It was obvious that someone had been there before, but no matter how much Alioth put his mind to it, he just couldn't figure out who would choose to live on this mountain. Perhaps they were like him and woke up on the mountain?
'How did I even get here in the first place?'
Curious to the question, there was sadly no answer in sight. But with a saddened look on his face, he stood up from the cloudy pink cloud and took a look outside.
Not without a bit of water gushing down onto his body of course, okay, maybe a lot of water.
'Now my clothes are wet, great'
But what he had seen shocked Alioth, he had never seen anything quite like the view he saw.
Below the clouds was a massive rainforest, followed up by what looked like a desert, next to that was a tundra. And up above, were just more clouds, but just barely, he could see even higher.
A stream of stars, shining brightly into Alioth's eyes, despite it being morning, he could still see them shining brightly, like a baby with all the time and future in the world.
Eventually, Alioth got bored for the day, but nonetheless traversed down the big mountain, he wondered:
'How long would the nice cloudy path last?'
Checkpoint after checkpoint, Alioth walked, sometimes ran, but settled on walking for the rest of the bit, before the sun was setting.
However, Alioth was prepared this time, so he didn't need to panic, instead he just walked down and found a nice cozy cave, just like all the other ones.
But what Alioth was curious about wasn't the mountain, or what had brought him here. It was actually the skyline, the partly pinkish skyline.
To an extent, Alioth knew that the skyline could give him immense power, but power never wanders alone. He wondered:
'So, it's probably time to take a look at this thing huh?'
The last time Alioth remembered seeing this was when he had recovered from experiencing being fat, but more importantly, when he killed the creature.
After he had killed it, the skyline sent him a message, or more like a direct and obvious statement:
[You have defeated, Black Panther]
{Mutation: Crystallized]
Alioth knew what this meant, it was probably something like changing his body in some way. But whatever the panther had, Alioth hadn't.
But just how would Alioth get a mutation, a powerful one at that?
Dismissing the thought, he wondered about the other thing, rolling. Alioth figured it was probably important, because he knew what he had gotten from it powered him up, even if just ever so slightly.
He wondered, before realizing that he could just use the skyline for information.
'Wow'
[Rolling is something that can be done once a day, only by ???]
[You may roll]
Questioning the skyline, he wondered what the ??? It wasn't a glitch by the skyline right? No, it couldn't be, after all, something like a name would be simple enough to share, even for a not so greatly programmed robot.
So what had separated the ??? and the others apart? Perhaps, no one should know, rather, it felt like Alioth was just going to stumble upon something he shouldn't have.
Gulping down looking at the words, he dismissed it and used the roll.
[Rolling…]
[Common]
[Tier: Basic]
[Mutation: None]
[Forged by the essence of earthly beings, here lies the core of peak humanity]
[There is one compatible authority]
'Authority? Ah, perhaps it was talking about the other common I had rolled the other day.'
Alioth, confused by the skyline, figured this would only benefit him in a way, so he shouldn't really be scared.
A compatible authority was the other common he rolled last time, but now, with more features.
Alioth excitedly bit his lip, and punched the dreamy wall.
'Combine Authorities'
[Combining Authorities]
["Common" has been mutated with "Common"]
[Proceeding mutation]
Excitedly, Alioth forced himself down to sit. Alioth, waiting anxiously for the result. Wondering what would happen.
'Mutation, huh, that's how I get one?'
[Complete]
[Common: Gamer]
Quickly, Alioth felt his mind was sharper, he thought faster, compared to before, he could think roughly twice as fast as before.
'Interesting, fun, I like it'
But nothing could change the boredom that would come later on, after all, nothing was there to kill him, nothing was there to entertain him, not even one to talk to.
The next couple of days repeated like a play that would never end. He would wake up, look outside the beautiful atmosphere, notice a couple of things, then walk down. And down. And down.
Nothing special happened, nor anything worth mentioning. The past days he had just rolled common's, however he couldn't combine them for a reason he couldn't explain.
When Alioth thought about it, his life here was just as similar as his life in the slums, eating, sleep, work, and repeat. But this time was with mountains.
'Never thought I would be a mountain climber'
Alioth walked towards the edge of the mountain, and looked down, not only did he barely make progress to the tree, but also, he would starve to death at this rate. With only water being given to Alioth, food was nowhere in sight.
Feeling desperate, Alioth reached for the pointy stick back at the cave.
The idea didn't seem great, but it was all he could do. That, or he could just starve to death and have a painful end.
Looking at the stick, Alioth made the decision, in fact, one he had done many times before, just stick it into the wall. There weren't many things a stick could do after all.
The idea wasn't what scared Alioth though, the drop was, afterall, the tree still looked miles and miles away. However, nothing would happen if he didn't do anything, so Alioth took a leap. And stabbed it to the next closest wall.
It felt like an eternity, dropping from such a high place down. He had fallen about half a mile, but it felt like ten.
'So I have to do that, god knows how many times?'
On top of the mental fortitude needed for this task, it also needed arm strength, a lot of it. After the first fall. His arm felt like it could just break upon sticking the stick into the mountain wall.
But he had gotten used to the strain by now, the stick was actually pretty good for stabbing, much better that a wooden spear could do at least. In fact, if Alioth didn't have this stick, he would have died a long time ago. Maybe like half a month ago.
In the distance of the faraway dreamy hills area, Alioth saw a strange figure. Not a beast at least. It looked like a human.
Alioth made the decision, he would either make it there, or die trying. But the movement of the mountain wasn't going to help him at all. In fact, god knows where the hills area will go after sunset?
Dropping a couple more miles down, instead of the usual half a mile, Alioth took a gamble. But to his surprise, the strain felt the same as the others did. Only just hurting a bit more.
To other people, at least, people not affected by the mark. This "dropping" idea would have seemed like a death sentence, or just plain suicide.
But in reality, it was probably the bare minimum.