Polymath Redux

Chapter 2: Three easy steps on how to kill a Red Dragon

Actually no, something did come up in his mind. One thing that he was neglecting to think about, it was the pop up that appeared on his computer just before the initial migraine had hit.

[Welcome to Aria]

It had said.

"Why am I remembering that now? That has nothing to do with the situation at hand."

He tried to disregard the thought but no matter how many times he tried to that thought kept coming back to him. It was the only event that took place that was out of the ordinary before coming here, so logically speaking it could have had some links to this situation.

Though he didn't particularly like this train of thought but having been a shut in and a slave to pop culture, experiencing countless works of fictions, a single thought came to him. There were many such stories in which a protagonist is mysteriously transported to a strange new world, away from their normal environment they are tasked with surviving in place that they've never even heard of. It was hard to accept it but for some reason something at the back of his head was telling him that this was the right answer.

For now he tried to discard the thought since it wasn't logical or even feasible. He may have been a slave to pop culture and entertainment but he wasn't dumb enough to think even for a second that this was the case. He knew firmly where the line between reality and fiction stood.

Although, if this was indeed the afterlife then the line between those may have skewed a little. In any case it was simply a theory far detached from reality as one could get, but the similarities kept popping up.

"No, no. it can't be."

Trying to rid himself of such thoughts he tried to focus on what was really important right now. That was the method of getting down from this place, because if he did not he would eventually starve to death, being stranded on top of a large mountain wasn't exactly is ideal way of passing on.

Mordred thought himself to be rather competent when it came to problem solving, but he couldn't come up with any other method of getting down from his current position other than manually climbing down. Though the mountain's sides were extremely steep with only small protrusions every 200 meters or so. The prospect of a 4000 meter free climb down without any safety equipment was extremely unappealing, because one wrong step meant instant game over.

A dilemma was presented before him; either climb down with minimal guarantees of safety or stay up here to starve to death. Over the past ten years after his parents were gone he couldn't exactly say that the prospect of suicide hadn't crossed his mind numerous times but this was still scary no matter how much he thought over it.

Funny, if this was a game he could've easily just jumped down, but everything from the sensation to the smell was real right now. This wasn't a game, this was reality, this really was happening to him right now.

With an unknown burst of resolve creeping up at him, he decided that there was no other choice, he had to climb down or die. If this insane attempt was successful then he would gain universal bragging rights that he could stuff in the face of professional mountain climbers. Though knowing those kinds, if actual professional climbers found out about his free climb they may attempt to one up him.

Alas, it was no time for such concerns.

'4000 meter drop, piece of cake', he reassured himself. With those protrusions every 200 meters or so he could use to stop and rest.

"As long as I don't mess up my calculations and steps, my projected trajectory should take me straight down to the bottom without too much trouble, I mean aside from the instant death if I mess up."