“Your practical test will be very simple," a smartly dressed man explained. There were several other Agency employees standing around, and Max caught glimpses of still others that were in the distance or standing in corners, likely guards.
No matter how good the guards were, he couldn't imagine that they truly believed they could protect the other Agency employees completely, though. In reality, an organization like the Agency probably just has to trust in the sanity, better natures, or just greed of the Challengers who came to do business with them. Besides, it did stand to reason that even the most evil or psychotic individuals who came to get a Challenger ID card would avoid issues out of self interest.
Max glanced around at the other four testing participants. They were all giving the Agency representative their complete, undivided attention. He smirked. It seemed like he was the only one who was salty and cynical enough to be thinking about Agency security in the middle of their testing explanations.
The man kept droning on and Max tuned him out again. He'd already gotten the most important information–all of the testees were eventually going to step inside some golden circles inlaid into the concrete ahead of them. Once that happened, they would all fight in what was basically an arcane virtual space. It was actually an arcane illusion, but the result would be the same.
Now the Agency manager was coming back to the actual point, so Max started listening again.
"Once you are inside the testing area, the place that we call 'The Wall,' you will all be fighting together at first. The first half of your assessment is a group-based challenge. There will be waves of enemies–all different kinds of monsters–and you must protect the wall and your comrades. If you kill any of the other testing candidates, you will immediately be disqualified.
“There are different criteria for how you will be scored during the trial, so don't worry if your powers lend more to healing or support. Just try to find opportunities to use them and show off what you can do. For instance, if your power is to heal, but somehow nobody actually gets hurt during the trial for you to heal, as long as we know what your power set is, the circumstances will be taken into consideration."
One of testees, a blonde women raised her hand and then said, "That's easy for you to say, but we didn't get to show much of what we can do when we proved we’re Challengers a few minutes ago. If we can't display what we can do, how can you accurately make an assessment?"
She ended her question by crossing her arms across her chest, and Max noticed another of the testees nodding too—a black man wearing bright clothing.
"You would have a point, except..." The Agency man looked like he was hesitating but then continued, "The Wall will unfold in such a way that, regardless of what group challenges it, you will be pressured. To that end, there is no time limit. The first phase is over once the techs running the tests believe we've gotten good results."
This time Max raised his hand. With a nod, the man gave him permission to speak.
He said, “I take that to mean that killing our fellow testees disqualifies us, but dying doesn't, am I right?'"
"Correct," said the man with a nod. "Since your trial will be virtual, it's a bit similar to your experience in the Quartet, except that you won't have to wait any sort of time to come back to life. Instead, if you die during the first half of the testing process, you will immediately find yourself starting the second, which I will explain shortly"
Max nodded in understanding. The other applicants were a bit slower to catch up, but eventually, the blonde woman who asked the question about healing firmed her lips and showed signs of steely resolve. She must have just figured out that the testers were basically saying that there was very little, if not zero, chance that the testees would have an easy time. The woman might look like a college student in her early 20’s, but she was presumably a Quartet graduate. She had to be at least a few years older than she looked and had endured unknown trials before coming back to to Earth.
The Agency man continued explaining, "The first part of your test, like I said, is a group exercise where monsters will run at the wall you are guarding, and your job is to stay alive and keep them from going over the wall. The second test will be individual in nature. You will be back on a wall, but it will be your own individual wall. Then instead of large waves of monsters, there will be monsters tailored to test you, and each mini wave will get progressively more difficult to beat. If you can last until the end of that event, you will get full marks for it. The individual monster waves may also start at a more difficult level after observing your group trial, so as not to turn it into a trial of endurance. We want to see your potential, not necessarily your staying power."
Max raised his hand again. "Yes?" asked the smartly-dressed Agency man.
"If there's an end, then does that mean that there is an upper limit of how high anybody can achieve on this test?"
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"That is correct…but it is largely irrelevant. We cannot initially promote anyone over a specific rank, and the end of the test definitely would be far above it. After all, most Challengers getting a Challenger card are Returners who are just back to Earth. Combat abilities are only one small part of being a professional Challenger now on our planet. There's also business acumen, guild contacts, and actually working together as a team in a portal... The highest rank that we can give when somebody gets their first Challenger card is C rank."
Max nodded more slowly this time.
There were a few more questions from the other testees, and the Agency rep talked a bit more, maybe even putting in a little bit of effort to settle some nerves that any of the Challengers might have, but Max had tuned it all out again. He was silently giving himself a go, no-go list on his powers; that way, he wouldn't need to think about what he should or shouldn’t do while he was fighting.
All of his Blade Sorcerer powers were a no-go, but he still had plenty of strength and could fight with his fists and hands, too. Using his fulls strength wasn’t in the cards, but that still left him quite superhuman. More importantly, he had his spirits and his beads. Now that he knew that this was an illusion-based challenge, and it sounded like everybody started the test with whatever they had on them, he was thankful for all the beads that he'd stowed on his wrists and ankles.
Finally, the Agency rep confirmed Max’s assumption, saying "For this test, you may bring any equipment into the illusion world that you'd like. You have to be wearing it at the time you step in the circle. Does anybody need for one of their friends or family to bring them any gear?"
Everybody shook their head except for the first man Max had seen standing in the testing area, waiting to step into a circle. He was tall with red hair, and after a few moments, another man—this one dark-haired and burly, not a testee—approached him with a box. Inside the box was an impressive-looking longsword. After that, the red haired man nodded and said, "I'm ready."
All the applicants stepped forward, including Max, until he had both feet inside of his circle. After that, blue sparks erupted from the gold band embedded in the concrete, and with seemingly no transition, Max immediately found himself standing atop a high stone wall in the middle of a valley. The valley wasn't very wide, with extremely steep cliffs on both sides. The four other participants were arrayed around him on the wall, which was about twenty meters high and maybe fifteen feet wide. There was plenty of room to maneuver on top. Max could feel vibrations in his feet as if something was running towards them in the distance.
"I think they're coming from that direction," said the blonde woman, pointing directly ahead of them.
"Yeah, no shit," said the red haired man.
Amun Patel, with a tone of disapproval said, "Let's focus on the task at hand, yeah?"
"I agree," chimed in Max.
The red-haired man frowned but didn't respond. Instead, his fingers started pulsing in rhythm on his sword as all five of them peered forward into the valley, staring at the bend where it disappeared around a distant cliff. They didn't have to wait too much longer until they saw their enemy, the first wave.
The blonde woman hissed, and Max understood why.
"Vermin," said the black man.
"Looks like rodents of unusual size," Max agreed.
This time the blonde woman glanced at him and gave a nervous laugh. "I never thought I'd hear 'Princess Bride' quotes in the middle of my Challenger ID test."
Max shrugged and lifted a single eyebrow at her. "Perhaps next time you might consider the possibility that you will be testing with another Challenger and irrefutable culture."
The woman laughed again and even Amun chuckled. The black man on the end of their line ignored him, and so did the red-haired guy.
Max focused. He ran through his available powers one more time and silently questioned his spirits if they were ready too. Every one of them gave him a subvocal acknowledgment; some of them seemed a bit more excited than others. Curiously, in addition to Saliron, Slick seemed the most eager to actually fight. Trill and Lavinia felt more resolute, resigned.
With a thought, Max asked Lavinia to activate her spirits.
Immediately, ectoplasmic armor covered his body. Then, using the same combination of Slick’s and Lavinia's power that he had in the Fawn caves, Max leapt as high as he could into the air, this time over twice what he was capable of before achieving a three-star mana body. Lavinia's spirits immediately morphed into a large glowing wing on his back, allowing Max to glide forward. A few of the other testing participants yelled, but Max ignored them. The highest rank he could achieve was C, but he'd be damned if he got anything lower. On top of that, it would be easier to showcase his abilities if he fought alone.
It probably wasn’t the best teamwork, but if none of his teammates were ever in any danger, that was a kind of teamwork, right?
When he was over the first wave of furry monsters, he began dropping beads. These explosive beads were much more powerful than he'd been able to manage before. Part of the enhanced effect was because he just had more power available now, and he was actually supercharging each bead a bit before dropping them, injecting just a bit more mana into each one. It was easy to do because their function lattice and triggering mechanisms were already in place.
Max also had a better understanding in general of Bead Sorcery too. He wasn't 100% sure how that affected his beads, but he could definitely feel that it did.
Giant rodents below detonated in violent, bloody geysers of innards and broken bones. Inside Max's head, Saliron was taking it all in with laser-like focus. He wasn't making any noise in the physical world or in Max's mind, but his entire aura was similar to a dog at a table staring at scraps.
Max managed to wipe out almost the entire wave of rodent monsters from the air with beads before he was forced to touch down on the ground. As soon as he did, the ectoplasmic wing immediately flowed over his body, returning into armor. Max sprinted forward and punted one of the remaining rat-things, a monstrous creature the size of a mastiff dog, in the side. It was a move like he was trying to kick a giant football. Bones snapped, and the huge rodent was launched into the air, twisting into a slow circle with rivulets of blood being thrown out by centrifugal force.
Another rodent jumped at Max from behind. He spun, avoiding the spikes jutting out of the thing’s body to deftly deliver a savage hook to the side of the monster's temple. Its skull caved in, and this time, Saliron got to flex his power too. Max had already told the dark spirit to run wild while Max was fighting this first wave, to do everything and anything he wanted to do to the enemy. So as Max's fist crushed the monster's skull, the rest of its skull and even the top half of its spine disintegrated. The creature collapsed in a rolling, boneless heap.
The last remaining rodent lunged at Max directly in front of him. But even without his sword, Max was a three-star mana body. He delivered a downward slap to the top of the thing’s snout and a powerful palm strike to its shoulder, diverting the creature's force. Both blows carried remnants of Saliron’s power, so more bones crumpled and flaked, cutting the monster up from the inside. It rolled into a pitiful, shrieking, screaming ball. And Max didn't bother to end it. This was all an illusion anyway. If he left the crying rat in the field, maybe it would slow down the next group of monsters.
Max surveyed the battlefield before running back to the wall and easily hopping up to the top using a combination of his natural strength and Slick’s power. The other four challengers were staring at him.
"Are you going to do that every time?" asked Amun.
"I’m not sure," Max replied honestly.
"One of you is lively! So be it," said the red-haired man. He smiled, and the expression wasn't particularly friendly, but it was genuine. "This test is a bit more interesting now. I can't say I'm bothered by it."
