The next morning, I woke up to a notification that gave me considerably mixed feelings.

Your class space has been unlocked. You may now access it as normal.

I debated for a while on whether or not to immediately retry the trial. On the one hand, I was excited to see what clearing it would give me. On the other, it would mean another run down boulder-tunnel with all my stats set back to 10.

Well. Let’s be honest. You’re going to do it at some point. Might as well be now when things are kind of quiet.

I groaned. I didn’t even like regular jogging. Deadly jogging while feeling like hell was going to suck.

Still, I’d do it. After a brief shower to wake myself up, I entered my class space. The dirt floor and surrounding tent were gone within moments, replaced with gray stone and obsidian.

“Before I do this,” I said, definitely not stalling or putting things off. “Why Mana Feet?” What was so special about the skill that it got its own trial, while none of the others did?

Could be that all Arcane Augmenter skills get a trial. It’s the only one I’ve tried. Still, that’d be kind of weird. It’s the first skill on its path, which feels important, but I already tried grabbing the weapon above Bind Weapon and that didn’t work, so I doubt that’s it either.

Maybe it’s because it’s maxed out?

Unlike all of the other skills I had, Mana Feet wasn’t upgradable, only having one skill rank. Other skills like Resist Magic were upgradable to rank five.

I did have a skill that was at rank four out of five. Considering I was still holding two class points, I could easily rank it up and then try it out.

The only real reason not to was that I was saving up for Arcane Vision.

I stood there, thinking it over for a while, before finally coming to a decision. Yes, I wanted to save up, but Arcane Armory was already one of my favorite skills. I was definitely going to rank it up at some point. No real harm in doing it now, right?

It was ultimately a very carefully considered choice that had nothing to do with me hopefully getting out of running if I unlocked a different class trial.

“Well, here goes.” I navigated to the armor rack in question, spending one of my class points and ranking the skill all the way up to max.

Arcane Armament has reached Rank 5: Enhanced armor now grants additional defense on par with plate mail.

Without further ado, I grabbed the armor on the rack, pulling at it, and!

It didn’t budge.

“Damn, I kind of expected that to work, not gonna lie.”

Well, fine. Just meant I’d be going for a run.

I left the armor behind, moving instead to the room of the Augmenter and grabbing the pair of boots there. Like last time, they were easily removed from their place, and I put them on with ease. When I returned to the central chamber, the staircase was there once again.

“Well, here goes nothing.” I descended the stairs, made it past the point where my stats dropped (with only a bit of grimacing), and then I started to jog.

Not making the same mistake I made last time, this time around I immediately activated Mana Feet. In fact, considering how poor my Endurance and Dexterity felt relative to what I was now used to, I didn’t hold back, channeling light mana into the boots to use Flash Feet instead. The variant of the skill was even more effective than the original, allowing me to move even faster.

I ran and ran through the tunnel, somehow having forgotten how endless and monotonous it seemed. My heavy footsteps echoed against the ground, and I did my best to block out every sensation but their sound — there was, after all, not much of a reason to worry about getting tunnel vision while in a literal tunnel.

Eventually, the tremors began. The boulder was on its way.

Okie doke. Let’s try not to get squashed this time? Maybe?

All in all, though, I wasn’t that worried. The trial was clearly meant to be passable with only baseline stats and Mana Feet, so there was no reason to think I couldn’t outrun the boulder. I just had to try.

Thankfully, that seemed to be true, too: While I could vaguely make out the sounds of the boulder inching closer, it was at a glacial pace. With Flash Feet active, I was apparently moving just about as quickly as it was. Provided the tunnel didn’t go on long enough for my Endurance to come into play, I had this in the bag.

Wonder what the reward is going to be. Think it will make me even faster? Or maybe I’ll get some sort of double jump skill like in those video games that make no sense? What are they even jumping off of?

Snapping myself out of my running trance, I gave a quick glance to my stamina to confirm that I was in the green. I was.

Oh. Wait. Um.

Crap.

While my stamina was doing fine, belatedly I realized that it wasn’t the only resource I had to keep an eye on.

Mana: 13/100

I stared at the numbers uncomprehendingly for a moment before it sunk in. My Wisdom was set all the way back to 10. I’m… going to run out of mana just from using Mana Feet?

That wasn’t exactly true though: I wasn’t just using Mana Feet. I was using Flash Feet. I cursed. The skill, while making me faster, did so at double the mana cost.

I’m going to be so pissed at myself if I die again because of this.

Hastily, I switched back to the base version, but the damage was already done. I kicked it into full gear, ready to drain my stamina all the way down, but it was no use.

Mana: 8/100

I’d run for a good while, hadn’t I? Maybe I’d still end up making it. Eight mana was still a fair amount. Just to be safe, I did my best to speed up.

Mana: 4/100

I panted, still not knowing how people did this kind of thing for fun. It sucked. Just a little bit longer, and I was sure I’d make it. The boulder was concerningly close at this point, but I was ignoring that for now. Nothing to be worried about.

Mana: 1/100

All right. Maybe something to be a little worried about. But even once the skill ended, I could still run for a while, right? I’d show that boulder who was boss!

Right as I thought that, the skill sputtered out, leaving me with nothing but normal, unenhanced legs to rely on.

I ran. And I ran. And I ran.

And then, at last,

Crunch.

You have failed a class trial!

Class space locked for 12 hours.

The next morning, I stood at the foot of the staircase, gazing down the length of the tunnel before me. I’d waited longer than 12 hours, opting to give myself a bit of a break, but today I was back at it again.

Third time’s the charm?

I hoped it was, at least. The wine bottle was already half gone.

I activated Mana Feet.

I ran.

The tremors started up.

I ran some more.

There were no realizations this time around. No pressing thoughts. Just pained muscles, tired lungs, and the growing fear of being smooshed as the sounds grew louder, closer, stronger.

And then, blissfully, I saw it: The end of the tunnel. A small iron door was set into a sheer, vertical wall. Its presence promised relief and safety.

Even knowing it was an awful idea that I’d regret, I spared a glance backwards. As expected, I regretted it.

I’d only barely kept pace with the boulder while using Flash Feet. With Mana Feet, it continued to get closer and closer with each passing second, and by now it was practically on top of me. Only a few meters of space stood between me and getting crushed for a third time.

I checked my mana, pleasantly surprised to find I still had 5 left. Feeling no need to conserve it anymore, I switched to Flash Feet, almost stumbling as I changed speed mid-stride.

I would have been so remarkably pissed.

Then, at last, I reached the door. I slammed my body into it, grabbing the handle and shoving it forward.

Instead of the door opening up, however, I crumpled to the ground, every bit of me in pain.

What? Why-

The boulder was right there, only seconds away.

WHY THE HELL IS IT A PULL DOOR?

Fighting my aching body, I yanked on the handle, the heavy iron seeming to move impossibly slowly. Right as the boulder was about to slam into the wall, I dove through.

Shards of rock flew through the open door, peppering me and covering my body in both cuts and bruises, but it was enough.

I had survived.

“Okay,” I groaned. “I’m ready. Prize me up.”

When no notification was forthcoming, I lifted myself from the ground.

Part of me almost expected to find myself back in the central class space room, but I quite notably was not. Instead, I was in a large cavern. A few meters ahead was the shore to what looked like an underground lake. It extended forward farther than I could see now that I was back to my old level one vision.

“So. Am I getting this prize Lady in the Lake style, or?”

As expected, no one answered.

I spent some time just lying there, letting my stamina and mana tick back up, but eventually I pulled myself from the ground. With only one way forward, I made my way to the water.

Now, did I want to swim, or walk? The water version of Mana Feet came with waterwalking, so I didn’t have to get wet if I didn’t want to.

Might as well use it. Worst case, I ran out of mana like I did in the tunnel, but that would just mean I’d be swimming one way or the other. And besides, it was a trial about Mana Feet. Only seemed right to use the abilities that came with the skill.

I stepped onto the water, the sensation still not something I was all that used to. Part of that meant that the novelty of it still hadn’t worn off, and even bruised and battered, I couldn’t help but grin like a fool as I started walking off on top of the lake.

Kind of weird, honestly. Not really clear what this is all for.

Certainly pretty though. Nothing but blue water in every direction, with not even a boat to block the view.

Wish the water were clearer. Would be nice to look directly downwards and see the bottom. As it stood, I couldn’t see much of anything.

Oh. There’s something there, isn’t there? In the distance, I could see a speck of land, an island in the lake. Feeling like it was a safe bet that it was where I was supposed to end up, I pivoted towards it.

Nice de-stresser after that running nonsense. I relaxed, wondering if there’d possibly be a second half of the trial waiting for me on the island.

It was right about then that the water opened up beneath me.

I didn’t get a great look at what caused it.

Only that it had teeth.

Lots and lots of teeth.

You have failed a class trial!

Class space locked for 12 hours.

Trauma Suppression has reached level 13!

I shot up from the ground, playing the last few moments of the trial over and over again in my head.

Then, I craned my head back and shouted out: “Whichever god or whatever designed that, you’re on my shit list! I do not want to be eaten by giant fishes!”

Damn.

Could you imagine doing that without Trauma Suppression?

The answer was a resounding no. Even with the skill, some of the residual trauma was bleeding through.

Not caring that it was early in the morning, I fished out the bottle of wine from my inventory, taking a few gulps of it. Long-term, I’d have to be careful not to develop a problem, but getting eaten by a freaky tooth-fish fell squarely on my “I’m allowed to have a drink for this” list.

Of course, it was just then that I heard a voice call out to me. “Protagonist?” I could hear Amak nearing my tent, and I opened up the flap to greet him.

“I heard you screaming something about… giant fishes?” He took a look at me — more specifically, he took a look at the bottle of wine I was holding — and bunched his brows together. Wisely, he chose not to comment.

“Rough morning. Went to my class space. Got eaten by a giant fish. Anyway. You need something?”

He blinked several times, ultimately seeming to decide it was best not to ask.

“Well, yes. I was hoping you had time for a meeting,” he replied. “Rock has returned.”