In the sky above a mountain range a giant tower is looming over the land. Flying with it's base still attached to the top of the mountain on which it once lived, shone upon by the light of the life giving sun. It's cold, lifeless stone sides fully smooth without wear by the iron teeth of time, proudly announcing it's presence. A piece of godly architecture that is made to last forever, yet destined to fall.
The only distinctive features that a human standing at it's base could find is the simple wooden door and it's only company, a ledge over nothing.
But below the door, below the ledge in a small cave on the side of the mountain's head a flash of light has shone for the first time after a painfully long while.
As light subsided only a man was left in it's place. His long brown hair tied behind his head, sky blue eyes looking towards the horizon with a face wore down by sleepless night. A simple face, not too pretty, not too ugly.
His simple clothing flopped with the wind as he walked to the edge and looked around. He looked confused as if he was expecting a ladder to be next to the cave leading up.
'Surely they don't expect you to climb the raw rocks? Where is the rope that you are supposed to hold onto?'
His thoughts were his only comrades as no one else was around. After a moment of pause he turned around and looked deeper into the cave. It only extended for a few steps towards the brain of the mountain head, but still it held treasures for the one looking for help. A rope and plenty of pitons were resting on the ground next to a wall hammer.
'Well... That is better than nothing I guess. I'm glad I have played some climbing VR games before so I know how to do it... or at least kind of know.'
He picked up the gear and placed them into his inventory then returned to the entrance where the wind greeted him again.
After tying up the rope with multiple knots at hands lengths and pulling one piton to rest on each knots he hammered the one at the end of the rope into one of the cracks in the lifeless wall at the height of his knee then one at his waist, one at his chest and one at head heights in a zig-zag motion. Then he remembered that he should secure himself somewhere so that it catches him if he falls. Lacking in resources he tied the other end of the rope around his waist.
He stepped onto the first piton and grabbed the last. Reached up with his other hand, while resting his legs on the pitons, and secured the next piton into a crevice, took out the hammer from his inventory and hammered it in.
Afterwards instead of continuing he jumped back down from the pitons and looked at the wall confused.
'This is a lot weirder than in the climbing game. There you actually have climbing gears and can climb a lot better. You can even use different pitons or whatever depending on the crack and you have better tools. But until I can grab onto the wall itself I guess I should use the pitons similarly. Maybe a few more meters and I can hold onto the wall instead of the pitons themselves?'
He pulled the rope downwards with full strength but the pitons didn't budge.
'I guess it should work? Though the worst part might be that, if I fall I will actually hit this ledge if anything... I really don't have any security with this rope...'
But he still climbed back onto it without hesitation.
'I guess if I fall, I just retry again. Not like dying matters as I will just respawn in the cave anyway.'
One after another he placed the pitons into the wall while the wind was getting stronger and stronger. A few minutes later he has reached the point where he could grab onto the wall so he started to place the pitons more scarcely even though he did not save any pitons as they were already tied up at a certain distance on the rope.
But even after progressing quiet a way upwards, it was still not even half way. His hands and legs were already screaming in pain. They didn't want to go on so he started descending back onto the ledge.
'I guess I should take a break. The stamina system is pretty hard in the game. If I run out, then I will just let go of the wall and fall below. I should wait until it restores. Even though I can't see the stamina bar for some reason.'
After reaching the ledge at the bottom he looked up and as he saw his progress he painfully sighed.
'This is so much worse than in normal game mode. Also I'm feeling the actual fatigue like I'm using my own body. It's similar to a different game, but this one have never had this system implemented. Did they update the game or something? Both the pain in my leg and this feels really weird...'
As he sit down in the entrance of the cave he looked at the tired sun going down at the horizon.
'Have the two hours not went by yet? ... I guess so.'
He rubbed his face with both his hands making it dirty with the dirt from his hard labor and lied down on the cold and lifeless ground and closed his eyes.
After a while he stood up to continue on.
'I guess I'm through the hard part, so it should take less time to get up there. Even more so as I can climb upwards using the rope instead of the pitons as stepping stones.'
Then he closed and opened his fists a few times feeling his hands around. They were completely recovered from their work so there were no problems with them.
As he was climbing upwards the wind was picking up stronger and stronger like it was trying to knock him off the rope into the abyss below. He persevered through the challenge and got back up to the point he was at previously.
The wall was more ragged, filled with plenty of edges he could grab onto and every few steps he even left a piton in the wall just to make sure he will not follow the wind's wishes.
Slowly passing the half and reaching the threequarters points he was using even less pitons because he just wanted to get on top. His hands felt sweaty and were hardly grabbing onto the rocks but he was still going upwards ignoring the pain.
'Aren't I supposed to be an undead? Why am I sweating and feeling this pain? These developers really wanted to make this climb as hard as possible, didn't they?'
He looked up and smiled at his position as he realized that only a few meters were left until the top. Quickly grabbing on the next part he didn't even notice that the drops falling onto his face were not sweat drops but blood from the many scratches and cuts on his hands from the climbing.
As he reached the top he grabbed onto the ledge just for it to slip from his bloody hand, and what followed was his other hand and losing his balance.
- You got to be kidding me!
He could only shout as he fell downwards until the rope stopped him from falling and he hit the wall pushing almost all the air out of his lungs.
Coughing, but still alive he was hanging along the wall by his waist.
'That was less fall than I have expected. But god that hurts!'
Every part of his body ached from the fall but his waist was the worst as it took the full force of the fall.
'I think I will hang around a bit then continue. How did I even stop falling this far up?'
He was around the three quarters mark with the rope's full length being extended over him. He was lucky that it wasn't any longer so it got stopped by the pitons he was placing all along.
After a few minutes of resting he grabbed onto the rope close to the nearest piton in the wall and started to climb up with the help of it. He was feeling happy that he still kept on placing them as they were a huge help climbing up again, not even talking about them holding onto him while falling.
He climbed up fast ignoring the pain. When he reached the top again he placed another piton at the edge just so he could grab onto it and finally pulled himself up. Lying on the floor he cried out loud and happily.
- Finally! Aaah...!
He lied around for a few minutes before standing up.
'But why was this so hard? Did they really intend to make the game harder by putting in even more environmental obstacles? I'm not even in the tower yet!'
He looked around and noticed the lonely door on the tower.
'I guess I have arrived. Ugh... My waist...'
He rubbed his sides and walked towards it fully forgetting about the rope tied to his waist until it pulled on him and giving him even more pain.
'Argh... R-right!'
After untying it from himself he looked at it for a few seconds and let out a short sigh, pulled out his hammer from the inventory and hammered in the remaining pitons into the ground and tied up the end of the rope.
'Just in case if anyone else needs it. Though I don't know who else would need it, considering I should be the only person entering the tower.'
He walked up to the door and grabbed the handle as the sun has finally went to sleep.