The possibility that Ian had not come back to the past.
It was a possibility I had raised from the moment I realised I had come back to the past.
But it was a possibility I had quickly shaken my head at.
I had been able to be certain that Ian had come back to the past.
Because of the mechanism related to my own ability, Predation [S+], and nothing else.
Predation [S+] is an ability that devours a living creature's heart to gain that creature's abilities.
And I devoured Ian's heart and gained Ian's abilities.
But whether that is 'absorption' of an ability.
Or 'duplication' of an ability, was not exactly clear.
That is, whether it takes the ability away from the specimen whose heart was devoured.
Or whether it simply duplicates that specimen's ability and brings it to me.
If it is absorption of the ability, that specimen's ability disappears.
If it is duplication of the ability, that specimen's ability remains.
But there was no way to confirm it.
A question I could not confirm even in my days as the allied forces' Predator.
There is no living creature that can live without a heart, and there was no way to confirm whether an ability remained in a specimen whose heart had been devoured.
If.
My Predation is 'absorption of the ability,' then I have taken the ability away from Ian.
Conversely, if it is 'duplication of the ability,' then Ian and I are both in a state of possessing the ability.
But either way.
"Ian definitely came back to the past."
The fact that Ian came back to the past was unchanged.
The abilities of Ian's that I know of so far.
There were three in total.
Solo Level Up [EX].
Player's Will [EX].
And regression.
By devouring Ian's heart I was able to gain 'Solo Level Up [EX]' and 'Player's Will [EX].'
But the 'regression' ability alone I did not gain.
It did not matter whether my Predation is absorption or duplication of an ability.
Either way, if I had absorbed or duplicated the regression ability, a skill in a form like Regression [EX] would have to exist in me.
But there was none.
There was only Solo Level Up [EX] and Player's Will [EX].
No ability or skill whatsoever related to regression existed in me.
Which means.
"I didn't absorb the regression ability."
It means that ability remains with Ian.
Whether my Predation is absorption or duplication.
That no ability related to regression is in me means it remains with Ian.
The reason that is possible is that the Predation ability cannot gain all of a specimen's abilities.
A few times at the least.
Hundreds of times at the most.
Only by devouring that specimen's heart can an ability be gained completely.
I did not absorb or duplicate all of Ian's abilities.
Therefore Ian 'certainly' possesses the regression ability alone.
Ian has definitely come back to the past.
Above all.
==[Find the Hero!]==
[OBJECTIVE] - Find the Hero
[REWARD] - ???
[ON FAILURE] - The end of the continent
The main quest was proof that Ian is somewhere on this continent.
Only, that he had not shown himself even after seventeen days was a question......
"Let's wait a little longer."
That does not mean I intend to sit still and wait.
◆You have devoured additional genetic factors of the Ice Troll!
◆The skill 'Regeneration [C+]' is strengthened to 'Regeneration [B-]'!
The Predation process seemed to have ended, because translucent messages surfaced before my eyes.
"It really did strengthen?"
I had hoped, but hoping was all it was.
I hadn't expected it would actually strengthen.
Because an ability strengthening from a single Predation goes past rare into almost never happening.
In the case of Nutrient Synthesis [C] earlier, it took hunting eight Alakrons before it could evolve.
"Shall I take a look at how it strengthened."
Almost before my words were out, a translucent message about Regeneration surfaced in an instant.
◆Regeneration [B-]
: Consume nutrients accumulated in the body to restore damaged tissue. The type and quantity of nutrients consumed vary according to the damaged body part and the degree of damage.
+The sensory nerves can be temporarily degenerated to block pain sensation.
<Absorbing additional genetic factors will strengthen this ability.>
As the regeneration ability strengthened to [B-], a new element was added.
"Painlessness, then."
Not feeling pain looked at a glance like a good ability, but in fact it was not.
Pain is a survival defence mechanism.
Every living thing has a strong tendency to avoid pain, and by that it detects and avoids danger.
The instinct to avoid what hurts is the most certain defence mechanism that protects life.
But if you cannot feel pain?
It makes you unable to detect and avoid danger.
It makes you unable to know whether you are injured.
You are numb even taking an injury that pours blood.
Therefore being unable to feel pain was, for a living creature, like a serious 'disease.'
But if you have an ability called regeneration?
Pain was of no use whatsoever.
Because even if you are injured you can simply recover at once.
"Not bad?"
Not merely not bad — very good indeed.
Even with regeneration, the agony of bone being crushed and flesh being ground up remained the same.
And the mental fortitude consumed by it was enormous.
Of course I had Player's Will [EX], but that only kept my mind from going mad.
It did not remove the pain.
But if pain can be temporarily blocked?
"That means I can regenerate as recklessly as I like."
I would become, in the truest sense, a 'regeneration monster.'
It amounted to gaining the most necessary and most useful element there is where regeneration is concerned.
Taking a reckless gamble to hunt with the heart intact had been worth it.
"There was a reason the Emperor rounded them all up."
But at this present point, having gone back to the past.
Monsters with rare abilities on a par with the Ice Troll were secured in sufficient numbers in the wild.
So before the Emperor moves in earnest, before the Imperial Army exterminates all the flora and fauna of the continent, I have to gain all of these abilities.
For now.
Starting with the abilities obtainable on the northern Snowy Mountain.
"Shall I go again."
I moved my steps toward a higher part of the Snowy Mountain.
***
Time passed quickly, and another week.
It had already been two weeks since I entered the Snowy Mountain.
In those two weeks I did not once come down from the Snowy Mountain.
I had no time to come down, nor any need to.
Food could be solved by tearing into monsters.
Water was a matter of burning calories with Nutrient Synthesis [C].
The only thing that posed a problem was proper sleep.
And no wonder — the cold of the Snowy Mountain was murderous.
It was not suited to sleeping rough.
But even that was bearable enough if I dug a hollow in the snow.
◆Hardened Skin [D] resists the freezing cold!
More precisely, it was thanks to Hardened Skin [D] that I could bear it well enough.
Even so, it was a punishing environment regardless.
But compared to my task force days it was nothing.
Sleeping rough in the middle of a mission was on the comfortable side.
There were missions where I was not permitted to sleep for days, and there were days I had to endure twenty-four hours inside a cesspit.
Whereas now there is food enough, and a place to dig out the snow and lie down, isn't there?
"It's paradise."
It really was no different from paradise, so I spared my sleep and concentrated on hunting.
But unfortunately I was not able to hunt a great many specimens.
Because of its environment, the Snowy Mountain has a rather low population of living things.
And so the monsters I was able to hunt over two weeks were as follows.
Two Dermexus.
Fourteen Alakrons.
One Ice Troll.
And.
"I barely caught a single Rex, too."
I was able to catch one monster by the name of Rex.
The Rex, characterised by two short legs and a vicious jaw.
It had a vicious bite force to match its appearance, but unexpectedly it was a herbivorous monster.
Not every monster is carnivorous.
Only, even a herbivorous monster cannot master its madness and charges the moment it sees a person.
Every species belonging to the monster kingdom was a creature that posed a threat to people.
At any rate, I was able to catch just one Rex as well.
This one too is a monster that inhabits only the northern Snowy Mountain, and one of the monsters I absolutely had to devour.
And no wonder — because the strategy this one adopted to survive the cold is 'endocrine development.'
It adopted a survival strategy of obtaining heat by burning a greater quantity of calories.
Only, since something cannot be created from nothing, it had to raise its metabolic rate accordingly.
But the environment of the Snowy Mountain has no flora capable of sustaining that much metabolism.
And so this one adopted the method of degenerating its muscular strength to an extreme.
By extremely degenerating the muscles, the organ that consumes the most calories, it balanced its metabolic rate.
In other words, it amounted to gaining quick movement, outstanding recovery, and body heat at the cost of giving up muscular strength.
And the ability I gained by devouring the heart of such a Rex was precisely this.
◆Promote Metabolism [E+]
: On activating this skill, the Player's endocrine system is promoted and the metabolic rate greatly increases. In exchange for the Player's Strength decreasing by [-25%], the Player's Agility and Stamina increase by [+10%].
<This skill can be toggled [On/Off].>
<Absorbing additional genetic factors will strengthen this ability.>
Looking at the overall stats, the result is gaining '+20%' at the cost of '-25%,' so a loss of '-5%.'
But it was an [On/Off] skill that could be switched off and on only in the situations where it was needed.
Since it could be used separately only in situations demanding quick movement, it could be called a considerably useful ability and skill.
"Strengthen this too and the efficiency will improve vastly."
Keep strengthening it like that and the word that comes out will not be useful but 'broken.'
"So the abilities I've devoured all this time are..."
Almost before my words were out, translucent messages poured down before my eyes.
=="Possessed Skills"==
◆Solo Level Up [EX]
: The Player can accumulate experience to raise their level. Each time the level rises, the Player gains 1 stat point.
◆Player's Will [EX]
: The Player gains immunity to all effects that exceed the Player's mental fortitude (curses, illusions, brainwashing, hypnosis, suggestion, and so on).
◆Predation [S+]
: Devour a living creature's heart to absorb that creature's abilities and convert them into skills. However, mental fortitude is consumed.
◆Regeneration [B-]
◆Hardened Skin [D]
◆Nutrient Synthesis [C+]
◆Promote Metabolism [E+]
Fortunately the abilities gained through Predation had surfaced in simplified form.
Had they not been simplified, the skill descriptions alone would have blacked out my whole view.
Fortunate was fortunate.
"Let's see..."
Apart from additionally gaining Promote Metabolism [E+], there was no great change to the skills.
Perhaps thanks to having been able to hunt the most Alakrons, I had been able to strengthen Nutrient Synthesis, which had been sitting at grade [C], one step further to [C+].
By that the calorie-conversion efficiency increased slightly, and additionally the minerals the body needs — [sodium, phosphorus, magnesium, potassium and so on] — became synthesisable.
One thing.
"I didn't get heightened keratin."
For one thing, the population of monsters possessing the heightened keratin ability was extremely small.
And there existed monsters on the Snowy Mountain that must not be touched, so I could not go poking about recklessly.
In that sense I could not find a monster possessing the ESP ability either.
"Disappointing..."
Still, it was not as though there had been no results.
I had been able to devour abilities I never devoured in my previous life.
Above all.
"My level should have gone up a fair bit too."
At that a translucent message before my eyes slid and changed.
=="Player Information"==
[NAME] = Adrian White Wolf
[LEVEL] = Level 13
[HP] = 1,600
[MP] = 0
[STATS] = Strength: 22 Agility: 8 Stamina: 15 Mana: 1
[EXP] = 53.2%
"I was Level 8 when I first entered the Snowy Mountain, so..."
It amounted to raising a full 5 levels on the Snowy Mountain alone.
And besides levelling up, there were additional stats I had gained as well.
Because fighting and pursuing monsters naturally conditioned my strength and stamina too.
Thanks to it my stats were high relative to my level.
"But agility isn't easy to raise."
In that sense I invested all the additional stats I gained from levelling into Agility.
Which is why Promote Metabolism [E+] was all the more necessary.
Agility was lacking to begin with, and a stat that was difficult to raise besides.
"From now on I should invest the stats I gain from levelling into Agility wherever possible."
Strength and stamina, in exchange, needed conditioning all the more.
As it happened I had strengthened the Regeneration [B-] ability, and gained a synergy skill in Nutrient Synthesis [C+].
Through physical conditioning I could grow strength and stamina sufficiently, and quickly.
"Time to head back soon, then."
Of course it was considerably disappointing not to have devoured the keratin ability.
But I was tired too.
I could endure the cold of the Snowy Mountain, but it amounted to nothing more than enduring.
Two weeks of forced marching had left considerable fatigue, physically and mentally.
Above all.
"I wonder if Ian has come."
By about now Ian might have come looking for me.
And no wonder — the time I spent on physical conditioning was ten days, and the time I spent hunting on the Snowy Mountain fourteen.
Twenty-four in total, a span approaching a full month.
However far the White Wolf county might be, for Ian it was more than time enough to arrive.
The odds that Ian had come were very, very high.
Perhaps.
Ian might already have killed Seraphia and Kai.
"Let's go back."
Setting my mind on it, I turned my steps down the Snowy Mountain.
And that was when it happened.
An unknowable sense of wrongness.
In an instant it bound my whole body.
The reason...... I could not tell.
The instinct for survival.
That primal instinct simply cried out at me.
......I die!
Instinctively I activated Promote Metabolism [E+]. In an instant my endocrine system was extremely activated and my nervous system operated fast.
Before my brain could even reach a judgement, my nervous system moved my body first, and—
CRASH—!!
The place I had been standing a moment before exploded.
Snow of the Snowy Mountain scattering in every direction.
A heavy flurry blocked my view for a time.
......I nearly died.
If I had not raised my agility?
If I had not gained the Promote Metabolism [E+] ability?
Near enough to call it a certainty, I would have died just now.
Saliva swallowed with a gulp.
Tension drew tight. My body kept trembling without my meaning it to.
The terror of instinct was making me rigid.
The flurry slowly settled.
My blocked view gradually recovered, and—
My heart began to beat as though it would burst.
A thought of surely-not, surely-not filled my head.
Even in that moment my instincts warned me without pause.
They bullied me with death, telling me to run this instant.
And then.
When my blocked view had fully recovered—
I had, in the end, come face to face with a being one must never meet on the Snowy Mountain.