The elevator ride was painful, to say the least. Not only did it feel like we were stuck there for hours, but the staff didn’t say much either.
“All ether devices will be switched off automatically,” she said only after what felt like hours had passed—though it couldn’t have been more than a few seconds. “You are to remain silent once the test starts. We know that certain sounds cannot be avoided, which is fine.”
Her matter-of-fact tone rang in my ears as the elevator finally came to a standstill.
“Do request help through the official channels if you deem something is ‘off’ or ‘wrong’. Try to cheat, and you will be disqualified and permanently blacklisted from the Camps, Academies, Military, as well as the Universities.”
I swallowed hard at that. That was… harsh.
Good thing I haven’t considered cheating.
The elevator doors opened slowly, revealing a massive hall that spanned the entire floor. It was bare of furniture, and the only ‘highlights’ were the marks etched into the grayish-white floor. Several people—presumably retinues—were already standing on marks, their postures stiff as cardboard. They looked around, eyes sharp and calculating as they studied their rivals. A few glanced at me, but their attention quickly shifted elsewhere.
The small woman guided me to a mark in the back of the hall and told me to wait before disappearing.
The hall was so silent one could probably hear a fly’s wings fluttering on the other side. Instead, I was listening to my racing heart, hoping the war drums in my chest would drown out the doubts clouding my mind.
More people emerged from the elevator. They entered the hall one by one, each guided to a mark. Their footsteps echoed briefly, but silence returned just as quickly as the staff re-entered the elevator. I strained to listen for their retreating steps but heard nothing. I shuddered, wondering how they moved so silently.
Maybe they were levitating just a few millimeters above the ground or something like that? I had no idea. But one thing I did know for certain was that there were more than 48 people in the hall. I hadn’t finished counting the marks spread across the floor—not all of them were occupied—but there were close to a hundred Blessed here.
Clearly, Peter’s information had been wrong.
Before I could curse the false intel, a subtle noise reached my ears—a faint hum that silenced both heart and mind—as milky-white walls formed around me. Someone nearby gasped, but I couldn’t tell who it was or where they were. Another voice followed but was abruptly cut off as the walls solidified.
I touched the barrier, expecting it to be like the Bastion’s dome, but I couldn’t phase through. It was solid, trapping me inside.
Black lines appeared on the wall where my palm had rested, forming letters that asked if I wanted to forfeit. More letters began forming, but I pulled my hand away quickly. Being unable to leave the confinement without giving up my greatest opportunity to join the Camp was one thing. It was bad, but not exactly worrisome. Being barred from seeing anything was also annoying—but tolerable. However, being unable to perceive anything around me? That was different. It made me feel like I’d been cut off from the rest of the floor—from the rest of the world.
That’s some crazy shit.
I shuddered and looked around, though there wasn’t much to see in the ‘room’, which was roughly the size of my old bedroom—nine square meters, give or take.
The faint humming resumed, followed by a rattling as the floor beneath me opened. I hadn’t noticed the hatches earlier, but apparently, they had been there all along. From them emerged a chair, then a desk, and then… a toilet.
Holographic screens appeared above the desk. Some floated in mid-air, while others stacked together in a heap resembling a pile of documents. My attention locked on a screen that looked oddly similar to those websites where you could order food delivered by etheric drones.
That... It took me a moment to regain my senses amidst the sudden changes all around me—changes that wouldn’t have been half as disorienting if Aureus were by my side. I could feel my companion, stronger than ever, as our bond continued to grow, albeit slowly. I knew the evolution was nearing its end, but I still felt more listless than ever.
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Buddy… please hurry up a little, I muttered inwardly, and a loud tone resounded, snapping me out of my thoughts.
More letters formed on the milky-white wall, which now looked more punchable than ever.
Good Luck.
Was that it? The test starts... just like that?
I rushed over to the holographic screens and focused on the first.
[History]
[Calculus]
[Forticus Menta]
[Etherology]
[Strategic Warfare (Solo, Group & Soulkins)]
[Force Management]
[Survival & Wilderness]
[Beast Combat]
[Beastrology]
[Soulkin Husbandry]
…
…
There were more than twenty subjects, and I was confident in acing no more than four of them. Maybe five if I stretched it. Even then, I’d still need a bit of luck with the questions. As long as their test wasn’t harder than the Zerogs’, I should be fine with four or five subjects—probably.
My heart was racing, rattling, jumping from one subject to the next, and I had to punch myself quite hard to get my act together.
“First of all…” I muttered to myself, “What do I know?”
There were no instructions to follow. A single glance at the questions made it clear there were no point values, either. It wasn’t even obvious whether some questions were worth more based on difficulty, though I was fairly certain the examiners would have to differentiate them somehow. Last but not least, there was no timer either.
The message may say that the theoretical exam was on Friday, but it was hard to say whether they’d use the whole day or only a few hours. All the official notifications mentioned was how the days would be spread out, and that Friday was set aside for the theory. However, that hardly meant anything. It had been less than half an hour since I found out we wouldn’t leave the building until all three tests had been completed. That hadn’t been part of the official message either.
As unfortunate as it was, that meant the notification we’d received was wrong. No, not wrong. I shook my head, rubbing my chin. The message itself hadn’t been wrong. Misleading, for sure, but they didn’t lie to us. It was ambiguous wording at best.
Is that how they want to play?
At least there were some clues.
I didn’t bother reading through most questions right away, but I counted them in a few seconds. There were more than 100 questions in the exam, which was a lot worse than anything the Zerogs had prepared me for, and if each question was to be answered in one minute, the exam would last more than ten hours — if they expected us to answer all questions, which I somehow doubted. Some questions were more difficult and would definitely need more than one minute to be properly answered, but that was something else.
Then there was a toilet, and we were given the option to order food. That was a major clue, even if it was an odd one.
Considering my options, I decided to start a countdown anyway. Maybe it was not necessary since I had no idea how long I’d be in here in the first place, but I needed to time my breaks. I didn’t want to waste too much time on difficult questions either, and the countdown would help with that.
The problem? There was no function for a timer. I discovered a function to paint the screens — presumably to use as markers — a notepad option, the option to call for help, and a function to order food. My phone was also switched off, which was just like the staff had mentioned earlier.
While the lack of certain functions was annoying, I took the next best option and ordered some food. Since the screen resembled the website Daniel had used a few times before, I knew what it could do — or what it should do if it was truly the same website. I ordered a simple muffin, which was beside the point, and several notifications popped up — one showing when I ordered the food and another displaying how long it had been since I placed the order. The latter was what I needed. I enlarged the screen and put it to the side, treating it as a timer and clock. It wasn’t perfect, but it was good enough to track the time, and that was enough for me.
Next, I moved to the heap of holographic screens. There was one screen for every subject, which showed just how much we had to know just to get accepted into the Camp. It was an ordeal, but my greatest problem was seeing the heap of questions I’d have to go through. I disliked it, so I made full use of the surrounding space. Since I was given roughly nine square meters to decorate as I pleased, I moved the holographic screens through the room. I shoved the chair aside, doubting I’d have the luxury to sit down anytime soon, and I continued with the next step.
With almost two dozen subjects hovering around me, I felt better. Far from reassured, but my mind was slowly settling into the given situation. My heart was no longer a war drum, and I activated the painting function as I pulled the first holographic screen closer. Three markers — red, yellow, and green — materialized in etheric particles, and war ensued.
Green, like the canopy of the Windbloom Forest, were all the things I could answer easily. I dyed everything yellow when I knew I would be able to answer the question, but it would take me a few seconds to find the solution. Yellow was also the color I gave questions that would need too much time to answer. I would skip all yellow-marked questions to answer the green ones first.
As for red, well… Red stood for the things I could either not answer at all, or the things I would be able to answer given enough time. I marked some things red when I was ‘not quite sure’ as well. I wouldn’t waste precious time — not knowing how much I had to spare — with those questions before I had everything else answered.
Others would surely think I’d wasted almost 20 minutes on that task, but to me, it was time well spent.
Then, once I was sure I had everything under control, I dove straight into the questions.