Chapter 14: May The Test Commence!

After an unknown amount of time, the feeling of weightlessness vanished, giving Roman the signal to open his eyes and determine his situation.

After looking around the place for a bit, he noticed that he was in a colosseum-like area. One where he assumed the gladiators in the past used to fight from the books he used to read.

He was standing in front of one of the gates that seemed like the entrance, with it already being shut.

After a rough understanding of his surroundings, he also took a look at what he was wearing, fearing the worst, but soon breathed a sigh of relief seeing that all of his preparations ended up paying off. His combat gear was all still here and in one piece.

It was at this time that the Envoy decided to move things along.

"All of you Fixers have now been teleported to the first stage of three, where we will test your qualifications. You must do your best to pass these stages as fast as possible, while also managing to keep your lives."

"Should we find the need to interfere, your qualifications will come into question."

This information didn't bring out a single reaction from Roman. He had already known this from the booklet he read.

The gist of it is that Fixers are mostly made up of Power Users, and are first chosen and tested to see if they can bear the burden one is to carry. The way they test you can change every time, with no examples of past tests being written unfortunately.

However, what annoyed him, is that he doesn't even know what a Fixer is even after reading everything. They are basically trying to sell the job, while not even explaining what it's duties entail.

All he knows is basically the information that the Envoy basically let slip a week ago.

He has no idea what these 'Cracks' are, and why people from 'Outside' want to use them somehow. Do they choose people to go on these 'Fixing' missions as groups or solo, or is it up to the individual somehow?

Although he's read enough books to have a general idea of what could be happening, reality is always different from fiction.

Also, having confirmation would be much nicer.

All of these questions swam to the forefront of his mind, before Roman promptly shoved them down in order to focus on what's currently happening.

After all, the Envoy just somehow insinuated that there's a chance of death right?

"For this stage, you have all been teleported to your own colosseum, where your first tasks will lead you to battle a Common ranked Dweller. You must either survive for 10 minutes, or kill it."

"Should you complete either of these requirements, you will be given an option to either battle another higher ranked Dweller and pass with the same requirements, granting you a chance to earn more points at the end of this test, or move on to the second stage."

"The top 10 scorers will be given 1,000 energy stones."

"The top 5 will be given 1,000 energy stones, and 1 perk tonic."

"And finally, the top 3 will be given all of the above, and 1 main ability tonic."

"Do note that your performance in how you defeat the Dweller will also be noted down, depending on the challenge posed, either giving or taking more qualification points towards your final score."

Hearing all of this, Roman felt his heart almost leap to his throat. He had no idea what a Dweller was, and whether or not they're dangerous. He had a feeling that he was not going to like what was about to happen.

"Before we begin, most of you are entirely unaware of your power set, which is not very conducive to your safety. We do not wish for you to die needlessly fighting Dwellers using only your fists. As such, please first direct your attention to your own body, and look for any new markings."

Hearing the Envoy's words, Roman didn't even feel like looking, so he had Holmes scan his body to locate it for him.

[Sir. It has been found to be branded on the back of your right shoulder, between your shoulder blade and middle trapezius.]

'OK can you describe what it looks like for me? Not like I have a mirror on hand.'

[Sir, I can project the image straight into your mind if you would like.]

'Oh, another new thing I didn't know you could do. Then be my guest.'

An image suddenly popped up into Roman's head, showing him an infinity symbol, with one of the circles with the number 1 inside it, and the other numbered 2.

"As most of you may have noticed by now, those markings are currently being served as proof of your identities as Fixers. Should you lose your qualifications, they shall be rescinded."

"Now, please try focusing your mind onto the mark and imagine for a projection to appear."

Doing as she says, Roman focused on the mark for 1 second, when a projection popped into his mind, showing something he was used to seeing for the past week, but in a less detailed manner. Yet, it also showed him surprising.

{Power Set

Ability - Sharpshooting (Epic), Item-Duplication (Legendary)

Talents - None

Perks - Inhumanly Even-Tempered (Legendary), Poker Faced (Uncommon), Ambidextrous (Rare)

Physique - Cannot Confirm (???)

Blessing - Cannot Confirm (Mythical)}

Seeing the information brought by the marking stunned Roman greatly. At first, he was worried when he only saw two of his abilities there and not the other 4, but he then realized that he could still feel them in his body and activate them at any time.

[Sir, your Physique seems to be hiding your body type related abilities from being recorded or examined.]

Hearing this from Holmes put his mind at ease, leaving him only confused on why his {Power Stealing} is also not being recorded, and his Incarnation of Knowledge Blessing as well.

He already knows that Holmes hid himself like he mentioned before. However, how can they identify the rank of his Blessing, but not its function. He also had the same question for why his Physique can't be identified either.

But, what surprised him the most is the ranks given to his individually generated abilities. He never saw Holmes list them separately before in his Parameter and Power Set file, so this was the first time seeing the rank of these two abilities, leaving him wondering on the rank of the other four.

'Holmes. How did you know the rank of my main ability, and not all of the other generated abilities?'

[Sir. I can indeed know the rank of all of your other abilities. As previously mentioned, I was given access to the power sets of many fallen figures within reality, and that also includes their ranks. That is also how I ranked your whole Power Set.]

[The Parameter and Power Set File is constantly updated with your growth. However, you never looked at your Power Set part of the file this whole week, only the Parameters. An example would be how you gained the Ambidextrous perk due to your constant practice on improving your aim and gun-fighting capabilities, but never noticed it.]

Now, he was a bit embarrassed. He really hasn't been looking at his Power Set data as Holmes told him. He only cared about his body being stronger since he believed that it would better help out his abilities.

He was also slightly happy knowing that he got a perk for his hard work, but confused on how that worked.

Deciding to ask about that later, he moved on.

'Ok, then can you tell me the ranks of my other 4 abilities?'

[Your body abilities are all rare, while your {Power Stealing} is Mythical.]

Roman was sorta stunned. He didn't expect {Power Stealing} to be so high up the ranking. However, he was satisfied greatly, knowing that he was at least lucky enough to get it for his first random generation.

"As all of you have noticed in the screen projected before you, your power sets are listed in name and rank, to give a better grasp on their uses for you to wield in your test."

"That is all that is required to be said for now. You will now begin the first stage."

As soon as the Envoy's words had ceased, the gate on the other side of Roman began to rumble, before slowly being cranked up, giving view to the tunnel that was sealed behind it..

Turning his attention towards the gate, Roman got into a fighting stance that he's been practicing for the week, with one of the revolvers in his right hand pointed at the gate, ready to shoot at a moment's notice.

He began to hear scraping sounds coming from the tunnel, similar to the sound of nails scraping on a chalkboard, even when the gate was still not fully raised.

As the scraping sounds began to become closer and clearer, they abruptly vanished the second the gate came to rest above the entrance.

Nothing came out of the gate right away, and that only served to make Roman tense, since he had no idea what he was dealing with.

'I don't like this horror movie flag man.'

After a few seconds in this tense state, a screech suddenly sounded right in front of Roman before he was abruptly thrown out from the place he was standing on.

Righting himself in midair, he was able to correct his orientation and properly land on his feet.

However, due to not expecting such a thing to occur, his revolver flew out from his hand as well, landing farther from where he landed.

Quickly taking out his second revolver while looking around, an absurd thought came to his mind after noticing absolutely nothing out of the ordinary.

'Is this Dweller thing invisible?!'