Chapter 414: Four Sections.
The pressure was both external and internal. It was external in that something was pressing down on them. It was internal in that their bodies had suddenly and inexplicably become heavy.
Thor began to ventilate heavily because of the pressure. Arthur encouraged him, "It only feels so bad now that we are experiencing it for the first time. The pressure should lessen when we get used to it."
Thor gritted his teeth and said, "I hope you’re right."
Arthur looked up to the top of the mountain and said, "I hope I’m right too."
What he said was indeed the case. They got used to the pressure after a while.
They only got used to it, though. The difficulty of climbing the mountain didn’t reduce one bit. They had only acclimated themselves to the unnatural pressure. It was still difficult for them to stand and very difficult for them to walk.
Each section of the mountain was about 50 meters tall. This is a distance they could cover in one second if they were somewhere else. But in this mountain, the best that they could manage was to take one step every second.
The people who could perform this well were rare. Most people had to rest between each step, so it took them longer than a second to take a step.
Their steps were all short too. No one could jump, dash forward, run, or fly on the mountain. They could only take one step at a time while bearing the weight of the world.
Arthur could take one step at a time while Thor couldn’t, so he quickly left Thor behind. He even caught up to Leroy and Princess.
Princess looked at him and said, "You’re not that strong. There are many people that are many time stronger than you in this world."
Arthur nodded and said humbly, "As long as I’m stronger than you, I’ll be contented."
Then he ignored her and continued on his way. Princess wanted to say something else, but Leroy grabbed her arm and pulled her to face him.
Then he asked her with a secret voice transmission, "Must you always create enemies? You know that you can be friends with people, right?"
Princess was taken aback by that suggestion. She asked in shock, "Be friends with a human? Preposterous."
Leroy rolled his eyes at her reaction, but he didn’t remind her of her current hypocritical situation.
Instead he changed his point by saying, "Fine. You don’t have to be friends with a human. But you can ignore them. After all, they are beneath your notice. How about that?"
She thought about it and nodded. "I can do that."
Her response made Leroy sigh in relief.
He had not asked her to ignore other humans before despite the fact that she had derided many people and mocked them. This was because the people she mocked were not strong enough to be considered a threat to him.
But Arthur is different. Not only is Arthur very strong and a threat on his own, but Arthur is also friends with Thor, so he is doubly threatening.
The close encounter Princess had with offending Arthur now made Leroy realize that he had to help his girlfriend rein in her prejudice against humans, or she would get them in trouble one day.
This is why he insisted that, at the very least, Princess should ignore people. He is sure that she will take it too far into the territory of snubbing people and looking down on them, but he was still relieved to know that she wouldn’t outright say offensive things to others anymore.
But just as he was feeling relieved, he heard her say, "I can’t ignore him though. He is too strong and not beneath my notice. So I have to notice him and pay attention to him."
She was referring to Arthur, so what she said caused Leroy’s chest to tighten in fear.
He tried to salvage the situation by saying, "In that case, you should befriend people like him since he is strong."
But she shook her head and said, "Since I don’t like that he is stronger than me, I can’t like him, and I can’t befriend him."
Leroy groaned and said, "We have a lot to talk about."
Meanwhile, Arthur continued on his trip up the mountain. He moved at a brisk, unhurried pace while others walked as if they were near death.
As he walked, his body got used to the pressure. So his posture looked more and more relaxed.
Things didn’t change until he crossed the brown section of the mountain to the red section. When he did, a heat wave blasted into his face.
The heat wave was so bad that if he hadn’t been taking precautions by equipping an energy shield, his hair would have been burned instantly and his skin would have been scalded.
Despite things being so bad, Arthur still had the presence of mind to chuckle and say, "Jason was right to say that it seemed the air was so hot that this section of the mountain had turned red."
He was prepared for the heat, so he only paused slightly. Then he continued on his way.
The pressure had increased, but it wasn’t enough to stop him. The increase to the pressure might have been significant to someone with a body with a power of 10 units. But even if the pressure doubled, which it just did, it wouldn’t cause a significant increase to the stress in his body because of the empowerment of the Mountain Karma divine ability.
Perhaps only the appearance of the intense heat was a significant change to him. But since he had his energy shield on, it didn’t bother him much. He was able to continue at his brisk pace.
This section of the mountain combines the pressure of gravity and heat from an unseen source to test everyone trying to climb the mountain. Unless someone is fire resistant, they will have to use their energy shield to protect themselves from the heat.