Chapter 36 Final test

The next months went by very fast. Wake up, train, clean, train, build-up, train, sleep. The routine was hard and monotone, it made the days pass too quickly. Yet the routine was rewarding. Josiah grew even stronger during the days he spent perfecting his sword-wielding style and controlling his blood to tone it down.

He also learned to use the rapier’s power for trivial matters, in the way Watt had taught him. Well… At least to a certain extent.

Josiah’s relationship with the colleagues got a little better. With time they started respecting him as a member of the team, despite his age.

Even Josiah’s relationship with Reeve also got better. No, they’re not friends. But every time Reeve would set Josiah up, he’d answer right after, but on a more brand, less offensive way. That’s the way he found of dealing with the nephew of the lieutenant. With time, causing trouble for the little kid lost its ‘fun’, and Reeve and Josiah just stopped talking to each other outside the matters of the army.

But Reeve never forgave Josiah for standing up against him. Deep inside he wanted to see the little boy get thoroughly humiliated. But Reeve knew he couldn’t do anything on his own without making it too obvious for everyone.

Eight months had passed since Josiah joined the emerging talents and the subject now was the upcoming ‘final test’. Wherever Josiah went he’d hear people talking about it. In the bedroom. In the kitchen. During the training…



Josiah himself was a bit full of that, so he went to lunch outside, his back leaned on the wall as he did on the first day.

Albo was also there with him. Since they were on separate buildings, they’d at least lunch together some days of the week.

“They are all talking about what?” Albo asked.

“The upcoming final test.” For the first time, he was the one explaining something of that world another person didn’t know.

“What is it?”

“The emerging talents group consists of people semi-ready to become soldiers. Abandon their recruit role. They are people with the potential to become as good as a formed soldier at a very early age. But they still need to go on some refinement before they can really deserve the spot. So once a year there is this placement test which determines whether we are actually ready to become a soldier only with but some months of practicing or not. The test also ranks the soldiers, meaning they can get started even on higher ranks than soldiers, such as corporal or officer.”

“Wow!”

“They say the test is very hard…”

“I bet it is. When is it going to happen?”

“There are a lot of phases. It should happen between this week and the next.”

“Oooh! That’s why they were saying we have a mission to help you guys.”

“You what…?”

“Yes. Sir Tal said we have a mission to help the emerging talents group on the second day next week. I was wondering what’s about. I thought we could work together but since you are going to be taking a test I guess I’m not be allowed to help you then, haha.”

Albo lifted up as he finished eating his meal, setting aside the aluminum foil.

“Well, I need to go… I’ve been getting good on running but even now the 140s seem a bit too far from here for me.”

“All right, then. See you.”

“See you, dude! Good luck on your test!”

‘Yep… I guess I’m gonna need it.’

Josiah always had this feeling he’d have a disadvantage on physical tests due to the conditioning of his now nine-year-old body. And it didn’t help that a lot of people would find themselves ‘ashamed’ of losing to some kid, so that was probably going to be very hard for him.

Josiah surely wasn’t looking forward to any kind of tests involving group work.



The days passed fast and the first day of the final test came before the soldiers could breathe.

“Everyone prepared! We are going to stay out for a long time! Bring everything you need to survive!” That was the order they were given early on the day they’d move.

The catch is that they didn’t know where they were being taken for, and neither knew how much time they’d be staying there.

‘Well, that’s not unlike any military camp we’ve done before…’ Josiah thought. ‘This should be easy.’

The emerging talents were put all inside the back of a truck and got told to wait there, completely in the dark. After an hour or so they felt the truck started moving.

Josiah was sitting aside the only person he could think of as a friend in the group: Watt.

‘It’s so strange that on a world like this where people still fight with sword and have castles there are actual trucks which do those loud noises.’

“Hey, Watt… How do trucks work?”

“Huh? Why that now?”

“I don’t know. I just got curious.” ‘Gosh, I must be really sounding like a nine-year-old now.’ Josiah though within.

“They are moved with blood technology, of course. How else are you going to make such a big thing move without animals?”

“Oh, I guess that makes sense.”

Blood technology? Josiah never heard of that before. When he moved from the farm to the army there were a lot of things seemingly moved by motors that he supposed were mechanical (they couldn’t be electrical), but he never knew exactly what they were about.

‘Apparently we are at the beginning of some technological era I don’t understand.’ Josiah observed.

After a while, the truck stopped.

“Get out!” There was an order from outside, together with some thumping on the door. Five seconds later, the back of the truck was opened, blinding the group’s view with the contrast of direct sunlight.

“What the heck…?” Josiah said loudly when it was his turn to leave the truck.

The view was unlike everything he had ever seen.

They were on the top of a very narrow chain of mountains. They were naturally formed mountains but they grew in spiral shapes, similar to a screw. It looked like a bunch of those seaweeds in the bottom of the ocean, and they were standing on one of the branches.

Josiah couldn’t fathom how they managed to bring the truck there. The barren ways looked dangerously narrow.

People started going closer to the edge of the cliffs to look down. The spiral-shaped pattern was irregular. If they fell off it’d be easier to fall all the way down than in other of the mountain branches.

“I’ve heard of this place. It’s called the Vulture Cliffs. There are a lot of vultures here.”

‘I wonder why…?’

“Exactly.” The instructor who was guiding the ‘tour’ said, as he overheard. “These are the Vulture Cliffs. And you are going to be passing some nights here the next days.”

“What!? We are going to sleep here?”

The instructor nodded his head slightly.

“Not sure there is going to be enough time to sleep. This first phase is an eliminatory test. Since the groups are formed by too many people, we cannot allow every single one of them in. The test is made to select the best of you. See that purple mountain over there?”

The spiral-shaped mountains chain was vast, non-ending on sight, but after the instructor pointed, they could barely see a mountain, further away, which seemed to be purple instead of the color of the land they were standing in.

“Wow! There really is such a mountain!” Josiah exclaimed.

“It’s agarimanite. It’s highly toxic.” Will explained.

“Oh…”

The instructor proceeded:

“Your mission is to reach there and wait for the second phase. We are to leave and reach there in either two, three, or four days. We are either admit all the people standing there or the first thirty to arrive if there are more than thirty.”

“What!? We need to wait on a toxic mountain?”

“Managing time and nature is also part of the test. And don’t be fooled, this place is more dangerous than just the central mountain. My prediction is that there’s no chance thirty of you make it there. Either way… You are allowed to do everything you want to reach there first, including resorting to violence.”

Josiah gulped.

“Only one of us is going to stay behind to monitor the order of who reaches the central mountain first. And plus, we are not going to come and save you if you’re in trouble. Dealing with danger is also part of the test. This means there is a risk of death in taking part in this. If you are not okay with it, of course, you can withdraw and go home or something.”

The instructor made a pause, giving those who wanted to give up a chance.

‘Silly guy… There’s no way people would waste eight months of training over a rushed warning like that. Half these people don’t even know what to expect, myself included. And the other half don’t even have a family to go back to.’ Josiah thought.

“No one? In this case, I declare the first phase started. Go!”