Eight weeks. Two months. When the testing became open again, over sixty individuals were ready for it. Sixty four exactly.

Unlike the previous test. This one took place in the camp and not in a forest. Because this test needed a lot of materials.

This time around, the testers only had to attend a series of successive tests. They are to craft everything with a completion rate of fifty percent.

It is not exactly fifty percent. Instead it is eighty percent completion of preparing the right materials and their order and other instructions.

Another twenty percent is the handling of said products, in conjunction with the recipe portion. This equals a fifty percent completion.

In addition to generic testing, the examinees have to complete certain tasks including emergency surgery and building an outpost.

The tests are held with the same technology the users have been using in the crafting facilities.

Of course this technology can do anything, as this is a virtual environment and the explanation for how it works is only relevant to the lore and not actual reality.

This means the materials used and the injured person who is bounded for surgery are for all intents and purposes real.

They can be said to be real because the only difference between them and the real thing, is that they aren’t persistent. They will vanish after being used.

Outside of the crafting facilities, these would be materials going to waste. It will be a person dying. Yes it is a virtual death, but nonetheless, it is a death.

Death is not actually that terrifying. The pain and terror leading up to it might be. But it is the consequences afterwards that work as a deterrent in Perpetuity.

That aside, the point is that the test does not hold the same deal of opportunity cost as the ‘real’ world test would have.

There is still an opportunity cost, in short, it is the time spent waiting for another test. This is in cases where people fail.

But it must be said, it is not expected that people fail. People do not get to take the test unless they meet the requirements to take the test.

In truth, the requirements to take the test, are in itself a soft test. It serves to prepare the examinee thoroughly.

It would not be bad to actually let people move on as soon as they meet the requirements, but the test also serves a purpose. It is a psychological one, and it is for the examines and not the tester.

Perpetual Power does use the data from these tests, but that’s something that will happen no matter what action these people take.

To make sure people do train their B.F.M. control, every B.F.M. crafting tool is flexible. The recipes force people to manipulate their tools in what could be considered odd or wasteful.

For a weapon crafter like Sorp, his B.F.M. tool needs to take the form of a furnace that melts the metals used. It then funnels the metal metal in to what is called a refining cauldron.

The refining cauldron is just another part of the B.F.M. tool, this adds to the complexity of controlling the B.F.M. tool.

In this refining cauldron, Sorp manipulates the tool to spin or shake. The metal, still in its molten form, is returned to the furnace.

This action may have to be repeated a few times until it is considered refined. At this point the metal is funneled into a desired shape.

It doesn't matter if the shape is a sword, staff, hammer, axe or spear, it is then cooled and hammered.

This hammering is also the B.F.M. tool and is done through the tool and not through swinging a physical hammer.

The weapon is then sharpened or polished. At this point it can be considered finished. If the completion is high enough, the weapon might be worth using.

This is the process a static weapon goes through. Upon completion it is dematerialized. All weapons and armors have a natural form where they are dematerialized.

A spear might be seem like a normal spear, it might thicken, lengthen or grow into an axe. But all weapons and armors have a docile and active state.

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Most static weapons serve little purpose right now. They are simple and have limited usability. Later these weapons might shoot out projectile blades or cleave forward with every swing.

There might be multiple weapons that seem almost identical in use. All spears and all have similar thrust effect. Their only difference being their numerical power, assigned by the completion rate.

This is one way a weapon crafter works with metals. But there are other ways as well, different arbitrary actions that are a part of the ‘recipe’ for the weapon.

Then there are other crafting professions like Poison arts. Poison arts B.F.M. tool takes multiple forms as well, and similarly the materials can be refined or mixed.

In all cases of crafting, the crafter is made to jump through various hoops before the B.F.M. completion rate is satisfied.

Early on, a satisfying completion rate can be completed with persistence alone, through repeated actions. But later there will be graver punishment of failure and repeating the actions won’t help.

While one item with high completion rate may not be something amazing. A person with entire set of items, all with high completion rate, might be able to devastate its peers.

To add on an entire person with high quality items, what about a team of people with good items? What about team of teams? This question answers itself.

While Perpetuity, the world Perpetuity, might not focus on large scale battles, they are not nonexistent.

From a certain perspective, the entire world can be seen in tiny inumerable tiles. Each tile colored to indicate what faction it is influenced by.

If Perpetuity is a faction and they are colored purple, then the entire Pebble in the river is colored purple, but the Endless river is a placid gray.

Any grayed out area can be considered wild. Wild in the sense that is dominated by a wildlife. This wildlife doesn’t need to be united, but it can be.

If the entire planet is taken into account, gray tiles make out the majority. This does not mean that these gray tiles have some sort of dominance, just that wilderness is all encompassing.

Just over the two bridge leading from the Pebble in the river to the wilderness on the other side of the Endless river, there are purple tiles.

These tiles are mere specks, a discoloration, and can hardly be considered a territory. These purple tiles are almost surrounded by a sea of gray tiles.

These are small outposts that can be abandoned on a whim. If there is a sign of a large beast or a herd of dangerous beasts, the troops stationed there retreat immediately.

They retreat to the bridge. Almost no animal dares to travel over the bridge. Their instincts warn them of terror. This is a fear of the powerful aquatic animals living in the river.

Aside from the purple and gray, there are innumerable colored tiles. Any non gray tile demarks a civilization of sorts.

To be a non gray tile, the dominating force in that area has to have one of two things, a powerful creature with certain intelligence.

Or it can be numerable creatures that form a society, it can be of equals and they do not need to be united under a leadership.

One such example is multiple tribal villages. Perhaps multiple flying creatures nests in small clusters. As long as their intelligence meets a requirement.

In general, it requires a species with adequate intelligence and a force they either command or belong to. These two are the minimal requirements.

On the other end of the spectrum, if a group of say, twenty humans, take over a tile. This tile may not come under their domain and can remain gray.

The reason for this is simple. Perpetuity, the world, not the city, decides that their power or numbers are inadequate.

It is not impossible for a single person to acquire a single tile by themselves. This is done through constructing a settlement.

It's not impossible, but it would be nothing short of a miracle for it to happen. It requires too many resources to build a complete settlement.

A single person would need to gather astronomical resources, relevant to the gather power of a single person, at least.

Added on that, they’d have to have the individual strength to defend the area from roaming beasts. Not every beast is innately hostile, but building in the wild does cause hostility.

The more intelligent the animal, the more hostile it is towards other creatures building in its vicinity, whether they are in its territory or not.

The less intelligent animals may just attack to sate their hunger. Whatever the case may be, a single person will find it hard to carve out a piece of land by themselves.

The question might become then, what is the purpose of conquering a tile. There is no experience in perpetuity after all.

There is no experience, but there is Vcoin. Perpetuity, the world, relies heavily on crafting. And crafting relies on materials.

Materials need to be brought back to the city Perpetuity, to be researched. Research is maybe not the right word. The unknown materials are analysed by ancient technology and its used derived.

Once the materials use is known, the land owner can invest in gathering it. They can give out its use for free and sell the material outright.

They can also set a monopoly for it and craft the items for profit. Whatever the case may be, this is one of the largest allures of owning a tile.

This being a virtual world, certain things are possible. The settlement owner can automatically deduct a tax from every sale and purchase made within the territory.

A settlement must have certain facilities, namely crafting facilities. The crafting facilities unlock the ability to spawn within the settlement.

As it can take weeks or months to travel long distances, a spawn point can be invaluable. Thus any explorer will have to depend on such settlements.

Outposts can serve as camp for rest and some trading, but an outpost does not have crafting facilities and thus does not have a spawn point.

Outposts also do not automatically claim an area like a settlement does. Outposts is something a group for three should be able to complete in two or three days.

One of the requirement in the Second wave reinforcement camp, is to create an Outpost from scratch.

The virtual environment in the test will not be able to test people's capabilities in finding materials but they can test their ability to gather the materials.

They do not actually have to complete all the structures, only a third of it. It should still take them two or three days to do this.

The test itself is a two week activity. Four days to make an Outpost and ten days to complete all beginner crafting items with fifty percent completion and perform emergency surgery.

The Third wave reinforcement test was hard to fail, but this one is much harder to fail. The requirements to take the test can be considered a soft completion.

As Perpetual Power genuinely wants people to succeed in these activities, it is set up so they will succeed.

The real ‘failure’ is the time it takes people to meet the requirements. As not every person is equal in talent or persistence.

There are bound to be people that take two or three times the average time to meet the requirements.

The average in the Second reinforcement camp can be considered around five and a half week. There may some that take fifteen weeks to meet the same requirements later on.

As to why people would take so long, one would be that other people are just capable and ambitious. Another would be their own lack of talent and perhaps their attitude is too lax.

But what is true, is that everyone is capable of completing these activities. All they need is time. And Perpetuity does give them time.

Right now all the guys are participating in the camp’s examination. They cannot leave the area but they are served food and can access toilet facilities.

The test should not prove difficult but it will be some challenge. To continually use their B.F.M. tools requires at least some persistence and it will strain them.

It isn’t difficult because they have already passed the test by meeting the requirements to actually take the exam. Only after experiencing the process do people understand why this a good way to learn.