Si’a led them onwards. It wasn’t that bad walking in the stream, though Sophia was very glad she had good boots and dry socks waiting for her. The footing was occasionally questionable but the water never got more than knee deep and in those areas it was nearly still.

  No spirits approached them, which gave her time to think about their “spirit guide.” Sophia wasn’t certain if Si’a was actually the ghost she seemed or if she was just a construct of the Challenge. She wanted to say the ghost was a construct, given how strictly she followed the rules of the Challenge and how little she seemed to have to do otherwise, but at the same time there were hints of personality that showed through. Perhaps not a ghost but a remnant fragment? There was a wide range of options, and Sophia never could remember all of them.

  Sophia’s abstraction meant that she didn’t look up from the stream until she ran into Dav’s back. When she did, she knew exactly why he had stopped.

  The stream they were following ended at a group of waterfalls. Sophia couldn’t tell if several streams came together here or if the stream at the top of the cliff was split somehow, but either way they all seemed to be relatively small, at least at the moment. They met in a large, shallow pool.

  A large wooden structure extended across much of the pool. Sophia wasn’t sure what it was. It looked sort of like a wooden bridge with hanging planters, but it was freestanding and didn’t actually connect on either side. Weirdly, it actually had several levels, but the only connection to any of the higher levels Sophia could see was only about halfway up the bridge and came in at an angle, not directly across. No, it definitely wasn’t a bridge.

  The one connection was strange anyway, because it seemed to stop where it met the platform’s support; Sophia couldn’t see any way to get to or from that spot other than walking across the walkway from the cliff.

  A long wooden walkway led up to a different support at ground level, and a second shorter platform with stairs led from the pool of water to the far support, below where the one actual bridge met the same support. In fact, it led behind the support; maybe there was something there that Sophia couldn’t see yet?

  Maybe it was a viewing platform and there was a ladder on the far side to get to the different levels? That was the only way it made any sense to Sophia.

  Not that she had any idea why there would be a viewing platform in the middle of a Challenge.

  “This is the beginning of the Test of Summer,” Si’a waved towards the platform as she spoke. “You must climb the Summer Span to reach the cliff. You may also choose to skip the Test of Summer by climbing the Stairs of Surrender. If you choose to surrender, you will still be able to move on to Autumn, but you will no longer be able to complete the Test of Summer.”

  “What she means is that you have to climb the wooden uprights,” Larryt added with a small frown. “There’s a lot more to it than that says, though. This test is always here, and it’s a lot more difficult than it sounds. You can use whatever tools you have, but you can’t fly. You have to be touching the wood at all times while you’re climbing. Mistform and Cloud Body work because you can sort of float and you can do it next to the Summer Span. You also can’t go directly to the last bridge; you have to cross all of the bridges, which means the best route is straight up from the end of this pier, then across the lower bridge to the far pillar, across the upper bridge, and down to the final bridge.”

  Larryt glanced at the group, then shook his head. “If you let go, even for a moment, you will be removed from the Challenge. Worse, this is the easy part of the Test of Summer. Unless you specifically want Stunning Touch, you should take the stairs.”

  Sophia gave a considering look at the wooden contraption with an eye to climbing it now. There were some places that would definitely be difficult, but she didn’t see any that weren’t possible. “Touching the wood, or is touching something that is touching the wood close enough? Can one person carry another?”

  She was the most worried about Taika, since she wasn’t sure how well he climbed. He could jump incredibly far, but that would violate the “must always be touching wood” rule. When she thought about it, that was probably the point; she knew people who could easily have jumped the distance, back home. They probably wouldn’t have much trouble with the climb, either, but she could still see the point.

  “Ah,” Larryt looked less certain now. “Ask Si’a? I’ve never seen anyone succeed without Mistform.”

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  Sophia turned to the warrior woman’s ghost. It took her a while to figure out all of the restrictions, since Si’a answered in imagery and riddles, the same way she’d given the initial task. Larryt’s information, limited as it was, helped Sophia know what type of questions to ask.

  It was a somewhat weird group of restrictions. They were allowed to help each other as they climbed and to use tools. As long as they had what Si’a called “firm contact” with the structure, it was fine. The definition of “firm contact” was a little weird. Sophia could build a set of steps for them to walk up if she had the materials and then everyone could walk up them … as long as the steps were wholly supported by the existing structure and installed by one of the people participating in the test. She couldn’t create platforms in the air for people to walk up, even if those platforms touched the wood, because they weren’t supported by the structure.

  Similarly, Dav could carry Taika in his backpack while he climbed but they couldn’t lift Taika using a rope once they’d reached the top. They could lower a rope down from above and have someone climb the rope, but that person had to keep contact with the wooden surface. If they lost their grip, they’d be removed from the Challenge, even though the rope was tied up above.

  Sophia tried to figure out what the difference between tying a rope and creating a platform was, but she didn’t get a satisfactory answer. In the end, she decided it probably had something to do with the assumption that if she built a platform as she climbed, she was using it to climb, while if she lowered a rope down afterwards she was only helping the person behind her. It was still a weird restriction.

  The last thing Sophia asked was about gear. Enchanted gear was allowed, as long as it didn’t let her break the “rules.” Just as importantly, there was no restriction on the gear after she’d completed her climb; it didn’t have to stay in contact with the wood. That meant she could use her good gear instead of limiting herself to easily replaced equipment. She was pretty sure that some of her stuff would be hard to replace.

  Sophia dug her climbing gear out of her pack and set it on the wooden pier. She had excellent gear, enchanted to make the process easier but based on normal climbing gear, a compromise between cost and practicality. She had plenty for a full party of five that intended to traverse the Cliff Dungeon; after all, that was where she was when she and Dav were sucked into the Broken Lands. The fact that she hadn’t needed it in the dungeon simply meant that it was all in excellent shape. “We are all planning to climb that thing, right?”

  “After you explain what all of this is,” Amy answered with a grin that seemed to become wider and wider as Sophia pulled more stuff out of her backpack. “It sounds like you have a plan.”

  What she had, really, was self-anchoring pitons that would solidly set themselves in wood or stone and climbing harnesses that could be securely anchored to a rope, the pitons as they climbed, or both. The rope could also be connected to the pitons to make firm and- or foot-holds in awkward places. She also had a self-anchoring net, but that wasn’t that useful here. If they fell, they’d be kicked out of the Challenge, and from what Larryt said that was handled pretty safely. They wouldn’t fall far enough to even hit the net.

  She also had special climbing gloves and boots that would securely grip the rope and pitons. They wouldn’t be much use with the wood, since they were designed more for stone, but she’d take what she could get. It was a good thing that Amy was close to Sophia’s size; she had a lot of extras in that size. She only had two sets of each that were large enough for Dav. Unlike the rest of her gear, the gloves and boots were fully powered, with enchantments that would wear out with use. They’d make it through this climb, but it would definitely take a chunk off of their lifespan and Sophia didn’t think she could replace them. Still, if she didn’t use them, what was the point in having them? She did have spares.

  Triggering the pitons required charging them with mana, setting them in place, then activating them. It was something Sophia knew she could do easily, and Dav was able to manage it as well once she showed him how. Amy could manage it if she tried enough times, but it wasn’t reliable.

  Sophia felt the mana flows and knew that Amy’s mana control wasn’t good enough. Sometimes she didn’t adequately charge the enchantment, which meant it didn’t go off when she triggered it, while other times she failed in the triggering step. It was a good thing that the pitons could accumulate mana but resisted being overfilled; if she failed, she could just try again and be more likely to succeed. They were made to be used safely by amateurs, after all.

  Before they started, Si’a led Larryt across the water to the platform, then up a hidden ladder that apparently looped around behind the support pillar and onto the walkway that was their goal. They’d watch from there.

  Although Dav was the strongest and did have some climbing experience, Sophia was the most experienced with her equipment, so she led the way. It was an easy climb on the pitons until she reached the first planter, where she had to string a rope support from the pitons and drag herself up along it. It was a good thing that touching the pitons counted as touching wood, because she got down to one hand on a piton while the other reached for the next spot and her legs were supported by rope several times.

  Dav and Amy had it a little easier, since everything was laid out for them, but they still had to actually climb their way up. Taika had it the easiest, of course, since all he had to do was stay inside Dav’s backpack.

  It was slow as they took it one step at a time, but it was also steady. When Sophia finally reached the first walkway, she waited for the others, then recalled all of the equipment she’d used so far. Sure, she probably had enough to make it to the end of the course, but why wait? If she failed and fell after all, she wouldn’t be able to recover her gear; worse, it was keyed to her. No one else could make the pitons release and float to them. That was a standard safety precaution.

  One of the hardest things about designing things that are supposed to be run multiple times in a “real” world is coming up with challenges that can’t be trivialized by preparation and that also don’t absolutely require preparation to avoid death. Someone had to succeed at some point, after all, but if you can just walk through the place by buying a common potion of Resist Thing, what’s the point?

  At the same time, in the real world, people absolutely will buy the common potion of Resist Thing if that lets them cheese their way through something difficult. There’s nothing wrong with that; it’s a good use of resources. So there has to be a reason the potion of Resist Thing is hard to get or doesn’t work, at least when it’s obvious.

  In this case, the obvious thing is flying, while the desired solution is“floating while intangible.” Therefore, you must be touching wood - a fairly natural reaction of the Challenge to having the rules “broken.” Climbing is allowed because the Challenge is supposed to be possible for people who don’t meet the desired conditions … it just isn’t supposed to be easy.

  It’s possible there will be some more rules in the future of the Test of Summer, at least if others pick up on Sophia’s method. The fact that she’s using gear that is not common in the area may make that less likely, though … after all, it’s very exotic gear that must have been tough to get since it came from another universe. The fact that Sophia was able to buy it as standard equipment in a store specialized in delving supplies has nothing to do with that (the gear is also available in many camping stores and outfitters on Earth … because of course it is…).