Mountain Climbing
"The existence of believers as awakened beings is permitted, but they are not allowed to generate gods."
"What kind of fantasy world has such bizarre settings...?"
Night fell, Linsey was already on her way to find the Meteorite.
He thought of Red Moon's instructions to him, but he still couldn't quite understand the connection between them.
Deities are born from faith, they rule and enslave the world, and are eventually defeated by the strong.
Linsey can understand this logical relationship.
But after all that happened, the Believers faction did not perish; in fact, it remains one of the largest awakened factions in the world.
Such an outcome inevitably leads some people to speculate wildly.
Thinking about this...
Linsey glanced at her luggage instinctively.
The Ancestor Spirit Core is just an unchanging icon inside, staying there obediently without any specific changes due to Linsey and Red Moon's conversation.
Linsey blinked and shrugged. "That's true."
"If it were really that dangerous, the Expedition Team wouldn't have used it as the core of the Lighthouse and left it in this border town."
Driven by curiosity about Ancestral Spirit and a longing for Meteorite.
Linsey embarked on another solo hike in the wilderness.
Although both routes are heading east, this time the direction is slightly north, so it deviates from the route to the World Border.
On the first day, Linsey left the Border Town and entered the forest.
Due to the recent Devil Beast extermination operation in the town, Linsey encountered almost no wild Devil Beast on the first day, summoned Snow Wolf to keep watch for him, and saw no signs of battle around him on the second day.
The next day, Linsey walked through an oak forest.
At his current speed, a whole day has passed, and he has already exceeded the limit of the range that hunters can normally move around.
Although there is still no trace of the Devil Beast.
However, some animals that are active in winter have been able to share their flesh, enriching Linsey's diet in the wild.
When Linsey woke up on the third day, she finally saw the Devil Beast's corpse.
At the feet of the Snow Wolf on night watch lay the corpses of a male and a female Rot Leaf Rabbit.
He went up and activated his skill.
I was lucky enough to also collect some rabbit fur.
As evening approached, he crossed the hill where the two rabbits had been delivered.
What should have been a swamp, but was now frozen into a vast, barren ice field due to the cold winter weather, appeared before him.
The terrain here is uneven, with mounds of earth, mostly covered with weeds, interspersed among the unevenly distributed ice surfaces that resemble shattered glass.
It was here that Linsey stopped.
He wasn't hindered by the frozen swamp, nor was it because it was too late.
But it was after he walked into this area.
In the cold winter wind, an almost still landscape unfolds in the distance.
To the north of the vast swamp, a wide lake is frozen into a silvery-white ice surface, shimmering with a sharp light under the sun.
This silver carpet, while not reflecting distant scenes, still vaguely reveals a magnificent landscape.
That was a towering mountain range in the distance.
From two-thirds of its height, the Mountain Peak begins to be covered by a thick snow line, making it look like a huge white Stone Fort.
Among them are black rocks that emerge from the Mountain Peak.
Reflected by the last rays of the setting sun, it displayed a hard and resolute color, forming a striking contrast with the nearby pristine white snow line.
Look up further.
The pure white peaks of the mountains were also adorned with a Crown by the setting sun, creating a stunning effect of light and shadow.
The magnificent and pristine scenery left Linsey speechless for a moment.
"..."
"If such a place existed in my past life."
"There will definitely be countless people who travel here just to see this scenery."
"Let's set up camp here tonight!"
After the reflections, night gradually fell.
Linsey lit a campfire and prepared food, the light only illuminating a small area around him.
On the contrary, it was the snow-covered Mountain Peak in the distance.
Under the starlight, it becomes even more mysterious and anticipated.
As Linsey was falling asleep, she encountered a small problem.
The heat from the campfire melted the frozen swamp, turning the campsite into a muddy mess that was impossible to lie down in!
Linsey didn't want to keep looking for a flat spot.
Finally, they had to lay down a wooden floor before they could finally sleep peacefully.
The next morning, Linsey set off again.
There is hardly any animal activity around the frozen swamp.
His footsteps echoed in the silent world, like a solitary symphony, while the white mist from his breath recorded the time he spent in the swamp.
Linsey sets off in the morning.
We finally arrived at the foot of the mountain around 3 p. m.
He looked up at that moment, feeling something subtle and peculiar.
The mountain range that appears towering and continuous in the distance seems to become shorter when you look up from the foot of the mountain.
Linsey knew it was psychological, but she couldn't help shaking her head and smiling.
"Hehe..."
"At this altitude, I should be able to reach the summit tonight."
Leaving behind her bold words, Linsey confidently began her ascent.
The initial part was just like any other mountain climb, and it didn't cause him any trouble.
He waited until he had crossed two-thirds of the way up the Mountain Peak.
After arriving at the snow-covered area.
From here on, every step forward plunges into deep snow, and the slippery, soft ground underfoot makes it extremely easy to lose your balance.
Linsey was forced to switch back to the wooden sled he used to use.
This made the climb somewhat easier.
But soon, the slope of the mountain became increasingly steep.
When they reached the last few hundred meters, an almost vertical cliff lay before Linsey.
These are the dark rocks he saw at the foot of the mountain last night.
"..."
"If only I still had my Spider-Silk Grappling Claw."
After reminiscing about the equipment he had used up, Linsey pulled out a dagger and began climbing up the rocks.
The last few hundred meters are actually the most time-consuming.
Linsey finally reached the summit after the setting sun cast its orange-yellow light upon the Mountain Peak beneath him once more.
He stood atop the Mountain Peak, as if the vast sky were within reach.
At this moment, turning around to look behind, the endless forests and rolling hills block the view, but the Border Town and the World's Edge are hidden among them.
Look to the right.
The Snowy Wasteland that spread up from the Black Mountain lay silently on the ground, as if whispering secrets about the invasion of the Dragon Beast's power right under Linsey's eyes.
"Given the global scale of Hidden Borderlands, this place should be almost there too..."
Linsey was still analyzing her location and the terrain she was about to face.
But just after he crossed the highest point of the mountain range...
The sight that appeared below his eyes immediately stopped all his daydreams. "This... Meteor Crater?"