It has been two days since the incident in the library.
In those two days, I spent my time in the library. Fujita and the others also spent most of their time in the library.
I told Fujita and Kushida about my meeting with Magnus, and as I expected, they had also met Magnus, as had Haru, Renaldi, and Agatha.
Today, the six of us were summoned by King Cyrus. It seemed to be related to the church wanting to examine our abilities.
"Ooh, I'm really excited today!!"
"Is that so? Are you that happy?"
I was confused by Renaldi's excessive excitement.
"Of course, don't you get it? I don't know if we can use magic, but at least we should have the strength to live in this world. Most importantly, this is superpower, you know! That's so cool! Don't you get excited if you have a superpower like in the movies?"
That's true, we do need power to survive in this world. Moreover, we are heroes summoned to save the world.
I don't know if the powers from my original world could help me in that matter.
"Renaldi-san's words are true, Fixl-san! I'm also a little excited and have a small hope about our powers."
Fujita said that, and I looked at the others; they nodded in agreement.
It seemed I was the only one not thinking about that here. I understood, maybe because in their world there is nothing like superpowers that could excite them.
Different for me. In my original place, superpowers do exist, but they are not common either.
Through various research, some humans could enhance their abilities to the point where they were no longer like ordinary humans.
But with the existence of magic in this world, the power system we might gain here could be completely different from my original world.
In fact, I already had some hypotheses about what power I might obtain, but I needed to confirm them.
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With the guidance of an old servant, we arrived at a room, and when we entered, there were already several people inside. King Cyrus, and a man and woman wearing white hooded robes— I guessed they were from the Church.
Seeing our arrival, King Cyrus welcomed us and pointed at the two of them while saying:
"You've finally arrived! These are the envoys from the church I spoke of; they will examine your abilities."
One of the church envoys approached us.
With a friendly smile, he took off his hood and began introducing himself and the girl behind him.
"My name is Jack, a servant of the god from this city, and she is the nun accompanying me. Her name is Anna."
The man's name was Jack. He was quite young, with a bright demeanor, perhaps around 20 years old, with blonde hair and a small scar on his cheek.
As for the girl named Anna, she was short, perhaps only in her teens? I couldn't see her face clearly due to my higher vantage point, but her black hair was visible from beneath her hood.
We also introduced ourselves to the two of them and then discussed the purpose of this meeting.
"To save time, we can start right away. Anna, take out the item."
At Jack's order, from inside her robe, Anna pulled out a small black cube, no bigger than the palm of a hand.
Seeing our gaze fixed on the cube, Jack explained.
"This is the Luminis Core, a divine artifact received by the great witch 400 years ago. That witch said that with this cube, we can determine the abilities of people from other worlds."
Hearing Jack's explanation, Cyrus made a remark.
"Impressive, you're really good at hiding it. I didn't know you had an artifact from that witch. I guess I should increase surveillance on you."
"HAHAHA, Just try it."
"HAHAHA..."
"HAHAHA..."
Somehow, the two of them started clashing, and seeing their antics, Anna could only sigh and shake her head.
Seeing Anna's reaction, I felt this happened often. Were Cyrus and Jack quite close?
"That's enough! We have to start the examination!"
Hearing Anna's scolding, Jack refocused on the examination.
"O-okay... sorry, Anna. Anyway, this is the first time the Luminis Core will be used, so I don't exactly know how it works, but the witch explained that people from other worlds just need to hold it, and then you'll know. So, who wants to try it first?"
He explained and asked us who would go first.
I looked at Renaldi beside me, but his reaction was just silence.
I was confused by his reaction. Wasn't he the most excited about this? I thought he would step forward first.
"What's wrong with you? Weren't you really excited earlier? Don't you want to go first?"
"Hmph, you know nothing! For a protagonist, in moments like this, he must be the last in order, and when you see his power, you'll be amazed. And that protagonist is me."
"..."
With a smug face, he started spouting strange things again, and we just stared at him silently.
After looking at him briefly, I turned to Jack and volunteered to go first.
"I'll do it."
"Alright. Anna, give him the Luminis Core."
At Jack's order, Anna approached and handed me the cube.
I gripped the cube and quickly used nanobots to analyze it.
Maybe I could get some information.
Unfortunately, after the nanobots began working, what I found was:
[ Beginning scan__ Material: Unknown , Energy Capacity: 100%, Detailed Information: Unknown ]
A new material again! Different from the strange stone from the previously destroyed planet, this object still had energy. No, don't think about that now—after holding the cube for a while, why isn't anything happening?
Oh no! Did I break it while analyzing it with nanobots?
"Eh? Why hasn't anything happened yet? Does it take a long time to work? But the witch said the Luminis Core will work instantly after being held."
Hearing that from Jack, Renaldi rushed over and snatched the cube from my hand.
"WHAT DID YOU DO?? DID YOU BREAK IT? WHAT IF—ah."
"ah..."
As Renaldi shouted, the cube in his hand suddenly displayed a unique pattern, the pattern moving like flowing water.
The patterns gathered at a corner of the cube into a drop of white liquid. The drop fell to the floor, hardened, and formed into a small pin.
Renaldi picked up the pin and flipped it over. Seeing writing on the pin, he read it.
"Sensorium Materia?"
After reading the words on the pin, Renaldi groaned slightly and then suddenly looked shocked.
"Ugh... WHAT! Just detecting materials!!"
Judging by his reaction, the pin must have only had the name of the power written on it, while the information about the ability itself went directly into the user's mind.
It seemed I wasn't the only one who thought that.
"Oh, so that's how the Luminis Core works... What a pity, only beings from another world can use it... Detecting materials, huh... that's surely a power the dwarves would love."
"T-this must be wrong! I'll try again."
Not accepting the result, Renaldi gripped the cube tightly again, but nothing happened. It seemed each person could only use it once.
Thank goodness, I thought the cube was broken because of me.
"H-how could this happen?... I... There must be something wrong... could it be!"
Renaldi fell to his knees, dropping the cube with a look of despair, and began muttering strange things.
Ignoring him, Jack picked up the cube.
"Hmm... This Luminis Core still works, so why didn't it work with you, Fixl?... We need to finish this assessment first, so who's next?"
"I'll go next."
The other four had already decided the order of testing: first Fujita, then Agatha, followed by Kushida, and lastly Haru.
Fujita took the cube, and just like with Renaldi, strange patterns appeared again and formed into a drop.
[Soul Residue]
Fujita explained that the Soul Residue ability was the power to communicate with souls that had left their bodies.
According to Jack's explanation, in some special cases, a soul could remain in the world for quite a while, but generally, the soul of a recently deceased being could only last for 24 hours.
Even so, the power was still very valuable for gathering information.
Souls, huh...
"F-Fixl?..."
"Hmm?... What is it, Agatha?"
"N-no, it's nothing."
"Is that so?... oh, now it's your turn!"
Hearing my words, Agatha hurriedly and nervously took the cube.
"..."
Feeling someone standing behind me, I turned around and saw Haru staring at me from up close.
That surprised me. Maybe because I was thinking about so many things, I noticed her presence too late.
"Haru? What is it?"
"What were you two talking about earlier?"
"Ah, that—seems like Agatha wanted to say something to me but didn't."
"Is that so? Now I'm curious what she wanted to say."
Did I make a strange expression and Agatha saw it? Possibly.
Well... it couldn't be helped if I did make such an expression, because knowledge about souls was something I had been pursuing all along.
Although, it seemed no longer applicable after I came to this world.