Lucas went near the boulder. Placing his palm on it, he tried to push the boulder with all its strength.
With a rumble, the boulder shaped rock started moving. Now all he had to do was push the boulder up the slope. The difficulty of doing this is, if you stop applying force a second, the boulder will push you down against the hill and the boulder may roll over you.
Climbing along with the boulder was both times consuming and exhausting. Lucas didn't even know whether he had enough stamina to push it to the top.
Lucas had to concentrate so that he might not lose focus, as the slightest loss of concentration will result in boulder rolling down.
If he could use mana then he could have pushed the boulder up without using full strength but without mana, his current strength was barely enough to pass the course.
Lucas had already climbed more than half of the course and paused going up to catch his breath as he was feeling out of breath. Standing there with constantly applying force was hard still he decided to take a break to replenish some of his stamina.
All of his muscles especially his legs and shoulders were feeling sore at the moment and clear beads of sweat rolled down from his face while his entire clothes were drenched in sweat as if he has just taken a shower. His legs were already trembling to maintain his standing.
Lucas could see the students grinding their teeth to push the boulders. This is undoubtedly the most difficult part of the course.
Pushing his back against the boulders Lucas turned back to stare at the bottom of the mountain and the forest below it.
'The view from the top was quite nice.'Lucas mumbled.
From the top, the forest was quite distant and the big trees now looked like small shrubs.
After a few moments of catching his breath, Lucas began to push the boulder gritting his teeth. He tried to squeeze every drop of strength he has within his body.
At this point, he had already reached near the top but he didn't pause to rest rather kept climbing to finish this course. The faster he cleared it the better it will be for him.
He kept climbing despite his sore muscles that started to become stiff with every push. The skin on his palm has already started to peel off.
'Little more.Just a few steps more.'Lucas motivated himself.
Gritting his teeth Lucas pushed himself as to he reached the top flat land of the mountain.
As soon as he reached the top, he rolled the boulder to the side and laid on the ground panting heavily like others who laid on the top to recover.
'My God this is hell.No it is worse than hell,' He said to himself as he remembered the things, he have passed through since this morning. It didn't look difficult when you listened at first but the one who goes through this course only knows the true horror of it.
Lucas clearly remembered the smirk on the instructor Roy when he was looking at us when many of us thought it easy.
Lucas looked around to find Parth laying there and looked he will be dropping dead any moment now. He is the type of person who primarily focused on agility so pushing the boulder up which required strength had also clearly taken a toll on him.
Lucas tried to pick himself up but his body didn't budge, as if his muscles refused to listen to him.
'My stamina had already depleted but till now my persistence skill hasn't activated as if the system is telling me to rely on myself to clear the course.'Lucas spoke as he thought about the system.
'It's weird. Did the system have this much intelligence that it can differentiate the situation? '
'I think it only activates in fighting. Who knows just what the hell the system true purpose is?'Lucas spoke taking a deep heavy breath, as he tried to lift himself a few times after some time he was finally able to feel his muscles listening to him.
He groaned as he stood up with his tired muscles starting to ache.
He looked down the slanted slope to find many were pushing the push boulders while many were still climbing the steep slope.
Fredrick was struggling tremendously to pull himself to push the boulder. Even after falling back he was still able to catch up and is already crossed half of the mountain.
Lucas started running forward once again. His thighs felt heavy and stiff but he still pushed himself to raise both of his legs and move forward.
Lucas greeted Parth on the way.
Seeing Lucas, Parth asked, "Have you seen the scumbag. Had been already passed the trial?"
I raised my brow as listening Parth cursing Fredrick. He must have been annoyed by the course, thinking about Fredrick who might be at the front and already finished it.
Lucas signalled Parth to look at the opposite side and left without saying much. He knows that his brain will be short-circuited if he stays near Parth any longer.
Lucas arrived at the other side of the mountain top and looked down at the foggy view.
He couldn't see the bottom of the mountain as it looked very deep.
There were ropes tied to a small metal bar which was are dug deep into the hard rocks of the mountain cliff.
These ropes far extended into the distance leading to the top of another mountain 5o to 60 feet away.
Some might have thought of leaping to another side of the mountain directly instead of going through all the pain but seeing the bottomless pit they have to swallow their courage to take the shortcut of crossing the mountain.
They are not even sure they can leap over to the other side with their power being sealed.
Lucas arrived at the front of the lines and looked ahead. He couldn't see anyone on the rope he chose as there were only a few of the students were managed to reach this far while many are still climbing.
On the other side, some students can be seen bending down as they reached out for the rope and
held onto the rope and gripping it they tried to test its strength before moving.
Some of them kicked off their lower part of the body pushing their hips and torso off the edge of the mountain and use their hands to support their whole body as they start moving forward on their rope.
Some of them wrapped their legs around the ropes
and pulled their body forward using the strength of the arms and pushing the lower body with their thighs.
Their movement looked similar to the snail as it pushes their body in a to and fro motion.
Some even thought of themselves as tightrope artists who walked on the ropes on their feet.
Balancing their feet on the rope they move forward taking one step at a time only to fall later on.
Lucas steading his breathing squatted down towards the rope. Stretching both his arms on top of others he tightened the grip on the rope holding it tightly he laid his entire body on the ropes coiling his legs on the ropes.
'I don't have fear of heights still crossing over such heights in this way is really scary,' Lucas exclaimed as he pushed his body forward along the rope.
Those who walked on the ropes focused on taking one step at a time. Some who realised its worthless to show off in this situation and the difficulties they faced while balancing their bodies finally give in and started to move forward like others laying their bodies on the ropes.
Approximately covering 20 feet Lucas could see the other side of the mountain as he stopped to take a breath. He looked to see not many were left and there were around ten to fifteen students around him.
I looked forward to finally spotting Rose who was moving on the rope effortlessly along with some others who moved with the flawless technique required to climb the ropes, unlike our sluggish movements without glancing at anyone.
Lucas was already moving quite faster than others but the ones before him are all monsters. Fredrick would be here if he was not caught in the trap still he is sure that Fredrick is already in the back of the ropes.
Lots of students were moving at a snail's speed while some of them struggled to pull themselves forward on the rope due to fatigue.
" Arghhhh"
After every minute screams can be heard of the students as they fall with their bodies disappearing into the fog below the mountain
Some even lose their grips unable to overcome their fatigue though they were alright, they have to start from the other side again that's why it is better to take sufficient rest to recover before moving onto the ropes.
Some even passed out on the way due to fatigue and fall into the deep abyss below.
Lucas continued moving forward following others trails to make sure he doesn't lag too much.
He finally arrived a few moments later at the edge of the mountain and started running down the mountain.
This side wasn't steep as the other side and was quite easy to descend.
"Aahhhh".
Lucas looked around and changed his thoughts and spoke 'It's easy to descend if you are not caught in traps.'
'Just how much time had they wasted on planting all these traps..'Lucas muttered as he marched ahead.
