“Ow!”

The first thing I felt was the pain as my butt slammed on the ground. Where was I? The ground was hard and cold. Which meant that I wasn't in my room anymore.

Cursing lightly, I got up and looked around. It seems I wasn't alone. About 30 to 40 other were around me and making confused faces just like me. They all seemed to be around my age as well. We were in a big hall of some kind. The walls were made of stone and it gave the impression of a medieval setting. To our feet, there were traces of a magic circle slowly fading.

“I welcome you, o heroes!”

The voice of a man rang through the hall and I turned around to see a group of several robed figures. One of them stepped forward and removed their hood. The face of an old man appeared as he smiled and spread his arms.

“Welcome,” he repeated, “to the Kingdom of Asgare!” As everyone stared at him in confusion, he cleared his throat and began to speak.

“Many of you must be very confused right now. Let me enlighten you. As some of you may already suspect, you are not in your original world anymore. We, the royal mages of the kingdom, have summoned you in order to put a stop to the evildoings of the newly emerged demon lord.”

I couldn't help but sigh heavily. This was a very cliched situation indeed. If I hadn't fallen on the ground and hurt myself before, I would think this is a dream.

The old mage continued his explanation but I barely listened. Instead, I looked around and observed my soon-to-be comrades. Many were still confused but here and there I could see someone shaking their head in disbelief and a few people were even covering their faces with their hands. If my guess was right, then they as well knew what was about to come.

“Now!” The voice of the man became enthusiastic. “Let us proceed to measure your mana levels!” He indicated us to follow him out of the big hall and into another room.

While walking, he continued to explain. “Mana is the force within the body. You could also call it the power of the spirit. Each living organism has some mana inside its body. Some have more, some have less. Mana is what enables us to perform magic.”

'So mana is some kind of inner force, like Ki or chakra?' I thought while tilting my head.

“We have arrived.” After opening a double door leading into another big room, he signaled us to stop and went to the middle of the circular room. There was big crystal sphere on a beautifully decorated base.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“Now. Please proceed one at a time and put your hand on the sphere. It will measure your respective mana level.”

A self confident looking boy went first and put his hand on the sphere. It began glowing and after a while, the number 103 appeared.

“Oho!” the old man exclaimed, “103! That is indeed a very high amount of mana!"

With a smug grin, the boy went back into the crowd.

“Next one please!”

This time, a girl stepped forward.

“124! Very good, very good!”

The girl didn't smile but kept maintaining a serious face.

And so it went on. The average amount of mana was about 100 to 120. Just as I was starting to lose interest I noticed the old man going silent.

'What's going on?' I thought and looked at the sphere. The number displayed was-

“78...” the old man murmured. The boy, which was standing before him, had a shocked look on his face. I could see a few boys and girls grinning and giving him a pitiful glance. The old mage quickly regained his composure and exclaimed, “W-Well, it is still higher than the average amount of a human. With enough training, I am sure you will be able to grow!”

The boy made a slightly dejected face. I remembered a few of the novels I read. A lone character, who seemingly had absurdly low stats compared to his fellow world travelers was almost guaranteed to become the OP main character instead. Either that or he was destined to die first. I made a mental note to speak to him later. But for now, it was finally my turn.

I stepped forward and put my hand on the sphere. It felt strangely warm. As with the others, it started to glow intensely and after a while the light dimmed.

I held my breath as the numbers began to form.

…

…

“69...”

…

What.

69…

My score was even lower than that of the boy from before!?

I could hear someone burst into laughter. My face went red. The old man said something but I didn't hear it. I simply went back and stared at the ground. The boy with the smug face wasn't even hiding his laughter. 'Goddammit, shut up! It's not like I can help it!' I thought.

Someone patted me on my shoulder. It was the boy who went before me. I could sense a weird feeling of camaraderie.