Cannon fodder in the Interstellar

Upon hearing Ruo Manni say that there was nothing unusual around them, the group of friends finally breathed a sigh of relief.

After hearing this, Hebrew Adam used his Tang knife to stab and lift something from the spot where red was seeping through the snow at his feet. Instantly, a silver-white elongated object, over a meter long and as thick as a man’s arm, was lifted out and fell onto the snow.

Everyone looked closely and saw that this creature, resembling a strange beast or snake, was missing its head.

Ruo Manni said without surprise, “Silver Serpent Beast.”

No one else was surprised either; everyone already knew about it.

Sheila really wanted to roll her eyes, but with the strong wind and heavy snow, she feared it might hurt her eyes. The school sure knows how to make use of things. On the last day of class, before they came out for field training, they had learned about this Silver Serpent Beast.

The Silver Serpent Beast is a unique exotic beast found in glaciers. The scales of this beast are the color of snow, and its blood is also cold. Therefore, when it lies still, lurking in the snow, it is usually undetectable to warriors.

The Silver Serpent Beast typically hides in the snow to ambush its prey. Its attack power is not strong, but it is hard to guard against, so its prey is still easily bitten. Its teeth contain extremely toxic venom; if an ordinary person is bitten and does not receive prompt treatment, it can be fatal within five or six minutes.

Sheila, Tamaki Kazia, and Tino Venamoinen were all bitten a few times. Fortunately, their specially-made battle suits were very effective; the venomous fangs of the Silver Serpent Beast couldn’t pierce their suits, and its bite force wasn’t strong. As a result, no one was poisoned or injured.

Because the Silver Serpent Beast is only skilled in sneak attacks and uses venom to incapacitate its prey, its actual attack power isn’t very strong. The specialized battle suits of Adam’s team allowed them to handle the situation with ease.

Therefore, this battle started quickly and ended just as fast, with minimal physical exhaustion and no injuries. The members of Hebrew Adam’s team packed up and prepared to continue their journey. They were now only about 400 to 500 meters from the peak, and with a bit more effort, they should be able to descend from the summit before nightfall.

At this moment, they were really grateful that the school wasn’t too harsh on them and had given them two nutrient solutions. Otherwise, in this icy and snowy environment, it would be hard to find something to eat.

However, thinking is always easier than doing. The higher they climbed, the stronger the wind became. On the steep mountain peak, surrounded by a blizzard of blinding white, even with their exceptionally good vision, they could only see six or seven meters ahead at most. Every step forward was a strenuous effort.

To avoid everyone falling into a pit together if something went wrong, Adam’s team did not dare to huddle together. Instead, they spread out while walking. They shortened the length of the climbing rope between them so that each pair was only about two meters apart.

Previously, Ruo Manni felt that walking on the snow was extremely difficult. Now, the snow around them couldn’t even accumulate on the ground—it was being whipped around by the strong wind, striking against them. Underfoot, there was either a slick ice surface or smooth rock, making it feel as if they were constantly slipping—taking one step forward and sliding two steps back. Ruo Manni deeply missed the feeling of her feet sinking into the snow; at least then, she wouldn’t be slipping around.

On this stretch of glacier, Ruo Manni would be swept off her feet by the wind and thrown to the ground if she wasn’t careful. Each time, Hebrew Adam and Tino Venamoinen, who were in front and behind her, would pull her up using the climbing rope.

Sheila wasn’t much better off than Ruo Manni. After falling several times, she simply grabbed onto Tino Venamoinen’s backpack strap as she walked. At this point, his weight felt particularly reassuring.

Ruo Manni felt that she had been relying too much on Hebrew Adam throughout this journey, acting like a mere attachment whenever she encountered difficulties. Although this could increase the team’s speed, it wasn’t very beneficial for her personal training.

So, when Ruo Manni fell for the sixth time and Hebrew Adam caught her hand to turn her into his “backpack accessory” again, she insisted on walking by herself. Aside from some pain and a little loss of face, she wasn’t actually injured by these falls. So, she figured falling wasn’t such a big deal.

To be honest, it was because Ruo Manni knew that in such difficult situations, she had teammates she could rely on and support each other with, which gave her the confidence to train herself like this.

Ruo Manni didn’t want to give up so easily, nor did she want to let herself keep falling over and over. She began to think about how to use her mental power to resist the wind and stabilize her posture without consuming too much energy.

Ruo Manni quickly thought of the principle of how airplane noses dissipate wind force that she knew from the Earth era. So, she tried using her mental power to “form” a “protective shield” in the shape of an obtuse triangle, with the obtuse angle facing the direction from which the strong wind was coming.

It turned out her method was correct. This “protective shield” dispersed the direct impact of the gusts, redirecting the wind with minimal force, allowing Ruo Manni to avoid a direct force-on-force confrontation. This way, her mental energy consumption was low, and the blizzard couldn’t directly hit her anymore. Ruo Manni walked steadily and didn’t fall again.

Due to the slow walking speed, Adam’s team took over an hour to cover just over 300 meters, leaving them with the last 100 meters to reach the peak.

But this was the most challenging part of the journey. By this time, the sky was already darkening, and the howling blizzard seemed to want to wrap them up and sweep them into the sky.

At this point, except for Hebrew Adam and Tino Venamoinen, the others could no longer stand steadily. After using mental power for such a long time, Ruo Manni had consumed a lot of her energy and didn’t dare to push herself too hard.

By now, the six companions had no choice but to huddle together to avoid being blown away by the wind. Hebrew Adam took the lead, with Ruo Manni holding onto his backpack, and Tino Venamoinen holding onto Ruo Manni’s backpack. In this way, one pulled the next, forming a line as they slowly advanced toward the summit.

Walking like this, supporting each other, was very slow, but with Hebrew Adam leading the way, his cultivation level being high, every step he took was steady, which kept everyone following behind him steady as well.

Although it was slow, they were fortunate not to encounter any unexpected situations. After just over twenty minutes, they reached the mountain’s summit.

Upon finally reaching the peak, none of them dared to relax and still held tightly onto each other’s backpack straps, as the wind and snow were even stronger here than below. However, because it was the summit, the small area was covered with flat snow, making walking easier than climbing up the slope.

Before coming up, the instructors had mentioned that they would set their task’s objective at the summit. However, everything around them was a vast expanse of white, and they didn’t see any sort of marker. Adam’s team looked around, but apart from the snow, there was nothing else to be seen.

Having found nothing, the members of Adam’s team turned their gaze to Ruo Manni. Understanding what they meant, Ruo Manni began to use her mental power to “scan” the surroundings. After two minutes, she finally spotted something different in a relatively high snowdrift.

Ruo Manni pointed in a direction, and the members of Adam’s team, lined up in a row, moved over there. Following Ruo Manni’s indication, Hebrew Adam used his sword to clear away the snow.

Under the snow, there were dozens of white wooden plaques with faint yellow lettering on them. Ruo Manni picked up the top plaque and saw that it simply had the number “1” written on it. The second plaque underneath had a straightforward “2” on it.