My first challenge though, was to get through the monster build up. I could have waited for them to all rush down, except I’m in their way. So better to attempt it while they were still building up than to wait for the avanche of monsters to come at me.

  So I climbed upwards. My fingers and toes spying outward to better grip the uncertain terrain around me. If it wasn’t for the fact that numerous monsters had already climbed down, I would have needed to be even more careful about things like loose rocks. Not that I wasn’t careful, but the monsters would have dislodged anything my weight could have budged.

  Though some of that caution faded away as I got into the climb. Instead of just pulling myself up, I began to throw myself upward. Not letting myself lose momentum as I built up speed. Then I was on the monsters.

  It wasn’t hard for them to see me coming and so even more of them piled up in the area. This was actually to my advantage as before, it was just a collection of monsters that had naturally gathered. So while I wouldn’t say they were friends, they at least could work together. With the additions from both sides, though, that added in unruly elements.

  In particur, the wasps did not want to focus on me. Which was strange to me as I expected the undead to be the odd ones out. Sigh, I should have guessed that even in a magical world, wasps would be the biggest dicks.

  At least it opened up a way forward when otherwise I might have been blocked. As the wasps took a cheeky stab at some beetles, a solid wall of bugs, pnts, and undead began to split apart. The beetles turned to face the wasps and some mobile balls of vines began to squeeze away from the conflict. So, I took that as an invitation and bounded into that forming gap.

  Of course, the beetles wanted to turn and face me, but the wasps took that as an opportunity to get in another backstab. Which meant that when I didn’t go out of my way to attack them, I was quickly downgraded in threat level. That just left the vines. Except they had their own problems now.

  While inching away from the wasps was a healthy choice, it also pushed them into a group of caterpilrs led by a strange butterfly monster with six pairs of wings. Not the best choice as it isn’t like they were fully intelligent or anything. The situation below had simply forced a passivity on the monsters from above. Now that had been broken and I guess the vines looked pretty tasty to the caterpilrs.

  Though compared to the beetles, the vines clusters were much more able to multitask. So as I scrambled up the mountain side, vines whipped at me. Some striking with such force it spshed away my gel. My cws answered in turn whenever able, sshing off the thinner vines and batting away the thicker.

  Then I was almost through, there was just one st barrier, for of course the gap I was taking advantage of didn’t go the whole way through. All bunched up, the gathering of monsters was almost twenty ranks deep and the st two had managed to keep the peace. Worse, that was likely because those at the back were the most powerful and aware. Not only was the caterpilr’s six-winged butterfly there, but a vine beast with 17 main vines, each as thick as a human’s thigh, and a wasp as long as a leg that appeared to have three stingers instead of just one.

  Good thing the three of them weren’t gathered up to stop me. In fact, they were keeping a healthy distance from one another, which meant I had a chance to thread the needle. The question was, which needle to thread? Keep going straight ahead and brave the vines and wasps or try and cut through the vines to deal with the butterfly and vines.

  Which was honestly a terrible choice whichever way I went. Would have much preferred if there was an option to skip the vines as they were the biggest threat. A bit of gel being whipped off was painful, but if even one nded a grapple I was in for some pain.

  Oh, and what about the beetles? Well, they didn’t have a big bad, which was probably why the wasps felt safe attacking them. It was also why the gap didn’t reach all the way through, so I guess both good and bad for me.

  Though most of this was stuff I ended up thinking about after the fact. In the moment, I could only make a snap decision. Which way? The wasp side. Why? I saw sparkling dust near the butterfly and certain pocket monsters had me instantly think of some kind of poisonous powder.

  Don’t know if that really was the case, but with the decision made, it didn’t matter. I gripped the rock I was cmbering over, tensed my body, and thrust myself into the wasps. This was met with an instant reaction, stingers easily piercing my gel to inject potent venom. Which does make you question if the butterfly’s potential poison would have been any worse?

  Well, at least the wasp venom wasn’t able to paralyze me. Still felt like they were injecting me with va or some such, but my new body is apparently at least partially able to handle such things. The venom didn’t inject into me, so much as form a pocket and get pushed out once the stinger was removed.

  It had still been in contact with my inner gel and going by the pain, was being slowly absorbed, but most got squeezed out. Though that burning pain tried to cloud my mind and force me to colpse. Hah! I gained my body of gel through pain and suffering. As if a bit of a burning sensation was going to stop me.

  And a good thing too, because it seems the vine monsters have more smarts than you might expect. A massive vine from the leader sms down behind me, right about where I would have been if paralyzed or slowed down by the wasp’s venom. Not that missing this one attack stopped the beast. More monstrous vines began to sm down.

  It is likely luck alone that got me through. The vine beast seemed to be one of those sorts that slowed down with size. A weakness that sadly does not always appear.

  Then I was through. While the wasps chased and the vine beast leader continued to try and sp me with its vines, I was past the chaff. Except I was also onto the hardest part where the mountain of rubble becomes much steeper.

  Which makes sense. If I was the monsters, I would rather gather in an area that didn’t require me to cling to the ground. All while staying as far away from the much stronger monsters below. Well, except for the damn wasps. Not only does the much steeper climb mean nothing to them, it also allows them to catch up to me while I throw myself ever higher.

  And I’m not joking when I say I’m throwing myself upwards. Climbing would be too slow and so with my great strength I send myself rocketing upwards. Not only increasing my speed, but the unpredictable nature of it helped me avoid the st few attempts from the vine beasts.

  Though as I near the tunnel I chose as my target, I have to admit that the pursuit of the wasps is getting too much. They sting my back and rip chunks of my gel out as they try to cling to me. I don’t know if they would follow me into the tunnel, there must be a reason why they haven’t already taken it over, but even my seeming immunity to their venom feels like it might be slipping.

  I throw myself upward one more time, aiming for a specific spike of stone jutting out. My left hand grabs tight as I just reach it and I switch to my right hand while flipping myself to face away from the rocks. Below me the wasps are hot on my trail, not quite capable of keeping up when I throw myself, but more than capable of making up lost ground when I’m forced to climb normally.

  The first wasp to reach my feet receives a spectacur kick to the thorax, sending it tumbling through the air and away from the light. Which turns out to be an important detail for as soon as it is immersed in the darkness of the cavern beyond, something that might share traits with a bat swoops by, snagging a snack.

  Welp, that seemed like a good enough solution to my current problem. So as the rest of the wasps came at me, I grabbed the stone with my other hand as well and began to swing my feet around. I’m not going to say this was the most effective, but it stopped them from nding on me and I managed to punt half of them out into the deadly darkness.

  Down below, I could hear a harsh buzz that sounded quite annoyed. The boss wasp wasn’t too pleased with me, but I ignored it and went back to hanging with just one hand. The other taking over for my feet as I grabbed one wasp after another and tossed them. Though my throw wasn’t as good as my feet and some wasps managed to catch themselves. That didn’t stop me from grabbing them again for another go and so soon I was wasp free. The wasp leader below was not willing to lose anymore for fear of losing its position to another.

  With that taken care of, I throw myself upward once again as venom continues to ooze out of my back and legs. Though I am more than happy that for the rest of my ascent, that is the only thing I have to worry about. Even better, there isn’t a constant stream of monsters exiting the tunnel. Yes, they did leave the tunnel at a steady pace, but they weren’t gathered up.

  So I flung myself upward one more time, bridging the air gap between the rubble and the tunnel. My cws were at full extension and yet I was barely able to snag onto the stone. Worse, since the monsters were dropping down instead of climbing, where I grabbed was very unstable.

  The stones began to fall away under my cws even before I managed to get a good grip on them, forcing me to scrabble for purchase. I failed. The rocks gave way too fast, my back breaking my fall as I smmed into the rubble below.

  After a couple of rolls and a few meters, I managed to sm a cw into a rge boulder, breaking my fall. Though if I still had bones, this would have dislocated my shoulder, or worse. Still, I managed to keep my cw clenched as pain radiated out from the entire arm.

  It took a moment of hanging there, but after things settled, I was able to give it another go. This time, though, I didn’t overestimate myself. Instead of trying to propel myself with just my arms, I got on top of a stone that jutted out.

  This stone was a little lower than where I made my st attempt, but it had enough space to fit on top of. So, with my whole body tensed up, I sprang upwards and easily surpassed the previous area I had fallen from. Still, the rocks were unstable, but forewarned is forearmed.

  Instead of trying to hang on, I went right back to climbing ever higher. Even as the rocks beneath my cws fell away, I was onto the next handhold. Above me, a beetle monster chose this time to make the jump down. Its wings allow for at least a bit of hover action, clearly not strong enough or magical enough to actually fly quite yet.

  That allowed the damn thing to take a couple nips at me. Took a chunk out of my head on the first one and almost took off one of my feet on the second. Then I was up over the edge and into the tunnel.