Click Click…
Click Click…
Click Click…
The beating of a pen’s mechanism echoed through the examination hall. One hundred and fifty seated students filled the room, all here to take their final exam, soon to be free from the chains that is the education system. The atmosphere reeked of anxiety, a string on the verge of ripping. Single tables were placed across the room a meter apart from each other. The tapping of fingernails on the oak tops darted around.
Silence quickly washed over the room as the invigilator of the exam stood up from his high stool. He was an old man, with a large old beard, his wrinkled face displayed no emotion. To his left were two other people both much younger than him. He turned his head to look up at a large clock behind him. The loudness of the ticking thundered through the dead silence of the students. Thirty seconds before the clock hit Twelve he looked back towards the student body. A sea of heads, all staring up towards the front like a terracotta army exhibition. With a cough, a low voice with an air of authority echoed out…
“ The final examination will now commence, any violations of examination regulations will result in a failure, please follow the instructions on the front of your booklet… ”
He looked back at the clock, the silence of the room almost deafening. The rasped breathing of a few students could be heard as they prepared themselves.
“You may now, begin”
As if a gun had been fired in the air, all heads simultaneously flipped down towards the papers before them. Pens clicked in unison and the sound of writing flowed through the hall like a stream.
Further back, past the ocean of heads one stayed up, before slowly looking down. His face expressed a look of confusion as he read the first page of the exam booklet.
[ Please write down your full name, candidate number, age and a brief description of yourself as well as your family's status ]
The first request was the usual name and candidate number, so that the exam board would be able to identify him.
Click…
Grey Patterson, JG4125…
He looked back at the request making sure he wasn’t hallucinating from his lack of sleep…
He shrug’d, assuming that it was just a final survey due to it being the final test for the seniors, he proceeded to fill it out.
I’m 6ft 1, body weight of 156 lbs and 18 years of age. I have dark brown eyes and I have grey hair due to a genetic disease that my father's family carries lack of melanin production or something in my hair's follicles. I’m an only child and both my parents work abroad. My name is Grey Patterson.
He looked back at the information, unsure if what he wrote down to be enough. Not that it matters, it didn’t count towards his grades anyways as there was no mark indication at the bottom. He flipped to the next page of the booklet after briefly reading the guidelines, he already knew them from his previous exams. Flipping past the guidelines, instead of a page littered with questions on the effects of cortisol on the brain, he instead found himself staring at black page.
The page was black, so black that it seemed to mess with his vision. He started to blink rapidly as the page seemed to mess with his eyes. He looked up from the page to find that everyone else had the same reaction as him.
A scream from one of the females across the hall shattered the silence of the hall, grey looked over to see a black smoke rise from her black page quickly expanding across the entire hall seeming to absorb anything that it touched. She got up from her table and moved away from the smoke.
More shocked cries sounded from around the hall as more plumes of smoke started erupting from the pages. The black smoke started enveloping everything.
The old looking invigilator got up from his stool and quickly ordered all the students to exit the hall through the large double doors at the entrance. A brown haired boy closest to the doors quickly ran towards them and tried pushing and pulling them open, before soon realising that they were locked.
“IT’S LOCKED!” He screamed wildly back towards the now gathering group behind him. Alarmed cries burst out from the group, one of the larger looking students quickly ran forwards and using his shoulder tried to body slam the doors open.
THUD
his body slammed against the door and he flew back as if he’d just ran into a brick wall. He groaned holding his shoulder. More students started pushing against the door some trying to kick it. The invigilator ordered everyone to move towards the fire escape on the other side of the room. Though the black smoke almost covered half the hall, slowly descending towards the students.
People started running and pushing one another towards the escape. One of the larger students collided with a boy wearing glasses. His glasses flung off his face landing just a bit in front of him. He scrambled to find them. Just as he was about to place them back on his eyes another student running towards the escape ended up kneeing him in the chest knocking him into the smoke.
He disappeared.
More screaming broke out as the kid vanished from sight, like he had been devoured by some massive shadow demon.
Students reached the fire escape only to find that it was locked as well. Panic ensued as people started making to the corners of the rooms least covered by the smoke. Invigilators shouted for people to stay away from the smoke and keep calm.
A line of students all pressed against one another onto a wall as they looked forwards in horror as the smoke slowly blocked all forms of escape, until it eventually made it to them.
Grey had sat in his seat the entire time, he was too tired to react in time and just stared at the black page. The smoke slowly enveloping him.
Complete darkness is what he saw now. His senses playing games on him muffled sounds of screaming. His body began sweating profusely through his clothes. He couldn’t feel anything around him as he wildly swung his arms around hoping to find a wall or a table. He started gasping for air though he could still breath. He couldn’t tell whether or not his eyes were closed. It felt as if the surround air was being funneled through a vacuum of darkness.
After what seemed like an eternity he fell to his knees slowly losing his consciousness, through the fading he thought he could hear the light laughter of a man in the distance.
Grey didn’t like what he was sleeping on, it stabbed into him like a rock… oh it was a rock. His eyes opened to find he was sleeping on a grass. He looked up to find in front of him were bodies scattered around sporadically.
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It looked like it was his examines, they were all asleep, a few of them slowly awakening like himself glasses was there to. He looked beyond them to find themselves surrounded by a line of trees on all sides, it seems that he was in a forest. Weird.
Weirder even was this floating blue panel that seemed to levitate in front of his vision. Its was translucent to a degree and looked like a really thin display. Within it a sentence was displayed…
Welcome to the
WORLD OF ARCHAISM
Evolution interface active
It seems that we are no longer in kansas. Getting up to his feet Grey brushed off his long black pants and steel coloured shirt. He breathed a sigh before looking back around him. People seem to be waking up, it’s only a matter of time before that screaming girl wakes up. He would use this chance to figure out what was happening.
Grey pokes out towards the interface in front of him, upon contact he felt a slight sensation on his finger tips, sort of like a light vibration and with it the text box vanished.
“aaaAAAHHHHHH!!” There it is, that screaming girl. Looks like everyone has finally come to their senses and are gathering around, some people run over to comfort mis-screamsalot. Looks like the invigilator has come around as well.
“Everyone please gather around!” The old man shouts out, his voice of authority no longer there, replaced with but a nervous tone.
“Does anyone know where we are?”
Thats a great question.
“I’m not getting any signal through my phone!” Cries one of the people who was trying to kick the door earlier, doesn’t he know that having phones during examinations is against the rules? Not that it matters right now…
“O-o-oi, oi guys!” a voice meekly makes it way out from the grouping. Everyone turns their heads towards the voice to find a smaller guy around 5ft 5’, pointing his finger towards the sky.
Everyone followed his finger until they ended up heads full tilt to the sky. Jaws dropped, air was gasped, scream girl screamed and some even awed…
There were three large planets in orbit that were way to low to be normal.
Really isn’t Kansas anymore.
People started panicking, dread overcame the entire group as the realisation that they were no longer on earth blindsided them. The air was thick.
“E-everyone calm down, calm down” The invigilator making his attempt at calming everyone. Looks like it worked as everyone started calming down.
“First things fir-” He stopped mid-sentence staring into open space. His eyes scanned the air like he was reading a book.
“Evo-lu-tion interface?”
The invigilator slowly repeats aloud to himself. He face turns to surprise as if something had appeared in front of him.
Some other repeat what he says aloud and also received a surprised expression. Deciding that he might as well join in in on the face making competition he says to himself,
“Evolution interface”
A larger display than before appeared in front.
You will now be allowed to select your bloodline, please note that bloodlines determine your base attributes for you and your predecessors.
…
Warrior Mage Artificer
Three classes followed below, they were familiar, same classes used in many of the popular MMO’s. Everyone seemed stunned, were we in a game? It was definitely too realistic to be one. We don’t have the technology for this stuff.
Grey tapped on one of the three words, with a slight vibration it revealed even more details.
Warrior Bloodline
Bloodline of the warriors, fearless fighters that charge into battle engaging in close quarter combat or staying back defending their allies using ranged weapons. Those with this bloodline have increased attributes contributing to the bloodline.
Mage Bloodline
Bloodline of the mage, users of the arcane, utilising masterful tactics and prepared moves this bloodline gives those with this bloodline fearful magical capabilities. Those with this bloodline have increased attributes contributing to the bloodline.
Artificer Bloodline
Bloodline of the Artificer, master craftsmen that are able to create and manipulate the materials of the world. They utilize their skills to give birth to legendary equipment that tip the balance of the world. Those with this bloodline have increased attributes contributing to the bloodline.
*Sub-bloodlines are chosen by the system tailored to each individual
This really is like an mmo, wonder how increased attributes would affect you, would it make you stronger? Faster? Smarter? I guess there is only one way to find out. Grey reached his finger out about to tap on the mage bloodline before a piercing scream sounded out from the grouping.
AHHHH!
Why does she have to keep screaming? At this rate we’re going to get tinnitus just being around her. Grey turned to look over at the screams direction. Everyone was faced away from him looking towards the eastern tree line, or was it the west?
With the sun in the background, a figure stood facing the group, a shadow casted over the figure making it hard to focus on its features, but one could clearly tell that it was considerably larger than a human. Its large arms hung to its sides, one hand free and the other clutching what looked like a rusty axe. Its head slowly raised up pointing its nose to the air as if it was searching for a scent. It made a snort.
To put it simply it looked like an orc, the ones you see in fantasy games. Big pointy teeth, green skin, ugly face… it had the whole getup.
It was silent for awhile as the group just stood there, petrified at what they were looking at, it was really ugly. The orc looked down at the group, started for a few seconds and started inhaling.
GRRUUAAAAAAAAGGGGHHH!!
It started screaming… why does everything have to fucking scream. For the love of god stop with the screaming, my ears started ringing and I had to cover them from the screeching.
Behind the orc, more shadowy figures started coming out from trees, if you had to count it’d be around 7 to 9 at this point. At this point grey starts to back up slowly, something wasn’t right y’know? Like looking at a dog across the road, you know it probably won't mess with you, but you never know?
Grey and a few others started to slowly back away from the ugly looking orc. You might call it instinct, I’ll call it fear.
The orc adjusted its grip on the axe, moving its hand closer to the blade while simultaneously crouching down, into what looked like a sprinting stance. A deep crushing sound could be heard from where the orc’s foot was. It was now sprinting towards the group.
It took around 10 seconds for the entire group to realise that a 8ft bag of muscle was hurtling at them. Chaos ensued as people started fleeing in all directions. The invigilator losing control of the group as he stood in place staring at the orc running at him.
Contact between the two was made, axe to face. The invigilators skull caved onto itself before the might of the axe. His body snapped downwards almost cracking into two lifelessly falling down.
At this point, I wasn’t even thinking, my body moved on its own, the adrenaline had made its way to my head as I started sprinting into the forest. Wails and shrieks could be heard through the crushing leaves beneath my sneakers.
I ran, ran as far as I could, my legs pleaded for rest. I ran until I reached a cliff face. It shot up, shot up far enough that I couldn’t even see the top and continued on both sides as far as I could see. I leaned onto the cold stone trying to gather my breath. I placed my head onto the stone as my hands gave way and my body heaved.
I could hear something, it sounded like thundering, like rushing water. I brought my face away from the small and focused on the sound. I wasn’t sure if which way it came, but my throat was a desert. I started walking to the right.
Before my eyes I saw a waterfall, it crashed into a lake that snaked out into a river. I fell to the shore line and cupped my hands, washing both face and throat. My eyes stung, the sweat seeping in.
I started feeling better, my mind calming down. I looked around me, the forest was thick, it cut my vision short not allowing me to see far. I decided to move closer to the waterfall, my eyes followed the water upwards. Some caught my eye, it looked like there was an opening just a bit up to the left of the fall. I needed shelter, I needed to get off the ground away from the orcs. I started climbing. The wet stone made it harder for to get a good grip but i managed to slowly pull myself up. It wasn’t too high, if i had to guess around 15ft up. It was enough to make it difficult to spot. When I reached the entrance I found a small cave that led around the waterfall, it reminded me of those secret caves you’d find in games.
I sat down on the stone, the cool air created by the waterfall washed over my face. I sighed, what the hell was happening.
“Evolution interface” I called out.
Warrior Bloodline
Bloodline of the warriors, fearless fighters that charge into battle engaging in close quarter combat or staying back defending their allies using ranged weapons. Those with this bloodline have increased attributes contributing to the bloodline.
Mage Bloodline
Bloodline of the mage, users of the arcane, utilising masterful tactics and prepared moves this bloodline gives those with this bloodline fearful magical capabilities. Those with this bloodline have increased attributes contributing to the bloodline.
Artificer Bloodline
Bloodline of the Artificer, master craftsmen that are able to create and manipulate the materials of the world. They utilize their skills to give birth to legendary equipment that tip the balance of the world. Those with this bloodline have increased attributes contributing to the bloodline.
*Sub-bloodlines are chosen by the system tailored to each individual
I thought a bit, slowly moving my over to the Mage bloodli-
“AHHHHHHH!”
I jumped in surprise, a piercing scream that sounded oddly familiar shot through the trees not too far from me, but it was loud enough to scare me. I sighed looking back at the display…
Artificer Bloodline selected,
generating sub-bloodlines please wait…
...
You have been given the sub-bloodline of the Materializers. You now have access to your skill list.
“Fuck… ”
If I ever see that girl i’m going to kill her.
I. Swear. To. God.