Chapter 53: A Test on Patience
Dale yawned as he stood amidst the people in his year on an open ground. He turned his head to the side but was only barely able to make out the outline of the underground city.
While they were still underground, they had moved a considerable distance away from the city and any other notable structures.
’I really should have slept.’ Now that he was about to begin the assessment, he regretted his decision from the previous night to continue sparring with the doll.
The damn construct was resting while he could barely keep his thoughts coherent.
"Are you okay?" Austin asked as he approached, the other three following behind him.
Dale knew he must have looked horrible with eye bags and his skin pale but aside from the strong urge to sleep, he was actually fine.
He shrugged, "Yeah... I’m as fine as a snail with two heads."
Austin visibly paled. "Dale. Snails aren’t meant to have two heads."
Dale tilted his head slightly, "Really?" He turned to look at Trevor and the latter seemed just as repulsed as Austin which Dale found strange.
There were lots of ponds in the slums that contained two-headed snails. In fact, it was sort of a local delicacy... at least to them.
If there was anything concerning about the unique molluscs, it was that they ate flesh instead of plants.
’I suppose it’s also not too far-fetched to assume that the snails are unnatural. There were a lot of questionable substances being pumped into our environment from companies.’
Dale lingered for a moment. "In that case, I’m as fine as a single-headed snail." He yawned as he said it.
His hands briefly touched the handles of his sabers just to make sure they were still there.
Just as he had expected, some people’s weapons had indeed been stolen over the course of the night, and some even before.
’Ha!! Justification!’ He felt good to be validated. There was no such thing as paranoia; there was only realism and the failure of reality to meet up.
Sarah sighed and turned to look at the others in their year. "Where is General Todd?" As she asked, her hair turned red with orange streaks.
Trevor pondered for a moment. "He did say we should wait and that when the time came, we would know what to do."
Gary groaned, "We’ve been standing for a good three hours!!" His complaint was loud enough to be heard by others, triggering their own minor complaints and protests.
A minor but scary realization slammed into Dale, ’I have been standing for three hours?! Three hours of what could have been valuable sleep!!’ He felt like crying but that would only make him more sleepy.
In all honesty, he hadn’t even noticed the passage of time due to the microdoses of sleep he got whenever he left his eyes closed for too long.
’And it’s not like I value the opinion of anyone here. There’s no one I have to please.’ He scoffed and sat on the ground. Some of the recruits turned to him and raised their lips in disgust.
Not that he cared. He knew people like them — people who let social opinion and pride stop them from being innovative and survival-oriented.
It didn’t take long before he closed his eyes with the intention to sleep. From behind the darkness of his closed eyelids, he could hear as matters around him were slowly starting to escalate.
Slowly, three hours turned to four then to five. Roughly at the five-hour mark, he felt four more people sit beside him and a round of mockery from everyone else.
Dale opened one eye and saw his ex-teammates sitting on either side of him. The other recruits actively mocked them yet he didn’t even react.
He closed his eyes. ’I can’t even sleep.’ As much as he wanted to, he had to remain awake.
More hours eventually streaked by until half a day had passed.
Awakened and Dormant had more potent physical strength and endurance than mundane people but 12 hours was definitely too much even for them.
Dale opened his eyes and saw more than half of them trembling on their feet. He looked into their eyes and could see the boundless regret within.
’Such is the cost of pride.’ If they had refrained from mocking them, then perhaps they could have also sat on the ground to rest their legs. In fact, they could still do so but if they did, then their mockery would turn on them.
For some reason, they would rather torture themselves than swallow their pride.
’Maybe this is the fabled saying: Pride comes before a fall. Because they definitely seem like they are about to.’ He smiled at the thought.
Turning his head to the side, he could see his friends playing charades. From what he could see, Austin and Sarah were a team then there was Trevor and Gary.
Sarah pointed at Austin who had his arms to the side of his head. "Ooh!! I know this. An elephant!"
Austin shook his head and pressed his arms tighter against his head as though that would suddenly make it clearer.
Sarah tried numerous animals, somehow even mentioning a pterodactyl.
Trevor raised his hand. "Time’s up."
Austin raised his hands in surrender, "It was a bull!" Everyone seemed genuinely confused, even Dale was no different.
The redhead raised an eyebrow, "Why are you looking at me like that?! How else do you gesture to a bull?"
Everyone — Dale included — raised their index fingers and placed them beside their head. ’What sort of person raises their entire arm?’ Needless to say, it was ludicrous.
Austin shrugged. "Potato. Putato." Then turned to Dale, "You seem a lot better."
Dale clenched his fists and nodded. He hadn’t slept but he no longer felt like he was going to pass out.
"Well done. You may move on to the next part of the assessment." General Malcolm spoke as he walked into the midst of them. Nobody had even noticed him approaching.
A recruit raised his hand, "Sir. We didn’t even do anything. What was this part of the assessment based on?"
The General turned to the recruit whom Dale recognized as Ream, he hadn’t seen the latter for a considerable amount of time and that was enough to raise a flag.
General Malcolm stared down at Ream, "And why should I tell you? What right do you have to know? If an enemy sets a trap for you and you trigger it, will you ask them what the trap was? No, because you’re dead.
And if you somehow don’t trigger it, you wouldn’t ask them about it because you don’t know if it exists. Oblivion is something you’ll have to get familiar with. Not everything is known by you nor should it be."
With that, General Malcolm turned to the underground city and started walking. Dale and the rest of his friends stood, following him closely behind.
’Interesting.’ Dale couldn’t shake the General’s words out of his head because of the truth they carried.
It wasn’t unreasonable to assume that the rest of the assessment would be a lot more complex than was expected.
