Chapter 4

Kurahito was stuck up to his waist in the snow that had accumulated in a drift. Sighing for what seemed like the umpteenth time, he wriggled out of the slope as if crawling. Without overexerting his toes or heels, he used his entire body from the knees up to swim through the snow, a skill he had learned growing up in a snowy region. It was a rather pitiful sight, but the only consolation was that the fire spirit magic he had cast on himself protected him from the piercing cold of the radiative cooling and the snow seeping into his work clothes.

Rocks protruded from the mountain slope, pushing aside the snow and exposing the earth. The blizzard on this mountain changed direction abruptly, sometimes within minutes, and the wind blew the snow in all directions, exposing the rocks on the snowy slope. At the same time, snow accumulated in the crevices of the rocks that were sheltered from the wind.

Kurahito had observed the rapidly changing blizzard from the cave more than he cared to, but the protruding rocks, frozen ground, and snowdrifts on the slope were indistinguishable to him, who had never seen the original mountain. He had stumbled many times.

However, Kurahito was not just troubled by being buried in the snow. He was from a snowy region and had a strong resistance to the cold. The real problem was the gaze.

It was a gaze of pity.

The magical beast frequently sent this gaze from behind. Every time Kurahito struggled in the snow, the magical beast pitied him. When he first stepped out of the cave, the gaze seemed to be monitoring him, but as he stumbled, pity began to mix in. Kurahito had no skill to read auras or gazes, but he could sense the magical beast's strong presence. Because he could sense it, he was also irritated.

At first, the gaze had made him feel suffocated, but now he was no longer in that state of mind. Kurahito turned around irritably and glared at the magical beast lying on a large rock ledge. Even from a considerable distance, he could see the long tail swaying gracefully, and he vowed to tie it in a knot someday.

Deciding to ignore the detestable magical beast, Kurahito sat on a convenient rock and wondered why his breathing, which had not been disrupted, was so steady. He estimated that the cave was at a very high altitude, as there were no tall plants in sight, similar to the high-altitude landscapes he had seen in photos on Earth. Moreover, he could sense very few wind spirits.

This land was mostly composed of earth spirits and ice spirits, with a small number of lightning spirits and wind spirits, and a trace amount of fire spirits. Compared to the typical spirit composition described in magic textbooks, which centered around earth spirits, water spirits, and wind spirits, with small amounts of lightning spirits, fire spirits, and others, it was clear that the number of wind spirits was significantly lower.

A low number of wind spirits meant thin air, and thin air meant high altitude. And this was a mountain.

Given that Kurahito had no physical training and was repeatedly moving through the snow in thin air, he should have been out of breath and suffering from altitude sickness. Yet, he was not even short of breath, which puzzled him.

He felt that escaping from the snow was much easier than it used to be. Wondering if this was the case, Kurahito jumped on the spot, punched the ground, and sprinted. As expected, everything had improved. He jumped about two meters vertically, left a clear imprint of his fist on the ground, and easily ran up the slope.

Kurahito pondered for a while, but with no one to compare himself to and a lack of reference points, he gave up on figuring out the cause. Unbeknownst to him, this was the effect of the body adapted to this world, or more precisely, the body adapted to the place where he arrived, as given by the voice.

Thanks to this effect, his body had adapted to the high altitude. Kurahito started walking cautiously, determined not to get stuck again.

His shadow, which seemed somewhat heavy, stretched long on the slope as he returned to the cave. The only gain was that he no longer got his feet caught in the snowdrifts. There were traces of small animals that could be food, but he could not identify any edible wild plants as he had imagined. He still had more than half a year's worth of food, but the future looked bleak.

However, it was only the first day, and Kurahito encouraged himself. Finally, he reached the cave and tried to close it quickly to go to sleep.

Who said mutual non-interference?

Who had boasted about tying someone's tail in a knot?

Kurahito could not move. He had a knife in his belt, but his arms, fingers, and even his throat would not budge. A massive body with white fur and black spots silently landed, trapping Kurahito in the cave. Kurahito realized that the length of the magical beast's body, which he had estimated from a distance, was completely off.

The magical beast's face was at the same level as Kurahito's.