The facility on the inside looked exactly like it did on the outside.
Which is to say it looked like a warehouse that had been given a job it wasn't entirely qualified for. The entrance hall was huge and stone floored with high ceilings and the kind of lighting that came from magical sources mounted along the walls, There was tons of desks along one side staffed by people in what looked like official guild colours and a set of large double doors at the far end that were closed. The energy of these doors was shaking the room and they looked like they stayed closed until someone decided you were allowed to walk through them.
I looked around.
There was a huge crowd of candidates standing around trying to look like they weren't nervous, even though they totally were.
And.
Seph was already inside.
He was standing near the far wall with his arms crossed and his chin doing its thing. He just stood there, talking to nobody, needing nobody,, communicating through posture alone that he had already assessed this room and deemed everyone beneath him.
I walked up to the nearest desk.
The man behind it was maybe in his early thirties, He looked up, ran his eyes over me the way everyone else did. Looked at my cup, my clothes and made a small note somewhere inside himself and reached out a hand.
"Registration card?" he asked
I handed it over.
He looked at it.
Then he looked at me.
Then back at the card.
"This is a provisional card boy..." he said.
"Yes."
"Provisional cards are issued pending Guild Master review. They don't grant access to the evaluation phases.You need a confirmed registration to enter."
I took the card back.
Behind me I could feel Sable going very still in a specific way that I was starting to recognise as her being aware of something she hadn't mentioned yet.
"Right," I said. I looked at the card. Then I looked at him. "Is there someone else I can speak to?"
"The policy is—"
"I understand the policy."
He held my gaze for a moment with the expression of someone deciding whether this was worth the effort. Then he pushed back his chair and walked to the desk behind him where an older woman was working through a stack of papers with the focused intensity of someone who did not want to be interrupted.
She got interrupted anyway.
He leaned down and said something quietly. She didn't look up. He said something else and held out the card.
She took it without looking and glanced at it.
She went completely still.
She looked up.
Then.
She looked at me.
She stood up.
"Where did you get this!" she said.
Not aggressive.
Just very direct.
The kind of direct that meant the answer mattered.
"Caldenmere Adventurers Guild," I said.
"Registration counter. Yesterday."
She looked at the card again. At the stamp specifically.
"SO YOU ARE THE ONE WHO BROKE THE STONE!"
"I prefer turned red but sure."
She stared at me for another second. Then she straightened up, handed the card back to me with both hands the way you hand something back when you've realised it's more important than you initially treated it, and said to the man beside her, "Process him through immediately . Full candidate status. Flag it for the Guild Master."
"But the provisional—" he said.
"Flag it for the Guild Master," she said again, in the tone of someone who did not want to repeat themselves.
He processed me through.
I collected my candidate band and grabbed this strip of pale cloth with a registration number on it and put it around my wrist. I turned back to find Sable standing exactly where I had left her, with the expression of someone who had known this was going to happen, and had chosen not to say so.
"You knew," I said.
"I had a reasonable idea," she said.
"How big is this evaluation?"
She held her breathe for a moment.
She looked at the double doors at the end of the hall. Then back at me.
"The Royal Gauntlet evaluation runs once a year. It's open to any registered candidate in the kingdom. The evaluation tests a user's ability, combat, magic output and survivability. Candidates who complete all phases get full guild classification and a rank assignment. The top two to around six ish candidate winners from each kingdom's Royal Gauntlet go on to compete in the The Hollowcrown Tournament. That tournament runs every three years, giving enough time to gather the strongest candidates from every kingdom. The previous Hollowcrown Tournament winner will also be there, defending their title. The winner who comes out on top becomes our greatest hope against the Demon Lord. Every kingdom runs their own Gauntlet for exactly that reason. We need the best people we can find before he returns."
"It's held in the Royal Gauntlet Stadium."
I looked at her.
"The stadium?" I said.
"Yes."
"How big is this Royal stadium?"
Another pause
"Forty thousand capacity," she said.
"It's usually full for evaluation . People come from across the world to attend."
I stood with that for a moment.
"You couldn't you have mentioned this at any point between the guild and here???"
"You seemed like you were handling things."
She said with a soft tone..
"I was handling things because I thought I was walking into a room with some tests in it."
"And now you're walking into a stadium," she said,
"You'll handle it."
Then.
I looked at the double doors.
I looked at my candidate band.
I looked at my pathetic excuse for a cup.
"Oracle," I said quietly.
"Yes."
"Forty thousand people."
"That is correct."
"Watching me??"
"Watching all the candidates. But given the red stone incident, there is a reasonable probability that a portion of the crowd will be specifically aware of you before you enter the arena."
"Great..."
I was not happy.
From across the room without turning his head, Seph spoke. He had been close enough to hear all of it.
"Still time to leave,"'
He said loudly.
"Nobody would blame you. Not everyone is built for this kind of stage."
He finally turned his head, just slightly.
"Some people are better off suited to smaller venues. Alleys, for instance."
I ignored most of what he said.
The room had gone a bit quieter around us.
I looked at him.
"Thanks for the advice!" I said.
I quickly turned back to the double doors.
A facility official at the front of the room called out across the crowd of candidates.
"First phase candidates, please make your way to the staging corridor. The Royal Gauntlet evaluation will begin in fifteen minutes."
The doors slammed opened and the room shook.
Beyond them Iit looked like a five kilometre long stone corridor stretched forward and at the far end was a massive gate. Past the gate. You could just hear the faint murmur of a crowd that was already there and already waiting.
"WAIT THE EVALUTION IS TODAY!?"
"Today's your lucky day"
Sable laughed a bit
"You're going to be fine."