They were trying to make the Court of the Young sound grand and majestic, but I could see through their misdirections. There was very little real power here; the most significant power you had was your potential for the future.

The Court of the Young barely had any political power and was mainly used for people to satisfy their political machinations and educate themselves for the future. After the class, there were more tests to see if you had learned what was being taught, and I passed those with flying colors.

There were only two things left: one was a test to see if I had any restricted or banned things on my achievement page, and then the interview. Ferdinand dropped me off at the testing facility and said that he would go and organize the interview so I could get out of here as soon as possible. I was quite thankful to him as he seemed quite genuine and did his work with the utmost professionalism.

After he left, I needed to wait a few minutes before I was called into the testing room. Here, I saw a short, quiet-looking woman who was setting up a device that looked like a dentist chair. She didn't greet me or anything, just pointed to the chair.

I didn’t mind her attitude; anyone could have a bad day. After I sat, it took a few more minutes before she spoke. "OK, everything is ready now. I just need you to verbally confirm that you accept a full reading of your achievement page." She was waiting expectantly, but that's not what Ferdinand said. This wasn't supposed to be a full reading. "I think there’s been a mistake. I’m not supposed to have a full reading," I said.

That made her mad. "What are you, an idiot? Do you think that I do not know my own job? Now confirm it or I will kick you out and we'll see how you like not being able to pass and what consequences that brings." I believe she expected me to be scared, but I wasn’t. I was getting a bit mad. "Now listen here, I will give you only one chance to do your job properly." My answer didn't please her, and I wondered if she would double down or back off. I didn’t need to wait long. She doubled down.

"Oh, I’ll show you. No one threatens me." I saw as she went to press some kind of button and I had seen way too many horror movies not to know what came next. I immediately shifted my hands up and away from the hand rests and quickly moved my upper body and head as far away from the headrest as possible.

My instincts were correct as I found my legs bound. But my upper body and hands were free and that scared the tester. She tried to get away, but I was able to grab her and pull her to me. She tried to escape but I didn't let her.

I wasn’t stupid enough to hurt her, but I was willing to just sit back and hold her tight so she couldn’t do anything with the device I was still unable to break free from. At first, she was cursing, but when I wasn’t talking back or hurting her, she started to understand what was going on and started to plead with me instead.

I wasn’t listening and eventually, she stopped, but it still took her about half an hour before she knew that she couldn’t convince me of anything and another half an hour before Ferdinand came through the door with quite a few guards following him.

I covered the tester's mouth so she couldn’t speak first. "What is the meaning of this, Rich? Let her go immediately," Ferdinand ordered, but I didn’t do so. "I’m sorry, can I please explain myself before I do so?" Ferdinand and the guards were conflicted, but I guess my calm demeanor and seemingly unworried expression convinced him, and he indicated for me to continue.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

"The person I currently restrain asked me to verbally confirm if I wanted the full reading. I remembered that you explained that I needed a reading to see if I had any banned stuff, so I declined and asked for that instead. She got quite confrontational and tried to forcibly restrain me, which I promptly reciprocated."

After that, I was ordered to release her, which I did, giving her a chance to tell her side of the story, which was, of course, completely different from mine. But I could see that she was quite worried, and I soon understood why. Someone came to this room who was thoroughly annoyed and almost like a video playback showed what had exactly happened in this room.

A new tester was brought in after they profusely apologized to me. During the testing, Ferdinand explained to me what was going on. Apparently, there was more political maneuvering than I had expected, and having the complete information of a person's achievement page was worth quite a lot of favors and money.

Basically, this happened from time to time when someone promising came along, so they tried to gain an upper hand over them. I felt that the interview after that was a lot less invasive than I originally expected. I guess they were feeling quite embarrassed about the situation that happened. Which I was actually now quite glad that had occurred.

I still needed to stay the entire night here. There was also some kind of a night inspection as there actually seemed to be curses in this world that could be triggered during the night, and apparently, the room I was sleeping in was built so it could test all the known curses that might turn me into a bloodthirsty monster.

I passed the test with flying colors. The bed was also extremely soft and comfortable to sleep in. The next morning, I received a few more things like a bank account token and access stones so I could go to the headquarters whenever I wanted to. I would also receive a stipend every month for being a part of the Court of the Young.

This time, I returned through the residential district. It didn’t take long until the pristine streets turned into more worn-out and dirty-looking ones. Houses here were also a bit more rundown, but I wouldn’t say that it would be a bad place to live.

But you could obviously tell that people didn’t make enough money that they could afford constantly keeping up with the maintenance of their buildings and surroundings. Alleyways were also filled with people that lived in worse conditions, but it didn't take long to figure out that most of them were refugees escaping from war or other disasters.

I wondered why people wouldn’t be sleeping in the empty houses, and there were a lot of them, but I soon saw some guards kicking people out and from context, I figured that they hadn’t paid their rent. So I guess the owners of the buildings would rather have empty buildings than allow people to stay in them who couldn't pay their rent.

I guess that’s fair enough, but I would accept even a fraction of rent rather than letting the building stay empty. A house that isn't being lived in doesn't last as long as a house that has someone living in it, so I guess they will regret that down the line.

This city truly was huge, so I guess you could find every living situation that's possible, around here. It also seems that in the residential district there was a lot more organized crime, but I was left alone, probably because no one wanted to pick a fight with someone like me.

I could see gang markings almost everywhere, but those lessened when I was closer to the commercial area. When I made it back to our compound, I headed to my room where I took out the knife that had the shatter enchantment and started to examine it.

Enchantments seemed to be like a language that, when energy passes through it, it creates a certain effect. It was fascinating to see how this enchantments was made as the symbols were made from energy that was crystallized into specific shapes.

Next, I took out a knife that had +25 to all three basic stats that were added using runes. These were specific symbols that were carved into the metal and then filled with monster core paste. If you insert energy into it and you need to do it constantly, you will get a direct benefit back to yourself. I am certain that you could use it to empower the item itself using different runes, but this knife only boosted your stat points.

I took out my rabbit foot necklace and began to scrutinize it. After a while, I discerned a faint pattern resembling a runic symbol. It was entirely different, of course, but I surmised that all the runes might have been transcribed from similar items, like my rabbit foot necklace.

Once I had finished examining it, I was surprised to receive a notification. It appeared that simply observing and understanding the pattern had triggered a new skill called beginner weapon upgrading.