They arrived in a room after a short walk. The room had two wooden chairs placed opposite of each other with a table in between. There were several scrolls and weird objects on the table.

Just as Alz wanted to take a closer look, the room start to dim. The librarian looked towards one of the lamps in the room. The flame in the lamp was flickering and looked like it was about to extinguish at any moment.

The lamp had a simple design, made by gouging a small hole on a piece of rock. The hole was filled with tree sap extracted from the forest and ignited to produce a flame. These lamps were not commonly used in the tribe due to the limited supply of tree sap and the time-consuming extraction process of it.

Furthermore, the sharp eyesight and strong hearing the elves possessed was sufficient for them to navigate in most areas even without, hence there wasn't much need for it outside.

However, the library was an exception to this. There were empty lamps placed around most parts of the library to facilitate reading in the library. It was one thing to navigate around in the dark and another to read in it after all, the latter requiring much more light to engage in comfortably.

Usually, only one lamp was lit at the reading area of the library and it was part of the managing librarian's duties to refill it when it began to flicker.

Due to the frequent need to read materials in the library, all the librarians were given access to the supply of tree sap in the village. As such, they usually always had some on hand, not to mention now when they knew that this lamp had to be prepared for the tests.

The librarian quickly walked up to the fire and blew it out, proceeding to refill the sap within and re-igniting the lamp. He only took several seconds for the entire process and did it with extremely fluid motions, clearly showing his experience in doing this.

Alz observed the entire process with interest as it was his first time seeing anything like this. The only other time he had ever seen fire was the large fires used for preparing meat and he hadn't known of fire being used like this before.

After he reignited the lamp, the librarian pointed to one of the chairs said to Alz in a friendly voice, “Go take a seat." while he walked over to the other seat.

Alz nodded stiffly and walked over to the chair in rigid motions. His mother had performed extremely well for her tests and he did not want to disappoint her. Alz knew that his mother's earlier words were actually directed that him, wanted to ease some of the pressure he felt, but that was not what he wanted. He wanted her to be proud of her.

"I can do this!" his eyes started to burn with a strong resolve as he reaffirmed his desire to perform well.

While Alz was organising his thoughts, the librarian was busy checking over the apparatus and setting them up for the test. After he had confirmed that there no problems with the apparatus, he moved a wooden object on the table in front of him.

The object was a wooden funnel held up by a stand, resembling the top half of an hourglass with an open top. There was a wooden plate placed beneath the opening which had sand on it. The librarian blocked the funnel's opening with an object that was on the table and emptied the plate into the funnel.

"Your time will run out when all the sand has fallen onto the plate.” The librarian explained to Alz while he was setting it up.

Next, the librarian proceeded to pick up each of the objects on the table as he began to explain how the test would work, "These objects are puzzles and this one will be considered as solved when ......"

The weird objects on the table were puzzles while the scrolls contained questions which Alz was supposed write the solutions to. There was an empty scroll and a fang-tipped 'pen' provided for him to carve the answers to the questions to.

The librarian patiently demonstrated how each puzzle worked and what constituted as being solved for each of the puzzles, making sure that Alz understood how each puzzle worked before he moved on.

The table had a total of twelve problems which consisted of six puzzles and six scrolls.

“Tell me when you are ready.” the librarian voiced out.

Alz closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths before turning to the librarian and nodding.

“You may begin.” seeing this, the librarian announced as he removed the stopper from the opening, allowing the sand to flow through.

At the announcement, Alz immediately grabbed the nearest puzzles and started solving it. He wanted to finish all the object puzzles first while their concepts remained fresh in his mind. He focused entirely on the puzzle before him and rapidly solved it, moving on to the next one.

The librarian revealed a look of surprise when he saw how fast Alz solved his first puzzle, but his expression quickly returned to normal as it flashed in his mind that luck probably played a big part on it.

However, soon, he couldn't continue sitting still as he witnessed Alz solving more and more puzzles without dropping his pace, proceeding to solve the final puzzle before even a third of the sands had fallen. After which, he moved on to the word problems, starting to unravel a scroll on the table.

Time steadily went by, accompanied by falling grains of sand. When about half the sands had fallen, Alz finally looked up from the scroll with a smile on his face. However, he did not find the librarian on the opposite seat as he had expected.

He was slightly puzzled but suddenly, he heard breathing sounds from behind and slowly turned his head around, almost jumping off his seat at the sight that entered his eyes. Thankfully, he managed to suppress it as it would have been bad if he really did so as the librarian was breathing heavily and staring at Alz wide open eyes from right behind him.

The librarian had, at some point in time, left his seat and was standing right behind Alz. In truth, he had been here since Alz was solving his third written problem as he could not stifle the urge to check on Alz's answers.

First, he quietly picked up each of the puzzles and observed them closely, confirming that they were solved. Then, he moved behind Alz and looked at his answer script from over his shoulders. Under normal circumstances, Alz would have been able to notice his movements but he had been too focused on the test this time.

Stolen novel; please report.

The librarian was feeling extreme shock and disbelief as he looked at the child that sat before him but suddenly, his expression froze and slowly turned into one of suspicion as a thought ran through his mind.

This thought was something which he would have never believed had it been someone else who told him, rather, he would probably be thrown in a fit of rage and begin fighting with said elf. Yet, it was the only possibility he could think of now. He doubted Tia.

Alz could be said to have a special position among the elves being tested in this batch due to his relationship with Tia and the fact of the matter was that three librarians were mobilised for the evaluations this time, whether directly or indirectly, because of him.

Furthermore, the two-week homestay period had just ended, and Tia was one of the few elves that had access to this information beforehand. His mind entered a state of turmoil as his thoughts began to conflict.

On one hand, he did not want to cast doubt on Tia but Alz's results were simply too unbelievable for him to accept. It had exceeded his very understanding of the tests by far and he had no choice but to suspect her. Right as his mind was about to snap and start questioning Alz, an idea popped up in his head.

“Well done Alz, you can take a short break before we proceed with the second part.” the librarian calmed his raging emotions and said to Alz, before he started to walk out of the room.

While he was walking out of the room, his impatience started to overcome him and he began to brisk walk, eventually breaking out into a short sprint when he was longer in sight.

The librarian was currently heading towards the problem storage room in the library. There were many puzzles and problems that were kept in the library, far more than the twelve that were used for the test this round.

After all, if the tests were always the same, the contents would leak no matter how much they tried to keep it under wraps. The tribe might have prohibited the spreading of the word on these tests, but elves were only elves, there were times when they were careless and made mistakes.

Instead, there was a large pool of specially designed problems prepared in each of the libraries and each time these tests came up, the librarians would gather and randomly pick out 12 problems from the storage room to be used in the test.

Hence, the librarian had the thought, "What if I try with a different set of 12 problems?" this was the 'second part' that he was referring to earlier, a part he made up.

With that said, he actually couldn't have been blamed for having doubts towards Alz's results simply because of how absurd they truly were. Anyone who knew about the history behind the tests would have doubted them.

For the entire history since the tribe's founding, the best result ever recorded was by an elf who had solved 10 of the problems by the time all the sands had fallen, and that elf was already hailed as the greatest genius of the tribe back then.

Given this, it was not difficult to see why he couldn't maintain his composure when face with Alz's results, even proceeding to suspect Tia whom he greatly respected and would have never thought of doubting before this.

Meanwhile, Alz had no way of knowing any of this. He silently closed his eyes and began to rest as he prepared his mind for the 'second round' that was coming. At this point, he had truly been thinking that his results were average and there was a second round.

After all, all the previous elves took about 45 minutes for their tests earlier and barely half of that had passed now, so it made sense to him that there was a second part. In addition, there had simply been no reason for him to doubt the librarian's words at this point in time.

About two minutes later, the librarian to the room panting, barely maintaining his grip on the 12 new problems in his arms. He hurriedly ran to the table and sprawled his chest on the table, placing the problems down.

Immediately after this, he refilled the funnel and immediately removed the stopper without waiting for Alz to react.

 “You can start now.” he announced as he removed from the stopper without giving Alz any time to prepare.

Alz was beginning to suspect something when he looked at the librarian's condition as he returned, but his thoughts were quickly interrupted by the sudden announcement. He felt slightly puzzled but quickly began to concentrate and proceeded with the test calmly.

With the previous experience, his mind was already warmed up and he began to solve the problems one by one with frightening concentration. His pace far exceeded that of the previous test and by the time a third of the sands had fallen, he was already on his eleventh problem.

This time, the librarian was truly speechless. There was no longer any doubt with the results from the previous test. Rather, they might have even been undermining Alz's true potential. He stared dumbfounded at Alz as while closely observing him, trying to figure out what was going on in his head.

Memories of his own mental evaluations started floating into his mind. To this date, he still remembered the pride he felt when he first learnt of how good his result of solving 7 problems were.

He had been selected as a librarian candidate back then in light of his results and prematurely ended his trials, paving his way towards obtaining the well-respected position of a librarian he currently held. Yet, all of the pride he had crumbled to pieces in the face of this elf who sat before him, of this young elf who had barely reached the tender age of ten.

The librarian heaved a heavy sigh as he looked at Alz calmly solving his final problem without any signs struggling. However, he also felt joy welling up from the depths of his heart as he watched over this historic moment, as he felt like the future of the tribe was currently reflected in his eyes.

“Good job Alz! you did really, really well!” the librarian revealed a sincere, contented smile as he congratulated Alz for his performance.

There was also a clear change towards his own attitude towards Alz. Previously, he had been especially kind and patient towards Alz out of reverence towards Tia, but now he genuinely respected Alz for who he was.

“Lets go back and announce the good news!” the librarian felt excitement rush over him and he didn't want to waste a single second in returning to announce Alz's historic achievement.

“Thank you." Alz politely thanked the librarian for his praise with a wide smile on his face. Alz still did not know he fared compared to the rest, but with how excited the librarian looked, he was confident that he would not disappoint Tia with his results, putting him in a good mood.

The librarian led Alz back with a spring in his steps and soon after, they were almost reaching the waiting room when the librarian abruptly stopped moving forward.

Cold sweat started forming on his forehead as he suddenly recalled something important, something he had failed to account for. Alz almost bumped on him but manage to steady his posture and stopped while looking at the librarian with confusion written all over his face.

“A-Alz… listen… if anyone asks, can you say that you only did one test?” The librarian stammered slightly at the start and paused a few times midway as he asked Alz in a pleading voice.

He had just remembered the problems that would arise if he announced Alz's results honestly. He would definitely be questioned on why he treated Alz unfairly and made him go through two tests and he would be hard pressed to justify his actions.

His colleagues were not stupid, they would naturally be able to guess the reason he did it which would have been bad for him in many ways. Right now, only about 40 minutes had passed since they left the room and it would have been much easier to explain it as Alz solving only one test, but Alz had to agree with the story.

After Alz heard this, he finally connected the dots in head and stared coldly at the librarian. He had already noticed that something was amiss when the librarian returned panting the second time. Now, he finally knew what was going on.

He felt rage rising up in him when he realised that the librarian before him was doubting his mother's integrity, something he could not forgive. However, a larger part of him was puzzled at the reason behind his actions. He saw no benefit for the librarian in doing so as he had forced himself into a dead end the moment he tested Alz a second time.

“I only did one test.” Alz calmed his anger and replied, thinking back to the kind and friendly attitude the librarian had shown him. The actions also did not seem to be malicious, so he decided to let it slide for now.

The librarian wiped off his sweat and heaved a sigh of relief at Alz words, looking at Alz with a wider smile than before.

“Let's go back in! You have achieved amazing results! Your mother will surely be proud of you!” the librarian said as he returned to the waiting room.