Chapter 173 - 173. Inching Up

"Hiya. Back again? My staff said that you want to take on the job I offered for points earlier." Dia was bright and cheery since she had been waiting to finish this new obstacle for weeks. The constant upkeep of the entire course and the preparations for campers had put a pause on her project.

"Yes, I brought two friends to help me out too. They need some points so you can give them mine. I will crush a few more people who try to challenge the course later." Laura surprised Sammy and Art by giving up her points. However, they were left with the sneaking suspicion that this was just because she wanted to be the first to try the new obstacle.

"Perfect. Then you will both get twenty points for helping out. Follow me, I will show you the shortcut to the new obstacle. It is a secondary path that I'm making through the forest. I want to have the easy challenge which is the climbing stairs to the zip line and the hard course."

Dia had long planned this out but needed much more time to develop it. She didn't think the course was too easy, however, there were always a few campers who got tired of it or wanted something they felt was impossible. Dia also silently hoped that Laura would be unable to complete the course on the hard path, sadly it wouldn't be finished for another few years.

"So, what exactly are we helping finish? Wouldn't hiring someone to finish an obstacle be better?" Sammy was curious why it was campers being asked to help finish this.

"You are getting points, why are you so worried over the why?" Dia was confused, she thought that any camper offered this would jump at it just to get a lot of points at once and get their stuff back or get in to a cabin.

"We do want points, but we also want to know what we will be doing." Art tried his luck to get some information as they walked deeper in to the woods away from the main path.

"This." Dia pointed out the wooden poles that had been securely planted in the ground. Some were within arms reach of a tree while others were fairly far apart. They had wood beams fastened securely to connect them leaving only small eye hooks visible.

"And this is?" both Sammy and Art said this in unison while they tried to put the puzzle together.

"This is the hardest rope swing I could manage. You start here and swing rope to rope through the entire path. Then at the end, you will need to jump on to a platform or start over." Dia sounded proud of all of this. But to Art, it sounded like a challenge that would make his arms fall off.

"The entire course without rest?" Sammy said this like she already knew that the answer would be yes, but she had hope that it might be partially finished.

"Exactly. If it is going to be a harder version of the course campers will need to use their entire physique to beat it. Now, who is climbing to the top of the post to tie the first rope?" Dia pointed to a pile of measured and knotted ropes.

"We need to climb up there?" Art was the one questioning things this time.

"Yeah, who else will the ropes get up there? Can you fly? Then we will climb." Dia was slightly sarcastic. She didn't think she would need to explain every little part.

Art looked at Sammy and had hope that she had made a huge breakthrough on her super power training and could now fly. "Don't even give me that look. I can't even make myself levitate in place. There's no way I am going to fly." Sammy shut him down in a moment. She knew that if she climbed, the best she could do was lighten her fall and avoid injury.

"We can do it a few ways. Someone climbs up and ties a rope then back down while another goes up. We can have one person go up and sit on top of the connecting beams and accept the rope brought to them then ties it while the other two climb up and brings them ropes over and over. Lastly, we could try throwing roped up to someone, but I doubt that will work." Dia gave them the possible strategies out of kindness for Jane who had been excited about the new obstacle.

"I want to say one of us goes up to stay there and the others bring rope but I don't think that is the best long term option." Art frowned slightly before he continues. "It is better to each climb up and tie a rope than climb down. We will be able to train our muscles and balance. It will take the same amount of time too."

"I don't want to climb through. I want to just sit and tie ropes." Laura was trying to sneak in to the lazy way.

"Nope, you are going to do the same amount of climbing that we have to do, or I won't let you steal away the first chance to test it out." Sammy's threat was enough to bring Laura to full seriousness. She didn't want the competition to be the first to try the obstacle.

"Then it's settled. I will supervise and let you all get on to your training...or ummm the task I have set." Dia laughed a little trying to avoid her slip of the tongue.

'I knew this was all a ruse to get us to train more. She wanted us to choose this method and train our muscles and balance.' Art was silently judging the methods used by the camp to get them all to train more.

"Ok, fine. But I will go first and try this out." Laura grabbed a rope and headed to the first wooden pole. She used the rope to wrap around the pole and help her hold on and inch up. She was like an inch worm moving little by little to the top beam.