6 Hell to Pay

  In his path to the ground below, there were lots of bushes, rocks, and roots. Just that instead of his roadblock, they were his way down. Either he would touch down at his own pace, or gravity would deliver him at a faster one.

  Trino closed his eyes and steadied his breathing. Taking three long steps backward, he ran to the edge as fast as he could and jumped off.

  Gravity started pulling him down as he flipped in the air toward the direction where he was standing just a moment ago. Things had frozen as he was perceiving his fall in slow motion.

  "Not now," he waited, the end of the cliff repeatedly rising, or rather, he was falling. Trino had already unfurled Bluntedge's rope, and now he was aiming to throw it.  

  When the distance between him and the hill reached 3m, he threw Bluntedge in a crack present alongside a rock. It stuck there.

  "It's time to brace the impact." He shouted and got swayed by the restraints between the gravitational pull and the rope's tension. While he was bending his knees, the rope pulled him towards the cliff. He hit like a pendulum onto it.

  "Ahh… It hurts." Despite his effort to brace the impact by absorbing through his knees, it was painful. Yet, he held tight on the rope. Gratefully none of his bones got fractured. Otherwise, the arduous rappelling would've turned miraculous to achieve.

  He grappled onto one wrist and scrutinized any available stone or root to make it his next grappling point. If Suzane saw him like this and was aware of how surreal the pain in Ulteria was, definitely she would not let him enter Ulteria again. Virtual or not, she did not want him to die. At least not from falling a height which would give anyone Acrophobia.

  "There," While hanging onto his wrist, he spotted a steady branch of a withered bush and threw Mini at it. The small knife spinning along Trino as a pivot himself, wrapped around the fat twig.

  The bush he chose was once again almost 4m away, diagonally downwards, just to take full advantage of the rope's length when he would swing down.

  "Now for the hard part," Trino needed to retrieve Bluntedge, but he was still hanging from it and with only one semi-functional hand. The rope tying his hand to Mini was lingering from it, hindering its motion.

  Trino retrieved the dagger from inventory, the one he swapped before with Bluntedge, and thrust it into the cliff above his head. When it was steady and immovable, he hung himself onto it, loosening the rope tied from Bluntedge. Without waiting anymore, he jerked his right hand, stirring a wave through the rope, and out came the Bluntedge from the crack it was plugged in.

  "Get ready for more such swings. This time it will be consecutive ones. " Encouraging himself, Trino was not liking a bit the way he had to hold the knife. He would rather hang. Trying to find a place and tripping, again and again, was not a good experience.

  "How many? Let's see."

  Staring down the gorge, he kicked the cliff, and the knife he was holding came out. Once again, gravity embraced him while the rope wrapping around the dried-out branch changed his path, pulling him downwards in a pendulum motion. When he was about to reach the high point of the oscillation, he flicked his left wrist, and Mini unraveled away from the branch. He was in the air again, no strings attached.

  The world became a mage with no direction as he was spinning like a top in the air. There was no nausea, only serenity, like he was melting in the moment in, analyzing.

  'On the fourth rotation,' Trino calculated inwardly. When it was his fourth spin, he spread his limbs, slowing the angular momentum. Eyes clear on the target, right in front of him, and his hands moved in a symphony of kinematic motion. Bluntedge shot forward and stuck in between another bush's Y-shaped branch.

  Trino started swinging again. It was at that moment Trino heard the notification.

  [Spider's Gait has leveled up.]

...

  Swinging from one point to another, while resting on the big rocks he stumbled on in his rappelling downwards, Trino was slowly descending. He wasn't all perfect; so he paid from one broken rib for 2000ft of descent. It was hella cheap. He had left some more purchasing to do, as he didn't want to take a death ride to the human kingdom.

  Till now, missing a target to grab or grapple was hurtful but not annoying. Sometimes the knife wouldn't come out, and he would climb back to where it was stuck to retrieve the damn thing. But in the end, he had already completed two-thirds of the rappelling.

  By the time he was about to reach the ground, he had three broken ribs, and the last jump added a dislocated ankle to the list.

  "I did it." His voice was hoarse but dripping with happiness and a sense of satisfaction. The daggers were dragging behind him tied to the ropes. Dark purple locks of hairs drowned in sweat loomed in front of his sharp face.

  His skill -Spider's Gait- was now level 7. But there was little to no possibility he would want to use it again.

  Trudging himself towards a tree, he slumped down onto it. In less than eight hours, he was down here, on the ground. He rappelled 3000ft of height without a climbing rope. It was a feat of its own. 'Hugo would take at least a day to climb up and find out I have bailed on him. He thought,' But…

  "Your skills have improved this much on three days only. I was observing you the whole painful time." Unlike Hugo's calm words, Trino was pissed at the world. Why did the guy he wanted to never see again and rappelled a km to avoid, now standing behind him?

  "Is the technique your original?" Hugo inquired about Spider's gait, but no word came out from Trino's mouth. He was aggrieved.

  And to rub the salt in the wound, he received the notification.

  [Quest: Hugo's Commision has failed]

  "Fuck off," Trino murmured and tried to reach for his dagger, but a punch from Hugo knocked him unconscious. There was nothing left in the name of stamina and strength in Trino's body, so the punch worked out as an instant lullaby.

  There was a huge grin laced with Malice on Hugo's face. He had come to this side of the cliff, taking the gamble that Trino would betray him and would try to run away. And the gamble paid off. What if he had been proven wrong? He just had to make Trino wait for him on the other side for two or three hours, but no need now.

  Hugo was more surprised by Trino's feat than his betrayal. This tiny frame lying down had climbed down an almost 1 km long cliff without falling down. He himself could not achieve such a feat. He was expecting him to fall down and die, such that he could retrieve the fruit from his dead body and wouldn't have to dirty his hands.

  "Anyways," Hugo shuffled around the assassin's body only to find nothing, his brows arched in confusion. Hugo went into a frenzy, reaching the place where the Trino had landed, hoping to find the fruit there. But nothing...

  "It's not here. Damn! Where did he hide it?" A thought passed in his mind, and his face flushed with anger.

  The beast master reached the ragged guy and grabbed his neck, lifting him in the air, "I will make your life hell if you have eaten it." There was no response. The exhaustion from the rappelling and Hugo's punch warranted Trino a sleep of long hours.

  Hugo threw him away in frustration, only to pick him back again. He put the tiny frame on his body and snarled, "I will make sure that the Lord makes you his slave. How dare you eat away my years of hard work and his wish to become an archduke."

  Raging, he started walking towards the cave. He still had one more thing which could please his Lord and appease his anger.