Chapter 47: The heck...?

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"Oh, so you do it like this...?" I murmured in a low voice while channeling my mana through my fingers.

...

Soon, a great amount of dust in the surrounding air started gathering in just one point above my hand, forming a small sphere on my hand. After some seconds the ball of dust finally stopped growing in size until it reached that of a tennis ball.

"Now... What was I supposed to do next...? Ah right, I have to compress it"

The mana in my hand soon enveloped the whole dust sphere and started applying extreme force to compress it completely, reducing its size to that of a ping pong ball.

*Creak!*

*Creok!*

The dust ball soon started making cracking noises while it shrunk. And soon it's hardness and denseness reached that of a normal rock.

"Fuuh... That was quite exhausting..."

I glanced at my status briefly.

It took 9 points mana to form this small rock...? What the hell... It was supposed to be just 5 points!

I guess I still need to take care of my mana control a bit, otherwise I will continue spending unnecessary mana... which it's a no no.

Currently, It was only three days more until I began my plan for stealing the Hermes Boots. And I must say, I was quite nervous. 

Not everyday you have to steal the treasure of a whole nation just to survive... right?

Anyways, despite my nervousness, my magical investigation was going pretty well. I was pretty sure I could be able to learn every magic available in this library before the day of the Plan.

Currently, my Skills panel increased quite a bit. Just look at it.

"Heh" Just looking at the great amount of skills I had made me grin in pride.

But enough of checking my progress. Now let's move onto the next magic!

*Knock*

*Knock*

*Knock*

"I guess not... I'm coming!"

*Click*

"Oh Alyem" I exclaimed as I saw Alyem outside the door with a hurried expression on his face.

"I see you got used to the elven inns" He said while peeping inside.

"I guess I'm comfortable anywhere as long as it has a good bed"

"That's nice. Anyways, I came today to tell you that today the Elf Kingdom is measuring the Soul Power of the newborn babies this year. So if you want we can check yours"

"Today? You didn't mention anything about this some days ago" 

"That's because this event is always on a different date. So no one knows exactly when will it be"

That's kinda messy. Don't they have any problems with coordination with such a sudden event?

Meh, maybe they prepare everything before the event, and then wait until it's announced its beggining.

"Will they allow me to measure my Soul Power? I mean, I'm an adult human... Wouldn't the artifact have problems measuring the strength of my soul? After all I'm not an Elf baby"

"Don't worry, The artifact has measured the strength of other races before. So it won't be really a problem"

"Oh..."

I guess It's worth a try... Maybe after seeing my Ability to hold multiple accessories they will forget about the said "Chosen one" And decide to give the boots to me?

Err... But if I ask them and they refuse... Then won't that make me more suspicious when I steal the boots...? It could appear to coincidental in the eyes of the elves.

And If I just run away once they have their suspicions... then that could make me even more suspicious...

The last thing I want is the Elven race to attack the Human Kingdom to retrieve the Hermes Boots...

Hmm... What to do?

Whatever, I have my inventory. So even if they want to investigate me, they won't find the Boots as they could be inside my inventory.

Also, I'm pretty curious how large could my Soul power be...

So, why not?

I like to flex in front of the elves anyways. They are kinda arrogant when they see me. Alyem excluded of course.

"Sure"

...

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A few minutes later...

We arrived at the center of the city, there a great line of parents holding their babies could be seen waiting for their turn to measure the Soul Power of their children.

"Soul Power... 4!"

"Wow!"

"Nice soul"

"Incredible"

At the end of the line, a man with clothes similar to a Herald was announcing the results of some elf baby while the surrounding people gasped at the results.

As I formed in the line, I received odd looks from the surrounding Elves. But as soon as they saw Alyem next to me, they shrugged and continued looking at the spectacle.

"Soul Power... 2!"

"Soul Power... 3!"

"Soul Power... 5!

"Soul Power......"

...

Soon my turn was about to arrive. However, curiosity invaded my mind at the last moment.

"Hey Alyem, what's the average [Soul Power] For every race?"

"Hmm? Well, if I don't remember wrongly, Goblins have around 1 to 3 of Soul Power normally, and humans have... around 1 to 2 soul power. It doesn't really change that much between races, so don't worry"

"Oh..."

"Soul Power... 8!"

"Woah! Such an incredible soul!"

"A prodigy!"

"Incredible!"

"Hmm? Hey Alyem, why are they so impressed? Didn't you say before that if the Soul Power is below 10 or 15 then it doesn't matter, as they won't be able to wear the Boots anyways?"

"Oh, yeah, they won't, but it's commonly believed that if you have a great Soul Power then you will have a great talent in everything you do. Though this rumor hasn't really been proved to be true, There has still been a lot of cases of elves with high Soul Power that have incredible talents"

Oh...

Well, I'm pretty talented... if you could call my abilities "talent"

So I guess it's right in some way...?

"Soul Power... 3!"

Oh, finally it's my turn!

"Name?" The elf asked me while writing some things on paper.

"Aspen"

"Full name?" The Elf asked with a bit of annoyance in his voice.

I guess it's pretty normal to have a surname in this country huh?

"Just Aspen, we didn't have surnames in my village"

"I see... now, show me your back"

"Alright"

Soon the elf started using something like a staff on my back, as I felt something traveling through my whole body.

It was quite a bizarre yet refreshing feeling.

*Beep Beep*

Soon the elf took a few steps back and waited for the results to come out.

"Soul Power... EH?" The Elf stopped talking and started looking between me and the artifact repeatedly.

Yare yare... I guess it's time to become the center of attention once again...

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"Soul Power...[0.1]..."

...

Huh?

"Huh?" 

""Eh?"" The surrounding elves exclaimed.

...

The heck?

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