Chapter 64: Hellish Training: I Want to Go Home! Part 1

The next day has passed, and right now I'm here on the coldest and tallest place in Hell. Mt. Levi.

After that embarrassing loss that I received from both Luna and Dawn, I was depressed, since every battle that I was involved in is always a loss.

"Why!? Why am I so weak?!" Since that no one is here with me, I shouted as loud as I can to tell the whole world about my weakness.

"What are you doing Haruki?" A guy who was looking at me with an eye full of pity asked me.

"Ryou!" Nope, I wasn't alone, it might be because that I was just imagining things.

"*Sigh* Anyway, what are you even doing on a cold mountain naked Haruki?"

Oh yeah forgot about that, right now I'm naked on this snowstorm, well I'm still wearing my underpants since I'm not a total weirdo. "Well, since that I'm here at the mountain, I decided to test my cold resistance for a bit." Since devils are both resistant to hot and cold weather, I can do what was on my bucket list back on Earth.

Walk naked on a winter day on Rikubetsu! Well, it was impossible back on Earth since I'm still human on that point, so now that I got my real identity and body as a devil, I can do that, but in a different place.

And I also remember Millie saying that Mt. Levi is taller than the tallest mountain on Earth: Mt. Everest, so this is gonna be higher than what I put on my bucket list, well my goal hasn't finished yet since I'm very far at the peak of the mountain. "Hey Ryou, how cold is Mt. Levi?"

"Well the temperature changes a lot, depending on what Akemi do with it, since if Akemi is controlling the temperature of Mt. Levi she'll put it on -10° to -15° Celsius, but if she left Mt. Levi it'll turn into -50 to 75° Celsius, and the fact is the coldest temperature recorded here is -125° Celsius, so you better put your clothes back on."

"I thought devils are resistant to cold?" That and I haven't done what my goal on my bucket list.

"*Sigh* Devils are as fragile as humans Haruki, even if we're stronger than humans, we can still feel sick and pain like them, so don't get your hopes up."

"Say that to a guy who's wearing a yukata at a cold mountain..."

"Wearing nothing but underpants is much worse Haruki..."

"Touché." Well, that's at least expected, but it's a good thing that Ryou is a guy, so it's understandable for him to know that a man going naked is normal.

And also, on a good note Luna and Dawn are at Akemi's house preparing what I'm gonna do today, so I guess I'll stay here on my underpants until we got close.

"Oh yeah, I heard from Sora about what happened to you when you fell asleep and did anything change when you drank that weird concoction that the girl gave you?"

"Change? Actually, nothing happened to me after I ate that tomato soup that has the concoction that she made" I even slept late because of it, I've been looking and checking if something has happened to my body.

But I was disappointed to see that nothing happened at all... Such luck that I have... Well, maybe I'll discover what's the purpose of that concoction soon.

"Anyway Haruki put on your clothes now, we're almost near."

I immediately put on my jacket and my pants after Ryou warned me that we're already close.

And as we kept walking on the mountain, I saw an old Japanese-styled house and thought that this was their home, because of their first names. "Ryou, let me confirm this, but... Since that your name is Ryou and her name is Akemi, and the house you two lived in is a Japanese-styled one. Are you two, not an otaku?"

"There's no such thing as an otaku here in Hell, and there are things in Earth that we devil copied, which is why some of us have names that humans used on Earth."

"Makes sense..."

We finally entered their house, and the moment we entered it, a nostalgic feeling hit me. "This feels like home..." I whispered to myself.

Thinking about it, in the next 5 weeks I'm gonna return to my home. Japan.

I wonder if they're okay? Homura and Asahi?

"Come Haruki, Luna and Dawn are probably waiting at Akemi's room."

Akemi's room? So I'm finally going inside Akemi's room? Yeepee!

"So you two are finally here..." A familiar voice said, no Dawn said.

Why is the timing really bad? Such luck that I have...

"Oh so are you two done preparing for Haruki to start?"

"Of course, Luna is at the peak of Mt. Levi to tame the frostbite boa there."

"Frostbite boa? You two are seriously going hard for Haruki."

"Wait! Going hard on me? What that does mean? And what's a frostbite boa?" Guessing by its name, it's a type of snake here on Mt. Levi, but what's with that cool name?"

"*Sigh* Don't worry I know that you can do it Haruki, since when me, Luna, the 3rd generation general, and the Inheritor Archdukes were still young, our first training was like this. Fighting and surviving alone on the wild, thus for 2 weeks you'll be alone on the depths of Mt. Levi and travel all around the mountain all alone, whilst fighting some dangerous animals and scavenging for food and water."

"Really... Wait! There's no way I can do that alone! At least let me have Flint with me!" They're insane, I might die here on Mt. Levi if I'm not careful.

"Flint is training with the Generals, so don't worry about a thing Haruki, and like I told you Haruki, all of us were trained like this, so we decided to do it to you too."

No, they're not insane, the one who told them to train in the middle of nowhere is insane! "So I'll just survive the wild for 2 weeks by hunting and scavenging for food and water, I guess that's easy..."

"Nope, that's not all, since that you finally got the skill Thought Owl, I'll send you some task to do while on the mountain. Maybe... About 3 tasks per day, that's enough."

"Such luck..." Well, they did train like this when they were still new and young, and so this might be not hard to finish.

"*Sigh* If you want to Haruki, just message me if you want to give up, and I'll help you..."

"Huh?! What are you talking about Ryou? Haruki can do this, there's no way that he'll give up, right Haruki?"

That stare that Dawn is giving me, is giving me the creeps... No, it's exactly just like Ruri's... And like Ruri, I'm kinda afraid of her now. "Of course! There's no way that I'll give up easily! You can trust me, Dawn! Haha!" I want to go home now...

"Also there are no rules, you can use any skills you want since you'll have to survive in the wild alone with no other clothes besides what your wearing, and also remember to not call for Flint okay? Then Ryou, you show Haruki the way." Dawn went somewhere inside the house with a smile on her face proudly, while Ryou looks nervous.

"Anyway, let's start Haruki." Ryou created a portal in front of us. "Follow me."

When we entered the portal, I saw myself with Ryou inside a large cold cave, I said coldly since it's freezing here.

Ryou noticing that it was cold look at me with a smile. "Told you that you shouldn't wear a thin jacket since devils can feel cold too."

"I should've listened to you..." D*mn it's really cold, but I can't be chickening now.

"Here, this is the map of the entire place, and a guidebook about the entirety of Mt. Levi, the wildlife, and the floras on the mountains, so bye-bye." Ryou then left me here all alone in the cave.

I opened the map to see where I'm at. "Looks like I'm located at the east side of the mountain, and it's located at 5,000m of the mountain. And also a good thing that they marked where I need to go." Well, it's literally marked on the peak of the mountain. I then checked the guidebooks to see the contents.

Like what Ryou has said, things and pieces of information on the mountains are written here in the guidebook. "Wait! Mt. Levi is 14,535m tall! That's high, then I'm basically on the middle already."

Wait, something struck me, what was that? It's like something appeared on my mind.

(This is a message from Dawn Haruki, I'll send you your three tasks. And message me back if finish.)

[Get enough food and water to eat and drink, get proper clothing by making it with animal furs (you can finish this any other day), and learn how to make a campfire.]

"What is this a video game? Well, it's fun at least, now! Time for the training arc of Haruki Hotaru!"

{Day 1/14}

"Now, what do I do first?" Considering that getting food might be easier, I guess I need to find a water source here.

I opened the guidebook to see what's the best place to get water from. "It said that on page 25, a plant called Hyacinaqua has water that is drinkable on them, but they're located much farther though... Wait a creature that's drinkable? A slime... So you can drink a slime?" I closed the guidebook and shouted. "As hell that I'll find one with my luck!"

Blub. Blub. Blub.

"Wait what's that sound?" I looked behind me to see what was making the sound, and there it was behind me. "The h*ck! There are tons of slimes here!" What happened with my luck? The second that I said my luck is terrible, it reversed suddenly.

I went closer to the slime to get a close look at it, and it doesn't seem to be hostile at all.

They came in many sizes, some as small as a rat and some are as big as a cow, but good thing is that they're not interested in fighting me. "They're really cute." Even if they don't have a face, but it's still walking and jumping around, so they might still be able to see.

I held one to see what it feels like, it's actually really slimy and wet. "Now is to test the taste, I'm sorry little one..." I put the slime on my mouth alive and ate it.

It's, it's, "It's delicious!" The taste of the slime is refreshing and flavorful, seriously slimes can be used as both a food and water source.

"Ignisvem!" I summoned Ignisvem for a bit and cut some trees. I'm sorry Millie's parents for using your blood and souls as an ax to cut trees, I hope you'll forgive me.

I remember on the guide book that the petiole of the leaves of the trees here on Mt. Levi is strong enough to be turned into some sort of rope or string.

So if I gather some leaves, take the petiole and tie it together, we can make a makeshift string. "Now I need to test it if it's durable."

I took a single petiole and tested it in many ways, I bit it, use my nails to cut it, took a stone to cut it, and surprisingly its state is still okay. Not even a single mark or cut can be seen. "This is truly a fantasy world."

With the wood and the very strong; unbreakable leaves of the trees, I created a container to carry it on my back, like a backpack.

Even if it's uncomfortable to carry, I need to survive with this, so I put tons of slime inside the wooden backpack and finally left. Task 1 for today, finished.

The night was already close before I knew it, so I decided to stay inside the forest to make camp and sleep here.

With the help of Fire Manipulation, the cold doesn't bother me anymore, and I can make campfires easily. "Good thing that I have it."

Using the leaves and branches of the trees as a bed, I looked at it in disappointment. "I want to go home..." Task 3 for today is finally complete.

Now the second task, if I hunt some sort of mammals and use their bones to create a sewing needle from it, then that could work with the petiole of the trees as a thread.

I'm gonna try and finish the second task now since if I do it tomorrow, my task would be 4 instead of 3.

So if I do this, I took Ignisvem from my back and closed my eyes. "This is gonna be painful, but I have to do it." But how would I even heal it though? Nope, I know how to stop the bleeding, I just have to cauterize it with Ignisvem.

Yep, that's what I'm about to do right now, to attract a carnivorous mammal, there's only one way, I have to cut my arm for them to smell the scent of blood.

"Here it goes." With Ignisvem, I started cutting my arm until blood came out.

I put pressure on it to stop bleeding for a bit and took Ignisvem to the campfire to heat it.

"D*mn it hurts!" Good thing that Ignisvem is made out of a fire spirit, so it'll heal up quickly, and good thing that I decided to put the campfire first because I can't think well if I'm injured this severely. Well, there are exceptions if it's a life and death situation.

With Ignisvem finally really hot, I put it on the large cut on my hand and cauterized it. With the help of the protection of heat that devils have, it didn't hurt a lot.

"*Sigh* Good, the bleeding finally stopped-"

Awoo! Awoo! Awoo!

"I expected it to come, since this is a cold terrain, there's one thing that is here, wolves."

5 wolves came out to me, no to be specific they're hellhounds like Flint.

Noticing that I'm here all alone, all of the hellhounds ran up to me aggressively.

"Sorry but I've fought enemies stronger than all of you, and I have a pet that's strong too!" I took Ignisvem and threw it to one of the hellhounds, and it hit and killed it.

Then I win, even if they're hellhounds they are still nothing but a type of canine. This means, if they see one of their packmates getting killed by another species easily, they'll retreat.

"So task 2 is finally done! Ow! Ow! Ow!" I better rest, for now, to get ready for tomorrow.

And I'll report the task accomplishment to Dawn tomorrow when I wake up. "This is just easy!" I shouted in joy.

Well... I better not get my hopes up, since it might get harder in the following days.