Towards the Peak

With a single step, Mist Step's body faded into the Void Portal and vanished from everyone's sight. Meanwhile, Hidden Blade began to organise everyone into neat lines with people standing in groups of five.

As the Wilderwolf Party had a total of eight people and one Magical Beast, their group was inevitably split. Jonathan and the little kitten would stick together and would be joined by three of the soldiers. Meanwhile, Uncle Kil would lead the second group with the remaining soldier's and a random person belonging to another party.

The little kitten kept her eyes on the passing by Thunder Scaled Half-Dragon as the time passed, studying the magnificent beast. Soon, after around twenty minutes had passed without issue, it was her groups time to enter the portal.

As she laid in Jonathan's sturdy hands, she heard his voice speak softly above her. "Are you ready, little lass?"

"Meow!" The little kitten replied spiritedly.

With parallel steps, Jonathan, the soldier's and the little kitten entered the Void Portal!

Instantly, the little kitten and everyone else found themselves in a world of darkness, the same colour of the portal surrounded them to infinity. Every now and then, the little kitten noticed warps in far reaches, like ripples in water. But before she could study this further, a bright light appeared ahead of her and the rest of the group before charging at them, blinding her sight.

The next thing she knew, she found her eyes adjusting to the familiar landscape of mountainous terrain around them. They appeared before a forest of red and orange trees and as Jonathan turned to look behind them, bringing the little kitten's sight along with him, the little kitten could tell that they had travelled past the clearing where the Thunder Scaled Half-Dragon's roamed.

She also noticed just a small meter from them, another Void Portal which would be where they had presumably exited from to arrive at this place. Suddenly, before she could think on this any further, she felt her vision go blurry once more and she had a deep feeling of vertigo.

Jonathan noticed this and with a quick motion took grab of her at the waist and held her with outstretched arms, just in time for the little kitten to puke out a batch of vomit violently. Looking around, Jonathan also noticed his soldier's were also suffering with pale faces, though they were noticeably better off than the kitten in his hands.

"Couldn't they have warned us about this?" Jonathan muttered with a wry smile. To comfort the kitten, Jonathan pulled her back into his embrace and began to pat her small back softly.

'Never again... I was looking forward to what it would be like to teleport... I never thought it would feel so terrible...' The little kitten's tongue lulled out as her head swayed back in forth, her mind was still abuzz and her sight blurry, causing her to feel dizzy.

"Hey, move away from the portal." One of the other Magician's called out. "Unless you want to be banged in the head by the next group."

"Ah, right!" Jonathan nodded before leading his group away from the portal, and just in time too, as the next group of people warped through the Void Portal.

Uncle Kil was the first head to pop through and unlike the little kitten and the soldier's, he came through with a loud and boisterous laugh. "Hahaha, that was quite fun! It's been a bit of time since I've experienced a Void Teleportation!"

The four other people in his group, consisting of the Wilderwolf Soldier's and the random Magician couldn't help but look at Uncle Kil's joyful visage with a wry smile on their pale faces. 'Why do the weak have to suffer so, ah~'

"Shape up, you know the teleportation portal to enter the Thunder Mountain's will be another Void Portal, no?" The surrounding people's faces paled at Uncle Kil's pitiless revelation.

'Y-you mean I'm going have to suffer through that again?' The little kitten lamented with hazy eyes, fear evident in them. 'I think I might have a new phobia...'

"Cheer up, we'll not be entering the Portal straight away. They'll be giving us four days to cultivate the external aura at the peak of Thunder Mountain, which will run the area dry for a while, before we enter the Void Portal again." Jonathan attempted to coax the kitten out of her bitter expression...

...It didn't work. 'I'll still have to go through it eventually though...'

If cats could shed tears, she surely would be at this perilous moment.

★★★

In time, all of the Magician's and Magical Beast's had passed through the Void Teleportation Portal without any issue. While everyone was adjusting to the new, but familiar environment, Hidden Blade walked over to Mist Step.

"So how long does this portal last?" Hidden Blade asked as he came to a stop in front of Mist Step.

"It should last ten days without the need to fuel it with more aura." Mist Step answered, simply.

"Are we just leaving this portal here?" The voice of another carried over.

"Is that safe?" Another worriedly asked as well.

Mist Step simply turned to face them with a dull expression.

"It should be fine... From this point on, there are no Magical Beast's as the Thunder Scaled Half-Dragon's block off their path. So if a Magical Beast were to go through this portal, they would find themselves without any beast's to hunt for food. They won't disturb us." Hidden Blade spoke up to explain with a wry smile, noticing the slight irritation in Mist Step's gaze at the constant questions. 'This guy doesn't like speaking much, as always...'

"Alright, we're but a short distance away. Let's set off." Mist Step interrupted, not caring about the current conversation.

"Let's." Hidden Blade nodded. "Everyone, we're setting off. From this point on, there should be no Magical Beast's in our way so there is no need to walk in groups. Just follow me and Mist Step and we'll arrive at the tip of Thunder Mountain by the end of the day!"

Joyful cheers resounded as Mist Step began the ascent upwards, very quickly everyone else followed diligently.

Walking in step behind Sky Magician's Mist Step and Hidden Blade, everyone soon began there journey up the final stretch of Thunder Mountain and as usual, the little kitten laid comfortably in Jonathan's grasp as she cultivated. However, she wasn't making much progress as she still felt a little nauseous from the teleportation earlier.

'I'm still a long ways from reaching the peak of Late Stage. Hopefully the aura atop Thunder Mountain will be enough to give me a little push forward.' The little kitten thought solemnly as she gazed upwards to see the grey clouds above and the Thunder Mountain peak ahead.