“As the last of you finish up,” a booming voice pulled me from my internal musings and back to where the guy stood at the front of the room. “You will now be allowed to move on to the next series of tests. But, hear me now, this was the easiest of the tests that you will endure today. Take your time and do your best.” I couldn’t tell if he was trying to cheer us on or warn us.

  Even before the doors finished snapping open, people were already getting up. A few even vanished from where they were to appear either at the door or just beyond it. While a speed-based power was decent, it only took a glance at their food budget to realize how impractical the power was in everyday life.

  Most of the people around me made their way to the doors. All except for Bert. He stood there. Probably to make sure I didn’t run off or something. Not that I would.

  As we joined the swarm of people meandering down the halls, the chattering picked up. Growing to the point that I ended up putting my magitech earphones back into my ears.

  The stairs to the cavern upon which the school was built was massive. Covering the entire school grounds and then some. And all across it were various tents and machines. Each with one or more people standing nearby.

  It was only as we stood at the base of the stairwell that the group stopped. Even the chatter seemed to die down a bit as people took in the setup. Me, I was focused on the woman standing on a platform directly in front of us. Sure, she wasn’t blocking the way forward, but judging by her glare, she was practically daring someone to try and get past her.

  Not a single person risked it. Hell, even if someone had the power to take her, she was decked out in what looked to be her full battle outfit. We are talking about armor designed to battle the monsters beyond the walls. One that included a weapon only a crazy person would use. I mean, who in their right mind would dive face-first into the swarms of creatures?

  Her hard gaze roved over the group for a few more minutes before she finally spoke. “Welcome to the practical part of your evaluation. It is both the longest and the hardest of all the tests you will go through today. But,” she emphasized the word. “After you finish, you will receive a few options as to your path forward.”

  That confused me. I thought these tests were to select who could and could not get into the academy. Given how everyone around me seemed to be reacting, most of them had been under a similar impression. Well, except the rich morons. A fact that had them gloating for some fucking reason. I mean, why the fuck would you gloat over the fact that you already knew something like this? Idiots.

  “While there are over a dozen various testing stations, most of them are optional. The ones that are not are labeled as such.” She gestured to a nearby station. One that I could just make out through a gap in the crowd. Dozens of treadmills covered the ground. All watched over by a single official in a military uniform.

  Two signs swung gently through the air above the official. One simply labeled the station as Endurance 1 - Running. The other was emblazoned in a simplified version of this city’s flag. Okay, so most of the colors were missing, but the crossed sword and pickaxe overlaid on a featureless mountain was unmistakable.

  “Now,” She continued. “While you can choose to skip the optional tests, I would recommend you try them anyway, as the results you get might surprise you. In addition, even if you fail to complete the test, the information collected might – scratch that – they will result in better and more personalized paths forward.”

  The woman snapped her fingers as though she nearly forgot to mention something. I doubted it. This was likely all theater. “Oh, and there is no time limit. Take your time and spend all day here, or get the minimum number done in an hour. You can even take them in any order you want.” Her voice dropped a bit as though she was telling us a secret. “In fact, I would take a bit to look around before you even start.” She stopped for a second before waving her hand. “Now get going before I decide to try and help you with a test or two.”

  With that lovely threat, the crowd charged forward only to immediately slow down as people gawked at the multitude of options. To be honest, I could see why, too. Some of the pieces of equipment set up were things that I had only heard about in various books and articles. Things designed to measure mana output, control, damage, and other, more nuanced items.

  All that said, I broke off from the group immediately to head to the first of the required stations. While the rest of the crowd flooded the stations with cool equipment, I figured that I should get the required shit out of the way. The first of which was running.

  The corner of the soldier's lip quirked up as I approached. “I see we have a few smart ones in this group.” At her words, I turned my head enough to see that I wasn’t alone. There were a handful of people walking along behind me. “Find a treadmill. Once there, place your card into the slot on the front and follow the on-screen instructions.”

  That sounded simple enough, and it was. The instant I placed my card into the slot, the screen lit up with a question.

  Would you like to warm up first?

  Nearly the moment I agreed, the belt started to move. It started with a pace that had me struggling to keep from walking off the platform. Thankfully, that didn’t last long. Within a minute, I was up to a light jog. As my muscles loosened, my stride grew. Either the machine noticed the change or something as its speed increased to match my pace.

  Then, after a few minutes, a string of text appeared in front of me.

  Transitioning to test.

  That was it. Either the machine was broken, or the test was so stupidly simple that instructions were not needed. After five minutes of running without any issues, I had to assume it was the latter.

  A good dozen minutes later, my muscles were screaming at me to stop. To end this torture. To give up. Which pissed me off. There was no reason I should be this out of shape. I lifted various heavy pieces of equipment all the time. Hell, my work had me constantly moving around the shop. Yet here I was, struggling to basically jog for longer than twenty minutes. That was unacceptable. Not when even the weakest of creatures on the other side of the wall could kill me.

  Still, even with the will to go forward for a little longer, my body refused. Thankfully, the machine kept up as it slowed to match my quickly faltering pace. And, as if the first staggered step was the last straw, my body quickly gave in. Even my forced breathing faltered as I crashed to my hands and knees.

  Which was a good thing as the ground beneath me decided to try and buck me into the air. While it could have been from an earthquake, the wave of mana that exploded out from a different section of the cavern hinted at a more local source.

  But, try as I liked, I couldn’t seem to see any fire or even a trace of smoke in the air. Sure, not every power produced such byproducts, but even if it didn’t, there should have been some sort of noise. Something to help pinpoint the source of the motion.

  As my head swiveled to look for any sign of where the wave came from, I found that I wasn’t the only one doing so. It seemed as if everyone near me was doing the same. Many of whom looked just as worn as me. But of course, being the muscle head Bert was, he was flying down the treadmill. Fucking show off.

  With a shake of my head, I turned back to my treadmill to see if I could move on or if there was more to do.

  Rest period. When ready for the next part, touch the screen.

  Well, yippee. There was more running in my immediate future. Just kill me now. Maybe I should have gone to one of the other stations before coming here. Not that it would have really helped me.

  Might as well get this out of the way before my muscles decided to strangle me for abusing them. With a sigh, I forced my muscles to cooperate. The screen changed as soon as I tapped it.

  Sprints

  “Fuck.” My curse came out in a whisper even as I pleaded with the machine. “Can we go back to the endurance test? Please.” The thing either didn’t hear me or it didn’t care. It simply waited for me so that it could do its job.

  I could give in and purposely fail. It wouldn’t even be that hard. It would just require me to give in and go back on my word. Something that I had yet to do and didn’t want to start now.

  With a groan, I slowly lowered my center of mass as I prepared to run as fast as I could. I just had to hope that the machine would keep up, or I would be getting a very personal view of that screen.

  The track kept up without a single issue as my feet took off. Though, that shouldn’t have been all that much of a surprise with how fast some of the people around me moved. Most of them anyway. There was one who seemed to be struggling to even walk. Still, none of the machines seemed to be having any trouble.

  Now that I thought about it, they were likely designed with speed-based powers in mind. After all, even if they were not the most common power, their abilities deserved to be tested to their max potential.

  I nearly stumbled as my left calf cramped up. Only the belt's ability to stop on a dime and my reaction speed kept me from faceplanting. This test was over. Even if there was more to it, I doubted my body was going to let me go another round without a decent break first. And some water. God was I thirsty.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  A string of text flashed into being in front of me. Continuing to pulse as it waited for me to read and follow its next instructions.

  Running test complete. Please take your card as you leave.

  Unfortunately for it, I stayed where I was for a couple more minutes as I stretched the muscle. Finally, though, my reason for staying on the machine was no more, and I had to move on. I yanked the card from the slot before walking on wobbly legs toward one of the scattered benches.

  Bert was a good ten minutes before he joined me. Which was fine. The extra time gave me an opportunity to get some water from what looked like a tiny canteen station. They also had some decent-looking food. The smell was tempting, but one look at the prices sent me scurrying back to the bench.

  By the time the sweat-slicked idiot showed up, none of my muscles hurt. Too bad that wouldn’t be the case tomorrow. Not that he seemed to be in the same predicament if his smile was anything to go by. Probably something to do with his results. Before the big oaf could say a word, I got up and moved toward the next mandatory test. Sadly, the moment I stepped foot into the next area, I realized just how bad today was going to be.

  “Find an open station, insert your card, and follow the instructions on the screen.” A man in heavy armor shouted from the middle of the Endurance 2 – Load station. Something told me that the stretchy-looking bands laid across each treadmill weren’t a fashion statement.

  In an effort to put off the next test for as long as I could, my eyes scanned for the flags that would mark what tests were required. Other than the one in front of me and the previous one, there were two others. One was labeled as Reflex and Reaction. Something that was a must when an attack could come from anywhere and at any time while traveling outside the walls.

  And of course, the other was Mana – Control and Output. Of all the tests, that was probably going to be the one I performed the best at. Though, truthfully that wasn’t saying much. There were people here who had likely worked on fine-tuning their mana control for most of their lives. Mostly out of necessity as powers were known to chew through mana. Sure, I had a few times where I found myself running low on mana, but those times were few and far between.

  So, with a deep sigh, I walked to the first open treadmill and inserted my card. As with the last station, the screen lit up.

  Please put the bands on. Left band around your left shoulder. Right around your right shoulder. They should be placed as though you are wearing a backpack. Tap the screen when ready.

  Welp, that explained how this test would be placing a load upon us. I found that the bands were surprisingly soft and comfortable. That is, until I tapped the screen and the damn things nearly tossed me on my ass. It was sheer luck that I took a step forward.

  Of course, the treadmill took that as my cue to start moving. Not at the fast pace of the sprints or even my jogging, but a decent walk. It almost felt as though I was walking through the city with a piece of equipment or such in a backpack. Something that I was used to doing. If only I could listen to some music.

  Actually, why couldn’t I? Surely there wasn’t a rule against it? My head swiveled to look for the man in armor only to find that he was busy helping a muscled beast of a woman replace the bands with some much larger pieces. It was a rare sight, but not unheard of for a person's power to influence their body, but damn, that was one hell of a change. It almost made me wonder just what her power was that it required such a change to support it.

  With a shrug, I pulled out the cracked device that served as my pad. To my surprise, a notch in the treadmill lit up. Almost as if it was inviting me to hook up my device. I mean, there was a chance that doing so would allow the people running the test to go through it. But let’s be honest, if they wanted to get information off of it, then they already had.

  I tapped the screen twice before putting it into the notch as a low thumping beat filled my ears. The noise drowned out the grunts and wheezing noises that permeated the space around me. As the beat picked up, so did my pace. When it slowed down, so did I.

  After a while, I started to zone out and forget where I was. I even found that the force being applied to me fell away. The only reason I couldn’t completely forget about the bands was how they were starting to dig into my shoulders. Still, I continued to move to the beat. I probably – scratch that – I definitely looked like a fool as I danced to a few of the songs. Not that anyone stopped me.

  No, what ended up stopping me was the bands finally forcing me to fall to the ground as the force suddenly spiked. It went from a rather large backpack filled with various parts made of metal to a fucking engine sitting on my back. Sure, I could handle that, but only for a few seconds and sure as shit only if I was ready for it.

  Bert’s laughter forced its way into my ears as one of my earpieces popped out thanks to the force of the impact. “Don’t you have your own test to do?” I snarled at the idiot.

  “You do know you can manually increase the weight by tapping the screen, right?” No, I did not know that. But I wasn’t going to tell him that. I was sure he cranked his up as high as he could handle before taking the damn test. With a roll of my eyes, I returned the bands to their original location, grabbed my card and pad, before turning toward the next station. Reflex and Reaction.

  While I wasn’t all that fast, it was one of the few things I had over Bert. Not that that was saying much. The idiot couldn’t catch a ball flying toward him to save his life.

  My eyes widened when I got close enough to see the person currently taking the test. They were teleporting from side to side as various holographic rings popped into being. I don’t mean they were moving fast enough that I couldn’t see them. I mean it when I say teleporting. The soft popping of displaced air was a dead giveaway for powers like this. Only when they grew more skilled could they deaden, or outright eliminate, the noise their power produced.

  Unfortunately, it wasn’t all that strong of a power, not until you managed to evolve it a few times. And even then, one had to specialize to make it useful. I mean, sure, the power allowed one to completely ignore everything between them and their target, but they had to see their target to make the jump.

  And given how slowly this person was making the jumps, they were struggling to make the jumps. Given the distance, it would have been faster for them to walk to the target. Yet, here they were wasting their mana on showing off.

  An annoying buzzing sound drew my attention to the small pillar set in the middle of the space. It was unadorned. In fact, the only thing on it was a small slot where a card would go.

  “Your test is finished.” The man running the station didn’t look like much, yet something about the way he moved caught my attention. As I watched him, every part of me screamed Don’t. Don’t test him. Don’t joke with him. Don’t waste his time. And to make sure not to catch his attention. Not unless I was ready to meet my maker. “Please retrieve your card and exit the testing environment. NEXT!”

  With a dejected look, the teleporter slumped out of the isolated space to disappear into the wandering crowd. The next person to step up looked almost normal. All except their hair. Waves of black, tipped with pale white, cascaded down the man’s back.

  As soon as he set the card into the slot, a holographic countdown filled the space. Instead of a zero, it let out the same tone from before. Moments later, a small disk of blue appeared in front of him. He didn’t seem to move an inch as the disk vanished a fraction of a second later, replaced with two more to either side.

  The disks continued to pop in and out of existence, with each getting farther and farther away. Still, I couldn’t tell if he was somehow hitting them faster than I could detect or if the test was detecting something else. After all, there would be no reason for the test to continue, let alone speed up, if he never touched any of the targets.

  As the machine ran out of room, it started to increase the number of targets. From two to four. Four to eight. This continued until the space started to blur as a veritable swarm of targets appeared and disappeared.

  With a shake of his head, the man let out a resigned sigh. “This is tedious.” His words made it sound as though he was bored. A wave of arctic air blasted outward, washing over the test and those standing nearby. I watched as the very air itself seemed to condense as ice grew along the ground.

  The moment ice touched the base of the machine, it gave off a shrilling squeal of a beep. Almost as if the machine was afraid. “Your test is finished.” The man running the station seemed to be trying to hide it, but he sounded a tad impressed by the person inside the ring. “Please retrieve your card and exit the testing environment. NEXT!”

  The test churned through people at a rapid rate. A good chunk of the tests were over and done with faster than it took to insert their card into the designated slot.

  Finally, though, it was Bert’s turn. His chuckle filled the space as he put his card into the pillar. The man’s movements were efficient, if a bit choppy, as he jumped from side to side to reach the targets as they popped up.

  All of his moves worked to hit the targets before they faded away. That is, until three targets appeared at one time. At that point, he started to miss at least one of the targets. Finally, the buzzer filled the space, announcing the end of his run.

  Bert’s huffing form lumbered out of the testing space. “Your turn.”

  “Don’t remind me,” I grumbled as I stepped up to the pillar, only to hesitate to slide the card inside. It wasn’t that I was scared of the test. The problem lay in the fact that there were so many people watching me. Well, not me specifically. It was more like they were each watching how others went about their test. Looking for techniques and hints they could steal for their own test.

  “Either insert your card or get out of the testing space.” The man’s words were the push I needed to put my card into the slot. As the last holographic number faded away, a small voice in the back of my head told me to slice upward with my right hand.

  The voice had the same feeling as the inklings I got when working on some equipment. Unlike those inklings though, this was an actual voice in my head. So, I was either making the jump from weird to completely crazy, not all that big of a jump to be honest. Or a part of my subconscious had taken a step forward to tell me what it was seeing.

  At this moment though, neither of the two possibilities mattered. The only thing that really mattered at this moment was whether I would listen or not. After a moment of hesitation, my right hand sliced up in time to meet a circle as it started to solidify. ‘Turn around.’ Even as my brow furrowed at the space the first target had been, my muscles spun me around in time to meet yet another target, further confusing me.

  In my confusion, I let my body move on autopilot. When I came back to myself, I realized that the voice was no longer giving me simple commands. The commands it gave me were entire sequences. ‘Right foot up, left foot pivot one hundred twenty degrees, left hand sweep down, tilt head back, and put your right hand in front of you at shoulder height.’

  My body followed the command, and four different targets vanished at nearly the same time. Just what was going on? Then came another command. A command that my body failed to follow as my brain suddenly started to pay too much attention.

  Like a tower of wooden blocks, my body collapsed to the ground as I lost my balance. Before I could stand up, the buzzer filled the space, announcing the end of my test. Something that was quite nearly drowned out by the rushing sound that filled my ears. I might have pushed myself a bit hard with that, whatever that was.

  A hand gripped my arm, helping me up as the sound of rushing water faded enough for Bert’s voice to reach my brain. “…dance lessons or martial arts class?”

  “Wha–?” If my sudden inability to articulate a single word didn’t clue me in, the slowly spinning room was enough of a reason for me to find somewhere to sit.

  Bert, oh so helpfully, dragged my ass out of the ring and over to an empty bench before reiterating his question. “When were you going to tell me you had learned to move like that? Was it a class in martial arts or dancing? Because I think I might need to attend some of those classes if that is the result.”

  I regretted shaking my head no the moment I tried. Forcing my breakfast to stay where I had placed it, I waited for the world to settle down before speaking. “It isn’t that I haven’t wanted to take a lesson or two from the dojo on Main Street. We have never had the money for it.” It wasn’t really a main street. It was too close to the wall for the city to ever consider it such. But it was the closest we outerwallers had to one.

  “Then what was that? Because some of those moves were picture perfect.”

  “I don’t know. I don’t even remember most of that test.” I had been too distracted for that. And now I was paying the price. God, everything hurt more now than it did after that first endurance test. “How did I do?”

  “Bull shit.” He scoffed. “There is no way you did better than me and don’t remember it. Because if that is true, maybe you should do more of that for the rest of these tests.” Yeah, I doubted that would work. Hell, something told me that I wouldn’t be able to repeat that last test even if I tried.

  After a few minutes of sitting there watching people attempt the reflex test, I stood up. “One more required test to go.”

  “And it is one that I will probably fuck up.” Bert groaned as we both looked at the last station. Mana – Control and Output. While it sounded annoying, it shouldn’t be all that hard for me. Probably.