A few weeks passed and the time for the Sacred Bond Martial House entrance exam came.
Aegon and Kuro left their little apartment early in the morning and started walking towards the city centre, where a massive colosseum-like building stood tall.
Grandfort City was abnormally busy today, everyone seemed to be walking in the same direction and one could see a lot more cultivators than usual.
Aegon soon reached the colosseum’s east gate where a big crowd of at least 500 youths and their pets where waiting, it was quite an impressive sight given that most of the pets were adults so the ones who had young cubs for partners stood out like sore thumbs and were getting weird or disdainful looks from the ones around them.
Aegon looked around with stars in his eyes and then chose a less crowded place to wait for the start of the evaluation.
A few minutes later an old man with a long white beard emerged from a balcony above the east gate. He looked around at the crowd of youths below him for a few seconds and then spoke. “Hello juniors, my name is Richard, better known as Mentor 1, I'm here to test all of you and see who is worthy of entering my Sacred Bond Martial House, maybe some of you will be able to break mountains with a fist and move rivers with a wave, it all depends on your destiny.”
Mentor 1’s simple speech was enough to light ablaze the hearts of all the youths. Many were clenching their fists so hard that they didn’t even notice the blood trickling down their hands.
Mentor 1 saw all this and smiled gently. “Let’s start then”.
The East Gate doors opened and the youths were led to the centre of the arena where a black stone about 2 meters tall was lightly flashing.
Contrary to Aegon’s expectation the colosseum was actually empty, it looked like everyone would have to wait outside for the results.
As everyone was thinking along the same line, Mentor 1 suddenly spoke from beside the black stone as if he was always there.” Everyone with decent results will pass, even if you have an overall low elemental affinity as long as you have a high enough variety of elements you can make up for the difference. Any questions?”
...
Silence descended into the arena. Everyone knew that the moment of truth had come.
Mentor 1 waited a few seconds and when no one spoke up he called the first person.
“Haris Lawrence”, a youth with expensive clothes, a handsome face and an eagle perched on his shoulder walked out from the crowd and placed his hand on the stone.
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A faint blue light flashed around Haris’ hand.
After some time the light receded and Mentor 1 announced. “Low grade Profound affinity for wind and medium grade Mortal affinity for fire, earth and water.” Everyone gasped in surprise except for Haris himself who wore an undisguised grin, obviously proud of himself. “Congrats kid, you passed”.
“Too fierce, the young master of the Lawrence family is really fierce...”
“It seems that the Lawrence family has its future secured for at least another generation.”
The mood in the arena eased a lot, everyone started to dream of having the same or even better results and seizing the opportunity to rise to the top in one fell swoop.
But reality is often disappointing…. The next 30 people to climb on stage had all been outright rejected, until Aegon`s name was called.
Everyone looked at him with smug grins, it couldn’t be helped, a kid with countryside origins and a pup for a pet was prime real estate for bullies. Aegon felt the pressure, he was after all still a kid.
[Maybe I was better off working in the farm, maybe the cultivation path isn't for me… forget about it let's just do it, it is what it is, worst-case scenario I just go back home.]
He slowly walked under everyone's sight, head down, sweat pouring down his face. When he got in front of the stone, a sight similar to what occurred the past 31 times once again unfolded, for a fleeting moment his hand felt like it was being grabbed by a celestial being but it all ended as fast as it had started.
"Low grade Profound affinity for lightning and high grade Mortal affinity for wind.” Mentor 1 gave him a reassuring smile “You passed.”
Everyone gave him another long look, this time most had a hint of envy hidden in their eyes.
Aegon walked off stage with a silly smile plastered on his face. He sat down near Kuro waiting for the others to finish.
His talent was actually good. Affinity was really important. It not only dictated your ability to control elements but it also dictated the speed at which a person absorbed energy. Affinity levels were divided into Mortal, Profound and Saint which were further divided into low, medium and high grade. A person like Aegon who had an affinity with two elements could absorb the ambient energy from 2 of the 6 main elements, so in comparison to someone who only has one element and the same affinity level he would have double the speed of absorption. However, having an affinity with more elements doesn’t mean that one would always cultivate faster than someone with less, given that affinity levels play a huge role. For example, someone with a Saint level affinity for only one element would still be faster than Aegon because they can draw energy from the single element they can access much faster than Aegon can from his 2 elements combined.
A few hours later only 52 people were left in the arena, everyone else had been sent home.
All the youths standing there were now brimming with confidence, they all waited for Mentor 1’s next words.
Mentor 1 looked at the youths’ faces [There's some potential here]. “Congrats to everyone that made it this far. All of you are now members of my Sacred Bond Martial House but before I take you there we need to decide your entrance rank so...”
The doors to the colosseum slammed open and a crowd poured in like a flood. The stands were quickly filled with eager relatives and others who just wanted to watch a fight.
“You will fight for your ranking and as an extra prize the winner of the tournament will get a weapon artifact of their choosing.”