“The second task of the Test of Summer is to climb the Waterfall Wall,” Si’a stated bluntly. “You can end your Test here if you do not wish to attempt the Waterfall Wall.”

  That was clear, at least, but it made Sophia frown. Yes, there was falling water in the wall, but the name made it sound worse than what she saw. She also couldn’t quite put the fact that they’d seen a lot more spray earlier out of her mind. “Waterfall Wall?”

  Larryt barked a sharp laugh. “Yes. This is the same as the previous climbing wall, except that it’s stone and water will sometimes rush out of it in places. If you lose your grip, you’re out. If you can’t hold your breath long enough, you’re out too, but I’ve never heard of that actually happening. People always lose their grip first. Someone tries every few years, but without Mistform or Cloud Body to protect against the water, it’s hopeless. It’s supposed to be hard even with the right Abilities, you have to avoid the full force of the water. I haven’t done it myself, and probably never will. I don’t need Stunning Touch.”

  It was clear what Larryt thought they should do, but that only made Sophia feel defiant. She needed to see the force of the water to be certain, but if it wasn’t too strong, her equipment could handle it. They’d be really slow because they’d have to make sure the harness was always connected to the pitons, rather than simply standing on them or grabbing them, but the setup was supposed to allow you to sleep safely on a cliff wall. She’d never had to use it that way and definitely wanted to avoid it, but it should still work for this.

  They’d also have to maintain direct contact with the wall or with a piton at all times. With the water, that might be difficult, but it ought to be possible if they had time to prepare for each waterfall. She needed to watch a couple of cycles.

  “Amy? You probably want to put your pack in mine, it’ll keep your pack dry. Dav, uh, do you think you can get a harness on Taika?” Sophia walked closer to the wall as she talked. The really nice thing about this setup was that she could get next to the wall if she wanted to without having to worry about swimming. It got up to her knees, which meant her feet were quickly soaked, but that was only to be expected. If everything went well, she was going to be under a waterfall soon.

  “It’ll take me a while to make a custom harness but I think I can do it,” was Dav’s answer. “Taika’s so small that it’s a complete redo; I’ll have to build it around him.”

  Larryt sighed and muttered something about being done soon.

  Sophia knew he was trying to help and was probably annoyed at being ignored, but she also knew that he was underestimating them. She was honestly more than a little surprised that no one else had tried using climbing gear, but it was certainly true that the land nearby was relatively flat and there were those odd rules about a rope not being enough of a connection. Maybe there was a reason for that.

  It was also entirely possible that people hadn’t tried because the first few attempts were successful due to the rope rule and there was already a known method. It wasn’t like they had a huge number of people who could try; the Challenge only admitted a group every ten days and if you failed you had to wait a year to try again if you could get a slot. That was a huge incentive to stick to what you already knew would work.

  That incentive didn’t work on Sophia, at least not this time. They’d already gained more from the Challenge than any of them had expected. Even more importantly, there was nothing specific that they needed from the later sections.

  Spirit Sight sounded somewhat useful if they planned to travel through the Olhan ruins, the source of the Challenge seed for the Challenge, but realistically Sophia could already easily navigate around the spirits of the dead. Its more general use of seeing auras was more commonly useful, but still something Sophia could already manage with her own aura.

  Spirit Shriek wouldn’t be useful at all unless Amy and Taika picked up “Spirit” Abilities, so Sophia completely discounted it. For that matter, she didn’t know if Dav’s new Spirit Shatter would count or not, since it wasn’t in an Ability Slot.

  It wouldn’t surprise Sophia at all if the people Larryt mentioned failing were ones who came to the Challenge to try to gain Mistform or Cloud Body; from what he said, it was pretty safe to lose so there was no real harm in failing. The fact that they didn’t all try made Sophia guess that many of them tried for later Abilities as well. She was still pretty confident that many of the failed attempts were people who knew they were done and figured they had nothing to lose.

  The sound of falling water drew Sophia’s attention up to the top of the wall. Water gushed over the top and arced well away from the wall. Some of the water stayed closer to the wall, but it was more like a heavy shower when it reached Sophia instead of the punishing blast she expected. The speed it came out at the top increased, which pushed more of it away from the wall, then more and more parts of the wall started to gush water.

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  From a distance, it probably looked completely impossible to climb or even hold on while the water was running. Next to the wall, Sophia could see that it wasn’t nearly that bad. If you didn’t have a secure handhold, you probably would be swept away when you slipped, but most of the wall actually wasn’t that bad. Moving and placing new supports would be effectively impossible, but holding on to ones you’d already placed correctly would simply require care. She’d have to place some of the pitons to secure the hand- and foot-holds on the blocks that she’d normally use as places to step, that was all.

  There were areas of the wall she’d have to completely avoid. Some of those were because there was really no good way to move around, but the fact that some of those areas acted like additional waterspouts made it far worse. She couldn’t see all of them; well, actually, she couldn’t see any of them right now with the water in her eyes. She was pretty sure she could find the ones near her when the water was running slowly, at the beginning or end of each gush. She’d have to pick her way from safe spot to safe spot and have Dav and Amy follow in her wake.

  It was doable. Sophia suspected the climb was probably possible even without her gear, as long as you had a way to securely grip the wet rock, but she wouldn’t want to try free climbing it. At the same time, she knew some people would take that as a challenge if this were back on Earth. It might even be popular, as long as the Challenge exit process was safe for when they fell. It was probably possible, but that didn’t mean completing the challenge without good gear was likely.

  It made sense that the Cloud Clan wouldn’t have many people who were expert rock climbers; they might not even worry too much about climbing trees. After all, if a good portion of the Clan could turn into mist or cloud and float up to where they wanted to be, why should they practice climbing?

  “What do you think?” Dav’s shout was barely audible over the water as the waterfall slowed. He waded through the only water in front of the wall to reach her. It was barely any deeper than it had been before the gush started. “Can we do this?”

  Sophia turned towards him and saw him carrying Taika. The normally fluffy chinchilla looked far more like a drowned rat than usual; Dav must have been too close to the water to keep him out of it. Dav looked like he’d stepped into a shower in his clothes, too. His pack was wet on the outside, but the inside was probably still fine.

  Sophia reached for the backpack and tucked it into her own pack before she answered. Her pack would keep anything inside it dry; that was the benefit of having an enchanted pack. “Yeah. It’s easier than it looks. It won’t be easy, and we’ll have to be careful, but we can do it.”

  “Not easy” turned out to be an understatement. Holding on against the water with well-placed supports wasn’t hard the first time, but by the tenth it was a problem every time they had to stop. Sophia didn’t want to stop but she also didn’t want to start moving again. She knew they couldn’t stay where they were, though, so she forced herself to move on every lull and stop with plenty of time to prepare for every surge of water.

  Sophia had to backtrack and find a different route up the wall three times. Two of the three, she was able to tell far enough in advance that she had Dav wait while she checked ahead, but the third time it looked good until it wasn’t. That time, Amy had to move, followed by Dav, followed by Sophia. It was the longest backtrack of the three and it left them all frustrated. By then, Sophia was grateful she’d decided to leave her pitons in the wall for as long as possible. She hadn’t realized she’d ever need to go back that far.

  When she reached the top of the wall, Sophia heaved herself over the last rock and crawled forward out of the water channel far enough to leave room for both Dav and Amy, then collapsed to the ground. Even a few minutes’ rest was welcome; she was tired. Exhausted might have been a better word. She didn’t even lift her head to look as the others joined her.

  She wasn’t certain how long she lay there before Sia’s voice made her stir and at least turn over so that she could see. It couldn’t have been more than a few minutes.

  “Congratulations on completing the Test of Summer. You have shown great determination in the face of plenty.” Si’a had a fierce smile on her face. “It is time to move on, before you stiffen too much. Cone, I must lead you to the Summer Tower.”

  Sophia pulled herself to her feet. She didn’t want to stand, but there was something in what the ghost said; she needed to move or she’d turn into a pretzel after that much unusual effort. She probably needed to stretch, as well.

  It took a few minutes to get everyone out of the climbing gear, recall it all from the wall, and return everything to where it belonged. Sophia was surprised when she held Amy’s pack out to her and Amy asked if she’d keep carrying it; Amy hadn’t realized Sophia had enough room.

  Si’a waited patiently. When they were finally ready, she didn’t seem at all impatient. “The Summer Tower is down this path. All who completed the Test may follow it.”

  Larryt did not even try to follow them; he stayed with Si’a.

  The path Si’a pointed them to was narrow and seemed to be incomplete, with broken blocks sticking up from the ground. It led through a forest that was far greener than they’d seen before, with the floor completely covered in ferns that did not impinge on the path at all. It was clear where it ended: at the “Summer Tower,” which was not at all what Sophia expected from the name.

  The Summer Tower was a stone obelisk deeply carved with symbols that rose at the end of the path. The symbols were clear to see, even on the dark side, but did not seem to glow more than was necessary to be seen.

  Yes, this Challenge has a thing for pillars and obelisks covered in symbols. Mostly, that thing is convenience - it’s far easier to be a “Woods” when you don’t have ruins covered in symbols everywhere. A single obelisk or a group of carved trees changes things less than walls do.