CHAPTER 70: CAVEMAN

"I am good, but these clothes feel itchy."

Sephie said that, but then after thinking for a second, she accepted.

"it’s cool here." Saying that, she wore the robe.

"Not bad. I guess I should start wearing clothes because now I can bear the heat."

"What?" Harry was confused.

"See... on our planet, it’s very hot. Children won’t survive if they wear clothes in the heat, so it became a tradition not to wear clothes," the girl explained.

"By the way, I am Sephie." She shook hands with Harry.

Harry felt her hard skin touch his palm.

Her whole skin was hardened as if made of dead cells on the outside.

He noticed a badge on her, which also indicated the same number.

"So we are here for the inner branch exam, but we got the same ranking, which is odd. And I also don’t know the rules to pass. If your teacher told you, I hope you will share them," Jessie asked, keeping her distance from Sephie.

But their reaction was short. Both shook their heads in unison.

"I also don’t know."

"I am also not aware."

It was very annoying; they were playing a game without rules.

"I have some ideas. It could be a test of our survival and collaboration as a team. It was a theme in one of the last exams," Sephie said.

"That sounds fishy. Are they keeping an eye on us?" Jessie asked.

"Most likely. We can’t say. Just give your best," Harry stated.

They walked through the hard surface, cracks in the ground everywhere.

With time, Harry got comfortable with the high gravity.

The walk halted when they were about to cross a mountain. There was a beast.

"I have never seen these beasts in my life," Jessie said, tapping her fingers on her face as if trying to remember.

"Me neither," Sephie followed.

"Every planet has its own unique beast, tailored by Mother Nature.

It’s the law of survival.

Do you see how these beasts have a low center of gravity? Their bones are dense, and their short limbs help them maneuver in rocky mountains. Their hides are rock solid to protect them from falling debris.

All these qualities help them survive on this high-gravity, rocky planet."

"It’s low gravity," Jessie countered.

"The gravity is okay here," Sephie said.

Harry palmed his head. They were all from different planets, so their perspectives on gravity were also different.

He now thanked his studies. He had read in his classes how every creature undergoes evolutionary changes according to its surroundings—

Making their useful body parts more prominent, while body parts that are useless become extinct.

[Inspect]

[Titan Behemoth: Elemental Master Level 4, master in masking as rocks]

As he read the description, he saw Sephie about to attack, struggling in her robes. She was removing them while approaching the beast.

Harry made a barrier in front of her.

She struck the barrier and looked towards the two.

She guessed it was one of their elements.

Harry asked her to sit behind a stone boulder.

The three of them peeked above it.

"Those are not stones; they are all beasts. Do you see that beast’s hide? It’s similar to those rocks. If it sits there, we won’t be able to notice."

Harry hadn’t noticed it at first. He was also about to attack. But as he reread the short description, he noticed other beasts hiding in their outer covering.

"There are more than a hundred of those," Sephie said, taking deep breaths. If she had entered the fight, she would have been dead by now.

She was only level 5 and didn’t know how many of these were above her level.

Harry inspected the others. Many of them were at Elemental Master Levels 4, 5, 6, and 7. Then one—the biggest of them—was level 8.

His heart skipped a beat.

"We have to look for another way. We can’t fight them." This time, Jessie made the call.

Harry and Sephie nodded in agreement. It was way above their pay grade.

With slow and steady steps, they started retreating.

The beast that was already wandering looked towards them, its eyes fixed on the moving targets.

All three readied themselves to run at any moment, their hearts pounding.

But as they expected it to attack, it just watched them, seeing them disappear into the distance.

Harry and the others sighed in relief. They changed direction, moving to the right of their original path.

"You left the robe," Harry asked.

Sephie pointed to her neck.

There was a locket. It was hanging down from her neck to her chest.

Cough... cough...

Harry averted his eyes.

As he looked towards Jessie, she was grinning. She also didn’t have any bags or weapons on her.

Although she hadn’t shown her space items, which was a cautious thing to do—unlike Sephie, who wore hers around her neck where she couldn’t have instant control over it.

Wasn’t it funny? He had met two people—both girls—one too short, the other too bold. Both had space items.

Their walk continued. The terrain was tough, even for them. There was no clear path; they had to make their own, crossing mountain ranges one after another. They couldn’t see the end of the mountains.

They crossed paths with some groups of Titan Behemoths, which forced them to change their route.

They didn’t realize when they ended up between two long mountain ranges.

It was risky, but now it was the only direction they hadn’t explored.

Harry didn’t like having only one option. It just took away the feeling of control.

It was getting dark.

"We have to find shelter," Jessie said.

Trekking in these mountains with small legs had to be hard, but she was handling it better than the other two.

Harry sighed. He knew they needed to find a place to stay for the night.

He had a tent, but only one. Pitching a tent in the middle of two mountain ranges might look cool, but not in a world where beasts could eat you without even chewing.

They moved further into the valley.

None of them had any footwear. Harry and Jessie’s shoes were already broken, while Sephie’s slippers were the first to go.

He had some extra shoes, but he didn’t take them out since the other two seemed not to have any spares.

The continuous walking was already taking a toll on them.

If it had been a straight path, Harry was sure he could keep going for three days straight.

But this was no ordinary walk; it was hardcore trekking on a planet where the gravity was doubled.

"Here, it’s a cave!" Harry called out. He was happy to find a place to rest.

But every cave comes with a caveman, and that caveman could be anything in this world.