Waiting for the test giver to return had been a little more mentally draining on Victor than he expected. This felt like it was amplified due to the fact he could hear the people betting on him the same way others might bet on a sports game. Most of them were betting that he would fail or just barely pass. Some were betting on him doing well for specific aspects, but poorly on others. He even heard that there were some people betting on him falling over and start sobbing before the test ended.

"Alright!"

The test giver cried out as he kicked his way past the door to appear in the training area. He appeared suddenly while passing a circlet between his hands.

"You will put this on your wrist. Whichever one is your main hand will be the one it needs to go on. Then you will run a lap following the wall and touching the runes with the light red glow one after the other. Whenever you get back to this door I will give you a small bit of water and send you on another lap. You won't stop until I say so, is that understood applicant?"

The test did seem simple enough to him, so with a short nod Victor put on the bracelet, sliding it onto his right wrist before looking at the red runes. Each of the four different runes looped in a pattern with the color and shape matching. From red to orange to blue to white before returning to red again it seemed a basic set up with none of the targets near enough a red rune to be a concern, even if everyone else hadn’t stopped their activities. Doing a quick check on where they are he counted eleven red runes in total along the length of the wall.

Stretching just a bit before starting, he looked at the test giver.

"How many laps do I need to do for this?"

The man let out a single loud laugh that almost shook Victor to his core.

"If you needed to know how many laps you have to do then I would have told you. Just keep going and don't stop until I say so. Go ahead and start whenever you're ready."

Since, as far as Victor could tell, there was nothing special about the test, he started to jog around the walls edges. He ran around some of the people as he did so. Each time he passed a rune he would touch it. Taking note of the fact that the runes weren’t to far separated, he assumed that it was so the test taker wouldn’t get too far from the wall.

After finishing his first lap, Victor didn't think it was especially difficult. The same was true of the second, third, and forth, but each lap was getting incrementally harder than the last. By the time he hit his twentieth lap he was going dramatically slower, his clothes were drenched with sweat and his breath was heavier than he remembered ever experiencing before in his life. Even the bit of water he was given to drink seemed to be harder and harder to lift to his lips.

"How much longer?" Victor started to think, "Why do I have to do more lap? I'm barely going. Can't that guy tell I'm near the end of my rope? Just tell me to stop. How many more laps. I can't keep it up. Please. I'm at my end."

Despite these thoughts, Victor kept going. A few of the people that had made bets were smirking at him. He thought that they knew something he didn't. His mind raced at what they could know and each thought he had gave him a small burst of motivation, hoping that at least some of the people betting against him would lose their money. The small thoughts of spite pushing him further.

Each lap was taking longer than the last and Victor soon found himself trying to skip the water. The test giver was very adamant about having a drink and didn’t allow him to. Instead of letting him skip he forced the drink down his throat. This caused him to gag and nearly retch, but not enough to stop him from going.

In the end, despite his best efforts, Victor's legs gave out and he fell to the ground just after touching the eighth rune on his thirty seventh lap.

Hitting the ground with his fist in frustration, Victor found himself cursing involuntarily as his failure loomed over him. He wondered how close he had been to succeeding.

Victor cried out with more strength than he expected, "I am sure I did at least twenty-five laps. I had to have touched those runes hundreds of times!"

While he wasn't sure where he got the strength he found himself yelling at the test giver and those who made bets. Only a few people were trading money.

"How many laps did I have to do to pass huh? Did I at least get close? I had to be close to passing at least right?"

Glaring at the test giver, Victor saw the man approach with a bottle in his hand. The bottle was rounded with several spheres of brown stacked nearly to the bottle's mouth. When looked at more closely minor bits of plants were visible in protruding from the spheres.

Victor lost track of it as the man grabbed his arm with more than a little force, causing a shot of pain to shoot up to his shoulder. He was unable to help it as he let out an audible yelp from the action.

"Don't be a brat about this. I think you did good, but the results aren’t done yet. They will come from the bracelet you put on and the readings from the runes. As for passing don't worry nearly nobody passes. You actually only did two laps worse than me. Now eat this, it will remove the ill effects of the potions you drank."

The man, forcibly, tipped the two spheres from the bottle into Victor's hand, after removing the bracelet.

"This will undo what the potion did. Now rest up and get back to the main area. We will have your results before the sun goes down. If you leave after this though well let's just say I can get creative with new members who don't follow the rules."

Opening the door the man turns around and gives the woman standing next to the door a light hit in the arm, "And feed the kid when he finally gets inside. If what's in the kitchen isn't ate soon it will go bad anyway so it's on the house."

A couple of the people let loose some mild expressions of appreciation before the man cut them off.

"Only on the house for the failure. Unless you want to chug thirty-seven of those potions?"

Everyone quieted down and smiled as the man went inside. Victor, on the other hand, was still staring at the small pill like items in his hand.

With a groan he popped them in his mouth and swallowed them dry, gagging just a little bit as a result. He did so with the hope that there was no reason to kill him or lie to him at this point in the guild interview.

Sure there could be many reasons to mess with him, but at the same time he had no real reason to assume that they were out to get him. This was unless they really hated people who couldn't produce mana, but that thought made him chuckle mentally as there would have been an easier way to manage it.

Less than a minute passed before the soreness in his body, mostly, faded away. It felt a little bit like something trying to take flight within his stomach until he started to vomit on the grass.

Only once Victor stopped the process of removing all of the potion from his system did the woman approach him.

"It looks like you got all of it out of you. This isn't the easiest test, but for now, let's get you inside and get something for you to eat. I remember when I took the test. I was able to do just as many laps as you except I only managed to touch the first two runes while you got to the eighth one. I have to ask what caused you to stop? was it the physical strain or the mental doubt?"

Getting up onto his feet. Victor looked at the woman. She seemed to be taller than him, maybe six feet or at least five foot ten. Her hair went just past her shoulders and her ears pointed out farther than they should. While he wasn't certain he thought this woman was an elf. Although a part of him realized that she could be a beastkin for some sort of animal species unique to this world.

"I....... don't know. I think the mental stuff hit me hardest, but in the end, it was my legs that seemed to stop working. I just fell over."

Holding the door open for him, the woman made sure he was able to get inside, "They like it better when the body gets the better of you more than if you just give up. Some people stop after only a couple laps. It makes it harder to get a proper reading since the test is about seeing you at different states of stress and exhaustion. Since the test only works well the first time we don’t tell anyone the whole truth about it.”

“The potions just make it so we can test the stress and how it reacts to you faster than it would normally. The pill well that's to get the potions out of you since......... it’s that or let it work itself out naturally which could take a couple days."

Rubbing his hand over his shoulder, Victor spoke softly, "While telling me the reasons and such are appreciated I really feel like everything has been drained out of my body and would love if I could possibly get the food that the other guy mentioned? I could use something to settle my stomach a bit miss...."

Victor let his question linger as the woman smiled, "Leahla. Although most people here call me the matron since I tend to look after your new recruits. Although to be fair we want as many of you to get out of the black and into the red. To many of you just quit before you really get a chance to do much for us...... Usually, because..... actually let's not get into that have a seat and I'll bring you some food."

Leahla went behind the counter and, after grabbing something, went upstairs.

With her gone six people sat near him. There was one woman with five men. One of the men was a beastkin while another was an elf with the rest of them being human. The group all seemed to have smiles of various sorts on their face.

"So new guy." The beastkin started, his small fang visible as he spoke. "How did you do? Going to get magic tips? How much potion did you drink? I didn't hear any screaming so I'm guessing not past fifty."

Looking at the man asking questions, Victor noted a couple of things. This man seemed to have tall ears like a wolf, but with less hair and what looked like small claws at the end of a couple of his fingers. The way the leather clung to his body showed off that his figure was a little bit on the thin side.

With a small sigh, Victor responded, "I failed the magic test. I don't want to go into anything to specific. I won't be a wizard who lights the world on fire. I'll probably be some forgettable nobody honestly."

The group looked at him from all sides as Leahla brought a rounded loaf of bread that was hollowed out and filled with some sort of stew or soup. It was a soft white color that looked to be mostly potato base with some meat mixed in. There was also a chunk of cheese and a drink of something that looked like it was likely some sort of juice.

The group waited for Victor to eat at least a good portion of the food before speaking up again.

"Actually we are looking to hire a pack mule for a bit if you are going to be free in a few days and you probably don't have any plans if you just joined the guild."

This time it was the woman who was speaking to him, "We are looking to have someone carry some of the loot from the mission we just accepted and plan to head out soon. It would be in the best interest of everyone involved. You wouldn't get any credit in the guild since this is too far past your rank, but you would get paid much more than the usual black missions and learn some tricks of the trade from our group. It isn’t often black ranks get offers from a yellow group after all."

Taking a bite out of his, now empty, bread bowl Victor looked at the woman who, as far as he could tell, was the leader of the group. Either that or was seen as the best face to put forward. Regardless of the reason, he put the rest of the bread down and pinched the bridge of his nose just a little bit.

"Listen I don't even know if I passed the tests or not. I don't know what this black mission stuff is or if yellow rank is impressive and I don't know what I am expecting from this place yet. If you find me in a couple of days then maybe, and I do mean maybe, I can give you an answer. For now, just let me get things figured out and then we can talk. Besides I am sure you have better people to ask. Maybe someone with more muscle or stamina. Maybe even someone you’ve worked with before."

One of the men spoke up with a bit of a groan in his voice, "Better probably, but they would want to actually be part of the mission and take a full cut. We just need a pack mule we can pay a pack mule rate. It will still be better than doing some of the black missions."

"Listen." Victor mutters slowly, "Come find me in a day or two and I'll let you know then. Until then just let me figure out things about the guild ok?"

The group stood up and the woman puts a hand on Victor's shoulder, "Oh take the time, but you will want to come with us. I think you will learn more from us on this trip than anything you could learn from the black ranked missions."

Only when the group left did he let himself feel a bit more relaxed while he watched the staircases waiting for the final results of his test to be told to him. A small part of him worried that he would be told to leave and never return, despite what he had been told.

Eventually, Leahla came back to the table with a small stack of papers.

"You passed which is good news so follow me downstairs and we can get your guild crystal set up. The setup takes a bit of time so we prefer to do it where people won't be bothered. I should also tell you that we will need a drop or two of your blood for the setup."

Once again, Victor began to head towards the guild's basement. He hoped that it wouldn't take too long so he could figure out what he would do with his new life.