Due to their debilitating hunger, Bernard and Wenwyn had decided to spend their remaining Coins on the Fastpass, swiftly disappearing up the glowing escalator.
“I can’t take it any more.” Bernard said as they turned to leave. “I’m so hungry, I could eat a scabby orc…”
Jeff and Fracta, however, joined the gaggle of other Contestants who, for one reason or another, had spurned the easy option, and began to climb the mountain the old-fashioned way.
The air grew thinner and more frigid as they ascended, making each breath a struggle. A brisk wind picked up, nudging them as they walked up the ancient stone stairs, causing them to occasionally stumble. The wind howled through the crags around them, a whistling chorus that threatened to blow them off the treacherous mountainside. It soon became obvious that the star-flower’s output was continuing to reduce—by now, half the petals were worn out and the color of light produced was changing to a colder, bluer hue.
As they continued upwards the cold increased incrementally. A thick layer of ice coated every surface, glistening in the weak sunlight. Huge icicles, some the length of telegraph poles, hung threateningly from the rocks above the increasingly precarious stairway. Eventually what had been real steps degenerated into mere hand and foot holds, slippery with ice.
Jeff was finding it increasingly difficult to concentrate on the climb as the harsh weather began to take its toll. The intensifying cold and biting windchill were numbing his hands and feet, making it hard to concentrate on the trail. His clothing was woefully inadequate for the conditions—his torn, soaked-through cotton shirt offered little protection, and his combat pants, though durable, were showing increasing signs of wear and tear.
Fracta, on the other hand, seemed to be faring better; her fur-like cilia had puffed up, forming a protective barrier against the bitterly cold wind.
Jeff was momentarily distracted from the cold by a peculiar sight; when he toggled on his [Mana Essence] Skill he noticed extremely dense blue clouds of glowing raw mana coalescing between crevices; the flow of mana was so strong in places it had condensed from a gaseous state to a liquid. The pair splashed through increasingly large standing pools and flowing rivulets of mana as they continued to negotiate the rocky slope.
Jeff noticed the flow of mana increasing incrementally around them as they climbed higher, the glare emitted by some of the concentrations was so dazzling he was forced to experiment with the settings of [Mana Essence], reducing the input so as not to be blinded.
Experimenting, he activated the [Infinite Sword] skill, smashing a row of icicles hanging from a nearby rocky outcrop with his gladius. Fracta eyed him curiously. As usual, activating the Skill caused his MP to drop by almost a third as a result. Reaching out, Jeff stuck his hand into a trapped pool of mana, glinting brightly in a rocky concavity. Concentrating, he was able to pull the super concentrated mana into his Core in a fast transfer, replenishing his mana in seconds, a move which would normally have taken fifteen minutes at least.
You have fully replenished your mana. MP: 70/70
Congratulations! Your Mana Essence Skill has now reached Level 2
Level up!
Congratulations. You have reached Level 871
Jeff passed on the intel to Fracta. “At least we won’t run out of mana up here.”
Fracta displayed confusion, cocking her cephalothorax at him, sidelong. Jeff went over his experience with channeling mana during the training sessions—It turned out she had not made the same breakthrough as he had, nor had she gained the [Mana Essence] Skill.
They proceeded upwards. Jeff and Fracta stuck together, maintaining a steady pace despite the cold and uneven terrain, but the line of other Contestants began to elongate, a large proportion of them beginning to struggle already. As the ascent entered its second hour, the pace of some of the climbers faltered, the weaker ones lagging behind. As they began to pass slower, weaker people further on up the trail, Jeff and Fracta called out words of encouragement, sometimes stopping to help the less able ones across ravines and more difficult stretches of the route.
Concern began to gnaw at Jeff as they continued their arduous ascent. The rough-hewn staircase was full of jagged twists and cutbacks, steepening on occasion to an almost vertical angle—more akin to hand and footholds than steps. Sharp edged overhangs hindered their passage and Jeff was sometimes forced to crawl on hands and knees along switchbacks and up narrow crevasses.
Both of them had been awake for a considerable amount of time without rest, and the countdown timer showed a mere 12 hours remaining. His mind was plagued with more general worries about the tournament and his overall chances of success. A heavy pall of existential dread began to settle over him; his shoulders slumped, and his pace slowed.
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"Jeff… you are such a pathetic loser…" a sinister voice whispered in his ear. "Just give up. You'll never make it in time…”
Jeff looked around sharply. Fracta had also paused, her antennae swiveling this way and that in confusion. “Did you hear that?” Jeff questioned, the vicious, bone-chilling wind whipping the words out of his mouth.
Fracta nodded, her antennae twitching with foreboding.
"Indeed. I sense a fell aura on the breeze. It is as if the mountain is playing mind games with us.”
Now Jeff realized the source of his anxiety, and felt strangely relieved. Just another System-generated trick. Squaring his shoulders, he steeled himself against the taunting whispers and psi-attacks and pressed onward up the stairs.
Shrugging off the lingering psychological effects of the psi-attack, they pressed on, pausing only when they came across another World Champion, slumped to the side of the narrow staircase. The man squatted forlornly on the ground, a thin covering of snow and ice already beginning to soften his profile against the black rocks of the mountain.
“Come on man, on your feet,” Jeff said gently, laying a hand on the man’s snow-clad shoulder.
Their attempts to encourage the Contestant to his feet were to no avail, the man had already succumbed to the cold and the debilitating effects of the mind attack. Jeff and Fracta shared a look, realizing that they were not in a position to save the man. Numbly, Jeff turned his back and continued, knowing he was dooming the player and his entire race, but unable to think of any other logical alternative.
Twice they saw other Contestants breezing past them on the fastpass escalator. First came a small bipedal humanoid, dressed in autumnal colors and bearing a bow across its back.
Next was a strange Ent-like bipedal tree creature, its branch like wooden limbs complete with leaves. In place of hair, a hedge of bright green shrubbery hung down, like a weeping willow. Its gnarled and knotted face peered back at them curiously through the hazy barrier between the two staircases as it ascended.
Each time, the duo were beset by doubts. “Fools! You should have taken the fastpass…” the System-generated mindfuckery whispering in their ears, until finally after another fifteen minutes of this they were both rewarded with a new notification:
You have successfully evaded a Psi-AttackYour Cognition Attribute has risen by 1
Level up!
Congratulations. You have reached Level 872
Several more times, they passed by other Contestants who had not been able to resist the mind attack. Their already frozen corpses littered the trail ahead, hoarfrost forming over their still forms.
Rounding the flank of the mountain, they were abruptly presented with an unexpected sight: a large plateau cut into the side of the mountain, invisible from the ground.
An entire chunk of the mountain seemed to have been sheared off, as if with a gigantic laser, creating a flat expanse bordered by an abyssal drop on one side and towering vertical cliffs on the other. The jagged escarpment was peppered with shadowy cave mouths, so dark they couldn’t see their interiors.
Several waterfalls of brilliant blue liquid mana gushed down the side of the cliff face, the fluid accumulating in pools at the talus. Lumps of cerulean-tinged scree piled up around the plunge pools, as though the very rock was imbued with mana. At any other time, Jeff would have been struck by the sheer beauty of the scene—the ethereal blue glow contrasting spectacularly with the starkness of the plateau—but a foreboding sensation of being watched from on high hurried their steps. They headed quickly towards the beckoning staircase on the other side of the icy plateau, around 200 yards ahead.
As they approached the first cave mouth set in the looming cliff face above them, they heard a weird chirping, tweeting sound emanating from the entrance, growing in volume as they drew parallel. A dark shape flashed from the cavern, a black bird of prey fully two meters in wingspan, Its stark red beak and claws outstretched, heading straight for them.
Fracta’s legs twitched, beating an involuntary tattoo of alarm. “Aerial attackers, {…untranslatable…} watch the skies, Jeff”, an atavistic note of terror in her voice. Jeff noted that the system had broken down or glitched slightly for a moment, unable to render an understandable interpretation of something Fracta had said. Perhaps her species had an ancestral fear of birds, he wondered, in the same way humans had of snakes, or…spiders?
Dark Cave Roc, Grade JHIT POINTS (HP): 10/10
MANA POINTS (MP): 10/10
REWARD: 10 Coins
Jeff quickly held his gladius in readiness, but the winged threat passed him by, instead targeting Fracta, who cried out another untranslatable phrase and reflexively crouched down, her eight limbs bending to reduce her profile against the rock.
The cave roc emitted a warbling cry as it passed overhead. Parrot-like, it whistled and then actually proceeded to speak, grating out words.
“Die, worms,” it cawed, as it lazily flapped its black feathered wings, easily maintaining a hovering stance above Fracta. Intermittently, the huge avian predator darted in to snap at her with its beak, aiming for her vulnerable eyestalks.
Pulling back slightly, she recovered her poise. Raising her newly acquired spear, Aetherstrike, she launched it skyward at the feathery menace, impaling the bird with unerring accuracy and knocking it over the edge of the escarpment. The magical weapon immediately shot back up the side of the mountain, returning to her outstretched palp, boomerang style.
“Cool spear.” Jeff grunted, already noticing more movement at the other various cave entrances dotting the rock face to their left.
A steady stream of cave rocs spewed forth, streaming down from the tunnels set in the precipice, darkening the sky with their passage. Again, Jeff heard something like speech.
Utterances such as “groundlings, grubs, no feathers, pluck and feed” mixed in amongst the unintelligible squawks and tweets.
“Oh crap…we’re gonna get mobbed…” gulped Jeff, readying his sword, but wishing wholeheartedly that he had a shotgun or flamethrower instead. In moments, the pair were engulfed in a maelstrom of ebony feathers, razor sharp beaks, and talons.
Fracta seemed to fade partially out of existence, activating her [Shadow Walker] skill. The birds could no longer see her clearly, so she was able to harry the flock with some impunity. Jeff saw a streamer of silk shooting skyward to entangle a bird, causing it to plummet down the side of the mountain, pinwheeling out of control. Occasionally, cooldown period permitting, she threw her spear upwards, making shish kebab out of another hapless birdie. With each successful strike, she let out another untranslatable curse aimed at the circling birds.
“Woohoo Fracta! You rock, girl!” Jeff cheered her on, interested to note that Fracta harbored such enmity towards birds.
Unfortunately for Jeff, he was now the only visible target, and soon found himself under attack from all sides.