A broad stairway spiraled up along the circumference of the space she stood in, with a featureless slab of rock lining the stairs like a thick bannister. The stairs were smooth and even, and the rest of the space was empty. Roxie approached the stairs and gazed up them. A white outline of a ceiling two floors up blocked her view of what lay deeper inside the mountain’s heart. She felt like she stood at the beginning of a video game dungeon, with a bunch of monsters waiting for her to get close enough to attack. She began climbing the stairs anyway. With all she’d been through, she could handle a few bosses. Up. That was the only way out, so up she went, jogging up the steps one at a time, figuring she’d slow down if she got tired. Training for the race on Sconda had boosted her stamina, in addition to her speed, and getting used to the enhanced gravity on Druconica had made her even stronger. She figured that, with both pieces of training combined with Frava, she’d be able to climb a mountain of stairs no problem.
