Even though Jude passed the first test, there were still two more to go. He moved to the next part of the stage and proceeded to the next trial. The first was about defense, and this one was the exact opposite. In front of him stood a giant statue of a man about one and a half times the average size of a human. This was a defense shrine.
Anyone standing near a Defense Shrine would gain the protection of the shrine. In front of the shrine stood a small Clock-Work being that resembled something like a monkey. The monkey was heavily armored and was being additionally protected by the shrine.
Jude had seen others take this test but hadn’t listened close enough to figure out what was considered passing or failing. After all, this was the same clock-work monkey that everyone had tested against.
The nearby test official cleared up any questions that Jude had, “You are allowed to attack the clock-work for a total of 5 minutes. All types of damage can be applied and will be calculated to your total score. Do not worry about breaking the device; it is much sturdier than it looks. The only restriction is that you can’t use magic scrolls.”
The official didn’t feel like he needed to add the last line, but it was standard procedure, so he did it anyway. He had seen Jude’s masterful performance on defense and from the thousands of people he had tested today he had observed that those who excelled at defense were typically less capable of offense. The official figured that if Jude could make at least the lowest amount of damage to pass, then he would probably make it to the final competition.
The jeering contestants below had other ideas, even though they were wrong about Jude in the first round, they didn’t think that he would do well at this stage for the same reasons as the official. But Jude ignored those taunts as he tried to figure out how he wanted to attack the target.
If he used his sword, it would probably be passable, but it left Jude a little unsatisfied. Essentially it would mean that he would constantly be repeating the same