Legendary Traveler: By Earning Progress Points I will Become Supreme! Chapter 6 Landing In the Territory

Growing up in a middle providence of his country, Aoni was no stranger to cold weather, or even snow for that matter, but as he gazed out into the expanding wilderness that was near his Territory, the Lad's mouth dried up, and a chill crept through his body.

Snow and Mountains covered every visible speck of landscape observable from the Flu. As such, with each passing second, Aoni's heartbeat accelerated because he understood that if he was seeing this while moving at considerable speed, that ant that the mountainous region covered a vast expanse.

"Don't panic; it can't be that far from civilization, right… and my big mouth asking to have nothing nearby; I DIDN'T AN LITERALLY NOTHING!" Tearing at his hair in a mont of desperation, Aoni felt his forward montum begin to slow as the crystalline walls of the Flu cleared up to the maximum potential, indicating the transfer was coming to an end, and he was about to touch down at the destination. Which…From what he could tell, would be near the top of an incredibly large mountain.

"Calm down, nothing has changed… I hope," he thought, trying to stave off panic as his montum slowed to a crawl. His mind raced as he roughly estimated where the landing zone would be, and to his surprise, it was a little way down the peak of the large mountain in an area dotted with snow-covered trees.

With panic attempting to settle into his mind, Aoni took in everything observable, from how high up the mountain he was to anything that could beco a recognizable landmark from this strange vantage point, and that…was when he spotted it.

As much of an oddity as it was to his young Terrian brain, the tip of the mountain actually housed a small cave, and although the landing zone was quite a ways away from it, maybe half to a quarter of a mile or so upward, Aoni knew that that cave was where he needed to head upon touching down.

Solidifying that thought as an objective, he took a few deep breaths to calm himself and comically rotated his body so that he would, at the very least, land on his feet.

Since there was no Flu set up in his Territory yet, the mouth of the Flu would open up in the space a few feet off the ground and dump Aoni out. This much was known to the Lad, and thus, he was cautious enough not to land face first after getting spat out.

Then, just as suddenly as he had been pulled into the mysterious artifact, Aoni was bombarded by the bitter cold and found himself falling.

As luck would have it, the Lad was deposited all of four feet above the ground on a not-so-steep spot, and before he knew it, the Ash-Blond Lad's feet were sinking into the soft yet unbearably cold snow.

At that mont, as the soft hum of the Flu faded away, it was quickly replaced by a howling wind.

"Shit, hindsight really is the killer of dreams; I should have listened to my mom and brought a jacket…" Wrapping his arms around his body for warmth, he looked down and noticed that the snow was not only frigid but also deep enough to cover his knees.

While he may have just cursed hindsight, the Lad couldn't help but acknowledge his luck at having worn long pants; otherwise, he didn't doubt he'd lose one or both legs to frostbite in no ti at all.

Regardless, with a clear objective in mind, Aoni took a look around his surroundings and noted that there wasn't a living creature in sight. From what he could tell, the only movent ca from the Arctic wind rushing through the trees.

Chilled to the bone and already beginning to shiver, he started his trek up the mountainside, keeping his head on a swivel. Just because he hadn't seen any living creatures yet didn't an there wasn't any hiding; after all, Arctic animals were easy to miss, given their camouflage.

"One step… one pace, one step… one pace," he repeated like a mantra, trying to ignore the cold burrowing through his body as he leaned forward against the wind and the steepening terrain. With every second that passed, Aoni felt the effects of the bitter weather weighing on him.

No matter how much adversity he had faced in his short 16 years, the human body wasn't ant to endure such cold. Still, he pressed on, leaving a knee-high trail in his wake as he made his way up the mountain.

But as the minutes dragged on and hypothermia began to take hold, along with the thin oxygen at such altitude, Aoni knew he wasn't going to last much longer. Seconds turned to minutes, minutes to ten, then thirty… and before he knew it, a full hour had passed while he trudged through several feet of snow, all to reach a goal he hoped wasn't an illusion.

Eventually, he found himself standing on solid ground, no longer walking on permafrost or ice, yet he didn't even have the strength to feel happy. His whole body was numb, and he had no idea how bad the damage was; that's the danger of the cold—it can cause irreparable harm before you even realize it.

Aoni's only saving grace was that he was no longer just a normal human; he had beco a Traveler. Thanks to the baptism in the Flu, his body was tougher now, even if only slightly due to the introduction of Energia.

But hey, even mosquitoes are at, right? With only one thought in his mind—moving forward and getting warm—Aoni was completely oblivious to any potential dangers around him.

That said, worrying about danger would have been irrational anyway because this land was now considered a New Territory. For the first 30 days, there was a kind of barrier surrounding a certain distance from the landing zone.

When it was created, this barrier pushed out any living creature that could pose a threat to the new lord, providing a safe environnt. So, Aoni's earlier paranoia about being on high alert for danger was all for nothing. It was more a product of nerves and all those years of survival training he had undergone in school.

As his consciousness began to fade, Aoni pressed on into the cave, where the cold was more bearable. Unknowingly, he made it far enough from the entrance that the fierce winds weren't hitting him anymore, and it was then that the Ash-Blond Lad finally collapsed.