The shift between worlds felt different this time—less like being yanked through a crack in reality and more like drifting across a boundary. Luna’s boots found solid ground before the brightness around her settled into something recognizable.

  They were standing in a vast stone chamber. Yellow-gold sandstone rose around them in towering walls, warm in the flicker of torchlight. An arched ceiling stretched high overhead, supported by thick pillars marked with unfamiliar carvings. They looked vaguely like hieroglyphics, but nothing she remembered from school or documentaries. No windows. No doors she could see. Just an open hall about the size of a gym, torches spaced neatly along the walls, throwing long shadows across the floor.

  “Where the hell are we now?” Derek’s voice broke the silence. He already had his battleaxe in hand, turning slowly as he checked every corner.

  Margaret stepped forward, taking in the room with the same calm she used when evaluating patients. “Some kind of temple, maybe. It feels Egyptian, but those symbols aren’t anything I recognize.”

  Luna made a quick count—everyone was here. All ten of them. Mia still held her hand from the transition, only releasing her grip once she was sure Luna was steady. Clark was helping Emma upright after a rather rough landing. Sam had gone straight to the nearest pillar, brushing dust from the carved symbols as if he’d stumbled into the world’s most interesting museum exhibit. Steven hovered in place, sword drawn, anxiously tracking every shadow. Roger was—of course—already half-hidden behind a column, having drifted into a defensive position without a sound.

  Marcus stood beside Derek, shield up even though nothing had moved yet.

  Then Luna noticed what filled the far side of the room.

  Rows of wooden training dummies lined the wall—crudely humanoid shapes fixed to posts. And not far from them, arranged in an orderly row, were flat stone plates of different sizes. Numbers were chiseled cleanly into each one: 50, 100, 200, 400, 800. Luna wondered if those meant their weight in pounds—judging by their size, it could be.

  [TRIAL 2 PREPARATION ZONE]

  [Rest Period: 60 minutes]

  [You may restore Mana and test your Class capabilities before Trial 2 starts. Full recovery is recommended before the Trial, but you'll have more than enough time.]

  "An hour," Sam breathed, relief evident in his voice. "Thank god, I didn't recover fully in the ten minutes we had after the battle."

  Luna checked her internal sense of Mana—something that had become instinctive since receiving her Class. At the moment, she was at roughly two-thirds of her full capacity. The Hunter's Mark and Venomous Shot hadn't consumed much, but sustaining her Class Form throughout the battle and recovering her arrows in the quiver afterward—the ones she'd shot disappeared soon after—had drained her more than expected. She'd been at half of her capacity after the battle and ten minutes hadn't been enough for a full recovery, at least while maintaining the Class Form.

  "Everyone dismiss your Forms," Margaret instructed, already letting her white-gold robes fade. Beneath them, her practical slacks and blouse reappeared. "The System isn't lying. Recovery will be faster without them—I already checked after the battle."

  One by one, the group complied. Soon, everyone was standing in their casual clothes. Luna dismissed her own Form reluctantly. The sensation was jarring—like stepping from a warm house into winter air. Her enhanced senses dimmed, and her body felt heavier, slower, and weaker. The bow vanished from her hand, and she felt its absence like a missing limb. She willed it into existence separately—which, to her surprise, worked, though her Attributes didn't increase. She noted this particular peculiarity.

  Obviously enough, her elven features remained. The pointed ears, the silver eyes, the golden-lustrous hair. Those weren't part of the Class Form, but who she truly was. She wasn't sure what to think of it.

  Mia was staring at her again. "It's still weird seeing you like that. The ears, I mean, though not only them. You look like you stepped out of a Lord of the Rings movie."

  "Thanks," Luna said. "Not sure if that's a compliment."

  "It is a compliment. You're gorgeous. I mean, you were gorgeous before, but now you're like... ethereally gorgeous. Unfairly gorgeous. The kind of gorgeous that makes other girls want to commit crimes."

  "Mia."

  "Right, right. Focusing." Mia sat down heavily on the stone floor, her simple yellow t-shirt with the "I LIKE BIG BUNDTS AND I CANNOT LIE." written on it looking absurdly out of place in the ancient chamber. "God, I'm tired. The healing took more out of me than I expected."

  Luna felt her Mana beginning to recover—a gentle trickle that was noticeably faster without her Class Form active. She estimated full recovery in perhaps three minutes at this rate, so around ten percent per minute. While maintaining the Class Form, the recovery felt roughly five times slower. She wondered if things would've been even worse without the Aether-Touched trait and if any of the Attributes affected Mana regeneration, for example Arcana or Insight.

  Sam collapsed against one of the pillars, his glasses back on his face. "I used almost everything I had in that fight. My lightning isn't free—each cast drains Mana, and I was channeling it quite a lot." He checked something invisible to the others—his Status, presumably. "I'm at maybe twenty percent, and that's after resting for ten minutes already. The System doesn't have any bars like in a game, but it's as if I can feel it intuitively. Anyone else?"

  "Same here," Derek said, as the others nodded in confirmation as well. "I guess it's a feature of our new bodies. Feels a bit like hunger, just not for food. Also, I almost fully spent myself fighting, and getting low on Mana doesn't feel good."

  Roger was sitting with his back against a pillar, his mundane clothes—dark jeans, gray henley—making him look not that different compared to his Rogue Form. "I'm at about forty percent. The Rogue Form seems more Mana-efficient than the heavier armor types."

  "Because you're not carrying eighty pounds of magical steel plate," Marcus muttered. He'd sat down near the weights, looking exhausted. "I feel like I just ran a marathon."

  Luna walked toward the training dummies, curious. She examined the nearest dummy: simple wood, humanoid shape, but when she touched it, she felt something—a faint resistance, like static electricity on skin.

  "These dummies have Aether Shields," she announced. "Weak ones, but they're there."

  "Makes sense," Margaret said. "For testing weapons against actual defenses."

  Behind her, the group was settling in. Margaret had positioned herself near the Adventurer couple, asking quiet questions about their abilities. Steven was pacing, still running on adrenaline. Derek and Marcus were talking in low voices.

  "Lu?" Mia called out. "You're not going to just stand there and brood, are you? Come sit with us."

  "In a minute."

  Luna's attention had shifted to the plates and dummies. Something about them called to her—an opportunity to understand what she'd become.

  "What are you doing?" Steven asked, watching her.

  "Testing." Luna approached the weighted plates. "We have to understand what we're capable of."

  She started with the plate with number fifty, then tried to lift it. Not everyone is aware that archery requires a decent amount of physical strength—something Luna had learned first-hand. So she had to incorporate strength training into her regime after she started practising with the bow, so she'd been stronger than your normal girl, her arms well defined when she flexed. Which also meant that she was familiar with different weights and easily recognized that the plate, indeed, was around fifty pounds. She lifted it rather easily with two hands, and then checked the other plates to make sure that the weight corresponded. One hundred was still manageable for her to lift to her chest level, but not two hundred.

  "It seems the numbers correspond to the weight in pounds," Luna explained to others who were watching her with curiosity.

  Marcus chuckled. "I guess the System was considerate about us Americans by not marking those in kilos."

  Then Luna waited until her Mana fully recovered, which took roughly the same time she'd estimated. The sensation was strange—like eating or drinking with her entire body before her invisible stomach got full. When it was completed, she summoned her Class Form.

  The transformation was instantaneous. Light rippled across her body, and her armor materialized piece by piece—boots, leggings, cuirass, bracers, cloak. The bow appeared in her left hand like an old friend. Her senses sharpened; the world came into focus with crystalline clarity.

  She started with the fifty-pound plate. In her mundane form, it had been manageable, but required some effort. Now, in Class Form, she lifted it above her head with one hand. The weight was barely noticeable. One hundred pounds—same result. She could have been lifting a pillow. Two hundred pounds, which looked quite imposing, required two hands—mostly because it was too big and one hand didn’t provide proper balance—but it presented no real challenge. Luna raised it over her head with ease, holding it steady.

  “Holy shit,” Sam breathed, gawking. He’d recovered enough to sit up and pay attention.

  Four hundred pounds. Luna gripped the stone plate, set her stance, and lifted. There was resistance now—real effort required—but it rose steadily until she held it overhead. Her arms trembled slightly but held.

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  “That’s…” Steven trailed off, doing mental math. “That’s like lifting a small motorcycle over your head. With your arms.”

  Luna set the weight down carefully. The eight-hundred-pound plate waited.

  She tried. Her hands found purchase on the stone, her legs straightened, and she pulled with everything she had. The plate shifted to the side—Luna could raise it, but she couldn’t lift it alone.

  “Let me try,” Derek said, summoning his own Form. His medium armor materialized—chainmail and leather, battleaxe across his back. He approached the weights with obvious eagerness.

  Fifty, one hundred, two hundred—all easy. Four hundred pounds made him grunt a little, but he lifted it overhead. Luna noted that his ease matched hers; their Strength stats were likely similar.

  Derek went for the eight hundred. Like Luna, he managed to raise it on its side, but couldn’t complete the lift.

  “Together?” Derek suggested, meeting Luna’s eyes. There was challenge there, but also genuine curiosity.

  Luna nodded. They positioned themselves on opposite sides of the massive stone plate, gripping it carefully.

  “On three,” Derek said. “One. Two. Three.”

  They lifted together. The eight-hundred-pound plate rose—slowly, with noticeable effort, but it rose. Luna’s arms burned; her legs shook slightly. But they raised it overhead, holding it there for three long seconds before lowering it back down.

  “Eight hundred pounds,” Marcus said, voice hushed. “Two people just lifted eight hundred pounds overhead. That’s not… that’s not human.”

  “We’re not entirely human anymore,” Margaret observed. “The System changed us fundamentally.”

  Steven summoned his Knight Form and tried the weights. Fifty and one hundred were easy. Two hundred required visible effort. Four hundred… he managed to lift it to knee height before his arms gave out.

  "Damn it." Steven's face reddened with embarrassment. "Why are you two so much stronger than me?"

  "What does your Class Form add to your Strength?" Luna asked.

  Steven's eyes unfocused for a moment, checking his Status. "D. My default is F+, so with the Class bonus... D+."

  Luna nodded. "My default Strength is also F+, but my Class Form adds D+, bringing it to C. And I'm Level 2 now—you're still Level 1."

  "Same here," Derek added. "Level 2, C Strength in Form. The extra level probably helps."

  Steven's jaw tightened. "So I need to level up, and I'll catch up?"

  "Maybe," Luna said. "But I think the Attribute is the biggest variable. I didn't feel becoming much stronger compared to level 1."

  "I won't even try," Sam laughed as he watched them from his resting spot. "My two Fs became F+... so in my Class Form I'm about as strong as you two without it, ha-ha."

  Luna pondered for a moment. "I think that our Default Attributes also reflect the level of our training, among other things. So I'm sure you can raise it naturally with some effort."

  After that, Marcus and Roger also tried their strength. The former showed a bit more strength than Steven despite having the same Class, proving that a person's training level and other variables mattered. The latter's performance was even lower with his E+ Strength, but still comparable to professional powerlifters. Luna wondered how much of an advantage top athletes would have over normal folk, but put this thought aside for later.

  "Speed next," Luna said, after everyone lost interest in the plates. "From this wall to the opposite one. Let's see how fast we actually are."

  She didn't wait for volunteers. The moment she finished speaking, she launched into a sprint.

  The world blurred.

  Luna crossed the chamber in seconds. Her legs pumped with power she'd never experienced, each stride covering ground that would have required three steps before. She reached the far wall, planted a foot, and pushed off to return.

  This time, everyone looked at her with even more shock than when she'd lifted four hundred pounds above her head. It was one thing demonstrating the feats of strength, and another running at the speed that was beyond the speed limit on some roads.

  "Wow, you're amazing, Lu!" Mia exclaimed. "Now you finally won't be late for your job! Or the morning bus."

  Luna chuckled at that as she recovered her breath. It had been a bit of a problem for her, as she wasn't a morning person. Back when she had still been living with Dad, he was responsible for getting her up, but now she had to struggle on her own. Not like it would matter after the Tutorial... probably. Who knew, maybe she'd still need to keep her job at Grandview Hotel.

  "C-can you estimate how long it took you?" Sam asked, equal parts curious and bewildered. "The length of the chamber is around a hundred feet, so you just ran two hundred feet."

  "The round trip took three and a half seconds." Luna was sure of it, as her Class Form made her extra aware of the passing of time, among other things. She'd need more than just an hour to fully explore how her sharpened senses worked.

  "That's quite crazy... okay, let me think for a moment," Sam said, doing quick mental math. "Forty miles per hour, give or take. Olympic sprinters max out around twenty-eight..."

  "Congratulations, you outrun most cars in the city, young lady," Margaret commented with a kind smile. She hadn't participated in the strength contests, but watched from the sidelines alongside the shocked Adventurers.

  Roger, still in his Rogue Form, tried the same sprint. He was fast, his movements fluid and efficient. But he was far from Luna's record. His speed was estimated at thirty-five miles per hour.

  "You're faster," Roger acknowledged, dismissing his Form. "How much does your Class Form boost your Agility?"

  "The grades stack on top of our defaults," Luna explained. "My base Agility is E, which is one grade higher than F. Adding the C+ from the Class Form brings me to B+."

  "And mine is C+." The Rogue frowned. "The difference is quite noticeable."

  "I also have more Strength, which also should play a role. I think Agility isn't just about speed, but also control, reflexes, and balance. Perhaps someone with B or higher in Strength can outrun you, or even me, but they won't be able to maneuver as well at this speed. At least that's my guess."

  "Okay, new question," Sam said, pushing himself to his feet. His Mana had recovered enough that he looked less pale. "What can the rest of us actually do? I've been throwing lightning around, but I don't really understand the limits."

  "That's smart," Luna said. "We should all understand each other's capabilities. For tactics."

  What followed was an impromptu demonstration session.

  Sam summoned his Wizard Form—purple robes and crackling staff—and demonstrated his abilities. "I have two Skills," he explained. "Channel Lightning—" He thrust his staff forward and a sustained ray of purple electricity shot out, maybe seven feet long, splashing against one of the training dummies. The dummy's weak Aether Shield flickered under the assault. "—and Thunder Wave." He made a pushing motion, and a concussive blast of air and crackling energy swept outward, shoving the dummy back on its mount but dealing minimal visible damage.

  "The Lightning is my main damage," Sam said, dismissing the demonstration. "Thunder Wave is more for pushing enemies away if they get too close. Each Channel Lightning costs roughly a tenth of my reserves, so I get maybe ten good attacks before I'm empty. Less if I'm maintaining the Form and moving around... plus, against the goblins I wasted a few Thunder Waves, which cost the same but weren't enough to kill any of the monsters."

  Mia showed her Cleric abilities next. "Healing Light—" Her palm glowed gold as she pressed it against a small cut on Emma's arm, the wound sealing instantly. "—and Radiant Orb." A sphere of warm light appeared above her staff, illuminating the area around them.

  "The orb can also be thrown," Margaret added, demonstrating with her own version. She sent the glowing sphere toward a dummy, where it burst on impact with a flash that would have been blinding at close range. The dummy's shield flickered. "Weak damage, but useful for disorienting enemies. I used it once when a goblin got past the front line."

  "How many heals can you manage?" Luna asked Mia.

  Mia considered. "Maybe four significant wounds before I'm exhausted. Maybe more for minor injuries. It's Mana-intensive."

  Steven demonstrated the Knight's repertoire next: heavy armor, sword proficiency, and a Shield Bash skill that sent a training dummy rocking backward on its mount. "I also have something called Knight's Challenge," he added. "It... I think it draws enemy attention to me? Hard to test without actual enemies."

  Marcus was nearly identical to Steven. They even confirmed that their Status screens showed the same skills and base stats. "Cookie-cutter Classes," Marcus observed. "Everyone who picks Knight gets the same foundation."

  Derek's Mercenary Class offered more variety. Medium armor, proficiency with multiple weapon types, and two skills. "Whirlwind Attack—" He spun, his battleaxe sweeping in a wide arc that caught multiple dummies. "—puts extra Mana into the swing for more damage and reach. And Second Wind." He stood still for a moment, and Luna noticed his breathing steady, a faint glow passing over his body. "Recovers stamina and heals minor wounds. Better the more tired or hurt I am."

  The Rogue’s skills weren’t flashy, but they were effective: Hide Presence, which made him harder to detect for a few seconds, and Flurry Attack, which let him strike multiple times in rapid succession. Of course, just like with other Classes there were also Class Traits that boosted the overall capabilities.

  That left the Adventurers.

  "We can definitely fight," Clark said, summoning his Form. The brown leather gear materialized, complete with the large magical backpack. "Our combat stats are lower—E+ across the board from the Class—but that still puts us above baseline humans. Against those goblins, we could have held our own."

  "We just... froze," Emma admitted quietly. "It won't happen again... not against the goblins."

  "Yeah, right," Derek snorted, but didn't say anything more as Luna glared at him.

  "We have four Skills instead of two," Clark explained, clearly wanting to move past the subject. "Water Spray—" He held out his hand and a stream of crystal-clear water arced toward the floor. "—creates drinkable water as long as we have Mana. Mental Map—" He tapped his temple. "—tracks everywhere we've been and helps with navigation. Weightless Backpack is self-explanatory." He opened the magical bag at his side. "Holds about fifty pounds without adding weight, and the contents stay safe even when we dismiss our Forms. It takes Mana to put something into it, though."

  "And Feign Death," Emma finished. "We can make ourselves appear dead for a short time. Our heartbeat slows, our breathing stops, even our Class Forms dissipate... useful for escaping or avoiding notice."

  "That's actually brilliant for emergencies," Margaret noted.

  Sam's eyes had lit up at the water demonstration. "Water conducts electricity. If you spray an enemy and I hit them with Channel Lightning—"

  "Amplified damage," Clark finished, nodding. "We thought of that too. Want to test it?"

  They did. Clark sprayed a training dummy with water while Sam hit it with his lightning ray. The effect was dramatic—the electricity spread across the dummy's wet surface, and the weak Aether Shield collapsed almost immediately under the combined assault, definitely faster than from the lightning on its own.

  "That's a solid combo," Derek admitted grudgingly. "Maybe you two aren't completely useless after all."

  Emma stiffened at the backhanded compliment, but Clark just shrugged. "We'll prove ourselves when it matters."

  Luna sincerely hoped that they would.