It was hard to find time to experiment with the monster core. Mom, though often busy watching Mary, found the time to watch me, too. And that's when I wasn't already busy with training or chores. Still, there were a few things I was able to do that weren't out of the ordinary.

I'd tried putting it in a cup of water, but there was no change to the core. I'd confirmed that I could scrape some off with a rock, but even that little amount wouldn't dissolve in water. Trying other solvents wouldn't be something I could do without getting caught. Supposedly, this could make a poison, but not dissolving in water seemed to be a detriment. Maybe there was some specific process that needed to be followed, like first roasting the core and then putting it in water. Regardless of what it was, I'd have to shelve the idea until I was in school. Mom was an everpresent danger!

I kept the core hidden in a box filled with toys. I was good about cleaning up after myself, so Mom wouldn't go looking in there.

Two weeks before my sixth birthday, I was woken up earlier than usual by Mom.

"Today's the day you get tested!" she told me excitedly.

I groaned and got out of bed. Waiting for me was a nice suit with a yellow floral pin on the left breast. I got dressed and Dad helped me put on the tie. I had never really been good with those, not having needed them during my previous life outside of some special events. Ties sucked, anyway.

Breakfast was crammed into me. We departed shortly after. Mary walked with Dad at the back and I followed Mom at the front. The walk took about an hour and we arrived at the church around mid-morning. There was a line out the door already by the time we arrived. I went to the back of the line, behind a girl in a white and red dress.

It took nearly two hours to reach the front door. Until now, everything had been as I'd seen with my sister and brother when they went. From now on, it'd be new.

The inside of the church was very large. The ceilings went up maybe a hundred feet or more. It was hard to tell with no good reference points. The pews I had expected to see were off to the sides. There was a desk about twenty or thirty feet into the church, after which, the line split into five. Manning the desk was one of the church members, a man in his late fifties, who wore a white frock with a blue mantle.

"What's your name," he asked me.

"James McPherson."

"You'll want to go in the middle row."

I followed his instructions and joined that queue. The girl in front of me had joined a different like, so ahead of me now was a boy with a suit much like mine.

The line terminated at another table. This time, there were two people from the church at the table. Behind the table was a screen where the kids being tested would go when it was their turn. The other lines had the same setup. This line moved more slowly than even the other one had. It took nearly an hour to get to the table that was only a hundred feet away.

When I finally was next in line, one of the two attendants motioned for me to walk up.

"Your name?"

"James McPherson."

"Ok, James, follow me."

I followed him behind the table and behind the screen. Behind the screen was a chair and what I could only describe as a crystal ball.

"Sit down and place your hand on the orb."

I sat in the chair and touched my right hand to the orb. I felt like something was being sucked out of me... a something that I hadn't known existed before.

Magic? I wondered.

The attendant wrote on a piece of paper for a couple of minutes before telling me that I could let go. He handed me the piece of paper and told me that I needed to continue to a table at the far end of the room to handle my schooling assignment. I thanked him and got on yet another line. This one was shorter and seemed to move faster. I guess most of the hold up was with the writing that the attendants had to do. I checked the paper that had been given to me.

Name: James McPherson Level: 3 Class: None

HP: 36/36

MP: 46/46

SP: 40/40

Attributes: AGI: 17 CHA: 12 CON: 14 END: 16 FIN: 19 INT: 17 STR: 23 WIS: 19 Affinities: Black: 10% Blue: 10% Green: 10% Orange: 10% Red: 10% Violet: 10% White: 10% Yellow: 10% Skills: Reading Lv4 Language Lv3 Archery Lv2 Swordfighting Lv4

I compared with the Status command and found them to be identical. The table at the end of this line had five people, only one of which I could identify as a member of the church. The others were a mystery to me. I guessed that they were representatives of the different schools. This would be interesting.

I already knew what I wanted to choose. Even if the knight's school was willing to pay for me, I was willing to wager that there were many more restrictions on those graduates than those from the adventurer's school. Even if the quality of the knight's school were better, I was not sure I wanted to give up much of my youth before having the freedom to make my own way.

By the time I got to the table, I was able to identify who represented what from snippets of conversation. There was the church school that I knew already as well as the knight's school, adventurer's school, and guard's school. The fifth member was from a school I'd never heard of called the school of commerce. It, apparently, trained people as administrators and merchants. Many of the graduates would join the government or private enterprise if they weren't merchants on their own. interesting, but not what I was after.

When it was my turn, I gave my slip of paper to the representative who called me over. He looked at it and gave it to another representative until they'd all been able to read it over.

"Very impressive," the representative from the knight's school said.

"Thank you."

"We're willing to offer you a full scholarship," said the woman who represented the guard's school.

The church's school and the adventurer's school each gave the same offer.

"The knight's school will give you a scholarship worth half of the cost of admission in addition to a guarantee of safe passage to the capitol to attend."

The school of commerce's offer was similar.

"Do you need to speak with your parents before you decide?" asked one of the representatives.

"N-no," I said, "I choose the adventurer's school."

The woman from the adventurer's school took me aside and handed me a second slip of paper.

"This is your admissions letter. Try not to lose it. Come to the school a week before classes are set to begin."

"Yes, Ma'am."

"I'll see you then."

I turned to leave.

"Oh, and don't forget this."

I turned back and she gave me my status card from the evaluation.

"Thank you."

I walked out of the church and looked around for my parents. Dad waved to me as I looked around. He was seated on a bench on the right side of the square. I couldn't see Mom or Mary from where I was, though. When I reached the bench, it was just Dad.

"Where's Mom?"

"You took so long that she had to go back with Mary for lunch and to change her."

"Ok." I understood. Life happens.

"What did you end up choosing?"

"The adventurer's school. They're paying for everything."

"That's great! Congratulations!"

"There's a school of commerce, too. They offered to pay half, but I wasn't interested."

"That's a new one. They weren't there when Max went I don't think. He didn't mention it if they were, though."

"The letter I have with me says when I need to show up. the lady told me a week before classes."

I handed him the letter. He took a minute or two to read it.

"So you'll need to go in about three weeks. I'll let your mother know in case I can't take off that day to go with you."

"Thanks, Dad."

We walked home. it was time to prepare for school. Finally, I'd really have the space to focus on improving myself without parental interference.