With Nathan's order, the group moved to the south, following the mountain range. Jinwu kept searching for the path they were looking for.
After thirty minutes, they finally found the path.
According to the book, the path had an average elevation of 1,500 meters (4,921 feet).
In one section, they had to cross a narrow ridge. In another section, they had to move carefully next to the cliff.
This kind of environment was something Nathan hadn't experienced before. In the end, a single mountain was extremely different from a mountain range.
Nevertheless, Nathan didn't plan to waste his time on the bottom.
Once he found the path, he ordered them to climb the mountain. Jinwu continued monitoring the area, trying to avoid as many aliens as possible.
It was true that the aliens could crawl around the mountain, but at the same time, their movement was quite limited. Hence, once they passed them, they wouldn't really come at them anymore, in case they made a huge ruckus.
In other words, Nathan's main concern was none other than the flying aliens. Only ranged attacks would be effective against them, so Noelle and Alavenya would be severely weakened while crossing this path.
Of course, they still killed as many aliens as possible. They still wanted to increase their ena reserve after all.
And it wasn't like they had a lot of things to do when adjusting to a certain altitude.
Hence, they took turns to absorb the cores they found on this mountain.
Once reaching 1,000 meters (3,281 feet), Nathan finally told them to set up the camp, planning to use this height to adjust. He believed another 500 meters wouldn't be too much for a summoner to bear. It was also a place where the notebook suggested setting up the camp.
Nathan secluded himself in his tent. On his lap sat Risa, who gradually moved away with a satisfied moan and blood still dripping from her sharp fangs.
"Thank you very much," Risa politely nodded.
"No problem." Nathan waved his hand.
"But are you sure it will be fine? Didn't you say we have to be careful here? I can always wait for another week, you know?"
"It doesn't really matter. I have Anubis with me. While I'm weakened, we're going to leave the day after tomorrow, so I'll be fine by then." Nathan assured her. "I'm curious about something, though."
"What is it?" Risa tilted her head in confusion.
"Nervous? What do you mean? Why am I nervous?"
"You're going to meet a progenitor soon. Rescuing her father means summoning a vampire progenitor, right?" Nathan asked. He had no doubt that Selena would be able to summon Lilith. Even if the bloodstone was not enough, he planned to offer her his blood so that the chance increased even higher.
He believed Selena could break the curse of that bloodline.
In addition, her father also had a progenitor as his familiar, so Risa would be meeting two progenitors.
Risa looked up, pondering for a few seconds. "If you ask whether I'm nervous, then the answer is no. In vampire hierarchy, the higher you are, the better you are able to control blood.
"For someone like me, who is only a countess, I can work hard in my entire life to become a marchioness, but I won't be able to become a duke or a queen.
"That's why I don't know how I am supposed to feel when meeting a progenitor. After all, a progenitor is like a god for vampires.
"While I do respect them, I don't really have any memories about them," explained Risa.
Nathan smiled. "Is that so? That's good then. Tell everyone to take it easy today."
"Understood." Risa nodded. After bowing her head, she quietly came out of the tent.
Nathan summoned Anubis to heal him. At the same time, Anubis noticed his disturbed face.
"What's wrong, Summoner? Are you worried about what's going to happen? Isn't it just another unexpected situation? You are prepared, no?"
Nathan smiled wryly. What Anubis meant by 'prepared' was the summoning circle that Charlotte gave to him before leaving.
In case of an emergency, they could always create this summoning circle and rescue Count Ashton right away.
With Count Ashton's help, they should be able to kill anything that came for them. After all, he was an arcane level summoner according to Duke Coline or Duke Sullivan.
The problem was the fact that Count Ashton was Selena's father.
After seeing the expression change, Anubis couldn't help but smirk. "Don't tell me. Are you nervous about meeting your father-in-law?"
"…" Nathan looked away.
"I believe you were not nervous when meeting Noelle and Flora's fathers." Anubis recounted. "Don't tell me, her father is different? After all, Selena is your first girl, the one who has accompanied you the longest."
Nathan scratched the back of his head. "What if he suddenly said, 'I won't give you my daughter!' or 'Do you think you're worthy of my daughter? Know your place,' all of a sudden?
"When I read that kind of story in the past, I always got angry and shouted in my mind, 'Just get stronger to the point where you're the swan and she's the toad and ask her family, 'Is your daughter worthy of me?'
"But now it comes to this. I don't think I can say it that way."
Anubis chuckled. "I sure want to see their reaction after getting slapped that hard. But that's enough for the joke. Your real concern?"
"…" Nathan looked awkward for a second before sighing. "I really can't hide my concern from you. With my bad luck, something unexpected is bound to happen, right? At this point, it won't be a prediction anymore. It's just something certain."
"If crossing this mountain doesn't cause anything unexpected or big, what will happen?"
Anubis fell silent for a moment before shuddering in fear. If the unexpected thing didn't come from this mountain, there was only one more place where it might appear. And that possibility scared Nathan. "You… are not thinking that the unexpected thing is her father's death?"
That was right. If it was bound to happen, he feared that his bad luck had changed Count Ashton's fate. What if his bad luck caused him to die? The thought alone made him unable to forgive himself. That was what concerned him the most.
Anubis could see how messy Nathan would be when fate played him that way. It was to the point where he ended up suggesting the most insane thing in his mind. "In that case, why don't you personally cause something big to force fate to consider it something big, which will ultimately come from fate killing her father?"