Chapter 481.


    <strong>Chapter 481. Heading to the Peak: The Ascent. (4/5)</strong>


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Jeez, stop spacing out.” A set of clothes suddenlynded on my chest when Rosa said that. She’d pinched them between her toes and tossed them over to me.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Hurry up and get dressed unless you n to climb the mountain naked.” Rosa continued as she poked my cheek with her big toe. Looking up at her from below, she was already fully clothed.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Aren’t you a bit too excited?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Of course I’m excited. I can’t wait to get to the top. It’ll definitely be very memorable.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Didn’t it rainst night though? Won’t it be a lot more dangerous to climb now?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">I stood up and started to get dressed


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Don’t worry. Don’t worry. It’ll be fine. If we’re lucky, the rain might keep people away and we might end up with the peak all to ourselves thanks to it.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I doubt it. Did you forget what day it is?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Oh yeah. I forgot about that. You think there’ll be a good show tonight?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“How would I know? It’d be nice if there is.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Yeah. I hope so, considering how I missed outst time.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Missing out was your own fault for pulling that stunt.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“You’re just mad because I won that time.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">While we bickered back and forth we had something to eat before we packed up our things. An hour after we woke up, we embarked on our journey to the peak.


    <span style="font-weight:400">The sun was high in the sky.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Clear blue skies as far as the eye could see.


    <span style="font-weight:400">We traveled for twenty minutes along the side of theke heading in the direction of the mountain we’d set our eyes on.


    <span style="font-weight:400">On our right, the water. Our left, a dense poption of colorful trees and vegetation. We were walking along a trail. There were many small twigs that would snap whenever we stepped over them. Small pebbles we kicked up while we walked would roll forward along the path.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Hey, Rosa.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“What is it?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I only now realized it, but where’d you get that second backpack from?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“You’re only now noticing it?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Yeah.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Were you too busy staring at my ass or something?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“It was your legs actually.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Perv.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“You’re thest person I want to hear that from. Anyway, where’d you get it?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I borrowed it from Dawn.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Oh. What’s in it?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">She shot a nce my way and said with a mysterious smile, “That’s a se-cret~”


    <span style="font-weight:400">A chill ran down my back when I heard those ominous words.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“You’re not carrying around a machete in there and nning to cut my body up into pieces then bury it somewhere deep in the mountains, are you?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Aww, you ruined the surprised~”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Can you please not joke around like that? It’s not funny.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Who’s joking? Did I not say I’d assassinate the old you?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I mean… you’re not wrong, you did say that. I guess I should be preparing my heart to die here. Good to know.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“It’s obviously a joke, dummy. So don’t start digging your grave yet.” She teased as she poked my cheek with her index finger.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“So what’s really in it if it’s not a machete?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I’m not telling you~”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Why not?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Because it’s a surprise. You’ll just have to wait and see.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">Even after pestering her for ten minutes, she didn’t budge. I could only wait to see whatever the surprise she prepared for me was.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Half an hourter we’d made it past theke and were tracking through a small trail sandwiched on both sides by the trees. We encountered an abundance of wildlife.


    <span style="font-weight:400">There were countless different species of birds sitting atop trees, flying overhead, and jumping about from branch to branch. There was a wide variety of different chirps that could be heard.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Mixed in among the chirping birds, the sound of grasshoppers and crickets could be heard. We caught sight of a few every now and then. A light green grasshopper sitting atop a de of bent grass blending in. A dark brown cricket cking off on top of a dark fist-sized rock.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Caterpirs nibbling and slowly creeping along the leaves of nts. Dragonflies asionally zooming by in a rush as if having ces to go and ces to be. A spider making its way up a tree with an unsuspecting beetle in its sight. The asional worker bee buzzing about from flower to flower doing its little bee business.


    <span style="font-weight:400">We happened across squirrels running about the ground, climbing and hanging still on the side of trees watching us curiously with their little beady eyes as we passed by.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Frightened hares that stiffly turned their heads toward us before running off with their tails stuck between their legs the second their eyes locked with Rosa’s.


    <span style="font-weight:400">I couldn’t help butugh and tease Rosa when I saw their reactions. They instinctively knew she was bad news.


    <span style="font-weight:400">While we mindlessly walked taking in all these sights we came across a greedy snake in the middle of its meal swallowing a pitiful toad who sumbed to its poison whole. It definitely wasn’t something we expected to see along the way.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Rosa was rude enough to pull out her phone and stand there for five minutes recording a video of it.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Seriously, how would you feel if some stranger walked into your house and started recording you eating?” I couldn’t stop myself from berating her.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Hahaha!” Rosa burst out intoughter when she imagined it. “That’d like totally suck when you put it that way.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Right?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Well, I guess I recorded enough.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Shouldn’t girls be more grossed out by these sorts of things?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">She tilted her head to one side and tapped her lip with one finger as she questioned back, “Really?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Yeah.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I don’t get why. I think it’s an interesting sight to see.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">Tatatatatata!


    <span style="font-weight:400">Startled by the rapid tapping from the tree directly to my side, I flinched away.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Rosa looked up at me and burst out intoughter, “Pfft hahahah! Soaaame. What’re you getting so scared for? It’s just a woodpecker.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“That little bastard scared the crap out of me.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Aww, did your heart skip a beat for a bird? It must be love at first peck~ hehehehe.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">Rosa continued to poke and nudge me yfully as we proceeded on our way along the trail through the trees.


    <span style="font-weight:400">About an hour walkter, the trees gradually grew more sparse until we finally made it to a clear opening and I stopped in my tracks. We had a clear view of the mountain up close now.


    <span style="font-weight:400">It was… huge. Imposing. Daunting. Looking up at it from here it was far more intimidating than when viewed at a distance. It really made you feel tiny. Insignificant like an ant. We were a speck of sand on a hillpared to it.


    <span style="font-weight:400">We were... going to climb this? We’d already been walking for so long, my body was sore to begin with, but there was still this much left? This is… hell.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“What’re you standing around looking dumbfounded for! Let’s go!”


    <span style="font-weight:400">When my eyes lowered, Rosa was fifty meters away looking back and calling out to me.


    <span style="font-weight:400">With shoulders slumped forward, I picked up the pace and caught up to her. My feet, back, and shoulders were killing me.


    <span style="font-weight:400">We trudged up the mountain slope as it gradually grew steeper. What was once twenty turned into a forty-five-degree angle incline. Needless to say, every step forward became aborious task and drained significantly more stamina.


    <span style="font-weight:400">I couldn’t help thinking about how nice it would be to justy down and roll back down the mountain. However, when I looked behind us and saw the distance that tumble would be, it became apparent only death awaited you should you try that.


    <span style="font-weight:400">There were jagged rocks sticking out from the ground, rolling over some of those would no doubt easily cut through flesh.