Once again I am faced with a short hallway leading to another set of doors. I walk over and read the inscription on the door.

Fifth Trial: Intelligence!

Well, this is more likely to be a puzzle than something to fight so I don't think I really need to prepare anything before I go in. So, I push open the doors and walk into the room beyond. The room is square this time, and there are a lot of different colored cubes floating in the middle of the room.

As soon as I step further into the room for a better look the doors slam closed behind me. There look to be about a hundred cubes, green, yellow, blue, red, and white. They are just floating in the air, but as I watch for a minute I can tell they are slowly revolving.

The cubes all seem to be orbiting an empty space in the middle, but I can't get a good look without touching a cube. This is a puzzle, so I need to figure out the rules first, I also need to know if there is a penalty. So, I touch a yellow cube which happens to be closest to me.

Nothing happens, so one by one I touch the other colors, when I touch a green cube it changes to black and goes to the middle of the space. Then when I do nothing else it returns to green and it's former position. I touch it again and start counting, ten seconds, so I have to consecutively touch cubes within ten seconds.

This is not going to be easy, I touch the green cube and then a red cube. As soon as I touch the red cube the green resets, at least there is no penalty. I try all the colors after green but none of them work, so I try touching a second green cube.

The second cube turns black and moves to the middle, so I have to touch all the green cubes without touching any other color. It makes sense now, I have to hit all the colors in the proper order to complete the puzzle. It takes me a few tries to even get all the green without hitting another color or letting ten seconds pass.

I end up having to figure out the proper order to hit all the green cubes so I don't run out of time. Then I have to repeat it over and over until I figure out that yellow is next. By the time I figure out the second color in the sequence I am mentally exhausted.

Moving to a corner of the room I pull out my silk hammock and try to attack it to the walls, but no matter what I try I can't drive a spike into the wall. Giving up I lay the hammock on the floor and use it as a bed and go to sleep. My dreams are haunted by color changing cubes that keep trying to eat me.

When I wake up I am stiff from sleeping on the floor and not very well rested due to my dreams. I normally don't dream so I am guessing that this is part of the test. It is not only testing intelligence but also mental strength, the longer it takes to pass the trial the more stress I will be under.

After eating breakfast I immediately start figuring out the sequence to hit all the yellow cubes without letting ten seconds pass between them. It takes me a few tries to succeed in hitting all the yellow cubes, but by now the green I can do easily.

I get really lucky in that the first color I try after getting all the yellow is red which proves to be correct. The problem I run into is when the last yellow cube is turned to black the remaining cubes speed up in orbiting the center. Not only do they speed up but they are all moving at different speeds.

This makes hitting all the red cubes much harder since I can't touch any of the blue or white cubes. This would probably be easier if I was human, but I am quite a bit bigger so the spacing between cubes is tight for me. After failing four times to get all the red cubes I decide to take a break and eat some lunch.

As I eat I watch the cubes, even when they speed up they still follow the same paths as they do right now. I have to memorize the orbits of all the red, blue, and white cubes and figure out the gaps to move through. I should assume that after getting all the red cubes it will somehow get harder again.

I keep trying over and over throughout the rest of the day but by the time I am exhausted I still haven't managed to hit all the red cubes. Instead of sleeping I meditate through the night to avoid the dreams so in the morning I feel much better.

Being rested after breakfast I am finally able to hit all the red cubes, unfortunately I choose wrong. So now I know the last two colors are blue then white, and with all the red cubes gone it should be easier to hit the blue cubes. Six hours and over fifty tries later I manage to hit all the blue cubes.

After the blue cubes are gone and only white cubes remain it is pretty easy to hit the white cubes, I just let them come to me. Once I hit all the white cubes they turn black and join the rest of the cubes forming a giant cube. As it sits there and rotates I notice something odd, it is a perfect cube except it is missing the corner pieces.

Ten seconds after hitting the last white cube all the cubes reset to the beginning. What? What did I miss? How did I miss something? The cubes were all there! I scream in frustration several times at the thought of having to do it all over again.

Somehow I am missing four cubes, but how can that be, I hit every cube there is! Okay, thinking logically, the four missing cubes have to be white or I couldn't progress to the end. So I am missing four white cubes, in a white room.

It takes several hours of searching to find the last four cubes, that is because they are hidden in the wall, floor, and ceiling. Looking at the room from the door I came in, there is one cube in the left and right walls. The other two and in the floor and ceiling at the center of the room, directly above and below the center of the cubes.

This means I have to somehow hit all the white cubes and then these four, without letting ten seconds pass. The one in the floor is easy. I can just step on it, but how do I hit the other three fast enough? As I am thinking about it I wonder, do I have to touch the cubes or do they just have to be hit?

So I pull out a bow and arrows from my pouch to test it out, I take aim at one of the green cubes and go to draw the bow. Turns out I am too strong for a human made bow, it snaps in half when I try to draw it. In frustration I throw the arrow and just happen to hit a green cube, which turns black and moves to the center.

So I can shoot them with arrows, I just need a better bow. Good thing I already have one started. So I pull out my tools and the bow I was working on for Myria and I get to work. It takes me the rest of the day and into the next before I can finish the bow.

*DING*

Congratulations! Skill Scrimshaw has progressed to level 10!

Scrimshaw

Level 10 ?????

Agi +10 Int +5

You can carve bone into many items.

'Oh, it can be upgraded! Glad I kept a few beast cores!'

So I pull an average beast core out of the pouch and use it to evolve the skill.

*DING*

Congratulations! Skill Scrimshaw has evolved into Expert Scrimshaw!

Expert Scrimshaw

Level 11

Agi +12 Int +6

You can craft expert level bone items.

Well, that was handy, and I even have 2 more beast cores left. I can probably make a much better bow now, maybe I will do that after I get out of here. Anyway, now I can test it out and make sure it will work, then I want out of this damn trial!