Adventuring and the Trials.

Boom! I started to run down a hallway into somewhere never explored before, a tunnel, far down. No one
would dare to go down there, but I was there for all that I wanted. Fame!

Adventuring is my favourite subject, I don’t know if it is even a subject, but I don’t care, I love it, I have a
passion for it and that is all I know. When I have the chance, that is all I can do and nothing could stop me, and
what I saw today shone on my heart.

In the morning, a message, only a message, was sent to my house, it was the first one in years because of how
isolated I was from the whole world, but that didn’t stop me from pursuing my career as a traveller and also
being famous, well not that kind of famous, people didn’t even know where I lived!

It read, “Come, please come, we have invited you to climb Mount Everest, but first, you must pass the trial.”
Trial? What trial was it? Was it my climbing skills or just my climbing sense? It didn’t say where it was, but I
assume it was near Mount Everest!

“Hoooo!” I whistled, the plane that I had known since I started my life as a traveller, you know, we were quite
good friends with each other and I own him now. But not now, we need to go! It would be my once-in-a-
lifetime experience to climb the highest mountain in the world!

I could have explained to you what happened during the flight but arriving was more important. “When did
you know we were coming? And how would you know that we would land here?” I exclaimed with a head of
questions.

“Oh, many people land here, it is the only landmark, and are you ready, the trials are about to start!”

I could have taken a ride on my plane, but it would be nice to have a chat with them about my career before I
got there. “Wow! What is this place?” I asked.

“What do you think?” he replied in a sort of indiscreet way, “it is Mount Everest!”

The only thing I could see was a big building in front of me, which I could tell had some great climbers in it,
many people had so much gear, but why? Does the gear make you faster? Does it help? All these questions
could just not get out of my mind, but I tried my hardest to forget them. The time had come, the trials would
start in a few minutes, I just couldn’t wait!

The first trial was coming, and the people were all rushing to what looked to me like a gate, it seemed so big
and at the front, to my surprise, was the person I met when I first arrived. Copying what everyone else was
doing, I happily went to the gate with hope high, he wished me good luck and it was time to go.

What was it? Speed climbing it was! I had loved speed climbing since I was 6, since if you were smaller, it
wouldn’t be safe. The goal was to get to the top as fast as possible, it wasn’t needed to climb the mountain,
but it still tested your climbing skills. Out of 100 people, 50 would survive to the next trial. “3, 2, 1, GO!” and
with that, the race began, people were hurrying up the ragged slope with no equipment, in the end, it wasn’t
too hard, some people didn’t even really know how to climb, I didn’t reach my expectation, but I still got 15 th.

The next trial was coming, there was a big dining table right in front of us that magically appeared, our meal
was nothing different, it was what everyone had at home, but that wasn’t the important part, the second trial
was. There was a clock ticking even though I was sure that it was a timer. I didn’t know where it was, but my
instincts told me that it would be the end of the rest when it started ringing.

“YES!!!!” was all I could here from all the screaming that filled my ear when the ringing was heard, but I could
tell that people were excited about what was next. It was uh, living on an isolated island? What was this all
about? What were we doing?
“BE PATIENT! SOMEONE IS ABOUT TO EXPLAIN THE RULES!” someone screamed at me, well I do except that
sometimes I do get a bit too impatient.

“This trial is your survival skills, there will be fake pirates coming to your island trying to take you down, not in
real life, but fake. The last 20 people who are standing will advance to the next trial and if you are caught, you
are immediately sent off the island. Good luck!” Sounded a voice that sounded somewhat like a bot.

I had heard nothing like this before, I had only been climbing, how was living on an island related to a
mountain? No complaints now, we had to go, but my hopes were falling as other people all seemed like they
had done this before, but I had to try my best.

On the island, a pirate immediately appeared from behind a tree, catching all of us off guard. But I started to
get the reason for this, five people were immediately caught by the sneaker tactic used by the pirate. Now that
that had happened, our concentration had to rise for us to pass this test.

Something appeared in the distance, we knew it was a pirate ship, but we needed a way to hide, no
underground shelters were provided, no tools were given, and it was now all up to us to make our own. It
wouldn't be easy, but it was a do-or-go situation where doing it was a must. Wait, wasn't there another way?
We could sneak onto the ship to hide from them, but we mustn't get caught or we were done for. All I had to
do was make everyone use that tactic and I could betray them! My mind lit up in joy.

"Everyone! We can sneak onto the ship!" I exclaimed and soon after, I was applauded like I was the king. Soon
enough, the pirates were here, I was going to hide in the water. Desperately trying to sneak onto the ship,
many people got caught in that process, leaving the 20 last people standing, overjoyed to still be competing.

Still 20 people? That is still way too much for a group of climbers about to climb Mount Everest. There had to
be more, like I said, wasn't wrong. This was also involving teamwork, but more than just helping others, but
saving each other’s lives, this was very important in hiking unless you were selfish, arrogant and only think
about yourself. Helping your team will always be helpful as you never know, what if you were in trouble and
you left your group behind? You would be in the same fate, that is the big drawback of leaving your team in
trouble, death.

The rules weren't helpful, it was only a reminder of what the reward was, the one that I desperately wanted,
fame! I seemed to get greedier and greedier, the reward was overly said and I couldn't resist but have a small
smile. It seemed like a way to get us nervous and impatient, but I am ok with that, I still have the time to relax
and think about it.

Oh, I haven't even explained the rules yet, silly me, let me continue. Uh-hum. So, the goal is to save a dummy,
if you don't try, you are eliminated, if you try but fail, you are at risk, if you helped and successfully make it,
you make it to the next round of the trial. However, as I said, if you are at risk, you will go through the same
process until one person loses. Then the rest of the people join the people who made it to the next round. And
the process continues until there are 10 people left. And that follows is a break, which follows the last trial, the
one that narrows us to a mere 4 people. Get to that later, the trials are starting soon.