To my surprise, as soon as the bank of elevators came into view, I found that one of them was open. I didn’t hesitate to rush for it. The moment I stepped in and pressed the button, my mana reached out.
It felt as though I was shaking my hand with something, but not, if that makes sense. Oh, who am I kidding? That made no sense. On top of that, nothing like this had ever happened before. So I had no clue what the fuck was going on and I had no time to experiment to figure anything out.
The doors opening kicked my body back into gear as I ran down the long path separating this bank from the building I needed to enter. A few steps in, the ceiling vanished to reveal a glass dome. It was close enough that I felt like I could reach up and touch one of the panes.
At the same time, the walls shifted into a set of rails as the hall turned into a bridge. One that was fairly long and hung suspended between two buildings. It was a good thing I wasn’t afraid of heights. The ground was a good fifty feet below me.
I wanted to stop. To check out what I could see. But I couldn’t. I had no choice but to continue. To force myself to not stop even when the sun peeked out from behind the mountain just outside the dome.
My eyes focused forward as I crossed over the threshold and into the building. They scanned over the numbers to find that I was way too many floors up. Like, eighteen floors too high.
A groan escaped my lips as I continued in the direction various signs pointed for the elevators and stairs. Sadly, none of the doors were open. Even when I pressed the button, nothing happened.
Left with little choice, I pushed the door for the stairs open and reached for the handrail. Fingers tight around the metal railing, I jumped the first set of steps. My grip loosened just enough for my hand to slide down the rail so that I could stick the landing.
One foot planted on the landing, I pivoted and repeated the process on the next. One set of stairs after another, I raced down the building. Only stopping as I reached floor two.
As I exited the stairwell, my eyes locked onto the nearest room number. To my shock, it was room 212. The room where the next test was supposed to take place.
For the barest fraction of a second, I debated taking the time to calm my racing heart and to steady my breathing. But while my body wanted me to do that, my mind was pointing out the time. The fact that I was already late and that there was another test after this one. With reluctance, and fast panting breaths, I twisted the knob and entered the testing space.
The first thing that caught my attention was the fact that there wasn’t a single holographic object in sight. No walls. No sign. Nothing.
There were a few things in the room. In the center was a single desk and chair. It wasn’t one of those with digital anything. In fact, it looked more like a plain table than a desk you might find in a modern classroom.
On the wall facing the desk hung a board. The lack of any projection points or electronics confused me. There was even a small tray at the bottom with a few finger-width pens. And standing next to said board was the proctor.
She looked bored as her eyes scanned over some book. Not text on a holographic interface or even a pad. A physical book. Not only were those not made in this day and age, but the ones that were around were almost always snatched by one collector or another.
She didn’t even bother to look up as she spoke. “Sit down and follow the instructions on the paper on the desk.”
I didn’t know whether or not to be worried about the fact that she didn’t bring up how late I was. Also, she didn’t say a word about my pad or cheating. Then again, maybe the rules about the test were on this piece of paper. Curious, I rushed to sit down and read what was printed on the page.
Contained within this test is a series of questions and instructions. For each question, its answer is the number for the next question or instruction. Do not mark the test. Start with Question 1.
Throughout high school, and even late middle school, our comprehension tests had us reading a passage and answering questions about it. Something told me this test would be a bit more complicated. At the same time, however, it was likely to also be more fun.
- How many vowels are there in the sentence: The sky shifts by my rhythm?
Um…either this was a trick question or something because the answer was too obvious. Sure, ‘y’ was sometimes considered a vowel, but surely they wouldn’t count it. Right? Fuck it. I was going to go with two.
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- How many different letters are in the word ‘Letter’?
Hmm, there were two ‘t’s and two ‘e’s. So, four.
- How many sentences appear below?
Unlike the two previous questions, this one had nothing directly beneath it. Well, other than the rest of the questions. A quick scan revealed that there were twenty such questions. Oh, and an odd question with the number zero in front of it. Each with a sentence.
After a quick count, I found eighteen separate sentences below question four.
- How many questions have you completed?
While after this question, it would be four, it was more likely that the answer was three.
- How many tests have you completed?
Well, there were the three physical ones in the arena. But was it three or four in the field? Oh, and there were the three in the crystal cave-like room. So the answer was either nine or ten.
Actually, why not check my pad? It wasn’t like there were any rules that said otherwise. At least none that I could see. A moment later, I had my answer.
- This word contains how many letters? Pillow.
So, that could either mean the word ‘this’, or the word ‘pillow’. Which meant that the answer was either four or six. I wanted to say six as I had already visited question four, but something about the way the question was phrased caused me to hesitate. Fuck it. If I had to, I could always come back to this question.
Like last time, there were still eighteen sentences below question four. Unlike last time, the answer to eighteen had changed. Going from three to seven.
- Take your last answer and subtract it from the answer before that.
Eighteen minus seven. So eleven.
- How many times have you answered question nine?
It took me a moment to trace my path back to find that I had yet to even see question nine.
- Walk up to the board and answer question three, followed by the answer to question ten, then flip the page.
Okay. So question three was easy. Nine. But what was question nine?
- How many people are in the room?
That was simple. Two. There were two people in the room.
Or so I thought. The moment I stood up to move to the odd board, I found that I was completely alone. Confused by this, my feet faltered. Where did they go? And when?
Even as my brain stalled on the proctor’s sudden disappearance, my feet carried me to the odd board at the front of the room. It didn’t take me but a moment to figure out the little pens and write the number ninety-one. With that done, I returned to my test and flipped the page to find a second set of instructions.
Ask the proctor for the mathematics section.
That would be great if they were there. As my head lifted, I found the proctor sitting there. Acting as though they had been there the whole time.
Trying to not shake my head, I moved to the proctor and asked for the Mathematics section. As soon as the words were out of my mouth, they had it in their hands. Not once looking away from their book as they waited for me to take the small sheet of papers.
Papers in hand, I read the instructions on the top sheet as I made my way to my desk.
Answer each question in the simplest form possible.
That sounded fairly easy. In fact, the test itself looked just as hard as my last math test. Slowly, I made my way through the various questions. Making sure to circle my answer so that the person looking it over didn’t accidentally take the random numbers and work as my answer.
By the end of the test, there were only two questions that caused me any issues. Not because they were hard or anything. They were fairly straightforward. The issue was the amount of work they required me to do as both required a person to calculate the volume and surface area of an object that was formed as a line spun around a single axis.
Not even a second after I finished the last question, the sheaf of papers were tugged out from under my arms. My eyes lifted to find the proctor reading over all of the answers. “What grade do you think you deserve?”
Their question threw me for a moment. As a result, it took me too long to answer their question. "While I would like to think I got every one of those questions right, I might have missed something.” Things I would have caught if I was given time to go back over the test. “So probably ninety percent.” With a shrug, I continued. “But what I think doesn’t matter as the answers are the answers. Nothing I say can change that.”
“And if I told you that I could change your grade to anything I wanted?” The look I shot her was one of confusion. “You were late, and I feel your grade should reflect that. So, maybe I should take away fifty percent.”
Her words came as a bit of a shock. Not because I didn’t expect a penalty for being late to this test. No. I was shocked by the amount that she wanted to take away. Somehow, I needed to convince her to leave my grade alone. Or at least to take only a tiny amount.
“You are right that I was late.” My head bobbed as I looked around the room. “But not for my math test. In fact,” I took a gander at my pad. “The mathematics portion of this test was set to start three minutes ago.” Meaning I had started early, but I wasn’t going to say that. “So, if being late means I lose points, what does being early mean?”
Judging by her face, I had pushed her a bit too far with that last statement. “Since you want to go there,” her voice dripped with scorn. “Then your comprehension test should be scrubbed. As a result, your mathematics portion will be invalidated as it requires one to finish the comprehension test to even start.”
“Okay, okay.” My fingers twitched against the desk as I tried to figure out what to say. “How about ten percent from both sections?”
“Fifty percent.”
“From which one?”
“Both.” She snarled.
“Twenty-five.” I tried.
“Forty.” I was a bit surprised that she came down at all.
“Thirty.”
“Thirty-five.”
“Thirty-five from math, twenty-five from comprehension.” I tried.
“Thirty-five from both.” Yeah, I wasn’t going to get a better offer.
With a sigh, I agreed. “Sure.” As soon as the word left my mouth, the room exploded in light as holograms covered every surface. From maps and notes that filled each wall, to an overhead shot of somewhere in the mountains.
“You are the commander of a small expedition. Your goal is to get them from your current location to the designated target before making your way to the nearest city.” With those words, she moved back to her spot and returned to her book.
The whole thing confused me. But given that a tiny timer was spinning on one of the walls, I had to assume the next section had already started. That if I stalled to ask anything or to even think, the test would still throw something at my team. While they might be able to handle it, I had the feeling that it wouldn’t be without consequences.