Chapter 22: Wandering

""What happened, Nevan?"" White and Black Nevan inquired together.

"The models you two drew are different from each other."

"Different then each other?" Black Nevan repeated.

"That means-" White Nevan understood the implications.

"Yeah. None of you remember correctly." Nevan gave affirmation to White Nevan's guess.

There were many dissimilarities among the three of them. One had great computational ability while one had great physical strength. Each had a unique personality and different sets of values.

There was some things that were common though. One of them would be Memory. What was common about them was none of the memories were good. Only average.

Instantaneous Memory. When one sees, hears or listens to something, for a brief amount of time that is stored perfectly in their brain. Afterwards it is perhaps forgotten or remembered fragmented.

To create the model of the labyrinth, White and Black Nevan would have to remember the entire design of the labyrinth. It was easy at first when the routes were simple.

But as the labyrinth got bigger and more complex, their Instantaneous Memory didn't work that well, making them unable to fully remember the designs. Thus when they created the labyrinth, their labyrinth was quite different from the actual labyrinth.

"So what now?" White Nevan asked.

"For this one, we have to wander blindly. But, it shouldn't be that hard after all, we should not have messed up the entire labyrinth. Some parts of it might be faulty because we remembered wrong. But it should not be the case for the entire labyrinth."

"Then let's start. Up" Nevan looked around from 5 meters up.

"2 o'clock. That place looks familiar." Black Nevan exclaimed.

"Let's go then."

This time, it was a mixture of cheating and a mixture of looking around searching for a path.

...

"Congratulations. You have passed through the 5th labyrinth. Do you want to start the next one?"

"Wait a little." Nevan told the machine.

"Ok. You have 5 minutes to rest."

"Ok, peeps, here's the plan. I will be in charge of remembering the scenes outside. White in charge of the first part. Black in charge of the middle part. We will explore the last part."

"Okie"

"Understood."

"Then let's go boys, let's get done with this wandering." With a newfound resolution Nevan told the machine. "Start the next phrase."

…..

"Go left, right, straight, straight, straight again. Now, right."

….

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Right, straight, right, left, left, straight"

…..

*Up*

"6 o'clock"

"Nope, that seems like a dead end. Try 9 o'clock"

"Damn you! I am saying 6, that place looks like it might lead to an open region."

"9 is more likely. That place looks like it will keep going forever."

"I say 6 o'clock"

"No, it's 9 o'clock"

"6!"

"9!"

"Sure, let's try 6,9 together." With a sarcastic remark and an annoyed expression Nevan went for 9 o'clock.

Which turned out to be false. Earning a very insulting ridicule from the other party. And then the 6 o'clock also turned out to be a dead end. A victorious ridicule from the other side wasn't forgotten to be returned.

…..

Nevan put his helmet off. His hand was almost dead. Though the glove had a mechanism that helped with keeping the hand floating forward so that his hand wouldn't be tired from the extended period of keeping it in midair. It was still very exhausting for him to continuously move hand for many hours.

He had successfully gone through 10 labyrinths. He wanted to cry tears of joy. It definitely wasn't easy. Especially the two abominable thing inside his head. It was hard. But it was also fun because of them. The whole trip was full of getting lost, searching for a path, debating over choosing a path, making fun of the one who chose a false path etc etc.

"Very good, boy. You have passed the test quite early. It's almost time for my shift to end." Mr. Serious had come to him at some point.

"Huh?" Nevan was surprised. It was time for his shift to end? Is that supposed to be early? Definitely not. "How much time did I take?"

"About 4 hour and 3 minutes."

"4 hours!!!" x 3

Three Nevans got 420 volt shock almost instantly.

"No shit! 4 hours. That's too much!" Balck Nevan.

"Are we at the bottom of the list?" White Nevan.

"Serious man said it's early, so maybe not?" Nevan.

"Is 4 hours supposed to be early?" Nevan asked him.

"Well, to be honest it's not really early. It's not late either. You can be considered in the upper middle tier. The fastest anyone could solve this was about 1 hour 6 minutes. That's the record and later it was proven that he had some sort of eidetic memory."

"Eidetic memory? Isn't that just plain cheating."

"Yes and no. No because that's his innate talent. Having this sort of memory will always help one in wandering the vast world. Yes because the true purpose of this test wasn't to measure one's memory power. It isn't a test to truly determine if one could memorize and solve mazes faster. This test, every wanderer will take this. Naturally this test was made for wandering."

"Wandering?"

"When wanderers first ventured outside, do you think they were given a map and then told to go to that place?"

"Obviously not."

"Right, a wanderer is not given maps, he has to observe his surroundings and make decisions by how he sees fit. Wandering means no straight destination. You wander here and there in search of something that you yourself don't know. Wandering requires you to observe your vicinity and find a path among countless others. This is the true purpose of this test.

The option 'Up' was the true command of this entire test. Using the Up function you could have an overview of your near areas and then find out a meaningful path."

"So using the Up function was the true purpose of this exam?"

"Yes. But if you use the Up function too much that means your observation skills are bad which lowers your score. Also if you don't use it at all, we will know you have something similar to eidetic memory."

"What happens to those who has eidetic memory?"

"Nothing much. They just don't get the maximum score. Just a A or A-."

"I see. Can you tell me what I got?"

"B-. That's actually considered decent." Seeing Nevan's dejected look he explained, "The grades are S, A, B, C, D, E. In each grade, there's plus(+), normal and, minus(-)."

"Isn't that kinda like a game? Only games use 'S' for top ranks. Educational institutions are following gaming rankings now?" Nevan's voice had a hint of criticism and helplessness. If it started from A then he should have gotten a decent mark but since it starts from S, he only got a middle grade now.

The receiver of the criticism could only laugh wryly. He also thought it was kinda lame for official institutions to follow such a grading system. Well, he wasn't the one who made this. It was that abominable game addict who made this system.

…

In a faraway room, Melon sneezed. "Is a friend of mine cursing me? Or an enemy of mine. Fuck! That sneeze cost me 1 life." looking at the screen which showed a huge 'Game Over' Melon cursed. "Fuckshit! Whoever cursed me must never let me see him, otherwise Imma toast him in stars!"

…

"Eligible for St. Helena Academy." This was written in Nevan's verification paper. The scores he had gotten from other exams such as mathematical ability Qualification or physical qualifications, all were removed. Only the eligibility for Helena was kept.

Nevan looked at the result and felt complicated feelings. Truthfully speaking St. Helena wasn't a bad academy. In total ranking it was ranked 6th.

There were a total of 22 wanderer academies in Arcmania. Each of them was many times better than academies outside of Arcmania. Being eligible for the 6th ranked academy this was undoubtedly a great thing in itself.

Of course Nevan, if it was possible, wanted to get into a much higher ranked academy. After all, Nevan had tried his best.

In the first mathematical test, Nevan, White and Black Nevan three of them altogether solved the problems. It was certainly cheating. Three minds worked together. If White Nevan, the one with the best calculative mind were to take the exam alone, he might have been able to solve many problems but it'd certainly take long time. Which was to say if White Nevan attended the test alone, he wouldn't certainly be able to score what three of them together had scored.

In the physical exam Nevan was all by himself and naturally as the weakest, he didn't do too good.

In the mental endurance test, Nevan had found a loophole and made use of it, therefore gaining the highest mark.

In the magic affinity test, he got worse which wasn't really much of a concern.

In this final test, Nevan had first used their ability to record the map and pass through.

Nevan suddenly realized out of the 5 tests he had actually cheated on 3 of them. The first 2 worked. But the last one backfired. So Nevan's true qualification wasn't even the 6th ranked academy. It might be much, much lower than that.

A series of lucky coincidence stories and his abnormality had enabled him to score so high. So maybe it was not so bad after all.

Looking at the grand building of the admission agency he bowed his head a little in gratitude. This was the etiquette his grandpa had taught him.

This place had decided his future direction. What the future held was unknown. But now he had a path. A path laid out in this very place. Maybe he would never enter this place ever again.

"Many thanks." He murmured.

….

Nevan arrived in front of a transition unit.

"Take me to St. Helena Academy."

"Thank you for using our transportation." With that mechanical voice, the system paid a customary thanks.

20 seconds later.

"You have arrived. Go left and take another left, keep walking and you will notice St. Helena Academy."

"Thanks." Nevan walked towards the place where the next 4 years of his life would be spent.