A moment later, he turned to look up and continued climbing.
After another thirty minutes went by, Gustav arrived at the top of the mountain with a body full of sweat and aching muscles.
He laid on the mountain top like others
who had just arrived.
The top of the rocky mountain was rough-looking and full of large bumpy rock fragments scattered all around.
After a few more seconds of catching his breath, Gustav started running forward once again.
His thighs felt really heavy, but he still pushed himself to raise both legs and throw them forward.
Gustav arrived at the other end of the rocky mountain top in about two minutes and looked down only to see a foggy abysmal view.
The bottom of the mountain couldn't be seen from this end. It looked very deep as if a person would keep falling forever if they slipped from this edge.
There were ropes tied to small metal bars that protruded from the ground of the mountain top.
These ropes extended far into the distance leading to another mountain, atop several hundred feet away. It might have been possible for some of the cadets to leap to the other side before, but without their abilities, it was impossible for them to perform such feats right now.
Gustav arrived in front of the line and looked ahead. He couldn't see anyone on this line up ahead because they were only a few cadets who had reached this point.
On the sides, some cadets could be seen squatting as they reached out and held onto the rope with their hands.
Some of them kicked the lower part of their body off the edge of the mountain top and made use of their hands to support their entire body as they started moving forward with the rope.
Some of them hugged their legs around the rope and pulled their body forward using their arms.
While only a few people like Gustav balanced their feet on the rope as they moved forward one step at a time.
Gustav steadied his breathing as he put one foot in front of the other. Both of his arms were outstretched as he recalled his training with Miss Aimee about balance.
Those who were also walking on one of the ropes looked focused as they moved one step at a time.
Hundreds of feet ahead on the rope towards Gustav, was left. Elevora held out a book and read as she walked effortlessly on the rope.
She walked the line like she was walking on the ground and didn't even bother staring down or anywhere else.
Her balance was totally flawless.
Gustav was also moving quite faster than others while walking on the rope, but Elevora was the fastest.
Gustav could tell that there wouldn't be any traps laid out here because walking on the rope was already enough of a challenge.
A lot of cadets were moving at a snail's pace, and some of them were struggling to pull themselves forward due to fatigue.
Gustav stared at both sides and below. He wondered what was at the bottom of the mountain on this side due to the immense depth.
"Aaaaahhhhhhh!"
A loud scream rang out as a cadet lost strength in his arms and started falling after letting go of the rope.
Gustav only stared for a few moments and saw the person's body disappearing into the abysmal fog below.
A few seconds later, the same person was lifted back up by some mechanical drones.
He seemed to have passed out from the way his body was flayed in the winds as he was lifted out of the fog and taken backward towards the mountain area.
Gustav had continued walking at this point.
Minutes later, he was closing in on the edge of the other mountain top.
He finally arrived there a few moments later and started running down the sloppy mountain.
This one wasn't steep like the one on the other side, so it was quite easy to descend.
Gustav dodged the hurdles on the path as he ran down.
In about two minutes, he reached the mountain part that was cut off from the bottom.
It was only about twenty feet away from the bottom but what awaited them was a five thousand feet wide river that covered everywhere.
Gustav kept running and jumped straight into the river.
Splash!
Other cadets also arrived there and jumped in while some had arrived earlier.
Gustav started swimming forward with as much speed as he could muster.
He started passing those that had gone beyond him and slowly closed those at the forefront.
He could see E.E in the distance and a few of the other special class recruits.
All of them had so much stamina that they didn't pause once to catch a break as they swam.
Gustav looked around for potential traps, but to his surprise, no one had fallen to any trap even after they had been swimming for several minutes.
Gustav calculated the time they had spent so far and realized that only around thirty minutes were left.
He sped up and stopped reserving his energy.
Those that had surpassed him earlier had looks of confusion. They had really thought Gustav slowing down earlier was due to the fact that he was very weak without his bloodline.
Some of them pushed themselves too, not wanting to be left behind.
They saw it as a competition, while Gustav only saw it as a new method of training.
At this point, Gustav's arms and legs were very sore from waving and kicking within the water, but he wanted to make sure he got there before the three hours time limit.
Although he knew the system could deactivate the seal at any time, he still wanted that three hours to be his daily goal and surpass it eventually.
'Hmm, that girl seems pretty strong,' Gustav could see Elevora's body outline in the distance.
She was still in first position and even more than fifty feet ahead of the next two.