The headmistress clears her throat before speaking, “Anita Adams please come up.”

A shy girl gets out of her seat and starts to walk down the aisle towards the stage. She cringes as she notices everyone staring at her. She quickens her paces and soon arrives at the stage. She slowly ascends the steps and walks over to the awakening machine, a seat with restraints and cables attached that lead down below the stage. Anita sits on the chair and the restraints snap shut over her arms.

“The awakening throne will now implant you with your interface,” announces the headmistress. A menacing looking needle emerges from the throne, a hint of fluid bulging from the tip.

The girl looks at the needle and almost sobs.

“The needle will be inserted into your neck so keep it as still as possible. Although this process is safe, we don’t want to add any extra risk.”

The needle slowly moves towards her neck and sweat pours from her brow. She shivers as the tip is only millimeters from her neck. She jumps as she feels the needle touch her skin before slowly penetrating through. She locks her eyes forward, trying to hold back tears as she feels the needle slowly push through her neck.

“Remember to hold still now,” reminds the headmistress. “You are almost done with the implant. It will awaken as soon as your Qi starts to circulate.”

The whole hall watches as the needle reaches her artery before the plunger slowly starts to move down. Once the fluid has been fully injected, the needle starts to retract out of the girl and she sighs in relief after it leaves her neck.

“Your bloodstream will carry your interface until it reaches your brain, where it will attach and await your Qi. You did very well. Now it's time for your awakening!”

The throne hums as the cables start to glow a pale white. The Qi from the throne was being pushed into the girls soul. She was straining until the throne made a thunk and suddenly turned off and she slumped over. The restraints then opened and she clumsily stood up before walking over to shake the headmistess’ outstretched hand. After shaking her hand, the girl stood next to the headmistress and waited for her to read out the result.

After a long pause the headmistress spoke, “Anita Adams, Martial ability levels average. Resilience levels average. Soul level… above average!. Congratulations for awakening and welcome to the world of cultivation!”

Everyone cheered for her. Having a talent level above average isn’t the greatest, but for a commoner it will probably be enough for her to get a good job. Since she is the strongest in soul she might become an enchanter or artificer. With a decent bit of effort it won’t be hard for her to live a good life.

After the cheering died down she walked back to her seat with a huge smile on her face, which was understandable as she got quite a good result today.

The headmistress calls the graduates up one by one to awaken though the same process. “Yvette Bach … Diana Beaufort… Fiona Chikke…”

Everyone only had average scores on their talents. The headmistress kept calling on people until she reached Tom. “Tom Hart, please come to the stage.”

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Tom begins to stand up but Ryker grabs his arm, “Good luck mate.”

“I’ll be fine mate, don’t you worry,” Tom says, clapping Ryker on the shoulder before walking up to the stage.

A few minutes pass as Tom gets injected with his interface and he sits on the awakening throne. The throne seems to glow brighter than before before it shuts off. Tom stands up shakily and walks over the headmistress.

“Tom Hart. Martial ability levels above average. Resilience levels above average. Soul power level average. Congratulations for awakening and welcome to the world of cultivation!” The headmistress smiles at this result. Many academies will be interested in someone with above average talent in two areas, who isn’t already tied to a noble house or corporation. A graduate like this will boost the schools reputation and possibly even get them an increase in funding.

As this was announced, Tom was trying, and failing, to keep a smile off his face. Tom walked back into his seat next to Ryker.

“Good job mate, with that result you’ll surely get into one of the good academies.”

“Thanks, but I’m sure you will do just as well, if not better. You always seem to be so damn lucky, I wouldn’t be suprised if you even got a legendary level of talent.”

“I reckon I would honestly be fine with just one above average talent. Keep myself low-key you know?”

Tom shook his head at Ryker. “Well, somehow I doubt that but anyway we should probably pay attention to this, find out who we should talk to and all that.”

The pair sat and watched as many more people were called up. There were no more interesting people until they call up a certain person sitting next to them

“Emily Mu.”

Emily stood up and made her way up to the stage, her face completely confident. Since she awakened early she already knows her talents so she has every right to be confident. All noble houses have bloodlines, and even the weakest bloodline will boost talents incredibly far.

Tom was fuming as he saw the smugness shown by Emily walking up to the stage. To be fair to Tom the way she was dragging out her walk up to the stage by walking slowly was quite annoying. Quite a few staff and students share this opinion, but since she was a noble everyone tried to keep the looks off their faces.

“Why is she even at a public school like this? Why didn’t she go to some fancy private school?” Tom asked Ryker.

“Didn’t she move here halfway through schooling?” Ryker paused for a second before continuing, “Maybe the private schools don’t allow enrollments after schooling starts? Doesn’t really matter though.”

Emily had finally reached the stage after what felt like hours.

The headmistress was quite obviously annoyed, but she swallowed her anger and spoke to Emily.

“Since you have already awakened and had your interface implanted, we simply need to test your talents.” Emily nodded at this so she continued, “Please sit down on the throne and we will begin.”

Emily sat down, making a big show of getting comfortable before the test began. The throne simply pulsed once before shutting down. The headmistress waited for for a second before announcing,

“Emily Kin, Martial ability levels, above average. Resilience levels, above average. Soul power levels, exceptional.”

Hearing this good result the crowd cheered. Even though Emily was a noble and was expected to be better than the average, having not just an exceptional level of soul power, but also being above average in anything makes her quite the asset to her house. Quite a few faces were sour with envy. They would kill to have talents that will attract academies in swarms. A student like that could boost a school’s reputation significantly.

Emily smugly stared at Ryker and Tom. She knew that she would overshadow Tom’s success and reduce his chances with the top academies. Tom didn’t seem to care about this.

“How can you be fine with this Tom, she’s bringing the academies attention to herself?” Ryker asks Tom in a desperate tone.

Tom chuckled and shook his head, “Emily is part of a noble clan, right? Since I’m by myself I can grow far more than her. One day she will wish she was me. Being part of a clan does bring benefits, but also brings politics and power struggles. I’m happy that all I need to care about for now is myself.”

Ryker couldn’t understand his friend's perspective and could only nod as if he understood. If it was him in Tom’s position he would be fuming. What made it worse was her insufferable smuggness.

After Emily finally got down off the seat and was sitting down, the headmistess called out the next name.

“Ryker Lotus, please come up to the stage.”

Ryker felt his heart quicken.

Tom grabbed his shoulder, “You got this. You’ll do great. Just think about how we can get into an academy together after.”

Ryker steeled his nerves and walked out into the aisle and towards the stage, his heart racing with every step.