Sui was about to check if Trina and Aife had received similar boxes, but some text from the system appeared, drawing her attention.

Welcome to Wave 6. You have 1:00 minutes to pick up and mould the cube into something comfortable to hold. You will then be required to hold it off the ground using whatever means necessary as long as said means are not being directly supported by the ground.

Um what? “….” Sui tried to speak to the others to ask what was going on but found she couldn’t talk. Ok… bit weird but ok. She could however look over and see the others reactions. Trina was still staring gobsmacked at the cube, but Aife had already sprang into action.

Her cube was even larger than the one in front of Sui, but seemed roughly proportional. Sui estimated her own block to be about a half a metre on all sides, while Aife’s was nearly double that.

Aife was currently shaping her cube by stretching it out though, so Sui’s estimate might have been a bit off. Turning away from Aife to her own cube, Sui reached out and grabbed it. It was shockingly light to the touch. I could probably hold this in one hand if it wasn’t quite so big.

Sui pushed against the cube and found it stayed firmly in place. Frowning slightly, she concentrated on the idea that she wanted to change it and found the cube deforming when she next put her hand into it.

Hmm… I wonder what the best way to hold this is. Sui turned the cube and pressed both hands into either side, and gripped it. This forced the cube to grow in height a bit to compensate, but she found she could grip the internals fine.

Hmm… this is fairly comfortable but… not sure if it’s the best way to do this. Looking over at the others, Aife had now curved hers into a scarf, letting it hang around her neck and slightly down her front. It wasn’t actually in contact with her neck, but draped slightly down her back to counter balance the cube, making it more like a vest… if it wasn’t so clearly in the shape of a scarf

That actually looks like a great idea. Sui moved quickly, pulling and converting the material into a long thin version of itself and draping it around her shoulders. Ito ducked into Sui’s arm and slipped down to her hands still under the skin to watch the attempt.

Sui managed to get everything settled around her shoulders just like Aife with no time to spare. As soon as she got the rough shape down, she felt the cube lock up and a message appear.

Wave 6 has now begun. Support the object that may no longer be a cube, for as long as possible.

“That’s it?” Trina shouted. Oh, looks like our voices must be back. Turning herself to face Trina, Sui came to the realisation she’d really underthought the cubes transformation abilities.

Trina had split it into two sections and placed one around her midsection like a belt and then one higher up like a scarf reminiscent of Aife and Sui. I didn’t even think I could split it up… but I guess we were never told we couldn’t…

“What do you mean Trina?” asked Sui

“Well, what sort of an object is support the cube as long as possible! I mean seriously. Do they expect us to stand out in the hot sun for ten minutes or ten hours!” said Trina

Sui frowned at this and took a step forward. “Seems like we can move, so we can just go into the shade”

Trina opened her mouth to argue, but realised Sui was right. With this new knowledge the three headed back toward the house and moved into the shadow the house provided at the front. As they were about to enter Aife stopped them “Wait a second, I can’t help but think we shouldn’t go inside”

“Why?” asked Trina.

The moment that word came out of Trina’s mouth, Sui (and presumably Aife and Trina as well) felt the cube double in weight. It still barely weighed anything, but it was a noticeable increase.

Hmmm… about a minute maybe? “That’s why” said Aife

“How did you even time something like that?” asked Trina

Aife shrugged “Just a guess. This seemed too easy. I mean, I dunno about you pair but I could have held my cube for days. The main issue would be sleep and not anything else, and what is the point of forcing us to stay awake with cubes when they could have just said ‘try not to sleep’”

Trina frowned “Well sure you might be fine, but I doubt I could just stand in place for that long without collapsing even if the weight didn’t get any worse”

Aife shrugged. While this was happening, Ito was crawling to Sui’s other hand, the one holding her scissors before poking said scissors repeatedly. What?

Ito poked the scissors before carefully putting her foot into Sui’s hand, holding it there for a moment before looking back at Sui. ‘You need to…’

I don’t follow… can you store my scissors under my skin now? Ito shook her head in denial, before repeating the action. Hmm… I mean I guess I should drop the scissors, no reason to hold more than I need.

Ito slapped herself with her front leg, and repeated the gesture for a third time. ‘You need to STORE IT’

Oh! Right woops. Sui stored the scissors away in her inventory. I wasn’t really thinking about that. It’s pretty handy to have them available like this, but I need to remember I have an inventory after all.

A second later a thought occurred to Sui. Wait how did I change the cube with scissors in my hand? Ito mimed pulling her leg out of Sui’s skin then putting it back. ‘They were stored then returned’

Huh… did I do that? Or was it a special property of the cube. Sui resummoned the scissors to test and poked them into the cube. As soon as she did, she watched them disappear. Pulling her hands away the scissors came back. Nice feature… bit of a strange one, but nice feature.

Looking over at Trina, she was no longer holding the knife, it seemed she had remembered to store it properly unlike Sui. Sui’s musings were interrupted when the weight on her shoulders double again.

Oof, I can sort of feel that now. Still isn’t that bad, and I can probably hold this for ages… it’s the next double that I’m worried about.

“So… any ideas to make this easier? We couldn’t talk during the start-up… but we can now obviously and just well… I feel like there are better ways to do this” said Trina

“Like what?” asked Aife “Just seems like a test of endurance, and maybe willpower, cause you guys have lighter weights then I do”

“What makes you say that?” asked Trina

“Well,” said Aife “each of us had cubes depending on our strength”

Trina narrowed her eyes “Or based on our height. They might be compensated for how much larger your body is then ours”

“Hmm” Aife rubbed her chin and gazed at Sui and Trina “Maybe… but I’m not sure… actually…”

Aife then proceeded to walk over and lift Sui in one hand and Trina in the other. Sui just let herself get picked up, but Trina panicked “Stop stopstopstopstop!” shouted Trina.

Aife flinched a little but put Trina down carefully “What’s wrong?”

“What the hell were you thinking Aife! We could have failed the challenge” said Trina as Sui sat on Aife’s shoulder calmly where she had been placed. Aife opened up her mouth to retort but Trina cut her off.

“No, just don’t say anything. Clearly you weren’t thinking about this at all. But fine, clearly this works… but what was the point!” asked Trina

“Ah, well I was seeing how much you guys weighed with the extra weight” said Aife “Try and find out if it was strength scaling or height scaling”

“Well?” asked Trina angrily

“No idea” said Aife with a big grin “You’re both so light now, the difference isn’t really noticeable to me”

Trina narrowed her eyes “If that was a way to get back in my good books, you’re gonna have to try harder than that Aife”

Sui sniggered at that. Trina seems to think she won’t forgive Aife before the contest finishes. How funny. Hehe, the last time something like this happened I was in trouble for like a week, but Aife messes up, and Trina is calm again in an hour…

Huh… maybe I should have noticed they were dating… then again, I tend to do worse things… by accident of course…

And so Sui started to drift off into memories while ignoring the growing weight on her shoulder. Allowing time to pass… well not swiftly but with at least some haste.