The man lead us into what looked like your standard classroom; there were four rows of five desks. We were told to fill the seats from the rear to the front. The alchemists that were filing into the room did as they were asked. I was one of the first people in the room, so I had a seat at the very back of the classroom.
"Once you are all seated, you may look under your desks to find an inkwell, a quill, and your test." People began to move to look under their desks, but they were interrupted. "If I catch any of you looking before I say so, you will be asked to leave the classroom, and you can take the test in a couple of months." The people that were moving stopped dead in their tracks and went back to their upright position.
Out of the corner of my eye, I could tell that Roman was making faces at me. 'Is this guy a five year old?' I wished my friends could be here to take the test with me, or even my Master. However, I doubt that she would let me cheat off of her even if her test was going to be that much harder than mine.
Once all of the alchemists were gathered into the room and seated, the man took a seat at a bigger desk at the front of the room. 'It really is a lot like school.' The masked man cleared his throat before speaking.
"You may begin the test. You have one hour. Good luck." Right after those words, you could hear the scrambling of paper and the clink of inkwells being placed on desks. I did the same as the others and grabbed my test and other sensitive items. The test was much larger than I expected it to be, at fifty pages in girth. But it wasn't as bad as I expected once I opened to the first problem.
Each page consisted of a single question, and you were required to show your work on the answer. The first question was, "What is alchemy? Once you have reached this answer, explain why you answered in this way." I remembered back to my very first lesson in alchemy. I knew this one. I began to write. "Alchemy is a combination of science and magic. The science part leads us to understand what the tool, figure, or potion can be used for as well as what processes we have to go through to make it work how we want to make it work." I quoted my Master almost verbatim. "The magic part provides us with energy or power to make our processes work."
I looked over my answer and was satisfied with what I had written. I flipped to the next page, and the next question was. "What is something that every alchemist needs to be a successful adventurer explain your answer?" 'What kind of question is that? It's completely subjective!' I couldn't understand why it would ask something like that, but then I remembered this wasn't a test to see how good of an alchemist I could be, but a test to see if I was a good enough adventurer as an alchemist.
I tried my best to remember something that my Master had told me a while back when she taught me my second skill. I thought about it for a minute before I remembered her answer. "Creativity and Grit, you aren't always given everything you need to do alchemy out in the field. You need to be flexible with how you think when fighting monsters, as well as have the courage to face them when all you have is some dirt to fight them with." I smiled at that answer, thinking about my first days with the party, learning how to fight goblins and making them fall into pits.
The rest of the questions were a mixture of alchemic procedures and questions about various circumstances you could find yourself in as an adventurer and how you would overcome them as an alchemist. I could hear the frantic scratching of pens, my own included, as everyone in the class scrambled to finish the test in time. The test was coming to an end for me. I finished the very last question with five minutes to spare. I looked up and saw that Sean and Roman had also finished early, as well as one or two others.
"Quills down." The test proctor spoke up when it was time. There were some groans from the people that had yet to finish their tests. "You will be graded based on the answers that you have provided; if you did not finish the test, do not fear failure; there is always the chance you got enough of the answers correct to pass. You'll find out your results after the practical." I understood everything that he said and could see that some of the people had relief on their faces while others were still fearful.
"Everybody leave single file out of this room beginning from the first seat in the front row. Once the last person in the row has left, the next can get up and leave as well. Your next proctor will meet you outside where you were gathered before in thirty minutes, be prepared." We did as we were told, filing out in a calm manner like he'd asked us to. Once outside, I saw my Master walking out looking completely haggard.
"Hey, Master, how did you do?" I asked her.
"Ah, don't know, three hundred questions in an hour ah jus don't know." She sighed and rolled her eyes into the back of her head before looking back at me. "How did ye do?" She asked me. I wasn't sure if I did that great or not, but I didn't want her to worry, so I smiled and gave her a thumbs up. This seemed to brighten her mood. "Ah knew mah student was gonna pass that wee test." She ruffled the hair on the top of my head. Sean very nervous, so I said goodbye to Master and went to talk to him.
"Hey man, you doing ok?" The manager nodded his head, but it still looked like he wanted to vomit.
"I just thought the questions would all be about alchemy! I didn't expect the other types of questions. I'm not an adventurer. What if I failed? I'll never get elected to office with just a bronze tag! I'm not even allowed to run with just a bronze tag." The teenager was talking a mile a minute, so I had to stop him.
"Sean!" He stopped talking for a moment to let me get a word in edgewise. "I'm sure you did great." I gave him the most reassuring smile I could, but that was enough; he gave me a shaky smile in return and thanked me. A few minutes went by when a very short woman wearing the same uniform as the man from before stepped out and addressed us.
"Would all silver tag applicants follow me?" She didn't even talk very loudly but turned and started walking away anyway. Those of us that heard her immediately began following her. We were trailed by the people who hadn't heard her but figured out what was happening anyway. The woman lead us through the same door that we had come through before, but as I walked through the door, it wasn't the same room as before. In fact, it wasn't really a room at all. It was more of an outdoor arena.
"Today, you will all face monsters that will be randomly selected. Show me that you can defeat them, and you can walk away having passed the practical portion of this exam." I had hoped that the practical exam wouldn't be combat-related. I looked over at Sean, and his face seemed to be paler and greener than usual. 'Oh god, don't ralph here, man!'
"The first applicant is going to be Roman Sullivan." Roman stepped up to the lady that suddenly had a glass bowl with strips of paper in them. He hesitated before reaching his hand into the bowl. "Don't worry, boy." The proctor told him. "There is only one strong enemy in here, and I doubt your luck is that bad." I couldn't see her face, but I had a feeling she was almost laughing at her own attempt at humor.
"I'm not scared!" Roman spat out at the woman in black. He reached his hand into the bowl and swiftly pulled out a piece of paper. The proctor took it from him and read it aloud.
"Imp!" Suddenly an Imp appeared in the middle of the small arena as if summoned. It was a weak creature, so Roman beat it pretty quickly with a handful of what I could only assume was dried Dream Leaf, an ingredient found near waterfalls that created a sense of sleepiness in the creatures or people it was used on. The man used a wind skill from a new tattoo he must have gotten from that master of his. The wind blew the leaves directly towards the Imp.
The monster fell to the ground, quickly going to sleep. Then I had to watch in horror as Roman stomped it to death. 'Poor thing.' I couldn't help but feel bad for it watching the nasty man do something that cruel. 'At least the monsters we hunt have a fighting chance.' It was over, though, and he walked back over to the group confidently.
"Beat that he whispered to me." I wouldn't have to wait long to respond to the challenge. The woman spoke up again.
"Next applicant is Todd Sheargin please step this way." I did as I was asked and stepped up to pull my slip from the jar. If it were anything like the Imp, I wouldn't have much trouble in subduing it. "Go ahead, dear." The proctor said kindly behind her mask. I began slowly reaching my hand into the bowl and grabbed a piece of paper. I handed it to the woman, and she unfolded it.
"Ooh, now, I can't say much for your luck, I'm afraid, dear." 'What does that mean?' But I soon understood what she meant because the next words that came out of her mouth made my heart drop into my shoes. I wanted to run away, to scream and hide, because the next words that she said were- "Great Goblin."