The area isn't very big, more like a small island that got frozen over, but it is good enough. After circling around the whole thing and finding no caves I use my claws and start digging. It takes a few hours but I manage to dig out a cave big enough for me to fit into.

Once I am inside I do my best to conceal the entrance and then go to sleep. While I was planning to just sleep until the test ended, after about twelve hours my empty stomach wakes me up. So I reluctantly get up and drop my shapeshift, then reach into my pouch for some food.

Unfortunately, it doesn't work. I can find the food in my pouch but I can't take it out. After some testing it turns out I can take anything except food and water from my pouch. I now have less than three days to go, I could go without food that long but it wouldn't be pleasant.

So I shift again into the tiger form and leave my cave to see if I can find something to eat. I don't plan to go too far from my cave, that way if the fish comes back I can run for land. I will just have to hope it is actually a fish and can't come on land after me.

As I explore the area around my cave I find that there are quite a few different things living on the ice. All of them seem to want to eat me, but they end up becoming my food instead. Not only do I manage to eat my fill but I even have some extra that I drag back to the cave with me.

After returning to the cave I go back to sleep and sleep until I am woken by the ground shaking. First checking the timer I find that I am at the halfway point, then I poke my head outside. What I find outside is a herd of elephant-like creatures passing by.

They do not have fur, actually their skin resembles that of a rhino rather than an elephant. Each and every one of them have six tusks that look incredibly sharp. As I am watching them pass I can't help but wonder how they are able to avoid the big fish that chased me.

Just as I am thinking about it, it actually bursts up through the ice to try and eat one of the elephants. Not only do its teeth fail to get through the elephant's skin but the fish can't even escape. The two elephants on either side of the one that it attacked turn and impale it with their tusks.

They actually drag it out of the water allowing me to get a look at it for the first time. To me it looks like the bigger, meaner, big brother of an orca. To my surprise the herd turns back and gathers around the thing, then they begin eating it.

They use their tusks to tear the body apart then use their trunks to move chunks into their mouths. Any idea I had about seeing how the elephant things taste disappears at that point. Instead I hide back in my cave until the herd has moved on.

It seems that everything alive in this test is a meat eater, which makes sense for a survival test. Since I have less than two and a half days left to go I decide to take the cowards route. I simply stay in my cave and sleep until the timer runs out, it is actually the flash that wakes me up.

The first thing I see when I open my eyes is the seven glowing symbols on the strange stone. Three tests left to go, all the tests so far have been more annoying than hard. So I am expecting the last three to be the most annoying but that doesn't stop me from pressing my hand down.

This time after the flash there is no preparation period, just a message saying "Reach the top!". The meaning isn't hard to figure out since there is a tower directly in front of me. The tower is round with a staircase spiraling around it, but I can't see the top of it.

When looking up the tower seems to go on forever, it goes even higher than the clouds. Regardless of how tall it is, I don't really have a choice, so I start up the stairs. At first it is easy and I don't see what the challenge is supposed to be.

That is until I pass the hundredth step, at that point I feel a slight increase in pressure. It is hard to tell but when I pass the two hundredth step it becomes more apparent. It would seem that gravity is slowly increasing with every hundred steps.

After four hundred steps gravity has doubled, still not enough to bother me. At eight hundred steps gravity has tripled and I am starting to feel the burn. With my strength it still isn't enough to slow me down, just enough to make me work for it.

At twelve hundred steps it starts to be hard, at four times gravity each step is an effort. At sixteen hundred steps I actually have to stop and catch my breath. At this point I can still go on, but if this keeps up I won't be able to make it to the top.

Still after catching my breath I start climbing the stairs again, I can't just give up. At around nineteen hundred steps I suddenly hear a rumbling sound coming from above me. A few seconds later a boulder comes bouncing down the steps at me.

Now normally, such a boulder wouldn't be a problem, but at five times gravity it is a different story. I end up being lucky and the boulder is on the bounce when it reaches me. This allows me to deflect it away from me and off the side of the tower.

After dealing with the boulder I take a few minutes to catch my breath before continuing. As I am taking my first step I again hear the rumbling sound above me. It is another boulder, it seems that this is another part of the test.

From then on another boulder comes at me every five minutes or so, whether I am moving or not. This means there is no way for me to stop and rest, it is even more troublesome after I hit two thousand steps. With gravity at six times normal every step is a strain and the boulders are more problematic.

Luckily, at twenty-four hundred steps the gravity remains at six times normal. However, the boulders start coming more frequently, giving me no chance to catch my breath. Several times the boulders almost manage to knock me off the stairs.

When I reach twenty-five hundred steps I find a platform and once I step onto it the boulders stop. By this point I am covered in bruises and have a number of torn muscles. Since I am being given a chance to rest I simply collapse and use a healing spell on myself.

The gravity has not changed so even breathing is somewhat difficult, but even with that I fall asleep. When I wake up I feel much better, that is until I see the sign on the wall. According to the sign I have reached the one quarter mark, meaning there are seventy-five hundred steps left.