I was interested in the Perception faculty. I'd never actually been. Callie had gone at least once to do the test, but since she hadn't known about the missions or the information gathering thing, I assumed that part of the faculty was kept separate from the testing grounds. Like the golem battledome was out of the way of the Creation faculty but still nearby. Since Callie didn't bring it up, I decided to ask Celine myself. "How come we haven't heard of this place, since we've been the Perception faculty building?"

I said we despite never having gone because if Callie hadn't noticed it there was no way I'd have seen anything. Her Perception was leagues ahead of mine, and honestly she paid more attention than I did too. I caught a fond smile out of the corner of my eye when I asked that. She knew I'd only brought it up because she was embarrassed to say anything, though I was also legitimately curious.

Celine shrugged. "Like I said, it's something of an open secret. No one really talks about it. The thought is that if you have enough of an interest in Perception to be there, you'll find it. It's not a rule or anything, more of a silent agreement, so I don't care too much about letting you know." Left unsaid was the fact that this was something she used as an advantage. Sharing the information with us like this was a peace offering. Sharing one of her secrets with us because she considered us part of her team.

It was taken in the spirit it was offered. We all appreciated that she was willing to go out on a limb for us, and I made a note to try be more help to Grimmengap. I wasn't comfortable sharing my secret with so many people so quickly, this wasn't even remotely the same thing as what I was keeping from them, and as nice as the gesture was it wasn't enough to convince me to tell them about my ability. Still, it was appreciated and I'd try to pay back the trust as best as I could.

We arrived at the Perception building pretty quickly, and I almost missed it as we were walking by. The building was set back into the trees, and something about the lines of the construction, the shadows, and the way the trees drew the eye made it so that place was really easy to overlook. When we stopped, it took me a second to lay eyes on it, and once I did, I wondered how I had missed it.

The building was, contrary to what the blending effect would imply, not exactly subtle or unremarkable. It wasn't loud or flashy, but the construction was obviously high quality, and there was a kind of dignity to it that made the building pull focus, at least once you were actually looking at it. The front doors were wide and thick, with a heavy frame of light wood carved with pictures of animals like foxes and hawks. Animals known for keen sight, or the ability to vanish. It was a beautifully made door, and I was betting the carpentry Skill of the person who carved it was at least beginner level.

Callie pulled the doors open, flinging them wide so we could all enter, and I noted as we passed the threshold that the wooden doors made no noise as they opened, not even on striking the building. That was an interesting effect. When we stepped inside, we looked around to see a series of comfortable looking couches set on plush carpet, with a nice water feature on each wall. The place looked like a lobby. Since Callie had brought us I was pretty sure this was the testing area.

I cocked my head. "Hey, I figured we would do the missions first. This isn't the information hall, what are we doing here?" I'd been interested in doing the test for a while, and with my Perception at eighty I could probably manage at least the early aspects of whatever it was. I'd expected to have to wait and come back myself though, I could see the others hadn't been expecting to show up her either.

The smile on Callie's face was slightly wicked. "I figured we could all come take the test together. I know Agria hasn't unlocked Perception yet, but Clockwork has, and yours just got a big bump. Plus my own Perception is almost at two hundred, so it'll be interesting to see what I can manage here." Despite the slightly teasing tone, I thought it was nice she wanted to give us the chance to try it out. Even if we would probably end up getting sub par scores it wouldn't do much, and we had the potential to get ranking points daily if we scored well.

I figured based on her excitement that the test was probably much different than the Might stone, and I was looking forward to seeing what they had come up with. We headed up to the counter to sign up for the Perception test and once we got registered I was ushered forward on my own as the others were led away to different entrances. Callie gave me a kiss for luck and told me to have fun, so I knew it wasn't dangerous whatever it was. The faculty member led me over to a door in the back, opened it up, and ushered me into a dark hallway.

The door shut behind me, but before it did I saw a few gleams of metal, and once it shut I stood completely still in the darkness before activating my Seek Hidden skill to see what exactly I was dealing with. I focused on finding the metal glints I'd seen when the door opened, and suddenly, the whole place was full of a red series of lines as Seek Hidden lit up a network of wires strung across the hallway end to end, covered with bells.

It was odd using Seek Hidden in the dark like this, because despite the light in my vision, the glow didn't actually cut the darkness at all. There was no illumination outside the dim red gleam of the wires and bells. Skills were fine in the tests, so I just considered this a good matchup, since obviously Seek Hidden helped a lot with a test like this. I took a step forward, figuring I was supposed to Perceive the wires and avoid the bells.

The second my foot touched the beginning of the flooring beneath the wires though, they started to move. The wires began to roll in gentle waves, tossing the bells about up into the air, though somehow not actually ringing them. When all of them were in motion I realized why this was a Perception test. I was supposed to find the way between the whipping wires. I stepped up, stood in place for a minute, and, with all the my concentration, rolled forward through a gap in the wires.

I came to my feet staggering, putting my feet down to stop, and the second my foot echoed on the ground I felt an impact on my foot. That impact made me stumble forward, and I reacted with every bit of grace I had, doing my best to avoid the wires. Every time I rang a bell, or my feet made a noise, I felt an impact. I was able to dodge one of them once I realized that they targeted whatever one of my limbs made the noise, but I still didn't manage to get more than ten feet. As soon as an impact struck the same place I'd already been hit there was a loud noise, and the test ended.

The lights came on, and I saw that I'd been moving down the hallway towards a door on the other end. As I moved further the wires got thicker, and there were more bells hanging on each one. I heard a snicker and turned to see my girlfriend waiting at the door. She gave me a wide smile. "That's a good color on you." I looked down, and rolled my eyes as I saw the paint that was covering me. It was mostly white, though I had a small splattering of pink on one shoulder. Apparently they used the same color system as the Might stone did.

I raised an eyebrow behind my mask, then grinned widely and bolted forward at her. She squeaked, eyes wide as she realized that I was close enough to grab her while still covered in paint. She shrieked in protest as I wrapped her up in my arms, making sure to get as much paint on her as possible, but the shrieking turned into giggles pretty quickly as she pushed me off. "Alright, alright, I deserved that. Fine, I should have warned you. I just wanted to see how you would do going in cold."

She was wiping the white paint off her with a big smile, and the faculty advisor who had let her in was leaning back against the wall rolling his eyes, clearly not even remotely interested in our flirting. That was fair enough, so I followed them out of the hallway and the advisor passed us both towels. I shrugged as I cleaned myself off. "I knew it wouldn't be anything dangerous or you would have told us, so I didn't mind going in blind. I was pretty interested to see what they would come up with. I think I know how it works but can I have a rundown?"

She chuckled as she wiped the last of the paint off. "Sure. It's not complicated. When you make any noise, the tunnel launches a paint ball at the point of contact, if a paint ball hits the same place a second time your run ends. The further down you go the faster the wires and the more bells. You got hit with a bit of pink, which means you made it into the hundred Perception section of the tunnel, probably with a skill, since I know you're shy of that milestone. Pretty impressive for your first go. I figured it might be fun for everyone to try it. The paint wipes right off so its not too inconvenient and it's kind of fun."

I snickered at that. "I'm not entirely sure that Clockwork is going to agree with you, but fair enough. It was definitely...interesting." It wasn't what I expected for the perception test. I could see how it was a good measuring stick though. With the right amount of perception you could plot the course of the wires based on the sounds, which I probably should have at least tried. Even if your Might wasn't too high, you would be able to react to the paint balls enough to avoid getting hit in the same spot twice. Between that and controlling your footsteps, an obvious feat of stealth, I could see plenty of layers to the test.

Callie eventually left to do her own test, managing to make it to the three hundreds range based on her stealth abilities. I was thoroughly impressed. The others came back, covered in white paint. Jessie had decided to give it a try for fun and without a single point of Perception had completely fallen flat at the beginning. Benny had used his projectile attracting arm, but since two hits in one spot ended the exercise that had actually backfired, much to his chagrin.

All in all Callie had been right, it was a fun thing to do as a group and a good idea for team building. We all wiped off the easily removable paint and made our way toward the information hall with Celine leading the way, and everyone was in a good mood. As we walked towards the building I sidled up next to Callie and put my arm over her shoulder. I'd really needed to relax a bit.