Daniel found himself in a mountain, his hands and feet chained in opposite directions.
"Huh?" he slowly looked around. He was right in front of a cave entrance—an entrance so wide that four elephants could walk through it side by side.
Because he was tied up with ropes, he couldn't turn his body. But based on the direction of the wind, he could feel that there was a cliff behind him.
Something like a drop-off, but not exactly.
"What the hell is this supposed to be?" he groaned a little.
How was he supposed to free himself from this? And besides, according to the Mother System, his mission was to survive.
But how? In his current position, even a strong enough wind from nowhere could throw him off the edge.
"I guess there's no other choice." Still, this wasn't the time to waste time. He had to figure out the purpose of this trial as soon as possible.
The first thing that came to his mind was using his skills—but none of his skills were useful in this kind of situation.
"So, three people?" On his left, two people were tied up the same way as him, and one more was on his right. Their heads were hanging low, and there was no light of hope in them.
Daniel didn't know if they were just acting or had truly lost hope—not that it really mattered to him.
"Though... is that one an elf?" His eyes lit up with curiosity. One of the two on his left was an elf.
How did he know? Naturally, from those long, beautiful ears. Her long golden hair covered her face, but from her body shape—and especially those two large melons—he could tell she was a female elf.
Her clothes were a bit torn, revealing parts of her body.
"She must be a Climber like me, huh?" Daniel guessed.
He had learned the term "Climber" just last night from the online community of Awakeneds. It referred to people who climb the tower and conquer its floors.
In the Celestial Domain, the word "Climber" was used more often, while "Awakened" was mainly used among humans.
At the same time, he started to go over the other information he had learned from the online community yesterday.
Difficulty levels were based on a person's mental and physical strength, and their intelligence level.
The stronger someone was, the harder their floor would be.
"Hell difficulty..." He didn't have info on all trial ranks.
But he was sure that any mission marked with "hell" wouldn't be easy or normal.
"Still, I don't know anything about this floor. Maybe it's something like the Bloody Winter floor?"
"But according to the Awakeneds who wrote about the first floor: Bloody Winter, there was no mountain in that one," he frowned a little but quickly let it go.
In short, he had no info about this trial—but that didn't matter. He trusted himself enough.
Right now, the most important thing was to free himself and escape. Based on his analysis, the cave in front of him was probably home to some kind of monster.
Based on the info from the online community, he only knew a few types of monsters that lived in snowy mountains and needed such a large entrance.
Of course, monsters within the power range of the first floor.
And in his current state, he didn't want to face any of them.
He looked at the wood structure he was tied to—two wooden pillars placed five meters apart. A blade was tied between them with a rope in the middle.
The blade was one of those execution-style blades. Its job was simple: if he tried to escape or break the ropes, it would fall and cut him in half.
"How the hell can a damn monster build something ?"
Unfortunately, because the trial was balanced and adjusted based on his power level, he couldn't just break the wood or tear the chains apart.
He frowned a bit, but after a moment of thinking, the frown faded. Escaping with such a blade was hard—but that didn't necessarily mean the blade was a bad thing.
That's when he slowly pulled his body to the right—very gently. He needed to reach the right pillar. He looked at the blade. Seeing no reaction, he moved slightly more to the right.
The blade twitched, and Daniel saw it. The next move would be the last he could make. After that, the blade would definitely drop.
"God, help me..." He knew that by doing this, he'd likely lose part of his body.
He glanced to his right. If he moved quickly enough, he could shift his whole body to the right. Though there was one problem—what he was expecting to happen.
He took a breath, made the final move, pulled his body to the right, and grabbed the right pillar with his hand.
"Ahhh, damn, that hurts like hell..." Daniel screamed in pain. His voice echoed throughout the mountain range.
The other two people raised their heads at the sound and looked toward him in shock.
The third person still seemed completely lifeless.
"You crazy bastard!" one of them shouted, their voice shaking with fear.
His right side was covered in blood. Blood had splattered everywhere, even on part of his clothes.
The blade had fallen and completely severed his arm—from the shoulder.
He could see the veins twitching in the severed arm, the white bone inside, and the blood pouring out of it.
"Idiot, idiot, idiot! He wasn't supposed to come back until night! But now, thanks to your dumbass move, we're gonna die sooner!" the other one began cursing Daniel.
They hadn't expected to face such a difficult floor on the very first day of entering the tower.
But as if that wasn't enough, now they were stuck with a lunatic human as well.
Daniel ignored them and, while trying to suppress the pain that had spread through every cell of his body, stood up.
He knew that pain in the tower was the same as pain in the real world.
His left side was now free. He pulled himself to the left and brought his right hand and foot toward the blade and cut them loose.
He tore a part of his clothes and wrapped it around his shoulder to stop the bleeding. His face was pale, and his eyes had turned red.
He wanted to scream with all his might—but he held it in.
Just as he was about to move, he suddenly felt breathing next to his ear.
His eyes widened, and his whole body started to tremble. He quickly shut his mouth and even stopped breathing through his nose.
"Sniff." He could feel the sound of sniffing and breathing right next to his ear. The white fur of the monster brushed against his skin.