January 18, 2019, 10:30 am.

Looking around, I can't discern anything that might serve as the challenge. Maybe we're supposed to copy the giant slab of rock, taking turns leaning on the nearby building? Heh, maybe we could do a lean off, each of us demonstrating our best slack-off moves.

That'd be a great challenge. Unless we had to do it for an hour. Marathon leaning session, no thanks.

While I'm searching for another possible challenge, Beth approaches the leaning slab, squinting underneath it. Then she starts chuckling.

Landing beside her, I hear Tipan asking, "What is so amusing, Bethany?"

Backing up, Beth points into the shadow of the pillar while we crowd around, "the challenge is started by climbing through those."

Moving closer, I see several small holes in the wall that lead into the building. Small holes which are arranged in the shape of a smiley face. Joining Beth in her chuckling, I note it'd be easy for me to make my way through but I'm not sure if Josh or Roberts will be able to fit.

"Ah. Well, this is most unusual," Roberts comments, kneeling next to Beth while inspecting the holes.

Moving up next to the closest hole, Beth stops, gazing ahead unfocused.

"Okay, it says this is a movement challenge. Everyone, find yourselves an entrance. Josh, it looks like the eyes are bigger, so you and Roberts can use those," Beth instructs us, stepping out of the way.

Nodding, Josh slides under the stone slab, Roberts close behind him.

As I move into position near the bottom of the mouth, Smoulder decides to take her own hole beside me.

Smiling at her, I position myself to climb into the opening in front of me. It's only half a meter off the ground, which makes it a little awkward.

"Betcha a hundred essence I'll finish before you skyborne," Rufka boasts as she and Tipan file into the tunnel.

"Only a hundred essence? So little. Are you afraid of losing? Why don't we make it five?" Tipan counters as she steps to her entrance.

"Hah. Solid silver. Deal, five hundred essence. Last one to the end loses," Rufka confirms, shaking Tipan's hand with a two-handed shake.

Once we're all in position, I receive a new notification.

"Zone Quest Hidden Objective revealed: Complete the hidden challenges located throughout the Fallen City of Lescodo. Requirements 0/7 unique hidden challenges completed. Rewards: 14 iron rank integration points, 1 iron rank class progression point, 1 piece of iron-grade gear. Time: 5/7 days remaining."

Wow, those rewards are greater than the base zone quest.

"Zone Quest Hidden Objective revealed: Complete the obstacle course challenge, 'The Collapse' using only your base attributes and movement skills. Use of any ability, spell or movement item will result in a failure of this challenge. This challenge may be attempted repeatedly. Requirements 0/1 collapsing buildings escaped. Rewards: +1 current Agility, 2 iron rank integration points, 1 iron-grade mana essence. Time: 5/7 days remaining."

"Your discovered skills which are allowed for this challenge are running, swimming, and climbing."

"Uhm. Does anybody else have a notification saying we need to escape a collapsing building? This seems dangerous," I mention, a little worried. This is crazy restrictive. No flying and I'm pretty sure my time freeze counts as an ability.

"Yep. But don't worry. Mum said obstacle courses won't kill you," Rufka answers while rubbing her hand together in anticipation before adding, "Though some of the conditions they leave you in might make you wish you were dead."

"Not helping," I reply, wondering if this is really worth it.

"She's exaggerating. With the power Roberts has displayed, we should be fine. And if he is unable to heal us, all such conditions go away after one- or two-nights rest," Tipan corrects Rufka with a glance and a rare smile.

"See kid. We're good to go," Beth smiles as she sets her own hands in place.

"Raven Queen would like to initiate the challenge, The Collapse. Are you ready? Y/N?"

A little after everyone else has mumbled their affirmation, I sigh, then quietly exhale my, "ready."

In response, a new overlay appears, similar to the one from the challenge race. Oh hey, challenge race. That makes me feel better, that was 100% non-hostile. Can't believe I didn't…. Right. Not the time.

Crawling into the hole, I follow the glowing blue arrow forward.

When I emerge on the other side, I find myself alone, kneeling on the broken remnants of a floor with a counter telling me I'm twenty stories up. Considering we were at ground level when I started squirming my way in, I'm guessing there are dimensional or mental shenanigans in play.

I don't have much time to reflect on what's going on because the floor under my knees begins shifting.

Looking for something, anything, to hold onto, I grab a round piece of metal protruding out of the wall pulling myself to my feet. Even as I stand, the floor lurches before settling into a ramp leading to the floor below.

Convenient.

As I'm inspecting my path, I realize the blue arrow is pointing down. It's not showing me a safe path to follow. It's simply pointing straight through the solid floor-turned-ramp.

Okay, looks like I need to do this myself. I wish I could fly, but it clearly stated no spells allowed. Why would it do that I wonder?

Doesn't matter, it's time to get on with this. I carefully try to walk down the sloped floor. The moment I let go of the wall, putting my full weight on the floor, it shifts again knocking me on my butt.

Suddenly, I find myself scrambling for purchase, but the floor keeps shifting. And then a large chunk of stone falls from above landing between my sprawled legs.

Giving up my attempts to make a smooth transition, I slide down the ramp, following the stone. My health takes a small hit when I slam into the wall at the bottom, but I avoid falling off the side.

Should've asked Rufka for some moonshine before we started. Live and learn. Probably.

Another large chunk of stone crashes down, reminding me to get moving.

Glancing up, I see that parts of the building above are collapsing. As I dodge another falling rock, I happen to catch a glimpse out a window. Which leads to yet another fun discovery. The building isn't just collapsing, it's swaying back and forth. Either that or the entire skyline is shifting.

Deciding I really should get on with it, I inch over to the edge finding more collapsed floor a metre below. There are several sections leading down, and I think I can see a clear path for several floors. Sweet. This, I can do.

The first jump is even easier than I was anticipating, and I continue to make my way down, moving from mostly intact sections to wide ledges to narrow beams.

I'm making decent time, when after jumping and balancing my way three floors down, the building shifts again, causing me to slip on a piece of loose rubble.

I try to catch my balance, but I'm thrown clear.

I feel my heart in my throat as I'm suddenly looking down into a gap that stretches at least four floors before there's anything solid to land on. Thrashing in the air, my hand grabs a piece of twisted round metal. Jerking to a stop, I find myself hanging out over the open gap that stretches down through the tower.

"This challenge is insane," I grumble to myself as my heart beats in my ears. It's tempting to just cast fly. To give up. But the others are doing this challenge too. Even Smoulder. I'm not sure I could look her in the eyes if she finishes and I don't give it an honest try.

Gritting my teeth, I find a nearby ledge that might work. It's four metres down, but it's the closest spot I can see on this side. I swing myself side to side, building momentum. When I let go, I almost miss the ledge but manage to throw myself forwards, hitting the wall. It's not pretty, but I'm secure.

Steadying myself, I prepare to continue. I'm on the wrong side of the building though. Where before there had been a relatively easy path, now I'm forced to make longer jumps to less stable looking remnants of what passes for a floor. On the plus side, since the platforms are further down, I'm making my way out of the tower faster.

I'm at floor twelve when I run out of platforms on my side of the tower. Just ten meters down is a mostly intact floor where a great deal of rubble has accumulated. It looks like there's only one path forward once I'm down there, so hopefully, I'll be able to get back on the easier path.

Only ten metres of open-air between me and easy mode.

Checking around me I see a platform that's slightly higher that has more of the twisted metal rod. There are several protrusions clumped against the wall that appear to offer good handholds.

It's only a couple metres, but the only way I see to get to it is by inching my way along a very narrow ledge. If the building shifts while I'm on that ledge, I'm not sure I'll be able to hold on.

So, I wait a few seconds for the building to shift again. Unfortunately, it doesn't oblige. And rocks are still falling. I wait another five seconds before deciding I should go for it. I make it to the other platform right as the building shifts again. But I've already got my hands wrapped around the metal rod, holding myself in place. Moving quickly but carefully, I start climbing down, the cold metal bars bending slightly under my hurried efforts.

The protrusions end about two meters above the floor below. Trying to choose a nice clear landing spot, I swing myself slightly then let go.

As I land on floor ten, only stumbling forward a little, my interface updates, adding a green timer.

5:00

4:59

Oh joy.

4:58

I rush across the floor to the only opening below. However, during my time on the wrong side of the tower, I forgot about watching for falling rocks. I'm struck from behind just as I reach the opening. The blow costs me twelve health while knocking me off balance. Landing on my hands and knees next to the opening, I shrug the rubble off. 4:32

Not bothering to stand, I investigate the opening then drop to the next ledge in my path. Now that there's a timer, I move even quicker from ledge to ledge, jumping, running and climbing as quickly as I can. Luckily, they're the easy ledges from the beginning of my run. 4:14

I keep going through the next few floors, catching myself several times when the building shifts. Even though I'm expecting it, it's still hard to be ready for those. When I'm five floors from the ground, I stop seeing windows. Guess they don't want me jumping down. I'm only three floors from the end with two whole minutes on the clock when the entire building makes a disturbing screeching noise. 2:17

Even as I continue, making my way to the big obvious door at ground level, large sections of stone start raining down around me. I'm only a couple of metres from the door when a massive block falls in front of me knocking me from my feet. 1:31

Luckily, it only knocked me down. 1:24

Looking up, I see that I was wrong. It also knocked health down to two while completely covering the exit. The big blue arrow is still pointing right through the slab. 1:18

"Okay. That's just not fair," I mutter as I search for another option. 1:10

But there are no other exits. Moving next to the giant block, I find it's leaning against the door like the beginning of the challenge. However, any exit to be found is buried in rubble. I start pulling the rubble out of the way. After a few seconds of work, I find what I'm hoping for. Daylight. 0:54

Pulling more rubble out of the way, I hit the ground then start squeezing through the gap pushing my way out while the clock continues counting down. 0:33

I'm nearly out when my leg gets stuck on something. Pulling desperately, I groan when I hear a rip. 0:15

I keep pulling myself forward through the surprisingly long tunnel until the timer finally stops, blinking at 0:08. The timer is replaced by a quest notification as I pull myself out of the wall.

"Zone Quest Hidden Objective completed: Requirements 1/1 collapsing buildings escaped. Rewards: +1 current Agility, 2 iron rank integration points, 1 iron-grade mana essence."

"Please return to your closest available Nexus to retrieve your items."

"Wow, Lexi. Looks like you had fun," I hear Rufka say from beside me. Looking up I find everyone else standing around. Smoulder is right in front of me feeling satisfied.

"I have to say, I found it quite exhilarating myself, " Roberts proclaims as he and Rufka both extend a hand, helping me to my feet while Smoulder hops onto my shoulder.

"Yeah. That was amazing. And those random steel balls with all the spikes? Those really kept me on my toes," Rufka agrees.

"I must have missed those," I note, inspecting my clothing. Yep, that was a real rip. But my health is back at full. With Roberts here, I kind of wish it was the other way around.

"Me too," Josh says from where he's standing. Tipan and Beth are talking in low tones just behind him.

"Indeed. It seems to have given us different challenges based on our individual skills or attributes. While I had no spiked balls of death, I did have to descend from forty floors whereas Beth only had to descend twenty or so," Roberts contributes.

"Yeah. I think I had a hundred," Rufka adds while draping her arm over my shoulder. "So, how many did you have?"

"Uh. Just twenty," I answer even as I add a point to my Resolve.

"Huh. Well, at least we all finished it on our first try, right?" Rufka grins while shaking me gently.

"Agreed. And now that we've seen just what these challenges are about, we'll be more prepared for next time," Beth notes, her Umbra armour soaking up the sun as she approaches. I wonder if she gets hot while wearing that?

"We're done here. Let's get ready to move people," Beth commands while bringing her glider out.

On that note, Josh and Roberts start setting up their own gliders. While they're busy I turn to Rufka.

"Uhh Rufka, do you think I could have some more of that moonshine?" I ask quietly. It's still kind of early, but that health edge is just so huge for me.

"Sure thing, Lexi," Rufka replies, pulling everything out then handing me a cup.

"Thanks. Cheers," I raise my cup before once again gasping at the burning. So bad. But that health edge is so good.

"Anytime, Lexi. Anytime," Rufka says as I wash our cups.

With that out of the way, and with the others still working on their gliders, I decide now's a good time to try Tipan's rune.

"Just going to test something before we fly," I let Rufka know, moving slightly away from the others.

"Oh yeah. Me too. Thanks for reminding me," Rufka replies before flying up over the dull grey building we just emerged from.

Turning back to my own experiments, I pick out a loose stone block twenty metres away as a target. Creating the disc in my head, I imbue it with wind mana. It's what Tipan uses, so it only feels right starting here.

It works exactly as I'd seen when Tipan used it, slicing off part of the stone block. Watching the stone slough off, I start bombarding it with all my cheap elements. I get similar results with water, removing another corner. Nice to know that even if I didn't have stone shaping, I could still carve it.

Continuing, I find that fire and lightning scorch my practice target while the earth disc just crumbles, not having much effect. Meanwhile, the twilight disk produces a small field of shadows or glowing yellow light.

Finally, I use a disc of stone taken from my pack, firing it forward. My disc and target shatter in an amazing example of mutually assured destruction, the impact far louder than any of the other discs so far.

"The hell was that, kid!?" Beth yells from where they're lifting into the air.

"Just a test," I call back as I activate my own flight, joining them above. When I arrive, I find a dozen Fallen bodies on the nearby building with Rufka's arrows protruding from them.

"Right. Just a test. Figures."

"Come on, let's go do some exploring. Then we'll see if we can't find another challenge," Beth commands. Following along, I notice we're taking an indirect route, but Beth's leading the way towards the silver bullet from yesterday.

The same silver bullet where I was cut off from Wyonna. Which reminds me.

Flying over to Beth, I ask her about the anti-corruption system and she reveals that all the options require the Node Management Basic Access feature which costs an advancement point. That's as expensive as getting the training ground or going from iron to copper!

Resigning myself to the fact that there's no easy out through the anti-corruption menu. (And why even give us the option?), we continue on our flight.

We encounter another two squads of Fallen on the way. I don't even have to help.

Now that Tipan has access to lightning torrent and a flight spell she's nearly as scary as I am. And she's much more graceful. Plus, Rufka is trying her hand at Tipan's disks. They're not as potent as mine and Tipan's, but she has amazing aim.

Once we get near the tunnel, the Fallen seem to disappear. I guess they don't like it here anymore.

As we land, I inspect the opening leading down. It's kind of lacking that special something.

"I'm gonna stay topside," Rufka informs us as I start reshaping the earth around the entrance to be more of a general sphere.

While I start shaping large clumps of earth into neat blocks, I see Tipan nodding as she adds, "Seeing as we can't join you inside, I'll wait here with Rufka. I wish to practice further with these new runes I learned from Alexis."

I'm just about finished placing a small sphere over the tunnel entrance when Beth acknowledges Tipan, "Sounds good. Alexis, stay in contact with Rufka. Tipan, let's test party chat."

"Testing. Testing…." Beth's voice cuts out as she steps away.

"Yes. I wish we could explore as well," Tipan answers as I decide my entrance needs sharp protrusions stretching into the sky.

"Uhh, kid," Beth mutters when she returns.

"Yeah, Beth?" I reply as I float two balls of burning flame into the recessed nooks on each side.

"Why the hell did you make the entrance into a giant bunny head?"

Looking at it critically, I turn to Smoulder for a second, receiving an approving nod before answering.

"Ambience."