After stepping outside the elevator, a woman dressed in a business suit greeted me. The man didn't step outside the Elevator.
"Please follow me,"
She said.
"Ok."
I replied with half enthusiasm and other confusion in my voice to appear indifferent to what was happening so they would think I was clueless. I wonder how long I need to do this, it's tiring.
We went down the hallway, and I observed the surroundings.
And Damn, was this place looking good.
There were paintings all over the hall, along with pedestals in front of them holding small statues, and other precious artifacts. The 'hallway' itself seemed as if it was out of this world. Instead of carrying the futuristic theme like most of the world I had seen outside, the area carried the medieval aesthetic.
If it wasn't for the fluorescent lights on the ceiling, I would have been certain we were in the castle of royalty or something.
We reached a massive metallic door, The woman scanned her card on a small display beside the door and it opened.
She gestured for me to come inside, and what greeted me inside was not a room like I had expected, but rather an open field.
"Please put your hands over the orb in the center over there."
She said with a gentle tone.
After I had entered the field, I felt…strange. It was as if my entire body was laid bare…
'People are watching me.'
I looked up to find multiple people looking at me from the balcony that was present in this area.
'...it feels weird.'
I am used to being stared at, but their stares felt oddly unusual…I am certain the people are using a skill or an artifact.
Mentally sighing, I went over to the orb and placed my hand on it.
It shone with a bright white light once again, and when I noticed it turning black…I repeated the same thing I did previously.
"...it truly is SS rank.''
"Unbelievable... "
"So the orb down there wasn't faulty huh…'
The people on the balcony commented, I stared at them in silence, trying to portray the act of a scared child.
'Now it's time for 'that''.
I thought, referring to the lie detector machine.
'Never let chaos be shown…never.'
Two men came inside the area, dragging a large, metallic pod with them, the hatch wide open.
"Please enter the pod."
Preparing myself, I entered the pod, and the hatch closed once I was inside.
The pod was a stat measurer, more often than not used for the truly great talents that many had their eyes on, it would inject my body with a ton of needles and other such apparatuses to examine and display my stats.
…And It was also a fucking lie detector.
I remembered the protagonist mentioning the pod was incredibly painful. The procedure wasn't painful because the body was pumped with anesthetics…but the days after it were.
Pretty soon, the needles were injected into my body, at various points…Strangely enough I didn't feel as much pain as I had expected…
'Did they administer the anesthetic already?'
That couldn't be so, I would have noticed it.
'Ah.'
Pretty much a second later, I could feel my veins being filled with something, something that numbed my body and made me drowsy.
White smoke(?) was also being released from the pod…and it was making me dizzy.
I tried my best to resist it…But I could do nothing but slowly watch as I lost my sense of touch and my eyes struggled to stay awake.
I had been reduced to such a state after only 10 minutes of this…
"Why hasn't he fallen asleep yet?"
"Is his tolerance that high?"
I couldn't hear what they were saying…I could only faintly make out the sight of their mouths moving…
'Uh…'
And then, I lost. The gas and the liquid inside the needles overcame my tolerance and I lost all control of my body.
The pod vibrated, and began doing its job.
The people outside watched with anticipation, they had already been surprised by the absurd tolerance of the young boy. They eagerly waited for the machine to do its job and show them the boys stats.
Their wait was rewarded with an absurd display. The machine slowly began to read the boy's stats.
And with stat revealed, their eyes only widened.
[Awakened: Alan Peccator. Age 15, Strength: E+
Agility: E Endurance: E+ Mana: D Intelligence: D
Recorded affinity Ice (Superior)]
Boom!
It was as if an explosion had occurred inside their mind…they all thought only one thing.
'I need to get him to our guild!'
That was all they thought, to get this young man into their guilds and families.
No matter what.
If there wasn't another procedure left, they would have already jumped over.
The second affinity test, that was all they were waiting for. The boy had already shown them stats and affinity so good they were almost salivating at the thought of having such a prospect in their guilds…
But could there be more to add to the dish? Something that would enhance the flavor even further?
It wasn't common. Hell, it was fucking rare. The appearance of a second affinity was so low that only 4.8% of all awakened possessed it. And the rarity increased if the original affinity was of a high rank. The higher the affinity of one element, the more rare it was for the individual to possess another one.
There was a good chance that he had another affinity whose grade was pathetic when compared to his [Ice] affinity.
Unfortunately, they could only wait.
The pod opened up and the youth that was inside emerged from it. He was still connected to the tubes, which now had the purpose of detecting whether what he said next was true or not.
To their surprise, they had expected him to be fast asleep. The number of chemicals dumped into his body would have made even anyone fall asleep…but the boy's tolerance was just inhuman.
"Ugh…."
They gave him some time to collect himself.
The final test was a lie detector test. Because the orb could only sense the highest grade affinity of the participants and disregard the lower grade ones, they had to do it by this method. Humanity only had this option for now.
And I was fucking glad it was the only option…
Of course, the dwarves had even better instruments that could accurately judge how many affinities a person had, but they were on their planet. The humans also had no way of contacting the dwarves because the latter much preferred to stay alone and experiment.
Unlike the elves who had spatial magicians and could go whenever they wanted to and from the earth at will. Humanity had no spatial mage, thus limited chances of meeting with other races. And the elves also rarely came to earth because they didn't have a likeness for humans, A majority of them hated humans who were so prideful and disrespectful to nature, in fact, most of them loathed humans.
One of the men who transported the pod inside the field asked.
"Can you please open your status?"
I, trying to act drowsy, asked back. I was thankful for the time they had given me to calm myself…If not for that the chance of me slipping up and making a mistake were high.
"huh…What?"
"Your status, Can you please open it?"
"Okay…"
I lazily replied and said,
"Status!"
In Front of me, my status screen, which only I could see materialized.
"Can you check if you have another affinity instead of ice?"
"Yes."
I answered, thankfully the question isn't 'Do you have more affinities? How Many?'
If it had been, I would have been fucked.
"Can you tell us what it is and its grade?"
Taking a deep breath, I answered.
"It says Space (High)."
…
…
…
There was silence, no one spoke. The only sound present in the area was the vibration of the pod, along with it glowing green.
Indicating that I had told them the truth.
The audience had expected there to be another affinity…But never did they expect it would be of an element never before seen in Humanity before…Never!
And with such a high grade at that!
The day could be called historic…for.