The narrator tells us that soldiers, farmers, and hunters make up the majority of the citizens of Black Stone City. They're all "civable cultivators" . The narrator says that he's going to take one of the chosen soldiers to meet with the elder. He wants to know why the elder hasn't yet passed the tests to enter the tower. The elder tells him that the test will be conducted by a "professional" , which means that the chosen soldier will have to pass a series of tests to be admitted into the tower, where he'll have to fight the Black Stone King. He also tells the narrator that the elder's father is a "lord named king," not a "black stone king." The elder says that the lord will test the soldier's "qualitative for corporal cultivation," which is a fancy way of saying that the soldier must be able to perform a certain kind of physical activity. This sounds like a lot of fun, but the narrator doesn't get it.