Ascension: Online

Furuwa took a deep breath and got into a jumping position, eyes carefully watching the movement patterns of the pillars.

"Left, right... left, right..." I heard her murmur.

And then-

"Now!"

Right when the pillar was about to be directly in front of her, she jumped. Having predicted the movement speed perfectly, she landed solidly on the platform. That said... the form wasn't exactly good. She looked like a frog right now, but that's beside the point. The pillar was narrow - she did what she had to. Better to look like an amphibian than fall into a chasm of corrosive green liquid that will melt your skin straight off, after all.

[Trial of the Leaper: Begin.]

I heard the mechanical voice speak. So, this test was called the Trial of the Leaper. The previous one was called the Trial of the Sprinter.

She was now on the moving platform, taking a moment to calm herself. Once she regained her balance, she slowly stood back up, before tracing the next pillar with her eyes. This jump would be more difficult - both platforms were moving against each other in opposite directions, so finding the right timing would be hard. Luckily, at least the two were moving at the same speed, so the perfect spot to jump would be the same location every time the two pillars passed by one another.

Furuwa also seemed to realize this, and she concentrated even harder than before. Sweat was probably forming on her forehead right about now, though I couldn't see from where the rest of us were standing.

On the third time the two pillars fell on the same vertical line simultaneously, Furuwa took her chance, and jumped. She made the leap perfectly, landing on the pillar without ending up in a frog position again. She spread her two arms to help keep her balance.

Ichigo whistled. "Good work, Chiaki-san! Keep it up!"

Furuwa didn't respond, but the encouragement helped. Probably.

The next pillar was a little further away. This one was moving up and down, so Furuwa had to wait until it was perfectly at the bottommost point, and then make her leap. Of course, the pillar she was on right now was also moving left to right, so she had the flat distance to worry about too. However, that's not all. Because the pillar would go up all the way to the ceiling, she couldn't afford to wait once she got on it - otherwise, she would be crushed. Therefore, right now, she had to consider both this current jump ahead of her and also the next one, which was a slow-moving left-to-right pillar that was shorter (altitude-wise) compared to all the rest.

The timing had to be perfect to fit both jumps in order for this to work. The risk of death was high, and the technical requirement and motor skills required for this jump were immeasurable. One tiny slip-up and she was done for good. However, Furuwa possessed the abilities needed. And she was going to prove that.

It was now. The pillar she was currently on, the up-down pillar she was going to jump to, and the platform after that were all about to be on the same vertical line. The up-down pillar was also nearing its bottommost point, about three meters above the deadly green liquid. Everything was in place. All that was left was for Furuwa to make the jump. And that she did.

Not letting this opportunity slip by, Furuwa leaped off the pillar she was currently on like a cougar-

But that's where things went astray.

The cheap default shoes she had been wearing just like the rest of us suddenly slipped, causing her to tumble forward. She still managed to jump up, but the slip took away a lot of her momentum. At first, we thought she wouldn't make it, and the three of us spectators looked on with our jaws dropped.

But somehow, she just barely caught the ledge of the pillar with her right hand, and she just hung there, mere inches away from getting melted alive. However, things weren't turning for the better just yet. The pillar was now beginning its journey back up. At the rate things were going, Furuwa's fingers would be crushed against the ceiling eventually, and she would fall into the death pit of corrosive green acid below.

However, suddenly, red light started to emit from Furuwa's body, and her figure began glowing. She then slowly climbing to the top surface of the pillar, much to our shock and astonishment. She lifted her whole body with just her two hands - that was something that shouldn't be achievable with her STR stat of 20 that I saw before. She hasn't leveled up since then either, so... what the hell happened? And what was that red light?

Regardless, she had no time to rest just because she managed to claw her way out of that predicament. That blunder just now had messed up her calculations and timing - the pillar she needed to jump to next was now a little further to the right than the optimal location. Honestly, I didn't even know if she could make this jump.

But then, the red light emanating from her body turned to green, and she made her leap of faith. Her body seemed lighter, somehow, and she managed to make the seemingly impossible jump.

"What is that..." I muttered quietly.

"That's a skill from the Knight skill path, kiddo," Jim chuckled. "The red light ya saw earlier was a skill called 'STR Boost'. The green light 'round her right now is one called 'AGI Boost'. They temporarily increase yer stats by 5."

"Huh, I see..." I fell into thought. They were certainly useful skills. Furuwa probably would've died there if not for them. I would have to check them out later - maybe they could be of use to me as well.

"Damn it, why does the Tank class I chose have nothing cool?!" Ichigo complained, shaking his head. "All I've gotten are skills related to defense, and not even useful ones at that! Though, there are some powerful defense abilities later on in the skill tree..."

"If you don't like defense, why did you even pick Tank...?" I scoffed in confusion. "Idiot."

"W-Well, I saw this guide online, it said Tank was the best class, so..."

I sighed. "It doesn't matter if a class is the best one. That's useless if you don't even like its playstyl-"

However, my words were quickly cut off by a loud mechanical sound coming from above. I looked up and saw that the ceiling had opened up.

And what began to descend... were spinning sawblades.

[Warning. Time remaining: 60 seconds.]