There would only be six real-world days left after tonight, so I needed to be careful and I needed to continue to push. Carefully pushing the tempo isn't something that should be said together, but it was a necessary necessity.
Attempting to heed my own words, I ended up skipping the third day cycle to get some solid sleep. I had been noticing slight performance declines over the past few weeks as my sleep had become more sporadic and less frequent. The last thing I needed was a clouded mind and sloppy judgment when I was over a third of the way up the mountain.
Yeah, it was bed time for me.
Staring at the bed in front of me I plopped down and closed my eyes with my face buried in the pillow. I couldn't help but think about the blind girl that I had met at the meeting.
I was unusually attracted to her; infatuation would probably be the better word for it really. I mean, she had everything I looked for in a girl… tall, intelligent, confident, pretty.
Shame it went the way it did.
Oh well.
Things don't always work out the way you want them to anyhow.
They rarely do.
Well, maybe I can at least find some comfort in my dreams.
Opening my eyes and glancing out the window I could see that the sun was nearing mid-day. It seemed I overslept considerably.
In truth, I had woken up hours prior but was in the middle of a rather enjoyable dream with a beautiful brunette, so I decided to go back to sleep. Though the contents of that dream were definitely of a more PG-13 nature than a rated R one, it was that feeling of closeness that I had been longing for.
It was sad thinking about it, but that was the truth. Years of bad health had destroyed my self-confidence and I had stopped dating completely. I always believed that if you couldn't be happy with yourself, you wouldn't be happy with someone else. It was imperative that you fixed yourself before getting into a relationship… less you just want a broken one.
That and I had also become extremely picky from years of bad experiences and I held myself to the same standard.
If I wanted an attractive, intelligent, and healthy girl with a good personality then I would need to bring the same to the table. I felt I could match all but the healthy part, and by extension I wasn't reliable or able to provide in any sense.
I wouldn't want to date a deadbeat, but I was certainly one of them.
Thinking about the dream as I lay on my back, eyes closed with my forearm resting above them, I tried to remember the contents of the dream but found everything had started to blur.
Strangely though, I ended up recalling the previous dream that was quite strange. I was dreaming of dragon's fire before it switched to a beautiful brunette.
I couldn't help but wonder why, why dragon's fire of all things.
Chapter 13: The Mountain's Peak
(February 24th Game Day / January 18th Real Day)
Pulling myself up the rope that I had hooked on a crack, I finally found myself on the last ledge that I would need to climb.
With a few movements, I was there.
I was done.
I had successfully managed to scale the highest peak in my region, I had reached my destination, and I had conquered the mountain. Letting out an internal cry of joy I threw my fist into the air and clenched my teeth, shaking my fist as I just stood there silently, enjoying and savoring the moment for what it was.
It was a monumental achievement.
The journey was a long one that was altered midway through, as I ended up dividing my climbs into two four-hour blocks a day while giving myself an adequate amount of sleep and rest. I had allotted twenty-two in-game days or a little over seven real-world days to accomplish the task, but in the end I only needed fourteen in-game days.
Relief washed over me as I fell to my knees and stared at my objective.
My goal, the stone anvil, sat motionless without any airs, just as it had when I discovered it nearly a year ago.
It looked exactly the same as it did before, the same emotional presence that I couldn't understand. I knew deep down it was something special, or it wouldn't have been put there. There was no way it was a simple Easter egg with some developer's signature on the back.
My intuition, my senses, my attentiveness was telling me that it was more than that. I may not always believe in myself, but when it comes to my gut I always believe.
After a few minutes had passed and the excitement and relief had settled to somewhat normal levels, I looked around the area to see if anything else had changed.
Walking around the stone anvil and checking out the surroundings led me to nothing out of the ordinary. There was a simple outcropping of rocks a little ways off from the stone anvil, but other than that the peak was somewhat bare. An expected thing in reality, as the peak of a mountain usually doesn't have much if anything at all if it's tall enough.
Sitting down behind the outcrop of rocks, I decided to build a makeshift campsite. There weren't any trees here but I could see the tree line just a few hundred feet below on the easterly slope.
Just looking at the slope that had such a gradual incline made me sick to my stomach, if I could have managed an extra three weeks I might have been able to utilize it. I should just accept that I'm a bit of a masochist. There's no explaining it otherwise, why I always choose the harder and more difficult paths.
I can't always chalk it up to enjoying the challenge.
With seven game days to kill I was stuck twiddling my thumbs, thinking of what to do. I had been so efficient with my time that I found it an absolute waste to just sit idly by.
I had brought sufficient food with me and had little to do near the top, so I decided to venture out to look for animals or monsters to hunt.
There had been some mountain goats spread out sporadically the last time I came up the easterly slope and my hope was that I could find one and corner it. Fresh meat, a nice thick wool hide, and a pair of horns all sounded like good things to me.
Unfortunately, I spent the better part of four hours chasing shadows; there were no goats here today.
As the next day came I decided to change my focus, hunting a goat with nothing but some rope and melee weapons would be a waste of time. I had seen a large growth in my agility due to climbing the mountain, to the tune of +28 to my Agility stat. Seeing as my other attributes were already quite high I saw minimal gains in those; I only gained +2 to Endurance and +6 to Dexterity.
So, objective #2 was now in effect: short wind sprints up the mountain side, and then leaping and maneuvering down the mountain side in repeat until my stamina let out.
It wasn't more than an hour before I was thoroughly exhausted, but I had gained another +1 in Agility. The extreme conditions seemed to vastly improve my rate of progression. I had no complaints. Dinner was pre-cooked and previously dried, so I retired for the day.
Repeating the process until the day finally arrived, my emotions seemed to have died on me as I couldn't even muster any excitement or fear. Whether it was due to all of the effort that I had put in until now, culminating in the moment to come, or that I had simply burned myself out I didn't know. But whether the event was a success or a failure, I had already accomplished quite a bit.
I wouldn't consider this a loss if my guess turned out to be wrong. Gambling isn't about losing anyways; it's about taking a chance to win big. If you always sweat the losses then there's no reason to take the chance.
March 3rd had finally ticked over. Months of preparation had led to this moment. I was the only one in the game, with a user base exceeding 500,000 that knew of this location and was eager to reap my rewards.
Yeah, I was going to reap my rewards.
I could feel it in the air.