Terra Year 775, January 16.
The New Year holiday had passed. Or rather, this era had yet to fully adapt to the so-called seven-day break. With no work to do, everyone was bored out of their minds. City folk could at least gather to chat or play games, but mountain folk could only carry on with their duties.
A team of Mountain Folk was making its way across a vast snowy plain in the core region of the Bison Mountains, at an altitude of over four thousand meters.
The Great Snowcap of Baisen had once been—at least during the Pre-Epoch Civilization—a plateau.
Back when the Terra Continent had not been the only continent on this planet, it had faced a giant island on another tectonic plate from afar. The Bison Mountains had been formed by the collision of those plates.
Because of the Calamity of Falling Skies, the plateau had collapsed, the mountain range had sunk, and the continent had been swallowed by roaring, towering waves. Yet under that impact, the Bison Mountains had risen once more.
The former plateau had become mountain peaks along with it.
Even mountain ranges near the equator had snow. Once the altitude was high enough, frost and ice could be found anywhere. But the Great Snowcap was different. Its accumulated snow might have built up over thousands of years, but far more of it was the lingering remnant left behind by a Fifth Energy Level True Dragon.
Even the Mountain Folk would not normally consider coming to a place like this. The occasional search for resources was already dangerous enough.
But because of the Dragon God's command, they had been trekking across this boundless snowfield for more than three months.
If every one of them had not been piloting exoskeleton armor, with ample Element