If there was one small mercy, it was that the effects of my training aids started off fairly weak. The descriptions on them had indicated they’d grow stronger as my spells did, but seeing as they were all at level one, none of the negative effects were too awful. Yet.

Still, that didn’t mean that they were pleasant. Simple activities like walking across the room suddenly became great ordeals as my vision swam in and out of darkness, my weight suddenly changed mid-stride, and my various body parts alternated between a host of different states.

I lost a solid two days to the effects at first, staying firmly wrapped up in my bed covers as I got a handle on my new spells. While none of them were truly debilitating, I had zero desire to go out in public as I currently was. I was lucky that none of them were overly visible, but I was awful at keeping my composure when they activated.

Thankfully (and somewhat surprisingly), I started to get a handle on my skills at what felt like an absurd rate. Some of that, I imagined, was from the increased learning speed offered to me my host of learning-speed bonuses. Even more so, however, it was probably just that discomfort was an impressive teacher.

Dampen has reached level 2!

I sighed with relief while pacing about the room, the dry skin on my foot giving way to the spell effects.

Only to return even drier than before.

“Wait! Shit!” The spell leveling up meant that the socks’ effects had only grown stronger. For once, I wasn’t entirely sure I was looking forward to my skills growing.

I cast Dampen once more, but with the new level, I put more mana into than I needed, wetting the sock instead of properly moisturize myself. To balance everything out, I hit myself with a cast of Dry.

Dry has reached level 2!

Good. Glad that’s o-

I tensed up as the other sock attacked the sanctity of my feet with a vengeance.

Ew. Wet. Ew. I hate this.

This time, I hit the mark, managing to bring the foot back to normal, but the entire experience left a sour taste in my mouth.

Maybe it’s time to check out one of the other class trials? If nothing else, I was guessing my class space would offer me a reprieve from all the training aids. Thus far, none of my item effects had followed me in.

I let the fog of the class space consume me before it spit me out in my armory, happy to note that my guess had been correct. My skin stayed blissfully normal, as did my weight and my sight.

The vision one seemed kind of rough the one time I tried it. So, maybe the armor one?

Soon thereafter, I found myself descending the usual stairs into the usual tunnel and grunting as my stats were slammed back down to 10. Similarly to the Bind Weapon trial, I quickly came across racks of armor against the wall, all five of which I bound. They ranged from cloth robes to plate armor so thick I couldn’t even move in.

So, what are we thinking here? I learn how to react quickly to different types of attacks? Figure out some cool trick for summoning my armor at weird times?

As if solely to confound me, the tunnel rapidly gave way to a wide outdoor area. Canyons and mesas dotted the landscape, all of them connected by the sort of rickety suspension bridges you only saw in adventure movies. A few odd additions stood out here and there, vaguely resembling the equipment you’d see on jungle gyms or obstacle courses.

Am I sure this is the right trial, or what’s the deal here?

As if in response to the unverbalized question, a sharp flash of light appeared ahead, and when it died down, a loin-cloth-wearing goblin holding a bow stood in its place.

The creature cackled gleefully before sprinting away, its actions confusing me until the corresponding notification popped up.

Class Trial of Bind Armor

To complete this trial, there is a single requirement.

Catch the goblin.

The straightforward instructions caught me off guard for a moment, letting the goblin increase his lead on me before I started sprinting after him.

Better than most of the nonsense these trials have made me deal with. Plus, it’s only one goblin. How hard could it be?

“I hate this trial, I hate this trial, I hate this trial, I hate this trial.” Covered in a multitude of scrapes, cuts, and bruises, I sprinted across a barely-held-together suspension bridge as the goblin archer hastily fled from me. As he reached the far side of the bridge, he spun about, a glowing blue arrow materializing on the bowstring.

Twang.

With the angle of the arrow and my inability to move off the bridge, there wasn’t much of an option to dodge. Still, this was the Bind Armor class trial. I summoned up some of the plate armor the trial had provided me, and-

The wood beneath me snapped.

Oh. Right. Crappy bridge.

As I began to fall, the arrow managed to hit me, bouncing off ineffectually.

Somehow, successfully defending myself against the arrow failed to make me feel any better as I soon plummeted to my death.

You have failed a class trial!

“Oi! Brat!” Suds flagged me down as I was making use of my recently acquired cooking skills, finishing up a lentil stew recipe I’d learned from my cooking class. I still found it odd living with a “caretaker” of sorts after spending so much of my adult life living alone. The idea of running into someone in the kitchen was fairly novel to me, or perhaps more accurately, nostalgically old.

Oblivious to my current train of thought, Suds barreled on. “Looked over those classes you picked. Should all be fine, though I had to talk to a few people to make that ‘Skill Advising’ one work out. Nabbed you someone whose entire class revolves around confidentiality. Forget what I told you about never, under any circumstances, using a build stone for someone else — the guy literally can’t snitch on you about any of your skills, even to me.”

Nice. I was wondering how that one was going to work. If I’d been forced to be cagey with a skill advisor and hide my class, my stats, and half of my skills, it probably wouldn’t have done me much good.

Of course, I’d already disregarded Suds’ words by showing the archmage my entire build, but that wasn’t something he needed to know about.

“In any case, he can tell you more of the specifics, but-” The chamber head stopped mid-sentence, his mouth still open until he slowly curled it into a frown. “Girl. Are you… floating?”

I responded with a cast of Encumber, returning me to my normal on-the-ground state.

Encumber has reached level 2!

“Don’t worry about it. Thanks gramps!” I clapped the clearly confused cleaning mage on his shoulder before excusing myself, throwing some of the stew into a bowl and running back to my room.

I wriggled through a low and narrow tunnel, the back of the goblin visible up ahead, unfortunately moving far faster than I was.

Couldn’t they have at least given him some goblin shorts? Somehow, I was failing to enjoy my current view.

At least like this he can’t shoot at me. It’s just about speed right now. I rushed through, armorless, knowing that anything but the cloth would be a burden.

Just as I’d thought that, I heard a sharp click beneath me.

A slit opened up in the rock right beneath my chest, and out shot a blade faster than I could react.

As it sunk into me, the only thing I could see was some poorly covered goblin junk, rapidly growing further and further away.

I… hate this… trial… so much.

You have failed a class trial!

“Yeah, I do kind of miss the internet sometimes, you know? Even just for reading. I know a lot of people love their physical books, but there was something so convenient about downloading one.” Not that I’d had all that much time to read for pleasure since becoming a Protagonist. Still, it was kind of a bummer.

“Lady Astorius, while I have several follow-up questions and comments regarding your words, I feel obligated to inform you that your sock appears to be leaving a stain on the floor.” Verin flicked her eyes down to where a small puddle was forming, mildly concerned with the development.

For my part, I sighed. Even without the best grip on my training aids, I didn’t have much of a choice when it came to visiting Verin: My Oath mandated my presence. What that meant practically was that, as I told her more and more about Earth, she had to witness the entire debacle that was my skill training. Especially considering that her room was a no-shoes zone, that included the socks as well. I of course could have taken them off as well, but Xander’Callis had made it sound like he would know if I did so… and be less than thrilled with me.

Although it was just water, I somehow doubted that Verin would be too pleased if I messed up her floor further. A quick cast of Dry thankfully settled things.

“Sorry about that. Carrying on.”

I rushed across the expansive mesa top, happy to finally have some open ground. Small fairy-like motes of light floated through the air, bouncing into my cloth armor before harmlessly drifting off. I’d learned the hard way that they were a bit like jellyfish, in a sense, able to deliver painful shocks that could temporarily paralyze me. Even the cloth armor succeeded at warding them off, however, as they required skin contact to work.

Somehow immune to the creatures, the goblin archer continued its mad dash forward before turning on its heels to send another arrow my way.

Light leather. Take the hit. Don’t slow down.

Unfortunately, I’d come to realize that I couldn’t keep switching to plate armor every time something was about to hit me. The move only cost me a second each time, but it added up time after time until I found myself pulling further and further behind the goblin I was supposed to catch. Sure, it meant that I’d get some wounds here and there, but it was a tradeoff.

The arrow hurtled forward, and robbed of my usual stats, I wasn’t going to be making any heroic dodges.

Wait, is it green? Why is it green?

The curiously colored arrow rammed into my shoulder, only the very tip of it managing to fully push past the protective leather. Without my usual Pain Resistance, I failed to suppress a yelp as it just barely pricked my skin, but it was hardly anything debilitating.

Or so I thought.

You have been poisoned!

Are we- I hate this trial!

Not even waiting to see what sort of poison was about to kill me, I quit out.

You have failed a class trial!

“Lady Tess. Is all well? I couldn’t help but notice your outings have been significantly less frequent of late. Is something troubling you, or are you saving up your energy before the impending start of the semester?”

Considering I really hadn’t been going out at all and that my room had an attached bathroom, once again I found myself ambushed in the kitchen. It was about the only place I’d been regularly hitting up in the past few days outside of my room. This time I was going for a spicy polenta with mixed vegetables.

“No worries. Just some spell training that’s kicking my butt. Should have it all good to go by the start of classes though.” Or at least I seriously hope I will…

“I see.” He appeared less than convinced, for whatever reason. That reason became clear immediately, however, when he tilted his chin towards a spot on my hand. “Incidentally, this would not happen to be related to why you seem to be bleeding into your food, is it?”

Crap. I cast Deaden on my ring, its thorns retracting. One quick Minor Healing had me as good as new.

“Yup. Like I said, though, no need to worry. See? Already fixed.” I plated the polenta and grabbed an empty glass — without filling it, considering I could do that myself with magic — before starting off towards the stairs.

As if to make me look bad, two of the curses activated in tandem, my next step missing as I was lifted off the ground while my vision simultaneously went white. I dealt with both almost immediately, barely managing to keep myself from tripping and dropping my food. The misstep hardly went unnoticed by the concerned butler.

“I see…” he replied once more. “To be clear, however, whatever is causing…” he gestured vaguely in my general direction, “this will be turned off while you attend your courses, yes? It would hardly do to present yourself in such a state to the outside world, of course.”

I moved the glass to the crook of my arm and shoveled some of my food into my mouth as I began ascending the stairs up towards my room. “Mmm. Sorry Markus, no time to chat! Would be a shame for this to get cold, you know? Oh! And you know, it’s unladylike to continue a conversation with food in my mouth,” I informed him with a mouth full of food. “Good talk, though!”

I bolted up the remainder of the stairs and made it to my room as an exasperated shout sounded out from behind me.

“Lady Tess. Tess!”

I’d learned an unfortunate truth about armor class trials over the past few days.

Movement-related class trials were about moving around. Vision-related class trials were about looking at things. Weapon-related class trials were about hitting stuff.

Armor class trials… Armor class trials were about getting hit.

Naturally, this sucked very hard.

I sprinted across another wooden rope bridge, careful to only summon medium leather when the inevitable arrow came for me. The impact was still jarring, but I hadn’t been pierced, nor had I fallen.

Through the tunnel. Click. I hastily switched to my chain mail, letting the blade try and fail to slice into the metal rings.

Into the open field of lightning sprites, blocking the poison arrow. Another bridge, a spinning blade trap that made me feel like I was in a demonic car wash, a trio of regular arrows this time.

If the annoying part about armor trials were that they entailed getting wailed on, the upside was that there just weren’t that many different ways to get hit.

With a weapon, you had a multitude of types. Even with a single type, like a sword, you could train for years, learning different forms, stances, strikes.

Getting hit, on the other hand, was pretty much just getting hit.

Sure, there were different things to get hit by. And yes, as I was quickly learning, there were ways to angle your body to redirect the force of blows rather than taking them full-on.

Still, there were only so many ways to get pummeled before it stopped being a learning experience and started being plain-old vindictive.

All that to say, even over the course of a few days, the trial didn’t have much more to throw at me. The appropriate armor was summoned up directly before blows struck. Arrows were dodged, deflected, or faced head-on when applicable. Traps and obstacles were raced through, only managing to deal minor scrapes at worst. Stamina was rationed well enough to keep me going.

Until, at last.

A dead end. A cliff.

The goblin froze in indecision for a moment, looking back to my angry, charging, bleeding form, and forward to the expanse of empty air before him.

Seeming intent on denying me my prize at all costs, he flung himself forward over the edge.

“Absolutely not!” Unarmored, I leapt after him, wishing more than anything that I could use my Mana Feet right about then. Still, even without it, my aim held true. I dove directly for the goblin, inching closer to it as we fell, until-

“I know you’re not real, but I hope you die anyway.”

Tap.

As soon as I touched the goblin, the canyons, the mesas, the rapidly approaching ground all disappeared, replaced with the familiar central room of the armory. So too did all the wounds I’d accumulated over the course of the trial.

Feeling like I should have become a farmer or something. Farmers don’t have class trials focused on beating them up, do they?

Thankfully, a grand, capitalized notification soon brought me from my funk.

CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE COMPLETED A CLASS TRIAL!

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

Improves the quality and protection of all bound armor.

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

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

Allows pieces from multiple different sets of armor to be summoned concurrently.

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

Additionally, increases the cap on Bind Armor to ten sets of armor.

I felt some of my foul mood start to simmer off as I read through the list, a near analogue to its weapon skill counterpart.

I guess the class has its perks, at least. Three class trials down, who knew how many more to go?

With the training aids constantly keeping me on my feet — or in the case of my anklet, off my feet — I found my time rapidly vanishing. Day by day, I grew less conspicuous and more adept at using my new spells, and day by day, the remainder of my vacation dried up. Considering how late into my vacation I’d seen the archmage, I hadn’t much left to begin with, but even just a week was enough to get me to a passable performance with my new spells.

It helped that — especially as the effects grew stronger — my Perception made it easy to detect them as soon as they began, and I found my heightened Wisdom made it much simpler to feel out how much mana to funnel into my spells to counteract the effects.

And such, it was that after only a small handful of days, I reached the final night before classes started, no longer quite as plagued by my new training aids. It was odd, in a way, in that I wasn’t entirely sure how to feel about it.

On the one hand, it was a blessing — I didn’t have much more frantic spell training and hermitude in me, and especially considering I’d had a hand in choosing my own classes, I was looking forward to them starting.

On the other, my free time was about to be slashed dramatically. I’d meant to check up on Emer’Thalis at some point to see the latest changes, but between trying to level up my spells for the archmage and then getting my gear under control so I could attend classes normally, I just hadn’t had the time.

Ah well. Not like it’s going anywhere. And more than that, it wasn’t like I was blocking anyone. The settlement was a well-oiled machine with or without me by this point. Frankly, I would have thought about handing it off to Amak if he’d shown even the slightest bit of interest in taking it. For whatever bizarre reason, though, everyone seemed perfectly content to leave me owning the ruins.

Regardless, those sorts of thoughts could wait. For now, I had more important things to focus on. Even with my reduced need for sleep, I lay down in bed, wrapped up in my spatial compression nightgown, eager to face the following day well-rested.

Here we go. Round two!

“HAPPY SECOND SEMESTER! RISE AND SHI-”

Dry. Dry. Dry. I shot as much mana as I could into the spell, casting it in quick succession at the bucket of floral-scented water which was imminently headed my way. What would have been an ice bath morphed into a fine mist instead, cold but not nearly as unpleasant.

Invigorate. I warmed up immediately. Much better.

Suds stood at the foot of my bed, still holding the bucket, his face scrunched up as if he’d eaten something tart. The expression quickly shifted as I could see him trying to come up with something else now that his first “friendly wake-up call” had failed.

Pulling myself partly out of bed, I wordlessly summoned up my harpoon spear.

And for good measure, funneled a bit of death mana into it.

Putting down the bucket, he held his hands up in surrender.

“Fine, fine. No fun.” Defeated, he left the room without further prompting, shouting behind him as he left. “Enjoy your second semester, kid! Make us proud, and all that!”

When at last I was certain he wasn’t lying in wait to try something else, I got ready for the day ahead.

“Welcome back, everyone, and once again, congratulations on making it to the second semester! All of you worked hard to get here, and your test scores were a testament to that.” The gray-haired dungeon-delving instructor stood at the front of the same room I’d become well-accustomed to over the course of the last semester. Hers was hardly the only familiar face, as Alara sat off to one side, Emin on the other.

“This time around, we’ll be focusing less on tests, and much more on practical experiences. It’s time to get you kids into the dungeon!” A few muted cheers sounded out at that, though whether due to the promise of the dungeon or the freedom from the tests, I wasn’t sure.

“But before that, there’s something far more perilous for you all to navigate. More nerve-wracking than an exam. Harsher than any monster you’ve ever faced…”

She looked around the room, making eye-contact with as many of us as she could as the room grew perfectly quiet.

Just before the suspense could give way to discomfort, she beamed brightly at the mass of students before her, shouting out.

“That’s right! For next week’s class, we have a social event!”