Talent System: I Instantly Master My Opponents Skills
Chapter 74: Evaluation Hall (3)

Chapter 74: Evaluation Hall (3)

"First, Simon Blackwood." The elder announced, his voice reaching the ears of everyone present.

The person called, Simon Blackwood, walked forward. He slipped his ring off his finger and presented it to the elder, kneeling as he presented it.

He knelt ceremoniously.

The old man took it from him and stared at the ring, he did nothing for some seconds except intently examining the ring.

"Twenty hearts." He announced.

Simon Blackwood smirked, his confidence visibly bolstered. The elder instructed him to stand in a corner, he pocketed the space ring in his own ring.

"Next, Amelia Ephesus."

The girl walked forward, her brown hair shimmering as it caught the light that came through the windows.

She handed her space ring in the same style as the Blackwood, joining her palm together while outstretching her hands.

The elder took the ring, inspecting it for some seconds, as if he could read the very essence of the treasure through his practice gaze.

"25 hearts." He pocketed the ring in his own space ring.

The old man instructed the girl to head to the corner where Simon stood.

The girl’s lips twitched as if about to break out into a mocking smile, but she quickly masked it. She nodded politely at him, taking a place by standing next to him.

"Vero Dragomir."

The room seemed to tense as the name was called.

For a moment nobody moved, the room seemed to tense as the name was called.

"Vero Dragomir." The elder repeated, his patience thinning.

The person in question trudged forward, his shoulders were slumped and his head was down.

After being criticized by most of the people that had survived in the dungeon he felt his will shaken out of him, his confidence had taken a big hit as well as he was no longer proud, the pride that came from being a member of the branch family.

He prostrated in the same style as the others, presenting his space ring to the old man. His legs shook.

The elder took the ring before scrutinizing it.

"Twenty-three hearts."

He instructed Vero to stand at the corner, next to the others.

The evaluation continued in the same order, the elder calling the names of the surviving participants and taking their rings. The bald man did not bring the hearts out to count, by just gazing at it and using a bit of his mana he was able to determine the amount of things stored in the space ring.

And by taking the amount of weapons that a person would carry into the dungeon; one main weapon and one spare, or a sword and a shield, he could roughly estimate how many hearts was gotten.

Plus, he was also aware of the amount of potions each participant took with them into the dungeon.

The elder was surprised by the number of hearts the participants had managed to get in this one as many of the survivors after going through the dungeon wouldn’t even be able to get seven hearts.

’This really is the golden generation.’ He thought.

If only he knew that in the dungeon which they were sent to, the only monsters they were pitted against were goblins and spiders which could easily be taken down. And to increase their hearts to even further levels they even resorted to additional tactics.

"Jason Hachiman." The elder called out.

Jason walked forward, his steps slow and deliberate for no purpose. He stood face to face with the old man before handing him the ring.

Unlike the others Jason was calm and his eyes weren’t tired, showing that he had a good night’s sleep, something that eluded most of the people present here.

He had clearly slept well, too well.

The elder took the ring from him before beginning to scrutinize it closely.

’It seems like I’m going to get first place.’ Jason thought, he had stored eighty hearts in his space ring.

"Sixty hearts!" The elder announced.

"What?!" Jason exclaimed.

He thought he was not hearing right.

He killed fifty goblins and thirty hobgoblins, even if some had their hearts blown out he should at least have eighty, he even killed the Giant Arachnid Spider.

"The number is correct." The elder asserted, his eyes regarding Jason briefly. "You only have two weapons and sixty hearts in your space ring, which confirm the tally." The old man retorted hurriedly.

He ordered Jason to go to the corner where the others waited.

Jason quietly obeyed, but inwardly, a storm of thoughts raged in his mind.

’The elder could be lying.’ Jason mused. ’But that doesn’t seem right.’

If the elder did not want him to obtain a high position in the trials he could have just claimed that the hearts he got were twenty or even fifteen.

However, he said sixty.

A number higher than the hearts all three participants had gotten.

He could stroke the old man off his lists, the old man didn’t seem to have decrease his count.

’Now, onto the more probable answer.’ He thought, his eyes glaring at everyone that stood beside him.

’These people took some of my hearts while I was presumably dead.’

Jason had no way of proving this answer to be correct, but he knew that he got eighty hearts, it was all inputted in his near-perfect memory, he was 100% sure.

And by judging the elder, he was sure that the old man didn’t lower his number, because if he did he could have chosen a much lower one.

’These kids, they stole from me.’

’And what does he mean by two weapons?" He stroked his chin as he contemplated.

Jason had three weapons; the katana, the dagger Zane gifted to him, and the three-sectioned staff.

"Either the katana or the dagger is missing." He said aloud. "I wonder which one of you stole it?"

He watched their faces, looking for anything that would give the teenagers away.

But their faces were blank, the kind of blank that you couldn’t make anything out of. An inscrutable facade devoid of any revealing emotion.

’Are they just pretending or they actually have no idea?’

’I’ll have to ask the elder for all my weapons before any of these guys leave.’

Jason sighed.

"I’ll find out... eventually."

While the hearts for the trial meant nothing for him now as the rewards would only boost the effect of training one’s magic, the dagger and katana’s were something else.

He had seen the dagger poison one of Alaric’s guys so he knew it was special and was useful, and he had always wanted to use a katana, that had been his goal since arriving in this world.

He sat down on the floor, the elder’s voice reaching him as the old man announced the number of hearts the person he called have and as he called the next one.

He watched from the sidelines as he didn’t have anything to do, waiting for Zane to be called.

After Hereon walked over with his impressive haul of eighty-one hearts – as the elder claimed, Zane’s name was finally called.

"Zane Hachiman." The elder called.

’I’m going to get third.’ He thought, his mood sour.

These days he was always in a bad mood.