Lyle entered the cafeteria while thinking about the words of mr. Greg. The first one made some sense but weren't schools made so that you could tread the paths travelled before. The safe and easiest way to becoming a cultivator. So why did mr. Greg said something to the contrary? The first advice was just plain nonsense, that was just a quick way to trouble, not speaking at first hand experience or anything, Lyle though.

The smell hit him like a ton of bricks. The mixture of strong and mild scents made for a heavenly smell. Lyle’s stomach grumbled so he went for the food counter on the side of the cafeteria.

He could see various dishes arrayed in front of him in a long table, from common meat dishes like roast chicken, braised pork and beef stew to more exotic dishes. Lyle continued to stare at the duck hanging from a stand and wondered how delicious it would be. He didn't know what to pick so Lyle, ever the graceful person that he is, stared for the fourth time that day.

"What do you want?" A large man suddenly appeared in front of Lyle. He scratched his belly through his apron and looked at Lyle with eyes akin to those of a dead fish, sizing him up from head to toe. “You look like an orphan child let to starve for a week only to find a set of well fitting clothes before coming here.”

The words of the cook stung Lyle. He looked at his skinny but still normally sized body. "I’m not that thin. Well what do you eat when you look like someone starving" Lyle asked hoping to get a great meal out of this selection.

The man's face changed from slightly unwelcoming to neutral. "A lot of people go for the meat dishes, but if you ask me the vegetables here are better made than what you're used to, even those top chefs in the city makes vegetables look like side dishes. I say go for the vegetables and the meat so you get a balanced meal too. You need every morsel you can get to bulk your body up."

Sounds like a good idea to him. "Alright, some vegetables and some meat please! But more meat than vegetables."

The man sighed and took a plate from under the table. He placed meat first in, filling the plate ⅔s of the way before serving the vegetables. Mixed veggies with different cuts of meat was handed to Lyle and he took it to find seats.

He finally noticed that other people were here. The quietness of the place made him assume that there were only two of them in the place. Lyle looked around to find a seat. The place was big, so big that even had he placed four chairs on top of each other and then jumped, he still wouldn’t reach the ceiling. Lyle walked to the nearest table available to him, which to him still took a few steps. The place looked able to seat close to 300 people comfortably, 400 at max capacity.

There were two other kids besides Lyle. He shrugged and went to an unoccupied table and sat down.

Not long after Lyle began eating, he noticed that a kid standing at the food counter, gawking at the dishes like he had earlier. The boy was just barely able to reach the large man’s stomach when he approached and the man looked less excited to see him than when Lyle approached him. It’s probably the clothes and his size. The way that he moved was like all other street urchins, and servants to an extent, like they want not to be seen.

The boy sat at an empty table to the left of Lyle's. As he finished eating he observed the boy with what he thought was subtlety, stealing glances when he thought the boy wasn’t looking. He observed that while the other boy had well trimmed nails and clean hands and his clothes, although faded had no visible stains. He was also fairly handsome, his face was a little girly but that was what some people preferred. Lyle blushed as he realized that he had been looking at the boy’s face for too long.

Not wanting to waste time waiting, Lyle gathered his courage and walked towards the boy. As he approached the boy looked in his direction and froze. His body suddenly tensed, as if preparing to escape and quickly put his spoon down. Lyle stopped from where he stood..

Lyle raised his hands. "Woah there, just here to say hello. How did you pass the test?" Lyle approached when he saw the boy relaxed slightly.

Without looking at Lyle directly, the boy spoke. "I just did, young master."

Okay. The boy was not talkative, Lyle thought. But good things come to those who wait, better things come to those who act. Lyle continued talking. “How’d you get here? You need an invitation or pay an examination fee, which isn’t cheap, to take the test. You don’t need to answer of course if you don’t want to.”

The boy’s face scrunched up in anger. “Does the young master not want me to be here? I’m sorry but I cannot leave even if you insist. I have something I need to do.”

Lyle shrugged, he faced people like this before and the best way to approach them was to not do that. Lyle raised his hands up in surrender and stood up. “Okay I get it, you don’t want anyone to talk to you. I’ll leave then. Good luck on your quest.”

Lyle went back to his seat to discover that his plate were gone. He shrugged and went outside, choosing a random direction to exit the cafeteria. As he exited the building, a cool breeze greeted him along with a servant, this time he was sure that the servant was actually a servant. The servant bowed.

“Young master, I would lead you to your quarters for the night. You can also ask me anything and I will answer to the best of my abilities.” The servant stood straight and looked down, a sign of respect, waiting for Lyle’s reply

“Yeah, sure. Lead me to my room. And tell me where I can take a bath and change clothes.”

“Right this way young master.”

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The fifth bell rang when Lyle entered the room that the servant guided him to after going to the bathroom. Feeling fresh and ready to take on the next day, he went into the room to see that there were three beds in the small room. Each bed had a drawer and a letter on top of one. Lyle also noticed that one of the beds had signs of occupation, only two drawers having a key and a small pack. TLyle looked at the windows in the room, one beside the door, showing the open hall and the opposite wall overlooking the city of Abeseth.

Lyle approached the farthest drawer and picked up the letter.

Dear applicant,

Congratulations on passing the second test! As a reward, you are given a bigger room for your stay during the rest of the enrollment.But that is not all! On the drawer is a package containing things that will aid you in the third test and more.

You passing the second test also means that your final score will be higher than the rest, which would translate into a better position in the school sections and you might even get a reward if you place high enough in the entrance exam. Do good and you will be rewarded. The fourth test will start at the eighth morning bell at the testing hall two. Ask for the servants for directions.

PS: You can share this to whoever you want with no bearing on your grades but remember that everything has a price.

Sincerely,

Greg Kuhn

Senior Teacher II

Master of Application

Abeseth Academy for the Gifted

Lyle looked at the package, a cloth satchel of average quality and took the materials out. The satchel contained three things: a simplified booklet on the laws of the Abeseth city state concerning the rights and responsibilities of schools and academies that raise cultivators, a strange token with the Abeseth logo on it and at the back was a fourth symbol and lastly a pill jar containing three pills.

From the three things that Lyle got from the package, he concluded that the fourth test was some kind of test of knowledge. So he opened the book and started to read. The book, Lyle was surprised to learn, contained no jargon or hard to understand words like the documents his father had in his study. Reading it would still take at least two hours to finish, even with how light the book felt compared to the others

Lyle decided to try the pills, he got three so he can just try one and if the effect was not observable he would save it for the test. He opened the bottle and took one pill. Unlike the pills that he used when he was sick, the one he consumed had an immediate effect. As he looked back on what he read, he suddenly understood it. He quickly opened his book and started reading. After reading a few pages and feeling nothing out of sorts he continued reading. As he got the the halfway point, Lyle realized that he didn’t, not once, go back in the pages to reread a sentence or a passage. Lyle suddenly understood what the medicine was for.

The sixth bell had rung signalling the start of the evening when Lyle realized that he had finished the book and snapped out of his trance. He stretched and kept the book inside and thought about what happened. He tried to recall the things he read and was amazed that he could recall everything perfectly. He belatedly realized that the pill he took was one of the exports of the school. It was called the memory pill, a very expensive item. It helped the user retain information much faster but the commercial product’s efficiency was much less than that of what he just used.

Thinking of the scary efficiency of the one that he used and the potentially addictive properties of the drug, Lyle shuddered. He thought about it for a few more minutes before deciding that he couldn’t really do anything about it and stood up from his bed. He walked out to see that there were more people present now. More applicants. Lyle wondered if any of his friends passed and went to the cafeteria.

After losing his way twice and asking directions from a servant the second time, Lyle finally arrived in a crowded cafeteria. He looked for his friends and thankfully found them sitting and talking. He approached them quietly as to surprise them.

Ariel noticed him first, her head of black straight hair whipping at the same time of her head as she did a double take. “Lyle!” Ariel stood up and quickly waved for Lyle to come closer. “I thought you went home! Did you pass too?”

Lyle realized that all five of his friends were on the table. “Hey glad you all passed. Looks like they had a secret second test. The way to pass it was to approach the servants that appeared after the second bell.”

“What?! There was something like that?” Lester, a boy of average height, said. He stood up and detracted from his earlier conversation with Henry and the others

Lyle looked at Lester. He had short brown hair, muscular and conventionally handsome. Lyle later learned that the boy was also crass, arrogant and boastful but still a nice person overall. Lyle still liked the boy but he can be a bit much sometimes. He liked Ariel and Henry’s personality better. The awkward child growing into her face and she treated everyone nicely, even when others mocked her for helping that one beggar. And Henry was the person Lyle considered the leader of the group, calm and keeps the group from fighting.

“Why didn’t you tell us and just left?” Lester said, his face getting angry.

Lyle decided to tell the partial truth. “Well, it was either I pass to the next test or fail. Anyway, I came to tell you information about the next test. Or at least what I think the next test will be.”

Still irritated, Lester sat down with his arms crossed, refusing to talk to Lyle. Taylor, the second and the last girl of the group, asked the question that was on the minds of everyone in earshot. “Spill it out. What’s the next test gonna be?”

Lyle sat down beside Ariel before taking out the book. “As a reward for passing the secret test, I got a bunch of items. This is one of them. It’s a list of laws regarding the academy and schools in general within Abeseth. I think the next test will be a test with papers or just a questioning.”

The group huddled around the book and looked at the cover. As Lyle pulled out the brown leather bound book, hisfriends instantly lost their interest. Lester snatched the booklet and leafed through its pages. After finding nothing interesting he tossed the book back to the table.

“Damn, I hate tests, I’m not good at that.” Lester grumbled.

“At least we know a few of them. We studied the laws under our tutors when we were kids, We’ll do fine.” Edward, the last person in the group said. Lyle and the rest of the group would usually play in the sun when they met but Edward usually just liked to sit in the shade and read. He still played when the group invited him but only when they invited them and not the other group

“Of course you studied, dork.” Lester said

“Wait, you said items, not item, what other things did you get?” the question came from Taylor.

The group collectively looked at Lyle. He didn’t really want to show the pill so he took out the token. “I also got this. I don’t know what it does but I think this will help with the third test”

Lester moved to grab it like the booklet, but this time Lyle pulled the coin away. “ Ah, ah, ah. This is mine. I got it fair and square.”

“C’mon dude, you got the book, at least give me the coin. It could be useless.” Lester replied

“But it also could be his ticket of joining. It’s his Lester, and his to give or take as he wants.” Admonished Henry. The others chimed their agreements with Henry making Lester grumble about the unfairness of it all as he sat back down. Lyle thanked the dieties for the hundredth time that Henry was with them, Lyle considered him to be the leader of the group.

“Can we borrow it?” asked Ariel. “I mean, if you don’t mind. We would totally understand it if you don’t though.”

Lyle replied immediately. “Sure, It’s all yours.”

The rest of the evening was spent with one of the group reading while the rest talked about their day and experiences. It turned out that the testing process was the same for them, just will all the remaining applicants there. He also learned that Ariel and Henry both had above average talent, Edward having an excellent talent and Taylor and Lester having an average talent. During their talks, Lester became more distant from the group and kept quiet even at the end.

By the eighth bell, the group decided that resting was the best option as they still had a test tomorrow. As they were leaving, Lyle held Ariel back and took one pill form his bottle. He gave it to Ariel. “Take this pill when you’re studying the book, memorizing will be easier. Also, don’t tell anyone , I only have one left and I plan to use it during the test.”

Ariel quickly thanked Lyle before catching up to the group. They all went to a servant to show them to their quarters while he asked another to show him his, not that he was worried he’d be lost again.

Lyle arrived at his room and opened the door to see a person on one of the beds. It was surprisingly the boy from earlier. Lyle watched as the boy from earlier read the book in an achingly slow pace, he decided to try one last time to help the boy.

“Hey, angry boy. Try taking a pill, it’ll make you remember better.” Lyle didn’t wait for a reply and went to his bed to lie down. The day of standing and tests was taking a toll on him and was making him sleepy after only just the eighth bell.

“Thanks.” he heard the boy whisper as Lyle laid down on his bed and tried to fall asleep.

“No problem angry boy.”

“It’s Irnel”.

After a few minutes of silence the lid of his eyes started getting heavy.