“That’s all class. The combat division of the graduating class please head to Taner Room for their last test. To everyone else, a big congratulations on graduating high school,” their principal concluded his speech by clapping.

In response, the students cheered and began to stream out. The sound of squeaking chairs and laughs filled the auditorium.

But Line was part of the combat division.

Bile filled his throat and his stomach fluttered. He stuffed his ticket to the Taner Room into his bag as quickly as he could.

He knew he should have examined the contents of the ticket but he simultaneously wanted nothing to do with it. All he saw was a blur of orange enter his bag.

Line left the auditorium with his class mates to the cafeteria. He sat by himself on a large table. All around him students were pilling graduation ice cream cakes on their trays.

“Hey, don’t I know you?”

Line turned around to look. Behind him stood a boy with orange hair and red eyes.

“Shut up Mill! We’ve known each other since we were in diapers.”

“Oh fuck off Line! I was being nice. No good deed goes unpunished, huh?” he pulled up a chair and started tapping his feet nervously.

One by one the students of the combat division gravitated towards their table: a few cat kin, dog kin, nymphs and lots of dwarves. Usually their table would have been a riot of curses and people throwing paint balls at each other (yes, they were the combat division, they had permission to do that).

Today, no one said a word.

Instead they tapped feet and bit their nails nervously. Some like Line were looking at their fellow class mates.

A bald girl with spider earrings walked up to their table. “Went looking for Taner Room.”

Everyone’s eyes turned to her.

She breathed in deeply. “Didn’t find it.” She sat down and refused to meet anyone’s eyes.

‘More like she didn’t look in the first place,’ thought Line but he didn’t blame her. They were all here for the same reason.

Out of the blue, the dwarf started reciting, “Taner Room began as an experiment by the famous Mage Knight TannerPoor. It was designed to-”

“Shut up Gill!” Line pounded the table. “Stop reciting the textbook! You think anyone here doesn’t know what the Tanner Room is designed to do?”

This was met by rigid silence. Gill started crying silently.

Normally no one in the group would have tolerated that outburst. Most days it would be Line standing up to the bullying not doing it himself.

But not today.

Instead, everyone pretended not to see Gill crying.

Within their table was silence.

All around them was joy and laughter.

What wouldn’t every single one of them at the table have given to be one of their non- combat classmates today?

Silence.

Brief snatches of conversation wafted to their table, “ – taking Intelligence as my Stat…. might look good on my resume - ”

Mill contorted his face and spoke in a falsetto, “Oooh I’m thinkin’ of takin Intelligunce as my Stat and I’m goin’ to join an Order and I’m goin’ to ride a unicorn and I’m going to hang myself when I can’t even get one level”

He reverted back to his normal baritone voice, “And La dee – fucking – da. Better luck next time as a Mage, moron!”

This got a few nervous chuckles.

This wasn’t a prep school for nobility. You either trained for combat or eked a living with no relation to any Stat.

The two options were very mutually exclusive. Gaining Stats got you automatically banned from most pink and white collar jobs. So you either picked a career in an office or trained your Stats.

Mill went on, seizing the momentum, “Cowards! The whole lot of us. We’re warriors, trained for glorious combat. You think some Taner Room can beat us? You think I’ve prayed to Alectus, Nox and Ares for this. You think that some school can torture us from our birthright-”

“Then do it,” said Line.

“Do it! Do it! Do it!” Everyone at the table took up the chant.

Mill bowed and with gusto whipped out the ticket from his bag. It was orange slip of paper, roughly the size of an envelope.

Instinctively Line shied away to prevent himself from reading the ticket. All he saw was its plain, orange back.

Mill’s brows furrowed with concentration and he moved his eyes back and forth.

He finished and flashed his teeth at them, “Easy as pie!”

And then he did absolutely fucking nothing.

Minutes ticked on as they waited for him. He just sat there looking smug, as though he’d conquered the world.

All around anxiety settled into a hopeless despair.

Mill was the hot head. The reckless one. The ring leader for any prank too devious to contemplate.

If he was sitting, then they might as well be glued to their chairs. Their tapping and fidgeting lost momentum. This was going to be a long day indeed.

Fear wasn’t a new notion, he’d felt fear hundreds of times. When he had fist fights with the older students, when he’d broken his arms or legs or when he’d been in accidents.

But the fear of death is a primal thing. It could not be resisted.

‘No!’ Line screamed impotently inside his head.

To wield Strength was to fight. Fighting for what was yours was the core ideology behind Strength. It was easy to interpret it as war, as plucky aggression, as honour and a thousand different things. But wasn’t Strength also fighting one’s fears.

What greater fight could there be, than to fight one’s own mind and tame it?

Line grit his teeth, stood up and walked away.

“The fuck are you going?”

“Washroom,” said Line without looking at them.

Once he got away from the table, he pulled out his bag. He closed his eyes and lifted out the Taner Room ticket.

He placed his hands over the ticket so he could only read the first line, then opened his eyes.

‘TANER ROOM - can only be redeemed once – Room 901’

He exhaled. Room 901. That’s all he needed to know.

He slipped the ticket back in and went looking. It was a large building filled with rambling corridors. Multiple schools were doing their graduation here, no doubt because of the Taner Rooms.

Another corridor. Grey walls met a black carpet instead of the normal cream white. This time the rooms were numbered in yellow stencil fonts. Room 1102 was on the right and Room 868 on the left.

Then Room 901 was straight ahead.

He didn’t have to go far.

There was a desk and a small queue. Three students lined up that Line hadn’t seen before.

A teacher was standing in front of a row of lockers.

“Clothes, belts and boots go in here.”

Line stripped of his graduation gown, his trousers and hoody. Like every other student here, he was wearing a full body wet suit underneath. He switched of his mini – screen and scanned the locker with his bracelet.

He stood in line. The girl in front of him was shivering so bad, she hugged herself.

An old lady with a lab coat and a Screen ushered them in. She pointed to a row of metal chairs, bolted to the floor, “Please wait until your name is called.”

There were three people before it was Line’s turn. No point in not reading the Taner Room ticket now.

He flipped over the orange ticket.

‘TANER ROOM - can only be redeemed once – Room 901’

‘Soldier,

Evil cultists have taken over Taner Room. They have tortured innocents and used unspeakable demon- arts to place a bomb in Taner Room. The lives of all loyal citizens of Iridicrodium are in danger.

Defuse the bomb and save the citizens.’

Fuck their scenario, why not just tell them to go die?

As he was thinking, a student with orange hair walked over.

“Fucker.”

“Eat shit,” retorted Line.

Mill sat down. “We’re going to die.”

“Yeah I know. That’s the point. That’s why it’s a test, to see if we have the guts to-”

“Have you actually ever died before Line? No?”

“If it’s the pain you’re worried about-”

Mill laughed maniacally, “The pain? Give me pain any old day. I’ll take it. No, it’s death that concerns me. One minute you’re alive, roses are blooming, dogs are barking and then zip. Zilch. Nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

And then some clone wakes up in some grey faucking fortress and takes over your life.”

“It’s not a-”

“Awwh, you’re going to tell me it’s not a clone. That you just die and your soul magically floats over to a castle. And then flesh and bone just magically reform over your soul depending on your ‘Life counters’.

But not the Taner Room. Oh the Taner Room will do it without aaany lives lost. Thank the Mother Below for the Taner Room!”

The girl in front of them challenged him, “But my parents said you wake up fine.”

“Hah!” screamed Mill and pointed at her, “That’s what they want you to think. It’s a conspiracy. They’re all clones. Of course, they’re not going to tell you the truth. All they want are more clones.”

Another boy retorted, “Then why don’t they just kill everybody and clone them all?”

Mill pulled his own hair, “Are you a moron? Why would aaanyone clone some jackass who sits in front of a Screeeeen all day? Or some labourer who faucking lifts logs all day?

NO.

They only clone the people that matter. Us. You can be bloody sure that they have Taner Rooms for all those stuck up nobles. Why? Cause they only want the best.

You enter the Taner Room and touch the bomb. There’s only one thing that’s going to happen.

You die.

That’s all that certain. Death.”

He placed his feet on the chair and giggled, “That’s why they say a Taner Room can only redeemed once. Cause afterwards ya die.

Just die and die … die… die”

Mill kept mumbling ‘die’.

The rest didn’t speak a word.

The woman in the lab coat came in, “Can ArchLot please enter the Taner Room?”

The boy in front stared at his feet.

She repeated the question two more times. Then she called out the girl’s name.

No response.

“Can BorderLine please enter the Taner Room?”

Line stared at the opposite wall in shame. She asked two more times but Line just swallowed and didn’t say a word.

He could feel the dread like a mountain on his shoulders and like a sucker punch in his stomach.

“Can MillLily please enter the Taner Room?

“Fauck off clone!” At this point Mill was hunched over in the fetal position, his hands pulling his hair, rocking back and forth. He kept mumbling ‘die’.

Line grit his teeth and stood up. He was shit scared but he would fight to the bitter end. “Wait, I’ll come.”

Fuck! Why did he say that?

“Then please follow me.”

Mill didn’t even notice, but the other students just looked at him and swallowed.

Shit.

He followed her slowly. The few feet to the Taner Room were walked by some else, not Line. In seconds he reached a grey door.

Room 901

“Please enter.”

Could he change his mind now? Fuck it. He pushed the handle and entered Taner Room.

There was a white table and a white chair. The walls, the floor and the ceiling was white. On the table sat a black parcel.

As he entered, the door closed.

Line sat down and considered the parcel. His fight with his mind was far from over.

What was he really afraid of?

It wasn’t the idea of being a clone. That was just Mill’s paranoid rambling. He knew that was nonsense because of the fear. What he was afraid of was the primeval gut wrenching fear of death. One second you had thoughts, dreams and feelings and then nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

Ok, there was the Abyss technically but that was even worse without a proper funeral.

It was death.

That’s why it was a test. Because in battle, sometimes you had to make the choice between dying right now so you could live better tomorrow. Give up a Life counter to keep the rest of your life.

Was he brave enough to throw himself to death?

No, but he wanted to be.

As his dad had explained Desire was restructuring yourself. He wanted to be brave. He was not going to be a coward, so he braced himself and opened the parcel.

Instinctively, he pushed core through his entire body, preparing it for what would happen.

Then, he peeled the black paper to reveal a box. As he opened the box he found a cube inside.

Each face was split into nine smaller squares. Each of these squares was one of six random colours.

Was this a puzzle?

He tried fiddling with it and managed to rotate one of the faces. Nothing happened. He sighed, the suspense was driving him mad. Was he really supposed to solve this?

He twisted random pieces, rearranging the colours of the square. Nothing happened. Frustrated he banged the cube on the table and swore, “Oh come on, stop wasting my time!”

Then pain.

Skin blistered, bones broke and blood boiled. Unimaginable pain.

Followed by darkness.

Line opened his eyes to a grey light. He was lying on a slab of stone, in a grey room filled with strange markings over.

He sucked in a deep breath and shot up, “I’m…I’m not a clone. I’m still me. Fuck yeah.”

He danced with joy, celebrating his first resurrection. Until he remembered he was butt naked. He donned the first black robe he could grab, his face burning in shame.

The room looked open until he poked his face out and looked out the corridor. Doorways lined the corridor but he couldn’t actually see through them.

Whew! No one saw him.

He straightened his cloak and walked out. All around him he was joined by others popping out of their rooms. The resurrection altar was a castle unto itself, albeit a small castle. Everything was grey, glowed slightly and was covered with strange markings.

From the outside, it would have had towers and crenellated walls. It was hard to go anywhere in the city without seeing one of the grey castles. But inside, the floors were fit with tight corridors leading to a bustling staircase. It was an efficient use of space.

Sandwiched between the altar and a couple of glass skyscrapers was the graduation hall. Walking barefoot, he reached the entrance and got a high five from his dad. “That’s my boy. Fucking first in his class!”

He had the same dark curly hair that Line did as well as a beaded beard. Line’s beard hadn’t grown enough to properly bead it. Otherwise he wore dark mana made armour with chain mail, two short swords on his hip and a spear on his back.

A blue cape without a sigil hung from his back. Line glanced it with pride, it was a sign their Tribe would soon turn to a Clan. His father had already ascended to Program.

Standing nearby, there were others wearing the same armour, minus the cape. His older sister waved one hand at him and with the other blocked a punch from a red haired ten year old. The block didn’t stop her and she released a barrage of attacks all with perfect form.

Line’s smile faltered. It was hard not to be jealous at a genius. Especially when her tested potential indicated she might reach a Level 4 in Strength.

“It’s your turn to babysit her,” said his sister. The girl took it as a sign to begin her attacks on him.

It wasn’t hard to defend them, but it was much harder to do it without hurting her instead. Especially when her height meant she mostly aimed at his crotch.

“Now, now Moon. Is that any way to greet your friends?” tutted his sister.

The girl tilted her head confused and then nodded, “Show no weakness to enemies!”

She continued her barrage of punches, moving ahead relentlessly.

“Moon come here!” shouted a man in dark green armour.

Line grimaced, she showed no sign of stopping. So he used the least amount of core in his arms and grabbed one of her arms and lifted her. He then looped both of her arms, holding her in the air.

“Hiya,” she screamed and slammed her leg into his nether regions.

Line laughed.

Skin and soft fleshy bits was one of the hardest things to Maul. But he was genius of the Border Tribe even if Moon was theoretically better than him. The instant she started aiming down there he had pushed core there.

“This instant!”

Line let go of Moon and she ran to the man. He tugged her along and approached. His hair was orange, the same shade as Mill’s hair and he had an impressive pair of mutton chops.

“I apologise and so does Moon,” he glared at the girl.

She crossed her arms and stuck her tongue out.

“Now listen here…” began the man but she mumbled “Imsorry” and ran off.

Both Line and his sister saluted the man and addressed him, “Sir!”

The Lily’s and Border’s might have been close family friends, with many ties of marriage and friendship between the two Tribes; but respect and face was very important to those who practised Strength for a living.

He nodded curtly at them and then smiled and slammed his hand into Line’s shoulder. It was a friendly pat but Level 2 Strength meant that it felt like being slammed by a brick wall. Line tried not to wince.

“How many points have you reached?” he asked.

“120 points, sir. My mistake, it was 120, its now 135.” He had checked his Screen. Fighting his fears had increased his Stats.

The head of the Lily Tribe nodded appreciatively, “My unruly child is going to have a fair bit of competition when she grows of age, huh? But, where is my son?”

“He was right behind me. He should be coming out soon.”

Soon, however, proved to be an understatement. Hours and hours passed as most of his friends in the combat division came out of the altar. Line managed to change his clothes, have fours slices of ice cream cake and have six spars with Moon (who had been personally affronted that she couldn’t beat Line); before the principal came out.

Only a snoring Moon, the Lily Tribe head and Line remained. Line stopped exercising the core in his body. Most of his body was already Mauled but pushing core through his body, tempered it. This would allow him to hold larger and larger quantities of core.

Mill followed the principal, his head hanging down in shame. He wasn’t wearing a resurrection robe.

He had failed the Taner Room test.

MountLily’s face turned purple as he started berating his son, “You have dishonored me, you worthless cur!”

Line decided now would be a good time to leave.

He waited outside the hall, pondering how his parents would have treated him if he failed the test.

Of course, it didn’t mean death but Mill wouldn’t graduate as a combat student. Knowing the strict standards Mill’s father had meant he was unlikely to ever participate in a battle or ever succeed him as head of the Tribe.

Mill rushed out, his face radiating anger. Line was about to follow him but he felt a hand on his shoulder. It was Mill’s dad.

“I don’t care if you drink beer or Swallow but whatever you do and wherever you go, don’t go to an Underworld parlour.”