Within the banquet hall, many oddly dressed individuals had watery eyes full of hunger as they stared at the plethora of food before them. With an insatiable desire to consume, many dove headfirst into it, savoring every bite.

One of these food connoisseurs was Leon. With a drumstick in one hand and a metal glass in another, he found his own grand battle against the demon of hunger.

“Slow down or you’ll choke,” Nick said heartily, giving Leon a good pat on the back.

Returning to civility, he straightened his back and placed the chalice down. He took another bite of the drumstick and glanced at Nick. “Thanks.” Leon was a bit surprised at his food frenzy. He was accustomed to not eating so he just assumed it was due to the somewhat overwhelming recent events. ‘It’s not every day that you go to another world.’

Nick became quite popular. Many people decided to sit around them and talk to Nick. Happily agreeing, he found himself being involved in many different conversations. Some more fruitful than others but he didn’t mind. If it helped people, he wouldn’t mind sparing them a few kind and genuine words.

Leon was truly glad he had only one charisma point. Having Nick absorb all of the attention was a blessing for him. ‘Wait, was that how the charisma stat worked?’ Leon didn’t dwell on it for long, deciding to soak in all the benefits of isolation as he reverted back to a food vacuum but in a more sophisticated manner.

Soon enough, with bellies full, the pope had guided them out of the banquet hall. The king and his company hadn’t been there like the night before, but one could only assume they were busy.

The halls of the castle were busier than previously thought. With the rays of sunlight came the shuffling of servants, quickly carrying baskets and items such as papers, food, and clothes.

Ultimately, they entered another room of similar scale. Within, the familiar faces of the king’s supposed retainers were seen. They all stood in a row facing them. An orb similar to what Leon had seen in the valley was displayed. Unlike before, this orb wasn’t floating but rested atop a stone pedestal.

“Welcome! I won’t dally with formalities and get right to it. You are the last group to undergo the evaluation. It won’t take long,” a robed woman reassured them.

‘Last group?’ Leon pondered. Reflecting back on it, it did seem like there weren’t all three hundred or so people in the barracks. ‘Actually, I think our big group got split off when we got into the smaller groups. I guess some of them got sent to other barracks.’ Taking note of the smaller number of people in the room currently. Leon estimated there to be a third of the people there as they all surrounded the pedestal in the center of the room, standing across from their evaluators.

The lady was met with confused stares. “Ah, you all must be wondering how I’m speaking to you. It’s actually quite interesting if you manipulate the ma-”

“I don’t think they’re interested in your lecture,” a robed man interrupted her.

Momentarily flustered, she returned to her original train of thought. “I apologize for that. Anyway, we will be using this orb to determine your talents and inclinations… oh, by the way, you all can refer to me as Kassandra.”

She continued on to explain the specifics of what she meant. From what Leon gathered, it seemed these talents and inclinations are the same as their classes and stats. ‘So, the orb will basically show them our stats and class vaguely.’ Reaffirming it.

Finishing up her explanation, the robed man stepped in and explained the procedure. While speaking, Leon noticed something… they were all good-looking. Not in the subjective sense but more so that they all looked very young and healthy. The woman named Kassandra appeared to be very young, likely in her early twenties, yet it felt odd since she seemed to be rather high up on the social strata. Her blonde hair looked velvety and healthy as it fell to the sides of her blemish-less face, only making her already prominent viridescent eyes stand out more.

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The same could be said about the man who was currently speaking. With blonde curt hair and an unsurprisingly clear face, he stared at them with his commandeering stare through his similar viridescent-tinged irises. The other evaluators had similar color schemes, with some having various browns mixed into their eyes and hair colors.

It reminded Leon of his own world where, before long-distance traveling became prominent through planes, ships, and automobiles, many civilizations had populations with similar appearances. There were plenty of countries in his world that had a mostly singular race majority, but Leon had grown up in a country of diversity with many different people. ‘Well, it’s either that or the people of this Wroven kingdom practice… some weird things to keep its hierarchy. I haven’t seen the city yet so I might be overthinking it.’

The robed man’s voice resumed. “You may refer to me as William. Now, with all of the general explanations out of the way, we shall begin the examination. One by one, you will approach the orb. I will administer the exam primarily.”

Walking up to the orb, William placed his hand above the orb. Closing his eyes, he began to mutter words unbeknownst to them. Following soon after, a bright indigo line emerged beneath his hand. Upon closer inspection, it looked to be circular from below with some odd symbols along the inner edges.

His hums of foreign words continued.

A second circle materialized beneath the first, appearing to be smaller than the last. Finally, a third circle came into existence, being the smallest of the three. A gentle vibration could be felt throughout the room, etching its way into all of their bodies. Opening his eyes, the floating circles seemed to collapse onto each other.

William took a step back as the merged magic circles started to envelop the orb. The edges of the circles spun around the orb in every which way as the orb began to spark to life and levitate. After a minute or so, the circles suddenly got sucked into the orb, making it shine more brightly than before. Levitating a few centimeters above the pedestal, Leon and the others looked at it in awe… before being met with confusion when the orb completely dimmed and the spark died, though it did remain floating albeit now colorless.

“Now if one of you would be so kind as to get us started,” William spoke aloud, not bothering with their stares.

The group stood there for a moment. Some wanted to walk right up and get it over with but hesitated while others didn’t even try nudging themselves forward. Funnily enough, it reminded Leon of seminars in English class where people would try their best not to talk over each other whenever someone finished talking while others didn’t bother trying to join in on the discussion. Leon was with the latter half then and he was now.

Nick, on the other hand, was more of a go-getter based on his eventual relenting of politeness. Walking up, he stood in front of William and the orb.

“Hmm,” William let out as he looked the man over. “What is your name?”

“Nick.”

“Well Nick, thank you for being cooperative. I can tell we’ll get along well enough.” He said, likely due to him being the only one to walk up when asked.

With no other words said, William placed his hand forward, with the palm facing the orb. Gesturing for Nick to do the same, he quickly placed his hand on the orb. Almost instinctively, Nick closed his eyes and loosened up. Following suit, the orb began to sparkle as it emitted a white light from the center. With a single unknown word, William let go of the orb. The white light within swirled, resembling that of a whirlpool before it settled and garnered a more amethyst shade.

“Thank you,” William said, opening his eyes. “You may step back now. The next person may come forward.” The orb faded back to its original colorless form. In his language, William exchanged some words with Kassandra. She was writing in a journal, likely keeping track of their results.

With this initial interaction done, the process became much more facilitated. One after another a few individuals followed the same brief process. Numerous colors flared up within the orb. Some blue… others yellow… some red… the variations didn’t stop. Some had similar colors but different shades and mixtures.

Eventually, they hit a lull. Noticing the minor pause, Leon took that chance to approach the orb and take his examination, avoiding any awkward interactions. Such as ‘Oh, you go first’ followed by a response of ‘No, no. I insist that you go first.’

Meeting the eyes of William as his feet halted before the pedestal, Leon stated his name and placed his hand on the orb. Almost instinctively, his eyes shut.

‘Stargazing again?’ Leon let out, noticing the familiar dark space. Unlike last time though, there weren’t as many stars. There appeared to be no more than a hundred now. Expecting to fly towards one, he braced himself… yet it never happened. Confused, he looked around. This was when he noticed that the green wisp in his chest from last time had reappeared and begun to glow.

Leon hadn’t paid it much attention before but… the hue it possessed was… rather plain. It was just a generic green color. ‘Feels like someone drew mine with the basic green crayon.’ His slightly disappointed thoughts were swiftly dispelled as a black hand, that strangely stood out from the darkness of the space, approached his chest.