After a long conversation with Clarissa, we finally decided to climb the mount the next day. For a while I stayed at Clarissa's house. When morning came, Clarissa and I were getting ready to climb Verra mount, but just as we were about to leave, Arnold came up to us.
"What do you want, Uncle? If you want to stop us, it's too late?" Clarissa asked with an annoyed expression. She thought Arnold had come here to stop her again.
"I came here to accompany you," said Arnold.
"Huh?!' Clarissa was shocked, she looked confused by Arnold's words.
Meanwhile, I don't know if this Arnold was related by blood to Clarissa. But I'm sure Arnold actually cares about Clarissa. Of course, that's just my guess.
"Do you want to go or not? Come on." Arnold walked ahead of us. Clarissa who saw that could only snort in annoyance and followed Arnold. Finally, our journey up Verra mount began.
The path we took was a small path. But fortunately, this was a rocky road, although it was damaged but, at least it was not a wet and muddy road. The forest here was very dense, the bushes were also very tall, Arnold warned me about the possibility of snakes and told me to be careful.
After a few minutes the road began to vertical, we climbed the stone steps and continued to move up. After half an hour, we found that the road had been covered by a landslide. To continue our journey, we need to climb a cliff as high as 7 meters.
We tied the safety rope that connected the three of us. After that, Arnold climbed the cliff slowly. I followed Arnold from behind and Clarissa was behind me. As we were halfway there, Clarissa's stepping stone collapsed, causing Clarissa to fall off the cliff and dangle at the safety rope.
"Are you okay?" I asked holding out my hand. With my help, Clarissa managed to find a new foothold.
"I'm fine thank you."
After that we finally arrived at the top of the cliff. The air temperature here was very cold, I could feel the strong wind blowing. After resting for a while, we finally continued our journey.
After about walking for an hour, we decided to take a break when Clarissa was exhausted. It was unavoidable the route was getting harder and harder so it required extra effort.
Clarissa glanced at me and said, "You have good stamina for a boy from the city."
I was actually surprised, after all I'm not a very athletic person, you could say this convinced me that the changes had occurred in my body. I hadn't tested the limits yet, but I believe my strength was still within the limits of an ordinary human.
"By the way, you haven't explained why you want to climb Verra mount yet," Clarissa asked.
"I'm curious about the mysteries on this mount."
Clarissa looks annoyed, it seems she knows that this is just my excuse. "If you don't want to tell me, that's fine."
"You two, don't make a sound!"
Arnold's sudden warning made things a bit tense, Clarissa and I looked at each other, then we heard rustling sounds from the bushes. We saw a tiger coming out of the bushes, Arnold kept signaling us to be quiet. I suddenly felt pain in my arm.
Clarissa looks like she's holding back something, her hand was pinching my left arm. I endured the pain and tried to help Clarissa. But Clarissa couldn't seem to hold it in anymore. Prooot! Clarissa's fart made the Tiger roaring and running towards us.
Clarissa and I turned and ran, at that moment we heard Arnold scream, "Wait! Do not run!"
I actually wanted to stop running but seeing the Tiger getting closer and closer I ended up continuing to run. I shouted at Clarissa, "Can Tigers climb a tree?"
"They can, even if we climb very high the tiger will be waiting for us."
"It's getting closer, what should we do?!" I asked nervously. I might be able to stop it for a second but the next second I'd be torn to shreds for sure. I firmly believe my body was not strong enough to fight against that tiger.
I saw there was a river there, the river fell down to form a waterfall. We had the same idea, Clarissa and I together jumped into the pool that formed under the waterfall. The pool was deep enough that my body didn't hit a rock or anything.
I felt the cold water cover all parts of my body. I then started to swim to the edge of the pool. Luckily, we threw our bags over to the side of the pool so our two bags didn't get wet. I looked at the tiger who was also looking at the two of us. After a while the tiger finally sauntered away.
"What should we do? We're already far from Arnold and the main road?" I asked. We ran quite a distance, in my haste, I didn't memorize the route back to where we were before.
"Relax, I'm sure Arnold knows the place where my brother disappeared, we will go there and then meet Arnold. I'm sure he'll go there too," Clarissa said. However, Clarissa's next action took me by surprise. She took off her shirt leaving behind a sporty bra.
"W-what are you doing?" I asked.
"Of course, I'm drying my clothes, I don't want to go out with wet clothes. Besides, don't tell me you've never seen a girl's body."
"I've never seen it in person," I said honestly.
"Then get used to it." Clarissa then took off her trousers and left only her panties. Of course, not the kind of underwear that was see-through when wet. I also followed Clarissa to take ff my clothes, so I was only wearing shorts.
Clarissa peeked at me and commented on my body, "You seem to be working out a lot."
Of course, I don't exercise regularly but my body had become athletic and the muscles could be clearly seen.
"Hey, do you know anything about the Exor world?" I spoke.
Clarissa who heard my question immediately frowned. she looked at me carefully and asked, "Did you come to this mount for that?"
I nodded, "I need to have access to the world of Exor, I want to know what people are really hiding, do gods really exist? There are many questions in my mind, and I want to know the truth."
Exor does exist, but knowledge of Exor was not shared with the public. The state didn't even bother to think about and make rules regarding Exor, they treat it as if Exor didn't exist. Even scientists never talk about it, everyone treats Exor and other miracles as if they didn't exist.
Clarissa looked at me with a serious expression. "If that's what you want, then I think you've come to the right place."
"Do you know anything, Clarissa?"
What does she know? Is Clarissa's brother's disappearance related to Exor?