章節 39: Rigged
When Beta looked next to him, he saw a little crow. Its feathers had a darkness to them that he had only seen in the Void World before. It looked at him with its ink black eyes as if it was looking right through him till the depth of his soul. Beta felt weird being seen as if he was naked, thus, he swatted it away.
"Go away! I'm not dead!", Beta shouted at the top of his lungs.
Being greeted by a crow right after closing his eyes to rest was something he definitely didn't enjoy. He was thinking of how rude that crow was for interrupting his rest and coming into his little cave. As it flew away due to his sudden outburst, Beta noticed that it had midnight blue streaks on the inner side of its wings, which made it look different from normal crows.
"Hmm… that was strange. Oh well, I hope I won't be annoyed every time I want to rest a bit...", Beta thought.
He stopped resting and decided to climb again. If he was already mistaken as dead by taking a rest for a bit, then he would rather continue than be mocked by a certain crow! But contrary to Beta's expectations, things didn't go as planned. The crow came back again and observed him, sometimes even giving off occasional caws. At the beginning, Beta wanted to throw some pebbles to scare it away, but he changed his mind when he looked at its small figure and beady eyes, so he relented and decided to just ignore it.
As expected, the crow flew away when it noticed his disinterest. Beta continued on his way as usual with his training and the amount of mountain rock that he carved out got less and less. It wasn't to the point that it hinders him but on the contrary, he was able to crop it the way he wanted it to be. He also improved the usage of his soulpower, thus becoming even more efficient when conserving his energy to be able to climb higher. But no matter how good he became at climbing, he still needed to rest and eat.
So, once again, he made another cave and sat down inside of it. This time, he had completely drained himself. He barely had enough strength to lift the bowl of soup to his mouth. At times like these, he clearly realized just how convenient it is to have a personal space. The soup wasn't warm anymore, but it, nonetheless, tasted very delicious. Earlier, he asked Chugum for some spare soup so that he won't have to come back all the time to get a new one. He didn't have much space at first, but after leveling up due to his training, he was able to enlarge his personal space little by little. For now, it hasn't grown much, only by one cubic meter, but he could at least store some food in it.
"Caw"
His thoughts got cut off by the appearance of the little crow, his repeating visitor, which came back only to caw at him. Beta already felt a headache coming. However, this time, he didn't shoo it away. Beta put down the bowl that he had almost completely finished and started to observe it. Seconds later, the crow moved towards him and started pecking at the bowl.
"So, you've haunted me because you're hungry. You should've said so, instead of disturbing my rest.", Beta said quietly, as if mumbling to himself.
The crow ignored his words and continued pecking at the bowl, but it soon noticed that the soup wasn't that easy to eat like that so, it put the bowl into its mouth and started tilting it. The soup accurately flowed into its mouth as if it was an expert in eating that way. It even started cleaning its beak and fixed its feather after it finished, looking like it was only natural to fix oneself after a meal.
"You're quite a smart fella, aren't you?", Beta said with a laugh.
The crow cawed a few times at him and then just stared at him as it seemingly nodded.
"Eh? Can you understand me?", Beta asked with surprise written all over his face.
"Caw!"
"Hmm… I wonder if it's just a coincidence... I did read that some beasts can understand humans at my parent's place though so maybe it's possible. There's only one way to find out. If you understand me, turn around two times and then nod thrice. After that, walk seven steps on one leg while singing a song about exploration and adventures!"
"Caw!"
Without waiting a single second, the crow flew at Beta then pecked him several times and left hurriedly after that while cawing every now and then when it looked back at the cave.
"Hahaha, I guess it understood me! Its pecks really hurt though... Its beak is pretty sharp.", Beta said while laughing as he saw the crow leaving the cave.
He felt somehow refreshed after that weird interaction with the crow but he can't dally anymore since he still has a long way to go, so he started replenishing his soulpower to continue his climb on the mountain. Beta noticed that the higher he got, the lower the temperature became. A few hours later, when he already almost reached the peak, it was so cold that he couldn't feel his limbs anymore. It was quite dangerous but that didn't stop him from continuing. He had a clear goal in mind – getting the materials he needed from Chugum. Although he hadn't made a bet with him, he wasn't worried at all as he had his own plans to solve that issue. Whether it would work or not was something entirely else though.
"Finally!"
On the same day, Beta was able to climb up all the way to the peak. It was covered in snow and had a cold emanating off of it that froze everything in its surroundings. Though feeling cold, Beta didn't bother with it as he was too happy for finally finishing this task.
"Well done. It took you slightly long, but at last, you arrived.", Chugum said while sitting on a rattan chair. He truly meant what he said. Of all the kids that he tested, not many made it to the top on their first try. Some froze, some fell, and if they made it to the top, they were even a bit later than Beta. Although Beta wasn't much faster than the second place, that is after considering that the second one had a higher cultivation realm and an affinity for ice.
Beta didn't move at all when he heard that. He was so cold that he couldn't even smile.
"I guess we should take you to a warmer place. No worries, I will take care of that.", Chugum nonchalantly said while dragging Beta through his dimensional portal.
A hot wave hit Beta as he arrived on the other side of the portal. He saw the desert that he had noticed when he arrived in this world. Not too far off was a crow, pecking the flesh off of a beast that seemed to have died a few days ago. This helped Beta come up with a plan.
"R-Reward...", Beta groaned quietly.
"What reward are you talking about? I didn't promise you anything for the last test!", Chugum said with a sly smile. He had expected Beta to ask for a reward but he also knew that he couldn't bear to leave all his fortune with Beta, so he hadn't promised anything.
"You rigged the last test."
"Hahaha, what are you talking about? Why would I rig the test?", Chugum said as if it didn't concern him. But inside he was really anxious and his back also started sweating.
"The last five.", Beta said with a straight face.
"Hng… What do you want?", Chugum said in a defeated tone. He truly hadn't expected Beta to notice that he switched the last five stones and even planned to hold back with the complaints until he was able to profit more from it. "What a sly brat!", Chugum commented in his head.
"I want clear Eagle Quartz!"
Chugum's eye twitched slightly when he heard what Beta wanted.
"Are you out of your mind?! Do you know how much that costs?!", Chugum said, almost pulling out his hair.
"If you don't want to, we can make another bet. If I can finish the next test within one day, I'll get the reward I want, and additionally, one for this test.", Beta suggested.
"Deal!", Chugum said without waiting for a second. He knew exactly, that the next test would even take Beta a few days to solve.
Beta didn't mind his abruptness. He simply smiled and prepared himself for the next test.
"This test will check your exploration skills. You have to find a tomb made of sand within this desert.", Chugum said with a devilish glint in his eyes. This test was something that required luck and days of combing through the desert. With that, he was sure that he had made a good deal.
"Just that? That's easy! Oh, by the way, can I borrow some meat?", Beta asked sheepishly.
"Sure, sure!" Since Chugum was in a great mood, he didn't mind giving Beta some food at all. A few pieces of juicy meat were quickly handed over to Beta.
Beta looked at the meat with satisfaction and slowly moved towards the crow that had been gnawing on the dead beast's intestines.
"We meet again little fella!"
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