I shake my head and turn to Ember.
"Only 5 tokens for a 2-person suite. So we could have stopped after I won that first spin."
Then, I turn back to the white-haired woman that continues to follow us through the room.
"Why should we trust you? You could easily sit by that table and earn 2 more tokens in no time at all if you wanted."
I do another scan of her status to confirm what I saw before was true. She may have a unique healing skill, but she's level 501, just over the minimum barrier to entry for this exam.
We keep walking forward, even faster now, and I notice her heavy breaths and pale complexion even more than I did when she was sitting at the table.
She replies.
"I'd be in horrible shape tomorrow if I continue at this rate. I healed up other Apex applicants before you even came by the table. It's not like I can use healing magic forever."
Ember and I stop walking and turn toward her, then I reply.
"So what? You didn't have to heal any of them in the first place. It's your own region's applicants taking advantage of you, that's not my problem."
She lets out a defeated sigh.
"True..."
I turn to look at a few other interesting games I could attempt to play for just one more token instead of wasting my time here, but the healer comes up close to me and whispers.
"I can tell you more about this exam than any of the proctors here are authorized to say."
She smirks, and green mist from my lie detector skill shows me that she's telling the truth about this.
"I am from the Apex Region after all; this is where the exam is taking place."
This development catches my attention, and I forget about the flashing lights and other games to play in this room to focus on her as she backs up from my ear.
"Well, if you put it like that, I guess I'd be missing out if I say no."
She shows no malice, isn't exceptionally strong like the other hunter applicants here, and has a good reason for not wanting to wear herself out by healing random people like I proposed. I've never met anyone claiming to be from the Apex Region.
Talking to her will cost a whole lot less than it would the woman at the bar, and maybe I can get some extra information out of her that isn't related directly to the exams while I'm at it.
Ember chimes in.
"I think it's a good idea; we have plenty of time to kill."
I put my hand out toward her and nod.
"Fine, let's do it. I'm Ray, and this is Emrie. We're from the Bedrock Region. Nice to meet you."
She places her hand forward too like she's going to shake mine, but her expression shifts a bit once she hears where we're from.
However, she just shakes my hand and doesn't comment on it.
"I'm Natalie, or just Nat is fine. Nice to meet you too."
She shakes Ember's hand next, and we turn again and continue walking back to that bar with the water-wielding woman in the back corner of the room.
The bartender's eyes meet mine once we get closer, and when I place my 4 tokens down on the counter, 5 from Ember follow, and a single from Natalie.
I speak up.
"One All-Inclusive Lounge from your secret menu, please."
She smiles and accepts the coins, then pulls out a gold rectangular card.
"Here you go, remember you can add a fourth member at any time before the morning check-in if you wish."
I nod and take the card.
"Thanks."
When we turn and start walking toward the exits at the back of the room, Natalie speaks up.
"We have to link the exit card to our bracelet IDs before it will let us through."
She taps the gold card against my bracelet, and my hunter name pops up at the top of the card.
She taps it against Ember's next, and his fake ID name pops up. Natalie does it third, and her name shows up below both of ours.
There's a single slot left open below all of them.
I hold the card as we continue to walk toward the exit doors but raise a question.
"Nat, so, if you know so much about this exam, then what do we do next? Leave through these doors to a resting area, then what? Just wait? Do another one of these wacky challenges? Or what? Honestly, this isn't a very good test of our capabilities as monster hunters."
As we approach, one of the exit doors slides open on its own, and a hallway is visible behind it. She replies as we walk through.
"Well, everything here is a series of minor tests even if it might not seem like it. Think of this room as the pre-exam trials."
The curved hallway we walk through looks like a semicircle. The floor, walls and ceiling are made of a very high quality white and grey marble. It seems the other exit door on the other side of the room would have led us here to the same center point.
It's a single bronze door with a scannable keypad on the front of it. There's no doorknob.
Natalie speaks up again.
"Most applicants are probably very tired from trekking tens of kilometers through the white void outside, and possibly even fighting other applicants they found along the way."
I nod while bringing my wrist up to have my wristband hit the scanner on the door while she continues.
"In addition to that, the only way to get a room to rest in for tomorrow's test was to play in their twisted games or make deals with other hunters."
The door opens with a click, and a bright [26] appears on my wristband the moment it does.
Ember puts his wristband on the door too, and his lights up to say [27].
Nat does it last, and hers glows [28].
We all walk through the bronze door into a new hallway that leads straight ahead.
There are many doors on both sides of the hall; they all say [Basic Room] above them. Occasionally, I see a small bronze card on the door, but the majority of them are vacant.
We pass about 50 rooms until we make it to the end of the hall where there is a silver door with the same scanner.
Nat continues to talk while each of us scans our wristbands and walks through to the next hallway.
"As you witnessed earlier at that roulette table, some people know how to game the system. The higher level hunters from the Apex Region knew this event was taking place, so a few less talented hunters were chosen as sacrifices to give them an early lead. I'm one of the designated healers... I wasn't originally going to run in the B-Class exams this year, but I was chosen to do so as fodder for the chosen elites in my class."
"Interesting..."
I think about the cockiness and arrogance those two hunters had, taking the tokens from their fellow regional hunters, but shrug it off.
"They're pretty strong though; it makes sense."
Nat sighs.
"Yeah, a few more years with the Apex Region, and I'll have my time as an Elite too."
We silently continue walking down the next hall that's lined with more doors on both sides labeled Designer Suites. Only a few of them have silver cards on them.
One of the cards I notice has the names Trax and Callum as the two we were just talking about, but I don't mention it as we make it to the golden door at the end of the hall and scan our way through.
This final hall has less than 10 total rooms, and none of them are taken yet.
We walk to the end of the hall and see a big black door with a scanner just like the last ones.
Each of us tries to get through, but there are no clicks or even reactions from our wristbands.
So, I turn left and place the golden card against the room nearest the end of the hall.
It clicks into place, and there's a miniature pulse of mana that ripples through the door, then a scanner materializes below the card.
I place my wristband against it and the door clicks open.
Ember and Nat do the same thing, registering their entry as we walk in.
I'm hit with a rush of mana-dense air, similar to that of the suites at the Moon Bar in Valor City.
It feels like fresh mana to cultivate and heal faster is being flooded through the room.
Each breath is many times as dense with mana than it is outside. It isn't impressive to me or Ember, as we've been in circumstances with hundreds of times more mana-dense air than this, but it is still relaxing.
Natalie, on the other hand, walks forward with eyes wide full of awe, taking deep breaths and fluttering her hands around like she's never felt anything like this before.
The door clicks shut behind us, and I take in the view of the lounge.
There are many tables and couches, white carpets, fine art on the wall, and a stuffed fridge and cabinet with mana-imbued food to eat. Plus, an assortment of HP and MP potions lined up against a wall.
There are four separate master bedrooms for each person that is allowed in the suite, and there's a timer above the door that we just walked in from that reads [15:49:02].
Natalie immediately walks over to the food and potions once she's had her fill admiring the room, then starts eating and drinking as much healing supplements as she can.
A full minute goes by before she stops, and I see the color come back in her face as she collapses back onto one of the sofas in the middle of the room with a satisfied look on her face.
Ember and I examine the complimentary food and items, but nothing looks appealing or even high grade enough to pocket for future use.
We sit down on the couch across from her, and I ask a question.
"Well, now that we're here, I want to know what information about the exams you said you have that are so valuable not even the proctors can share."
She nods and sits up, looking back at the food and potions, then back to us.
"You two sure are weird. Not even a single MP potion? Or at least a taste of food? This is the kind of high-grade goods you can't find anywhere other than Nation-Wide Association events. We're not even treated with stuff like this during Apex Region training."
I shrug, thinking about how it's probably true that average citizens or even high C-Grade hunters would never get to feel these luxuries. However, I've been living at a much higher standard of living ever since I ventured into Valor City months back. The highest grade of goods provided here doesn't come anywhere close to the items I can produce myself.
I speak up again.
"That doesn't answer the question I was asking. What do we need to know about these exams? You said you'd make up for your difference in tokens, so I want to hear everything you know."
My expression turns stern, and she reacts to this with hands raised.
"Hey, hey. Sorry, I just assumed it wasn't that urgent."
She points to the clock on the wall.
"First things first, that's how much time is left until the first stage of exams even starts. Hunters are going to be wandering in from all edges of this exam site for hours and will spend even more time playing games."
I nod, and she continues.
"Like I mentioned earlier, this is the trial exam. A time for proctors to observe you in your natural state. Will you give in to temptations? Do you have unusual skills or a knack for luck? These are what are being observed today. Things that don't usually come out in battles and life-or-death situations."
Nat stands up from the couch and smiles.
"Also, it's a time for some hunters to socialize and make allies. Usually, we see Silca, Bedrock, and often a few Raya Region applicants trying to get on the good sides of the elites from Vice, Veridian, or Apex, but honestly, I didn't have time to observe many people today. I was worried I would get eliminated early from over-exhaustion healing my own Region's people."
I think to myself, putting together the hidden meaning behind her words.
This means the Vice, Veridian, and Apex Regions are usually the top performers, and the Silca, Bedrock, and Raya Regions do poorly.
She didn't even mention the Talton or Phantom Regions in this example, so I can assume they do even worse. However, now is not the time to fixate on this. I'm more interested in the exams themselves.
"Why would it be in their best interest to make friendly connections with other regions during the exams? Aren't there only a limited number of slots for people that pass? And your home regions get benefits from passing, so wouldn't it be best to align only with your own?"
She nods.
"True, but there are often events later on where regions have to work together. Out in the real world, there are missions where we have to all work together under the Association, so many of these scenarios will be simulated and tested in- Well..."
She thinks to herself while looking up at the ceiling.
"I think that will be in the 3rd stage of the exam this year. The sim tests are pretty interesting. I've only practiced in them a few times."
I raise an eyebrow.
"What do you mean? You know what the stages of the exams will be?? Now, this is the kind of info I'm actually interested in. Tell me, what do you know?"
She smiles and starts walking back and forth through the room to soak up as much mana as she can. Color is still streaming back into her face more and more every second.
"We had a few briefings and information leaks from the Director before we left. I know for certain there's going to be a written exam, basic physical testing, and grouped teaming simulations in the first 3 stages. The 4th and 5th I only have a few guesses for. There were some hints and clues released, and I'm sure some of the higher-ranked Apex Elites know the actual nature of those stages, but I don't. I hear the last 2 stages are where all of the regional directors will be watching us live. There is most likely some kind of massive group event planned."
She looks back at the clock at the top of the door.
"I can explain exactly what will happen in the first 3 stages for you now if you want; beyond that is all a guessing game. We'll have to wait and see."
She turns back to Ember and me sitting in a relaxed manner on the couch.
I nod and reply.
"Good. Start talking, let's hear what we're in for."
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Author's Note:
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