Alistair notices the rest of the doors are wooden and seemingly ordinary. Making this door stand out even more.

"Is this where my friends are going to be?" he looks back at the smiling woman quizically.

Before he gets a reply though, the door swings open very quickly to reveal a complete darkness.

A force takes Alistair by surprise and pulls him in abruptly against his will into the darkness.

As he turns back towards the entrance of the door while he is being pulled farther from it, he sees the lady still smiling warmly as the door quickly shuts in front of her.

Although he feels surprised at the situation change, he doesn't feel any blood thirst or threat against his life coming from the darkness. The kind of feeling he had when faced with the half zombie and the beast before. Leaving only pure curiosity on his mind.

In a room with a moderately large desk sits three men in white lab attire. The one man sitting in the middle seemingly more important than the others.

In front of them is a monitor which displays a top down view of Alistair being dragged into the darkness. Each of the men have a clip board and one of them says with mild praise in his voice,

"The boy shows no fear from sudden shock. That's very promising for someone his age!"

After which another man says with a gritty voice and slight displeasure, "It could be that the child is frozen stiff and has yet to comprehend the situation. Try not to praise until we can fully assess the subject from every angle. It's very unprofessional."

The other man remained silent only jotting down notes onto the clip board.

Alistair comes to stop and then the darkness vanishes in a flash as the lights in the room turn on. He looks around quickly to assess where he is at. He sees that he is in an empty white room with white walls on three sides around him, the fourth wall in front of him appears to be a mirror.

For the first time, Alistair is able to see how he looks. He notices the the skinny limbs, sunken in face, and bald head with his pasty white skin. He goes to touch the mirror, curious about what he is seeing.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Before he is able to touch is though he hears a voice coming through a speaker behind the mirror.

"Remove your clothing so we can begin." A gritty voice commanded from the speaker.

Alistair awkwardly undressed. Removing the over-sized jacket that he was wearing. Revealing his dirty malnourished body in front of the mirror. The moment he let go of the jacket though, it fell through the floor as if it was just a projection.

"Oh...I liked that jacket..." Alistair bends down to touch the floor where his jacket had just been. Slightly sullen at the loss of his first article of clothing.

"No materials are allowed from the outside onto the premises without explicit permission. You will be given a new set of clothing after the assessment." The gritty voice responded to the boys comment.

Immediately after the voice finished speaking, a screen of light passed through Alistair going over his entire body. As the screen was going past, it burned off any dirt and grime from the outside. Completely cleaning him from head to toe.

Alistair watches the dirt burn off with a puzzled expression. He does not feel anything but smells the burning filth. The unpleasant smell causes Alistair to scrunch his nose in discomfort.

"What is that smell?" He asks towards the mirror.

"That's the smell of the filth that has been on your body since before the assessment." The voice responded.

He looks into the mirror one more time and sees the image of a cleaner him and is shocked by the difference. Alistair's discomfort turned into amazement at how much filth had been on him the entire time.

"He barely even winced at the burning purification. The mental fortitude this child has is extraordinary!" The first man once again praised Alistair from behind the mirror.

"There are plenty of children here who have high pain tolerance. It's only a simple cleaning magic too. Nothing to jump to conclusions about. We have a few more assessments first." The gritty voiced man retorted.

After the filth completely burned away, a table rises from the floor with an array of weapons on top.

"Please pick the one that suits you best." The gritty voice announces over the speaker.

"Pick one for what? What am I supposed to do with them?" Alistair responds back in pure confusion.

In the center of the room a faceless wooden mannequin rises from the floor, completely lifeless and unmoving.

"You will demonstrating your skills and abilities on the practice dummy for the evaluation." The gritty voice responds.

"Skills? What are skills and abilities? I have no idea what's going on..." Alistair states towards the mirror in a slight frazzled state.

All Alistair knows of combat is when he had to try and snatch food from a half wasted opponent. There was no fancy movements or even any strategy involved at all.

"You have never practiced any form of combat? Undergone any training? Or even so much as wielded a weapon before?" The gritty voice said becoming more and more irritated.

"I have never done any of those things. Why does that matter? I thought I was going to get free food and friends and a family!" Alistair responds seemingly upset at the sudden task being forced upon him.

The gritty voice man ignores Alistair and turns to his colleagues. "So Gerald, this was the child you were saying held great promise? He seems like nothing more than a beggar to me. Why should we even accept him into our orphanage?" He snorts.

Gerald's face flushes in embarrassment from endorsing someone he thought to be strong. "Sigh...We have to accept him on Lord Wallace's orders. Apparently there is some very powerful backing for this child to be here without the slightest bit of training."

The important man who had remained silent this entire time finally spoke up. "This matter involves one of the top families of Utopia. We are to grant this boy entry, but afterwards it is up to him if he can survive our curriculum or not. Pass him through, and set him up with his room and classes."

The important man takes off his glasses and rubs the bridge of his nose and says, "Sigh...It seems like participants are in such short supply for the military program that we are forced to pad their numbers. Let's raise him up as much as possible, at worst he can still become decent fodder."