“When you're faced with a difficulty… what are you gonna do? Harley… kill yourself? You can’t just keep running away. You’ll be dragged to hell soon. You will.”

  ***

  “AHHHHHHH!” Harley abruptly awoke, jolting up in his bed and hitting his head in the process. The sound of cracking wood came right after his scream. His mouth was wholly open, jaws dropped to the ground, brows raised high.

  Then a second passed by, and his entire face turned stern. He dragged his body to the side of the bed, then stood up. “Anyway!” Harley yawned, stretching his arms outward. He spun his head around, pushed his hips, and walked straight to the door, entering the fourth floor.

  Somewhere around the world, a mountain stood tall, it was known to be the steepest in the world, and its height reached high above the sky. Its slope rose flat, almost like a cliff. It’s top could never be seen from below, the highest peak known to be the face of heaven. Past the clouds, this mountain fulfilled the mysteries shrouded about God, and on the top of this mountain stood Tas, sitting, deep in thought.

  “Got any news?” Said Harley, standing still where he arrived.

  Tas opened his eyes wide, staring straight at the blue sky. A few breath cycles later, he turned around and replied. “No, none. I have no idea how to survive to the bottom of this mountain.”

  “Well, we both don’t. But like any other news.”

  “About the goblin village?”

  “Well, I guess that counts.”

  “What else do you want?” His nose wrinkled, lips extended, brows pinched, and eyes slinted to a close.

  “Ehhh… I don’t know.”

  “I’ve almost wiped out the village, taking some time though.”

  “Well, you go do that now, I’m gonna take your shift here.”

  “You really giving me everything.”

  “Hey, you have infinite lives. Go and die.”

  Tas groaned and sighed. He stood up slowly and walked straight back to the cabin.

  Harley stood on top of a small platform with a diameter of five meters. On the cliffside was a breathtaking view of the blue sky, clouds stretching far out, acting like the land. Above was the vast blue sky, spanning endlessly.

  It had been a week since the two cleared the third floor, continuing straight to the fourth. Their daily lives quickly took a change, with the existence of the market, its limiting access, and the elongated lifespan the tower is trying to openly advertise, Harley quickly adapted. Every day turned into a routine, he would stay on the fourth floor racking his brain, once Tas had come back from the first floor, he would then sleep.

  The fourth floor had a simple task: reach the bottom of the mountain, alive. Everything they could think of was tried immediately on the first day. Jumping down was the first option, the height surpassing even the clouds, making them look like ants. The bottom of the mountain was all land, not a single body of water in sight.

  Another idea was to slide down the mountain, the idea with the highest possibility. It was a steep mountain, however, it was still a mountain, sliding down even with lasting marks was worth everything. That was if the mountain being called steep wasn’t an understatement. It had a slope of a single degree.

  Minutes passed as Harley just sat on the ground, looking at the unchanging sky. He took out his daggers and decided to jump, stabbing the mountain, stopping his fall. “Another day of this impossible fight.” With both daggers in hand, he climbed down the mountain slowly, his arms soon strained, and moving became a struggle, and just as he was halfway close to the clouds, he lost his grip and fell to his death.

  [86 Lives Remaining]

  “Even with my ability, it’s still so hard. At the same time, it takes so long to even get stronger. Physical training is an option, my ability helps with it, but sometimes I’m just mentally drained to try.. One's strength gets stronger every five days, minimum. My power is 20, I guess I’ll be able to get another level tomorrow… but ughhhhh… this is my weakness… I hate waiting games!”

  Harley smashed the ground, and the side of his palm bled. “I guess I’ll just exercise.”

  [Name: Harley]

  [Title: Outside The Box Thinker, Liar’s Sacrifice]

  [Level: 2]

  [Unique Trait: Liar]

  [Money: 40]

  [Abilities: Exercising]

  [Privileges: N/A]

  Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  [Power: 20]

  [Exercising]

  [Power is doubled every time a form of physical action is done; this effect is nullified once in combat.]

  [Power is increased by 1 every time one does ten thousand of a single exercise; different exercises would not stack with another’s count, it will belong to a different counter.]

  [Your heat and cold resistance are 50% higher.]

  “It’s an overpowered ability, that’s true, it was perfect for this floor, but it’s still not enough. I can’t even jump down and try to slide down the mountain halfway through, cause I’ll just splat to the ground and die immediately. Ahhhh!!!”’

  Harley went on to the pushups, just putting all his strength into doing a single exercise as much as he possibly could. Once he reached a hundred push-ups, he stopped, smudging his face to the ground. Then, as his body relaxed, lazing thoroughly, the dream from earlier came back to him. “AHHHHH! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!” He slapped his face, turning around and facing the sky.

  “Emotionless, monster, insane, liar… fucking hell. It… wasn’t hard to understand how I got the liar trait. I act like I'm some special person, I act insane, a maniac, I act all special, when, funnily enough, I wanted to go here, but I almost went insane on the first floor! And that line! Almost went insane! I'm not insane! AHHHH!”

  ***

  Days continued to fly by, the cabin soon got filled with ropes, bread, lamps, daggers, swords, bows, axes, and many more, all coming from the goblin village that Tas was continuously raiding to no end. The most useful thing that came to them was a rope.

  On the twentieth day of challenging the fourth floor, Tas was able to fully capture the village, killing every single goblin to existed. “You really didn’t see any leader?”

  “No. Just one old goblin that wasn’t even a mage like you said.”

  “Wow, a goblin village that didn’t have a mini boss, I guess that’s… interesting.”

  Capturing the entire village came a pile of available ropes, all in the form of straps on the wooden walls.

  “So what was the lesson here?” Tas smiled at Harley earnestly, his eyes full of warmth, the once teasing personality fleeting away.

  “I should have helped, it would have been faster if I had helped clear the first floor.”

  “Good. Now, you really should follow what I say.”

  “Not in a million years!”

  ***

  Even with the new option presented, clearing the fourth floor was still not an easy task. More days passed, mostly weeks spent on just foraging and typing ropes to as long as they possible could.

  It took a few weeks, but the two soon fully adapted to the tower. The tower was a place that offered great power, but at the expense of that power was time, incredible amounts of time. Clearing the floors showed a clear sign to Harley, every floor took longer. Thankfully, they were able to save a lot of time on the third floor, clearing it without even cutting halfway through his life. That moment, that achievement, was another once-in-a-lifetime; he was neither overpowered nor special. In contrast, Tas was the one actually special.

  A month after the clearing of the third floor, the two finally tried their rope that stretched a surprising three miles. However, despite this length, the two knew it was nowhere close to even reaching the bottom.

  The two threw the rope, rolling around for a few seconds until it fully stopped.

  “Did it reach past the clouds?” Asked Tas.

  “Well, better if I found out.” Equipped with thick leather gloves, Harley jumped down slightly, grabbing onto the ropes. His feet stood tall, his hands greatly pulled the ropes, standing on the side of the mountain. “Are you good?”

  “Yes!” Tas replied, holding the rope with ease. “Don’t forget! Just control your strength, and I can hold onto you with no problem!”

  “Okay! I’m going down! I promise I won’t drag you when I fall!”

  “I don’t trust you!” Tas yelled, Harley ignored, and went on his way, jumping, descending the rope, landing back swiftly, rinse and repeat. A few minutes passed, and Harley touched the clouds, his feet feeling a slight tingle of sparks. “So this is how clouds feel, weird.”

  The world soon dims to white. Being inside the clouds felt like standing on a cold, damp mist. His entire body soon felt slightly damp, the floating water droplets suspended in time clung onto his body.

  In the middle of the layers of the fluffy ocean, the rope ended, and he had already climbed three miles down. Harley took the daggers strapped onto a belt around his waist, continuing down without rest. A few minutes of drifting down the clouds, his feet soon felt warm, lying in the open wind.

  When his entire body had escaped the barrier of the clouds, a deathly cry echoed along the vast expanse. Harley immediately turned around into an incoming giant bird. Its beak was colored gold, coated in giant and thick red feathers, flying in the sky with wings as long as its body, its feet clawed to the front, and in a second, Harley died.

  [82 Lives Remaining]

  “There’s a fucking monster when you get past the clouds. Tas… I’m fucking tired.”