Gustav focused on climbing and observed his environment carefully. His body had improved since he started this daily routine for the last month.
Even with all bloodlines and stats sealed, his regular body was stronger than normal, so he had been finishing the morning routine in about two hours like the rest of the special class cadets.
However, this time he couldn't tell if he would be able to get there in three hours.
He scaled over three hundred feet in about thirty more minutes and had finally reached halfway across the mountain.
The rain was still pouring crazily, and one of the cadets almost got struck by a lightning bolt a few minutes earlier.
However, even though the lightning bolt missed the cadet by a few centimeters, the sloppy area it slammed into crumbled into fragments and affected an area of around thirty feet, causing rocks to roll down.
The cadet fell along with the rocks that pulled out of the mountain and slammed into several cadets climbing downwards.
Some cadets also got slammed by the rolling rocks and instantly passed out due to the heavy force.
Fortunately, the flying mechanical drones with arms saved those who were spiraling downwards due to the rocks that slammed into them.
They were swooped away from underneath the rocks before they fell to the ground and got crushed by some bigger ones.
At this point, many more cadets had fallen to traps, and others had slipped while climbing due to the weather.
Gustav looked up once again before he resumed climbing.
Only about fifty feet higher was the limit of his visuality.
Beyond that, he couldn't see anything else, and even before that, the visuality of the environment wasn't so sharp.
He could only see one person towards his Northwest at this point also climbing up.
This person was also a special class, and just like Gustav, he was resting.
Gustav continued to climb and moved to the side whenever he observed any weird area.
Gustav grabbed onto another piece of pointed rock as he arrived at the seven hundred feet mark.
Only about fifteen special class cadets had managed to make it this far. Gustav pulled himself up again, and suddenly the rocky part pulled out.
Gustav was surprised as the rock pulled out, but he was lucky to still have his other hand on a firm part of the mountain.
He dipped his hand into the hole formed from the rock that slipped out and pulled himself up.
'Hmm?' Gustav felt a little touch of a breeze on his fingertips as his hand dipped into the hole.
He pulled his arm back and raised his head to stare at the hole, which was the same size as the rock that got pulled out.
It was pretty dark as it should be, but Gustav could see a little fingernail-sized opening at the bottom of the hole.
Gustav put his hand back in the hole and waited for a few seconds. He felt the small touch of breeze again.
'Hmm… Should I..?' Gustav thought of something then discarded it.
He pulled himself upwards once again and pulled out his hand to place it on another piece of rock before placing his right kneecap in the hole.
As he lifted himself up again…
Grrrhhkkkk! Jjrrkkyyhh! Crrunmm!
More rocks pulled out of that particular mountainside and started rolling down.
Gustav quickly pushed himself upwards more so as not to be affected.
He leaned his back against the slightly sloppy mountain and turned to look down.
The rocks kept rolling down, and in a few seconds, he could hear the sounds of screams underneath after they disappeared into the fog below.
'Oh, looks like some unlucky ones are following my trail,' Gustav shook his head in pity.
In a few more seconds, the rocks had stopped pulling out.
Gustav's eyes squinted as he stared at the door-sized hole that had been created within the mountain after those rocks pulled out.
'What's up with that?' Gustav wondered as he gently descended to the position of the hole.
Gustav's eyes widened as he spotted an entrance to the interior of the mountain.
It was really a dark and deep hole, but Gustav could see a small orange dot in the distance even though it was barely glowing.
Gustav felt he should continue climbing, but he was also curious to see where this passageway would lead to.
He slowly moved into the hole and squatted a little as he started moving forward.
There was no one in the vicinity, so no one had witnessed this incident, and it was mostly due to low visuality.
As Gustav moved forward, he noticed that the orange glow was getting brighter and brighter.
After a few more twenty steps, he arrived in front of a square-shaped opening where the orange glow seemed to be shining through.
Gustav moved closer and looked through the hole.
"What in the world? Why are there stairs?" Gustav wondered with a low tone as he noticed the stairs on the other side.
The square-shaped opening was too small for him to fit through, so Gustav stepped back nine paces.
Swwiii!
He suddenly charged forward and pushed forth his right leg.
Bam!
His foot slammed heavily into a side of the wall close to the opening.
A part of the wall broke apart and fell in, but it still wasn't wide enough.
Gustav had to step back and charge forth several times while kicking the wall for it to get wide enough.
Brrrrhhh!
Some more parts of the wall fell in after the tenth charge, and Gustav finally had enough space to fit in.
He slightly lowered his body and pushed himself into the hole.
Upon arriving on the other side, Gustav found himself on a fifty feet wide stairway that went as high as the eyes could see.
On the walls ahead and below, small orange-colored crystals could be seen protruding out of different areas.
Each of these crystals had a small light glow that brightened up the dark stairway.
Gustav now understood where the orange glow was coming from.
'What is this?' Gustav wondered as he looked around.
'Could it be that this stairway leads to the top of the mountain?'
