Just as he entered the spire, he saw a large holographic 3D map of the spire. The whole third floor was marked off for talent and affinity testing. He approached a receptionist.
“Excuse me, I want to get my talent and my affinity tested. How do I sign up and where do I pay?”
“Just go to the third floor. The testing chair has a payment function integrated into it.” The receptionist lady explained. She was an absolutely beautiful humanoid with rainbow colored butterfly wings. Soft green hair parted in the middle and ice green eyes. Her skin was glistening like pearls. Almost half the people in the ground floor were occasionally turning their heads towards her even after they left the reception area.
“Thank you.”
-She must have obtained citizenship to be working in the spire.- He thought. Her beauty was not enough to halt his journey.
The third floor was absolutely jam-packed with parents and their kids. Castiel was kind of standing out since he was older than other kids with a black hat hiding his face and no adults by his side.There were hundreds of testing chairs arranged along the outer edge of the corridor. There was one guide by every chair’s side. There were queues in front of every chair.
Since all chairs had similar queues, he randomly selected a nearby chair and stood in line. While he was waiting he noticed there were some people meditating in the middle of the floor. They didn’t look like they were with any of the kids, they didn’t even care about any of the events going on in the vicinity. The middle of the floor was separated from the rest of the floor by a very powerful formation. At least Castiel thought it was powerful since he had never seen a formation with glowing rotating formation patterns before.
Suddenly, he saw all the people in the middle of the floor open their eyes simultaneously. Powerful mana pressure started emanating from them as they looked towards a chair somewhat on the opposite end of Castiel. The formation started working vigorously to keep them at bay.
Gradually, one could hear loud gasps among the crowd as the contents of the event were passed around. Finally, he heard a couple discuss what was happening.
“Tester 162 got a talent rating of 4 and dual affinity in the elements of earth and flora, both 7. It’s been a few months since someone got a talent rating of 4 in Bluefire.”
“Tester 162, my name is Alex Li. I am a scout from the Stormwind sect. Stormwind is the largest sect within five thousand kilometers in any direction. I can accept you as a preparatory disciple. You can also get an inner elder’s grace and directly become an inner disciple as soon as you break through to qi gathering. I can also arrange for your family to live near the sect if you so choose.” The one speaking was a middle-aged man donned in purple robes. He had long black hair loosely tied together and black eyes, yellowish white skin, narrowed eyes and small nose. He looked like he had origins from the southwest of the Serafin empire. But the most unique feature about him were lightning tendrils intertwined with his hair.
“Tester 162, I am…..” A few others made their bid but none were quite as appealing as the Stormwind sect. The truly powerful forces of the empire don’t usually come to this corner of the empire for recruiting.
Soon it was Castiel’s turn. The person beside the testing chair guided him through the steps of setting himself up in the chair. The person was dark skinned with curly hair and fiery red eyes. He was wearing a white robe. Black-skinned humans made up the third highest portion of Waterford human population, first being white and second light brown.
“You can scan your bank card here to pay 10 silver. If you are paying in mana stones, you can slot a primary mana stone here. You will be returned 9 gold and 90 silver upon completion of testing to your account if you use a mana stone. If you only have advanced and higher mana stones, you can exchange them for primary mana stones with me.” Explained the guide.
Stolen novel; please report.
“Got it.”
“To test talent, you will be put in a coma for five seconds. Talent testing requires you to be under fetal breathing. You have to sign an agreement only after which the chair can put you in a coma.” Explained the guide in a monotone voice, as if putting someone in a coma was a fact of daily life.
“That’s fine.” Castiel couldn’t think of any place safer than the spire of a big city to test his talent.
“To test elemental affinity, short wave elemental pulses will be sent through your brain. You will be awake during this. Elemental affinity tests have a five percent margin of error. What test would you like done first?”
Castiel has been wondering about his eye color for a very long time. Rather than the intensity of his affinity, he was much more curious about the type of his affinity.
“Before we start the question, if you don’t mind telling me, why is tester 162 so popular, just because he has talent level 4?”
“Combination of earth and flora affinity will make her one of the best protectors and healers in each cultivation level. Talent level 4 makes sure that she can form her nascent soul and become the backbone of any force. If she and her parents are smart enough, they will wait for news to travel farther and wait for more offers.” The guide was curt as usual.
“Thank you. Let’s test affinity first.” -So tester 162 is a female.- He thought.
“The chair will start with elemental pulses that match your eye color first.”
“Dark element: Affinity 0.”
Castiel heard the same gasps from the crowd as when they heard about tester 162. Castiel looked towards the guide inquisitively.
“It’s quite rare to have any elemental affinity 0. Every creature has at least one degree of affinity towards all elements. Let’s continue.”
“Wind element: Affinity 0”
Before the guide could get any reading for the next element, the chair malfunctioned. Sparks were coming out of the chair.
“I am sorry sir. It looks like the circuitry in the chair is fried.” Castiel could see slight astonishment on the guide’s face, an emotion for the first time.
“Will I have to pay for the damages?” Asked Castiel worriedly.
“No sir, the agreement you signed explains that you are not liable to pay any damage to the chair unless you caused it maliciously.”
“Oh…” He was a little embarrassed, he was too excited to read the agreement. Who will doubt the spire in their right mind, much less a child only twelve year old.
“Your elemental affinity might be too high to be measured by a common testing chair. This chair can only test affinity intensity up to 15. Please wait while an advanced chair is being arranged.” The guide went back to his monotone voice as he explained.
By now the full crowd was focussed on Castiel. The possibility of someone having more than 15 degrees of elemental affinity was too exciting. Barring a few special circumstances, a 15 degree affinity quite literally signifies invincibility at the same level. Even with a mediocre element, one can make full use of his invincibility at the same level. There are countless places in the continent where this would be useful.
Castiel felt like his skin was being pricked by a thousand needles as the whole crowd including the cultivators in the middle of the floor laser focussed on him. Fortunately, he didn’t have to wait too long as a new much bigger testing chair appeared magically in place of the original one. The guide helped him set up again.
There was a blazing passion in his eyes, quite misplaced in a teenager his age. He could hardly contain his excitement. It seemed like revenge was one step closer.
“Space element: Affinity 20” Castiel could almost hear a tinge of apology in the guide’s voice. A wave of disappointment flooded through the crowd’s faces.
“Affinity 20 is the highest the current technology is capable of measuring. Affinity 18 is the current highest recorded affinity. In any other element, you would have been an absolute genius but the problem is with the space element. Space is one of the only few primordial elements. To term it better, it is a law rather than an element.
It requires almost the full mana of a pinnacle nascent soul to use even the most basic skill containing space profundity. Only those who have completed their 1st nirvana can even begin to train in space element skills properly. Space law also overpowers every other element by an incomprehensible margin. So your body will actively reject other elements. You cannot train in any other element, maybe even other primordial laws, even after you have completed Nirvana since your space law affinity is too high.” Explained the guide apologetically.
“So all I need is a talent level of 5 to overcome this barrier?” Castiel asked desperately.
“Not quite….”