Ron silently sulked as the weird man nodded to him with a slight smirk before literally vanishing. Honestly, if he hadn't been so self-depressed at that moment, Ron might have gaped at the sight.

Silently crying in the safety of his own mind about being forced to admit that he was, indeed, not the old Ron anymore, he walked forward and into the rotting shack. There was nobody inside save for a very... ancient... lady staring at a crystal ball with a bored expression.

When Ron entered, the old lady looked up, her abyssal and hollow eyes staring straight into Ron's, giving him the impression that she was looking directly at his soul.

He was definitely creeped out, but he forced the shivers that wanted to shake his body to disappear through sheer force of will, then, he put on an awkward smile.

"So you're the early brat Krakkus sent over. Come here and don't waste my time." She said, her voice sharp and concise. Ron obediently did as told and came up to the woman, standing in front of her with the crystal ball between them.

"Good. Now put your hands on the ball..." She said, her voice strangely enchanting. Ron's eyes turned unfocused as he did as he was told.

The old lady silently waited and stared as Ron calmly kept his hands on the ball, her eyebrows gradually rising. Finally, after almost an entire minute, Ron yanked away his hands from the crystal ball, groaning as he held his head in his hands.

"Grade 5 talent? And a peak one at that? Very impressive. I suppose you won't have much trouble getting recruited, then." The old hag murmured to herself. Never before had she seen such a high talent, but even then, it failed to arouse her interest.

After all, while talent was definitely important for magi, it also wasn't everything. Grade 1 talents could still rise to prominence with luck and resources, after all.

Continuing with the test, she told the still misty-eyes young girl to tell her what she saw within the crystal ball. The child peered into it, squinted a bit and then spoke, her voice flat and somewhat strange.

"I can see a lot of red motes in a huge circle at the center, and there's also a big ring all around it colored black. I can also see some brown particles floating around the very edges."

"Hm. Good, the test is over." The old woman said as she snapped her finger. Ron blinked once, then twice, and then her eyes shot up as she looked around in a panic, obviously confused.

"Calm your tits, brat. You just did your test. You're a grade 5 talent with very good affinity with both the shadow and fire element, as well as a minor affinity with the earth. You're quite the catch, I'll admit." Ron could only stare at the old woman in confusion as she spoke.

Test? He took a test? When? All he remembered was speaking to the hag, and then suddenly, she said the test was over? What the hell?

Then, insecurities began to crop up. He knew very little about stuff related to magi, and to be honest, he hadn't even known affinities were a thing. "Um... May I ask if grade 5 is good or bad?" He asked nervously.

"It's the highest talent I've seen throughout my entire career." The lady curtly answered as she took out some papers, ignoring Ron's fidgeting. She looked through them and then picked out a couple of them and threw them away, the papers combusting when they hit the ground and disappearing within moments.

"You won't need to take the more boring paperwork, but you still need to sign a couple. Here, take them." She said as she handed over a couple of papers over.

"Is... is that allowed?" Ron nervously asked, confused as to why he suddenly didn't need to do more paperwork. He knew that most organizations like schools and universities never allowed students to skip out on paperwork, so why was he being let off?

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"You mean those useless papers? Don't worry about it. You're a grade 5 talent, I'd be surprised if the representatives won't drool all over you, fighting with each other. Now get out of my sight, if you want more information, just go to the little library in the building next door. It's where all the country bumpkins go when they come here."

Ron nervously thanked the lady, took the stack of papers and fled out of there. There was an excited fluttering in his stomach as he thought back on the hag's words.

'I'm the highest talent she's ever seen? That's so damn cool!' He thought to himself, feeling more and more giddy.

Nonetheless, he quickly calmed down as he began to think it over rationally. He'd already known his talent couldn't have been too bad judging from Mr. Unger's words and the strange changes to his memory and thinking pattern.

As he was thinking over this, he arrived at the location indicated by the old hag. He tip-toed into the desolate place, looking around for someone to help him out.

He eventually spotted an old, wrinkly man working behind a counter, taking long drags from a smoking pipe with one hand and holding an old book with the other.

Apparently, the man had known he'd entered, because the moment Ron saw him, the man stared back for a moment before waving him over, which Ron quickly did.

"Give me your identification paper." The old man said, his cold eyes not even bothering to look at Ron. Still, Ron didn't dare say anything as he tried to find the 'identification paper'. Not that he even knew if he had one.

After a couple of panicked moments, he eventually found a paper resembling the old I.D papers from his old world. He quickly handed it over to the old man, afraid of making him angry.

The man looked it over, and when he did, his eyes brightened. "Peak grade 5? Not bad. Not bad at all. You may read whatever you wish, for free. Oh yeah, did the hag tell you where you should go sleep?"

"N-no, sir. She did not..." Ron responded, feeling somewhat out of it. The man's attitude had taken a 180 the moment he'd read his 'talent grade'.

Ron had the feeling that if his talent had been trash, he might very well have gotten the boot and forced to leave. He didn't know whether he should be glad that his talent was high or be angry at the obvious favoritism.

Oh well, it worked in his favor. Why look at a gifted horse in the mouth?

"That old slut. I wonder why she doesn't just drop dead already." The old man's eyes darkened as he looked up, lost in thought. Ron didn't dare say anything, having already decided that until she understood more about this weird place, he'd just do whatever he was told and not complain.

"Anyways, just go to the house with the number 65 in front of it. The entire house is yours to do as you please. There's still a month before the official recruitment begins, but I'd still suggest you go check out the various academies that have already arrived. Whether you heed my suggestion or not, is your problem. Now go." The man said, handing back the identification paper and then returning to his book.

Ron carefully took the paper and put it back into the folder. He bowed to the man and then retreated back to behind the large shelves.

There, he finally allowed himself to relax and look around. There were books of all shapes and sizes, with some of them even looking as though it was made out of skin... human skin... He'd just ignore that one.

As he was perusing the various books, a feeling of nostalgia washed over him. He'd been a bookworm in his past life, but ever since mysteriously appearing in this new and female body, he hadn't held a book.

After half an hour of searching, he found what he was looking for. A conveniently named book titled 'Introduction to magus culture'

Along with it, Ron picked up many similar books, such as one on affinities, one on magi cuisine, and even one on history.

"Sir, may I bring these out of the library?" After building up his courage, he once again came in front of the man. He just looked up, glanced over the books and then waved his hand uncaringly.

"You're not supposed to, but nobody will care. As long as they come back by the end of the month, it's fine. If you lose or damage them, you'll have to pay a fee equivalent to their value."

Nodding excitedly, he bowed once again before quickly skedaddling out of the small yet surprisingly large library. After a bit of searching, he eventually did find the house numbered 65.

It wasn't anything special compared to the standard of his previous world but compared to the other buildings next to it, it looked a lot cleaner and well-made.

He went to its door and tried to open it, only for a blue light to shine out of the handle. At this point, he'd already become numb to things like this, so he wasn't even surprised.

"Identification! Identification!" A voice resounded from within the light as it formed into a panel. Ron quickly fished out the I.D and put it in front of the light.

"Accepted. Identification confirmed! Alice Rosenstar, peak grade 5 talent! Take, take!" The voice kept chanting as a small key somehow popped up from the light, landing in Ron's palm. Then, the light vanished, leaving behind only a faint giggling noise. It too slowly vanished.

Ron just felt tired at this point, and hearing the name Alice just made him even more mentally tired. He put the key into the lock, and with a single, sharp twist, the door opened, and Ron stepped inside.