Before I could say anything else, Bert grabbed my arms as he rushed toward the next test station. Given how physical the test looked, I wondered if he picked it on purpose to get back at me for that last test.

  Still, let it not be said I didn’t give this place my best. Even with this test being a bad matchup for me, I tried my best. While others blasted or teleported to the end of the agility course, Bert just leapt over the whole thing. Me, I took my time and had fun. I mean, when else was I going to get to do something out of an old-school game?

  And that was only the start of it. There was a test for accuracy and range that we could hit a target. The guns they provided those without a ranged attack made it feel like a duck hunt. I almost wondered if I might have done better if I had broken out many of my rescued game systems to get a feel for everything.

  Then again, maybe not. There was a difference between shooting things on a screen and a target in real life. For one, there was one hell of a kick on those rifles. I mean, sure, they shot compressed bolts of mana, but that didn’t mean that Newton didn’t demand his due.

  The other main difference was the fucking voice. The thing was all over the place. Sometimes it seemed to be trying to help, other times it was almost there as a distraction. I mean, why would I need to know the position of all the enemy targets throughout the shooting area? Most of them were not even mine.

  Oh, and there was a stealth test. It was closer to a game of hide and seek. Though instead of hiding from one person, we had to cross a field without being seen by any of the supposed guards. I failed only a fraction of a second faster than Bert. Mostly because I had burst out laughing at some of the faces he made as he tried to get through a gap I would have had issues with.

  Then there was the test in negotiation that I got lost in. Turns out the other person was a technician in the academy. Granted, they had a power that got them in, but they didn’t use it. In fact, they claimed their power was next to useless.

  Instead of giving in and going home, they buckled down in what they knew and went into helping others with their crafting projects. Mostly troubleshooting. Something that they seemed to excel at. The tests they had to come up with to verify that the various projects worked. Every bit of their work was interesting. So much so that we had to be practically dragged apart so he could get back to work.

  As for the shielding section, the less said about it, the better.

  Which brings me to my current predicament. In one of the underground caves that served as both a sports arena and an evacuation point. One that had a massive gash in the ground. Bert had long since jumped over the thing, but this was as far as I would go. My feet were a good five feet from it, and that was still way too close.

  “Come on, Eli, it’s not so hard. Just jump.” Yeah, easy for him to say. Bert’s power made jumps like that a breeze. Without a power pushing the density of my muscles up, there really was no way for me to make that fifteen-foot jump.

  I watched as a pair of friends counted down. At one, they sprinted for the edge. One seemed to glide on the very air while the other used fire to rocket across. A nearby girl scoffed before crossing on a bridge of pure light. Light that wouldn’t hold anyone else up. A fact that another person found out as they tried to follow her across, only to fall into the pit.

  At least I could be sure the fall wasn’t all that deadly. You might get battered and bruised, but that was it. And even those injuries didn’t last long thanks to the various healers sitting to the side. Most of the angry cursing that people tossed around seemed to stem from the fall itself. Not that I blamed them.

  Then there was me. Standing here with absolutely no idea of what I could do to even have a hope of passing this test. Well, there was the possibility of asking someone for help, but that was cheating.

  Yes, I know the place didn’t care about cheating, but that didn’t mean I wouldn’t. Various ideas flew through my head, yet none of them were any better than just running before I jumped. Just as I was about to give in, an idiot raced toward me. It sounded like they were going to do a running leap and hope that they would make it across.

  As their feet raced toward me, I felt the hairs on my arm stand on end as a bolt of electricity whizzed past to splash against the ground. I don’t know what they expected to happen, but I doubted the snaking of the bolts as they hopped from point to point in search of a target was it. Especially when one ran into the tip of my foot. Electric spasms rocked up my leg before spreading to the rest of my body.

  My heart seemed to freeze as every muscle spasmed and flailed. I was a helpless passenger as I watched my body getting closer to the edge. Finally, my legs gave out, tossing me close enough to the edge to see into the chasm below. While I mentally knew the darkness was safe-ish, the fact that it completely blocked the bottom from view was unsettling.

  When the spasms finally stopped, my chest was over the edge. One or two more jerks and I would have gone over. The very thought of falling into that abyss had me floundering to get back. To get away from all the people racing past as they challenged their friends or simply had fun.

  Of course, that was when the voice decided to make an appearance. This time, it sounded more like an announcer speaking over the PA system. ‘Stable holds switching. Grapple points T1 through X4 destabilized. Grapple points O3, P9, V7, and L2 stabilized. Grapple status: unused.’

  What it said didn’t even make sense. There was no grapple. And even if there were, how in the hell would I know that? I simply sat there, watching people jump and play around with their powers as they took the test. All the while, thoughts of the voice and memories of what it said to me passed through my mind.

  The more I thought about it, the less this voice sounded like something that should be there. It sure as hell wasn’t me. Not with the kinds of insights it was giving. But what was it? And why was today the first time I was hearing it so clearly? Was it the place? The testing? What was going on?

  Idly sifting through the dirt, I felt a sting in my palm that had me hissing in pain as I jerked my hand back. Thankfully, the thin line only seemed to ooze blood. It wasn’t bad enough to need immediate treatment, but I should probably clean it after I finished this test.

  But how did the cut even happen? All of the stones in this place were smoothed out. Most over the centuries as nature carved it from the very stone. As for the rest of the sharp surfaces, they were taken care of thanks to the various spells cast by the city. Spells that they said were to keep the earth-based creatures from digging their way in.

  It was a completely bullshit excuse, and everyone knew it. While there were a multitude of monsters that dug their way through the earth, none were strong enough to eat through solid stone without making a ton of noise.

  In all honesty, it was more likely they did it to keep people from getting hurt. After all, they could turn around and sue the city. Even if they didn’t win, the very act would cost hundreds of thousands of credits.

  Ever the curious bean that I was, I turned my attention to digging out whatever had cut me. Within moments, I found myself in possession of an odd-shaped gun. One that had a little triangular point sticking out of the front. I didn’t even bother to test that point. The faint red streak along its edge told me everything except what it was for.

  Mind wandering over the various possibilities, an old cartoon of a man shooting at a building before being pulled up had me wondering if this was something similar. I mean, the voice had said there was a grappling hook. And while this didn’t look like any of the grappling hooks I had ever seen, that didn’t mean that it wouldn’t work as one.

  Of course, just because it looked like that didn’t mean it would work. But what was the harm in trying? Especially when even I didn’t consider this cheating. After all, just as everyone here used their powers, who could fault me for using a tool I found? Yeah, I know. They are not the same. Sue me. Or don’t. Please don’t.

  Now I just had to figure out how to aim the thing. Oh, and where to aim it. Something tells me that some of the sections above me were going to be unstable. Just a hunch. Nothing to do with that voice from earlier. None at all.

  So, if I were designing such a test, how would I lay it out on a grid? What point would serve as the point of origin? It had to be something that the person setting up the test could use as a point of reference. A single point that could be placed before everything else.

  The attendant stood to the side, watching everything. They would have made a good point, up until they moved. Of course, there was the boulder buried to one side that was permanent, but I doubted the designer would have used it in the design. After all, this wasn’t the only place this test was done. Plus, what would happen if the thing were destroyed?

  I watched people slide their cards through a slot in the pillar for a few minutes. There was nothing here that was both stationary and able to be moved. In fact, the only thing here that didn’t move throughout the tests was that pillar. But the thing wouldn’t…god I was an idiot.

  Each test was standardized, sort of, which meant that they had to be set up in generally the same way each time. So each test would be set up around some point that never changed. And what did each test have? A fucking pillar. As I said, I was an idiot. With the likely point of origin in sight, I just needed to figure out which axis was which and where they fell.

  Yeah, I had nothing. It didn’t help that the voice had only referenced two points. That would work, so long as the world was a flat, two-dimensional grid. But it wasn’t. So, what were the designers referencing?

  Actually, screw this. This test was already taking longer than every other test, and I was still nowhere near figuring it out. Time to just shoot at the ceiling above and pray.

  With the gun held firmly in my hand, I squinted into the ceiling above as I hoped to find a good place to aim. That was when I noticed the little etching set into two of the larger stalactites? Stalagmites? Wait, those that held to the ceilings held on tight, so stalactites.

  B3 and C1. Neither of which were useful to me. Even if the voice had brought them up, they were on this side of the chasm. But it did give me an idea of what to look for.

  Fifteen minutes, and a pair of very strained eyes later, I found a rock labelled V7. Funnily enough, it was right over where Bert stood. Now I just needed to hit it and swing over. Oh, this was going to suck. But nothing to do but get it over with.

  With a hand raised, I looked down the gun barrel. A small red dot appeared on the rock just as I hit the trigger. The weapon let out a deep thud and whine as the bolt shot out. Before I could let out a surprised oomph, the bolt vanished across the distance before sinking into the stone.

  A moment later, the gun nearly tore itself out of my hand as it pulled on the nearly invisible thread connecting it to the rock. Only my jerking reaction caused me to get pulled behind the weapon as it raced toward the bolt. Then, it stopped just in time to dangle me from the ceiling a good fifty feet off the ground. All the while, people looked in my direction. Some laughed while others rolled their eyes as they went back to what they were doing.

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Still, even with the laughter and mocking, I didn’t want to let go. Unfortunately for me, I didn’t have the hand strength. So, without much choice, I fell.

  Thank god Bert was there to catch me. Too bad he had to do it in such a way that I ended up looking like a fucking princess. I was almost more grateful that he dropped me a moment later. I just had to hope that no one else saw that.

  After swiping our cards at the exit, we made our way over to the last station. Around which a horde of people seemed to be panicking. Unlike the rest of the tests, the person manning the entrance handed each person who entered a bag and directed them where to go. She also only let a person enter when another finished whatever the test required.

  Judging by the sign above, which read as Rescue and Treatment, this was likely some sort of medic-related test. Honestly, that didn’t sound so bad. No matter what the injury was, there were a number of ways to treat it. Not just the powered healing skills either. That isn’t to say those powers are useless; they are far from it. But sometimes you don’t have a healer nearby, or you need to help the person survive long enough to see said healers.

  “This bag contains some basic medical equipment. Feel free to use it for this test.” Her voice was a perfect monotone. I mean, so much that it reminded me of this one history teacher I had.

  The guy prided himself on how fast he could put the class to sleep. Of course, he also waited until halfway through the lecture before dropping some important information that would be on the test.

  His influence on those who took his class was so strong that I was already starting to waver while listening to her speak. “Please proceed directly to your assigned victim when told. Insert your card into the chest and wait until prompted by the machine. Once the test is done, please remove all of the used materials and place them into the bag. After you return the bag, you are free to go.”

  Bert looked as confused at the entire thing as I felt. Still, he shrugged before he grabbed the bag nearest him and tossed it toward me. And like always, the idiot tossed it with enough strength to cause me to stagger back a couple of steps. The worst part wasn’t that he used too much power; it was the laugh he let out every time he did this.

  And like every other time, he had to point out just how weak I was. “Don’t you think it is about time for you to put on some muscle?”

  “Not all of us can be overpowered muscle heads like you.” My voice chased after him as he made his way as he stepped toward a pair of unoccupied dummies. Both were as gray as the stone around us. Even the holographic screen was all gray. Something that made it hard to read the text that it was projecting. The only source of color was the red line set into their chest. Probably where our cards were supposed to go.

  As I wanted this last test to be done, I shoved my card into the red line. Lines of gold and red raced out from the slot. Everywhere it went, the body changed. Gray was replaced by a golden tan. Stick-thin limbs filled out. All while clothes rippled into being.

  While I had read about devices like this, this was the first time I had seen something with a fully integrated reconfiguration system. Most of the ones produced were used for equipment to be used by various hunting groups.

  Well, it was available to anyone that wanted one, but they were not cheap and for good reason. A weapon with such a system installed would be able to repair itself. A tool built with it could reconfigure itself into a couple of different forms. Need a shovel? A pickaxe? A hammer? As long as it had the designs, sufficient programming, and the materials, it could change into whatever you wanted. Though most hunters that used it refused to trade in their primary weapons for one using the stuff.

  A large holographic 1 filled the humanoid chest as the voice in my head spoke. “Starting circulatory and respiratory systems. Starting patient simulation. Pain response enabled. Adding a three-inch scratch to the arm.” I watched as a tiny line of red appeared on the left forearm.

  The wound was nothing more than what one would expect if they were caught by a bush or a tree. It was something that I am pretty sure most people would see and shrug. Not worth the time to deal with. But this was a test, and as such, I had to treat it.

  With it being such a minor wound, I took my time to open the bag and look at what goodies were hidden inside. Most of it was the kind of stuff one would expect in a normal first aid kit. Stuff like a bunch of gloves and some bandages. Oh, and a few small packets of pills. Not the good kind, but the stuff for headaches and the like.

  Then there were three rolls of normal gauze, each of various widths. A roll of sticky gauze. A couple of bottles of a topical cleaning solution and a host of sterile gauze pads. But they were little more than individually packaged pieces of cheesecloth. Add to that an assortment of implements, and this kit had a few items I would never use. For example, when would I need to use a scalpel? My focus should be on stabilizing a person so they can get to someone that has the proper training or powers to save them.

  But maybe this was the general kit they gave out. Whatever the reason, I ignored the rest of the bag as I put on a pair of gloves. It wasn’t like there was a chance that I could get infected by this simulated blood, but who knew what the test was looking at when it came to our score.

  Dabbing some of the cleaning solution onto a freshly opened piece of cheesecloth, I gently moved toward the wound. The moment the wet material touched the wound, the bot jerked as the soft voice of a teen boy came out of it. “Hey, that hurts.”

  The words caused me to freeze. Why in the hell would the test designers include an ability for these things to respond as a human would? Yeah, even as I thought that, I realized that they would have made sure it was as realistic a response as they could. God, this was going to suck. People were annoying on the best of days, add their complaining, and I wanted to just leave them to suffer.

  Still, I forced myself to stay. I even managed to put on a small, if fake, smile as I spoke. “Oh, I am sorry about that. Can I ask you to bear with it a few more times? We wouldn’t want this to get infected after all.”

  “It is just a small scratch.”

  “True,” I nodded. “But who knows what was on that branch. It may have been covered in a monster's spit recently.” While I doubted there really was any such thing on this imaginary branch, I also doubted my victim would want to risk it. After all, everyone knows just how toxic some monster liquids could be. Some even had neurotoxin in it that caused paralysis in those that came into contact with it. All the better to trap its victims.

  “Don’t.” The bot huffed. “But make it quick.”

  With a quick swipe and a bandage later, the holographic screen flashed the number 2 as the odd voice in my head returned. “Removing the scratch. Adding a 2 inch gash to the leg. Embedding foreign material.”

  The gasping cry of the teenager caught me off guard. “Fuck, it hurts. Why does it hurt so much?”

  Unsurprisingly, I didn’t have to look far to find the wound. Mostly due to the amount of blood that was already peeking through the material. Now, I had two choices. I could cover the wound, keeping pressure on it while I called for medical help, or I could take the chance to deal with it myself.

  Yeah, I wasn’t going to wait. Especially as I was fairly sure something was embedded in the wound. If I was right, then adding pressure would just cause it to dig in even more. Depending on what it was, it could kill them.

  So, with deft hands, I grabbed the scissors and cut along the seam to reveal a gash deep enough to show off the robot’s off-white leg bone. Blood poured from the wound. And, sitting there, wedged between the bone and the twitching muscle, sat a piece of wood the length of my finger. Or at least the material looked like wood. Whatever it was, it had to go. Any pressure, and there was a chance it would dig into the muscle.

  Thankfully, the kit came with some tweezers because I was not going to reach my fingers into that gash to feel around and pry each piece out. Mostly because I would do more harm than good. As I worked on clearing out the wound and irrigating it with a fair amount of distilled water, the bot pleaded and cried for me to stop. Hell, at one point, my so-called patient called for me to put it out of its misery and to just kill it now.

  The idea nearly caused me to snap at it. I mean, sure, I didn’t have any painkillers to give it, but that didn’t mean it should die. While this wound would scar, it wasn’t going to do much more than that. Not so long as I managed to get them well enough to see a proper healer.

  With the wound all cleaned up, I moved on to closing the area up. Given that my stitching was horrific at best, I was going to avoid that option and go with some basic butterfly bandages. Sure, the constantly flowing blood made it hard to stick the ones near the bottom; the rest of them went on quite easily. A minute later, the injury was wrapped up and ready to go.

  The crying cut off as the voice in my head returned once again. “Removing the gash. Selecting a place for a closed break. Breaking a leg bone.” A sickening crunch announced the split. Not that I could miss the sudden sharp object pushing against the fabric on the other leg. Then, as if they had been taking in a deep breath, the teen let out a banshee cry.

  Until that point, I had never wished for some power or ability to knock someone out more than now. Machines were so much simpler. And most of the time their noise wasn’t so earsplitting. Not unless there was some sort of issue. Even then, the noise typically told you where the problem was and even what was causing it. Oh, and did I mention you could shut them up while you worked on fixing them?

  With a groan, I gave in and put my headphones back into my ears. I didn’t turn any music or the like on, I just needed the noise-cancelling effect that they provided.

  Finally able to think, I focused on the broken bone. Most of the time it would be best to stabilize the break, but there were times where that wasn’t practical. Especially when the toes inside the bot’s sandals were already looking a bit grey. With this place being something built to test powers and knowledge, I needed to use everything I knew. One such piece of information was setting bones.

  Why did I know how to set a bone? Because it was cheaper to set it and wait for the one day a month the healers came down to our section of the city than to pay for any of the upper hospitals.

  Which meant that I needed to set the bone, take care of the wound, and splint the whole thing up. All of which sounded easy until you realized just what setting a break required.

  It had to be done in one smooth motion. Out and in. Any scraping or if it doesn’t get back into the right position, then it would do more harm than good. A doctor may even have to rebreak the bone if it is set wrong, and no one wants that.

  With one hand on the bottom of the foot, gripping the heel as much as I could, I moved the other to just below the break. The bottom hand had to provide the force necessary to get the bone clear. All while my other hand guided the bone into position. Once done, they had to work together to make sure the ends were kept aligned as they came back together.

  Yeah, the screams that came from the thing were loud enough that I could hear them through the noise cancellation. Thankfully, that only lasted a dozen seconds. The rest didn’t take more than five minutes. Even as my hands went to work splinting the leg, I kept an eye on the toes until the color started to return.

  “Removing the broken bone. Adding a head injury. Adding a concussion. Adding a twisted wrist.” Fuck. Talk about upping the difficulty. While I could theoretically guess at the various injuries based on how the bot held them, I was sure the test designers wanted us to ask our patient what hurt and diagnose them that way.

  Yeah, that wasn’t going to happen. I was done with this test, and I just wanted to leave. Plus, it wasn’t like the voice had led me wrong so far. So I treated the bot as well as I could. Not that I could do anything for the concussion.

  “Removing head injury. Removing concussion. Removing twisted wrist.” Just how many more of these scenarios were there? The bot was starting to look a little odd with all the scattered bandages and leg splint. “Knocking out patient. Adding a broken rib. Adding a bruised belly. Adding neck hematoma. Time to full breathing occlusion set at forty seconds.”

  Hematoma? Normally, that wouldn’t be all that bad. Just rest, ice, and compress. Pretty much the same thing one would do for a nasty bruise. But on the neck? There were only a few major vessels in the neck that could cause such bruising. Each of which could create a fair bit of pressure on the surrounding area. Considering that the airway was compressible, it would be crushed first.

  Constricting an airway was never a good idea. But what could I do to stop it? I didn’t know how to drain the blood without causing more potential problems. Something I would have to do research on and ask about later.

  But what could I do here? How could I save my patient from slowly suffocating? The more I thought, the more a very bad idea started to look like my only option.

  Without care, I dumped the entire bag onto the ground as I sifted for a few things. I tore the hard plastic nozzle from the squeeze bottle. Now, what to do with the alcohol? If I set it down, I would either knock it over or waste time hunting for it again. A waste considering I needed it to clean the area I was about to slice open.

  In a bit of a panic, I just dumped the liquid all across the patient's throat. There was no way to view that as even remotely the way to clean anything. Then again, I could argue that it was better to have the potential for an infection than for the patient to suffocate. Yeah, it was a flimsy excuse, but nothing I could do about it now.

  Tape sat on the patient's chest. The scalpel went into my shaking right hand, and my left started to trace the front of its throat in a search for landmarks. Points that I had half-learned from a diagram I’d skimmed out of sheer boredom. Specifically hunting for the small dip just below the Adam’s apple.

  Just as the slightly shaking blade touched the skin, something hit my side with the force of a freight train. Air fled my lungs in a surprised grunt as my arms snapped toward my head. Hard plastic pinched my palm as my grip spasmed. The scalpel took flight, leaving me weaponless against whoever decided to attack me in the middle of my test.