A flurry of Game messages accompanied my entrance into the cabin. Halting in the doorway, I took a moment to peruse them.

Congratulations Michael! You have completed the second test, the Mind’s Reach. You have gained experience and reached level 70.

You are now a rank 7 player. For achieving rank 7, you have been awarded 1 additional attribute point.

Your telepathy has increased to level 46. Your telekinesis has increased to 43.

Dismissing the alerts, I studied the room. It was dark, no light penetrating within except from the open door at my back. With night vision, though, I had no trouble picking out the shapes in the shadows.

The table lay in the room’s center once again, and interestingly enough, a closed door was situated opposite me. It had to lead into an underground tunnel. But it was not the exit’s placement I found most surprising.

It was what lay next to it: a humanoid entity.

Letting the entrance door close behind me, I advanced on the still and motionless form next to the exit. Though, as I drew closer, I realized that whatever was near the door, it was not alive. It was too still and motionless for one, and for another, it had no presence in my mindsight.

I stopped before the thing. It’s a construct, I realized, studying it closely.

The construct was eight feet tall and had been molded from compressed sheets of metal—iron, I guessed. It had no facial features, and the digits of its hands and feet were short and stumpy.

I laid a hand on the construct, and a Game message unfurled in my mind.

Do you wish to possess an iron golem?

I responded in the negative to the Adjudicator and, with my mind buzzing with questions, turned to the table for answers. Its contents were familiar: three ability tombs and a lesser attribute gem.

I used the gem first and invested my new attribute points without having to give the matter much thought. Given where I was and what challenges I faced, Mind was my most critical attribute.

Your Mind has increased to rank 31.

I inspected the books—all chi ability tomes—next. They read: ‘Hardened Body,’ ‘Steel Fist,’ and ‘Chi Heal.’

Well, I thought. That explains the construct.

The next challenge was obviously focused on testing my chi, which could only be used with a body. I didn’t spend any great length of time considering the abilities on offer. As useful as two of them appeared, there was only one that I simply had to have: chi heal.

Being unable to heal myself was my greatest weakness, and I could barely curb my eagerness to finally resolve that lack. Resting my hand on the tome, I willed my choice to the Adjudicator.

You have acquired the basic ability: minor chi heal. This mind spell allows the caster to mend his body using psi. This ability consumes psi and can be upgraded. Its activation time is very slow.

You have 24 of 31 Mind ability slots remaining.

I sighed as I saw the ability’s activation time. It was too slow to be ordinarily of use in combat. Still, any healing spell—even one I couldn’t use in battle—was better than none.

After meditating to recover my lost psi, I stepped back up to the construct and clothed my spirit in it.

You have possessed an iron golem. Abilities gained from the host body: none. Your physical and body skills are available once more. Note your Strength, Constitution, Dexterity, and Perception attributes are determined by your new host body as follows: Strength: 20, Constitution: 20, Dexterity: 5, Perception:5.

Warning: if this body is destroyed while you are resident in it, your spirit will be torn asunder.

The golem’s body felt strange.

Where my human form had been lithe and quick, the golem was clunky and slow. I willed my new body towards the door, and it creaked into motion with the sound of metal sheets screeching against each other.

Urgh. I was not going to be sneaking about anytime soon in my new body. Still, I would make do.

Yanking open the door, I stepped through and into the next test.

~~~

Your task: Pass the First Trial has been updated. Revised objective: Defeat all enemies in the arena to complete the third test and reveal the exit.

I tensed as I read the message. It made clear that the next test was different, breaking the pattern established by the first two.

Warily, I scanned the darkness. No immediate threat made itself known. I still didn’t move away from the door, though. Summoning psi, I cast reaction buff.

Your Dexterity has increased by +2. Duration: 10 minutes.

The boost provided by the ability was small, but considering the low base Dexterity of my new body, the improvement was significant. I flexed my arms and winced as they squeaked. Possessing a metal body was more problematic than I imagined.

But despite the horrendous noise I’d made, nothing jumped out at me.

I was in an enclosed area. It was completely sealed with not even an iota of light penetrating. That didn’t bother me, though. What did was the bareness of the space.

The so-called arena was box-shaped and about twenty yards long on each side. The floor, walls, and roof were all formed from granite, smooth and unadorned. There was no sign of the door through which I’d entered either. It had disappeared, leaving the wall to my rear seamless.

I spotted nothing that I could use as a weapon, nor any obvious threat. I frowned. So, where are these enemies?

I took a cautious step forward. Then another.

As I advanced further, I spotted a small white circle painted on the floor and about five yards away, another one of darker red. I stepped onto the white spot.

A Game message opened.

Ready yourself, scion. Commencing the first battle…

I stilled, hands clenching into fists. In the exact center of the red spot, a shape appeared.

It attacked immediately.

I braced my feet and stretched out my hands. Whatever my foe was, it was fast. As it charged towards me, I glimpsed arms and feet tipped with claws, menacing yellow eyes, and a mouth stretched wide and filled with razor-sharp teeth.

Then it was upon me.

From two steps away, my foe hurled itself through the air. Crashing into me, it wrapped its legs around my waist. Despite the momentum behind my foe’s charge, I didn’t budge so much as an inch. My golem-body was too-damn heavy.

Useful, I grunted and swung my arms forward.

But before I was halfway through the motion, my foe completed its own attacks. The claws of the creature’s left and right hands raked down my metal chest, scoring deep furrows while its jaws clamped down on my neck.

A level 70 zombie has injured you!

An undead?

The zombie’s opening assault had been fast and furious, a blitz series of attacks almost too quick to see. Helpless to evade or block my opponent, I did the only thing I could think of: I wrapped my arms around it.

Given the strength of my new body, my best weapons were my hands. Hugging the zombie, I squeezed.

You have injured a zombie.

Flesh compressed under my grip, bones cracked, blood—thick and congealed—broke free.

The undead, though, was unfazed and kept beating at me with rabid abandon. Dents appeared in my body, and slivers of metal flew off.

A zombie has injured you!

A zombie has injured you!

I wasn’t sure who was doing more damage—me or the undead—but there was no reason I had to endure the zombie’s own attacks, not when it was so helpfully pressed against me. I cast stunning slap.

You have failed to stun your target. Undead are immune to all forms of mental assaults.

Well, damn.

If stunning slap had failed to work, then astral blade or charm wouldn’t do any better. I had only one option now. To hurt my foe quicker than it was damaging me.

With the zombie and I still wrapped around each other, I took a step forward. Then another, building momentum. The undead was indifferent, the fury of its attacks not abating in the least to consider my actions.

I kept running, and I kept squeezing. Careening straight at the closest wall, I crashed into the unyielding rock. The floor beneath shook, and if I had teeth, I was sure they would be rattling.

You have injured yourself!

You have critically injured a zombie!

I smiled in grim satisfaction at the Game alert. The damage to myself meant little in the face of the fine web of cracks that had appeared in the rear of the zombie’s skull.

My foe had borne the brunt of the impact.

Time to do it again. Turning about, I aimed myself at the opposite wall. This, finally, gave the zombie pause, and for a moment, it stopped its frenetic assault.

Then it squirmed, trying to wriggle free.

My grin widening, I tightened my grip and built momentum again, slowly but surely. The undead’s attempts to escape grew more desperate, but it was no use. With all the grace of a lumbering ox, I plowed into the next wall.

You have injured yourself!

You have critically injured a zombie!

Once again, my foe was squashed between stone and my equally unyielding torso. I’d timed my second collision better, too, ramming the zombie headfirst into the wall.

The crunch of its skull was audible.

For a handful of seconds, the undead didn’t seem to realize its fate, and its limbs continued to batter at me. Then the zombie stilled as what little intelligence animating it faded entirely, and it slid to the ground in an untidy heap.

You have killed a level 70 zombie.

Congratulations, scion, you have defeated the first challenger. Step onto the starting circle to commence the second battle.