The Innkeeper

“Just Lex?”

“Yes.”

“Alright, Lex from Gristol, stand on this platform,” the man indicated to a silver platform identical to the one used by the doctor.

“My health has already been verified by a doctor, I’m good to take the assessment.”

“This is not a health check up child, this IS the assessment. Or at least, the start of it.”

Letting out an exasperated sigh, Lex went and stood on the platform, once again prompting the release of the grains of floating light.

“Are you familiar with how the assessment goes?” the man asked while reviewing the result of Lex’s exam.

“No.”

“The assessment is not so simple or straightforward, and it is a lengthy ordeal. It does not have a fixed format, because the result of each test affects the proceeding test. When the Academy started, the way we operated was mundane, and we let the students choose what they wanted to study. Eventually we learnt, not only was such a method inefficient in garnering results, students were choosing their subjects on things as arbitrary as happiness.”

The man paused at this moment and grinned at Lex, as if waiting for him to respond. When Lex gave him a deadpan look, completely uncaring, he chuckled and continued.

“Maybe things such as pursuing happiness and personal interests can be done in times of peace. But we are not at peace, we are at war. And not only that, we are in a war we have been slowly losing for hundreds of years. So, the Academy is not a place for you to pursue your hobbies or passions, it’s a place where your most useful skill is identified and then trained.

“People think they know what they are good at, or what they like, based on what they’ve experienced. But out of hundreds of professions and skills, how many could you have really tried? So, child, we designed an assessment to accurately determine what profession is most suited to you.”

The uniformed man paused again, but Lex gave him no reaction. He had plenty of experience with weirdos, and this guy was giving Lex very strong Marlo vibes. Yes, he had yet to burst into maniacal laughter. But, his grinning every five seconds was creeping Lex out, and there was no way Lex was going to give the man more reasons to unveil his weirdness.

Besides, as it was, Lex didn’t care what profession he was assigned as long as it didn’t hamper him from getting the information he wanted later on. With limited options, and a limited understanding of how things operated here, Lex remained silent, his face completely blank of all expressions.

Lex could visibly see the disappointment in his eyes when he got no reaction, but he continued. “However, the assessment is not limited to what happens once you start. Sometimes, if you have notable moments in your life, they are fed into the assessment before you even begin, which influences how your tests go. The reason why I am taking your personal details, instead of going through the regular procedure, is because of what you encountered on your way here.”

“Wasn’t it just a Kraven? I thought they were very common.”

“JUST A KRAVEN!” the man finally yelled in excitement, confirming Lex’s suspicions that this man was kin to the mad Marlo. “No, my child, that was not JUST a Kraven. I can’t believe after facing that thing, you still have the guts to call it ‘just a Kraven’. I was actually the one to personally debrief the rescue party, and what you faced technically wasn’t even a Kraven. It was merely the cut off flesh of a Kraven, acting on instinct. But that’s not what’s important. The important thing here is that the flesh belonged to an Earth Immortal Kraven.”

That term attracted Lex’s attention, as he strongly suspected it was the name of yet another cultivation level, but the man did not seem to notice.

“Child, even if it was a piece of flesh, I have never seen a kid face even the flesh of an Immortal and survive, let alone a Qi training brat! The how, the why, the maybe of it all doesn’t matter to me. What matters is, all the other survivors gave testimony of how you faced the brunt of that beings focus, and your mind hasn’t exploded!

“So, I am here to view your assessment personally, and to let you know, child, that the end result of the assessment can still be anything, but you’re already being tested for the most elite special forces of the Hum Nation.” The man grinned as he stared at Lex, as if he was looking at the most beautiful woman in the world.

“The assessment is long and arduous, and can sometimes take days or weeks. I will give you only one piece of advice: survive. The assessments are open-ended, with no specific objective designated, so my suggestion to you is, take in all the information you are given, and focus on survival, and if you face any opposition, just remember the Academy’s motto.”

“What’s the motto?” Lex asked, before suddenly remembering he was trying to avoid reacting to the man.

But the man did not answer, and only grinned, making Lex flinch. There was definitely something wrong with the motto, just like there was something wrong with this man. Maybe all strong people were a little crazy.

“When you’re ready, step onto the gold platform and your assessment will begin,” the man said, before stepping out of the room and leaving Lex on his own.

The theory behind the Academy’s assessment was amazing. Lex didn’t like it one bit, but it was amazing nonetheless – if it truly achieved what it claimed.

Lex took a deep breath, and let out a sigh. Lex was stuck in this realm for a while, so it was best to integrate into this world as seamlessly as possible, but the way things were going… Lex strongly doubted the people here were believers of democracy and choice. Whatever the case was, Lex knew he could not under any circumstances qualify as an ‘elite special forces’. Lex had seen enough movies to know how they all ended up, and he had no intention of bogging himself down with endless training and fighting.

No one had stopped Lex from taking his equipment along with him so, after checking if everything was in place, Lex stepped off the silver platform and stepped onto the gold one. A green ring of light seemed to scan Lex once, before Lex suddenly felt a whiplash and fell backwards.

Suddenly, he was no longer in an office. Lex had fallen into a deep pile of snow, burying his body all the way to his chest. He was at the edge of a snow-covered forest, with an endless sea of trees behind him and a clearing leading towards a valley in front of him.

Some distance off, Lex could see a small village, with smoke coming out of multiple chimneys. The streets were nearly empty, with only a few people moving about.

A ball of yellow light appeared in front of Lex, and started to say, “Assessment Number 1: In front of you is Fernain Village. In 24 hours, the village will be hit with a tremendous snowstorm. In approximately 26 hours, a tribe of Kalter Flug will pass through this area. In approximately 30 hours, the Sol birds are expected to leave the area. In 40 hours, the assessment will be complete.”

With the information given, the yellow light disappeared, leaving a confused and flabbergasted Lex behind. What the hell kind of an assessment was this? There was no objective, no instructions, no…

Lex paused as something suddenly clicked in his mind. He didn’t know how they would assess him, if this was a real place or a simulation of some kind, and if he was being recorded, but he had a theory. By dropping him in a potentially dangerous environment, with forewarning of various impending threats and events, his reaction would reveal a lot. How he handled the stress, how he gathered information, how he survived, whether he helped people or used them, everything could be analyzed.

Suffering from a severe lack of information, Lex picked himself up, first looked at the village, then turned towards the forest as he equipped his Fancy Monocle. He would eventually go to the village, but scouting out the forest a bit wasn’t a bad idea either.

If a snowstorm was coming, the ideal place to survive would be in the village. But the building’s strength and integrity also mattered a lot, not to mention they would need firewood, as well as a small supply of food. Since it was winter time wherever this place was, hunting was probably hard, so fruits and nuts would be his main source of food.

Of course, Lex had some dry rations in his backpack, but that was not something he planned on revealing to a village full of strangers.

He also needed to find out what these ‘Kalter Flug’ and ‘Sol birds’ were. Chances were high that these beings were native to the area, and so the villagers would have at least some basic information about them, and how to deal with them if they became a problem.

The most important thing to figure out was, could he get hurt during the assessment or were there some kind of safety measures? It would be a bad idea to kill your students before you even had a chance to teach them anything, but this wouldn’t be the first society to take a spartan approach to training, and Lex didn’t want to take any chances.

Just as Lex was monologuing in his mind, Mary reappeared after a long time.

“Hey Lex, there’s a situation at the Inn,” she said, looking awkward.