Another week passed, a week that Kai spent rotating between training his Statshifting, circulating his Mana and practising with Esurient. They hadn't fought a single beast during the last week, but that was mainly because Kai was hesitant to fight anything after that whole ordeal with the Polar Demon. He had now learned not to underestimate a single thing that lived on the mountain, so he was going to be a pacifist for a while.
Speaking of the Polar Demon though, after finding Petunia and resting for a while, Kai attempted to find its body so he could use Soul Memorial on it and see if he could defeat it and get any extra stats, but it's corpse ended up being buried under the avalanche and he wasn't bothered enough to go scavenging and try and dig it up, so he had to let it go.
At least, he thought he would have had to, if not for the fact he realised something after Cecilia transfered Esurient back to him.
Esurient had a max storage of three souls, Kai knew that. Two of them were taken up by the Veiled of the Dark Side and Ezekial, so he didn't want to just waste the final slot on just any random beast.
But when Cecilia had killed the Polar Demon, she had stabbed it right through its soul, which meant that the final slot had been taken up by the Polar Demon.
And unlike the Veiled of the Dark Side and Ezekial's Stored Souls, the Demon's just wasn't as appealing as theirs.
Polar Demon (C)
Under its personal blizzard, a slumbering demon awoke and came close to besting the progenitor of Statshifting only to be stabbed in the back by a future Mana Weaver. By infusing your blade with Mana, the user imbues it with the Frostbite Status effect. If stabbed enough times by this effect, the recipients body can be completely frozen over. When minorly affected by Frostbite, the recipients body becomes 5% slower.
Now, it might not look that bad at first, Kai had even believed that it was pretty decent. Making your enemy 5% slower was always going to be handy in a fight.
But it was only after becoming slightly excited did he remember where he was.
Every single enemy he had encountered while on the journey to this mountain and while scaling it had some sort of ice, snow or frost based abilities, which meant there was a 99% chance that they would be immune to the effects of Frostbite.
Which rendered that Stored Soul completely useless.
Cleaning the Ruby blade with a piece of cloth that had been ripped off of a luxurious and expensive looking cloak that had been in the treasury of the now destroyed castle, Kai gazed at his reflection and blinked.
He looked older, despite it only being a few weeks since they had departed from the city, but more had happened in those few weeks than the six months he spent in the city.
And they weren't even half way to the peak yet.
How wonderful.
Gazing at the blade, Kai activated the Polar Demon's Stored Soul and watched as Esurient was enveloped in a dark blue light, the same shade that the Demon's body had been. It also felt colder to touch, and he watched as the piece of fabric he had been cleaning Esurient with was slowly starting to freeze over.
Sighing to himself, Kai put the ripped fabric on the ground of the tent and sent Esurient back to his soul to let the blade get some more rest. They had fully recovered from using Equilibrium and the skill could now be used again, but Kai could feel that Esurient was still fatigued.
Plus, he had another thought on his mind.
He knew that he could use Soul Memorial on the souls Esurient had stored, which meant he could use it on the Polar Demon and free up that slot.
But did that mean he should?
Well, he obviously would, that was for sure, but what he was thinking was should he do it now? He had only barely survived fighting it, and that was only because Cecilia was there. And while he hadn't been going all out, the Demon had still beaten him pretty effortlessly.
Plus, he also really hoped to get a skill from the fight, so he had to make sure it was a good fight. If there was one thing Kai had learned about the System and its skills and items, the better the story was, the better the skill or item was more likely to be.
Which meant that while Kai had only gotten a few stats from the few creatures he had beaten using Soul Memorial, maybe if he were to have a more intense fight in the skill it would give him better rewards.
Kai could only fantasise about what he could have gotten if he beat the Evolved Winter Serpent.
But one thing that Kai noticed about the Polar Demon was that despite its level, it had a C Rank soul. Evolved creatures really were just on a different level.
Sighing to himself, Kai pushed himself off the tent and made his way to the entrance of the tent. Unzipping it, he emerged from the flaps and glanced out at the eternal blizzard.
Making his way to the ledge, he couldn't help but be in awe of everything he could see.
The gargantuan skull of a long dead dragon, the creepy dead forest, the region dominated by ice spikes.
And the final thing he could make out, the thing he couldn't originally see, was a titanic frozen lake.
It must have spanned hundreds and hundreds of kilometers, and he couldn't make out a single thing about it other than the fact it was completely frozen over.
Back when he had been on the titan's legs, the lake had been the least visible thing and it was also the thing that had been the most protected by the blizzard, almost as if it wanted no one to gaze at it.
Which made Kai's gaze linger on it a little longer than it normally would have.
The ice was so dark, it almost kind of looked cool. Maybe he should approach it and try and break a piece off, Petunia might like it.
Lifting his foot to take a step forward, Kai...
Glanced down at his foot, which was now over the ledge he had standing on.
Shaking his head, Kai sighed and took a step back, composing himself and getting rid of the urges that had slithered into his mind.
His eyes then widened as he watched a gargantuan shadow beneath the lake of ice shift and descend even deeper into the depths of the freezing water, the shade of the ice becoming a little brighter.
Now, Kai was happy that they had reached this altitude before he had decided to look at the lake, otherwise he might have just jumped off to his death under the command of the unseen beast.
Staring out blankly into the distance, Kai felt the wind pick up a little as it flung his hair around. It had reached such a length that the back of it could now swing around and hit him in the eyes.
It was annoying, and uncomfortable. Kai had no idea if it would end up impacting him in a fight, but he was contemplating cutting it, even if it meant it would look horrible for a while.
Turning away from the eternal blizzard, Kai shook his head and made his way back to the tent, ready to give himself a new haircut.
Sliding the zipper open once more, Kai glanced around at the spacious interior and saw where everyone was.
Petunia, Umbra and Remy were all cuddled together in the corner, all of them sleeping soundly while making use of each others warmth. It was a cute sight.
Esurient was in the far corner, careful not to be too close to them as they practised some aerial movement. Even though they could fly, the were still yet to become proficient fighting while flying.
... Which would probably be an important thing to focus on, considering that it wouldn't be long before they reached the third trial.
And Cecilia, Ceilia was in a separate corner to the two other groups, her fingers working tirelessly as she sewed together what looked to be a large net. It had a soft blue hue to it, and Kai had no idea what properties she would be giving to it.
Approaching the only corner that wasn't occupied, Kai set up a telepathic connection with Esurient and guiltily called them away from their training.
Even though they definitely weren't suited for the job, Esurient would be what Kai would be using as barber scissors.
Grabbing a chunk of hair at the back of his head, Kai took a deep breath and pulled it taught, ready for Esurient to cut through it. Unable to see behind him, he could only wait for the Ruby blade to descend on his hair like a guillotine and-
"What are you doing?"
Both Kai and Esurient froze, both of them turning towards Cecilia, who had stopped sewing in favour of calling out the two of them.
"Cutting my hair. It's too long."
Cecilia stared at them blankly, a look of utter confusion in her eyes.
"And you're not even going to attempt to try and cut it properly? You were just going to chop at it and hope for the best?"
Kai simply shrugged in response.
Dropping the net she had been weaving, Cecilia crawled over to Kai and positioned herself beside him. Just as she was about to reach out and touch his hair, she suddenly froze and asked:
"May I?"
Shrugging once more, Kai answered.
"Have at it."
He was long overdue a proper haircut anyway.