Chapter 5

Chapter 5

I woke up with a chill penetrating the mountains surface. For a short while, I was a bit absentminded, having just woken up, but after looking around at my surroundings I soon came to my senses.

The white snow that covered the world deeply piled up more and more, creating an incredibly thick layer of it on the surface.

The base of my mountain was completely buried up until around the knees if I were to convert it into how it would feel as a human and the heavy snow pressed together to become a layer of ice. It was probably about 1000 metres thick.

No way?! Could things change this much over the course of a short nap? Didnt the long rainfall just finish creating the ocean? Isnt the Earth having too many sudden changes in environment???

In my dumbfounded state, Sahela who had been dozing on top of my crystal core that had reached the size of a semi-trailer suddenly raised her head and gave a delighted smile.

Milord, good morning.

(Ohhhow long was I asleep for?)

When I asked that, Sahela thought for a bit and then started to fold her fingers as she counted. She used both hands, bending and extending her fingertips, then ran out and started to use her toes, until she ran out of toes to count, and then started to write out calculations on the stone wall of the room that my crystal core was in. The walls surface was soon filled with numbers, and once she used up the portion of the wall that she could reach with her short height, Sahela started to write on the floor. Iya, this is far too long. This isnt just one thousand or two thousand years were talking about here. I overslept.

Around the time when the floor had also become covered in numbers, Sahela raised her head and spoke full of confidence.

According to Milords count that [when the sun falls, that is one day, and 365 days make one year], you have been sleeping for 3,579,980,000 full years and 11 days.

(Hogeh-)Updated from novelb(i)n.c(o)m

This isnt just at the level of oversleeping!

Am I stupid? Why did I sleep that much? No, its true that I was tired and damn drowsy, and I wanted to sleep! This is driving me crazy!!

When the fact that I woke up spread amongst the dwarves and mermaids, both the races gathered and had a Good Morning Festival. The dwarves travelled through the underground tunnels linking the major mountains throughout the world, while the mermaids went upstream through the mountains underground water routes to come in from the deep sea.

The only ones who knew me when I was awake was the first dwarf Sahela who didnt have a lifespan, and the mermaids patriarch Lorelei, who also did not have a lifespan. To almost all the dwarves and mermaids, Mt. Hororyuu was simply an old mountain that their races heads worshipped.

That is why when they heard me talk, they were absurdly surprised. Several people were so shocked that they fainted. Youre overreacting~! -is what I felt, but when I thought about it carefully, its as though a mythical god that they thought was fictional unexpectedly appeared and started to speak to them familiarly. Of course theyd be surprised.

Amongst the events that happened while I was asleep, the best were chosen to be left behind as legends. Several tens of storytellers took turns in reciting them to me all night long as I appreciated the offerings that came out without pause. They included things like masonry created by the dwarves, peculiar rocks that the mermaids picked up from the deep sea, and a dragon statue created from piecing together various vividly-coloured rocks like a puzzle.

In order for them to be able to get back to the surface if they fall into crevices, like the chasms found in glaciers or snowy valleys, it would be better if they had a good jumping power and climbing ability.

So that they dont end up tripped up by the snow or sinking into it and getting buried, it would be safer to make them lighter.

Thus, the third human became a werewolf.

Clad in an ashen pelt, possessing sharp fangs, it was a nimble wolfman with high physical abilities.

Its stature was slender and tall, and its wolfish face was both frightening, yet lovable. Naturally, it also had a tail.

Like usual, I created a single werewolf with a perpetual lifespan, and made it the groups head. He was a male werewolf, Lycan-kun.

Lycan led the werewolf pack and travelled the silver world, and then told me of the worlds happenings that they observed.

According to them, it seems that strictly speaking, the world wasnt actually completely covered in ice and snow. Hot springs welled up on the surface of volcanoes, and near them, the grounds surface could be seen. Inside of the warm water, wild green algae and small creatures like plankton continued to live on.

There were times when the eruptions that occasionally occurred created temporary lakes as well.

According to Lorelei and co., there was also life left in the underwater world as well.

On the dark ocean floor in the depths of the sea, there were holes that bubbled out hot water. Warmed by geothermal heat, it was a hot spot that spurted out hot water containing heavy metals and hydrogen sulphide at several hundreds of degrees Celsius. There were tiny, tiny microbes that were able to survive due to the geothermal heat, consuming the ingredients that gushed out from the hot water spouts.

Life is hardy. When I thought about how those tiny living beings would eventually become humans, I felt deeply moved.

Now then.

The Earths ice age did not continue on forever.

Volcanic activity released smoke containing large quantities of gases such as carbon dioxide and methane. The volcanic eruptions over several tens of thousands of years led to the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, gradually increasing the Earths atmospheric temperature.

Once the atmospheric temperature exceeded the freezing point of water, the massive ice layer that exceeded 1000 metres in thickness will melt little by little.

The long ice age will end.

And then, the moment the ice age ended, we barged into a hellish era in which tsunamis whose heights were in the 1000 metre range and super-large tornadoes that could destroy small mountains occurred basically every week.