The jungle was silent, only the sound of the wind grooming the leaves and vines were the only noise. Except that of the three-meter tall exoskeleton running at full speed, of course.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” A man, no older than twenty, was running away from the piloted power armor. He ran with all his might, trying not to step on his tunic. “I am a fucking mage! I was supposed to have the late game!” He cried to himself will running away from the man in the suit.

You are probably wondering how he got himself in this situation. Everything started just a few hours ago…

Chris was sitting in his gaming chair while playing a game that launched a year ago, Grand Via. The game was revolutionizing as it used the features of a Battle Royale game and an RPG system while giving them a clear objective. A hundred players spawned in The Great Spire, the land of the forgotten masters.

But before spawning, they had to select a class. They could be either espers, scientists, or mages. These roles represented early, mid and late game respectively. Espers started with powers like telekinesis or teleportation, which gave them a head start, but later fell off. Scientist could loot bases around the map in order to get better armor or weapons, the gear had a decent scaling so they could still be powerful on the late-game, or the mage stage. Mages were useless all game unless they were extremely lucky. They could loot ancient ruins to try to find some decent spell, and if they were lucky, a piece of gear of the forgotten arcanist. There was an unwritten pact between the espers and the scientists that they couldn’t let any mage alive. Call it bad game design or intentional features, but when a mage arrived at the Spire, the spells they could learn and cast could easily eradicate all remaining players, except other mages, of course.

Chris was playing Grand Via as his favorite role, Mage. It was funny to him to run all game and latter becoming the apex predator of the game. A more gratifying mouse and cat game. But then a message appeared in front of him.

Welcome, Player! You were selected randomly through the Arcane Records to participate in The Climb!

Chris had no idea what that was, but he suddenly felt everything moving and an instant later he was at a jungle, on top of a stone platform that had a magic circle. Then, another message.

Please select your starting role.

Then, in front of Chris, an interface with three different silhouettes showed up. The blue screen showed him a person with casual clothes, one with a gun and a lab coat, and finally, one that had an orb floating above him and wore a tunic. Chris could recognize this; it was like the selecting screen from Grand Via! His illusion was short-lived.

The Arcane Records now hold influence over planet Earth, therefore, a lot of Homo Sapiens Sapiens have been moved to The Climb scenario while Earth finishes its record-forming. As a member of Homo Sapiens Sapiens, or colloquially known as Humans, you are now to be reformed by the Arcane Records. BEWARE: This is a mandatory process and you have no choice whatsoever.

Those who are in The Climb must fight to the death in order to climb the Spire! Only one of them shall survive and will be recognized as the administrator of his own race! Face the other ninety-nine players and achieve true victory!

“Oh, shit,” Chris said after reading the overwhelming quantity 7of messages from the Arcane Record. “What I am going to do?” Chris asked exasperated. He was enrolled in a death game and his win condition was to survive and kill.

Chris instantly knew this was reality and not a dream. The ground felt real, the dirt was porous, tangible. He could tell that the wind was fondling him. He took a deep breath. His only way of survival, or so he thought, was to stay into the charted terrain, namely, the Mage role. He didn’t think it a lot. He didn’t want to kill or to be killed, he wanted to run, as he did in Earth. Now, he was on The Climb.

Before exploring his surroundings, he did not leave the circular platform that he assumed it was the spawn point, instead, he tried to open a menu. Grand Via had an inventory, a skill interface, and an HP and Resources UI.

Suddenly, a red health bar, a blue mana bar, and a green stamina bar appeared in front of him. ‘One thing out of the list’ Chris thought. He tried to say a lot of things: Inventory, Character Sheet, Menu, and then…

“[Status]!” Chris felt as his voiced crisped like it was modified by some foreign entity.

Cristobal Cabanellas

HP: 100/100

MP: 50/50

SP: 100%

Inventory: -

Skills: [Mana Sense 1], [Arcane Bolt 1]

“Yes!” Chris celebrated the summoning of the [Status]. “Oh, the skills are the same as Grand Via…”

Chris read the description that the Record gave him and were practically identical to Grand Via. Mana Sense let him manipulate mana and have it, aka, it let him be a mage. Arcane Bolt was the basic attacking spell. Not a lot of damage, but fast and mana friendly.

He took the first step into this new world and left the stone platform. His strategy was only one: Survive.

That’s the story of Cristobal Cabanellas, the man who was summoned to participate in The Climb by the Arcane Record, and now was trying to survive while running away from a Scientist who had luck while looting a base.