Chapter 4

“So what’s the catch?” I asked. This all seemed too good to be true.

The assembly master grew serious. “ The only catch is that having a great deal of power means that you will also have massive responsibilities. Billions of lives will be relying on the swarm lord you serve. Your job is to protect them and help them rule. You will make mistakes. Some of those mistakes may even kill people. Just remember that you will also better the lives of millions of people.”

That wasn’t the answer I had been expecting. When he mentioned that people would die if I made mistakes I started to second guess myself. Apparently the assembly master knew what I was thinking. “Being a swarm knight is merely a title. Nobody can force you to take up those responsibilities. It’s rare but I’ve known a few swarm knights that have decided to live as a swarm citizen because they feared that responsibility. All of them have changed their mind once they realized just how much of a difference they could make. Inaction is still an action. Of course none of this will matter if you fail the test.” He said.

“I can do that. What happens if I fail the test though?” I asked.

“Then you will become a swarm citizen. You will live a life of luxury. The only responsibility of a swarm citizen is to have many children that may become swarm knights or lords.” He explained.

“What does the test involve?” As tempting as a life without work was, I knew that after a couple weeks I would get bored. Besides like he had said there was no reason not to take the test and make my decision after.

“There are three parts of the test. You have already passed the first part since the testing helmet detected that you have the talent. The second part is a combination of a test and training. That part will test your ability to control the swarm in completing various tasks. About ninety percent of candidates fail this part of the test. Those that fail will require additional training, If you pass then you are eligible to become a swarm knight without the additional training needed.” The assembly master explained.

“You said there are three parts of the test?” I wondered what the third part would entail.

“We can talk about the third part of the test after you complete the second part.” The assembly master answered.

“Fair enough. Anything else I should know before taking the test?” I asked.

“Nothing that would help you in your test. Follow me and we will begin the second part of the test.” The assembly master said as he stood up and walked towards the door.

I followed as we walked down multiple corridors and made half a dozen turns. We finally reached a doorway with four guards standing in front of it. The guards didn’t stop us since they recognized the assembly master.

Following him inside I entered what looked like a sci-fi laboratory of some type. Except all the walls were still made of stone. One side of the room had four massive tubes that went from floor to ceiling. The other side had numerous shelves with thousands of boxes about the size of a rubix cube. In the center of the room was a table and a couple chairs.

“Sit down and we will begin the test.” The assembly master said, indicating the rightmost chair at the table. As I sat down I examined the controls in front of me. It looked like a simple on and off switch along with a knob I could turn to four different numbers. Which correlated to the four tubes that were in front of me. There was also a helmet on the table. I probably shouldn’t have been surprised that it looked exactly like a Koravar VR helmet. The only difference being that the screens on the front of the helmet were see-through.

As I sat down the assembly master took a seat in the left chair. “Put the helmet on and we will begin.” As I put the equipment on I looked at the tubes and realized that not all of them were empty. From where I was sitting seven looked empty but the three furthest from the door weren’t.

“Inside each of the containers are a variety of different sized swarm units. As you go further from the door the size of the units increases. The first two are too small to be seen but the last two are visible to the naked eye. Although the third is only the size of a small insect. Let’s start by seeing if you can control the largest size unit.” The assembly master said and gestured to the final tube which contained a few metal creatures that were around the size of a squirrel.

I wasn’t sure what the assembly master wanted but then he flipped the right most switch. “It should be activated now. Just imagine it doing something.” I nodded and concentrated on the robot.

A couple seconds later words and images started appearing on the screen. I selected a move order and ordered the squirrel sized robots to move around the tube. I was almost surprised when they instantly obeyed and started pacing around the tube.

“Excellent. Many swarm knights have difficulty controlling units that size. Next let’s switch to the first tube and test the number of units you can control at the same time. The units we are testing are too small to be seen. You will have to command them to move together so that we can see them. If you fail we will try again after you try controlling fewer units.” The assembly master said as he flipped the rightmost switch again. Then he flipped the leftmost switch and turned a knob.

I didn’t feel any different but the screen changed quite a bit. Some orders disappeared and new orders appeared. Once again I selected the move order and then ordered all the units I currently controlled to move to the center of the tube. It took nearly thirty seconds but eventually I noticed a kind of hazy orb forming. As it condensed into an orb about the size of my fist it sunk to the bottom of the tube.

“Perfect. Those are the two areas where over a third of candidates fail.” The assembly master said with a smile.

For the next hour he had me control various sized swarm units in all the tubes. I had to make them do dozens of different actions. Including forming different shapes and taking apart objects that were put into the tubes. For example a lump of bronze was put into the leftmost tube and I was told to separate it into tin and copper. Or a tool was put into the tube and I had to copy it.

I thought that manipulating things on a molecular level would be the hardest part of the test. I was proven wrong when the test moved from the equivalent of chemistry to biology. Fixing injuries, removing poison and disease, and even copying plants and animals was difficult but possible.

The most interesting thing I learned from the test was that the swarm units contained at least some base programming. For instance when I ordered them to copy an object they would do so without any further input.

There were limits though. This was especially true with the biological tests. I couldn’t just order the units to heal something. Instead it took dozens of individual orders. Most of those orders were things I couldn’t miss. For example I had to create a new leg for a mouse that was born with only three legs. I forgot a couple orders and a leg was made but it was missing any bones.

It made me wish I had paid more attention in biology. Fortunately the assembly master didn’t care about the gaps in my knowledge about biology. If there was anything I needed to know he was happy to explain. All he cared about was whether I was able to use the orders properly.

Finally an hour later I was able to take the helmet off. It didn’t seem like hard work but I was mentally exhausted. I couldn’t remember the last time I had done something so mentally straining.

“I’m impressed. You definitely have the talent to become a swarm knight. It’s time for you to move on to the third part of the test.” The assembly master said standing and walking over to all the rubix cube sized boxes. Pulling one down he brought it back to the desk.

“By passing the second test you have achieved the rank of swarm citizen. The third test will evaluate whether you have the talent to achieve a higher rank. The only way to do this is by having you start to create your swarm. This is a nano core factory. Put your finger here in order to establish the link. After that it will begin producing nano cores.” The assembly master gestured to a red circle on the cube.