The test lasted for far longer than I could ever imagine.

My first guess was that it could last for half an hour or an hour at most. That was the general limit of what a human could handle in the reality of the test. But as seconds turned into minutes and minutes into hours, I discovered that it was no longer the case.

I had no way of measuring the time, despite how much I wished for it. I didn’t know if the sun traversed the skydome at the same rate as back on earth. Even then, without knowing the general position on the planet and the current season, judging the time by the sun’s position would be meaningless.

According to my guess, at least an hour passed before I felt the first signs of tiredness. Normally, such a feat would make me proud… But I wasn’t in my body, to begin with.

As such, there was no reason for me to feel any sense of accomplishment. With no effort from my side, I couldn’t rejoice in its fruits.

To be perfectly honest, the only reason why I noticed the change in my body… Was because my ‘tired’ status changed to ‘fatigued.’

Yet, there was one thing that I could enjoy during those long hours. And it was the ticking that initially annoyed me.

Sure, this feeling quickly got old as I grew used to it. Yet, for as little as I cared for it in my current state, every tick meant my endurance status going up by a point.

Not like I could figure out what good did it do without any further testing, something that I had no way of doing while stuck doing absolutely nothing.

In the last few hours, outside of the ticking feeling, only one type of sound would make its way to the plaza. It was the sound of the other candidates reaching their limit and falling to the ground.

‘They all seem to really care about this test,’ I thought when I noticed my nearest partner in the torture losing his consciousness and collapsing. ‘Not a single one of them uttered a word of protest,’ I realized.

Tic!

Used to the feeling of something snapping inside me, I glanced over my status page. But this time, it wasn’t my endurance that went up by a point, but actually my willpower and by five points at a time at once!

‘Was it from this realization?’ I thought, keen to analyze new phenomena.

Sadly, when the next tick came, its effects reverted to what they used to be.

I couldn’t tell how much time had passed, but it was something I could accept. After all, tracking it was nearly impossible in my situation. Nearly, because I could theoretically count each second… But there was one thing that I couldn’t forgive myself for ignoring.

And it was the number of times I heard someone failing the test.

Not like I could manage to do that either. And even if, unaware of how many candidates stood on the plaza in the first place, knowing how many of them collapsed would be meaningless.

‘Should I just give up?’ I thought when my endurance reached sixty. Somewhere along the line, my willpower grew to the astonishing twenty points. Yet, at the mere appearance of my thought, it fell down by a point.

‘I mean, the drillers looked satisfied with the last few people they brought out,’ I thought. ‘I think they also changed where they are bringing them.’

That was the limit of what I could observe. Happy faces and different direction to where they dragged the lifeless bodies of teenage candidates away.

Looking at it, it could only mean that reaching as far into the test as I already did was enough, right?

I couldn’t tell whether this was an actual analysis or just wishful thinking. But without a doubt, I was nearing my limit as well.

‘I will wait for three candidates more to…’

Just as I came to a decision, a series of four thumps followed.

‘This world really likes to play with my feelings, doesn’t it?’ I thought, biting my lips in frustration. But at the same time, I could feel a wave of satisfaction washing over my soul.

Suddenly, my status changed. At first, my willpower surged down, reaching the daily’s bottom of eight. Then, as if in a chain reaction, my ‘fatigued’ status changed to ‘exhausted,’ only to turn into ‘wasted’ a mere moment later.

I finally felt just how spent I was. My skin was dried up like a fish on a sunny beach. My lips parched, seemingly never to recover again. My head spun, and once again, the world danced around me as my vision failed.

‘Did I just fail?’ I thought as my knees turned weak, no longer able to support the weight of my body.

With one last glance, I could see how my endurance reached the all-time high of sixty-two. Sadly, this was the limit of how far I could push it for now.

I didn’t even feel when my head struck the ground. Freed from the burden of the immense tiredness, I fell unconscious while collapsing.

*********

[FULL STATUS]

BODY STATUS WINDOW

***

– Name: Arthur (Fian) Pendragon

– Age: 17

– Status: Unconscious

– Hidden Status: Mentally exhausted

– Body Status: Mortal

– Hidden Body Status: Apostle

***

PROGRESS STATUS WINDOW

***

– Body status: Mortal

– Growth status: Body Purification

– Body status modifier:

– Endurance:62/100

– Willpower:9/100

Body Purification:0/300

{

– Skin Purification:0/100

– Flesh purification:0/100

– Bone purification:0/100

– Innards purification:0/100

– Core purification:0/100

}

***

Objective status window:

***

–

***