I stood in the middle of this large room, helplessly being subjected to the gazes of seven individuals who I could only conclude had high status among the gnomes. The most disrespectful thing about this was that few of them ever actually said a word to me. All of them simply bickered back and forth with each other about me, about things they wanted to do with me in terms of my training, things of that nature.

They talked about me as though I wasn't even here, and I had no choice but to just stand in front of them and listen as the bickering continued. Is this how things were supposed to work down here?

As I was beginning to grow bored just listening to them, I started to become aware of something. There was earth mana moving through the walls. Powerful earth mana, and it seemed to be originating from someone up there with all the other important gnomes. Perhaps one of them got bored, and now they decided to start playing to occupy themselves. As I looked over the group, I noticed a man who wasn't really participating in the back-and-forth much, and had a bored look, but his gaze seemed rather fixed on me at the moment.

At about he same time I realized this, I also noticed he was extending his earth mana toward the spot I was standing in like tentacles. Some were approaching me directly through the floor between me and him, while others were snaking their way across the walls and ceiling.

I froze up for a moment. What exactly was I supposed to do with this? Would he somehow take offence if I were to respond?

No, if I'm getting this right, he is probably trying intentionally to get a reaction out of me, like someone playing with a cat. But then, I also couldn't rule out the idea of his play possibly becoming more malicious. This whole "chosen of Iuutel" stuff they mentioned sounds like the kind of thing that would mean he doesn't intend to do me actual harm, but mana intrusion can seriously hurt to the point these seemingly bloodthirsty people would classify it as an attack, albeit non-lethal.

If I react, I'll just be playing into whatever game he wants to play and degrade myself for his amusement. If I don't react and let his mana reach me and linger for a while, he might just grow bored and go ahead and use mana intrusion on my feet.

If he wants to play with me like a cat, let's give him a serious cat-scratch like reaction.

Somewhat annoyed, I gather up my earth mana, hold it for a moment to focus, and then launch it like a spike out at the nearest of the tentacles of earth mana he is advancing toard me. I split his area of dominance instantly with my far more dense mana, and once I've broken past the leading-edge where most of his mental focus will be concentrated, I expand my control from inside his territory, hooking my mana protrusions back toward the other tentacle-like in-roads he's making toward me.

Suddenly, the squabbling between the important gnomes up on their thrones stutters and pauses as several of them take a glance over toward me.

[Well, it seems the reports were not exaggerating after all, the boy sure does seem to have a rather good understanding of mana combat. I am forced to wonder where he learned such tactics. There's simply no way those failures in the nursery camps could have taught him something like that,] the woman who seemed to have been so enthusiastic about subjecting me to the 'normal initiation process' said.

[Memories of the Agarath,] another one said. [It happens sometimes, a gnome will have a few remnant memories of the Agarath from the soul implanted before they were born. It's rare, but hardly unheard of.]

[Have you ever known memories of the Agarath to provide that sort of control? He's easily performing at the level of an Obsidian initiate.]

[Obisidian?! I feel that's going a little far. The boy has no true battle sense. You heard the report from the evaluator sent by the church. He cringed in the face of a simple charge. Even a granite initiate could handle something like that!]

[Were you even watching what I was a moment ago? Dimanu may have just been throwing a lazy tease toward him, but the boy still broke through a beryl rank attack and had a perfect follow-up! I mean, just look at what he's doing now!]

As the people watching me continued to argue, that guy, Dimanu I guess his name is, had continued to throw more probing assaults toward me. Some of the mana extensions he'd thrown across the ceiling had come around and were now assaulting me from behind. Since it did not seem like a bad thing that I'd dealt with the first one, I just continued to deal with the further assaults that came my way, knocking each of them aside as they approached.

I did not really understand what they were talking about, but what I did know is that they seemed to be somewhat approving of how I was handling these. So, I decided to look at it like some sort of test and have been responding appropriately ever since.

I caught onto a few interesting things they were saying. That thing about memories of the Agarath seemed particularly important. apparently, it was not uncommon for other gnomes to have such memories, but they don't get quite as much out of it as I do. I feel my human Earth origins for the other half of my soul have something to do with it. Maybe a gnome soul being spliced together with a soul that already had previous life memories also let me retain more of Agarathian memories.

Of course, I do not intend to freely reveal that kind of information. I can think of a few dozen ways the truth about the full extent of my Agarathian memories could have rather negative consequences for me if revealed, ranging from annoyance at them pestering me all the way to them scrutinizing me more closely and giving me no hope of secrecy, which would be very much not a good thing. Now that I know I am destined to be a slave and my dreams of changing this society seem less likely now, my next hope is to escape from this place. I need to simultaneously play the role of a good little boy until then, while also not giving them any reason to look into me more closely.

[Look, we are not debating rank right now!] Iisular, the seeming leader of the group, shouted over the rest in something of a call to order. [Right now, we are determining the best way to train the chosen of Iuutel in such a way that can best serve him. It seems Kain is finally approaching, so the girl will be here soon. They will be considered raw initiates like any other fresh grub taken into the program until they have finished initial training, and we can set this waste of time until then!]

"Kyaaa!"

A shriek that almost seemed to punctuate Iisular's tirade cut through the air from behind me. I turned to look and saw a gnome man standing over a little girl who appeared to be exactly around the same age as me. The girl was sprawled on the floor, evidently having failed to step off the earth sphere correctly as it was integrating itself into this room, and a face-plant was the result.

"Damn it! That's no way to treat a lady. Could have warned me you idiot!" She cursed... but wait, is she speaking English?!

The man standing over her reached down and grabbed her by the hair, and then roughly pulled her up, eliciting another pained scream from the girl.

[Look kid! I have no idea what that babble that you just spewed was all about, but I certainly don't like the tone of it. I don't think you understand just what kind of situation you are in here, but this ain't gonna be the kind of cozy life you had up in the nursery camp anymore!] the man barked at her. I presume this is the 'Kain' fellow they'd been mentioning.

[I apologize, lord Iisular, for my tardiness. This BRAT!]

"Aaaaah!" The girl screamed again as she was roughly pulled up by her hair in punctuation of Kain's words.

[This kid was quite uncooperative when I came to retrieve her. I cannot apologize enough.]

[This tardiness and the appropriateness of any measures you may have taken to rectify it can be left for a later time, Kain. For now, see the girl to the center of the ring so we can finally get this evaluation in motion.]

[Yes, lord Iisular!] Kain responded and then pulled the girl real close to his face. [You hear that, brat! Do not keep lord Iisular waiting, or else there will be consequences. Get to the center of the ring!]

"Ok, ok! Uhh..." [Yess!] The girl said through a tear-stained face.

As soon as Kain let go of her, the girl went scrambling down to the middle of the floor and stood next to me. Her eyes wandered over me for a moment, and then she immediately looked down at the ground, avoiding eye-contact.

There was a quick movement of mana from Iisular, so compact and refined that I was only able to sense it because I was still on high alert as a result of that guy who had been messing with me up until the moment the girl here arrived. A second later, there was a loud sound of rocks crackling as two mountains of rock exploded from the ground on wither side of the field.

This was when I realized it. This was a Halisar arena we were standing in!

[It will work like this!] Iisular said. [You two will be playing a matched game of Halisar. We have heard the evaluations from the examiners. Now, we will see what the two of you can do for ourselves.]

[What? Why this now?] The girl suddenly blurted out, finally using proper Elven instead of saying things in English.

"They are trying to evaluate us for something. Something about chosen of Iuutel or something," I quickly explained in a whispered tone, using English in hopes it would help her understand quicker, but it was too little too late to prevent the ire of the hard-ass woman who'd been advocating I be treated in the normally harsh way of a new recruit.

[You need only follow what lord Iisular orders you to do, girl! Or do you need to be taught a proper lesson in compliance?] she taunts.

"Please, don't antagonize them!" I pleaded.

Whether it was me or the threat from the woman, something seems to have gotten through to the girl here, and she immediately bit her lip in frustration.

[Y-yes! I'm sorry for being rude!] She said as she stared at the ground in frustration.

[Good! Iisular said. [Now, both of you go to the starting positions. I do not want either of you holding back on the other. This is for the purpose of seeing everything you can do, so I want you to put each other to the test with all the skills and abilities you possess.]

At his words, I walked a few steps into my side of the field before I started infusing the floor beneath me and the mountain of rocks I was supposed to protect with my mana.

I noticed immediately that it was almost as difficult to infuse mana into this stone as it was to dominate the actively controlled floors and walls of the nursery camp. It wasn't a thing like that neutral unclaimed ground the guards had created for me in the nursery camp. But, no one was actively contesting my claim, so it only lengthened the time it would normally take for me to claim an area this large by about three seconds. That is to say, this task that normally would have only taken me two seconds to accomplish took me five instead, so perhaps a 2.5X increase in the time required would be more clear in this situation.

The girl I was supposed to be facing was a step behind me, but it only took a moment for her to get the idea and follow my lead as she began doing the same.

[Now, begin!] Iisular called out the start to the match, and my mind immediately went on high alert as I watched to see what my opponent would do.