The next day, before the crack of dawn.
Or rather, aboard this colossal ship crossing the sea of clouds, the concept of day and night didn't exist at all.
Cold light panels embedded in the ceiling simulated the dawn, the light punctually seeping into every cabin and waking the chosen boys and girls from their light sleep.
The great hall was once again filled with people, but the atmosphere was even more oppressive than the day before.
The statue named Leo still stood in its place, like a silent tombstone, a constant reminder to all that the rules here were not to be broken.
No one dared to approach it, or even look at it for too long.
Allen stood at the very edge of the crowd, his expression calm, scanning the terrified faces with his peripheral vision.
Directly ahead, space rippled once more like the surface of water.
This time, a person in a gray robe appeared.
He looked to be middle-aged, with ordinary features and an air of persistent weariness in his eyes, as if he were a sleep-deprived schoolmaster who had just crawled out from a pile of dusty tomes in a library.
"Good morning, future Wizards."
The gray-robed man's opening was unexpectedly gentle.
"I am your guide and mentor, Gray. I will be the one to teach you some necessary common knowledge. Relax. I'm not like my colleague, who turns people into decorations at the drop of a hat."
His words held a hint of self-deprecation, slightly easing the tense atmosphere. A few of the braver boys even managed to squeeze out ingratiating smiles.
"First, congratulations. You have all been successfully harvested from a massive greenhouse called 'Gaia'."
He paced back and forth, surveying the crowd.
"The world you were born in, we call it a 'Nursery'. It is the most stable and common type of 'bubble' in the Sea of Magical Power."
Gray let out a soft chuckle and continued, "Your so-called kingdoms, empires, families, wealth... in our eyes, they are nothing more than dirt. Utterly meaningless."
"The sole value of your entire world's existence is to serve as a garden, producing seeds like you—those with the potential to become 'us'."
This statement completely shattered the dead silence in the hall.
An uncontrollable commotion erupted among the boys and girls. It was the sound of their beliefs collapsing.
One boy couldn't help but retort, "Nonsense! My ancestor was a Duke! My family rules over a thousand-mile domain and governs countless mortals. How could that be meaningless!"
Gray stopped pacing and looked at him with great interest.
"A Duke? Oh, how impressive."
"Well then, could that Duke ancestor of yours shatter a continent?"
"Could he cross planes and battle a Demon Monarch from the Abyss?"
"Could he make the river of time pause for even a single second for his sake?"
With each of the three consecutive questions, the boy's face grew a shade paler.
By the time the last question was asked, his lips were trembling, and he couldn't utter a single word.
"He couldn't?" Gray's tone was still gentle, but beneath it lay the arrogance and indifference of a god looking down upon an ant. "Then listen carefully."
"The authority of mortals is as fragile as a thin sheet of ice in the face of true power."
He spread his arms wide, his voice suddenly rising, carrying a bewitching magic.
"Who are we? We are Wizards!"
"Our journey is to the sea of stars, to the endless planes! We seek truth, plunder knowledge, and colonize worlds. The very meaning of our existence is to constantly evolve and research until we become eternal, perfect beings!"
The hall fell deathly silent.
Everyone was stunned by the terrifyingly grand picture the gray-robed Wizard had painted.
Princes, Dukes, wealthy merchants—before a power capable of "colonizing worlds," they were as insignificant as dust.
Inside Allen's mind, the logical core named "DSeek" was rapidly restructuring.
'Worldview model corrected.'
'Original objective: Rhine Kingdom Industrial Revolution Project... Assessed value: Zero. File discarded.'
'Generating new mission: Explore the Path of Truth.'
Allen lowered his eyelids, concealing all fluctuations in his expression. 'Good. The old worldview has been shattered, and a new world is unfolding before my eyes. This is exactly the kind of scenery I wanted to see.'
Gray was very satisfied with their thoroughly stunned reactions. He clapped his hands, pulling everyone's attention back to him.
"It seems you've begun to understand your situation. Now, for the important part. On this ship, you will undergo a talent test that will decide your fate."
"We call this system the 'Dual-Track Screening and Potential Assessment'."
"Any candidate under the age of 18 must pass two fundamental tests that determine their 'qualification'."
"First, the Magic Power Affinity Screening. It tests whether your soul can accept the blessings of the 'Sea of Magical Power'. This is the threshold. If you fail, you won't even qualify to be a Wizard's servant."
He then held up a second finger.
"Second, the Meditation Aptitude Screening. It tests if you can delve deep into your Sea of Consciousness and if you can form the fulcrum needed to leverage great power. This is the key to becoming a Caster."
He glanced around at the faces, twisted with nervousness, the corners of his mouth turning colder.
"The cruel reality is that these two tests alone will eliminate more than half of you."
"And those who pass merely gain the qualification 'to be cultivated'."
Panic spread silently through the crowd like a plague.
"Don't worry, this is just the beginning."
Gray's smile grew more and more meaningful. "After the screening, there is a second round of potential assessment."
"The Concentration Test, which measures the strength and resilience of your Spiritual Power. It determines whether you can control ten spells at once or if you'll struggle to even light a candle."
"The Memory Test, which measures the efficiency of your learning. The path of a Wizard is paved with infinite knowledge. A fool who can't even memorize a hundred basic Runes is not worthy to walk this path."
Gray spread his hands like a merchant showing off his wares.
"After the tests, each of you will receive a comprehensive evaluation report. Magic Power Affinity, Meditation Adaptability, Concentration, and Memory. These four metrics will each be graded from S to C. A few individuals with special talents will also receive special attention."
His words became highly inflammatory.
"Geniuses with an S-rank will ascend to the heavens in a single step, entering the Core Academy directly, with the top mentors and knowledge at their disposal!"
"Those with an A-rank can also become key prospects for major Wizard Organizations, with a bright future ahead."
"As for B or C..."
He drew out his words, his tone full of mockery. "Mediocrities. You can only fight for apprentice spots in third-rate Wizard Clans, or become an assistant to some down-and-out Wizard, struggling to survive under constant exploitation."
He added one last thing, a casual remark that made everyone's hair stand on end.
"Oh, right. If any of your metrics are severely deficient... well, you'd better pray that some part of your body has some use-value for certain special Alchemy Experiments or rituals."
"Otherwise... the return ticket is quite expensive."
That sentence was like a poisoned dagger plunged into everyone's heart.
The crowd was no longer a silent whole. Some people began to subconsciously huddle together, while others sized up the "competitors" around them with wary eyes.
The girl who had asked Allen for directions yesterday was now cornered by two tall boys, her face pale as she trembled.
Allen paid no attention to any of this. His mind was racing.
'Command: Cross-index 'Sea of Magical Power,' 'planes,' 'Meditation,' and 'talent test.' Construct preliminary cognitive model.'
[DSeek: Command received. Commencing relational database construction...]
['Sea of Magical Power': High-dimensional energy medium, source of power. Preliminary deduction suggests a mapping relationship with 'quantum foam' and 'string theory' from physics.]
['Planes': Structural units of the universe, quantity: infinite. Preliminary deduction suggests the possibility of differing physical constants.]
['Meditation': Spiritual Power training technique. Core principle is the conversion of disordered spiritual fluctuations into an ordered structure.]
['Talent Test': In essence, a quantitative assessment of soul and spirit. Concentration and memory... highly overlap with 'cognitive ability tests' received by the host in a previous life. Accessing relevant training models...]
Just as Allen was madly absorbing this information and planning his optimal test-prep strategy, Master Gray's voice rang out again.
"Alright, that's enough for the common knowledge lesson. No matter how much I say, it's better for you to experience it firsthand."
He clapped his hands, the gentle mask completely torn away, leaving only impatience and scrutiny.
"Now, let's see what the caliber of this batch of seeds is really like."