By noon, a group of enforcers and priests came to the orphanage.
Enforcers were the soldiers dispatched by the kingdom. They primarily dealt with civic discipline and small scale internal crimes. They were also dispatched in special scenarios like now for the protection of priests or any important figure.
As the kids reached the age of 10, the orphanage caretaker, Miss Brooke would line up the kids to prepare them to take the talent test done by the priest.
Arranging the kids from best to worst, I naturally stood at the very end of the line.
Waiting at the end I could see the expression of joy and sadness from the ones who completed their assessment.
"I was selected as a mercenary. You?"
"Farmer… God this can't be… hey, what about…"
With the kids discussing what they would be doing, chatter soon filled the area.
Patiently waiting, my turn finally came.
Looking without interest, the priest called with a monotonous voice, "name?"
"Noah…"
"Place your hand on the orb"
Without question, I gently put my hand on the orb.
As the orb started glowing different colours, I could feel everyone had their attention on me.
"This can't be…"
Thinking perhaps the assessment orb was broken, the priest tested with his hand and retried with mine afterwards.
"This is a miracle…the boy has great talents but for some reason he is very weak..."
The priest soon took his hand and touched my forehead.
"Slow poison? Hmm… that explains…HEAL"
As the priest triggered his skill, I could feel my body becoming lighter. My health was finally restored.
Ruffling my hair, the priest spoke soothingly, "You will regain your strength in time…" he continued loudly, " this boy will come with us and Miss Brook.., we need to talk."
I could see everyone including some of the enforcers had a look of disbelief.
"As all the assessments are now done, we will be leaving. Sir. Luke, can I request you to stay here? I'll be coming back after dropping this child at the temple."
"As you command."
Although it wasn't clear about my future job situation, I more or less succeeded in bringing attention to the poisoning while avoiding being sent off as a farmer.
After a short talk between Miss Brooke, the priest and Sir. Luke, I was taken by the priest and the remaining enforcers to a carriage.
Although the carriage looked small and simple from the outside, it was quite lavish and warm on the inside.
As we set out towards the temple, the priest slowly started bombarding me with questions.
Most of them were generic like my background, parents and who I had interacted with at the orphanage. The conversation slowly turned serious.
"Boy, you were poisoned. It is likely because of that your talents didn't awaken."
"What? But who would?" I exclaimed, acting surprised.
"Hmm… you ever offen--"
Cutting him midway I continued, " so you think someone might have purposefully poisoned me knowing that I was talented?"
Although I knew the culprit didn't poison me for being talented, there wasn't anyone I had offended either. It didn't make sense to poison a 10 yr old orphan and that too with slow poison which makes it difficult to identify poison during postmortem.
"...Yes, that could be as well. But not likely. The orphanage receives a bonus for nurturing talented individuals. That would imply you were targeted by someone outside the orphanage. For a 10 yr old, that would make you quite popular. You might've just eaten something you weren't supposed to. Ha ha ha."
"..."
"Ahem. Anyway, we'll find out soon enough. You rest easy now."
Nodding slightly, I decided to take a short nap as the journey was long.
===
As I opened my eyes, I could feel the evening soft sunlight touching my face. Feeling refreshed, I got up from the carriage bench slowly.
The group seemed to have taken a break near a riverbank. From the window, I could see the priest and the enforcers talking.
As my thoughts lingered on what I should be planning for next, the rich smell of soup reached my nose. Having only eaten Miss Brooke's cooking, the rich aroma felt heavenly. It was the same dish each day and the taste felt blander as the days passed. Without a second thought I left the carriage.
Watching the enforcers prepare the pork rib soup, I got a quick idea.
"Sir, could you please show me how to prepare this meal, also how to cut and separate the meat?"
"Boy, I think priest Reynard had asked you to rest up. Why don't you sit with us and have the soup."
Bowing, "please sir."
Sighing helplessly, the enforcer finally accepted.
Taking out a live wild boar that was caught earlier, the enforcer showed me where to stab it and kill it cleanly.
The moment I stabbed and killed the boar, I was greeted with a pleasant message
Wild boar level 15 killed.
'Holy shit, that boar could have one hit killed me if I had met it in the woods.'
First kill bonus applied. Additional 10% gain.
Drayestra herb bonus applied. Additional 600% gain.
Gained 1,750,000 exp for killing
Gained a total of 11,550,000 exp!
Pretending to be sick from seeing the blood I excused myself grabbing a bowl of soup.
As the experience bar kept filling, I could feel my stats slowly increasing. On reaching the carriage, I closed the door quickly, escaping from the gazes of the enforcers.
"You must've scared the kid quite a bit…"
"...Hope he eats the soup."
With the sheer amount of experience gained I was sure I would level up to a higher grade. Whenever anyone surpassed from one grade to the next there would be a brief flash of light. Higher the grade, brighter the light.
After the level up completed, I checked my stats.
[Name: Noah
Level: 37 (2,050,000/2,500,000)
Class: None
Title: None
Grade: F
State: Normal
Affinity:
Fire: 10% Water: 5%
Wind: 7% Ice: 5%
Psychic: 3% Divinity: 1%
Health: 14,000/14,000 Mana: 10,000/10,000
Strength:51 Stamina: 56
Agility:46 Intelligence: 51
Dexterity:40 Charm: 25
Luck: 30
Stat Points: 15]
Quest Grow Stronger I has been accepted.
Quest Eat Healthy I has been accepted.
Eat Healthy I Quest completed. Reward: 1 stat point.
The gains from the Drayestra herb were nothing short of a success. The average grade for an 18-year-old adult was E-. For a 10-year-old to have reached F grade already, I was definitely one of the few prodigies in the kingdom.
'The only shortcoming I have now was the lack of skills. Perhaps I could learn some elemental skills from the temple…'
Finishing the soup leisurely, I took a nap once more.