Chapter 389: Climbing the wall

Apart from the gloves, which could cling firmly to almost any surface they were attached to, he had also purchased a pair of specialized climbing shoes.

They were fitted with retractable spikes along the soles, allowing him to anchor himself to the wall when he needed a stable foothold.

More importantly, the shoes had been designed with enough flexibility and support to give him some room to maneuver if he found himself in trouble.

He had also purchased a parachute equipped with a counter-gravity system. It would not completely stop a fall, but it could drastically reduce his descent, giving him a much better chance of surviving even if he somehow lost his footing near the peak.

Combined with his inhuman endurance and physical strength, Luke was confident that even a disastrous fall would not necessarily kill him.

’Man, why am I already thinking about falling?’

He checked the time and found that he had roughly an hour and a half left.

He needed to get moving. Standing at the base and looking upward, the structure seemed considerably taller than five hundred meter, though perhaps the sheer scale of it was playing tricks on his perception.

Either way, staring at it was not going to get him to the top.

[Best of luck, host.]

The system chimed with its usual lack of concern.

Luke took a slow breath and lowered his gaze to the gloves covering his hands.

Tiny orbs had been embedded across every inch of their surface, forming a dense pattern that gave the gloves their extraordinary grip.

He raised one hand and pressed it against the wall, placing it above his head.

"Hmm."

He shifted his weight experimentally, then folded his legs until both feet were hanging freely in the air. The glove did not slip even slightly. His entire weight was being supported by a single hand.

The product description had not been exaggerating.

Luke nodded to himself before placing his other hand against the wall and reaching higher.

Following the instructions, he removed his first hand only after the second had secured itself, moving from bottom to top in a steady rhythm.

When he pulled his hand away, the glove released from the wall without resistance, almost as though it had not been supporting his weight a moment ago.

He looked upward.

There was no point overthinking this anymore.

Luke drew in a deep breath, closed his eyes for a brief moment, and muttered, ’Well, screw it.’

Then the real climb began.

He quickly discovered that the gloves were doing far more work than he had anticipated. Rather than feeling as though he was constantly dragging his entire body upward, each movement required surprisingly little effort from his arms.

The advanced gloves were designed to reduce the strain placed on the climber by distributing the load across their grip, allowing Luke to pull himself upward without exhausting his muscles as quickly as he had expected.

His feet became secondary. He used them mostly to maintain balance and guide his body while his hands continued to secure themselves higher and higher along the wall.

Minutes passed.

The ground gradually sank farther beneath him, and the air became noticeably stronger as he climbed. The wind tugged at his clothes and slipped around his body, carrying with it a faint chill that had been absent at the base.

Luke continued without slowing.

He had spent a long time training his stamina and endurance, and he could have invested more system points into both if he had wanted to.

For now, however, he wanted to know exactly how much his current body could endure without relying entirely on his enhanced statistics.

After several more minutes of climbing, he decided it was time to test the shoes.

’Hmm... like this.’

THUD!

Luke drove the front of his shoe firmly into the wall.

A faint vibration immediately traveled through the sole and into his foot. He remained still, waiting for the mechanism to finish whatever it was doing. Once the sensation stopped, he repeated the process with his other foot.

The entire procedure took no more than ten seconds.

Then both shoes went completely still.

Luke cautiously released one hand and shifted his weight onto his right foot.

"Damn..."

His eyes widened slightly.

The shoe had not moved even an inch.

It felt as though he had planted his foot directly onto solid ground. The sensation was almost absurd considering there was nothing beneath him except open air and a sheer drop stretching all the way to the ground.

He was already around thirty meters above the surface, yet he could stand there with one foot bearing his weight without the slightest sign of instability.

[The Pincer Boots drill holes into the climbing surface and deploy thick beams into them, creating a temporary platform capable of supporting the climber’s weight. Though, host, do not tilt too far backward.]

Luke gave a wry smile as he glanced down at the ground far below.

’Tilt? I am not even removing my hands.’

He kept at least one hand firmly attached to the wall, just in case some sort of failure occurred that had a one-in-a-hundred-year chance of happening.

He knew the equipment had been tested and the system had already verified its functions, but there was no reason to become careless simply because everything had worked so far.

Still, he had to admit that with these boots supporting his weight, his hands were finally getting the rest they needed.

He could alternate between gripping the wall and standing on the spikes, giving his arms a brief reprieve whenever the strain began to build.

And since Luke had never been one to complain about taking a long break when he had the opportunity, he allowed himself nearly a full minute before finally removing the shoes from the wall.

Once the spikes retracted and released their hold, he resumed his ascent.

The higher he climbed, the colder the air became.

The temperature had dropped noticeably, and the wind had grown sharper, slipping through his clothes as the altitude increased.

Yet strangely, the air itself did not feel any thinner. At this height, he should have been struggling to breathe, especially while exerting himself so intensely, but his breathing remained steady.

Perhaps his enhanced physical stats?

’I can see the peak...’

The thought had barely crossed his mind when Luke noticed something that immediately made his eyes widen.

He reacted on instinct.

His right hand tore away from the wall as he threw his body to the left.

DOOOM!

A heavy barrel came crashing down through the space where his body had been a moment earlier before exploding against the wall below.

Luke stared upward.

There was definitely someone up there.

And judging from the attack, they had already spotted him.

’For fuck’s sake.’

He clicked his tongue and made a decision.

’I need my cloak.’

Luke began climbing toward the opposite side of the wall as quickly as he could while simultaneously reaching into the system store. A small capsule appeared in his hand.

A smoke bomb.

He could still feel eyes watching him from above, so he did not hesitate. He crushed the capsule in his palm.

A dense cloud of grey smoke erupted around him almost instantly, spreading across the section of the wall and obscuring his movements.

At the same time, Luke enshrouded himself with the Vanishing Cloak and vanished from sight.

For a brief moment, everything went silent.

Then the voices from above finally reached him.

"Where did he go?!"

Luke’s expression tightened.

The voices were much clearer now. They were close enough that he could make out the panic and confusion in them.

"There he is!"

Luke’s eyes widened.

Something suddenly clicked.

The Vanishing Cloak had been nerfed against these people.

Shit!

Panic surged through him.

He was far too high to simply climb back down, and after putting this much effort into reaching the peak, jumping was not exactly an appealing alternative.

Even with the counter-gravity parachute, he had no desire to discover whether it would actually save him from this height.

He needed a distraction.

Something that would give him just enough time to finish the remaining stretch.

His gaze swept across the wall.

Then he noticed them.

More than five barrels had been positioned along the upper section of the wall.

They were arranged close enough together that if they were rolled down now, there would be almost no room for him to escape. Unless he could somehow fly away from the wall, the resulting explosions would inevitably catch him.

Luke gritted his teeth.

The people above were already preparing to push them over.

There was no time left to think.

Just before the first barrel began to roll, Luke opened his mouth.

"FUCK YOU!"

His voice erupted with the force of <Concentrated Burst>.

BOOOOM!

The shockwave slammed into the wall.

Stone and debris splintered away beneath the sheer force of the attack, while the clouds gathered around the peak were violently scattered, revealing the upper section of the structure for a fleeting moment.

The barrels were caught in the shockwave.

BOOOOOOM!

All of them detonated at once.

Flames erupted across the wall, swallowing the entire section in a roaring wave of fire. The explosions chased one another in rapid succession, turning the area into a chaotic inferno of smoke, shattered stone, and burning debris.

Luke did not wait to see what happened to the people above.

He climbed.

His hands moved faster than they ever had before, his feet following in rapid succession as he hauled himself upward with everything he had.

The heat of the explosions pressed against his back, but he ignored it.

The peak was right there.

He only needed to reach it.

’You better reward me for this, system...’

~~~

A/N:- Thanks for reading.