The smell of oatmeal with something else I could not quite put the finger on wafted through the house as I came down the stairs the next morning. Marta was always up before any of us to prepare breakfast for everyone. Branwen used to do it on some mornings just so Marta could get some rest but she had taken it all on herself since Branwen left.
I got up later than usual that day as I spent an unhealthy amount of time the night before fantasizing about what I could do with my new Core Mutation that I got together with my Orange core. All the other kids were already at the table, a few already halfway through their breakfast as I sat down.
Marta already had a bowl of oatmeal prepared and served it to me as I sat down. Before I could wolf it down as usual, Marta quickly said "Ash dear, could I have a moment of your time after breakfast?"
"Sure" I replied, and began eating my oatmeal slowly instead. I could see that there were bits of dried jerky and some root vegetables that looked like carrots back on Earth mixed in. I would normally take mine with honey but it was apparently a luxury only nobles and royals consumed in this world as it was extremely difficult to harvest.
Marta had been more liberal with the supplies ever since I brought that boar back a week ago, which was good as I could see the other kids becoming more lively with a full belly. A full stomach always did wonders for a person's mood.
As the other kids slowly left after they finished their food, I finished mine as well and began helping Marta with cleaning up the table. As I was washing the dishes, I looked at Marta and said "Alright, spill the tea."
"What? We don't have tea. And why would I waste it by spilling it?" Marta said with a confused look.
I had to remind myself not to use any Earth references every now and quickly corrected "I meant you wanted to talk right? I assumed there was some news you wanted to share."
"Let's finish up first and sit down" she replied.
As we wrapped up the cleaning and sat by the kitchen table, Marta looked at me seriously and said "Ash dear, I need you to listen to me." Oh boy, this did not sound good, I thought.
"There will be a Royal Inspector coming in the next few days, I just got a letter last night. They typically send word ahead so I could have the papers ready and get the kids prepared."
"The Royal Inspect comes every two to three years to assess the affinity of everyone who might have awakened their core. That means they usually would only test kids who are older than nine years of age"
"That is also part of the reason why we receive a stipend from the Crown. They look for kids with rare affinities, that might be of value of the country. But that's not all they look for. There are some uncommon affinities that are much more valuable to the military due to the nature of magic. Affinities like shadow, metal, poison, and lightning"
She looked at me as she mentioned the last affinity. I had not mentioned what my affinity was but she had probably guessed based on the slight scorch mark on the second boar's pelt and the lack of other obvious wounds when I brought it back.
"I don't know when exactly the inspector would arrive, but can you promise me to lay low until the inspection is over and the inspector leaves? That means no spells, no hunts, no practice of whatsoever until all this is over"
I could see the seriousness based on her tone. I would not be tested in this inspection as I was not of age yet, and in the next cycle we still had not figured out how I could avoid it yet. But for now, Marta was asking me not to do anything that might arouse suspicion for the Royal Inspector to test me.
My face turned solemn as I looked at Marta to let her know I understand the severity of the situation "Understood, ma'am" I said.
"Good, now off you go. It might do you good to play with other others for a change" she added as she got to continue on with other chores.
It was two days later that the Royal Inspector came. It was good thing I did not have to wait any longer as I was up to my limit of my interaction with the other kids. I could hear the hoof beats of what passed for a horse in this world coming up from the Old Mill Road.
As Marta was alerted to the arrival of Royal Inspector, she got the kids ready and lined up in front of the Orphanage. Gal, Merv, Thal, and Wyl lined up in front beside Marta, with the rest of us standing to the back.
Marta carried some papers, which appeared to be records of when the orphanage took us in and our age, probably to support the monthly stipend requested from the Crown. The Royal Inspector rode up to the orphanage and continued on a bit further to the stream, before getting off and tying the reins to a nearby tree so that the horse could get a drink of water.
He walked back to us before giving Marta a greeting "Matron Marta" he simply muttered as he nodded his head.
"Inspector Halric Venn, pleasure to have you with us this morning" Marta quickly replied and gave a quick bow. It was the first time I saw Marta being so deferential, which I could understand given a poor report by the inspector could jeopardize our monthly allocation from the Crown.
"Apologies for the delay, something held me up in Hollow's Reach. Well let's get on with it, I have four more orphanages and two towns to visit before week's end" Halric added.
"Yes, of course. I have the full list here" Marta stepped up to pass a piece of parchment to Halric.
"Hmm I thought there were five?" he looked up from the parchment and eyed where Gal was standing.
"Branwen has already awakened a medium fire affinity two years back after the last visit. The parish has the registration. She's apprenticing with the smiths in Hollow's Reach"
"Right, alright then let's go with descending order. Let's start with Gallum shall we?" Halric said as he took an orb out from a pouch on his belt. It looked to be a pale grey stone with several inscriptions I could not recognise over it. This was probably a some sort of enchanted item, something I would have to study more about once I get those books.
"Place your hand on the disc and keep it there until I tell you to remove it. It may feel warm to the touch and will light up after a while. It will not harm you so you do not need to be worried."
"The light will tell me what is your potential affinity if you're close to awakening and your potential grade. Though the final details will only be confirmed once you are Weave-touched. Alright, you're up first boy" he said as he looked at Gallum and held out the orb.
Gal stepped forward and placed his hand on the orb. He already knew he had an medium earth affinity last year when he awakened the core. This process was more a formality for the Royal Inspector to make sure that people did not lie about their affinity. As some people might not want to be conscripted to the military or be separated from their family. None of these were concerns for Gallum at the moment.
After a moment or two, the orb started to glow with a steady pale tan-brown colour with medium intensity. "Hmmm, an awakened medium earth affinity, you may step back" he placed the orb back in his pouch to jot something down in his notes.
"Mervath, step forward please" Halric called out. Merv quickly walked forward and placed his hand on the orb when Halric held it out in front of him. The orb took a bit longer to respond but instead of the whole orb lightning up, only the top section did.
"Hmm unawakened but it seems like your affinity is already detectable. Amber colour usually means the Beast affinity. An uncommon one but a pity not one the military needs right now" Halric noted down.
While there was combat potential for Beast Affinity mages, it usually relies on them finding a beast with good growth capability and nourishing them from young. Most people with Beast Affinity either works as farm hands or some trade like a merchant. It is much easier to train a combat mage where their affinity can inflict direct damage on their opponents, lightning for example.
Thal and Wyl went next but the orb did not even light up, which meant that their core was not close to awakening nor detectable at this point in time. "If they awaken a rare affinity or an uncommon affinity sought by the military, you know what to do" Halric said as he looked at Marta.
Halric was in the midst of placing the orb away when his eyes landed on me, "You're rather tall boy, what is your name? Are you not nine years of age yet?"
Marta quickly cut in, for fear of me saying something weird in front of the inspector "He's only seven years of age, a bit tall for his age too early to even awaken his core" she said as she passed him what I assumed was documentation for when I arrived at the orphanage.
"Hmmm, interesting, maybe you might have Elven blood in you. You'll make for a fine recruit if you awakened the right affinity. We'll see in a few years time" Oh boy, he had no idea how right he was.
"I shall be on my way then, lest the other Matrons complain for keeping them waiting." he put away his notes and orb and began walking to his horse by the stream. I could hear Marta's sigh of relief once he was out of ear shot.
I was out of the woods for now, but unless I found away to fool that orb, or ran away from here, which would put Marta in trouble, I had no solution for when another inspector came by the orphanage. Something for future Asher to worry about.
Later that evening, with the inspector drama behind me, I began thinking about the next phase of my plan. I could hear Kes badgering Thal in their own room about what being tested felt like. Gallum was talking to Merv about where he would be going when he left by the end of the year beside me as they were settling in for the night.
While the food issue is temporarily resolved and I would be hunting more boars in the days to come, I had yet to resolve the issue with my lack of funds. The pelt and tusks from the last two boar brough in about two small pieces of silver with some copper to spare. The value of tusks and pelt from the first boar was a lot less due to the damage on the pelt and the size of the boar.
Math probably worked the same way across all universe as 1 small silver was worth roughly 100 pieces of small copper. They had larger denominations of the copper coins that were worth 10 small pieces just to make it easier to carry around.
The unique thing about this world was instead of every country minting their own currency, the Western continent at least seemed to rely on the Gilded Reach's currency for trade. Perhaps Gilded Reach had such an advanced progress in commerce and trade that they had dominated the market before the countries could produce their own, and it sort of settled into how people traded across the entire Western continent.
I had no idea how much the books I wanted would cost, but I estimated that twenty to thirty pieces of small silvers would be quite a sizable sum as Marta mentioned that it was close to the orphanage's annual stipend allocation. Though she would not let up about how much it actually was.
Based on that, if I factored in the time I needed to prepare bait, scout out where the beasts foraging paths were in the forest and some potential misses, I was looking at potentially two boars per week. If I assumed 1.5 small silver for the larger boar and better pelt conditions, it would take me minimum of 12 weeks just to hit 20 silvers total.
I looked again at my Lighting Brain core mutation and could not wait to start on it. I already had a concept of a defibrillator but would need to have full understanding of spells before I attempted anything.
The first summer since I came to this world finally get more interesting.