The day of awakening had finally arrived, Malice opened his eyes steadily whilst his heart started to race. Still feeling somewhat tired he yawned constantly whilst preparing himself for the day. Excitement evidently plastered across his face, he briefly talked with his aunt before setting off to the towns great hall where all the children at the age of twelve would get their essences awoken.
Malice made his way to the great hall at an increasingly quick pace, although he usually felt cold and indifferent Malice right now was in a good mood after all becoming a Magus and increasing his strength was his goal.
When Malice finally arrived at the great hall he saw several figures that wore large white cloaks these were the town elders and protectors, past these figures was a massive gathering of people with ages ranging from young to old with each one of them attracted to a large stage with a azure orb the size of a head on top. Malice knew that this was what would test his magical essence amount, so following the other 12 year olds he made his way up to the stage. By the time they were all gathered there was around 20 youngsters gathered on the stage.
"Good morning and welcome my fellow former towns folk, my name is Klaud Striegzik, as I'm sure you are aware I am an Elder Magus from The Zafaris Magus Institution here on behalf of my Institution to recruit those talented enough to become legendary Magus. I am also proud to be back at my home town and hope every youth present has the power to become an exceptional genius.
The Elder Magus that was addressing the crowd wore a long blue robe covered with steel plating that gave him a very lofty feeling, he was in his 50's and had deep silver hair and an aura that emitted a deep chill making mid spring feel like the ice cold winter.
After he finished speaking a middle agreed man walked up to the podium he had a long mane of chestnut hair and embodied the look of a lion, his ferocious and scarred face added to his viciousness. His armour was outstandingly sturdy, with obvious blood stains streaking across it, he also possessed several beast like tattoos of different colours on his arms and neck obviously these were bestial imprints capable of replicating beast and monster attacks. When he walked past the Elder Magus they both transmitted a burning hot killing intent towards each other, everyone in the room could feel their rivalry.
The Lion like man then stood up on the podium and shouted "I am the great Ezekiel Lionblade, a Martial Strength Elder and today I will create martial strength cultivators of you all and bring you to the Martial Power Hall for I posses the strength of a Brimstone Lion and the heart of a Primeval Griffin." When the martial strength elder finished he jumped off the stage instructing the town elders to start the magical essence awakening.
'Comparing their strength it would seem that the power system elders on either side are about equal, the Magus Elder had a icy cold aura that felt like it could freeze over the world, whereas the Martial Strength Elder had a unique feeling of a Lion that could devour everyone present without spending any energy at all.' Malice was comparing the strengths of each elder, he even guessed that when the martial strength elder said he had the strength of a Brimstone lion and heart of a Primeval Griffin that was him being literal.
After the elders spoke the awakening began. The children being awakened only had to step forward toward the azure ball and place their hand on it. After that the ball would light up different colours, no colour meant the person had less than 10% of their body filled with magical essence making them useless, yellow indicated F grade talent, red was shown if they had E grade talent, green meant D grade talent, blue for C grade talent, purple suggested B grade talent and finally silver for A grade talent. These colours would also have different tints depending on what stage they had within the grade, if one had lower stage in their grade then the colour displayed would be the talent grades colour with small amounts of the grade belows colour, If they had middle stage on the other hand the colour displayed would be solid with no other colouration, upper stage would be similar to lower stage instead the small colouration wouldn’t be from the grade below but the grade above.
The children slowly went up placing their hands on the azure ball, looks of anticipation were constantly shown, the azure ball flashed every now and again, however so far the ball only flashed yellow or red. The children on the receiving end were disappointed, their options were now limited because to become a Magus one needed at least middle stage D grade talent, however seeing this the lion looking elder smiled this meant that he would receive more martial strength practitioners, he seemed to care more about quantity than quality. However the Magus Elder looked disappointed what he wanted wasn't some untalented trash he was looking for a talented young genius, however he started to feel that may not happen.
When Malice finally made his way up to the azure ball all 19 children had already awoken their magical essence, of those nineteen 2 had no magical essence, 5 had F grade talent, 5 had E grade talent, 3 had D grade talent, 2 had C grade talent and 2 had B grade talent. They all chose their respective power system to join, the Magus elder had a B grade and 2 C grade talents stood behind him, the Lion like elder had the rest, he stood with an expression of winning.
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Malice wasn't really paying attention to this and slowly placed his hand on the ball, he felt a slight suction power from it, then it started to change colour, the azure slowly discoloured into a greyish colour however it didn't stop there it then became darker and darker, ending up a jet black colour, when the crowd saw this they were confused thinking that the azure ball had broken. Yet a few individuals stood there with surprised expressions. "Ha ha ha my luck is truly beautiful, living my life as an old fool has finally paid off" what broke the silence was the laughter of the Magus Elder, who seemed in a joyful mood.
"Who said he will become a Magus, everyone knows Martial Strength is more powerful." Yelled the Martial Strength Elder. The crowd was shocked it seemed that these two elders were fighting over Malice, which hadn't happened for any of the previous children.
"Excuse me exalted elder did something go wrong with the awakening?" Malice asked in confusion, he wasn’t certain what was going on, he also was very formal so he wouldn't offend this elder for being rude.
"Ah young lad it seems you are unaware, if so let me enlighten you, when the Awakening Orb goes silver or purple silver it indicates Middle stage A grade talent and Lower stage A grade talent respectively. However, what does Upper stage A grade talent look like?" The Magus elder said this answering everyone's inquisitive gazes with that simple question.
"I have Upper Stage A grade talent, well that makes things so much easier" Malice knew the answer there and then, finally realizing his future prospects were destined to be filed with fame and grandeur.
"Well then let me not trouble the elders to fight I have already decided to join..." Malice said this steadily making nervousness appear in the Magus Elder's eyes. " the Zafaris Magus Institution." Malice finished and jumped over to the Magus Elder. The Martial Strength Elder was angered he lost but still felt pleased having the greater number of practitioners.
"May I know your name young one, you can just call me Elder Klaud." Elder Klaud showed an expression of anticipation and warmth as if picturing Malice’s future to be bright and glorious.
"My name is Malice Darkblight, this one greets Elder Klaud." Malice was formal and polite to create a favourable impression of himself.
Elder Klaud smiled lightly but what Malice didn't see was a trace of fear flash through Elder Klauds eyes which he quickly concealed. 'He is a Darkblight? Then what is he doing in this rural town?'. Malice clearly wasn't aware of what Elder Klaud was thinking and was waiting for this Elder to explain when they were leaving for the Magus Institute.
"Ah right now everyone has had their essence awoken we can proceed to the Magus Institute, we will leave tomorrow at dawn so prepare before then and don't be late." Elder Klaud spoke those words and then vanished, Malice was quite surprised thinking they could talk more about Magus' yet he disappeared in a flash. Malice decided to just ignore it and went back home to get ready for the journey tomorrow.
"Elder Klaud reporting in, I have managed to rope in two C grade, one B grade and a single A grade talent from this town." Elder Klaud wrote in the wind however each word would hover for awhile before vanishing into the distance. "The A grade talent is remarkable however he has the surname of Darkblight, will this be a problem." Elder Klaud finished with this and waited awhile before he got a single sentence reply "Good job, no problem cant be solved." After reading these words Elder Klaud sighed whether it was one of relief or reluctance only he knew.
Malice had finally made his way back to his Aunts house, Malice saw his aunt and explained what happened, she was glad he had such potential and knew that she no longer needed to protect him. His Aunt then pulled out a special Black ring that had a ruby on it, "Malice I already knew you would become a genius so I packed all your things, your vast fortune is all stored inside here as well, if you didn’t know this is an interspatial ring capable of storing a lot within. I suppose this is goodbye Malice, I hope the next time we meet you will be a powerful Magus with all manners of magical powers." Malice’s aunt said softly before passing him the ring she then went toward the garden as though hiding her tears.
"Thank you for everything Aunt" Malice gave a reply and then prepared to leave although he had only briefly stayed with his aunt he understood why she was upset after all they were the only family each other had. Malice was in a good mood and couldn’t wait until the journey to the capital tomorrow.
The night passed by listlessly, Malice spent the entire time trying to get a feel for his magical essence but felt that he could only vaguely feel something powerful within his body. Soon dawn came, Malice said his final goodbyes and joined Elder Klaud and the other youngsters, however with the youngsters there were even some family members. Malice inquired "Elder Klaud family members are allowed to accompany a Magus Institute student?" Malice was not aware of this.
"Ah well I left in a rush yesterday so I didn't tell you but you can take three family members with you to the Institute. Do you have any family that you wish to accompany you?" Elder Klaud explained, when Malice heard this he thought of his aunt but from the way she is living it seemed more suitable than in the capital, so Malice decided to not bring her, "I have no family, I was only wondering" Malice said rather coldly then he asked just as blandly "Could I take slaves?" Elder Klaud was clearly quite shocked at the fact Malice had no family and even wanted to bring slaves. Elder Klaud seemed like quite a righteous man that believed slavery to be inhumane so he rejected Malice and said servants will be provided when he arrived at the institute.
Malice was surprised by this after all being someone who possessed quite a lot of wealth he and his aunt had bought slaves to keep the mansion at peak standard, so why would a grand figure such as an Elder Magus not bother with slaves, Malice truly thought that slaves were cheap and allowed menial tasks to be done easily. So why wouldn't a Magus who studied magic essence not have slaves to help out or even test on. However After thinking about it Malice lost interest and started to meditate after all only the elder would know why and Malice was too weak to question him. Soon after with everyone prepared the carriage set off to the Capital Zafaris, towards their new home.