me.
"How can I forget these guys? Shit!"
I had almost forgotten about them, and right now, I was out of mana. All that remained was barely 10% of my overall mana pool.
"But that's enough to deal with you guys."
I smirked as I said and looked down at the unsuspecting duo, who looked like ants from this high up.
"Get ready. This is where you come to play! I'm sending them all to you, most will die, take care of the ones that don't."
I shouted, and the duo made confused faces. Then, without explaining anything further, I started chanting.
[Night Alchemist's Elemental Control (Potential Locked)
Type - Active Skill
The will of the earth bends to the will of a true alchemist. You have a rare understanding of elements. Performing complex control of elemental control is possible depending on mana for matters of the special grade and below.
Mana will be consumed according to the amount of matter being controlled]
"Alloweth mine own wilt bendeth the earth."
Just when all the snakes had gotten scarily close to me, I used the rope as a pendulum to bounce back and chanted at the mountain, causing the mountain to shake heavily in a 10-meter radius, making all the snakes lose their footing as they started falling off of the mountain, turning into specs of dust as soon as they hit the ground.
Some who remained were already half dead, making the job of the orc and redhead standing below easier, killing every snake in a hit to its neck.
As I didn't have much mana, the mountain immediately stabilised right after, but I had already done my job as I used the rope to start climbing up the mountain.
Phew!
Finally reaching the top of the mountain, I could see lush trees and grass beds on this flat mountain peak. One could never imagine a dry and stony mountain like this having such a green side. Walking around, I saw that all the trees were lush and brimming with life.
I checked their information and saw 'Tree' in their description.
I used my Night Alchemist's appraisal on it, and finally, I could see the real name of the tree.
[Tree of Separation
Grade: Rare
A tree that bears the fruit of separation.]
The information was pretty short, but it was still enough to ignite the fire of hope inside me. The only problem was, as far as I could see, there wasn't a single fruit on it.
Looking at the other trees, most of them were really just ordinary trees. As I kept walking, I saw a huge boulder in the middle of these trees. Walking up, I saw that it was like a mini cave, with a small plant inside it.
The small plant had a huge, big purple-coloured peach-like fruit.
[Fruit of Separation
Type: Material
Grade: Rare
A fruit that can cleanse and separate the foreign soul from one's body and gives the chance to start anew. But are people really willing to accept their flaws and go back to cloud one? That's the real question.
Can be used as a material for alchemy.]
"It's time to save you, princess."
I commented with emotion. Unaware of the change that was about to happen or the future that awaited me.
...
//DreamNote//
Don't forget to vote with your power stones and golden tickets!