With the evening shadows already cast over the skies, Raixom Academy lit up with resplendent nightly decorations. Around the base of Jin Hennessy's mountains were multiple illuminated flies moving about the shadows.
"Ouch, that hurts." Sugar Bun felt the back of his head for bruises as he aided himself from the ground. "Yep, I feel a swelling."
"Damn that old bastard." Xuan Li's ankles suffered livid bruising. The pain made it slightly harder for him to stand up.
"Did he have to blast me away too?" Dam Son reached for his sapphire suitcase that was close by and slowly rise to his feet.
Just as the students found their footing, Jin Hennessy landed in front of them with his long bamboo stick in hand. After calling out the jugs filled with rocks and water, he said. "This time around, your breaks between climbing will be shortened to 3 minutes per hour. I know you are not pleased but this is your punishment. I will also add another factor to your training."
Jin Hennessy motioned towards the flight of stairs. He used the bamboo he had to create an obstacle on the first step by jamming it into the mountainside. Afterwards, he made use of a Duplication Script to replicate and adjust the placement of the bamboo stick 35,000 times.
The students were shocked to see the bizarre obstacles that ranged from the bottom of the mountain to its very peak. "What are those for?"
"What do you think?" Jin Hennessy elaborated on the new condition he just added. "Carrying those jugs while being careful not to spill a single drop of water, you will have to hop over every other step that has a bamboo attached. If you mess up at all then you will have to start all over. Additionally, I will retract an earlier rule. This time, you don't have to worry about joining your partners in failure. This is now a competition between the 3 of you. The first brat to make it to the top will receive a special reward."
Hearing this last part about rewards boosted the students' motivation. "What kind of special reward are you talking about Master Jin?" Sugar Bun was curious to know the identity of the fated prize.
Instead of telling his student about the reward, Jin Hennessy decided to show them. "Watch closely." He raised his big toe into the air, apply a bit of Natural Verb Force to it then slammed it into the ground.
After a loud shockwave sounded, the students witnessed a large rounded portion of the earth floated up beside Jin Hennessy. It resembled a boulder with clean smoother surfaces. "This is what you will be capable of doing when I give you the prize."
"Wow! That's so cool." The trio stared amazed at the smooth spherical lump of earth sitting in Jin Hennessy's palm. "How did he morph the ground into such a neat sphere using only a toe?"
"I must say that I'm intrigued about that secret technique." Xuan Li became greedy for power. "I will be the one to reach the top first. See you losers later." He quickly picked up a jug and ran towards the flight of stairs.
"Hey, wait for us! You can't be getting a head start." Sugar Bun rushed behind Xuan Li; soon after, Dam Son followed suit.
"Damn brats! I'm keeping an eye on all of you. Don't think that I'll allow you to cheat this time." Jin Hennessy hopped onto his floating sheet of paper. It gave him more vantage to survey all his disciples at once. "Climb until your legs fall off!"
"Yes, master!" Out of his peers, Dam Son found the hopping over bamboos while maintaining the balance of the jug to be very difficult. This was mostly due to one of his arms being occupied with carrying the sapphire suitcase. Jin Hennessy told him to leave it behind and climb faster but he refused. For personal reasons. Dam Son couldn't be too far away from his Suit or it would drastically weaken him.
Sugar Bun was also struggling with his ascent. Reaching only the 140th step he felt a burning sensation devouring his legs, arms and back muscles. His feet felt the most painful because it was holding all of the pressure. Whenever he jumped over a bamboo, the sole of his feet felt as if they were being stabbed by a thousand needles. Nevertheless, he tried his best to continue his climb.
Xuan Li was in the lead of his peers cruising on the 210th step. Whenever he was highly motivated, he could always surpass the limits he never knew he had. For now, he was in the spotlight hopping over multiple steps in many successions. It wouldn't be long before he tired himself out.
Aside from Dam Son, none of them had restarted their climb since they began. Dam Son felt annoyed knowing that his sapphire suitcase was holding him back. At that moment of being demoralized, the helpful Papyrus appeared and offer a suggestion.
"Have you forgotten something newborn?"
"What do you mean Papyrus?"
"Instead of dragging that suitcase behind you, why don't you just allow it to levitate as you climb?"
"But wouldn't that be considered cheating? Suit is one with my existence. It's like an extension of my body."
"Great, but these bozos aren't aware of that. They think Suit is just an accessory. Just let it float and your climb will be a lot easier."
"I might have to do as you suggest Papyrus, even though I don't want to cheat. If only I had more arms then I didn't have to feel so awful."
"Awful?" Papyrus found Dam Son's response strange. "What's awful is that limited thinking of yours. How long do you plan on climbing this mountain, until the term is over? Do remember that you'll be missing out on valuable lessons at Caromine Institute."
"You make a compelling argument Papyrus. I shall do as you say." Finished speaking, Dam Son hid his Papyrus then loosened his grasp on his sapphire suitcase; it began hovering by his side instead of him manually carrying it.
"This feels more like it." Now that his body was light as a feather, Dam Son's climbing speed increased by leaps and bounds. In only a few minutes, he caught up with Sugar Bun who was struggling at the 540th step.
"Come on Sugar Bun. You can do it." Though it was a competition, Dam Son slowed his speed to help his struggling classmate out. "Don't stop. Continue to push ahead."
"That's easy for you to say. My feet feel like they are being impaled by 9-inch spikes." Sugar Bun wasn't lying. He was definitely in pain.
"Okay then, why don't we take a break?"
"We?" Sugar Bun thought Dam Son was too compassionate towards him. "Are you sure? If we take a break, we will never be able to catch up with Xuan Li."
"It doesn't matter as long as we all finished this training."
"Alright, I'll take a rest."
"Hm?" Perceiving that Sugar Bun and Dam Son had stopped climbing, Jin Hennessy went closer to them and shouted, "Two minutes and fifty-six seconds!" Just in case they decided to disobey his order, Jin Hennessy wiggled his big toe towards them intimidatingly.
"We get the message, Master Jin." Dam Son made good use of the next 3 minutes massaging Sugar Bun's swollen feet, moreover replenished his thirst with a bottle of water. While they were busy taking a rest, Xuan Li was way ahead dominating the 1,200th step.
Sugar Bun appreciated all that Dam Son was doing for him. "Thanks for taking a break with me Dam Son. My feet feel much better now."
"Really, what about your stamina? Do you think you can handle the climb for another hour?"
"I'm not really sure, but if you're by my side then I'll do my best."
"Brats, your 3 minutes are finished!" Jin Hennessy came along and spoiled their bonding. "Move it! Move it!"
Dam Son and Sugar Bun restarted their long climb up the mountain. With their current pace, 2 days wouldn't be enough for them to conquer the 70,000 steps, yet they still persisted.