To my surprise, nothing else happened. No other strikes hit me. Nothing. For the first dozen seconds, I kept curled up, waiting for strikes that never came. Curiosity finally drove me to move my hands enough to get a look around.

  Bert stood over my test patient, and he looked pissed. “You made a promise.” The snarled words bit at me. Angry at me for something, but for the life of me, I didn’t know what. It wasn’t like I wasn’t trying my hardest on each of these tests.

  From where he stood, all he would have seen was the scalpel, poised against the patient's neck. So what was he talking about?

  As my mind tried to figure out what was going on, he let out a growl as he reached down to the center of my patient's chest to rip my card out of the slot. The bandages and splint collapsed and fell to the side as the skin it was attached to deflated. Returning to its grey and lifeless form once again.

  With a flick, the card sliced through the air. Embedding itself into the hardened dirt just in front of my face as he continued. “Just what were you thinking?” When I didn’t answer, he turned, tossed his bag at the pile of used materials, and made his way out of the cavern.

  My eyes stayed fixed on his retreating back as I waited for him to turn around. To tell me what I had done wrong. To explain something. Even as his back vanished, I stayed where I was.

  It was only as someone crouched next to me to check that I was okay that I moved. My hand pushed theirs away as I mumbled that I was fine. Physically, I was fine. Emotionally, I had no clue.

  Bert was one of those guys who could take a beating and still joke around. While there had been a few times we had fought, they never felt like this. They never felt so final.

  And for all I knew, it was. If he got accepted into the academy, I may never see him again. That meant that this might have been the last time I would see him. This would be the last thing we did together, and I had somehow done something to fuck it up.

  My body and mind were numb as I slowly piled everything into my bag. A part of me felt bad for the people who had to go through and take care of the pile of bags, but I couldn’t bring myself to do anything about it.

  I slid the card across the pillar as I passed the monotone speaker as she gave her spiel to yet another group of test takers. My feet shuffled across the ground as I trudged through the stream of excited people. Friends and rivals chased one another from station to station. Challenging each other to do better. To reach farther. To go further.

  Gravity pulled at my feet as I climbed the stairs. Eventually, I saw the light of the sun as it forced its way through the school entrance. Just one more room and I would be out of this place. One more room and I would be able to go home. Lose myself in a repair. To forget everything that happened today.

  Then again, maybe going straight to work was the worst idea. While my hands worked, my brain wasn’t always needed. Knowing it, the thing would fixate on the events of today. It would turn over everything I said, everything I did, in an effort to find out where I went wrong.

  But that only meant I needed to find a job that required me to think. Something that needed every bit of my attention. Surely there were a few jobs in the backlog that would do what I needed. If not, I could always break out my rebuild project. It was about time for me to attach all the parts I had found over the last couple of months.

  As I neared the gate where people were allowed to exit, an official stepped in front of me. “You need to talk to one of the officials over there.” They pointed to the side where a bunch of people were listening to an official as they read something on a screen. Not that I could read any of it. Something around each of the stations seemed to blur those inside. Not bad enough that I couldn’t make out faces, but the words were a lost cause.

  “Why?” My voice was soft and quiet enough that I almost couldn’t hear it.

  Still, the official answered me. “You need to turn in your card and see what the various groups are willing to offer you.” Oh, right. The card. What if I just gave him the card and walked away? As if sensing my thoughts, the official shook his head. “They have to be turned in by you. Rules are quite strict on this.”

  Well, that sucked. The pocket that held the hard plastic card suddenly felt much heavier. “Fine,” I mumbled as I turned and walked to one of the open stations. A soft tickle of energy washed over my skin as I moved to take a seat. The man behind the table didn’t say a word. He simply gestured at the two slots in the center of the work area.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  While one of the slots was for my test card, there was no indication as to what the other slot could be for. It was big enough for my pad. But I doubted that was what they wanted. Sure, it had a bunch of my information and documents, but none of it would be all that useful to them.

  My only other idea was my ID. Which honestly made more sense given what this was. The start of the testing had required it, so why wouldn’t the end? Both cards slid into the slots without issue. A moment later, a pair of screens appeared between us, allowing me to read the information displayed even as the official went over everything.

  While each test had more information on how I did and other data points that were probably useful, the bold words to the side were all that seemed to matter to the man. “Written test, technical knowledge, adequate. History knowledge, adequate. Combat techniques and power use, below standard.” Those made sense given the questions that kept popping up. “Running endurance, below standard. Sprinting, below standard. Load endurance, standard. Reflex and reaction, above standard.”

  If the raised eyebrow and flick of his eyes toward another section of the screen was anything to go by, that result caught him off guard. Still, he continued with the next section, which had two very different results. “Mana control, below standard and above standard. Mana output, below standard and above standard.”

  I held up a hand to catch his attention. While he let out a resigned sigh, he let me ask my question. “Why are there two results for my mana tests?”

  “You took the test twice.” He made it sound like the reason should be obvious, and it probably would have been if I had any brain power to think about any of this. After a moment to see if I had any more questions, he resumed listing my test results. “Salvage and repair, outstanding with a note from the test official.”

  The official stopped for a moment as he tapped at the note, only for an error to pop up on the screen.

  Temporarily restricted to senior test officials.

  For the first time since I sat down, his face showed an emotion. With an angry scowl, he pulled out a pad and jammed it onto the table. With a swipe and tap, he dismissed the error and tried again, only to get the same result.

  Before he could try something else, a woman stepped into our distortion bubble. She didn’t give him time to protest as she whispered something into his ear. The man's eyes narrowed, and the scowl on his face grew, but he gave her a single nod. Done with whatever she had been there to do, she left the space.

  “What was that about?” I asked.

  “Nothing you need to worry about. Moving on.” His reply was odd, but it wasn’t like I was in a state of mind to push the issue. He pocketed his pad and returned to reading my results. “Obstacle test, below standard. Range accuracy, below standard. Range weapon usage, below standard. Stealth, below standard. Negotiation, above standard.”

  I wasn’t surprised by the results so far. Though I was a bit curious when he ignored the note next to my negotiation test results.

  “Shielding, well below standard.” He continued. “Chasm crossing, blank.” Wait. What?

  “I took that test.” I interrupted. “Why are the results blank?”

  He just shrugged as he moved onto the last test. “Medical treatment, blank.” The feeling of the scalpel in my palm returned as I recalled the test and the events that took place at the end. Maybe Bert’s interference caused the test to be invalid. “Do you understand these results? You can either tap the bottom of the screen to accept the results or return to the cavern to retake any of the tests.”

  The lack of results for my final two tests was annoying, but I wasn’t going to go down there and try again. Especially not that chasm test. If not for Bert catching me, I might have gotten hurt. Maybe even broken a bone. That is, if I could even get the odd grapple gun down from where I had left it.

  My hand shook slightly as I tapped the button to acknowledge the results on the screen. The entire display winked out for a moment before another screen took its place. Other than a few words, the screen was blank.

  I didn’t need him to read them to me, but he did anyway. “Results on hold pending administrative review.”

  “What does that mean?” Were my results really that bad that the system thought a secondary opinion was needed to verify just how badly I had done?

  “It means that your results are on hold.” Thanks sherlock. “When they are done, they will release them to you.”

  “When will that be? When can I expect them?”

  “A couple of days from now. A week at the most.” With those words, he grabbed the white card from the slot and slid it into a slot in a box behind him. “With that, your testing is complete. Have a good day.”

  Well, that was a waste of time I could have spent getting closer to home. At least as I made my way through the exit this time, no one stopped me.

  Even with how large each of the rooms had been, it felt confining. A feeling that left me the moment I stepped outside. The sun-kissed breeze felt amazing against my face. Eyes closed, I lifted my face so that the light from the sun could reach every part.

  A sudden shove from behind brought me back to reality. “Get out of the way, peasant.” I rolled my eyes at the pompous asshole’s back as he swaggered toward the street. A group of what looked like attendants followed after him.

  Then, he stopped in the middle of a cleared space and flicked his hand. One of the women scrambled forward. “Take me to the manor.” His voice was loud and demanding. While I might have told him to shove it, the woman started to gesture. Mana flared out from her in waves as a bubble of purple tinged with black rose around the entire group.

  As soon as the sphere finished forming, it popped with a loud crack that echoed off the buildings around us. Like the bubble, the group was gone. Transported by a decently powerful teleporter to wherever this manor was. Yet another show of power by those closer to the center of the city. Even the people they hired were stronger than anyone I knew. Power serving power. Leaving the rest of us with little more than scraps they didn’t want.

  Head lowered, I made my way to the shop and the home above. With each step, my mind slogged its way through the events of the day, trying and failing to find where I had fucked up.