It was a strange sort of feeling, laying eyes on a beast that was actually a lower level than him.
Throughout his entire journey, Kai had always been the underleveled one. Of course, he had various abilities that could make up for the lack of levels, but still, the level difference was there.
Even though the beast was only a singular level below him, it was still enough to shock Kai, considering that the monsters they were facing were slowly getting stronger the higher they climbed.
So to be nearly face to face with a creature lower leveled than him, it almost felt as if all of the months of torture he had endured were worth it.
Of course, not all of the months had been torture, some moments had been worse than others, but it could have been worse.
... Kai also hoped that it wouldn't get worse from here on out, but he had no idea what to expect for the rest of their ascent.
The creature in question resembled a Lynx, only it was standing on its two hind legs and was vaguely humanoid. It also had a cloak of tattered fabric wrapped around its neck.
Huh.... That's one smart kitty.
The kitty in question was just lying down against a pile of snow, it's eyes closed and a relaxed and peaceful expression on its feline face.
And now that Kai got a bit of a closer look at it, its cloak looked a little strange, a little too proper for a beast to have gotten a hold of. So the question was, where did the creature obtain it?
It wasn't like he was in too much of a rush to find out the answer, it wouldn't weigh on his mind or anything like that.
Summoning Esurient from his soul, Kai softly gripped the hilt of the blade and infused it with some Mana. The next moment, with the help of the Veiled of the Dark Side's stored soul, he vanished from where he was standing.
Slowly, he crept up behind the feline creature, hoping that it wouldn't be able to sense him sneaking up on it.
Sadly, that's just what ended up happening.
Just before he was in swords reach of the creature, its ears twitched in response to the snow crunching beneath Kai's feet. It quickly pounced up, let out a loud hiss in Kai's direction and leapt backwards.
Then, the fight began.
Kai let Esurient fly out of his hand, the tip of the blade aimed right at the creatures left eye. The sentient blade shot forward with incredible speed, but somehow the beast reacted, moving its face just enough so that the tip of the blade nicked its face rather than plunge into its eye.
Realising that the Lynx like creature had methods of sensing him, Kai gave up on the invisibility just as his entire body was engulfed by raging red flames.
Two balls of fire quickly manifested into his hands, which he promptly threw at his target. Some of its fur got singed from the attack, but yet again it managed to avoid taking much damage.
Kai inwardly cursed.
The kitty was definitely good at dodging, he knew that much.
So he just had to give it no way to dodge.
A howl came from behind Kai, and a pitch black wolf hopped out from behind a rock. Even though Umbra was a third of the level of this beast, Kai trusted in her ability to not get injured.
Now, with three people attacking the feline beast, the fight was sure to become easier.
Esurient went low, aiming to slice the creatures ankles. Umbra lunged at its chest, her claws ready to rip its flesh. And Kai went for the head, winding up a punch and boosting his arm using Mana Surge.
He watched as the feline's eyes widened in horror, it almost looked as if it had accepted its fate.
He then watched as its cloak began to move, magically extending and covering its entire body.
Then, the cloak fell and...
Vanished.
Both the cloak and the Lynx like monster were gone, vanished into thin air, one with the snow.
Kai deactivated Mana Surge and stared blankly at the area where the creature had just been standing.
It was a common trope in stories that some creatures had the ability to escape any sort of danger with skills like that, but this was the first time Kai had actually encountered one.
But why did it have to possess an ability like that?
They had it on the ropes, Cecilia would have gotten another few levels and they would have been able to get her even closer to choosing her class.
Sighing to himself, Kai shook his head and turned back to the rest of the group.
"Well, that was something?"
Cecilia stared at him for a few moments before finally responding.
"It certainly was."
Glancing back at Cecilia, Kai realised that she had changed her outfit. Now, it consisted of a large winter coat that went down to her knees, which helped to cover the thick pair of trousers she was wearing. A large pair of brown boots were on her feet, a few small spikes in front of her toes just in case she needed to kick anything.
She also had a pair of gloves on, along with a winter hat and a pair of goggles resting on her head just in case the blizzard randomly got worse.
He then watched as the ex-Queen performed a small experiment. Another pair of goggles appeared on her head, which she then tried to hand to Petunia, only as soon as it left her hands, the goggles vanished.
It really was that only the wearer could make use of the incredible abilities of the bodysuit he had obtained back in the Tutorial Shop.
Truly, the best purchase he had made back then. Kai didn't even want to believe what would have happened if he did not posses that item.
Sighing to himself, Kai summoned the box that created food and drink from his brand new satchel. Even though they had to constantly summon it for sustenance, the satchel increased the capabilites of the box ever so slightly, making the food and drink taste a tiny bit better when consumed.
Once the group had eaten and drank their fill, Kai felt a little guilty as he lifted his gaze to Cecilia, a look of firm resolution in his eyes.
"We have a few weeks before we reach the third trial, which gives us a fair amount of time to get to work together properly. The warnings Frosty gave makes me assume that the next trial will be a fighting trial, and a rough one at that.
Now that we know the levels of beasts in these trials, we can predict what to expect. We can estimate the beasts present in the trials to be a higher level than the beasts populating this mountain, so I'd say any creatures that are in the third trial are minimimum level 100.
Now, I don't know about you, but I would much rather not spend the next while trying to get us all to level 100. That would take far, far too long, and we are still on a fairly tight schedule to reach the peak.
Of course, we will still be killing things as we climb. You still have to reach level 10, and I will probably get another few levels after.
But since power leveling is not an option, that leaves us with one other choice."
Crossing his arms, Kai looked over to Petunia. The young girl's blonde hair was completely free of the curls that had once plagued it, and it had grown to an unruly length, reaching down to below her waist. Kai wasn't sure if he should even attempt to cut it, in case he messed it up.
... Then again, it's not like he could really talk about the length of her hair, considering that his was probably long enough to be put in a ponytail.
"Since you're so hesitant to share anything about your abilities, I'm assuming you know a way to get stronger yourself?"
Strangely, Petunia turned to her left, towards a rock with nothing on top of it, for a second before nodding in response. Kai frowned slightly, but did not say anything out loud to call her out.
So, he knew how to make himself stronger, Petunia knew how to make herself stronger, so that only left Cecilia.
Dear old Cecilia.
She couldn't help but shiver as a sly grin started to grow on Kai's face. It felt like all the times the men in the castle had lecherously gazed at her body, only this time, the gaze wasn't directed at her body, it was like Kai was looking at something inside her.
"Unlike me, who has so many skills that I have to attempt to upgrade, you only possess one singular skill, meaning you can dedicate more time to practicing it. So that means..."
Cecilia's shoulders sagged before Kai even finished speaking.
"Whenever we are not fighting, you're going to be working on your Mana Threads. That skill has to be minimum Rare rarity before we reach the third trial, and you also have to be level 10."
Kai clapped his hands and rubbed them together, a wide, happy grin on his face.
"Well, chop chop, get to work. It's time to create our own training montage!"