Kana continued to climb up the steps until she had to stop for the night. She had only climbed twenty steps so far and still had many to go. It was slightly difficult to climb due to a strong pressure that began to weigh down on her. She had not felt this pressure at all until after reaching the tenth step. Only then did she begin to feel a weight pressing down onto her. "Aoi, is Kitty going to be okay? He looks to be sweating, and he is a tiger monster… He shouldn't be able to sweat like that..."
"Hmm? Oh! It is because of this place. He is too weak for these stairs. I will make it so Kitty won't suffer..." Aoi said as she flew down the stairs with the bubble wrapped tiger monster and placed him on the second step. She then waved her hand, forming a cage around the tiger monster so it could not escape. Only when she was sure everything was okay did she fly back to where Kana was.
"I wonder why each step the power weighing down on us gets stronger." Kana said to herself as she looked up at the towering steps she still had to climb.
"Kana, Kitty is all safe now. Are we going to continue?" Aoi asked.
"Mmm… I only have this little bit of food left, so it would be best to continue on through the night. If I am right, we should reach the top by morning if I can withstand the increase in pressure on the body. I am starting to think that maybe some kind of gravity spells as cast on these stairs." Kana explained as she bit into her food. She could only hurry and hope to find food inside the tower. Or at least a monster she can kill to eat.Thinking about not being able to eat at all made Kana think back to her past life. The last thing she wanted to do was go hungry. If it ever came to that, she would give up and just crush her token.
After only eating a little of her food Kana wrapped up the rest and began her grueling climb back up the stairs. Ten, twenty, fifty more stairs later, Kana was sweating buckets as she heaved her body over the ledge. "I want to kill whoever came up with this stupid idea to make the gravity of each step stronger as you climb. And it seems like I am only at the halfway mark!"
"Kana, you can do it! Yay! You can do it! Yay! Yay!" Aoi was next to Kana, floating in the air cheering her on with some made up cheer.
Some would find such a thing annoying to hear while they were struggling along. But for Kana, she felt this was not so bad and actually gave her boosts of energy as she climbed. With her little personal cheering squad, Kana continued upwards, her pace slowly ever so slightly as she progressed. But that was mainly because it was very difficult to jump under such a strong gravity.
Every few steps, Kana would rest and get used to the strength of the gravity. Even she was surprised at how well her body was adapting to the weight weighing her down. She wondered if it was a perk of being a dragon that maybe their bodies had high adaptability. One thing Kana was sure of was that if it was a human who tried to climb these stairs unless they were super strong, it would be highly doubtful that they could make it as far as Kana has. She did not consider just how overpowered her stats were for someone whose evolution type still stated she was a baby.
Finally, after a great deal of struggle, as the sun began to rise over the horizon, Kana reached the second step to the top. She struggled with all her might to pull herself up onto the step. The weight of her body causing cracks in the step as she crawled across it. Her hair was soaked in sweat matted to her head. She could literally wring her hair out and get a bucket full of water. Luckily for her, for some strange reason, Aoi was freely flying around as if nothing was wrong. At some point, the pressure that weighed down Kana's body stopped affecting Aoi altogether.
With Aoi with her, she was able to drink as much water as she needed and also soaked her head a few times as well. "Kana, just one more!"
"Mmm… But first, I need to rest and get used to this gravity. Although I can barely move at this moment." Kana was even finding it hard to breathe with how much weight was weighing down on her.
After a short break and a drink of water, Kana was ready to go once again. She walked over to the last step she had to climb and, with great effort, pushed her body up off the ground as she used the side of the step as leverage as she tried to run up it. Once, twice, five times, she tried, but each time she couldn't come close to grasping the edge. Kana was bent over, trying to catch her breath with her hands on her knees. "I swear if there is not a buffet of food waiting for me when I get up there, I will break down and cry."
"Kana! You can do it!" Aoi still happily cheered Kana on.
Kana took a deep breath and thought for a moment before saying: "Aoi fly a little higher. I think I need a bit of a boost, and I do not want you to get caught up in it."
"Okay!" Aoi quickly got out of the way.
Kana turned around and got down on all fours. She then walked backwards up the wall, upsidedown, using her hands to support herself until she was doing a handstand. She then angled her body, opened her mouth, and whispered: "[Dragons Breath]!"