THE STRONGEST NEXULYTE

Thirty minutes after the start of the morning run, the trainees arrived at the base of a mountain that was about seventy meters tall and had a slippery surface with very little rough edges to hold on to; they had to climb over this mountain to continue with their run.

Some trainees immediately began to climb, gripping the barely pointy rocks that stuck out on the surface of the mountain to carry their weight.

A few more stood at the base of this mountain, catching their breaths while thinking of how to cross this mountain.

Amongst these people were Ivan, Glen, and Ralph.

Thirty minutes into the morning run, they had not only navigated through a forest filled with traps, they had come across a mud puddle that was over fifty meters long and they had to drag their feet through the sticky puddle of mudd. They had also come across a long iron net barricade which they had to climb over.

All of these obstacles had joined in tiring out the trainees and a lot of them had given up halfway to rest while those who had managed to drag themselves to this spot were currently sprawled on the ground while breathing heavily; of course these were trainees who were completely out of energy.

A few like Ivan and his friends still had some steam left in them.

But what baffled all the trainees was the so called repeaters, the five who were said to be part of the previous group of trainees from last year. No matter how difficult the trainees saw the obstacles during their run, these people scaled through everything with stunning ease as if it was a walk in the park.

Three of these five had already climbed over the seventy meter tall mountain and were already out of sight, as for the other two…they kept with the pace of the other trainees despite how obviously easy the obstacles were for them.

While others might not know this, Ivan was very well aware that Luke had been following him the entire time and had refused to leave his side. Ivan had noticed how on numerous occasions during their run when Luke tried to sneakily approach him but Sommy would always come to bother him at such a point which irritated Luke to no end and stopped him from doing whatever he had in mind.

Although Ivan was bothered, he had chosen to ignore this as it wasn't new to him; wasn't this the same as those bastards in the outskirt? Luke couldn't possibly do more than those scums.

After a few minutes of resting, Ivan looked toward Glen and Ralph before saying with a smirk.

"Wanna race to the top?"

Ralph positions his glasses before saying with a confident tone.

" I'll be waiting for you there, don't make me wait for long "

Immediately after he finished saying that, both of them began to climb the mountain, leaving a dumbfounded Glen behind.

" Hey, no fair! Aren't we supposed to start at the same time?!" Glen called out to them in displeasure before starting to climb as well.

Three minutes later, Ivan had only managed to climb for only twenty meters up the mountain. The surface was so slippery and his fingers hurt from gripping onto whatever they could find, it was almost as if he was climbing while pinching needles with his fingers to carry his weight.

Dead tired and fully covered in sweat, Ivan gritted his teeth as he reached out to grab onto a small pointy stone above his head.

"Nnghh!"

Ivan groaned painfully as he pulled himself up while finding proper footing for his foot. He was already starting to feel pain in his joints and fingertips but he wasn't still at the top yet.

"Huff, Huff!"

Ivan stopped climbing for a while and took a couple deep breaths, he looked to his sides but couldn't find Ralph or Glen; he had been so focused on climbing earlier that he lost sight of the two of them and didn't know if they were already ahead or had fallen back to the ground like the cases with many other trainees.

They had slipped and crashed to the ground where they would have to start over, some had even taken others who were unfortunate to be right below them along with them on their falls.

"A bit more, a bit more and I'll be there" Ivan muttered to himself. His eyes blazing with determined shine, the level of pain he was feeling was nothing compared to what those scums in the outskirt had put him through for so many years.

If this was the price to pay for strength, then Ivan would pay ten times the price!

Ivan immediately began to rush upwards, passing a lot of trainees in swift movements that left the trainees aghast and they looked at Ivan as if he was a monster.

Although his speed was nothing compared to those of the five repeaters, it wasn't something that the other normal trainees could keep up with.

In another five minutes, Ivan had crossed another fifteen meters distance and was getting closer to the top. He could already see the top of the mountain, victory was within reach!

Ignoring the pain he was feeling and his bleeding fingers, Ivan continued on his ascension.

Just then, Ivan grabbed onto a particularly large rock and pulled himself up but before he could balance his body.

Check!!

The rock broke off and Ivan found himself waving backwards after his other hand slipped off the body of the mountain.

'Noooo! Not now!' Ivan cried out in his mind while gritting his teeth in reluctance as he fell backwards, he was almost there!!

But before he could fall for even a meter distance, Ivan's foot landed on a solid surface that suspended him for just a second before disappearing but that one second was like a ray of sunlight in Ivan's darkest times.

He immediately reacted, using the opportunity to dig his fingers into a small hole on the surface of the mountain before hugging the mountain like a starfish.

Along with Ivan's relief sigh was a loud angry voice that came from below and continued to fade away to the foot of the mountain.

"You bastard!!!!!" The voice yelled as the owner fell off after being used as a stepping stone by Ivan.

Ivan closed his eyes when he heard the voice and muttered.

"Sorry"

" Hehe, that trainee must be very upset by that. Why don't you go and apologize to him? I can send you to him right now"

A mocking voice suddenly sounded from Ivan's side, he opened his eyes and looked over only to find Luke who had unknowingly climbed to his side and was now just an arm length away from Ivan.

He was holding onto a small crack on the body of the mountain so loosely like he wasn't afraid of falling or slipping off.

Ivan's face formed a frown, this was a bad time to meet Luke. He possibly could not outrun Luke in this situation and it seemed that Luke was serious about sending him down.

What should he do?

Luckily for him, Luke's nemesis appeared a second after. The beautiful brown skinned Sommy in her gray T-shirt and tracksuit jacket tied around her waist appeared right next to Luke.

She didn't say anything and just smiled at the both of them but this smile seemed to anger Luke to no end.

"Tch! I'm done playing here, I'll definitely have a chance another time " Luke clicked his tongue and said before climbing up the mountain, his movements were agile and precise like he knew where to hold and where not to.

Ivan could only stare in awe as Luke quickly reached the top before disappearing.

He looked at Sommy who was still at his level curiously, the latter looked back at him and winked before ascending as well; her speed wasn't slower than Luke's.

Ivan immediately tried to follow behind Sommy in hopes that imitating her movements would help him but he learnt that he was dreaming too big as not only did his speed not increase than it before, he even almost slipped and fell a few times.

Only after a painful twenty something minute did Ivan arrive at the top of the mountain.

The top of the mountain was a well leveled hundred meters round plateau where one could lay down and rest if they wanted. Seeing that he was the only one here, Ivan simply laid down on his back while looking into the night sky, his chest rising and falling as he took in air while at the same time savoring the pain he was feeling.

He wasn't the first to arrive since there were already those five who had probably left but Ivan was still satisfied with the result, he was the first amongst the batch of normal trainees.

He lifted one of his hands and made a grabbing motion in the air, a thought registered in his mind as he suddenly clenched his hand into a fist; no one knew what his thought was.