“You guys ready?” I asked.

  “Yep,” Emily said.

  “As well as can be expected,” Cecilia added.

  About four other girls were with us, but I didn’t know their names. The guild was way crowded than I remembered in the past. I guess the guild test day really brought everyone out. Of the thirty people I saw in the guild, only two were boys, and rather wimpy boys at that. I guess since men could get good jobs a lot easier than women, they were less motivated to work for this job.

  I never realized that was why most of the guild receptionists were women. Interesting things you learn when you stop and think about things.

  Looking around, I noticed a few guild workers staring at us. Hmm, had the test already begun? I noticed Emily slouching a bit and corrected her. Nancy said the guild had harsh standards, and with so many people here, I could certainly see it. But to think they would be testing us before the official test? Well, it could just be my imagination, but I wasn’t going to chance it.

  When it was my turn, I started with my best curtsy. The guild receptionist returned it. “Welcome, my name is Allura, and I will be your test practitioner today. The first part shall be a written test,” she handed me a slip book and a slate. “You have until the sand runs out. If any questions are left blank, it is an automatic fail.”

  “Thank you,” I said, taking the slate. I looked at her as she moved the glass with falling sand to the side. How much time? Rough. Okay. No need to stress before I have even looked at the questions. I found a chair and tried to sit with good posture, just in case.

  None of the questions were about math; was that because they didn’t offer me an abacus? I had brought one from the shelter, so I was mostly prepared to be honest. Some questions were simple, like what a patrol quest is compared to an escort quest. But occasionally, one came up that was difficult. A succubus, an orc, and a revenant are all in the area, so which is the easiest to slay?

  I didn’t know. I guess I could guess, but… that didn’t seem like a good idea. Did they really expect me to know this kind of answer? But I fail if I don’t put anything. I could fake it. One out of three. Not the worst odds. But, I didn’t know how many questions this test was gonna have like that. I took a deep breath and wrote down, I don’t know.

  I came to the conclusion that if they really expected me to know all this, then I was doomed this time, but I would rather not lie or pretend I knew. So that became my approach when I encountered questions I didn’t know the answer to.

  I approached the counter to hand Allura my slate and slip book. She looked it over carefully while sliding an abacus around. “You passed part one! Congratulations. That means you can join the others in test two. Please follow me.”

  She walked me upstairs to a large room with a bunch of tables. It looked like a lunch break room at first glance. Six girls were already sitting down. A lady was at the front of the class in front of a huge slate, which was the size of a bed and hanging off the wall like a portrait.

  “I’m Dawn. I will initiate the next test once everyone arrives,” she said warmly.

  For now, we just waited. To my delight, both Cecilia and Emily made it inside. That left us with a total of twelve, from the original thirty. Wow, that first test was brutal.

  “Okay, we got everyone. Time for math, everyone bring in an abacus?” Dawn asked.

  A few girls flinched. “I was told we didn’t need to bring anything?”

  Emily said something similar, but I convinced her to bring her abacus, so Celilia, Emily, and I were the only ones to bring one out.

  “That is true!” Dawn added. “Just seeing if we had any star pupils today.” She then gave the other girls an abacus and began writing math problems on the board.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  When she finished one problem, she would wait about fifteen seconds before erasing it. The questions were reasonably easy, but the speed was certainly undermining my confidence. For the final problem, she defied my expectations. “Add the sum of three of your answers together, your choice, but if you get this problem wrong, it is an automatic fail. You have sixty seconds.”

  No time for doubt, I just had to believe in myself. I quickly added up an answer and wrote it down.

  Once the sand ran out, she told us to set our chalk down and collected our slates.

  “Abigail, fail,” she said, setting one down. “Alexis, pass.”

  Sweet!

  “Cecilia, pass,” she continued. “Doloris, fail. Emily, fail.”

  Frick, but also yay? Damn!

  Emily rubbed her head. ”That last question was rough.”

  Yeah, it was. When everyone who had failed cleared out, only three of us remained. The last girl was named Samantha.

  “So, are we hired?” Samantha asked as she flipped her hair. She wasn’t one of the ones from the shelter; she was well-dressed too.

  Dawn chuckled. “Not yet, we don’t make it that easy for you. Next up is cleaning.” She led us to another guild lady in front of a large room.

  “I am Felicity,” she said. “I will be observing your skill at cleaning this room, as a team, if you will.”

  Looking at the room, plenty of slip books and parchment were scattered around the tables, and it was also covered in dust and grim.

  Felicity showed us some cleaning supplies. Hmm. No way a third test would just be easy. The fact that she said to work as a team hit me a bit too. Each test before this had been individually based.

  “How should we start?” I asked.

  “I’ll tidy the papers. You girls can handle the scrubbing.”

  “I’m fine with that,” Cecilia added.

  I nodded too and grabbed the broom to start sweeping. Cleaning was a skill that didn’t scare me at all. We worked for about thirty minutes and it looked a lot better.

  “All finished?” Felicity asked.

  “Yep,” Samantha said.

  “Hmm, I’d like to work a bit longer,” I said.

  “Same,” Cecilia said.

  “Nope, everyone step out. I will evaluate it now,” Felicity said. She looked around, looking inside the drawers and touching most of the surfaces before coming back out.

  “So?” Samantha asked.

  “Not yet, those two wish to continue cleaning, so they may do so now,” she said.

  “I’ll clean too,” Samantha added, but Felicity raised her hand to stop her.

  “Please wait downstairs for the final results,” Felicity said before continuing to watch us.

  “Cecilia, did Samantha clean the slip books she put away?” I asked.

  She checked. “No,” she said. “Want me to handle that?”

  Hmm. “No, I’ll clean them, but you file them. I assume there is an order.”

  “It seems pretty… oh wait,” Cecilia said as she took out the dirty slip books. “She tossed them in randomly, but looking at the clean ones, I think I see a pattern.”

  I smiled. “You are good at that stuff.”

  Cleaning small things was a specialty of mine too. I left them sparkling as I handed them to her to file.

  After that, we swept a bit more too. Then we both agreed that we did a good job. Felicity didn’t say a word; she just touched the surfaces and looked inside the drawers like she had before. She then smiled. “You pass this test. But the ultimate results will be said at the front office.”

  “Could you explain?” I asked.

  “The girl who did your first exam will explain.”

  With that, we walked downstairs. Allura waved to me, and I walked over to her. “So, you passed all three tests, but passing grades for each test is a seventy or higher, but there is a fourth hidden test I cannot disclose. Your average of all four tests needs to be eighty or higher to get a passing final grade. Understand?”

  I nodded.

  I noticed Samantha grumbling as she left. I guess she failed.

  “Your final score is. Eighty-five. You pass.” Allura said, smiling. “So we will be hiring you.”

  I smiled and gave a curtsy. “Thank you.”

  “Ah!” Cecilia screamed as she jumped up and down. “Alexis! I passed, I got eighty percent exactly!”