Because of the high traffic the ship had to wait for its turn. After a few minutes it was finally allowed to dock.

Filled with tension the youths stepped onto the yellowish cloud which carried the city hall. The chatter was reduced to whispers as everyone looked left and right.

Walking through a festively decorated gate the youths arrived at a large plaza. Tepo’s class tried to stay together as told by their teacher to prevent getting lost in the huge, gathered crowd.

All around them various anxious youths came from all over the city for the awakening ceremony. At a certain spot a big group stood together. Their pretentious chatter served to mask their own nervousness.

These were the youths brought by strong organizations. Which of them would dare to show any fear with their teachers and parents standing behind them?

Naturally Tondka had to show his best behavior as well. He had always talked a lot, but Tepo noticed that it was particularly bad today. In order to show off in front of his classmates, he began introducing the present influential people one by one:

“Look there, everyone. The broad man with a yellow symbol on his chest.”

“With the red jacket?”, asked someone.

“Right. That’s my father, Tondka Lirane Senior. The current president of the Lirane Minerals Group. He will soon go beyond the aspirant rank and become an acolyte.”

With this introduction even Tepo had to raise his brows. Reaching the acolyte rank would already place Tondka Senior among the strong warriors in his mind. Only the city’s mayor, Taren Denn Raunej, was publicly known to be a mid-level acolyte. But Tepo couldn’t fathom what this implied. Their own teachers in school hadn’t reached this level, so how could they teach the students about it?

But the young man quickly thought it through. Tondka proclaimed that his father would soon reach the rank of an acolyte, but who knew how much truth this statement held. ‘Soon’ might be in a day, a year, or a decade.

Obviously Tondka was doing his best to highlight his father. When he continued introducing the other warriors, he didn’t show as much enthusiasm.

“Those talking to my father are also quite strong. They are Noaran Gelg, the current leader of the Gelg family. Although they have many members, there is no one impressive among them.

While the black-haired woman is Royaha Puquis. She leads the White Panther Mercenaries.”

Tondka didn’t dare to say too much about the White Panther Mercenaries. Else they might steal his father’s limelight.

Their group was rather well known. It united many specialists under their name. Together they sold their services to everyone who paid enough and solved difficult dungeons for their clients.

Especially Royaha was an idol of many young females, as could be seen form Ganaph’s sparkling eyes. Parton on the other hand was more interested in the Gelg family.

Although it was always said that they had no strong masters, they offered a lot of stability. They didn’t take many risks and treated their family members well. Willing to invest in talent, they step for step built a huge business empire. They were very clever about it.

Even two of Tepo’s classmates were already supported by them after showing talent in the creation of artifacts. For them it was alright even if they didn’t awaken a core, they would still be allowed to join the Gelg family.

Comparatively, Tepo didn’t know as much about the Lirane Minerals Group. Their base was outside the city, not appearing in the eyes of commoners often.

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While Tondka continued his introduction, Tepo quickly lost interest. His attention was captured by the strange green dust above everyone’s head. The young man was fascinated as he followed its movements.

Gliding through the air this dust cloud formed pictures and texts from time to time. It showed scenes of strong warriors fighting against powerful enemies. The text announced their names to the world, praising them as heroes of the time.

Tepo was able to analyze those calmly. He knew the purpose of such advertisement. The army in his former life had done the same. By glorifying certain battles, impressionable youngsters would imagine a life as heroes. They would be more eager to join the battle.

Gauging the reaction of many youths in the crowd, the propaganda definitely achieved its effect. Some even forgot their nervousness as they started to daydream.

But Tepo wasn’t sure about a certain point. Who would profit from this propaganda? Was it the city? Would they get more soldiers? Or was it an alliance of organizations who hoped to inspire more youths? None of those guesses made too much sense as the scene changed once more.

Now someone introduced as Lord Oolm from the World of Rooted Trees appeared.

In the unmoving image a brawny man with a massive shield stood within a huge doorway. Behind him a few people obviously tried to open another gate. But what took Tepo’s breath away was the giant monster Oolm was facing.

With a height of at least a dozen meters (39 feet) its terrifying claw threatened to tear the whole place down. But Oolm fearlessly raised his shield, holding the beast back.

Tepo would have loved to study the images longer, but Parton suddenly spoke up.

“Over there, teacher has arrived.”

Following the tall man’s finger, many of the classmates spotted the group which had walked out of the city hall just now. A blue hawk made from light circled above their heads. This was the symbol of the Blue Hawk School, which Tepo had visited for six years.

Right now, all their teacher scattered orderly, waiting for their respective students. Among them Parton had found their teacher, Mr. Ennuc. He was an easygoing man with a short-cut green Mohican. He was well liked among the students.

Right now, Mr. Ennuc stood leisurely at the side. His eyes searched the crowd, trying to find his students. He fished out some blue powder from the pocket of his dark blue school uniform and scattered it on his tongue. A prickly feeling spread from his tongue towards his mind.

The teacher took a deep breath. For a second a languorous shudder spread through his body. Unfortunately, the Flying Powder didn’t have much of an effect on anyone with a core. Ennuc raised his head, staring at the air. It was the same every time. During the ceremony he was regularly even more nervous than his students.

He was always too emotionally invested in his students. Who knew what would happen? How many students would awaken a core? How many wouldn’t? Would they cry and fall into depression? Would they stay strong and overcome this setback?

When Ennuc was lost in thoughts he suddenly noticed the crowd moving before him. He watched as one by one familiar faces emerged. Voices, which mostly lost their childishness over the last six years, greeted him intimately.

“Morning, Teacher! How are you?”

“Have you waited long for us, teacher?”

“Teacher, yesterday I succeeded in raising my speed one more time.”

“Thanks for all the hard work, teacher.”

Suppressing his complicated emotions, Ennuc smiled at the students. He knew that today was an important day in their lives. He had to be their pillar of support one last time. Afterwards he could only wish them the best.

But a little bit of hope always remained within Ennuc. Maybe one or two of his students would join the school in the future. The teacher would be more than happy to call them his colleagues.

Getting rid of all distractions, Ennuc addressed his students:

“Morning, everyone. Has everybody made it?”

“Sure.”

“We didn’t lose anyone.”

Counting quickly in his head, Ennuc was relieved that the full class was present. Luckily no one missed the ceremony.

“Ok, good. Everyone’s here. Let me say a few words before the ceremony:

I’m honored having you all as my students. Over the last few years, we worked hard, but we had a lot of fun together. Right, Undal?”

The students snickered as their teacher addressed the class clown. Undal wasn’t embarrassed though, simply smiling brightly.

“Today is the day we all have worked towards. I hope we are all prepared. No matter what happens, remember to be yourselves. If you can’t awaken a core, don’t be disparaged. Becoming a warrior is not everything in life. The city has many commoners, who live happily.”

Tepo also listened to his teacher’s speech. The middle-aged man spoke a bit slowly, but his feelings were sincere. Sighing lightly, Tepmodus had to think about Shev. Ennuc almost seemed to have similarly intense emotions for his students. But Shev was Tepo’s foster father.

He wasn’t sure if it was good or bad if a teacher was this attached. But studying the students’ faces, at least some of them seemed touched.

If this helps them in the ceremony, then who am I to judge?

Right at this moment, before Ennuc could even finish his speech, a loud gong sounded over the plaza. Everyone’s heads turned towards the city hall, as a silent tension spread.