I stood at the crossroads for some time, contemplating.

On one hand, I was worried that if I chose temperance, my reward from this trial or floor or whatever it was would be lessened. But on the other hand, I didn’t think that the Sage’s idea of justice would match mine.

There was a chance that the Craftsman had redone the justice floor, much as he’d turned learning to dodge thrown stones into dodgeball, but then again, maybe he thought temperance was stupid and redid it too.

Primes, for all I knew, the Craftsman could have already stolen all the rewards. At the end of the day, trying to predict the actions of someone with absurd levels of power, who I also had never even met was pointless.

I could guess about the sage, though. If this was a test of justice in the modern world, then I might reasonably accept it, but the Sage had died over a century ago, and it was clear that even then, he’d not had the keenest of moralities for the time.

No, temperance was the best choice.

I turned and headed down the temperance hall, and watched as space flickered around me to bring me to the next stage of the trial.

I appeared in an empty room, with two boxes in front of me, and a door behind that. One of them was made of solid gold, while the other was made of iron. The door was made of wood, with a thick padlock, and a symbol on it that either meant one of three, or one third, I wasn’t sure.

The illusion of the sage appeared before me.

“Congratulations. Temperance, justice, wisdom, and courage, are the four great virtues which you, my prospective heir, must demonstrate. For now, however, we shall focus on the first of the four. Before you lie three boxes, each containing a reward commensurate with what lies within. You may claim to only see two, and that is true – the third is hidden by powerful invisibility magic, and contains even greater rewards than the other two put together. Yet only one box holds the key to advance forward, while the others will grant you their treasure and send you back to the entrance to try again.”

I rolled my eyes. This was perhaps the most classical fairy tale test of character possible. If I’d had unlimited time, I might have looked for the invisible box and accepted starting over, but as things were… The answer was obvious.

Ignoring the golden box, I strode over to the iron box and opened it, removing the key and single vial of the first gate mana restoration elixir from within and unlocking the door before passing on.

This time, I appeared next to a lake, with Kene next to me. I turned to glance at them.

“Kene?” I asked.

“Malachi!” they said, pulling me into a hug. “How did you get here?”

“I was just in a test,” I said, still a bit wary. I supposed it could be possible that one of us had been brought into the other’s trial, but I doubted it.

“Me too,” Kene said, letting me go. “I had to choose between wisdom and courage, and I chose courage.”

As if on cue, the lake began to bubble and boil, and I felt the surging of power as a powerful third gate presence began to rise from the water.

A large, serpentine head erupted from the lake, followed by a second, then a third. A huge, drakelike body emerged next, and I held still, priming a Foxstep, but not casting any offensive spells.

Temperance. If the box room really had been challenge one of three, then this would be the second.

The hydra let out a roar, and Kene’s hands lit up with fiery runes. They spun through the air and wrapped around me, and the hydra’s mouths filled with light. It exploded down at Kene, and I teleported back.

The aura around Kene exploded, the magic of their tattoos and fox-bird-thing mixing into a shell of power.

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But the hydra was strong, and the shields began to crack.

I teleported up and thrust my hand out, trying to call blademoss to unleash my strongest attack.

The beam tore through Kene, and black ooze began to flow out of their form, then reformed into the shape of a strange, mimic-like monster. The runes around me, mental illusions, vanished, dispelled by the hydra’s attack, and the mana around the ooze monster shifted, no longer appearing as the familiar mix of power that made up Kene’s magic, but instead a mix of myriad powers, with a focus on mind, creation, and knowledge.

I thought I understood the shape of this challenge now. If I got caught up in the heat of the moment, I’d act to save what I thought was my partner, only for the ooze monster to attack me.

Temperance, just like the box challenge. Just in a different way.

The ooze monster formed into the shape of a man, easily eight feet tall, and armor forged itself out of its mana, alongside a spear. They threw the spear at me, and I teleported behind the monster, lashing out with overcharged Briarthreads, while using Transport Item to bring my Pinpoint Boneshard in front of the monster, attacking from both directions.

The thing’s armor was strong, though, and while my attacks left cracks, they didn’t injure. The hydra blasted down with beams of its concentrated breath weapon, and I Foxstepped away, just in time to dodge as the ooze’s hand turned into a sword and cut down at me.

The hydra’s beam shattered the armor, but did no more. I teleported my bones in and sent them right at the broken parts of the armor, while running diagonally, dodging the knifes of darkness that the ooze was throwing at me.

Each bone’s attack ripped off a chunk of the ooze’s dark, gelatinous body, but did no apparent damage, and the Ooze simply scooped down, and the torn off chunks flowed back to refill its mass.

I let out a groan.

My lack of direct offense spells was seriously starting to be a pain. I needed to get a sunlotus, or a lightingbranch hazel, quickly.

Even then, I’d still only be half-effective, but at least it would be something.

I narrowed my eyes.

There was one thing that was different about this ooze from when Mallory had fought the acid elemental. This thing did have a physical body…

I flicked my fingers and cast a Fungal Lock over it, watching as the mycelial roots began to spread through its goo.

Normally, the semi-tangible roots only dug in a little bit in order to sap the opponent’s energy, but this ooze was so permeable that they spread like crazy.

I clapped and with a touch of deft mana manipulation, cast another four layers of Fungal Lock over the ooze, glancing up at the Hydra to see if it was planning to help. It just sat there, placid as the lake it had emerged from.

I turned my focus back to the ooze, who was trying to use its blade arm to cut layers of the fungus off, but with the draining effect, each cut had less strength behind it.

I overcharged a layer and recast it, and the ooze adopted a new strategy, calling out mana of its own and condensing it to form a new layer of armor, trying to cut off the entire attack at once.

For just a moment, our spells clashed. Armor wasn’t meant to cut things away, but the monster was a full gate above me, and not weak even within third gate. I’d been reforged with the power of the drops and held on, fighting, but in the end, the armor crunched into place, and my spells faded.

Then light gathered up in the hydra’s mouth, and a powerful beam slammed down, cracking the armor apart again.

I grinned and focused on Foxsteps, dodging out of the way of the ooze’s thrown knives, giving it time to restore its armor.

Each time the ooze’s armor restored itself, the hydra broke it, and slowly but surely, the ooze’s mana drained away.

When it didn’t bother restoring the armor again, I struck, lashing out with seven overcharged Fungal Locks that I’d been building and holding in place as I performed my slow yet steady dodging routine.

My spirit groaned in protest, unused to the weight of such powerful magic all at once. If I’d been the same Malachi as the one who’d walked into this trial, I’d have lost control or else damaged my spirit again.

But I wasn’t the same, and while it wasn’t easy, I kept the power concentrated on the ooze as hundreds of probing mycelial threads drank up the ooze’s energy reserves.

The ooze started to cut them off, but each cut was less and less effective, and it quickly became apparent that it couldn’t cut them off fast enough.

Even with my advantage, it still took me the better part of three minutes for the ooze to have lost enough energy to slump to the ground, all but dead, and then several lashings of bones and briars in order to actually tear its form apart enough for the Sage to count it and summon the door.

I was pretty drained of mana, though. This might not be the test of wisdom, but there was still no point in jumping into a challenge while drained, so I took a while to rest and allow my Magister’s Body and harvesting spells to refuel my energy and mana, while Beast Mage’s Soul intermingled the two together.

It was boring, though. The hydra wasn’t real, just another illusion, and while the lake was pretty, it wasn’t so pretty that I could sit there for an hour or longer.

I was tempted to take the very elixir I’d just gotten, but I was worried that would go against the whole ‘temperance’ theme, and just wind up sending me back, so in the end, I wound up reaching out to my plants in Dusk’s realm, drawing on them for restoration.

That still took time, several minutes for each plant, but it was better than waiting the full time for my natural restoration.

Once I was back in fighting shape, I stepped through the door and into what I presumed to be the third and final temperance challenge.