After Hades vanished, I realized that it was already almost nightfall as the sun had almost completely vanished behind the enormous mountains in the horizon. I had been so focused on Hades that I had not been very observant of how quickly time had flown by. I looked around and realized that I was all alone on the plain which was weird because before numerous monsters had been grazing nearby.
As I looked around me, I heard the howl of a wolf and immediately realized why the monsters had completely vanished. It was because it was almost nightfall which meant the top predators of this hellish place would be roaming around looking for night snack and the weaker monsters probably had enough common sense to seek shelter somewhere safe while I 'the weakest moronic creature' was standing around like an idiot waiting to be eaten. I needed to find somewhere safe to take shelter for the night and as I thought of which direction I should go, I heard a ding sound in my head from the status window system.
I opened the status window to find that the system had been updated with two new features labelled {MAP}and {LIBRARY} which appeared as a title right next to {PLAYER STATUS} title. I tapped the "Map" title which opened up revealing a large map on my status window that showed the various geological features around me such as the mountains as well as the lakes and forests near me. In the map I appeared as a small blue dot which interestingly similar to how a game character appears on a map in an RPG videogame and the other geological features were shown in a similar manner which made it easier for me to differentiate different geological features in this place. The name of the area was still unknown since the title of the map was "Map of ???" which meant the tower or some unknown being was restricting me from viewing the information on the region.
According to the map, the closest place near me was a lake name "Lake Azaelrious" which appeared to be the only option since the nearest mountain was two thousand miles away whereas the nearest forest was a mile away which meant that the lake "which was only a quarter-mile from where I was" was the nearest place that I could go to. Although it would still be dangerous for me to go to the lake even though it was only a quarter mile away due to the fact that at this point, the sun had already set and now high up in the sky were three moons each of a different color, one was orange while the other two were green and blue in color.
This appearance of the moons meant that the predators of the night had most likely already started their hunt for their nighttime meal. The orange and green moon appeared to be smaller than the blue moon but the three of them seemed to cast moonlight of the same intensity which made the soil on the ground appear maroon in color which wasn't all that different from its red color during the day.
Using the map as my guide, I headed in the direction of lake while walking at a fast pace as the monsters weren't the only thing that I was worried about at the moment. It was the freezing temperature that seemed to continue dropping every minute. It would seem that this place functioned in a similar manner to a desert in which the hotter it is during the day, the colder it is during the night and judging by how hot this place was during the day, I wouldn't last the night without a source of heat.
At this point I would end up freezing before I reached the lake judging by how I was already shivering and hence in order to preserve heat, I tucked my palms beneath my arm pits and lowered my head to reduce the surface area that was exposed to the cold winds that blew from the direction of two tall mountains that I had seen during the day. Halfway to the lake, my feet started to ache from having to walk barefoot all this time. The moment Hades left, the heat from the atmosphere completely melted my leather shoes from Earth and I was lucky enough to notice otherwise I would be missing a couple of toes on my feet and although I had managed to remove the shoes before they combusted into orange flames, I was now also stuck walking barefoot in this shitty place. As for my skin, the system notified me that the magic circle that I had absorbed from Hades had granted me protection from the heat during the day. I would still experience all the pain and misery that came with the hot environment around me, but the heat wouldn't melt my flesh off my bones as it should have done by now. Still I wasn't sure if this protection would work for the cold brought by the night or if even lasted for more than a day but to be careful I planned to seek a shelter where I could hopefully build a fire and settle down for the night.
"Seriously…..how much bad luck can one person have?" I thought as I winced from the pain caused by stepping on a small sharp stone. I looked at the blood slowly dripping on to the cold hard ground beneath my feet. My wounds caused by the numerous tiny cuts and bruises I had managed to obtain along the way due to objects such as sharp stones as well as small shrubs that I sometimes had to walk through. Most of the shrubs ended up having small sharp thorns that ripped into my clothes however the alternative option was walking across other paths that seemed to have the footprints on them and I honestly didn't have the courage to do that.
The only positive thing that I gained from this entire experience was the skill {PESERVERANCE} which I had obtained when I hid in a nearby thorny bush, 300km from my starting point, after hearing the roar of a monster that seemed dangerously close to where I was. It would appear that I was right to hide because not a few minutes had passed when I saw a large beast approaching where I was. As the creature appeared in my line of sight, I held back a scream when I saw its true appearance.