The next morning, the pair of us headed in the direction indicated by [Clock]. We couldn't use [Weft Walk] to any great effect within the forest, but we didn't have far to go. I was really glad I had my inbuilt positioning system, because not far into the forest we walked into a heavy bank of mist, making it tough to see more than a few metres in any direction. I still had [Mana Sight], but Cluma was less well off.

Working our way through the dense undergrowth between the trees was tough going, and after half an hour, my clothes seemed to contain more twigs and leaves than they contained Peter. Cluma huffed a big huff as she got caught on yet another thorn.

"This is silly," she complained. "Couldn't we walk around the forest?"

"Maybe, but I couldn't see the end of it. We'd need to walk at least double the distance, but probably more, and maybe where we want to get to would be completely enclosed."

"Wouldn't have mattered how much further it was if we could use [Weft Walk], but it's a bit late for that now." Cluma looked around, as if hoping a paved road would magically spring into existence if she searched hard enough. "Ah-ha!" she exclaimed, causing me to blink in surprise. Don't tell me she just found one?

Then she leapt clean out of the undergrowth and landed on a tree branch before jumping from one tree to the next. "Let's use the trees!" she shouted back at me. "It's far easier."

I had my doubts, but gave it a go anyway, jumping up and landing on a branch. I attempted a jump to the next one, but completely misjudged the distance, falling straight back to the ground.

My feather fall ring was nice, and I was still very thankful for it, but it did nothing to protect me from the bramble bush I landed in. "You have a strange definition of easier," I shouted up after spitting out the leaves that had ended up in my mouth, and being thankful I hadn't eaten any thorns. My clothes were trashed and I was covered in scratches, costing me a few points of health and many points of dignity.

I beat Cluma in every stat now, even dexterity, so how could she do it when I couldn't? Did she just have naturally better hand-eye coordination than me? The wisdom stat kind of covered that, but not everything was encoded by stats. Maybe it was the better balance afforded to her by her tail. I cast [Dexterity] on myself and tried again, this time practising on branches with less offensive growth below. I had a few more misses before I got the hang of it and we set off again, but even then I occasionally misjudged which branches could take my weight. Still, every cloud has a silver lining.

ding

Skill [Accelerated Healing] advanced to level 6

I'd barely had any levels for that since I'd bought it. The [Survivor 2] title might mean that I qualified to purchase rank three versions, but that meant little if I couldn't even level the rank one version. I wasn't the sort of person to resort to self harm to level skills, and hadn't abused the second stage of [Detach] like I could have done. Perhaps I'd reconsider if I knew it would let me use [Superimpose] properly, but even for that I'd be better off finding a rank three healer and using [Detach] on my limbs ahead of time.

Despite the shaky start, using this method let us travel far faster. The ground started to slope upwards, and then, with no warning whatsoever, a wall loomed out from the mist in front of us, a sheer face of rock. The trees were growing right up against it, so we climbed as high as we could, only to find we'd hit one of the tall peaks.

"Wow, massive," said Cluma. "We'll have to go around."

"I... don't think we do, actually," I answered, glancing at [Clock].

5/2 Autumn, 337 4:32:20.0 1.46, -12.11, 1.23

"We've arrived at the coordinates. Chances are that the babies we're looking for are up there."

Cluma looked back up again at the vertical wall of stone. At the top of the tree we weren't quite out of the mist, so we didn't have a great view of the thing, but to sum up what we could see in one word, I would pick imposing.

"Maybe we could walk around it and find an easier place to climb?"

"What's the height limit on these feather fall enchantments?" asked Cluma.

"Between Grover's skill level and the boost from the orichalcum, I've been assured we can fall as far as we like," I answered.

"No point going anywhere else, then. Get the picks out, and we'll start climbing. How hard can it be?"

Ten minutes later, with all my physical buffs active on us both and my stamina still dropping, I was really wishing she hadn't asked that. It didn't help that it was getting windy, with regular gusts trying to tear me away from the cliff face, and I could see Grover's point about not wanting to use mass reduction.

Cluma, on the other hand, seemed to be enjoying herself immensely. Between [Victorious Underdog 3] and [Enhanced Stamina Recovery], I would have far higher stamina regeneration than her despite her [Hyperactive] trait, so how she was still going, I had no idea.

ding

Skill [Enhanced Stamina Recovery] advanced to level 15

Hah. Well, I suppose the climb was good for skill growth. I watched our altitude as reported by [Clock] gradually increase, and despite asking Cluma to warn me if her stamina was half empty, she never did. In fact, I'd swear she accelerated as we got higher, and was climbing quite a way ahead of me.

"This view is amazing!" shouted down Cluma.

I was unable to confirm or deny that statement, given that there was no way in hell I was looking down right now. My eyes were fixed straight forward into the cliff face, with only occasional glances upwards.

"How are you doing this?" I shouted back. "First leaping from tree to tree like you've been doing it your whole life, and now shooting up this cliff as if gravity is something that only applies to other people."

ding

Skill [Extended Stamina Pool] advanced to level 15

And there's another skill.

"Dunno. Because I'm lighter than you?" she shouted back. Could be, I guess. I just hoped that didn't mean she'd get blown away. It was getting cold too, and I probably should have changed my torn up clothes before we started climbing. There was no way I was changing while perched in the middle of the cliff face, though, so I would need to rely on my ice resistance ring for now.

We kept climbing in silence for another five minutes before Cluma called out again. "Oh, Hi!"

I looked up to see why she was suddenly calling, only to see that she had let go of one pick, which was still stuck in the stone, and spun around, hanging from one arm with her back against the cliff, using her free hand to wave madly. As to what she was waving at, I had no idea, because at that point I needed to close my eyes and fight to get my breathing back under control. What the heck was with that girl?!

"Are you... okay?" came another voice, successfully conveying the correct amount of confusion over Cluma's current behaviour. I'd guess it belonged to a harpy, given that it had the same mild screeching behind it as those we'd met the previous evening, coupled with the way we were in mid-air.

"Yup, we're fine!" she answered. "We're just on our way up," she continued.

"And you're... definitely alright on your own?"

"Yup, but I'm not on my own. Peter is down there."

Speak for yourself. I am not okay! I am currently quite far from okay! Climb properly; I'm supposed to be responsible for your safety!

"He looks like he's having difficulty..." accurately observed the harpy.

"I'm fine," I lied, still not looking around, "but how much further do we have to go?"

"Of this cliff? You're about three quarters of the way up. The rest of the way isn't quite so vertical, assuming you're heading to our nest and not just climbing for the fun of it."

"Happy to hear it," I muttered, before starting to climb again. Amazingly, I managed to make it the rest of the way without falling to my death once, and I pulled myself up over the edge to find Cluma energetically chatting to the harpy that had spotted us climbing.

"Hey Peter," she called, waving. "I've got the directions to the nest and Huairu says there were twins born there last week!"

What? She wasn't that far ahead of me. How did she have time for all that?

"Yes, and I am quite intrigued as to why a human and beastkin child are looking for them," said the harpy, apparently named Huairu.

"Have they been acting strangely?" I asked. "They may have been born already possessing a life's worth of memories each."

Huairu stared with incredulity. Right, I should just let Cluma speak for me from now on.

"Mmm, like he said," said Cluma. "They might be reincarnations."

Some of the incredulity left Huairu's face. "Well, I wish you luck then. I need to get going, so have a safe climb."

If we did have mass reduction rings, could we have just had a harpy carry us up? I looked upwards at the not-quite sheer cliff above me, which was indeed less vertical than the last. Not any shorter, though. This one disappeared into cloud cover too, which was ominous.

"Bye-bye," waved Cluma as the harpy took back off and zoomed upwards into the cloud.

"I'm going to wait here until my stamina pool regenerates," I said, sitting with my back against the next climb and using [Meditation]. Looking forward, I had to admit Cluma was right; the view was beautiful. I could see a dozen of the lakes from here, glittering in the sunlight, along with many patches of misty forest. In some sections of the forest, groves of massive trees burst through the top of the fog. Perhaps they were the settlements of the fairies. It certainly seemed true that while the Emerald Nest was one large city, the Sapphire Peaks was a whole area, which had multiple patches of colonisation.

Why was a camera not something the institute had invented yet? I'd have loved to take this view back to show mum and dad. Maybe I could get a tourist class that had it as a skill?

After a rest, we changed into warmer clothes and resumed our trek. I let Cluma lead the way, given that she apparently knew where we were going now, and I had to admit that the incline made the climb a lot easier. At least until we reached the mist, and I couldn't see where we were going. I relied on [Mana Sight] to increase my range, and combined with shouted directions from Cluma, I continued until we started hitting caves cut into the rock face.

"I don't suppose you have any idea which cave we're supposed to be heading for?" I asked.

"Nope. I got the directions before we started talking about the twins. Hang on, I'll ask."

Before I could stop her, Cluma vanished into one of the caves. [Mana Sight] showed me a couple of harpies in there with her. It also showed me one cave that contained two baby-sized harpies, along with one adult. No other cave within my range contained a child so small, or more than one the same size, so I felt confident that was the correct one. I made my way towards it, watching Cluma hug the two adults in the cave she'd entered and then go running out, not even bothering with the picks and clinging directly to the stone.

"That way," she called, pointing to the cave I was already headed for.

I refrained from mentioning that I'd already worked it out, and carefully continued making my way over, reaching it a couple of minutes later. We pulled ourselves in, and through [Mana Sight] I saw the one adult occupant, holding one of the kids, spin around.

"You weren't even using the picks..." I muttered. "Are you secretly some sort of rock spider?"

"It was all lumpy," Cluma answered. "There were plenty of handholds."

The presumed owner of this cave picked up the second child, then started walking towards us.

"Well, aren't we going to introduce ourselves?" Cluma asked when I waited.

"No need," I answered. "They're coming here."

"Hello?" called a female voice as it walked into view. A young-looking harpy woman peered at the two of us, a fluffy harpy chick nestled in each arm. "Can I help you? How did you even get up here?"

"We climbed!" exclaimed Cluma happily.

"And we came because the System informed me that you had a pair of very special children," I continued. "(Do you understand English?)" I asked in English, causing both babies to twist around and stare at me.

Found them.