"Altair Oberon Lyrius," a monotone and fake-sounding uncanny voice said out loud.

I sat up on the couch stretched my neck and got up. It had been about two hours since all of this had started and sixteen people had already been inspected. As I walked up the stairway the voice announced another name but I didn't pay attention. I stepped into a small room with a door on each side and a single lamp hanging from the ceiling. Only two doors were opened and I could see a small, old looking lady wave at me from the room to my right. I entered and looked around.

The room was small and packed with things. The walls were lined with shelves. On those shelves were all sorts of things, from trinkets and other junk to book thicker than my arms. In one corner of the room was a small stone platform above which was a floating, black sphere that went up and down in the air a little. It had an almost hypnotizing effect. Extending out from one of the shelves was a desk with one chair in front and one chair behind it. On the desk were a few lit candles and so many documents and papers that one might fear that the whole place would burn down if they caught fire. And behind the desk sat a small woman with curly grey hair that framed her face, so many wrinkles that she looked like she had lived for hundreds of years, a pair of glasses so round and large that it was almost comical and a hat, sitting on her hair more than her head itself with a feather sticking out the top.

"You must be Altair Oberon Lyrius, am I correct?" the woman asked with a cranky voice.

I nodded and took a seat in front of her.

"Alright, I will ask you a few questions and I want you to answer truthfully," the woman said.

I nodded again. She took a piece of paper and a pen, which was sort of surprising in this fantasy world.

"Is Altair Oberon Lyrius your full name?" she asked.

I nodded.

"You go by the name Altair, is that correct?" she asked.

I nodded. Every time I answered she would write something down.

"Why?" she asked.

"Reminds me of my childhood," I responded.

"Age?" she asked, never looking up from the piece of paper.

"Twenty-one," I answered.

"Place of origin?"

"Don't know," I answered, not wanting to give away any information that might lead to the fact that I had been declared a heretic.

Instead of prying the woman just wrote something down and continued.

"Mother's name?"

"Don't remember," I answered.

"Father's name?"

"Don't remember," I repeated.

She just wrote something.

"Former occupation?" she asked.

"I dunno, assassin, spy, rescuer. I did all kinds of things for money," I said.

"Are you a mage?" she asked.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

"Yes," I answered.

"Type of magic?"

"Wood elven, teleportation and thorn conjuration," I answered.

This time she did look up, piercing me with her brown eyes. She had doubt written all across her face and quickly pulled another piece of paper from somewhere beneath some other documents. For a few seconds, she was silent and then just wrote something on the document she had been writing on and put away the other one.

"Age of mana awakening?"

"Five," I answered.

She looked up again, with even more doubt.

"I'm not here for jokes," she said.

"And I'm not joking," I said, annoyed by the situation.

What was so hard to believe about that? Just write down your shit so we can be done with this bullshit!

I already got bored of this all and couldn't wait for this whole: being a member of the church, thing to be over.

She made a tch and wrote the number five on the document.

"Age of wood elven magic awakening?"

"Five."

"Way of acquiring it?"

"Someone used an artefact."

"Age of teleportation magic awakening?"

"Eight."

"Way of acquiring it?"

"During a spar," I answered, getting more and more annoyed with every question she asked.

"Age of thorn conjuration magic awakening?"

"Fourteen."

"Way of acquiring it?"

"From a magical being."

"What type of magical being?" she asked, sounding a little bit annoyed herself now.

"Dryad," I answered rolling my eyes.

"Name?"

"Don't remember," I answered.

In truth, Elvia had forced me to learn and remember her entire name so I did still know it.

I heard another tch from the old lady before she beckoned me to stand up and led me to a small raised platform in the corner which stood in front of a mirror. She told me to stand on it and then got some kind of cylindrical wooden rod out of the shelf. She pulled off one end and pulled out more of the rod which had numbers engraved on it. It seemed to be some kind of measuring staff or something like that. She stuck one end of the staff into a small hole on the platform I stood on and then told me to stand straight.

She was very small, maybe one fifty or so, so she needed me to tell her how tall I was.

"Two fifty-three," I said.

She nodded and wrote it down. She then told me to take off some of my armour and took more and more measurements that I didn't really care about so I just stood there, staring at my reflection in the mirror. Honestly, I did look quite good, at least in my opinion. There was not a single blemish on my face and all the scars that were scattered across my chest and arms didn't make me ugly. The worst scar I had was the deep one on my back that I got from Terror before I reached Elvia. But even that one didn't make me ugly, it had healed nicely due to Elvia's help.

"What gave you that one?" the woman asked, pointing to the scar on my back.

"Dunno, some tiger-like creature with the hind legs and tail of a lizard," I answered.

"A garlmas huh?" the woman whispered as she wrote something down. "Dress yourself and come over here," she said as she walked up to the floating black orb.

I put on the pieces or my hard leather armour I had taken off and joined her at the floating orb.

"Put your hand on it," she said. "Spread your fingers as much as possible as well," she added.

I did as I was told. The orb felt wet and I had the feeling of water brushing against my hand. It reminded me of a fountain I had seen in my past life once where there was an orb with water flowing down it.

"Now relax, let your mana pores open," the lady said.

I did as I was told and closed my eyes to better relax. As soon as I did I felt this weird pull on my hand. Shortly after I heard a plop sound as if a droplet had fallen into a cup of water or something. I opened my eyes and looked at the orb, it had begun to glow a little and I could see particles rising from it. After a few seconds, the particles formed a letter and numbers: N09.

What does that mean?

'No clue, maybe some sort of identification for you?' Ira suggested.

"What's that?" I asked.

"A number to depict your amount of mana... n-o-nine huh? That's the highest I have seen in a few years..." the woman said.

"What's the highest you have seen?" I asked.

"D-o-eight, that's the amount of mana Rudolpho has," the lady answered, sounding disinterested.

"What's the highest possible?" I asked, getting a little intrigued.

As much as I wanted this to be over I also needed to know more about this world if I wanted to make it. And this system was quite good to know how powerful people are since the amount of mana someone has is a good depiction of their strength, at least if their efficiency wasn't utter garbage.

"Triple-a-ten," she answered.

I smiled.

Guess that's my goal then...

'Sure, we'll just come back tomorrow and you'll be there,' Ira said, the sarcasm practically punching me in the face and screaming at me.

"Are we done now?" I asked.

The woman nodded and told me to go outside and through the door one faces when they reach the end of the staircase. She then added that I would get further instructions there.