Seeing the dark suit of armor that had killed me time and time again at the end of my last class trial, my body was sent into fight or flight mode. Mainly the latter, in fact: I kept expecting the suit to rush at me, sword raised.

Fortunately, however, Armor Guy appeared stationary this time around. Whether he would stay that way, I couldn’t say, but I felt secure enough to take in the remainder of the notification.

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

To pass the trial, you must land ten hits, successfully blocking all counter-attacks made against you.

I reread the text, feeling like I’d missed something. That was really the big finale? Ten hits? I could do that. Probably.

I scanned the remainder of the room, looking for whatever my weapon would be this time around. Oddly enough, however, I spotted no weapon racks. The trial hardly seemed like the last portion either, as there wasn’t anything I could easily steal for myself -- Armor Guy was wielding a singular, thin one-handed blade.

Experimentally, I tried to summon up one of the five swords from the previous portion.

And it worked!

Which led me to curse.

Having a weapon in hand was admittedly better than having nothing, but simply holding the sword made me feel lopsided, threatening to topple me over. On seeing absolutely no other options, however, I decided to try my luck.

I clumsily ambled over to Armor Guy expecting him to lash out at any point. He, however, seemed content for me to make the first move.

Well, have fun getting hit by this. My sword skills weren’t amazing, but with a sword this size, there weren’t many options besides “swing really hard.” I leaned back, almost landing on my ass before I managed to arrest my backwards momentum and shift it to forwards motion.

Clang. The massive sword easily crashed through Armor Guy’s guard, bashing into him.

Hits: 1

Blocks: 0

Success! First of ten!

Before I could even start to bring the blade back into a blocking position, however, Armor Guy lashed out. Seeming to content himself with the smallest of nicks, he gently poked at my exposed arm, drawing a thin line of blood.

Block unsuccessful! Counter reset.

Hits: 0

Blocks: 0

I frowned at the updated text, stepping back from the suit of armor.

That’s not… That’s not real, is it? There was a zero-percent chance that I’d manage to block that attack once with a weapon like this. Ten times was far, far out of the question.

I paced about the room, looking for a weapon I’d somehow missed the first time around.

Nada.

I returned to the second room, thinking to replace one of my five swords with a spear. It worked, too!

Only for the spear to get ejected from my Bind Weapon slot as I entered the third room. Much like had happened in the room before, it faded away, leaving me with only the bulky, unwieldy blades.

“Trick question? If the statue could throw them, maybe so can I?”

I stood a distance off from the suit of armor and lobbed one of my swords its way. It bounced off the armor ineffectually, not updating the hit counter.

To reassure myself that there was some hidden trick I hadn’t figured out yet, I retried my earlier attack, landing a hit on the armor. A split second later, a second line of blood appeared next to the first.

Block unsuccessful! Counter reset.

“Maybe a dodge?” I repeated the process, dropping the sword and jumping back before the counterattack could hit.

Block unsuccessful! Counter reset.

“Okay. Not that.” Well, the last room had been all about teaching me to steal my opponents’ weapons. Worth a try this time around too?

While the armor was still in its docile state, I poked at the side of its sword, attempting to bind it.

Possession of this weapon is contested! You may not bind this weapon.

It still wasn’t attacking me, so I tried pulling on the weapon. Though a struggle, I eventually wriggled it free from the armor’s grasp.

This is a soulbound weapon! You may not bind this weapon.

It vanished from my hand, reappearing a moment later right where it had started.

“Huh. Maybe I need to look deep within, surpass my limits, and win through the sheer power of self-belief and momentous effort?”

Okay! Something, something, power of friendship! I lashed out at the armor, immediately pulling my blade back towards me. I strained my muscles as hard as I could, visualizing the blade materializing right where I needed to. I could do this! I would do this!

Block unsuccessful! Counter reset.

“Yeah, kind of figured. Fifth time’s the charm?”

Block unsuccessful! Counter reset.

Block unsuccessful! Counter reset.

Block unsuccessful! Counter reset.

…

“All right Armor Guy. We’re tabling this. Don’t think you’ve won, though!”

I filled a cup using Conjure Water before sending a few Gusts towards it at an angle. Mini waves and ripples played atop the water’s surface. In an attempt to capture them, I rapidly cast Chill Liquid, hoping to fully freeze it.

Unfortunately, it didn’t really work out, ruining my dreams of making some abstract ice art. The motion of the water seemed to prevent me from freezing it.

Deciding to try a different direction, I took the full cup and walked over to a nearby tree branch. It was a stout one, only protruding a finger’s length from the trunk.

As quickly as I could, I shoved the cup over the branch. A bit of water splashed to the ground, and as the mouth of the cup wasn’t perfectly flush with the trunk, a trickle more started to escape. Before the cup could fully empty, though, I chained Chill Liquid casts over and over.

Chill Liquid has reached level 6!

When finally I pulled the cup from the tree, a small coating of ice covered the branch.

“Nice. A little branch-cicle.”

I’d been granted magical powers, allowing me to bend the very laws of reality to my will. As far as I could tell, I was using them well.

I sat in front of my armored nemesis, trying to think about my trial from a different angle. I’d already tried hacking at the armor six ways to Sunday by now. If that was actually the solution, I was resigned to simply never finish the trial.

Which meant hopefully there was something I hadn’t considered, and likewise hopefully there was something I could figure out.

So, it’s a Bind Weapon trial. Presumably the lesson has to do with the skill. What does the skill let me do?

Well, that one was easy. It let me bind weapons. It was kind of in the name, after all.

Unfortunately, the weapon-binding part of things was over. I had the sword it wanted me to use, and all attempts to get another weapon had failed. I -- if for a single, ever-so-brief instant -- considered trying to make myself a weapon out of… bone, but rapidly vetoed that option. We weren’t to the “saw your own arm off and turn it into a weapon” stage of things. Yet.

Anything else?

I mean, really no. I was able to bind weapons. Summon them. Unsummon them. And that was just about it.

As soon as I finished that thought, I shot to my feet.

“Wait! Ooh! Wait! Duh! I got it!” With a possible solution in mind, I was at once equally excited to try it out and angry at myself for not figuring it out sooner.

I got into position, staring down the eyeless suit of armor, ready to show it who was boss. With the usual rev up, I brought the sword surging forth until it collided with the suit of armor.

The very instant I felt it connect, I dismissed my blade.

Hits: 1

Blocks: 0

A counterattack rushed towards me, but no longer lugging around my body weight in metal, my hands shot back, outpacing the strike.

Clang. I resummoned the weapon just in time, awkwardly adjusting to the sudden added weight, but ultimately managing to keep myself from getting nicked.

Hits: 1

Blocks: 1

“God! Yes! Okay! Again!” I sent out another blow, ready for a repeat performance.

This time, however, Armor Guy displayed a prodigious amount of strength, somehow using his one-handed blade to push my strike to the side. Luckily, it seemed that he wasn’t set to hit me unless I successfully hit him, so no counterattack was forthcoming.

Well, if it worked in one direction, might as well use it in the other.

I struck out again, but right when Armor Guy’s blade would have met mine, I dismissed my weapon, resummoning it a moment later. It appeared behind his blade, leaving him no room for further parries.

Hits: 2

Blocks: 1

Just as before, I unsummoned the blade and resummoned it before the counterattack could land.

Hits: 2

Blocks 2

“Eight more!” I kept at it, even a single swing of the weapon proving to be taxing with my lowered stats, but bit by bit, the counters advanced.

In retrospect, it was no wonder it had taken me a while to figure the answer out: It was a trick that largely didn’t work with a spear. If someone was set to block a stabbing attack, unsummoning my spear for a second wouldn’t do anything to help me.

On the flip side, for a smaller slashing weapon like a sword, it was perfect. And for incredibly heavy weapons, it was equally ideal for allowing me to reposition faster than I could have otherwise.

I imagined having a sword suddenly phase through someone’s parry was a trick that would only catch a person off guard once, but admittedly, it was the kind of trick that you only needed to work once.

A few false starts and slip-ups brought my counters back down to zero, but with proof of concept, I kept at it. With arms on the verge of cramping, I struck out.

Hits: 10

Blocks: 9

I dismissed the weapon, pulling my arms back as quickly as I could. I resummoned it, barely able to keep the behemoth of a blade aloft anymore, and then!

Clang.

Hits: 10

Blocks: 10

The training room faded away, returning me at once to the central room of the armory. Much like the first time, a much-anticipated notification welcomed me back.

CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE COMPLETED A CLASS TRIAL!

Damn. I really should have started with this one, shouldn’t I have? That one had been so much faster than Mana Feet’s! Eager to see what I’d earned, I read on.

You have demonstrated mastery over your class skill Bind Weapon and in doing so improved it in the process. The following upgrades have been granted.

Improves the quality and damage of all bound weapons.

Increases the effects of all enchantments and class enhancements used on bound weapons.

When using a bound weapon, the associated weapon skill will level 20% faster.

Allows multiple, separate bound weapons to be summoned concurrently.

Weapons with uncontested possession may now be bound from afar, allowing you to bind weapons within ten meters.

Additionally, increases the cap on Bind Weapon to ten weapons.

I cheered for myself, letting my shouts echo through the armory around me. That was such an upgrade!

Admittedly, some of those bonuses, I didn’t expect to use much. The ability to bind weapons from afar would have been handy during the second portion of the trial, but otherwise, I couldn’t think of a time I’d ever needed it. I never found myself needing to fight with multiple weapons at once, either, and likewise, I didn’t even have all five weapon slots filled out yet -- I could barely even imagine what I’d use a full ten for.

The increases to quality, enhancements, and damage were obviously a plus. The biggest win felt like the leveling speed bonus, though. I found myself feeling a touch salty that I’d gone through an entire semester’s worth of weapon training without it, but ultimately, I only had myself to blame.

Deciding to end things on a high note rather than getting myself killed in another class trial, I called it quits. Death could come after I treated myself a little!

The forest is kind of pretty when it’s dark out.

Happy with my recent class trial completion but feeling a touch drained from the mental exertion of it all, I’d taken most of the day off before coming back to the forest. I’d yet to be out and about this late, likely from some Earth-mindset holdover that had me thinking forests magically got more dangerous at night.

Weirdly enough, it was probably the opposite now -- with my darkvision from Illuminated Sight, I imagined that I was the one who was more dangerous when night fell.

If that had been my primary concern, perhaps I would have stalked around in the dark, training my spells while also training my Stealth. With how safe this area of the forest was, though, I wasn’t really worried either way. In fact, to the contrary, I found myself curious to see what the forest might look like when softly lit by Illumination.

I carved a wide spiraling path, sending out the minuscule balls of light with every few steps. Seeing no reason to keep things plain and boring, I used the cantrip’s Initiate augment to change the balls’ colors. I largely gravitated towards a soft purple, feeling it lent the woods a certain ethereal quality, but occasionally mixed it up, making some a seafoam green and others a robin’s-egg blue.

At the end of it all, I sat in the center of the spiral, looking out at my handiwork.

It’s… beautiful.

More than that, it was a sort of scene I’d never really seen before. The fuzzy balls of unsuspended pure light looked distinctly like what they were -- magic. Perhaps someone could have managed some similar effect with technology back on Earth, and I was sure it would have been child’s play to do something vaguely similar with special effects, but this was different if for no other reason than that I was different.

With the ability to sense mana, the ability to see in the dark, and a Perception which let me see each and every groove and striation on the bark of far-off trees, let me pinpoint the location of distant crickets from their chirps alone, let me take in the rich, earthy scents of the outdoors…

It is beautiful, I repeated to myself.

It was a good reminder, honestly. So much of my life in the past year had been focused on fighting and dungeons and duels, and sure, it was true that all of that was incredible too. I could fire arrows that could tear someone in two. I could armor up and take a hit that would have left the old me dead a thousand times over. It was flashy. It was cool.

But magic could also be this. Beautiful. Wondrous even.

I let myself sit there for a few more minutes, letting the moment soak into me. As the various balls of light began to flicker out, rather than move on, I opted to summon a few more.

As if to reward my appreciation of the magic’s gentle glow, it was during one of these casts when the level I was looking for came at last.

Light Magic has reached level 10!

Congratulations! You have reached the Initiate rank in Light Magic!

Based on your skill usage, you have been granted a skill augment for reaching a new skill rank.

Augment of Control

Grants limited control over the brightness of all summoned light, allowing you to dim or brighten any conjured light, contingent on your Intelligence.

I read and dismissed the usual class quest completion notice and then immediately put the augment to good use, dimming and brightening the many balls of Illumination in turn. They flickered throughout the forest, lending them a sort of sentient appearance as if I’d summoned a host of woodland fairies to keep me safe.

When at last I’d had my fill of the sight, I let the lights flicker out for good. The experience had managed to melt away some of the mental and soul-deep exhaustion that had come from the nonstop training and trial attempts.

In fact, it had done a good bit more than that.

Not too long before I have to see the archmage, and I have plenty more spell schools that haven’t hit the Initiate mark. Maybe it’s time to finally fix that, yeah?