After leaving my father's office I wanted to get something to eat and take inventory of what I had in my office. I wasn't allowed to bring anything with me besides a few sets of clothes and some basic necessities. Everyone was checked at the security gate before heading out on their test, so there wasn't a lot of motivation to try and sneak any enhanced items through. There were a few keepsakes that I wanted to bring, but I had to disguise them in such a way that they blended in with the "basic necessities."

As I walked to my office I considered what I had just learned. First, I was leaving for my test a few days after my 300th birthday, which was in less than a week. Second, I had no idea what I was going to do about preparation. The research to be successful on your first test normally took years. I had days. I would have to prioritize what to research and commit my findings to memory. Third, I had some goodbye's I'd have to make.

I made it to my office within a few minutes and unlocked the door. Time to get things rolling I thought as I walked into my office and strode towards my desk.

"Hi little brother, did you have an *exciting* chat with father?" my sister asked in a jolly tone. "I was right by the way. There weren't many reasons for your meeting besides talking about the test. I'm surprised you didn't guess it," she said in a smug tone.

"I would call it an *interesting* chat. Did mom tell you everything dad told me?

"Yea, I think she filled me in on everything. Relosa eh? That's a world I haven't heard much about. Did you need some help doing some research?

I sighed in resignation. "I could use all the help I can get. I think I kind of got hosed with this whole deal but whatever."

"I don't know if I agree with you, I think this is a great opportunity. Regardless, I'm here to help. What kind of research would you like me to focus on?" my sister asked.

"Politics, economies, and geography. I think I'll focus on fighting methods, culture, and language. Let's meet back a day before my birthday and you can let me know what you learn. Dad told me I'd be leaving a few days after my birthday, but I don't know if that means the day after or three days after. Best meet before my birthday just in case."

"Sounds good, I'll let you know what I find. By the way, mom told me to go see her. She went back to her office. She told me to have you bring her the clothing you'll using on the test. I think she mentioned washing and mending. I'll see you soon, good luck!" Chandra said as she walked out of my office and closed the door.

Looks like it's time to go see my mom. I packed up the clothes I was planning on taking and put them in a bag. I decided I might as well pack everything I was planning on wearing including my shoes, belt, and cloak. Now that I thought about it, I forgot to ask if there were any weapon restrictions. Sometimes when godlings went on their Test, they would bring weapons that weren't native to that world. Occasionally it would cause an economic stir due to the interest in creating and selling said weapons. My preferred weapons were usually smaller and/or lighter in nature. Daggers, claws, short swords, scimitars, and the like. Anything that required two hands for normal people was too unwieldy for me.

I finished packing and put a few things in their places before leaving. After shutting and locking the door (I didn't want another surprise from Chandra), I set out towards my mom's office. Along the way I see my brothers and sisters and other godlings. My dad likes to share his realm with other gods, so it's somewhat fun to get to know others outside of my family.

My mom's office is a few floors up but I quickly arrive and knock on the door. A few moments pass before the door opens to reveal my mother, portraying an attitude of calm and regality.

"Hi mom, you asked to see me?"

"Come in and close the door please. Put your bag on the table and then take a seat."

I dropped my bag on the side table and took a seat. I looked around my mom's office as she walked around the desk and noticed books strewed across her desk and papers on her floor.

"You look like you've been a bit busy mom. New project?"

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"We don't have a lot of time Jalen so I'll cut to the chase. Your father and I have been talking about your Test for a while now. I didn't think it was a good idea to send you out so young, but your father insists that you're ready."

"Mom, I haven't even prepared for it," I interjected.

"I know, I know. But your father thinks you're ready, and I have a little secret to tell you." My mom said as she got up locked her office door. She began talking after sitting down again. "We're not really allowed to tell people about this pre-Test, but I'm making an exception with you. What's unique about the Test is that the Test prep courses people take don't have as great an impact as you might think."

I was slightly confused, "could you please clarify what you mean?"

She sighed in exasperation. After a few seconds she had a thoughtful expression on her face.

"The most I can tell you is that you forget where you came from. It's part of the test, to see whether or not you'll make the proper choices to help you return here. It sometimes affects the things you learn in your Test prep courses as well. There's nothing more that I can tell you about it."

That was a bombshell. This suddenly got a lot scarier.

"What do you mean forget? Doesn't that mean people won't even try to make it back since they don't know where they came from? How are people-" my mom interrupted me.

"No questions Jalen. And you can't tell anyone what I've told you. Now I have some business to take care of so I'll be seeing you later, love you," my mother said, ending the conversation.

"Alright, well, thanks mom. I'll see you later then, love you."

I left the office, leaving my things for my mom to wash and repair.

I headed to the library to pick up as many books on the world of Relosa related to fighting methods, culture, and language. I decided to also pick up a book titled, "Dangers and Dungeons of Relosa." That last one piqued my interest. If I had time I've take a look at it. It was going to be a chaotic week of prepping.

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Less than a week later and my birthday was almost here. I was going to turn 300 tomorrow, and if I was to guess based off of what my mom told me, I was going to forget it ever happened.

There was a knock on my door which stopped any further contemplation. I unlocked it and opened the door to see my sister with a notebook in her hand.

"Well, are you ready to meet up?" she asked.

"Come on in, I just finished up and was thinking about my birthday tomorrow."

My sister took a seat and started talking immediately.

"Well, Relosa is an interesting world to say the least. Their politics consist of local governments, heavy influenced by guilds and associations. Think of guilds as tight-knit alliances and associations as likeminded groups of people or businesses. It seems like the bigger cities have a dungeon association, craftsmen association, combat association, and mages association. There are some smaller unique associations scattered throughout as well. Association membership doesn't transfer from one city to the other unless the cities have a trade relationship. The guilds don't get massive because they rarely exist in multiple cities. Some do have a lot of power though, so be careful which guild you associate with. Relosa doesn't really have any national governments due to the local governments not wanting to share their assets with others. This ties in with geography as well. Apparently they have dungeons scattered throughout this world. Basically the cities with dungeons are the ones with influence and power. When you go down, you'll want to gravitate towards a city with a dungeon.

"Easy, that's a lot of info!' I exclaimed.

"Hold on, I'm not finished. The economy of the world is greatly influenced by these dungeons. Apparently a lot of rare materials are obtained from them and traded around the world. That will be one area where you should be able to make bank. Depending on your goals, I suggest starting your own store eventually if you can collect enough materials. As for currency, they have three different denominations. Copper, silver, and gold. 100 Copper is equal to 1 silver, and 100 silver is equal to 1 gold. Room and board at a cheap inn for a night will probably run you 8 copper, depending on the city. That's the gist of it," my sister breathed in loudly, catching her breath after talking with hardly a breath for a minute.

"Wow, that was a great recap Chandra, I appreciate you researching those topics. I think everything you mentioned will be of great use to me," I paused to let her catch her breath. She waved for me to continue.

"In case you're curious, I did a little reading on dungeons in my research."

My sister raised an eyebrow. "That's interesting, what'd you find out?

I continued, "I believe that one way that I can gain more power is obtaining certain type of crystal cores, specifically from the monsters that dwell within. I'd like to do more research to see if it's mineable, but I'm not sure at this point. I think one of my goals will be to explore the dungeons and find out which monsters have them."

"That's a smart thing to do. Gaining power is the purpose of the Test, so that should be your number one goal. Did you find out anything interesting in your other research?"

"Most of the other things I researched made me realize that Relosa is a pretty normal low-tech world. They fight with hand to hand weapons, ranged items such as bows and crossbows, and rarely with magic. They don't seem to have much in terms of gunpowder weapons. I'll probably bring a few different weapon types and switch depending on the situation. I found out that their language has the same structure as some of the other languages I've studied in the past, so it should be a piece of cake. They don't have any weird cultural habits. There is some slight discrimination between some of the races, but they seem to be based on centuries old feuds. I never really got a bearing on how many different races there are. I guess I'll find out when I get there. One other thing I looked into was religion. It appears that our father doesn't really have a presence on the planet. However, they do worship other gods."

"Any that you need to be worried about?" my sister asked.

"No, most of them I've never met, nor their posterity. It seems like some of the guilds focus on worshipping an individual god as part of what they do. I probably should start my own guild that worships me," I said, chuckling to myself.

My sister laughed. "Don't get too full of yourself. I have to get going. I was supposed to be helping mom prepare for your birthday tomorrow but I've been busy doing research. If I don't head over now she's going to get real angry. I'll talk to you later little bro."

After my sister left I did a little more research into dungeons. It felt like dungeons would be my best bet to grow my powers. I had to come up with a strategy of exploring the dungeons. The book I read didn't have info on specific dungeons, so I was stuck relying on general information.

I decided it would be best to get some sleep in preparation for the festivities tomorrow. I may be leaving on my Test soon, but I know my parents would want to throw me a big party. As I started dozing off to sleep I had another thought come to me. Where in Relosa would I be relocated?