Tall mountain! Who is at the top?

'Fuck!' Oliver cursed as his eyes almost bulged out. The elder seemed to have intentionally hidden this information from him. It was clear that he was exacting revenge for last time.

Oliver took a deep breath and calmed himself. There was surging hostility in his chest. He really wanted to beat this old bastard at the moment. But looking at the glowing espera of the other party, he decided not to.

'I have some junk food stored inside, so it shouldn't be a problem for a few days. It's not like the new teacher would not give us food. As for clothes, I always keep a few sets of them prepared with me all the time. As for elixirs, fortunately, I had recently purchased a stock using the clan's money, so it's not going to run out anytime soon. I also have a batch of weapons with me as well.'

Oliver sighed in relief as he rubbed his forehead.

'Looking at it from an outer perspective, I am fully equipped and ready to survive in the wilderness, and this is not even the wilderness. So I should not suffer too much. It was just… more of a surprise element to say.'

He calmed down and quickly got into his character again. He was thrown off-guard just now due to the dirty tricks of an old senile bastard, but he was still good thanks to the mindspace.

He could not help but be grateful for the mindspace he had obtained. He could always be prepared for unforeseen incidents such as this one.

His storage ring was almost empty, after all, since he had developed the habit of storing stuff in the mindspace rather than the storage ring.

Nonetheless, he made a quick note to himself to later exact revenge on this elder for sure.

The elders bickered for a moment, exchanging some insights related to their espera and progress.

Just as the children were waiting eagerly for the elders to finish up their business, a voice interrupted their chatter in the huge hall.

"Hello there, are all of you gathered?"

The elders paused and looked at the owner of the voice. It was an old man with a hunched back and short height. His face was seriously wrinkled, and he was using a cane to support himself as he walked.

"These are all of them," one of the elders pointed at the kids.

The hunched old man looked at them and let out a crooked smile as he introduced himself.

"Welcome, children. You all can call me Sigfor, and I will be the one looking after your needs while you stay here."

His tone was raspy when he spoke, as if he had not cleared his throat in decades.

It felt particularly irritating in Oliver's ears; he had great senses, so the voice was quite clear and loud.

He unconsciously clenched his fists.

The elders nodded. "This here is Sigfor. He was once an important comrade and is also the attendant of your soon-to-be teacher. Make sure to respect him."

"Yes, elder!"

"Greetings, Sir Sigfor. I am Bella. My sister Evelyn and I belong to the Celestial Paradox Clan. We will be in your care."

Bella came forward and politely bowed to the hunched man in white robes. She was the first to step forward.

"What a sensible girl!" the old man laughed heartily as he patted her head.

Soon, she was followed by others as well. Oliver also went up to say his greetings to the old man and helped Nadia with her introduction as well.

Maybe it was his imagination, but he felt the old man seemed to be colder to him as compared to others.

"Well then, say our greetings to their 'teacher.' We will be leaving."

For some reason, the elder sounded funny, and the way he emphasized the word "teacher" was awfully suspicious.

Oliver could see Sigfor frowning as well. It seemed that he also suspected something; however, he shifted his focus to the children soon.

The elders left one by one, and soon it was only them and Sigfor.

"Hmm… never mind them. Children, follow me."

Sigfor motioned for the children to follow him as he left the main hall, taking them to the back exit.

Just like that, they reached the base of the mountain. Oliver could see a roughly made path leading toward the top.

His heart suddenly started to beat faster as he began to feel what the old man was about to say.

And he was right when the old man started speaking.

"I will introduce you to your first task. Your training will begin from now on. Every moment you spend in this place will be counted as your training. For the very first task, you all need to climb this mountain and reach the top. That is where you will meet my master and your teacher."

"WHAT!?"

Alphonso's eyes bulged out as he stared at the hunched old man and then at the towering mountain. His body could not help but tremble at the sight of the terrifyingly tall mountain.

How did he expect children like them to even climb this thing!?

Oliver's face also darkened as he looked at the fog-covered mountain top. He could not tell how tall it was actually. Did they really have to climb this? He was strong and had a good amount of stamina, but even that was not enough to give him the confidence to climb the mountain.

His eyes shone for a moment in an amethyst glint as he stared past the clouds of fog at the mountain top.

He could roughly see the mountain top and calculate the height.

It was around ten thousand feet (around 3,000 meters tall), as tall as any average mountain.

To be given a more realistic measurement, it was about 2 million times as wide as a strand of Spaghetti!

Oliver thought about how long it would even take them to complete half the distance.

Oliver sucked in a deep breath, not because of the height of the mountain but because, from the [Cosmic Void Gaze], he was able to see a figure standing on the very top of the mountain, at the very edge.

And that figure was currently staring directly at From the blurry features, he was not able to clearly see their face, but the figure had long hair, so he assumed it was a woman.

What was that figure doing there?

And who was it?