ALL NOVEL Chapter 33: YOU MAGNIFICENT LITTLE FLUFF
Between Glacia's help and his increased stats, Digging himself out of the snow wasn't a terribly difficult task; however, given how long Aoni had spent out in the cold and how much time had been wasted thanks to the avalanche, he knew it was better to head back now than be forced into facing the consequences of his idiocy.
He wasn't ready to venture out into the wilderness, not yet, at least, and this failed excursion proved that fact.
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Nearly an hour later, stripped down and wrapped in the emergency blanket, Aoni huddled in front of the fire, blue-lipped and shivering.
'Who am I kidding, im not physically equipped to survive in this place; a makeshift jacket made out of a sleeping bag, a t-shirt, jeans, and sneakers are far from polar equipment.' he mused mentally with a metaphorical dark cloud hanging over his head.
'My stats may allow me to survive a bit longer outside the cave, but that alone will only spell disaster down the line, especially when my clothing starts wearing out…' Pausing that thought, Aoni glanced over at his hand-me-down clothes and sighed.
'Wearing out more than they already are. I need supplies, I need resources…' As he thought, Aoni's eyes drifted across the cave toward the flume, and his heart sunk further.
It was no secret that the link back to Terra wouldn't be constructed until the 35th day, and yet here he was, only on day three.
If that weren't bad enough, by that point, Aoni would have long since run out of food.
Luckily, he had plenty of water in the form of snow, which could be melted, and lots of firewood, so while Aoni would end up starving, he could probably last those remaining 5 days….
'I can…but what about Glacia? She will be stuck here when I return to Terra, and with the time dilation between the two places, I'd be leaving her to fend on her own for days on end until I returned.' Slumping his shoulders, the Lad balled his hands into fists, knowing he had to come up with a better plan.
'Wait, I may not be able to last out there, but the same can't be said for her…' Unclenching his fists as quickly as he balled them up, Aoni snapped his head in his summon's direction before leaving the safety of the blanket to grab his notebook and pencil and swiftly returning to the spot in front of the fire and calling out to her.
"Glacia…"
Hearing her name called, the little ball of fur, who was presently playing with a stick on the bed, lifted her head and looked at her Lord before bouncing off and heading to his side.
'Since anything which can be considered a threat to her would be outside the Territory barrier, it's relatively safe for Glacia to explore…more importantly, hunt.'
"Listen carefully, okay…" A few minutes and another picturebook lesson later, Aoni watched as his Summon happily pranced out of the cave.
Basically, Aoni had explained that he wanted her to try and find small game animals, things that, while nourished by Energia, were so low on the combat spectrum that they could only be considered prey animals.
With the lack of predators in the territory currently, even though they were very high up, Aoni didn't doubt small critters would have made the territory their home. If Glacia could hunt some down, he could probably scrap together some equipment and then, HOPEFULLY, upgrade them with his Attribute.
It was a long shot at best, but he had to do something other than wait for death to knock at his door.
That being said, Aoni knew that when the Territory Barrier dropped at the end of the 30th day, there was bound to be some chaos, as whatever creatures had originally been living here on the mountain returned to reclaim their land.
And so, the long wait began.
Thirty minutes passed, then an hour, which became two, then three; by that point, Aoni was starting to worry.
At the four-hour mark, right as he was beginning to gear up to look for his summon, Aoni noticed a flash of fur come barreling into the cave; however, when he saw the state she was in, the Lad immediately went into a panic, because Glacia's once white fur, was completely dyed Red.
"GLACIA!" Aoni screamed while going to meet his summon at the mouth of the cave, but what he soon realized was the little fur ball was as energetic as ever and even fought him several times as he examined her from top to bottom, only to discover the blood matting her fur belonged to a third party.
"GAOOO! OooOOo Gaoo GaoOoo!" Spouting off in her cute babble, Glacia grabbed his pant leg with her mouth and tugged in a funny attempt at getting Aoni to leave the cave.
"Woah woah, calm down. What's the hurry?" He asked while reaching down to extricate himself from her clutches; however, right as he did, Aoni happened to look outside of the cave and was suddenly frozen in place by what he saw.
Littering the area right outside of the cave were dozens of small carcasses, from birds to rabbits and even what he assumed to be Fox cubs; the numbers kept stacking up, and as Aoni walked out into the snow, he couldn't help but look down at the ball of fur who seemed extremely proud of her accomplishments.
But there was more to it than Aoni even realized because right as he was about to applaud and praise the little fur ball, she darted off before returning with two round objects, one in her mouth and the other being held like a football.
"Holy shit!" Dropping down and accepting the presents from his summon, Aoni was astounded to find that apart from the 30-something kills, Glacia had located the remaining two Spikey fruits and brought them back without being instructed.
To say he was surprised would be an understatement; no, Aoni was COMPLETELY FLOORED by her achievement!
"GLACIA, YOU MAGNIFICENT LITTLE FLUFF!" placing down the two fruits, the Lad scooped her up in his arms, ignoring all the gore sticking to her fur, and danced with her in circles while tossing Glacia into the air a few times, much to her enjoyment as she was very much a glutton for attention as much as food.