The second room of the class trial was much the same as the first, save for two notable differences. Firstly, it was longer. A thin rectangle instead of a square, it ended up feeling more like a gauntlet to run rather than a training arena.

Secondly, hanging from the walls to my right and left were expansive balconies. I could see no stairs or ladders leading up to them, and without Mana Feet, they were much too high to jump to as well.

Okay. So what’s the score here? Ranged enemies on the balconies? Am I going to have to shoot them down?

As if to laugh at my misconceptions, all five of my currently soulbound weapons appeared before me, clattering to the ground. Seeing no new weapon rack to replace them, I bent down to try rebinding the bow and arrow.

Unfortunately, nothing happened, confirming that the weapons from the first trial room were no longer valid targets for Bind Weapon. To add insult to injury, a moment later, they all began to fade away. I watched as the previously solid weapons surreally disappeared from sight, leaving me fully and completely unarmed.

A low rumbling began to shake the room, and at the far end of the room, a stone statue began to rise from the ground. Over double my height, the figure it portrayed was both impressive and intimidating, a man with five arms spread into a semicircle, two on each side and one shooting straight up. Each arm held a metallic blade that, with my current Strength, I imagined I’d struggle to wield even using two hands. The artistic style wasn’t remotely similar, but the statue reminded me vaguely of images I’d seen depicting Hindu gods, with their multiple weapon-bearing limbs.

Okay. Five swords. Five slots for Bind Weapon. Am I supposed to go take those to kick things off? Seemed strange considering how large they were, but say what you would about me, I knew how to go with the flow.

Evidently, however, my guess had been wrong. Very wrong.

Well before I could get even a quarter way across the room, a flash went off, signaling that new enemies had spawned. Instead of blocking my way forward, however, every single enemy had appeared on the balconies. Unlike last time, there was no variety here: only viciously smirking goblins, shrieking and yelling down at me while holding thin spears.

Disconcerting, but also much less worrying than it could have been. At least they didn’t have bows.

It was then that the true threat of the trial made itself known to me.

A crack. A snap.

The stone statue began to move.

A flick of one of its massive arms, and the blade it held shot into the sky. Another flick, another flying sword. The pattern continued, the arms snatching the blades from the air as they fell back down. The final result was a fluid, graceful dance as each blade was sent into the air and caught just as easily.

For a few blissful moments, it appeared the statue would continue just like that, effortlessly juggling the swords.

Until, without warning, one of the hands shot out. At me.

The colossal blade tore through the air, hurtling towards me.

Caught off guard and with lowered stats, my reaction speeds were found wanting. Before I could even think to leave the trial, the blade was right before me, and-

You have failed a class trial!

Class space locked for 12 hours.

“Pichou!” I fired a pebble out at a nearby tree, the collision surprisingly loud on account of my Strength. I attempted to keep the other three pebbles in the air, attempting a poor recreation of my failed class trial. Unfortunately, whether due to my limited two arms, or my lack of juggling skills, I failed, the remaining pebbles falling to the forest floor.

Wonder if I have enough Dexterity to grab a Juggling skill? Meh. When would I ever level it? Plus, I wasn’t here to juggle. Somehow, I doubted Archmage Callis would be overly impressed if I showed up with underleveled magic skills, but tried to make it up to him with a juggling performance.

Would be kind of neat though…

“Okay! Take two! No getting bisected by massive thrown swords this time.” The second room of the class trial went through the same motions as last time, including the frighteningly fast thrown attack.

Expecting it this time, however, I managed to neatly dodge out of the way as the sword bit into the floor with an ear-shattering crash.

One out of five! If nothing else, that was the nice part about this trial: Presumably, I only had to dodge a total of five times.

That was the thought, at least.

Still sticking from the ground, the blade suddenly pulled itself from the floor before shooting back towards the statue, landing neatly in one of its outstretched hands. As if the blade had never been thrown at all, it rejoined its place in the aerial acrobatics of its four siblings.

Objection? Am I allowed to object? Somehow, unlimited flying swords versus an unarmed person felt like it wasn’t kosher. Sadly, however, if there was a judge listening in on my thoughts, they overruled me as another blade shot out from the statue.

This, too, I managed to dodge, all the while trying to figure out how to beat the trial. A possible solution came to me quickly, in large part because it was something I’d already considered.

Like I said: Five swords, five slots of Bind Weapon. Can I steal its swords?

Wielding them would be difficult, sure, but I didn’t actually need to use the swords as long as I kept them out of the statue’s hands.

Eager to enact my brilliant plan, I dove for the newly thrown blade before the statue could resummon it. Right before I could make contact, however, another flash of motion came from above me.

I processed its source too late, earning myself a host of spears to the gut.

From the balconies, a host of viciously laughing goblins pointed down at me, cackling as I bled out.

Huh. Guess they can throw those, then.

Well. That sucked.

You have failed a class trial!

Class space locked for 12 hours.

Crack.

The pebble split into pieces. As expected, its interior was plain-old boring rock.

Still, it was kind of fun, sort of?

I summoned another pebble, placing it on the ground before casting Flameploof. With its Initiate augment, I could sustain the spell continuously, and I used it like a blowtorch to heat the pebble until it was red hot.

From there, I cast Chill Liquid on my cup of water over and over again until it was ice cold. Using my knives as a pair of tongs, I lifted the superheated pebble and tossed it into the water.

Crack.

Much like its predecessor, it shattered, the rapid heating and cooling too much for its structure.

Neat. Would be more fun if they were mini-geodes, but beats just summoning them over and over again.

I summoned another pebble, ready to repeat the process.

Summon Pebble has reached level 6!

Dodged the first throw. Dodged the spears as they came raining down.

The blade flew back before I could touch it.

Dodged the second throw. Dodged the spears as they came raining down.

The blade flew back before I could touch it.

Over and over again, I failed, the goblins above somehow never running out of their primitive javelins. With how focused they were on keeping me from the statue’s swords, I felt I was on the right track, but as long as they were around, I didn’t see how I could win. Had the trial only left me with my bow, maybe I could have removed them. Without any ranged weapon, however, I was-

Wait. Ranged weapon?

The cycle repeated itself, with a new wave of spears raining down. This time, instead of trying to bind the massive sword, however, I grabbed one of the javelins.

You are in possession of a weapon. Would you like to soul bind it?

Before I even read through the prompt, I confirmed it, greedily snatching up the weapon. Deciding one more couldn’t hurt, I repeated the process once more, two of my weapon slots now filled.

“Let’s see how you all like it, then!” I summoned up one of the spears, threw it forth will all my might, and!

It fell horribly, embarrassingly short.

Man, I really calibrated that one horribly, huh? I guess I hadn’t spent much time with thrown weapons.

The botched throw and the errant thought grabbed my attention for one second too long. A new blade shot out from the statue, and in my moment of distraction, I failed to dodge in time.

Rather than being cleaved in two, I was merely clipped on the side.

Unfortunately, getting clipped on the side by a titanic two-hander wasn’t a particularly pleasant or livable experience.

Ah well.

You have failed a class trial!

“No. Bad.” I cast Gust at a particularly persistent fly, watching as it was sent flying back. Undeterred, it started flying back, attracted to a bowl of stew I’d brought with me to keep myself fed during my stint in the forest.

Taking the high road, I tried a few more times, keeping the fly from my meal with gusts of air.

Unfortunately, it appeared that flies were not particularly good at taking hints.

“Hey man, I tried. Act like a pest, get treated like a pest.”

The fly fell from the air as I switched on my death cantrip, plummeting to the forest floor.

“Sorry dude. Not your stew.”

Pest-Killing Aura has reached level 6!

Blade dodged. Javelin bound. Javelin bound. Javelin bound.

Blade dodged. Throw!

Miss.

Throw!

Miss.

Repeat ten times.

…

Okay, fine. Repeat more like thirty times. Turned out all that Star Wars stuff about “having the high ground” was true. Aiming up that high was hard!

On the bright side, having soulbound the weapons, I could recall them the moment it was clear they weren’t going to hit.

It was tiring, taxing work, but finally-

Hit!

“Hah! Suck it fake class-space goblin!”

Its brethren, not seeming to take kindly to my taunting, renewed their efforts to impale me.

Unfortunately, they still had a much better success rate than I did.

You have failed a class trial!

A full week. That’s how long I’d kept at the second room of the trial.

I wasn’t exactly sure if the things I learned in the trial got locked into muscle memory. After all, I was pretty sure I wasn’t truly, physically in the space whenever I visited. Still, with each new iteration, my throws got smoother. The dodges, more sure.

Until at last.

“YES!” The final goblin slumped to the balcony floor, a spear protruding from its chest. It was, in fact, probably a bit overkill -- one goblin probably wasn’t enough to keep me from binding to the swords -- but I’d gotten into the zone, so to speak.

Plus, to be honest, after getting impaled enough times, I had something of a grudge to settle. I wasn’t above admitting that.

I eagerly unbound all of my stolen javelins, letting them clatter to the ground much like my original five weapons had.

Only one opponent remained.

A blade shot out, and I leapt aside by as little as I could manage. Well before the statue could summon it back, I tapped on the two-hander.

You are in possession of a weapon. Would you like to soul bind it?

I was right! Not hesitating for even a millisecond, I sent the sword into one of my Bind Weapon slots. As hoped, no new weapon appeared in the statue’s hands.

Another throw. A dodge. A bind.

Again, and again. The juggling grew less and less impressive with each new weapon taken from the performance.

Without all the shrieking of the goblins, the ending was anticlimactic in a way. When the statue got down to two blades, and then one, I half expected it to hold onto them. Maybe it would stand up and charge at me, entering into some sort of second phase.

Luckily, no such thing occurred. I doubted I’d have survived a real fight with the statue even with all my stats returned to me. As it was, with my Endurance set back to 10, I found myself panting like a dog by the time the final sword rushed my way.

Even running on fumes as I was, however, I had enough steam left for one final dodge.

I jumped back to the sword.

I tapped it.

I bound it.

And at last the room fell silent.

You have cleared the second room of the trial!

Woohoo…

Too tired to muster up the energy for a serious celebration, I let myself crash to the ground. When at last I’d recovered my breath, I decided to see what I had left to do. By now, I knew I was unlikely to complete the next portion of the trial in a single attempt, but it was worth checking out, at least.

I rounded the statue, wary of it shooting into motion even though I’d seen the completion notice. As advertised, however, the second room was well and truly done, and it remained inert. A door lay behind it.

The third room went back to being square, even smaller than the first.

No weapon racks stood along the walls.

No flashes of light summoned up monsters to fight.

My opponent was already present. Waiting for me.

There, in the center of the room, was a chillingly familiar set of black armor.

My nemesis. My hated foe.

Armor Guy.

Congratulations! You have reached the final room of the class trial!