"It's about time you woke up." A gravelly old voice rang out from the darkness ripping Flynn out of dreamless sleep.

Unfortunately, it was, in fact, not about time Flynn woke up. He had stayed up almost all night the day before the tutorial trying to get his life together, and like most things he did back then, it was a fruitless endeavor; after all that, life was long gone, a distant memory of the trials had all but consumed.

Flynn's flaring headache only reaffirmed his belief as he got up off the galaxy-themed floor. Beneath him was an endless expanse of space. Stars and galaxies spread across the cosmos in a tapestry of color and light. It only made Flynn feel nauseous standing on it for all its splendor, even if it was his second time doing so. In his first life, he had sat here gapping at the endless expanse until the crotchety old man had spoken up.

In the center of the room, an older man with glasses stood decorating it. He held a scepter in hand. His face was stern, and a scowl seemed its default resting place. White clean robes embroidered with black and gold sat neatly on his skinny form. Deep wrinkles adorned his visage, reminding Flynn of a disappointed grandfather and the frown only furthered the look. A prompt interrupted Flynn's perusing of the man.

| Phase one of the Mental Assessment started, you have 1 hour to complete the test presented before you. Grades are used to determine potential. Good Luck. |

Flynn suddenly felt like he was in grade school again as he looked at a desk that had appeared next to the man following the prompt. It connected to the seat just like the desks were in his middle school. The swordsman bent over and checked the bottom of the desk. A giant wad of chewing gum sat in the exact location he had placed it all those years ago, making him give half a laugh. He had missed this detail in his first life, but his newfound memory had caught it.

Flynn's eyes took in the chair, and nostalgia flooded his mind. He could remember taking many, many naps on chairs just like this. As well as asking miss burthrom for help on his math questions so she would bend over allowing him to look down her shirt. It was an idealized time.

"That smirk of yours makes me uncomfortable." The man narrowed his eyes at Flynn. And the swordsman decided he wouldn't be asking for help from this particular teacher, as he would have to remove his eyes if he happened to see down this old man's robe.

In the middle of the desk sat a single piece of parchment. It glimmered against the light. And despite the test only being a single page, Flynn knew it held what felt like endless questions.

"I woke you to inform you that you only have fifteen minutes left. Anyone taking the assessment must be informed of this marker." The man said the words confidently, but Flynn suspected the teacher wanted to leave Flynn asleep. He found most scholars were of his type, Pompous and hypocritical.

The delinquent sat down and began his assessment, a bit of panic lacing the back of his mind as he read the first question—the only question on the page.

| What is your name? |

Flynn thought of his name, and it appeared upon the parchment. Despite the question's simplicity, it held great importance within the trials. Whatever you filled out on this page would become binding, and others would see it as your name when pulling up your status window within the trials. Flynn had met one person whose name on his status window was poopoo peepee. The man had explained that he had thought all of this was a dream.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

The next question replaced the second bringing Flynn back to the test. It was a term matching chart about stats, simple enough.

The inner workings of stats weren't completely worked out by most on the first floor, but even he knew the general idea of what they meant and did. He matched strength to attack power, dexterity to stamina, constitution to life points, intelligence to magic power, wisdom to mana, and charisma to social influence. He noticed that the questions were trivial even for the first floor's understanding, and luck wasn't even on the list, which intrigued him.

Flynn knew, for example, that strength did much more than simply give more attack power. Increasing the stat made one's muscles strengthen. It was the potential for the physical force one could exert. Dexterity, on the other hand, was the use of that potential. There would only be so much you could do with your strength without dexterity. Intelligence and wisdom also had a similar relationship only; instead of physical ability, it was with Archaic power. Constitution didn't just give life points. It made you more healthy and less prone to disease. Health regen, mana, and stamina regen were also directly correlated with it as well.

To Flynn's surprise, as he ranted inside his own head, the paper in front of him changed. The term matching question changed to an essay asking for an explanation of the stats within the trials. Flynn blinked, a bit dumbfounded at his discovery. He had no idea that this had even been possible within this test, but he wasn't one to question it and continued with his explanation as he only had two more stats to go.

The last two, charisma and luck, differed in their functionality. Both changed the world around you in a sort of area of effect. Charisma was the simpler of the two. It simply gave you insight during a conversation. It gave you intuition and a sphere of influence, allowing you to bend others to your will, if only slightly. It was a stat little studied as most within the first trial were only trying to survive.

On the other hand, luck was a complete and utter wild card. It was a stat that you couldn't put points into, only gaining additional stat boosts from titles, blessings, or various other means. Flynn had only met one man who had a significant amount of luck in the first trial, and he had explained it by saying that it was literally his influence on the world around him. His will versus the world's will.

After finishing the final line of his essay, the questions faded away, replaced by a word problem. A hypothetical situation that Flynn was supposed to solve. Some were war games, and others simple riddles, but he soon realized that all were situations that could and might very well happen within the trials.

Internal conflicts between parties, getting trapped in a dungeon with little food, boss fights, and other themes that were all signatures of the trials appeared on the test. Unfortunately, he only got through thirty-three more questions before time ran out.

He chastised himself for sleeping in, but the fact of the matter was that his body had been exhausted from not only the fights but lack of sleep as well. Flynn answered more questions than in his previous life, but it left a bitter taste in his mouth. He even answered them to the best of his ability, which was something he had never done before in an academic setting. The delinquent usually just rushed through the test to be the first one done. He sighed, handing the piece of paper to the man, who hadn't stopped scowling the entire time.

"Let me see that, thirty-five questions in fifteen minutes? What nonsense did you spew onto my examination." The man grumbled as he placed his hand on the parchment and closed his eyes. Blue light filtered over it before his eyes opened in wonder. He started to open his mouth but stopped tilting his head as if in deep reflection. The man's mouth moved, but no words came out.

"Are you perhaps a genius?" Those were the last words Flynn heard from the man before he dissipated into bright blue light as the first phase of the second assessment came to a close.

"No, I've simply just had experience with this sort of thing," Flynn answered the air, and it was true. He had literately lived out some of these hypothetical situations before. It wasn't even a stretch to say he was cheating, and the system itself seemed to agree.

| Congratulations, you have completed phase one of the Mental Assessment! Calculating… |

| Questions Answered: 35 |

| Questions Correct: 35 |

| Questions Answered Beyond Expected Perimeters: 34 |

Flynn's eyebrows rose in surprise. He wasn't expecting to get all the questions he answered correctly, even if he had taken the entire time to complete the test. With his knowledge of the trials, the delinquent seemed to answer the questions beyond what was expected of him. He just shook his head with a half-cocked smile. He was sure, if nothing else, his above-average luck had something to do with this. He swiped the window away, only for another to take its place.

| The next phase will start immediately. Please stand by. |

Well, I guess it's about time I meet up with humanity. Flynn smiled, and as he spoke, blue light surrounded him. His soul was once again swept away by the system.