Knights Apocalyptica

After the initiates gathered at the Verdant Oak hall, the faculty segregated them into groups of ten. From there, an examiner led Erec's group to a small classroom filled with wooden desks.

It was barren, likely disused. A chalkboard with a half-erased equation displayed on its surface completed the room. Erec was unhappy that Garin got split off into a separate group, but at least he had Olivia.

The examiner told them to pick a seat, leave an empty desk between one another, and remain quiet. Shortly after, a Knight Errant came into the classroom with a stack of papers, pencils, and small little white erasers.

Within a few minutes, the instructor finished distributing the tests.

Erec leaned down and took in the exam. He did a brief skim of the questions. He'd studied the general history of the Knight Orders and specific details of Armor repair—even wildlife in the wastes. Yet those questions only amounted to around sixty percent of the exam—a barely passing grade.

The first questions to give him pause related to advanced math, which wasn't his strongest subject. Despite Boldwick telling him 'fancy arithmetic didn't matter,' the test disagreed. There were questions about Rifts, wasteland features, and wildlife he'd only read about. Erec thought he knew the answers but wasn't sure.

What bothered him the most were the questions regarding court etiquette and traditions.

His pencil hovered over a hypothetical question. It described a scenario where a Knight was five days away from the Kingdom. During this made-up voyage, their Armor gave a critical error code. How would he patch the Armor?

I know this—

[Discharge the core, rerun cabling to the power chamber, and reroute power surplus to essential systems.] VAL chimed in within his head.

Erec’s pencil hovered over the blank space waiting for the answer. He’d come to a similar conclusion, yet, VAL just cheated.

He whispered. Really quietly. “This is to test my knowledge, not yours.”

[Intern, at what point in the near future do you plan for us to separate? By transitive property, my knowledge—that which I chose to share and not confidential information—is your knowledge. Now write the correct answer down. Or would you rather answer incorrectly out of spite?]

It annoyed Erec that he’d known the correct answer, but VAL wouldn’t believe that now. He even considered writing the wrong answer but dreaded the annoying lecture VAL would give in response. In the end, he’d only be hurting himself.

The next question was a complex math problem. VAL solved it in a second and shared the answer. Erec hesitated, then wrote the answer down and began to flip the page. VAL forced him to stop. Then made him go back and inscribe the mathematical work to get to the solution because leaving a blank number was ‘incorrect’ and ‘lazy.' It took five tedious steps to get to the result.

Then a question came that only VAL knew, which, at this point, Erec had committed and just wrote the machine's answer down.

VAL had made a point. As long as the two remained bonded together, then he should take all the benefits from it he could get. He reframed it in his mind as payment for letting VAL rent space in his body. A tiny voice in him cried out against cheating… But, for those born naturally gifted like Bedwyr—wasn’t that cheating too? Was it fair they had an edge by virtue of being themselves? At least he’d paid the price.

Erec finished the exam before everyone else. So he took the chance to scan the room.

Most of the initiates were hard at work, one or two’s eyes had glazed over with boredom, and a girl in the corner looked near crying.

Olivia was staring at him. The moment their eyes met, she gave him a small smile, then dropped her attention back to her test.

[She was cheating.]

What?

[Look up. Do it subtly.]

Erec turned around to face the instructor, an older man with gray hair busy leaning against the board. The man wasn’t too keen on his job. Erec let out a yawn and set his hands behind his head, scooting his chair out and acting as if he were taking a break. All to disguise checking the ceiling.

Above him, tucked near the wooden support beam, was a dim bead of light with six legs. Some kind of prayer? He couldn’t have imagined Olivia getting away with a glyph, whereas prayers hedged on a tad more subtlety.. He tried to hide his shock, yet the bead of light scrambled away soon after being spotted.

He slowly turned to face Olivia. Her eyes were on him again; she wore a smirk, then stood up. “Finished!” she said.

“Already?” The instructor asked, looking around the room. “Right then, bring it here.” Olivia strode up confidently, placing the paper in his hands. “Return to your desk, and remain quiet for the remainder of the test. If you get bored, there’s a bookshelf in the back.

She gave the examiner a slight nod.

[Cheating is a valid option. When presented with the same open-ended test, different subjects utilize varying approaches to achieve their results. To us, it was a test of knowledge. To her, it was testing her information-gathering abilities.]

Shortly after, Erec turned in his test. His eyes kept wandering to the girl, wondering just who she was. Why would a maid get taught that sort of… prayer? If it was a prayer. He knew too little to say. Was it possibly a Divine Talent? Soon enough, the rest of the class finished. Tomorrow they’d receive the results of the exam, along with their assigned courses and offered electives.

— - ☢ - — - ☼ - — - ☢ - —

After the written exam, all of the initiates were gathered together. And not just those of the Verdant Oak—every initiate in the four Orders got escorted to a field arranged near the academy.

They'd filled the grounds with a sizeable rope-fenced arena edged with elaborate white and red tents.

"Lines!" A familiar loud voice rang out. Erec winced. It was the bald man from the trial. He'd recognize that raw verbal power anywhere.

This time everyone scrambled into position without hesitation. Light gleamed off the yeller’s scalp as he scanned them. He stomped through the dirt as he took in their line. A snort, and then he spat on the ground. “Better than last time! But not good enough yet. Second years—you could do better too!” He jerked his head towards the field. “The practical test is simple, as always. First, get examined by a priest; then, you’ll get a spar. Then we’ll follow up with a test of your resolve. After all that, you’re done, and we throw you back to your order. Easy, right?”

He was met with silence.

“Hell no. You’ll get a single spar to prove yourself. They’ll be picked personally to challenge you in some way, shape, or form. Don’t like it? Think it’s an unfair match-up? Tough shit, maybe that’s the point.” He nodded his head slowly. “Now go get your Virtues recorded. Go!”

Baldy clapped his hands once, and the line broke apart. People ran towards the tents with the priests.

Erec joined the end of a line and rubbed the back of his head. He felt a thrum of worry. Soon they’d match him up against another person and demand he give it his all. It was… exciting… but terrifying. He made a fist to stop his fingers from shaking. You won’t lose control. If he could keep himself in check…

Boldwick’s words came back to him. If he used his talent incorrectly he’d suffer, but if he could apply it in the right circumstance… How do I stop myself from going too far? “VAL.” He said quietly.

[Yes?]

“You said the scientific method was cyclical… To perform new tests after looking at the results from before. Did you learn anything last time I lost control when the sedative failed?”

[I did. The production of ‘fury’ chemicals in you correlated to your increasing degrading mental state. This ‘talent’ possesses the power to counteract the forces of other chemical agents. However, since production increases as ‘fury’ deepens, there’s a critical point in which I cannot use enough sedative to stop you in a timely manner. I predict that packet doses of sedatives administered while under the early effect of ‘fury’ may curb it from growing too quickly to counteract. A buffer, if you will. Which would allow us still to end the state with a sudden spike of sedative.]

“…Are you prepared to run another experiment?”

[Excellent. You’re a real go-getter, buckeroo. That’s the type of initiative we love to see.]

Erec nodded his head and took a deep breath. At least they wouldn't be using real weapons. If this were to fail, dealing a fatal injury would be impossible. And the rewards were enticing. If he figured out how best to apply this ability, he'd soar to success; there wasn't a better opportunity.

With a shaky breath at what he was about to attempt, he made his way to the tent. The check was relatively brief—though invasive. As the priest used a prayer, it felt as if something were peering into his skin. After a minute, the priest composed a list of his Virtues and requested that he check them over and sign them.

Erec called upon his Blessing to confirm.

Name: Erec of House Audentia

Health: 100% | Mana: 100% | Stamina: 100%

———————————————————————

Holy Virtues:

Strength: [Rank E] | [Tier 6]

Vigor: [Rank F] | [Tier 9]

Agility: [Rank E] | [Tier 1]

Perception: [Rank E] | [Tier 1]

Cognition: [Rank E] | [Tier 3]

Psyche: [Rank F] | [Tier 7]

Mysticism: [Rank F] | [Tier 1]

Faith: [Rank F] | [Tier 1]

———————————————————————

Divine Talents:

Fury

Everything was there on the sheet—aside from his Divine Talent, which the prayer would not have been able to reveal. Erec hesitated, before disclosing that on the official Academy form. If things were going to spin out of control due to his failed experiment, he’d rather they knew why and didn’t accuse him of hiding information.

All of his cards were on the table for better or worse.

[When will these spars start? Science waits for no man!]

Erec felt a shiver go through him. Bidding himself not to forget that there really was little he knew about VAL and Vortex Industries.

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