Josh woke up with a twisting pain in his stomach accompanied by severe dizziness. The pain was searing as if someone had tried to turn his intestines upside down while forgetting the vital step of taking them out.

He sprang to his feet, eyes darting around the unfamiliar surroundings. Instead of his run-down one-bedroom apartment, he found himself in some kind of hall resembling the palaces of old that he had visited before. Its rock-hard marble floor, which served as his bedding, definitely did no favors to his back.

Where am I?

How much did I even have to drink last night to end up like this?

As he stretched out his back, a mental fog that accompanied him to this foreign place was gone, and everything around him became clearer with the dizziness and the pain no longer bothering him.

The eerie silence of the hall changed into a bustling bazaar as he noticed that he was not the only one here. There was a whole crowd with him in the same hall, looking just as lost and out of place as him.

What the seven hells? There must be at least a hundred of us here.

Josh looked around at all the unfamiliar faces scrambling to their feet. There didn't seem to be anything in common between them, they were all sorts of races and ages with nothing that tied them together.

Suddenly, a gravelly voice commanded his attention to a small platform a dozen feet to his right. On it, an elderly man with an entourage of veiled women stood.

“Sumonees, welcome to the kingdom of Pertis,” the elder said, his voice filled with vigor betraying his old age, together with the commanding presence that he exuded made it hard to even look into the elder’s piercing teal eyes. His white vestments adorned with golden suns only enhanced the lively aura. With the only sign of his old age being his silver hair and long groomed beard.

“You should be excited! You are getting an opportunity that many will be envious of you,” the elder paused his speech adding tension to the halls. “You will be granted the title of a noble and bestowed with lands befitting of that title,” he announced

Believing that this whole situation was just a bad fever dream, and some pain would shake him out of it, Josh started slapping his face left and right.

Ouch.

What the fuck? I'm not dreaming?

Josh Slapped himself one more time now no longer holding back leaving a handprint on his left cheek. ”Fuckk,” he shouted out from the pain.

Well, I’m definitely still feeling pain.

“I don’t want any of this! I have a whole life back home! Three kids and a wife, bring me back!” A balding middle-aged man a dozen feet behind Josh shouted at the elder as if that would solve everything.

“Y-e-ah, return us, please. I have a math exam tomorrow,” a teenage girl of Asian descent with a flushed face that was about to cry whispered just behind Josh in a trembling voice.

“None of us want any of this, you old man, just send us back!” Another man, now just beside Josh, spoke his mind out as if to not be forgotten.

Before a complete riot sparked, the elder hit his white cane on the platform that he stood on to draw attention and silence the hall. With his efforts being mostly ignored, the elder raised his cane and started to chant indecipherable words which managed to put the whole hall into complete silence.

Interesting, I can't seem to move anymore, even my eyes are glued to the platform that the elder is standing on.

“Fear not. I’ve only cast simple ‘Silence’ and ‘Bind’ spells. Therefore no more disruptions from all of you shall be tolerated,” the elder paused for a moment to let the words sink into the crowd. “Alas I'm afraid at this moment, returning you home is not in my powers. This kingdom of ours shall be your new home,” he paused once more.

Is this some new kind of reality show? Josh laughed out desperately inside his mind as he still couldn’t seem to budge. Doesn’t explain the fucking unable to move though, does it?

“We summoned you not to imprison. In our land, you will be treated with respect and fairness… My name is Aech Reus Brahmn. I'm a cardinal of Sol, goddess of sun and life. And as I have shown respect befitting of your title you shall do the same and not disrespect me any further.”

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

I think we have different understandings of what respect means, I don’t think it includes kidnapping to a magical kingdom in my humble opinion.

“I have summoned you according to the centuries-old tradition of the kingdom of Pertis, that whenever a kingdom faces a crisis, we summon foreign world scholars to help us out to deal with the crisis. In exchange, we grant you a title and land together with the ability to use powers of mana and magic,”

Hell, I’ve barely graduated from high school. How I’m a ‘scholar’ now? Mana and magic does sound cool though not gonna lie.

The cardinal feeling that the crowd is more or less in understanding of the situation spoke once more.

“Now these holy priestesses of our church,” the cardinal waved his hand to the dozen priestesses who were standing on the platform together with him, “Shall bring you a crystal that measures your mana sensitivity, which in basic terms means how well your body can take in mana and manage it.”

As soon as the elder finished his speech, the veiled priestesses rushed out from the platform each of them carrying a crystal ball on a red cloth. The veil that covered their faces was mystical. Josh tried to peek past it but instantly got repulsed by the feeling of distaste as if he would vomit on an empty stomach if he continued to try to look past the veil.

Okayy, let’s not do that.

With a smirk, he stopped trying to look behind the veil of the priestesses and waited for how the situation would unfold.

One of the priestesses, who was at least seven feet tall, approached a middle-aged woman just next to him and explained in a dull hoarse voice. ”It’s gonna be a very simple procedure to check your mana sensitivity, you just need to put your hand on top of this orb and hold it steady for a couple of seconds. The orb will shine and engrave itself with a number up to 25. The number will represent your sensitivity to mana.” The priestess took a quick breath before asking. “Are you ready to proceed?”

“Yeah.” The middle-aged woman whispered while looking completely dazed.

Instead of replying the priestess just put out the the crystal ball before the woman and pointed with her gaze to put her hands on it.

Very slowly, the middle-aged woman touched the orb, which shone brighter by the second. Then, as suddenly as it started to shine brighter, it stopped and the number ’13’ engraved itself upon the orb.

The priestess, no longer sounding dull but rather excited shouted out. “Amazing! Most of the archmages have a mana sensitivity of between 11 and 14. You should be excited about this result you will have a bright future ahead of you,” she explained. “Now we should go to the cardinal, he will be teleporting you to your new home.”

She took the woman by her hand and led her to the cardinal that was still atop the platform, as soon as they reached the cardinal he smiled at the number ‘13’ that was still engraved upon the orb and complimented the middle-aged woman. “Your talent will be a great addition to our kingdom miss. Now I’m gonna do another small test I’m just gonna need some blood from your pinky finger, can you put your hand out for me,” he asked.

“...Yeah,” the woman stuttered as she put her hand out in front of the cardinal. Even from afar, you could see the fear in her eyes.

The cardinal nicked the pinky of the finger with the ceremonial dagger embroidered with gems. He took the trickle of the blood from the dagger and put it into a similar orb that was used to test for mana sensitivity. But that orb, rather than being crystal clear, was filled with water. As the blood entered the orb, the water spun into a whirlpool for a moment before returning to its calm state.

A clear disappointment was seen on the cardinal’s face from the test results. Without even commenting about it he took the woman to the gigantic golden disk that was just behind the platform. As soon as the cardinal touched it, the woman was no longer there, leaving the cardinal only accompanied by the priestess. The priestess took a quick bow and left the cardinal to tend to the other testees.

Mhhh… I’m starting to think this might not be a reality show. I don't think technology is capable of making people poof and they are gone yet.

Luckily or unluckily it seemed that Josh was next in line as the same tall priestess approached him and asked him in the same dull voice. “Are you familiar with the procedure or do you need me to explain it?”

Josh just shrugged and put his hand on the orb. It didn’t take long before the orb, barely shining, engraved a ‘6’.

Great, half of what the woman before me got.

“Acceptable,” she declared. “Many of the heroes from the past summonings have done great deeds even while having a score of five or lesser. Even now, only the most pure and noble lineages get mana sensitivity of five and above, so don’t write yourself off just because of the results you saw others get,” she assured Josh and urged him to get into the line for the cardinal to oversee him.

While waiting in line for his finger to get slashed apart to do some voodoo shit. Josh looked around seeing that everyone else that was in line had a number between ‘8’ and ‘15’ engraved upon their orbs.

Well… fuck.

When it was finally his turn to meet the cardinal a commotion broke out in the back of the hall.“Impossible!?! Twenty-four?? We haven’t seen that kind of score for a thousand years!“ A squealing voice of a priestess shouted out. She was accompanied by a teenager who seemed to be of Middle Eastern descent and looked pretty comfortable considering the whole situation.

Oh great four times of mine. I’m starting to feel jealous over some number of which I don’t even know what it means.

The Cardinal interrupted by the commotion in the back only glanced at the orb in front of Josh which had the number ‘6’ engraved. and without even the freaky blood testing that was done on the entrees before, urged him to go to the golden disk.

So my lowly six rating is not even worthy of trying to summon a demon or some shit?

“That decrepit barony should be okay,” the cardinal mumbled to himself. “Touch the golden disk, young boy,” he instructed Josh.

Josh touched it only for the searing twisting pain in his intestines to return together with severe headaches and then only blackness accompanied him.