86 Chapter 86 How High Are We?
After Maverick went inside his warm bath, everyone started swarming Aldred/
“I would like to buy a spot and your friendship. This is mid-rare black iron armor.”
“I would like to buy your friendship as well. This is serpent skin armor.”
“Take my Feral Spirit Totem. It will protect you.”
“Take this sword of infernal.”
“I can give you this resilience amulet.”
“I can give you a PP condom.”
“Bro, get out of here with that stupid thing. Here, take my troll skin armor.”
Everyone offered one rare item after another. If these items were sold in an auction they could rake tens of thousands of gold coins. The poor adventurer could gulped in silence. They wished the rich people there would offer something to them, but it remain a wish forever.
Aldred cleared his throat. “Sorry, but my friendship spot is limited, and that spot is no more. I will take all your items, but I can only give you warm baths.”
The buyers sighed in disappointment, but they agreed in the end. A hot bath was what they needed. Their friends already had their limbs turned deep black because of the cold, and that scared them.
He told them to put the items on the ground. Quickly, the items started piling up like trash in the landfill. The poor adventurer couldn’t believe they did nothing when there was a pile of treasure right before their eyes. They recalled Aldred’s transformation into a giant eagle and held their desire.
Aldred combusted a lot of holes for them and Mira filled them up with water just like before.
“There you go.”
The buyers looked at holes with expectation but then were disappointed.
“It’s so small.”
“You guys didn’t say anything about the size. If you want an up-size, then pay more.”
They looked at him like they were looking at a cockroach—full of disgust.
Mira flicked his forehead again. “Don’t play them like that.”
Aldred smiled and scratched the back of his head. “I am just kidding.”
He combusted the holes to make the bathtub larger. Mira added more water, and Aldred shot more fire javelins at the center.
Steam came out of the bath, and everyone immediately entered their spot.
“Bartrem, you can give these treasures to everyone.”
“Are you sure?”
“Of course. They are family, no?”
The soldiers looked at Aldred with widened eyes. ‘We are family as well?’ They didn’t know that Aldred thought of them in such a way.
“We have been through a lot. From fighting battles in the fort, killing monsters during our travel, and now here we are, taking a warm bath at high altitude with freezing cold wind trying to kill us.”
The soldiers felt like tearing up. ρꪖꪕᦔꪖꪕꪫꪣꫀꪶ
Joseph and Jeffery already cried. Aldred was the one who helped them in fixing their techniques.
They always felt they were useless to the army before until he came along. The female soldiers felt their hearts thumping hard, and they saw Aldred in a much better light.
A poor adventure group stared at them in jealousy. So unfair. A man with a large scar on his right eye down to his lips stared at the boy. He snorted and walked away.
“You are a generous person,” Maverick said. His bath spot was only a few meters from Aldred. “Others would either sell these treasures or keep them for later use.”
“They’re my friends. This much is nothing.”
Maverick bitterly smiled. ‘That nothing is a pile of middle and upper rare items.’
“I hope we can reach the upper part in a week.”
“Upper part?”
Maverick nodded. “We are currently in the lower part of the mountain. A few kilometers above us is the middle part. From what I know, that’s where the real challenge begins.”
“Wait, how high are we right now?”
“No, I don’t do drugs.”
“I mean the altitude.”
“We’re at around 16 Kilometers from the ground.”
“What?” Aldred was shocked. “We’re that high, and it’s just the lower part of the mountain?” If he recalled correctly, Mount Everest was only 8 Kilometers. He was currently double that altitude and apparently he was only at the foot of the mountain.
The environment was already extreme in this place, what would the condition be at a higher altitude?
More people climbed on top of the cliff, but they have a protective tent that blocked much of the cold. Still, they looked at Aldred and the others who enjoyed the hot bath. Especially Aldred, who was sandwiched by four beautiful women all around him.
The poor adventurer thickened themselves with cloths, and burrow a hole in the snow. Sticking only their heads out. It was still cold, but it was much better than sleeping out in the open. They looked like whack-a-moles now with their heads out of the hole.
After some time, Aldred and the others in the hot bath decided to sleep right in the bath. It was much more comfortable than the tents anyway. They put some towels on the ground and put the back of their head on soft towels as they closed their eyes.
“This is so good,” Mareona said. “We should do this more often.”
“For sure,” Aldred said as a handful of snow fell from above. It splatted beside his bath before melting because of the heat.
Aldred looked up and saw something under the dark sky. It stared at him with a pair of dimly lit yellow eyes. Teeth as hideous as sharks, and dark-blue tentacles waved around from its head. Aldred blinked, and the creature disappeared.
He rubbed his eyes. ‘Did I see it wrong?’ He closed his eyes again, relaxing with both Mareona and Sophia beside him.
He heard a footstep. It was so soft that he could barely hear it among the gnawing wind.
“AHH!”
They opened their eyes and jolted out of the hot bath. They stared to the west where the scream came from. A man ran with blood all over his clothes. His face expressed a true horror as a creature resembling a demon came from behind and tore him to shreds.
“It’s a Phantom Claw!”