Administrator's Test

"I felt something was wrong with Bam... but I didn't guess that he was an irregular." Shibisu spoke, breaking the silence among the regulars that stood around the stage.

Bam's confession came as a surprise for everyone. No one had suspected him for being an irregular, except for Winston who had all but concluded the fact already.

After Bam's confession, Hansung Yu agreed for him to be able to take the administrator's test and sent him to meet the floor administrator.

As for the rest of the regulars, Hansung gave them a choice.

Either take the test with Bam, or take the next test separately. Even if one could pass the administrator's test, that would entail that they had helped an irregular go up the tower. If they didn't, it would probably result in Bam's failure as no one would be able to assist him in the test.

"Excuse me?" A small girl with a backpack raised her hand. "What's an irregular? And why is everyone so surprised?" She asked.

Shibisu replied, "An irregular is someone that isn't chosen to climb the tower. They open the gates by themselves and arrive into the tower. They are considered dangerous as everytime an irregular arrives into the tower, chaos has followed. They are all known to possess strength beyond that of any regular."

The small girl nodded in enlightenment.

Then, she turned her head towards the others and asked.

"Then! What should we do?!"

Paracule who stood quietly spoke up.

"Of course we won't help! We can't ruin our lives to bring some girl up! What has he done for us anyway!?" Paracule yelled, "Think about it! It'll be insane to help him! Don't you agree!"

Just when the others were about to speak up, a singular comment shut everyone up.

"Yeah... I agree." Everyone's eyed turned to Khun to stood with his head lowered. His eyes couldn't be seen, hidden by his hair.

Winston smiled, seeing his calm and collected emotions.

"I feel sorry for Bam, but I can't help an irregular."

Oh Khun. Even now, manipulating people to your liking. Winston shook his head with a smile.

Hatz turned to Khun and snarled.

"Khun! You sick piece of crap!" He yelled. "How can you say that!?"

"I don't like it either okay?!" Khun yelled back. "But it can't be helped?! If it gets out that I helped an irregular, I'll be ruined! I might even get expelled from my family!"

Hatz gnashed his teeth in anger.

However, just as he was about to move, a rough sound rang out.

Crash!

Khun fell down onto the ground, his lip bleeding crimson. Everyone looked in surprise towards the small crocodilian creature that had smashed it's head right into Khun's face.

"What the hell are you doing, you crocodile?!" Khun yelled.

Rak looked down at him, his eyes filled with unbelievable contempt.

"Look at you turtles. Cowering beneath your shells in fear." He said. "That's why you're nothing but a turtle. You're too afraid to hold your heads up."

Khun propped his upper body up from the ground, taking support with his arms. "You don't know what you're talking-"

"I don't care! The Black turtle is my prey, so I'll follow him!" Rak declared, his voice echoing through the hall.

"You turtles keep cowering inside your own shell! I'm following him! I don't want to lose my prey!" Rak yelled and began to walk out of the hall. As he closed the doors behind him, Winston walked forward.

"I'm going with him as well." He said, making everyone look over to him.

His eyes scanned Khun, who was sitting on the ground with a guilty expression. Winston's eyes were clear as he said with a strange smile, "I don't think anyone would want to be with a cowering traitor that betrays his friends to keep his family name..." He shook his head.

Zarhan held his hands behind his head and turned his head.

"I agree. Let's go."

With that, all of three of them began to walk out.

As they did, many other regulars also followed.

Anaak, Shibisu, Hatz, Endorsi and everyone else that was in the room, even Paracule at the end.

Everyone left, leaving Khun laying on the ground at the end.

~~~

"..." Khun looked towards the ceiling, lost in thought.

His eyes were slightly glazed over, appearing a lighter shade of blue than normal.

Then, a voice sounded from the side.

"Hey... turtle."

Khun's eyes turned to the speaker, finding Rak standing with his arms crossed.

"Stand up. All the other turtles are joining the test." He said.

Khun, with a smile stood up and said, "You're pretty intuitive... Rak?"

Rak's maw adorned a strange smile that looked more menacing than happy.

"I'm the only crocodile... that knows what's inside the shell..." He said.

Khun smiled in response as he looked on towards Rak.

He could not help but reminisce about the moments they had spent together.

"You know... you just called yourself a crocodile." He said with a chuckle.

"W-What?! No, I didn't! I'm Rak Wraithraiser!"

Khun laughed, making Rak fume in annoyance.

However, as he watched on for a few seconds, he too began to chuckle. Then, both began to laugh together. A sweet melody of a deep friendship, reverberating through the test floor.

~~~

Winston stood alone in a hallway of the mothership.

His eyes were lying in wait, looking around the corner of the path where a door stood.

After some time, the door opened up and out walked a young man with short brown hair.

The young man didn't notice him and walked forward without issue.

"You should be more aware of your surroundings." Winston chuckled. The young boy jumped in surprise and looked back.

"Ah! Mr. Winston." He scratched the back of his head.

Winston smiled, "Everyone will be joining in on the test with you. You can rest assured."

Bam's eyes widened a bit in surprise.

"Really?! That's great!"

Winston walked towards him, prompting Bam to walk along. Their footsteps were the only thing heard in the hallway for a few moments.

"Everyone was pretty shaken up about you being an irregular." He said.

"Is that so?" Bam's face held a rare expression of regret. "What about Mr. Khun and Rak?"

"They were too in some ways. But they were the ones that didn't take any time to consider following through with you."

Bam heaved a sigh of relief.

Winston quieted down again for some time, before speaking out again.

"Bam." Bam looked at him. "Are you really sure about this?" Winston's eyes met his, a strange smile still on his face.

Bam nodded in resolution.

"I am!"

"The tower doesn't take well to irregulars entering it. You could very well be in for a world of pain."

"It doesn't matter. Because I will take Rachel to see the stars." He nodded.

"But is it even worth it?" Winston asked, tilting his head. "Are the stars worth risking your life over? Is that girl worth risking your existence on? Is she worth all of that importance you place on her?"

Bam nodded again. "She is."

Winston sighed.

He looked at Bam again.

"...what if the stars aren't as beautiful as they say? What if what's up there doesn't satisfy you?"

"It doesn't matter. Because Rachel will be there with me."

"You're like a lost puppy. You wouldn't get anywhere with that attitude."

"Maybe. But I will make it work."

"How?"

Bam went quiet for a moment.

"I will. Somehow."

Winston's eyes narrowed at him. He was unsure of what to say next. He wasn't sure why, but the boy's over dependence on the girl was sure to cause some problems down the line. It didn't matter what, or how, but it was surely going to cause some, that was what Winston felt from his intuition.

And one thing was for sure, anything Winston's intuition told him, he would follow through with it.

Eventually, Winston nodded.

"Then I say good luck to you." He said, motioning Bam to keep walking.

Bam nodded and walked away without another word, except for a particular phrase.

"Thank you." He said.

Winston stared at his back for a few more moments, the same smile on his face still.

The stars... He remembered how Bam rushed towards Rachel in the Hide and Seek test, his face enveloped by confusion and fear. Fear of losing the person most important to him.

I suppose you already have your star. Winston reminisced about the sky. The thousands of colours, pale coloured dots littering the sky, covering the black canvas in an ocean of light through which occasional pieces of black space peeked through.

He remembered himself trotting through lands, barefoot for miles and miles, looking for a place to find food and shelter amid the watchful eyes of the stars.

He looked over again. Bam had already disappeared at the edge of the hallway.

Winston's thoughts were a mystery.

~~~

With Bam getting the permission of the floor administrator to take the test, along with the agreement of every other regular to take the test alongside him, the last test for the test floor was to be conducted 2 days after.

Within this day, the regulars were to recover and train for the test, getting ready for it.

Within this time, Winston got better acquainted with his mystical powers and the abilities shinsu provided him with, getting stronger overall.

He had already tried using ritualistic magic to pray to himself, and the results were also somewhat satisfactory. The first thing he noticed was the fact that Macsethian could indeed be used to trigger the power of nature around the user, and could be substituted for Hermes and Ancient Hermes, or any other mystical language in Lord of Mysteries.

The second thing he noticed, was the fact that ritualistic magic was made stronger through shinsu around him, allowing for an increase in efficiency and decrease the expenditure of his own spirituality.

And finally, the shinsu around him could be substituted for the spirit world of Lord of Mysteries.

He had already had some doubts about it from the moment he had first activated Spirit vision, but now, his doubts had been made clear after the use of ritualistic magic. But there were still obvious differences between the two.

Spirit world and Shinsu in the tower were completely different domains. One was a different aspect of reality that transcended the very concept of spacial dimension, while the other transcended reality in some forms.

Spirit world houses creatures of various forms and could be used to travel in the blink of an eye, while the shinsu does all of that and more pretty commonly all over the tower.

There were also a lot of differences to name, but all of them were crossed by the utilization of shinsu.

There was nothing the spirit world accomplished that the shinsu could not. The resource seemed almost omnipotent.

This made Winston conclude one thing.

The shinsu was not, in fact, synonymous with the spirit world; but only acted as such because he needed it to. It perfectly fulfilled the role of the spirit world in terms of both ritualistic magic and divination, along with the empowerment of even Mundane language like Macsethian, allowing it to blaze up with power of nature.

Shinsu truly was, a power source that could be described as 'limitless.'

It also made him conclude a very important question he had since arriving in the tower.

The difference between spirituality and Shinsu.

Honestly speaking, there was no conceivable difference, solely because shinsu could simply act as spirituality and more. In fact, his it had somehow managed to transform his spirituality to mimic it's own properties, making it stronger.

That was the reason there were no differences to name in case of spirituality and shinsu.

~~~

A/N: Throw me dem stonez.