Crossing the pole further down, the ceiling disappears above us showing even more poles to climb up.
Not having to tell Inv, Inv starts climbing up the poles easily with me still on his back.
'I feel like I'm getting a free ride with a belt strapped around me…' Not that I mind.
…
Climbing up, Inv stops at a certain point. Looking up as well I see that we've reached the first stop where we need to use a spear.
"Us da sphere her Joey?" Inv asks me. Hearing his voice directly against my ear slightly increases my heartbeat, but I keep it under check.
"mhm" I simply respond back.
Hearing my confirmation, Inv while balancing on the pole below jumps up and stabs the spear into the wall with ease. Gently landing back on the pole effortlessly.
Seeing this display of strength and nimbleness I wonder if I would be able to do the same thing…
'I would probably fail, sticking the spear into the wall and fall to my death…' I grimly think to myself.
Brooding with my thoughts, Inv pulls himself up with the spear now stuck in the wall. Balancing on the spear Inv hops onto a solid surface.
'Ok… let's see how he can climb up the next part with one spear' I think to myself, wondering how Inv will get pass the next part.
But instead of continuing on climbing, what he does next shocks me.
Bending down, Inv reaches down with his paw towards the spear he stuck into the wall below… then easily pulls it out?!
'What the fuck?! How did he do that?!'
The reason I'm so surprised by this action is due to the fact that it shouldn't be possible to pull spears out of a wall!
The number of times I've tried to pull one out of a floor or wall after throwing one, I've lost count of how much time I've wasted trying.
But Inv made it look so easy just now! He even did it at such an awkward angle with ease!
I thought that it was just flat out impossible after wasting so much time trying. This only made sense to me since the only way to pull a spear out of a wall or floor after throwing one was to enable it on the remix menu in the game!
But my theory was completely proven wrong just now…
'Was he able to pull it out purely with strength?' Thinking back to Inv's display of strength since meeting him this would make a lot more sense.
'So does that mean I'm just too weak?'
…
It would be depressing if this was the case… am I really this limited in ability due to how I physically am? Just a small slugcat?
…
'It's fine… I should expect stuff like this. Trying to compare myself to Inv is like trying to compare a blue lizard next to a train lizard. For now, I'll just focus on what I can do and help Inv anyway I can. I can also just ask him later how he pulled the spear out of the wall. Maybe there's more to it than just brute strength' Calming myself from falling into more depressing thoughts, I focus back onto Inv's movements.
After retrieving the spear, Inv looks up to another horizontal pole hanging above us. Looking back down and seeing if there's any other route. Inv jumps up grabbing the pole. Doing the same action he did before, he starts balancing across the pole until the ceiling disappears.
"Dis es da oter par wight?" Inv asks me.
"Yeah, this is the last part"
Giving me a firm nod I feel Inv's fur squirm once again, completely locking me in place on his back.
A bit caught off guard by the sudden loss of freedom, I still let it happen. Right now, I completely trust Inv to not do this for no reason.
This is the one and only reason why I will let this happen. Not because I'm enjoying the feeling of being so close to Inv and being completely wrapped in his fur. Definitely not…
Trying my best to not drool and let the fuzzy feeling take over, Inv jumps planting one of the spears in the wall above us.
But instead of balancing on the spear like he did before his next action takes me out of my stupor.
Planting the other spear in the wall above the first spear. He pulls the first spear out, now only hanging from the other spear in the wall.
Repeating the same action, he plants the spear he just pulled out above the other spear.
'Wait a second… is he… using spears as some form of climbing pick??'
In surprised silence I watch as Inv easily scales the wall by repeating the motion. Reaching the edge he pulls himself over it and stands up with both of the spears still in his paws. Wouldn't this be considered like an Infinite wall climbing hack??
"Ok Joey, we go pas ta par. I ca le yu dow noaw" Pulling me out of my thoughts I hear Inv say this. Feeling his fur starting to unwrap around me from my comfortable position I reflexively grip down even harder on Inv's back.
"W-wait Inv! Letting me down yet isn't a good idea! Going through the next area like this would be safer!" I quickly say out loud to stop Inv's act of letting me go.
Me saying this isn't exactly wrong as well. To get through the next part we have to go through a very specific path that would be difficult to traverse with us both separated. I was actually more worried about this part than the one with the spears. So Inv's idea of carrying me actually solves this problem as well!
"W-weally?" Inv questions back as his fur stops unwrapping around me. Feeling this my heart settles back into relief.
"Y-yeah, it will be better if I stay on your back…" I say back hoping he won't see this as me leeching off him for a free ride.
While I do remember the path ahead of us, traversing it on my own 2 feet I might accidentally fail and fall into protorot since I still haven't seen the path itself with my own 2 eyes. With Inv who's more capable of traversing this environment, I can direct him on the right path while my safety is secured.
And the possibility if Inv falls into the protorot killing the both of us? Well, we'll just wake back up in the shelter and try again. It's my choice to trust Inv with my life, so I'll deal with the consequences along the way.
'Also, I'm just so damn comfortable, mobile Inv is best Inv~'
"O-ok, u sta on bak den!" Inv answer back with surprising fervor. His fur wrapping back around me quickly, further proving my theory that Inv can control his fur.
I definitely have a couple questions to ask when we get back to the shelter.
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A/N: Joey backpack :)