Summer Break

Chapter 22

Arthur trudged through the ice with Tess on his back as he used every drop of mana in his core to keep them both warm as well as himself moving. Mana rotation was helping, but all it was doing was buying them time, as he was burning through mana faster than he could absorb it.

On his back Tess held onto him, her face buried in his neck. Before becoming the student body President and was only director Goodsky's disciple, Tess sometimes saw some of the older students goofing off. Once she saw a female student jump onto one of the male student's back, and he carried her around as she clung onto him with a dreamy smile before they faced each other and kissed. She envied how blissfully happy they were, and found herself daydreaming about her and Arthur being like that. But now as she rode on his back she couldn't find herself enjoying this at all, as she not only remembered that their lives were in danger, but also that they weren't a couple. Arthur said that he needed time, that he wasn't ready to be in a relationship yet, and she said that she would give him the time he needed. Tess knew she would wait forever for him to be ready, but that didn't make it hurt any less when she was always longing to be with him.

Arthur kept his mind focused on trying to find anyplace that wasn't a block of ice. He used less mana on himself to keep warm, as to use the bitter stinging cold as a reminder of the danger they were in. Tess' face in his neck was a constant threat of distraction for him, however once his mind began to wander off to happier thoughts, the cold shocked him back into the reality of her life being in danger.

"I think I see a spot we can use," Arthur stated as he began to pick up his pace.

In only a few minutes Arthur had arrived at the location he had spotted. Technically it wasn't ice, but there was ice on it. The area was frozen sand, no doubt frozen from water that once was liquid. The sand was slippery, and as hard as concrete. Igniting his feet with fire mana, Arthur began walking onto the sand, his feet sinking in a little bit with every step as he melted the ice as he looked for a level spot.

"Ok this will do," Arthur said as he took a knee so Tess could climb off. "Empty all of your wood and your bag from your dimensional ring," Arthur instructed Tess.

She knew why Arthur wanted the wood, but why he needed her bag was a mystery. Regardless she listened, and a large pile of wood emerged as well as her bag.

"I need a bigger dimensional ring," Arthur commented under his breath as his bag fell out of his onto the ground.

Having a dimensional ring in itself was a big deal, however he was often reminded of how small the capacity of his was, as his could only hold his bag and whatever he could fit in it, while the rest of his companions could not only hold their bags, but also all the beast cores they obtained, as well as enough provisions for a month, and at least a week worth of firewood. Tess' ears twitched and a small shaky smile formed on her face as she heard this, but Arthur didn't notice.

"Ok, here's what we need to do," Arthur said as he tapped his foot, and three long stone pikes shot out of the ground between them, with two being forked at the top. "We need to get out of these wet clothes and put some dry ones on."

"What?!" Tess replied in shock as she looked like she was covering herself with her arms.

"That's right," Arthur said as he broke one of the pikes near the ground. "Because our clothes are wet they're causing our bodies to lose heat extremely fast." He then placed the pike into the forks of the other two. "We might survive long enough to fall asleep, but we won't wake up. We'll be frozen to death."

"I get that but..." Tess replied as her voice trailed off.

"You do have a change of clothes right?" Arthur asked.