Chapter Eleven
"Huff... Ufhh... Ughh..."
Each breath felt like inhaling shards of frozen glass. My lungs, already struggling with the extra fat of this body, were screaming for a vacation I couldn't afford to give them.
I must finish this task in two days before returning to the estate.
[Ping!]
[System suggests Host to take a break. You'll just die at this rate.]
"Didn't I tell you to leave me alone?" I wheezed, my boots sinking knee-deep into the unforgiving snow of the Northern Peaks.
[Ping!]
[We are worried. Don't be so cold.]
"Just let me be. I'm not going to die. I need to go where the mana concentration is the highest," I muttered, shielding my eyes from the blinding white void of the blizzard.
[Ping!]
[You are so insufferable! How are you going to climb a mountain of The Northern Peaks in this blizzard!? And, with that body nonetheless? You even sent Kaelen away.]
"Are you worrying about me, right now?" I let out a dry chuckle that turned into a coughing fit. "If you're really worried, why not shower me with gold?"
[Ping!]
[That's not how this works!]
"Calm down," I said, pausing to lean against a rock. "This is the smallest mountain of the Northern Peaks. I already asked the residents of the fief before making the decision to climb it. Judging by the atmospheric conditions and the mana density, there should be a significant reservoir of mana stones here. I just need to find the vein. Since this is the smallest one, I can do it by myself for now."
I looked down at my trembling hands. They were still chubby, but the skin was raw and purple from the biting wind.
[Ping!]
[You shouldn't have fired the knight.]
"I don't need a knight who judges my every move or a child who looks at me like I'm a saint when I'm not," I whispered, the image of Kaelen's slumping shoulders and Lily's wide eyes flashing briefly in my mind before I crushed it under the weight of my own ambition. "I'm destined to be alone. So, I must start small and slowly take control of things myself."
[Ping!]
[But you're pushing yourself too much!]
"Just a little longer... Don't worry..." I forced my legs to move. Every step was an investment in my future survival. There was no if for me, right now. "The mana in the air feels stronger as we move forward... This has to be the right path..."
The wind howled, a banshee's scream that threatened to tear the soul from my ribs. If I were still the Tower Master, I would have silenced this storm with a flick of my wrist. But here, I was just a powerless "Broke Duke" clinging to the side of a frozen rock.
I wonder how much mana should I exercise before I can use mana stones to melt all this fat.
[Ping!]
[Warning: Body temperature is dropping below critical levels. Frostbite risk: 85%.]
[We suggest you find a place to rest in fast.]
"Tch. High risk, high reward," I hissed, my teeth chattering so hard I was worried I'd chip one. I couldn't afford a dentist with my current assets.
Either way, I can't back down now. I need physical power to challenge Baron Vische. Just a little longer, Yeun...
My vision was beginning to blur with white spots that had nothing to do with the snow. Just as my knees were about to give out, a dark indentation appeared in the cliffside.
A cave.
I almost fell into the mouth of it, crawling away from the biting wind until the silence was heavy enough to ring in my ears. It was pitch black and smelled of damp earth and ancient frost.
Looks like no one even bothered to try and develop this place.
"See... I told you," I wheezed, collapsing against the wall. "This is it. This is the place."
[Ping!]
[Host has gone mad because of the cold. There are no mana stones here. Look around there is no glimmer!]
"Ugh... It can't be," I muttered, resting my head against the cold stone. "My senses... the atmospheric pressure... it shouldn't be wrong."
[Ping!]
[Leave it. Perhaps, your 'senses' are currently clouded by hypothermia and a lack of cardiovascular fitness. It surely looks like a normal cave to us. We suggest Host to start a fire before you become a permanent ice sculpture.]
"I know. I know. I gathered dry moss on the way. Also, it seems like Veryon used to smoke. I felt a lighter in his pocket when I stuffed the moss in."
[Ping!]
[Isn't that good for you?]
"I suppose."
I fumbled through my damp pockets, pulling out a small lighter and some dry moss I'd scavenged earlier. My fingers were so stiff they felt like sausages made of wood. It took me ten minutes... Ten minutes of cursing every damned god I knew, before a pathetic flame flickered to life.
I fed it some dry branches I'd carried up, the meager heat feeling like the greatest luxury in the world. As the light grew, I looked around.
The walls were nothing but dull, gray limestone as the system earlier said. Not a single spark reflected the dancing light of my pathetic little fire.
In my past life, finding mana veins were the hard part. However, identifying mana stones from other rocks was another case. Anyone. Even a normal person could do it.
It was simply because they held a lusture like no other stone.
It wasn't about the glimmer of the rock itself like diamonds, but the energy trapped within the rock body. Mana is a living force, and when compressed into stone, it glimmers.
It's a simple logic.
Even if this place was a different world that fact shouldn't have changed.
So, why does this place look so barren?
I stared into the shadows, my mind racing with calculations through mana-density charts. There was only one percent chance that I could have been wrong.
But, my instincts for some reason were screaming that this was the spot. I'd felt the atmospheric pressure shift. My soul couldn't be wrong. I've dealt with mana for so long.
...Or could it be?
A cold realization settled in my gut, heavier than the frostbite. This wasn't my old body. This wasn't the refined, mana-sensitive vessel of an Archmage who had spent centuries breathing in the arcane. This was the body of a bankrupt, gluttonous Duke whose senses had rusted.
But, can senses overwrite the feeling of a soul who's spent more than a century with mana?
Ugh. I can't give up after coming so far. Let's take a look around since I'm already here.
"Snnnsh... Hssshhhss..."
What sound is that?
[Alert!]
[Danger! Run! Evacuate the cave! Hurry!]
How am I supposed to run with this body!?