There was no sign of exhaustion left when my eyes fluttered open. Vigor spread through my entire body, leaving me full of vitality. The memories of the researcher’s tests and their attitude were still etched in my head, but I didn’t want to think about that anymore. The combat exam would discard all the disturbing memories flashing through my mind; I was sure of it.
I considered getting out of bed to stretch and work out to refine my World, only to stop when I looked at the time.
[8:53]
“I only slept for three hours?” My eyebrows rose slightly. I felt great, and even the mental exhaustion I’d accumulated from the sixteen-hour-long exam no longer bothered me.
“Best sleep ever.” I chuckled, retrieving my phone to tell everyone that I was fine and well.
What I didn’t expect when I opened the messenger was a new group chat with 99+ messages. My finger flicked across the screen as I scrolled to the start of the chat.
“Since when are my parents so close with Daniel’s parents?” I mused, trying hard to suppress the warmth filling my heart when I read the messages.
Having time to spare was relaxing for once, and I took my time with the messages from Friday and Saturday. It took me a while to finish them, but it was time well spent. My worries dispersed into nothingness, and I typed a message as well.
[Hey there, I just woke up and noticed the group chat. I think it’s a great idea. Good job, Daniel!
Anyway, the first two exams were tough, to say the least. They were also…different than we had anticipated. I think I did fairly well in the first part. Contrary to the majority, whose tests ended after eight to ten hours, I answered a few questions that allowed me to keep going. I was brought to the second part after roughly sixteen hours. The problem with that…well, I tried my best, but I only got to answer a little less than three-quarters of the questions. Some were just too difficult. I’m sorry about that…but I think they never wanted us to answer all the questions in the first place.]
I rubbed the back of my head, wondering if I should speak more about the questions in detail, but I decided against it and sent the reply.
The moment the message popped up, I remembered something else.
[I also noticed that there were close to 100 participants. I’m not sure if your informant is wrong, @PeterZerog, but I think the Camp changed quite a lot—]
How much did the Camp change? Were they actually planning to push some retinues out of the Camp? It was likely, which would explain Merlin Zerog’s comments. Was he trying to give us hints? I shook my head and returned to the message.
[—If they accept only 48 retinues out of 100ish, I’ll have to beat a bunch of them. The bad news? Aureus’ evolution is still not complete. Also, I don’t think Aureus will enhance my physical strength greatly after evolving. My cognitive abilities are improving rather than my physical properties, although they’re changing as well. Not as extensively, but they’re changing. As for the good news – well, I wouldn’t call them ‘good,’ per se. Traumatizing is probably a better term to use. Whatever, the second part of the test was successfully completed. Those nutjob researchers and doctors are going crazy. They’re also inappropriate and obsessed people I’d rather not meet again if possible, but they loved my World’s progress, my constitution, and how my World and constitution work together, forming something formidable.]
There was a lot more to explain, but I didn’t want to go too much into detail about the negative parts of the exams. I left out the obvious – that I probably ranked the lowest in terms of physical strength, durability, agility, dexterity…and about everything related to the body – and focused on the good things as well as I could, trying to sound as confident as possible.
I typed a message to reply to my mother’s order to rest and recover, and not to get injured in the combat exam.
[Don’t worry, Mom, I have more than enough time to rest. It’s only…] My fingers froze, and my head snapped to the icon on the top right of my phone. I checked the time on the clock in the room next, only for my head to snap back to the timestamps in the group chat: [Saturday - 21:53]
A deep frown plastered my face.
“Wait a second…” I murmured, my heart skipping a beat.
It wasn’t Saturday! I closed the messenger and opened the calendar.
“It’s Sunday? But that can’t be.” I cursed, leaping out of bed, all thoughts of rest dissipated into the stale air. “How could I sleep for 27 hours straight?!”
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
[9:21]
I had less than an hour until the combat exam would start.
A quick stretch and a few push-ups were all I could afford to prepare for combat. Even that was probably a stretch since I had yet to take a shower. Maybe the instructors wouldn’t mind, but I most certainly wouldn’t risk getting disqualified for smelling a little.
Once I triple-checked Aureus, whose evolution was slowly reaching the finishing line, I rushed out of the room. Hopefully, Aureus would finish his evolution by today. If not…well…my hopes for a high ranking in the combat exam were not exactly high in the first place. Giving my utmost and allowing others to beat me up like Selene had done for the last few months was all I could hope for.
Maybe they’d consider me an Infernal Cockroach. That would definitely increase my standing among them. Taking a beating and being able to get up no matter how badly your enemy wounded you were great traits, which was also why Selene did what she did. I highly doubted that was the whole reason for the Swordmaster’s actions, but if it made her feel better…so be it.
Fortune hadn’t abandoned me yet, and it took no more than a few minutes until I found a large locker room with a door leading to showers. One of the lockers had my name on it, and I could open it with my ID, revealing several sets of clothes, toiletries, and everything I could wish for—except for food. Breakfast would have been great, but fighting on an empty stomach seemed like a good idea. Memories of a dulled poison fang smashing into my stomach over and over again until I vomited breakfast resurfaced in my mind, banishing all thoughts of having breakfast.
I took my things, brushed my teeth at one of the sinks to the side, and only noticed someone else styling his hair when I was nearly done.
“Good morning. I’m Adam.” I stretched my hand out with a smile, trying to keep the toothpaste foam from spilling from my lips. “It’s nice to meet you. For a moment, I was worried I’d be too late.”
The Blessed didn’t even turn to me. He glared at me through the mirror for a moment and resumed styling his hair.
Okay…whatever. I shrugged, finished my business with the sink, and rushed into the shower room. What I didn’t expect to see when I dropped my clothes to jump underneath the closest showerhead was a naked guy squatting beside a small bowl filled with water, and a…squirrel’s head emerging from a cloud of glittering foam.
“Oh, hey there.” The young Blessed said, his damp black hair sticking to his face. He didn’t bother moving and focused on the beige-furred squirrel instead. It squeaked excitedly when the Blessed rubbed its belly, cleaning its already pristine fur.
“Did you wake up too late as well?” He chuckled like his question was funny.
“Yeah.” I moved to the next best shower and switched it on, hot water steaming the air, loosening the tension from the last few minutes. “I slept through Saturday somehow.”
It was still hard to imagine that I didn’t wake up once. Sleeping for twenty-eight hours was a new low even for me.
“My name is–…”
“Adam, I know.” Scott said, his eyes glistening for a moment. “You were about to say that.”
I raised my eyebrow, “You know me?”
“I’m Scott, and this is Destiny.” He gently tugged the squirrel behind its ear. The squirrel squeaked again. “You want me to rub your back? Sure thing.” He moved aside, miming the motion with one hand, casual and practiced.
Scott began rubbing Destiny’s back with deliberate, careful strokes. “She is a little high maintenance. Good thing I have only one Soulkin.” He snickered and looked back up at me. “No — she’s not a Dire beast. Destiny is not a physically attributed beast, as you can probably tell.”
A beast’s appearance could hint at a lot, but it wasn’t the whole picture. What unsettled me more was that Scott seemed to know my thoughts.
“Don’t worry, I cannot read your mind. You’re just kind of obvious, Adam.”
Was I that easy to read? Well, even if I was, we did not have much more time to waste. It was already late, and I had yet to finish showering.
I showered like a world-record holder of quick showering and ignored the stinging in my eyes when foaming wash paved its way through my tightly shut eyelids. I dried my body in a hurry, put on the combat gear I found in the locker, and went out of the locker room only to see Scott waiting for me. Destiny squeaked and pointed a tiny paw at me.
“Do you know where we have to go?” Scott asked with a bashful smile. “I was waiting for my friends, but I haven’t found them.”
Somehow, that didn’t sit quite right with me. It felt more like Scott had been waiting for me instead. Then again, I didn’t know where to go either.
“There was someone else in the locker room earlier. Maybe we can ask him,” I suggested.
“If we can find him.” Scott shrugged, turning to the right, leading the way.
He wasn’t in a hurry and guided me through the building until we reached the elevator where several people were waiting. Scott winked at me and entered the elevator, following the others. So did I.
“Yes, you were right,” Scott muttered to the squirrel, which appeared as talkative as Daniel.
Poor guy, I mused, glancing at Scott, who smiled as he chatted with Destiny.
Or maybe not. He looks happy.
The elevator doors opened and more people, mostly Blessed around my age, stepped inside, hiding Scott. The doors closed again, and the elevator moved downward for quite a while. The next time the doors opened, everyone stepped outside. I pushed to the side and let everyone pass me before I moved out of the elevator as well.
“Damn.” I blurted aloud, my eyes flicking from far right to the far left, barely hearing the faint squeaking of a now-familiar Soulkin.
“It looks beautiful.” Scott marveled, while I craned my neck to take in every little detail.
“And…old?”