"Welcome, traveler!" a kind-looking, stereotypical old man greeted her. He had a cartoonish, chibi look to him. "Are you here for the competition?"

"Competition?" Beth raised an eyebrow; there was no one else here, or any signs, or anything other than the old man and the mountain.

"Yes!" the NPC continued, "today is the day of the Heavenly Competition! The only chance for us valley-dwellers to make our way to the top of the mountain and join the shining gods above!"

"Hmm," Beth said.

"On your way make sure you find the fruit of ambrosia, or they won't open the gates!"

"Uh...ok," said Beth, looking at the narrow path that wound upwards. "What does the fruit of ambrosia look like?"

"It takes many forms, but you'll know it when you see it!" the man said cheerfully.

"Great," Beth sighed, but this was VR, right? Maybe climbing the mountain would be easier than it was in real life...she hoped.

"Oh, and take this! It's a map that will show the locations of the fruit of ambrosia!" The old man handed her an incredibly vague map that showed the mountain from the side, with a pointer showing her location at the bottom and sparkles at different spots throughout.

"Uh, thanks, sir! I'd better get going!" Beth took the map, squinting at it, but it didn't really offer much insight into the locations of the fruits of ambrosia.

She started up the path, and after a few minutes of walking, came across a forlorn-looking wolf pup sitting next to a split in the path. "Awooo," it said sadly.

Beth sat down next to the wolf pup. "What's wrong?" she asked.

"I've lost my mother," it sighed. "Can you help me find her?"

"Sure," Beth said, and an icon appeared in the corner of her vision. If she focused on it, she could open it. A list of tasks was displayed, with the only item being to help the wolf pup find its mother. Beth focused back on the wolf pup. "Where did you last see her?"

"We were picking berries together. The berry field is on the path to the right, by the way."

Wow, thought Beth. I hope it's not going to be like this the entire time. "I'll go find her and bring her back."

She followed the path to the right and sure enough, there was an adult wolf sitting in a field of berries. "Awoo," the wolf said sadly.

"I found your pup," Beth said before she even asked the wolf what the problem was.

"I lost my pup," the wolf said automatically, and then, "Oh, you found him? Please bring me to him!"

Beth led the mother wolf back down the path to the wolf pup. "Thank you for finding my pup," the wolf said. "As gratitude, I'll give you this fruit of ambrosia." The wolf coughed up a sparkling raspberry and Beth put it in a bag she just then discovered she had. A strange victory noise played.

We will be here all night if I have to collect these one at a time, Beth thought. She pulled out the map and looked at it. There were areas that only had one sparkle, and others that had several. And some of them were moving. That seemed promising. Maybe there were some mini games or something. Beth followed the path upward, pausing every once in a while to check the location of her pointer. She passed a baby rabbit, a baby deer, and a baby bird, plus an old lady, but finally she found the location of one of the groups of sparkles.

It was...what she could only assume was another contestant. A child who looked about the age of 12, strolling up the path ahead of her. Oh no, thought Beth.

Well, it was only a game, right? Beth examined her pack and discovered a whole set of bandit clothes, plus a pair of long daggers that felt comfortable in her hands. "Thief path unlocked!" announced a floating banner that faded away as quickly as it had come.

Well...ok. Beth jumped in front of the kid, brandishing her daggers threateningly. "Give me all your fruits of ambrosia!"

The kid pulled out a sword, because of course 12 year olds wandering around alone on a mountain are going to have swords, and some battle music started playing. Beth dodged around the kid's sword - her reach was a little better after all - and stabbed them directly in the heart. The kid fell forward into the snow.

"Critical hit!" A flashing banner proclaimed. "Gained 10 exp. Leveled up!"

Beth stared at the body, a little horrified at what she had done, but it was hard to take the game's cartoonish art style too seriously. There was no blood on her daggers, she noted as she returned them to their sheaths. The kid had a pack like hers, and when she examined it, two shining fruits fell out, along with a small handful of gold. The body vanished after she was finished, the snow beneath a pristine white as if it was never there.

She didn't feel great about mugging (murdering?) her competitors. And a thought occurred to her: if she could attack them, then they must be able to attack her as well. She would need to move carefully, especially on the higher levels of the mountain.

Beth examined the map again. Maybe she could stick with targets that weren't moving. She located one not far from her current location and followed the path - though she stayed well off of it - to the next location. She was surprised to find a thriving village on the side of the mountain.

An old lady stood at the entrance to the village. "I wonder where little Timmy has gotten to," she said. "He said he was going to search for fruits of ambrosia today."

"Hmm," said Beth. "Can't say I've seen him." She hoped that wasn't the kid she murdered (?). Beth looked around the village. She had no idea where the fruits of ambrosia could be, but the map indicated there were at least three of them here. A person-shaped bear approached her.

"Hello, traveler!" Great, this again. "Several of our men have gotten trapped in the mine, and we'd be ever so grateful for your assist-" Beth was already walking away. A path outside the village led directly to the mine. She followed it down, but her way was quickly blocked...by bats.

So. Many. Bats.

Beth slashed at them wildly, raking in exp that was still helpful for a low level newbie, and unlocked a new skill, dagger throwing! She continued into the mine, being careful not to trigger more attacks from the hordes of bats, as the way grew more and more treacherous. It was dark, the ground was full of random holes, and there were just boxes full of bombs lying around. She wondered if she could just...maybe take a few...yep, an entire box went into her pack. There was no way these weren't going to be useful later!

After fighting her way through a gauntlet of bats, lynxes, rattlesnakes, giant rats, and other low-level creatures, Beth finally reached the bottom of the mine. The missing miners were nowhere in sight, but there was a huge drill-looking mechanical monster standing in front of a large treasure chest.

Beth contemplated it. Cords and hoses hanging from the ceiling connected the thing to power, air, and oil supplies. All she would need to do was sever the cords and hoses. She wouldn't be able to reach the ceiling inside the cavern, but the cords connected to several tunnels around the outside. She'd just have to find those tunnels.

This set off another long segment of scurrying hither and yon through the maze-like mine. Several ladders were involved as Beth worked her way to each of the tunnels in turn. Finally, she severed the last of the cables...and the entire mine went dark. But she was in front of the cavern with the monster and the treasure chest, and she hurried in there anyway. She could hear groans but she went straight for the chest. "You've received the boots of Apollo! No one can catch you!"

Beth groaned, then dug around in her pack until she pulled out a flashlight. The beam was pitifully small, no more than you'd get from a keychain, but it was better than nothing. She swept it over the drill-monster, and discovered the source of the groans: the missing miners were trapped in the cab. They all looked to be in rough shape. She opened the door to help them out, and selected the fittest one to come back to town with her. She was not going back through the maze to bring help. Together they made their way through the legions of animals (where did they all come from?? Beth could have sworn these tunnels were clear earlier), back to town.

Beth brought the injured miner to the bear. "Thanks for helping our miners, please take th-" yeah, yeah. She had figured out how to skip dialogue. She shoved three more fruits of ambrosia into her pack, put on the boots, and practically flew up the path. It was true that nobody could catch her while she was wearing them... But they could catch her every time she ran into a tree! "Useless things," Beth muttered as she slid them back into the pack. On the increasingly craggy mountain it felt like she would fall into a ravine if she wasn't careful.

The map showed that she was about 1/4 of the way up the mountain. Beth looked up towards the vanishing mountaintop and back down at the map.

Then I ran out of energy but BASICALLY Beth obtained the last 4 fruits of ambrosia by setting a trap for any competitors intent on tracking her. After blowing them to smithereens with her bombs, she was able to recover a few fruits. With the fruits in hand she headed to the top of the mountain, only for the gate guard to turn her away because she didn't have enough. "You're kidding!" she shouted, thinking back to all the opportunities she had passed on.