The Test (part 1)

- "Kuro." He greets me. I nod silently and smile weakly at him.

We stay quiet for a couple seconds, neither of us wanting to break the silence.

- "Have you completed any of your objectives yet?" I ask him.

- "No, not yet. But if we team up, that would save us some time." He explains.

I nod in agreement.

I then show Karl my entire list of objectives, which then he gives me his so that I can read through it.

I examine each one, making sure not to miss any, and I can already see that our lists are quite similar.

It's not too bad considering that we share some of the same objectives. We just have to find some materials so that we can create a weapon.

- "I think that we should get started on searching for materials immediately," I say to Karl.

- "Of course." Karl nods again.

- "It doesn't specify which type of weapon we have to create; it can be something as simple as a knife or even a bow and arrow." Karl adds.

Without wasting anymore time, we decide to start searching.

The ideal weapon to make would definitely be a knife, so we should mainly be looking for materials like metal, iron, steel, or even wood.

It should be easy to find wood since there are many trees around here, but that wouldn't be practical because our objective is to kill someone.

Even if it will be hard to find, we are better off looking for materials like metal or steel, especially if our objective is to eliminate a target.

Metal and steel can often be found in rocks, concrete, and many different structures throughout the test facility, although they can also be found in other parts of the grounds as well.

We begin our search for material to use for creating the weapon.

Karl is doing the actual gathering while I am just observing his actions to pick up the necessary skills needed to perform the tasks in front of us.

We're lucky that we don't have to worry about finding enough materials ourselves. The facility has multiple large areas covered by different types of trees, bushes, grasses and even small plants.

I can easily tell which ones are useful and which ones aren't from just by seeing their shapes or colours.

Karl is the same way as me, which means that he has to be careful as well.

- "How's it going?" I ask him once I notice that he is done.

- "Good. I've managed to gather quite a lot of things." He says. "Though not all of it is suitable for crafting weapons."

I nod my head in response.

Karl then turns around, looks around the place and then starts walking towards one of the smaller trees in the clearing.

- "After collecting all the wood in this tree, we should be set for creating the weapon."

He continues, whipping out his black dagger and using it to cut down the tree. As soon as the tree collapses to the ground, we sit down near its roots and begin crafting our weapon.

Karl uses the dagger to carve out small pieces of steel and begins fashioning it into a blade.

Meanwhile, I use a piece of wood that I had cut down earlier to form a sturdy base for the blade before working on it.

The two of us continue working in silence, concentrating solely on the process before us instead of talking to each other.

After awhile, I'm done sculpting my wooden base and Karl finishes carving up the blade.

Then we move onto the next step, placing both blades together to hold it steady so that it won't snap in half upon impact.

This procedure takes a while.

When we finish, we stand up and look at our creation.

While Karl is admiring his weapon, I inspect it myself to make sure that it will be usable. It looks great to me.

- "Are you satisfied now?" Karl asks me after examining the weapon as well.

- "Yeah." I simply reply.

- "Great." Karl says. "Now we must now find a target to kill with this weapon." He continues.

I nod at that statement. There are quite a few candidates scattered around the area. Most of them don't look very threatening at first glance. However, it would be foolish to assume that they are weak or vulnerable just from appearances alone.

In reality, most of them are strong and have abilities that only the most powerful have. If they have came this far, I suppose they deserve some respect.

I turn around to face Karl.

- "Alright, let's head off." I announce to him.

He nods at my statement.

We both walk back in the direction that we came from and begin heading off, looking for other candidates.

After walking in silence for several minutes, Karl then stops abruptly.

- "What is it?" I ask him, confused why he suddenly stopped in his tracks.

I turn around and follow his gaze and see what had made him halt.

Right next to us, on the opposite side of the clearing, is the body of the other candidate. His face is turned upwards towards the sky and his hands are placed on either side of him. Blood covers his body completely and surrounds him, forming a red pool on the ground beneath.

Karl and I exchange glances, knowing very well what this means.

- "I assume that this has only happened recently." Karl says.

I nod in response.

- "Which means that the killer can't be far." I reply.

This would make the perfect target for me to kill; the victim would be alone, with no backup coming in or out of the facility, leaving himself defenseless. It would be easier than I thought, though still difficult.

I knew that if we didn't kill this candidate immediately, we'd waste time doing so.

So now was the time.

With our new plan now set into motion, we turn around to head off. We walk along the path, passing numerous trees, while immersed into the endless fog.