The rope bridge really hadn’t been that bad. Some swaying, a long drop to jagged rocks below. Placement of the boards a little awkward. But overall, a 3 out of 10 for scares. The landing outside the cave was thin, barely enough space for two people to stand. If the two guys earlier hadn’t been part goat, they might have fallen.

  Stepping through the portal, I appeared at the edge of the grand canyon, but much bigger. I’d been to the Grand Canyon as a kid, eighth grade the family took a trip. One of the last ones we did as a family before the accident that took Dad. It was a year before the Celestial Challenge System hit when mom died from Cancer.

  It made me extremely angry sometimes when I thought about it. If mom had managed to last just one more year, she could have been fine, if she had survived the integration. It was random who survived and got the chance to enter a Tutorial or Challenge Portal. Would have thought the System would have taken the folks with terminal or life-threatening illnesses, the ones missing limbs or handicapped. But no, it was random. No one had been able to figure out what gave the person the chance to survive the arrival. Everyone that had a terminal or life threatening illness when the System came, they were healed. Deaf, blind, all that stuff was healed. When the System hit, people were brought up to Earth-Average, whatever that really meant, before going into the Tutorials.

  So mom might have had a chance. She could have survived the arrival and then gone into the Tutorial Portal and knowing mom, she would have even rocked the Challenge Tutorial. But she would have had a chance. Nope. Cancer took her.

  That first year, I’d been a mess. I was a mess when the CCS arrived. That was probably why I’d taken the Challenge Portal. I hadn’t thought I’d survive. No military training, no MMA fighting, no martial arts. I was average. Nothing special. There was no way I should have survived.

  But I did and not only had I survived, I had thrived. I’d been living with anger for a year. Anyone that’s lost someone to cancer knows that anger. It’s the ‘why’. Why do some survive? Why does cancer even exist? Why aren’t all those geniuses in the world finding a cure? Why? Why? Why?

  I really hadn’t realized how much anger I’d been holding in. And the Challenge Tutorial gave me an outlet for that anger.

  It’d been a long time since I’d thought about all that. Not mom. I thought about her, and Dad, a lot. Especially since Jackson had become my ward. I hoped I was doing a good job with him, and hoped my folks were proud of me. Before the System, I wasn’t sure if mom was proud of me. Pretty sure Dad wouldn’t have been, even though he’d never have said anything. I wasn’t a screw-up, but I wasn’t motivated either. I just was.

  As a kid, looking out over the Grand Canyon, looking down into the depths, had been crazy. The size, the scope. It really made me feel small.

  Had kind of the same feeling looking out into the Cliffside Walk Dungeon. Lots of gray stone instead of the browns of the Canyon. I stood at the top of the cliff, looking down. It stretched into the horizon on both sides, the ends lost in fog, which prevented me from seeing across too. All I could see was about a mile of cliff and about a half mile down. Couldn’t see the bottom. The cliff wasn’t a straight up and down, there was a bit of a slope to it, giving the path I saw some width.

  That path started about twenty feet from where I was standing, switchbacking it’s way down the cliff and disappearing into the fog. Some parts were pretty flat, some were steep and there were a couple of small cliffs in the path and some cracks to navigate. It was about six feet wide for most of the length, but a couple spots got down to two or less feet.

  Stepping back from the edge a bit, I looked at the Notifications.

  WELCOME TO THE CLIFFSIDE WALK DUNGEON

  THE OBJECTIVE OF THE CLIFFSIDE WALK DUNGEON IS TO MAKE IT TO THE GROUND AND FIND THE CHASM CRYSTAL SKITTERER.

  OBJECTIVES:

  DEFEAT THE CHASM CRYSTAL SKITTERER 0/1

  REACH THE GROUND OF THE CLIFFSIDE WALK 0/1

  TIME LIMIT:

  8 HOURS

  7:53:54

  Only 8 hours, less now, and I couldn’t see the bottom. That indicated that I couldn’t waste that much time. I walked to the edge again and looked down. There was no way there would just be the one monster at the bottom. I knew I’d be attacked on the way down. This was supposed to be a two-person Dungeon afterall.

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  And the Goatmen had warned me about tackling it solo.

  The objective was to walk down the cliff path, which meant there would be things trying to pull me off. Sounded like a fun place.

  ***

  The first monster attacked when I was only about fifteen feet down the path. My head wasn’t even lower than the top where I’d started. I could have jumped back up top. I’d heard the thing before it attacked, screeching as it dove down from the fog above. It appeared about ten feet away, diving quickly. A smaller version of the wyvern’s I’d seen outside but no legs and covered in a mix of fur and scales. It really was more bat-like, with a long tail.

  CLIFFSIDE SCREAMER

  I shot a Force Lance at it, the thing somehow sensing the energy construct. It twisted, the lance just catching the wing, which it tore through. Without the wing, the Screamer landed on the path in front of me and I made short work of it.

  YOU HAVE GAINED +1 CLIFFSIDE SCREAMER HIDE

  The next was on me before I’d even taken another step. It wasn’t as fast in the approach, pulling up when it got closer and unleashing an attack. The attack that gave the damn thing its name.

  A wave of sonic energy slammed into me, pushing me against the wall. I hit hard. Sonic energy sucked because there was nothing kinetic about it, nothing for me to absorb. I pushed myself off the wall, watching for the Screamer. It had flown up and was coming at me from behind, launching another attack.

  The sonic blast pushed me forward, making me stumble and take a couple steps toward the edge. It was a small wave, pretty localized. Not really an area of effect and more targeted. Which explained why this was a Dungeon made for two. One got attacked and the other could defend.

  Or catch their buddy before they fell off the cliff.

  The wave of sound was physical when it buffeted me, like wind, but had no kinetic energy. I was pushed another step closer. I didn’t want to get close to the edge, so I jumped up and back, landing on top of the cliff, almost right where I’d appeared.

  The Screamer banked, swooping down at me. It only had a limited number of attacks, which was good. It dove at me, I ducked to the side and grabbed the tail as it flew past. Before it could yank me, I used my Abilities to freeze myself in place, feeling the wrenching in my shoulders, but I was stronger. I pulled and slammed the Screamer to the ground, where I proceeded to pummel it, getting another hide as loot.

  I started back down the path, got fifteen feet, almost at the same spot when a Screamer attacked me. Not quite the same way as before, but pretty close. I killed it, looted it and waited. Sure enough, another one attacked me, proving that I’d reset the Walk when I’d jumped to the top. Great.

  I’d have to get a little further down and jump back up the path to see if that would reset it too. I killed the two, killed two more and got down the path to run my experiment. And yep, it reset. No going backwards in this Dungeon.

  The Cliffside Walk was not a Dungeon made for me.This wouldn’t even be a good Dungeon to run with Sunie as I wouldn’t contribute much as he’d probably be able to take out the Screamers with ranged and I’d be standing there twiddling my thumbs. I’d meant to talk to Stylo to see if there were any Floor Guides I could purchase and that was now priority once I was done in the Tower for the day.

  It may not be the best Dungeon for me, but I was already in it, so might as well continue.

  ***

  I took a rest maybe over halfway down. It was hard to tell as the fog kept the same distance in front of me, not giving me a reference for how far I’d actually managed to go. Which was really annoying.

  5:13:27

  A lot of time had passed, so I really hoped I was more than halfway down.

  There’d been a couple of spots where I’d had to jump back, but not so bad that had reset much. And they were extra kills. I’d come close to falling off the cliff a couple of times, which had made me wonder if I could just climb down. But then the stupid Screamers would just attack as I was climbing.

  And the Spiders. I hated Giant Spiders and they were everywhere in the CCS. There were at least a dozen Dungeons around Solacetown that had Giant Spiders as one of their main monsters. Why did it always have to be Spiders?

  The Cliffside Trappers weren’t giant but still bigger than they should have been. More the size of Labradors which was still too big. They crawled out of cracks in the cliff wall, waiting until I was past before leaping on me. Gray and black, they hit inside the cracks perfectly, might have even had some Essence Ability.

  First one that jumped me couldn’t get its fangs through my armor, but on my back, I couldn’t get at it either. I ran backwards, smashing it between me and the wall. It fell to the ground, where I swiftly kicked it to death.

  The Trappers dropped some sweet loot. Poison glands and spider silk mostly but out of the five I’d killed, I’d gotten two Essences. Agility and Stealth. That was a good haul to go along with the Screamer Hides and the Sound Essence I’d gotten, along with a couple things called Sonic Glands. Wasn’t sure what use those would be, but I was sure the Alchemists in Solace would love them.

  Standing up, I continued down the path. I’d gotten used to the fog moving and it took me a bit too long to realize it wasn’t moving anymore. I was getting closer. Checking the timer again, I’d only rested for fifteen minutes. There was a lot of time left, which meant I most likely wasn’t at the end.

  I was about to enter phase 2 of this Dungeon.