章 11: The Fool
Chen Hua followed the youth from the apothecary association back to the mechanics hall. Walking through the main doors he began to look around. Spotting the person over by the arrays counter he walked over.
「Give me my array master badge」
「I'm sorry sir, who are you?」
「None of your business, I just need an array master badge so hand it over.」
「I'm sorry but I cannot just give you a badge if you wish to obtain one you can either take the test or take the test. If you are only here to make trouble then I must ask you to leave or I will call the guards here to drag you away.」
「Fine then, I will prove to you My talent in arrays Let me take the test.」
「There are two options the first is taking the test immediately on a...」
「Shut up, I don't care, just give me the test.」
「Very well then, I will find an array master to give you the test they can ask for up to 10 low-grade spirit stones per test. Please leave a deposit of the 10 low-grade spirit stones here and we will return the excess ones to you once your test is complete.」
「10 spirit stones! That's excessive, daylight robbery! Extortion! Lower the price to 1」
「I'm sorry for your inconvenience, I will now call over the guards to apprehend you for making trouble here at the arrays counter.」
「Wait, wait, I'll pay...」
「Thank you for your patronage, I will now go find an array master to administer your test. Please wait over there in those seats, if you do not want to wait there then renting a private room will be one low-grade spirit stone per hour.」
「Extortion! Who are you to say that it is one low-grade spirit stone an hour! The sign behind you clearly states that it costs one low-grade spirit stone for every three hours!」
「Sorry to inconvenience you but the price seems to have increased to two low-grade spirit stones an hour.」
-
「Excuse me, can I rent a private room for 6 hours?」
「Sure, that will be 2 low-grade spirit stones.」
「Thank you...」
-
「Hey, why does this commoner get to rent a room for one low-grade spirit stone for three hours, you told me that it was two per hour.」
「I don't recall saying that... I think I said that it was three low-grade spirit stones an hour... Ah! no, my bad, I remember now, the price was increased to five low-grade spirit stones an hour.」
「Where is the manager, I want you to be fired for extortion!」
「I'm sorry, the manager is currently unavailable and is helping to strengthen the city defences for the upcoming beast tide.」
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Watching from the back room the manager was chuckling at the stupidity of the fool over at the counter. The vice manager began to double over and laugh hysterically for some unknown reason... At this time almost everyone in the Hall was staring at the fool and the clerk.
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「I'm sorry, the manager has just told me that the price for taking the array master test had increased to a maximum of fifteen spirit stones. I must ask that you add five more to your deposit or your request will be taken down.」
「Fine then, take it down!」
「Very well then, your request will be removed and your deposit confiscated. I will also add you to the Hall's permanent blacklist.」
「Wait, fine I will add to the deposit, here, here.」
-
Walking over to the request board, Chen Hua grabbed the request and brought it to the array counter
「Hello, may I accept this request?」
「Yes, good luck, I there is also a gift from the hall to you included in the reward as well.」
「Thank you.」
「Hey, you over there, are you the best me who put up this request?」
「How dare you call me 'hey you'. Call me Xiao Cao !」
「pffft! 肏 (Cao) right?」
-
By this time even the manager was doubled over laughing with tears streaming down his face. The vice manager began to roll about on the ground howling with laughter
-
「Do you have a problem with my name?」
「... no... 」
「Then why were you looking for me?」
「I have accepted your request and will administer your... array master... test.」
「You? Do you think a kid like you can become an array master? Well, it is impossible because you are younger than me. Stop messing with me and go get the one who is actually testing me.」
「Fail. I will charge a full 15 low-grade spirit stones pay up if you wish to retake the test.」
「Sir as you have failed once the price has increased to twenty low-grade spirit stones or two mid-grade spirit stones.」
「Why did you fail me! I haven't even taken the test yet!」
「You did not want to take the test when I had already accepted your request and therefore you have failed the test automatically.」
「You two are in cahoots with each other! When did I say that I did not want to take the test.」
「You said that you did not want to take the test when it was administered by an array master younger than you.」
If you will not pay I will have the guards drag you out of here and put you on the permanent blacklist.」
「Fine, this is blackmail! here!, Can I take the test now?」
「Yes
Are you still willing to accept his request?」
「Yes please have someone send him to one of the back rooms I will just be a few minutes to prepare.」
---
In the back, a highly annoyed staff member was walking through the halls leading an extreme arrogant idiot towards a random room. Opening a random door a crack they saw two dishevelled people rolling about with tears streaming down their faces slapping the ground in a fit of laughter.
「Manager, Vice manager, excuse me, I haven't seen a thing.」
The staff member closes the door and silently moves on to another room.
---
「This test will be for the apprentice array master right?」
「Yes. This is only for the apprentice array master certification. He will probably want to move on to the one-star test if he manages to get past this stage.」
「Well, we can not take inform him of the different levels until he comes back out so we could extort s bit more... here are 10 of the spirit stones, do not tell him I gave these to you.」
「Sure thing.」
-
「First things first, list 3 basic arrays.」
「Easy, there's the float array, heat array, and the fire array.」
「Good job, 1 out of three correct! The proper names for the other two arrays are the anti-gravitational array, which is an intermediate or advanced array and the small flame array. Try again using different ones or I will fail you」
「Not fair, fine... There is the small light array, the small water array, and the small freezing array.」
「It is called the small illumination array, but good enough. Now for the next part, make one of the arrays you have stated.」
「Easy!」
「You have three tries」
Three minutes later...
「Fail! Out of the many errors you have made, excluding the placement of the nodes one of the most important errors you have made was your timing. Instead of taking your time like you should have done you used improper timing when connecting the nodes causing there to be an instability within the array causing it to fail and collapse, had there been more energy involved in this array a large explosion could have occurred. Try again」
Ten Minutes Later...
「Failed again, although you did not rush you have improperly placed most of the nodes, you have only placed the first, third, fourth, and seventh nodes in the correct positions. You are even missing a few here and there; of course, you could alter the layout to use fewer nodes but you are not at that level yet, only pinnacle 2-star or 3-star array masters can do that.」
「There are different levels to array masters?」
「Of course there are, just like any other profession. Some start out at the mortal level like blacksmithing and progress into apprentice level, one star, two-star, and so on, while others directly start at the apprentice level such as an apothecary, or array master, and yes, you are taking the apprentice level array master test. This is the easiest of all the tests and the difficulty increases drastically for the other stages. Although the difficulty does not change that much in the first three stages because it covers all of the foundational basics, it will begin to increase at an exponential rate the further you go.」
「Not Fair! I thought that I was taking the array master test! What nonsensical thing is this!」
「Judging by the fact that you have already failed one test before it even started and are about to fail another I do not think that you would have the qualifications to become a true array master or even an apprentice. Remember, you only have one try left.」
「One try? How much would it cost to increase the number of chances I have?」
「Well, you have already passed the first part of the test so if you re-take the test with me you can skip over that part of the test. For every extra chance I will charge 5 mid-grade spirit stones and for every chance that you purchase I will increase the price by 5 mid-grade spirit stones.」
「This is extortion! Can you even do that? I'll report you to the manager!」
「These are the rules for taking the test, See, Here it says that an array master can fully control the contents of the test as long at it is fair in the sense of level. The array master administering the test can only charge a maxi... Hold on one moment, please... There we go, The array master administering the test can charge however much they want during the test.」
「What do you mean by that? You have clearly just crossed it off and changed it! I can clearly see that it says than an array master can only charge 10 low-grade spirit stones at most!」
「What do you mean I was just confused as you which is why I had to take a second look at it, I was told that I could charge as much as I wanted for the test and the array master that administered my test was also told that... It is probably just a new rule and they have not had the time to change out the rule books so they just crossed it out and wrote it in.」
「Crossing it out and writing it into all the rule books would take more time and effort than just re-issuing them!」
「Reminder you only have around 2 hours left before I fail you. You also only have one more chance. Remember that a chance will cost 5 mid-grade spirit stones increasing by 5 each time you buy a chance and an extra hour will cost 10 mid-grade spirit stones and the price will increase by 10 for every hour you buy.」
「Almost all my allowance for the past half-year has been used on you guys! Can you at least give me a discount?」
「You know the rules, there are to be no exceptions no matter what, not even the manager can break the rules.」
「You have clearly broken the rules by changing them!」
「Do the rules state anything about me, the person administering your test, not being able to change them?」
「So you did change them!」
「I don not recall changing the rules in any way.」
「Then why was that line in the rule book crossed out and changed?」
「I don't know, maybe they wanted to change the rules and did not have the budget to reissue all of the books.」
「All of the books are digital! How would there not be enough of a budget to reissue them! Also, Why is your excuse different from last time!」
「Fail, You are out of time and I am no longer giving you the chance to buy more chances or time.」
クリエイターの想い 
UndyingOldGeezer
UndyingOldGeezer Just a small chapter for the heck of it