It was now my fourteenth birthday, and as if on cue, I flipped my silver coin, my name glinting in the sunlight. Aubry, my sister, called me from the kitchen, telling me dinner was ready. I went downstairs and sat down to the gaze and happy smiles of my family.

After eating my favorite foods my mom had expertly prepared, Dad brought out the carrot cake with fourteen candles, spinning around and sliding the cake straight into the middle of the table acting like a professional dweeb. With his finger outstretched, Dad spat out a flicker of flame from the tip of his finger, lighting all the candles in a matter of seconds.

It was a new trick Dad had picked up, although Dad had medium talent with fire, a decent talent. Dad's abysmally low pool of ether had disappointed both the representative of the DOEA (Department of Ether Affairs) and Dad himself. It had been a wild year; superpowered and mutated animals had overrun much of the sparsely populated areas, only being stopped by their human counterparts.

Both my mom and older sister had gotten healing talents, a scarce talent sought after by both expeditionary forces and hospitals. Although both had gotten a low healing talent, my mom had gotten a V12 pool of ether, and my sister, through great effort, had boosted her pool into a T4. Although not the best pools, they both had enough ether to work at the local hospital.

As dinner winded down and the mood relaxed, my parents brought out a box with an oblong shape snugly wrapped in Happy Birthday wrapping paper. When I unwrapped the relatively unwieldy box, I was almost salivating. For the past year, as I've seen the great heroes of the world battle against massive bears, towering eagles, and hordes of goblins, I trained. I trained with wooden practice swords and spears, waiting for the day I would manifest my talent, to stand shoulder to shoulder with great heroes like Victor Crow, the berserker, or Lavender Smith, the druid. And in this moment, I could see it all, me back to back fighting for the betterment of society, with my brand new poleaxe and shortsword. Bless their souls, my parents had basically made my dream come true with their own two hands.

My next gift came in an ornate obsidian-colored cylinder. It had been acquired as payment from one of my sister's adventurer patients, who needed extensive healing at the hospital. Opening the top of the oddly heavily sealed container, I saw what I had only dreamed of: ether grass. It was supposedly a powerful herb that increased the potency of someone's unawakened talent. It was only found, however, in ether-dense areas making it an exceedingly rare and treasured gift. Downing the grass after profusely thanking my parents and sister, I felt the same way I had a year ago, that all-consuming, nerve-curling pain, blurring my vision and making the world go black.

When I awoke, I found myself lying in bed, my toes bare, and for some reason, my lower legs dangling over my bed frame.

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"Ah hell naw, not again bro," I thought to myself, slowly getting out of bed, eventually standing up, and to my great reluctance, I had grown once again. Now, to my best estimate, I was around 6'11", barely making it through my door frame.

However, not all was bad. My now skinny self caught a whiff of bacon. After indulging in the bacon my mom had made, and after her great shock at my exaggerated height, I took my morning shit.

While on the toilet, I pondered what I wanted to do with myself. I could enroll in the Hunter academy, join an adventurer team as a first-timer, or I could take on a couple of easy missions to earn some money and gain experience. Well, now that I was thinking about it, I didn't even know what my talent was; maybe it was absolute rubbish.

After contemplating my future, I had to get some advice, my Dad who was the rock of the family was my target. When I finally found him lounging in the living room, he sat me down to look at me man to man.

"Son," he told me, "I don't know, and I don't care what you do with your life. Just know that your mom and I will be there to support you." As we both teared up, we embraced. "Now let's get your talents tested, son."

As my dad and I stepped out of the car, I looked up at the decently sized building, at least for suburban Michigan. We had gone to the local DOEA building to test to see what my talent would be. As we walked into the building, the receptionist, a kind-looking older lady with pronounced dimples, called out, asking if we were Derrick and Bradley Brookshaw. Of course, we said yes, and Poppy, judging by the name tag, directed us toward the back office.

As we entered the backroom and saw who had to be Mr. Shore, a great friend of my father, he greeted us.

"My boy, why, you're as tall as a giant," Mr. Shore exclaimed. "But no matter, let's test that talent of yours." I sat down on the proffered chair and resisted the urge to roll my eyes as I saw the cringy posters of Victor Crow on the wall.

Mr. Shore told me to focus on my blood and try to draw out the ether, projecting it as if it were an extension of my hand. I focused and focused, slowly tapping into my ether pool and drawing it toward the tip of my finger. I suddenly encountered a pressing issue: I couldn't project any ether, no matter how hard I tried; it just wouldn't move past my skin.

Telling Mr. Shore, he seemed slightly surprised, telling me that it had happened before and was documented, but was extremely rare, increasing the effectiveness of an ether talent by an unknown amount but only within one's own body. After that surprise, Mr. Shore brought out a syringe, quickly sanitized my shoulder, drew out 20 milliliters of blood into two vials, and placed them carefully into an analysis machine.

We waited, and after five minutes, surprise on his face, Mr. Shore told me I had a peak healing talent. With even greater surprise, he exclaimed I had a second talent, an ability this time. He seemed to read the text in greater detail before saying that my ability was some sort of ether absorption ability unknown in the public database.

My father and I entered the house after our excursion, quickly sharing the good news of my talents with my mother. After talking with my parents, it was now time to do a bit of training. Although I didn't have much time due to school, I still had multiple hours a day to practice my skills in weapon handling and ether.