Chapter 154: Chapter One Hundred Fifty Five

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.

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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.

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