When Fang entered the tower, he was greeted by several people sitting at different tables. Above the tables were different symbols that Fang couldn’t understand. He suddenly felt the token in his hand lead him towards the table where a grey haired old man was soundly sleeping.
All the other tables had long lines and all the people lined up at those tables were wearing the Soul Academy Emblem on their chests. As Fang walked towards the table the token was leading him towards, he observed what happened at the other tables. He saw that all the people were handing in different resources and then briefly gave the people behind the table the tokens.
The administers took the tokens, then seemed to record down something and then gave the tokens back. Some of the people that got their tokens back were jubilant, some sighed with regret. Seeing this peculiar scene, Fang didn’t know what to think. As he was absorbed in his thoughts, he arrived in front of the table with the sleeping old man.
“Magus level?” Suddenly, the old man asked, his eyes still closed as if sleeping. Fang woke up from his thoughts and looked at the man in confusion. Not hearing an answer, the old man frowned before opening his eyes and looking at Fang. After sizing him up, he waved his hand and the token that Meng had given to Jack flew to his hands. The token lit up for a second before the old man looked surprised and sized up Fang with a serious gaze. He then stood up and said, “Follow me.”
Fang meekly nodded and slowly trekked after the old man. They soon came in front of a small wooden door. The old man then turned to Fang and said, “Go inside, the person in charge will explain the rest to you.” Fang nodded his head in confusion and after the old man had opened the door, Fang hesitantly walked in.
Inside the room, a man that seemed to be in his late twenties or early thirties was standing in front of the Testing Stele, reading a book. Feeling that someone had entered the room, he raised his eyes from the book and smiled towards Fang, “Hello, are you here to be tested?”
Fang was a bit taken aback from the friendly demeanor of the young man and gently nodded his head. The young man then closed his book and beckoned Fang to step closer. Fang walked towards him and when he arrived in front of the young man, the young man started explaining, “Place your hand on the Stele and relax.” He took a breath before continuing, “This Top Grade Testing Stele will send waves of energy inside you. It isn’t harmful towards you in the least, so don’t try to resist these waves that will roam through your body.”
Fang had gone through the process once already, so he had some experience with it. Last time, he had flustered and didn’t know what was going on but this time, it was different. He had some idea of what to expect so this time, he was mentally prepared for what is coming. Seeing Fang nod, the young man also nodded with a smile and gestured for Fang to begin.
Fang then placed his hand on the Stele like last time and waited. It didn’t take even a minute before a gentle stream of warm energy started flowing to Fang’s body from the giant Stele. As the Energy roamed around in his body, he couldn’t help but think back to the last time and frown a bit. The last time, the energy didn’t seem to go through all the muscles, skin and bones but currently, he could feel that no place was spared from the energy.
As the energy roamed around and an angered “Hisssss!” rang out in his mind. Fang’s eyes opened wide as he suddenly felt the weird energy and feeling take over him again. “Just like before….” As he murmured that to himself, the young man that had been reading a book before wasn’t smiling any more. His eyes were extremely serious as he intently stared at everything happening.
Since Fang flinched and opened his eyes the moment the hiss sounded out in his head, the young man noticed that something happened. He then turned towards the Stele and looked at the other side that was hidden from Fang.
From there he read, [Skeletal Age: 10, Awakening: Naturally Partially Awakened, Body Condition: Malnourished, Overall Physique: Weakened due to malnutrition, Elemental Affinities: Darkness 9, Fire 6. Special Affinities: Space 0, Special Bloodline: Undetermined, Not completely Awakened]
Reading those results, the young man’s eyes narrowed. Inside his eyes, there was excitement present when he read those stats.
The Affinities were approximate in the first place and there was a margin of error. The margin was a plus one or minus one, meaning that it could be higher or lower that displayed by the Stele. When the Energy had left Fang’s body, he slowly took away his hand from the Stele. Seeing that Fang had taken his hand away, the young man gestured for Fang to come closer.
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When Fang reached the young man, he also saw all those numbers and stats behind the Stele. As he looked at them in puzzlement, the young man kindly started explaining. “This Top Grade Stele is far more thorough than the Low grade one your Master has.” Fang looked at the young man in astonishment.
The young man let out a chuckle as he revealed the Command Medallion Meng had given him, “This Medallion belongs to Xie Meng, one of the strongest and oldest members of the Soul Academy. He is one of the pillars that holds up our Heaven.” He then gave the Command Medallion back to Fang with an amused smile and continued, “If I couldn’t even recognize the Command Medallion of a fellow Soul Guardian, I wouldn’t deserve to have eyes in the first place.”
Feng let out a hollow laugh as he understood that the old man that picked him up may be a bit nonsensical but he was strong. He had status as well and these two things were the main things that were the biggest deterrent in any world.
Why had no one from the village dared to rise up against towards the Father Son duo? Because the young boy was a part of a Magic Academy, meaning that they stood behind his back. However, the Magic Academy belonged to the Light Magi Alliance, which ended up being Fang’s saving grace. Light Magi had strict rules and if the young boy or his father had killed him outright, if the higher ups found out about it, there was a high chance of being severely punished according to the rules.
However, if he was charged according to the village laws and executed according to tradition…. Even if someone found out about it, there was no fear of any punishment what so ever. As a Naturally Awakened Magus, his value was very big to all the Academies and Schools. If they ignored his Darkness attribute, then his Fire Attribute in itself wasn’t bad at all.
Fang asked the young man, “What do those letters and numbers mean?” The young man was startled for a second before he looked at Fang in astonishment, “You don’t know letters or numbers?” Fang shook his head and said casually, “I grew up in a small village, only some of the grown ups could read a little and knew numbers.” “Ohh, that’s how it was.” The young man crossed his arms in front of his chest and lowered his head as his brows furrowed.
There hadn’t come a child to be tested with the Stele that couldn’t read or understand numbers before. Since he hadn’t met with this situation before, he didn’t know how to approach it. As he thought about it, Meng suddenly appeared out of thin air and said, “No need to worry yourself Brother Feng, I will explain everything to him myself.”
Meng’s face was beaming with eagerness and his eyes showed a hint of astonishment and shock. The young man named Feng let out a light laugh as he also said with a beaming smile, “Congratulations Brother Meng, you seem to have picked up another unpolished jade.”
lthough there was a tinge of regret and envy in his tone, Meng ignored it. Seeing this Fang looked at the two of them in confusion. From the smiles and flattery between the two, it seemed as though his testing results were good. As to how good…. Only now will he get an explanation.
Feng and Meng exchanged a few more pleasantries and after saying his good byes, Feng left with his book in tow. Only Meng and Fang were left in the testing room. Fang’s results were still written on the Giant Stele and Meng was looking at them in excitement.
Meng then started explaining to Fang, “Well, the results this time were way beyond my expectations to be honest.” He paused for a second with a slight sigh and then started from the beginning, “The first is ‘Skeletal Age: 10’ I don’t think I need to explain what that means….”
Fang nodded his head and answered, “It means that I am ten years old.” Meng nodded his head and elaborated a bit, “We find determining the skeletal age to be the most accurate. There are countless spells to alter muscles, skin, height and so on but altering the bones is extremely hard.” Fang nodded his head to the simplified explanation.
Meng then continued, “Next, the Physique and such is simple as well, due to the lack of food, like you told me, you didn’t get the proper nutrients needed for a young man’s growth. We can ignore all those as well because give a bit of time and you will be as good as your peers, if not even better.” Fang nodded again as it was truly easy to understand.
Now Meng’s face turned serious but his eyes betrayed excitement. He took a breath and continued, “Next comes the ‘Awakening: Naturally Partially Awakened’. This is a bit more complicated to explain. It means that your Awakening as a Magus isn’t complete yet.” As he said that, his hands crossed on his chest.
He then held up two fingers as he said, “In your case, there are two reasons why you haven’t Fully Awakened yet: The Bloodline and the Special Affinity.” Fang displayed a confused expression on his face as he had a bit of a hard time keeping up with the old man.
Meng then explained it further, “Remember the weird feeling when you met the Red Skinned Devil?” Fang’s eyes lit up as he said, “Yes, a loud ‘Hiss!’ echoed in my head and my body felt full of energy.” He then lowered his head to look at his hands. Meng’s eyes flickered when he listened to Fang’s explanation but Fang didn’t see it. Meng then continued, “This is your Bloodline. Not every person has one and not everyone, who has one, can awaken it. Due to luck or fate, whichever you prefer, your bloodline has awakened from it’s slumber. Given enough time, it will fully awaken.”
Fang then nodded his head slowly as he tried to keep up with the old man again. He was only ten, even if his intelligence, comprehending and thought process was years ahead of his peers, it was hard to understand all this information right off the bat. It would take time, more explanations and examples for Fang to understand it.
Meng then said in an extremely eager voice, “The main reason your Awakening as a Magus isn’t complete, is because of the ‘Special affinity, Space’” His eyes were on fire with eagerness and also a tinge of jealousy.
