The pencil tapped against the test paper with an incessant rhythm. It's holder grimaced as he guessed at another question, hope of passing sinking further each time. He turned the page, both relieved and dismayed to see that the test was finished.
Setting his pencil aside, Rowan grabbed his test papers and walked to the front of the room where the proctor was seated. The proctor simply nodded to the table beside him, where a dozen other test papers were gathered.
Rowan placed his down while sighing, his chances of passing the written exam were low. He had never been too confident in his studies outside of math, and had been no equations to solve in all 20 pages.
"Where's the next exam room?"
The proctor eyed him tiredly, before grunting and pointing to the signage just outside the door, which showed the way to the next exam room.
"ahh.. thank you."
Rowan half smiled as he spoke, feeling the heat of the students still taking the exam looking at him. The proctor just grunted again as Rowan turned to the door and left the dreadful exam behind him.
'He looked half awake, with him as the proctor it probably would have been worth trying to cheat'
He thought this, but Rowan knew the consequences for cheating. He wanted to get his licence, not be banned for life. With a licence, he would be able to clear the infamous hells roaming the land, and make a shit ton of money.
Hells were the cause of the Fall, they looked like miniature black holes, and acted similar as well. Any creature they came into contact with would be destroyed without a trace, leaving clean cut grooves whenever they only took part of it. They were slow, moving less than a metre a second, but nothing could be down about them. Barricades didn't work, you couldn't dodge them while sleeping either.
The ray of hope came when the first person survived a hell, somehow. They had emerged from it, and immediately after it had collapsed, leaving only the person behind. That was the first survivor, and there were only more after that. The first survivors were also the ones to name the hells, calling them such due to what they experienced inside.
Those survivors later became known as gifted ones, then as heroes, and most recently as awakened, based off pre-Fall media, apparently.
'if only the test had asked about that'
Instead, the test had been about famous awakeners, the rules they had to follow, as well as the various peculiarities to do with Hells.
The signage led him through the buildings halls, past many different office workers who remarked on the month's exam taking place. Unfortunately, they also noticed his lack of build. As one of the many orphans after the Fall, he had relied upon the governments handouts for the majority of his life, and it had meant he was much skinnier than the other participants of the exam.
Trying his best to ignore the stares and pitying looks, Rowan continued on until he finally found where the signage was leading him. Four other students sat on the bench outside the door, and they all looked up as they noticed him approaching.
"Looks like we finally have 5, no more putting it off i guess"
The girl sitting closest to the door chuckled softly as she said this, likely trying to hide how nervous she felt. She quickly stood up and took the couple steps distance between them, before reaching out her hand.
"What's your name? Mine's Aoife!"
Rowan nearly failed to keep the blush from his face as he reached out to shake her hand. She was pretty, auburn hair framing her freckled face, and her green eyes were intensely staring at Rowan's hazel eyes.
"Rowan, it's nice to meet you."
A hand shot up towards the back of the group, and a short blond haired boy loudly claimed his name was Avery, and the girl sat next to him was Nadia. Lastly, a white haired boy sat with his arms crossed, who would have looked intimidating were his foot not tapping anxiously on the floor. Each of them had much more muscle mass than Rowan, likely due to having parents, or maybe through somehow landing a job with the government.
"We should go in now, right? We have 5 participants now. Lenny, by the way."
He nodded to Rowan who half nodded back, but he was mostly busy reading the sign on the doors in front of them. 'Once five participants have assembled outside, knock on the door and an examiner will let you in.'
The Avery, Aoife and Nadia all nodded, so Lenny raised his hand and knocked on the door three times. There was no answer for a few seconds, before the door cracked open and a middle aged woman peeked her head through.
"The previous group is still finishing up, I'll let you in as soon as they are finished."
Although it was brief, other sounds could be heard through the now open door. The sound of shouting, and of someone sobbing.
Rowan was too stunned to acknowledge the lady's words, only a brief nod was given, to which the lady simply sighed and closed the door. As it closed Rowan lent against the wall besides the bench, trying to knock his knees into place so they wouldn't shake so damn much. The others seemed much the same, as their brows knit together and Lenny's foot tapping grew louder.
"Seems like it is the combat test next. Damn. I thought I had prepared myself enough for this, but hearing that..."
Aoife wrung her hands together, gritting her jaw so as to stop her teeth from chattering in her fear. The combat test was by far the most terrifying of the three, as the examiners would only intervene if things were going too far. And their opinions of 'too far' differed greatly between examiners.
However, they all knew it was a necessary test. If a participant was unable to defend themself, they would almost certainly lose their life to a monster in the wild. It was significantly safer to find out who wasn't prepared in a place where medical professionals were on stand by.
The monsters were the second part of the hells, that caused humanity to be nearly eradicated after their appearance. every hell released different monsters, usually thematic in some way. One hell may produce air fairies, another might produce stone drakes twice the size of a house.
the five teenagers sat silently, the earlier cheerful mood long gone in anticipation of what was to come. After what had seemed an eternity of waiting, Avery was the first to speak up.
"Soo.. what kind of powers are you guys hoping for? personally I'm hoping for fire, I always thought those guys shooting fireballs out of their hands looked the coolest, and it's not weak at all either."
Everyone present had thought about that at one point or another, growing up in close proximity to many of the awakened that defended Ireland from the monsters and the Hells.
"I'd prefer something weapon based, I don't know if I'd be able to trust fantastical fire in a sink or swim situation."
Lenny was a well built guy, so it made sense that he would want something that already worked well enough for him. Rowan was about to give his suggestion, but Nadia was the next to speak up.
"I'd prefer to be a healer, there's never enough of them to heal all the injured and sick."
Pays well too, it was one of the hopes Rowan had, as it meant he'd be valued greatly and never have to go into the wilderness or ruins.
"I'd be happy with healing as well, but I would prefer something combat oriented. Don't like feeling defenceless."
ultimately, he'd much prefer a combat ability. While it might put him in harms way, being unable to defend himself was something he couldn't afford.
"I'm the same, hard to protect when you need protecting. Not much point worrying about it now though, it's basically set in stone."
Rowan was taken aback by that news. How Hells operated was kept very strictly secret, most of the population had no idea how Hells granted abilities, Rowan included, so how was Aoife so sure about it?
"Come on, we can chat about it can't we? I mean sure, the first ones random but we can play what to choose for the second!"
Avery was grinning as he said, and while he seemed relaxed, Rowan's head was spinning.
'These guys must be the kids of awakened ones, that's how they know so much. Well, at least it probably means the combat trial will be a breeze at least...'
As Rowan was thanking his luck, the lady once again pushed the door open, and said the words that put everyone's nerves on edge once again
"You're up. Get ready."