Divine Beast Ascension

Chapter 519: Provincial Qualifier: Round One Begins!

Whoosh! Frrruuuuhh!!

Before the spatial energy could disperse around Rot Team, they were already assaulted by harsh winds and snow pelting their faces and bodies. Everyone immediately rushed to equip their mantles, feeling the drastic difference in temperature.

“Ohh...” Freele was still shaking after just a split second of facing the weather unprotected. “That... was worse than I expected...”

“The storm’s way stronger than we gave it credit,” Fulkar agreed, glad to have the mantles that Oli had acquired despite his ice affinity.

Oli nodded. “Without these, I don’t know how we’d plan to compete seriously. After feeling the storm firsthand, I’m certain that every team has mantles, at least two or three per team if not for everyone.”

Yeter spoke up, asking, “But how do we find our way back to the shrine?”

Everyone was left baffled for a moment as they realized that was never explained.

.....

“... I’m sure that will be made known at some point. For now, let’s find some shelter,” Oli stated as he scanned their surroundings as best he could. “Trenk, do you think you can give us a perimeter of fire to help with visibility?”

Nodding, Trenk took out his sword and filled it with fire essence. A thin barrier of fire flashed out and stopped about four krin away. “Sorry. That’s as far as I can go without pushing myself. Do you want me to increase it anyway?”

“No.” Oli shook his head and sighed, “We don’t know what’s around us and we don’t want to leave you weakened so quickly. We’ll just continue like this until we find something or somewhere we can use for shelter.”

The team walked together under Oli’s lead, making sure to stay inside the warmer space provided by Trenk.

They quickly realized they were on a mountainside though it wasn’t too rocky. There were patches of towering trees at least twenty krin high or taller. The weather was a little more bearable between the trees but they didn’t stop there for long. After almost an hour of searching, Oli finally let the team stop.

“We’ll make shelter here. Yeter, help me dig out enough space for the team.”

Oli had settled on a small wind cave in the mountainside since it had recently become shielded by some younger trees that were only ten to twenty krin tall. Together, Oli and Yeter used earth essence to dig into the wind cave, expanding it to offer everyone a natural shelter from the harsh weather.

Trenk was able to drop the barrier and the team was glad to no longer feel the wind pressure against their mantles. Even though they were protected from the cold, that didn’t stop the weather from covering them in snow and trying to sneak into the crevices of their clothes. Now, they could breathe easier while sitting with their backs to the stone walls, able to ignore the icy cold touch via their mantles.

“Don’t make a fire just yet,” Oli advised, stopping Trenk from leaving to gather some firewood.

Yeter and Trenk stared at Oli like he was somewhat crazy while Freele asked, “Why not?”

Oli stored his frosted mantle and answered, “Because our best chance for survival will come after we acclimate to at least the temperature. In here, acclimating should be possible. We have two suns to find the shrine and I doubt it’s so far away that we’ll have to spend all our time traveling. If anything, what if they give us so much time in order to help us acclimate and increase our chances of survival?”

Everyone nodded in agreement but it didn’t leave anyone smiling apart from Fulkar, who removed his mantle and commented, “Makes sense to me. But can we have a fire at night?”

“Yeah, we’ll definitely need one while we sleep. But we’ll still make a night watch cycle so we can be safe.”

Hearing that, Freele eased up a lot. “Alright... But I’m not going out there without my mantle.”

“That’s fine. For now, how about we take three days to acclimate? The bare-bones temperature is about the same as the inn’s ice baths, so just three days of acclimation should help us a lot.”

Oli then assumed a crossed-leg position and started training. But what others didn’t know was that he was trying to reach someone telepathically. In the depths of Oli’s mind, he sighed to himself, *... He’s really not here? ... I’m not sure if I believe it, but he did say he could use the time to handle things that needed he’d been putting off...*

Unsuccessful at getting any response or finding any sign of Eeole’s presence, Oli quickly started his actual training. Given their circumstances, Oli didn’t dare enter his soul jade while in an unknown, unexplored area filled with possible threats.

The entire team removed their mantles and felt the chilling touch of the ice-cold stone walls. But no one backed down from the challenge of acclimation. Freele was the one to struggle the most but she managed thanks to the two-and-a-half moons of acclimation in Avalanche City. Apart from Oli, Yeter was actually the fastest to adjust to the low temperatures with Fulkar just barely slower. Trenk was almost as slow as Freele but mostly because he chose to acclimate without the help of any fire essence whatsoever.

Time passed slowly. The wind outside their dugout cave howled and whistled. Snow was thrown against the opening second after second, almost piling up to block the cave’s opening.

Eventually, Oli and the team got up from their training to stretch. They used that time to clear the piled-up snow and don a couple mantles.

“I’ll go find us something to eat. Yeter, go gather whatever you can find for firewood, and try to avoid anything too green. We don’t want to get smoked out,” Oli stated, getting nods from everyone. Trenk, Fulkar, if you want to try and train just outside the cave where the wind isn’t the harshest, go ahead and try. But don’t go so far that you can’t see the cave.”

Fulkar asked, “Will you two be alright finding your way back?”

“I’m used to grazing and traveling all the time. I’ll remember my way no problem!” Yeter boasted.

“And I can find the cave via sensing the earth. Even in pitch-black darkness, I can find my way,” remarked Oli, unintentionally stealing Yeter’s thunder.