Initiation part 3

The man named Eric seemed dumbfounded, and I had some idea why.

According to the one who called himself Numoral, the ability to freely remove objects from one's shell was an incredibly difficult ability. Once mastered, poisons and the like would be useless, alongside some things that he murmured too softly to pick up.

Eric tsked and walked back up to me.

"Do you want to continue?"

I nodded, I did not feel any fatigue so far, so it was no problem.

"Alright, next up is that." He said, raising one arm and pointing to the obstacle course.

He led me to one end and pulled out the notepad he was using to mark my scores, similar to the one the other man held.

"You have to get through it as fast as you can, tell me when you're ready to start."

I looked at the intertwined and knotted ropes that made the entrance to the course.

"Ready." I spoke.

"Okay. Start on go."

I lowered my posture slightly as he began counting.

"3.2.1... Go!"

I ran forwards, and jumped, trying to get as high as possible, while extending my hands to grab the highest rope that I could.

Once I did, my face slammed into the ropes below, followed by the rest of my body.

I had no experience, and that was made perfectly clear when I wildly kicked my legs, trying to get a proper foothold, only for my feet to slip off of the sides.

I did get it after a few failed attempts, then started to pull myself up with my hands while pushing down on the rope with my legs.

It took far too long for me to climb the entrance.

Once I was on top, I saw two ways I could go, up, and down.

The upper path was slightly higher, but I could jump to it. It had multiple obstacles that I needed to vault over or jump through.

I could not see the lower path, but there was a way down there if the slide below me meant anything.

I spent two seconds standing there before I jumped and took the upper path.

The obstacles were not difficult to get through, but once again, my inexperience showed clearly as I stumbled, catching my foot on the edge of one.

I made many mistakes, and that cost me quite a bit of time.

Once I managed to crawl beneath the final obstacle, (When I could have slid beneath it many times faster) I saw the next part.

There were red pillars of varying heights and widths, all of them with flat tops, telling me that I needed to jump on them to progress.

Beyond the final pillar, there was a platform with a hole in it, showing me the way to go.

I spent too long trying to think about the best way to go before I started moving, but I managed to bound over them quite quickly, except for the second last one, where I slipped and fell.

I landed with a grunt, before getting back up and running the shortest pillar near the start of this section.

Only to fall again after jumping too far once I did get up to the taller pillars.

When I finally managed to get to the platform, I had fallen a total of 5 times, after which I took it slowly, now knowing that rushing it would in all likelihood land me back down with another pain.

I jumped down the hole, landing flat on my feet, which caused me to bend and grunt at the pain.

When I looked up, I saw the next challenge.

Dozens of horizontal and vertical rods strewn about without a specific pattern. I did not run this time.

I ducked and weaved through them quite easily, but I did get nudged by many of them as I made my way through.

I climbed some stairs that led me to the next section, a bridge made completely of ropes.

I paused for a second, wondering about how many times I would fall before completing this.

I walked to a side, grabbed the supporting rope with both hands, and started to walk slowly over it.

Every step made me wobble, and whenever I wobbled, I paused.

I managed to keep myself away from the floor this time, and completed it without incident, if only a bit slowly.

I descended the stairs to find Eric waiting for me, his pen writing something in it.

"2 minutes and 24 seconds, that's quite bad." He remarked before looking up at me from his notepad. "Do you want to go through it again?"

I nodded. "Yes, I would like another try."

"Come on then." He made a 'Follow me' gesture with his pen as he walked back to the starting location.

"Ready?" He asked as I stood in the same place as I had when I started for the first time.

"Ready." I answered.

"3.2.1. Go!" This time, I did not kick wildly as I had before, I looked down and located suitable footholds before moving my legs to obtain them.

I managed to scale it in 5 seconds, almost twice as fast as the previous run.

As soon as I got to my feet, I jumped to take the higher path, the unfamiliarity with the lower path would be detrimental for me.

I passed the second section in 6 seconds, sliding beneath the last obstacle with ease.

I took the pillars slowly, not wanting to fall again.

"Umf!" I grunted as the shock from the landing made my soles hurt once more.

My movement through the rods did not change much as I took the same route I did previously with only changes in minor movements.

I bounded up the stairs 4 at a time, and after two steps, I jumped up to arrive near the start of the bridge.

I grabbed the same support and made my way slightly faster this time around.

I jumped down the stairs landing on my feet and stumbling and falling forwards.

"43 seconds. Now that's an improvement!"

Eric sounded impressed, but that tone left his voice very quickly,

"But you could have gotten within a minute the first time if you hadn't fallen so many times getting over the pillars."

I nodded in agreement, breathing heavily.

"Catch your breath, that's all for now, the next tests are different."

He said that and made his way to his colleague to make some small talk.