Chapter 3: Citizenship

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After I found out that the “book” I could handle was magic and would allow me to speak the common demihuman and beast language, we had to go to the castle to get my ID plate. When I asked why the castle, my parents told me that ID plates can only be made at the capitol of each race of demihumans and just to find out how when it happens. When we exited the guild, I started to see decorations and banners on all of the shops and stands that I had thought might have been normal but upon seeing other kids about the same age as me and their families heading in the same direction as we were, and most of the shops being deserted now, I realized today must be a special event. Not long after leaving the Guild, we arrived at a giant building in the city that was heavily fortified. I don’t know why, but for some reason I realized this was the castle that held the king of the Beastmen, why do I know that? I know I’ve been reincarnated, but not why or what I did before, just random thoughts and memories, it’s like part of me is missing. Bake to the topic on hand, it turns out that the castle was having the yearly celebration of citizenship, and anyone 4 months and older who had managed to learn our languages would take part. I’m really lucky that I just made it and don’t have to wait another year. ‘Why do I get the strange sense of déjà vu when I consider myself very lucky?’

When we crossed one of the four drawbridges leading directly to the castle I realized that the castle was freaking huge. This entire city was built to withstand a siege and with a castle that had the land area of a small village, it could withstand a siege itself. The castle had the royal castle itself, a large barracks, housing for all workers of the castle island, and even has its own coliseum like building, which we were heading to. I saw other families heading towards the large structure and as we got closer I saw some signs with text similar to what was in the book and heard some voices shouting instructions.

Guard: “We will be starting the citizenship test soon, for the children who came to participate please come to the sign in tables with your families. Spectators and families whose children have entered the testing area please follow the signs to the seating areas or concession areas.”

Cameron: “Dad, what does he mean by test?” I asked my dad curiously since this was the first time I had heard about a test, or the first time hearing the word. ‘If that’s true why do I feel like I know what it means? Damn, these thoughts have just kept coming more recently. I hope I find the answer to this soon.’

Dad: “Well son, to become a citizen of the Beast kingdom you have to be able to use a little magic to activate the ID maker stone.”

This was the first time I had ever hear my parents use the word magic, so I was instantly curious since this was my second life.

Cameron: “What’s magic Dad?”

Dad: “Well kiddo, let me think how to answer that.” My dad then cocked his lips to the side as he thought of how to answer. “Magic is a type of energy that exists on our world and allows all living beings to use great powers and abilities. For demihumans we have release our magical energy from inside us to affect our bodies and what they can do, or to use special abilities and powers we might be born with. The teacher you get before the test will be able to explain it better than I can. But don’t worry about the test, because every Shadowfur family member has been able to pass the test on their first try.”

I look over to Lily who is still pretty short for her age and she responds by crossing her arms across her chest and making a mischievous smile.

Lily: “Well of course I passed on my first try; I’m your older sister after all.”

For some reason my youngest older sister was hilariously cute when she did this and my tail wagged involuntarily which caused my whole family to chuckle. We then got into the rather small line in front of the desks for checking in children trying out for citizenship of the demihuman continent. I say that because there were some children that were not of the Beast tribe of demihumans. I only saw two that weren’t Beasts; they were a brother and sister who were respectively an alligator and lizard demihuman. They both had cloths similar to Beast types that had holes for their tails to go through, and the lizard girl looked similar to a human, except for the green skin and red eyes and hair she had. The boy was a little taller than me, and walked like a human, just like all demihumans, but his head/snout was a bit shorter than regular alligators, and he had a bit taller humanized head. I had never seen any other types of demihumans so I asked my parents about them.

Cameron: “Mom and Dad, what are those kids over there?” I asked as I pointed to the two children heading towards the testing area entrance.

Mom: “Those are Reptilian demihumans, one of the other demihuman tribes. All demihumans are friends so it’s not nice to point Cameron.”

After my question had been answered it was finally our turn to register me for the test.

Registrar: “Hello there, how many of your kids are going to take the test today?”

Dad: “Just our youngest Cameron.” As my father said this he nudged me to stand in front of the family.

Registrar: “The rules for the test are that you are able to channel and use some mana. You will have a training session on using and channeling mana, then an hour to channel mana into an affinity stone that you will receive in the testing area. Now, have you understood everything I have said to you?” As he said this he looked at me awaiting a response.

Cameron: “Yes sir I have.”

Registrar: “Good, you have been able to learn the common demihuman language. You pass registration test and you are now to proceed into the underground part of the stadium where you will be guided to your training and testing room. You must go alone from here so say bye to your family and if you pass they will see you during the ceremony. If you fail you are to go find them in the audience while the ceremony occurs. Now get to it, the training starts in 20 minutes.”

I said bye to my family and headed when the registrar had pointed me to go. When I was almost out of ear shot I hear the registrar tell my family about the concessions and to enjoy the knight test sparring matches taking part currently in the arena.

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When I got to the training/testing room I was guided to, I found that all the kids in it were all canine type Beast demihumans. There were other wolves, some dog kids, even a few foxes. There was seating set up for what looked like a demonstration for our training, and the only empty seat left was in the front. When I sat down I looked next to me and saw what looked like a human, the first one I had seen in this lifetime. Since I was on the end of the row, and only had the human next to me, I tapped them on the shoulder so I could introduce myself to them.

Cameron: “Hi my name’s Cameron, what’s your name?”

???: “Ummm, my name is Mick, h-hello.” He said rather shyly and meekly.

When he turned to talk to me I noticed that there was a pair of fox ears poking out of his thick red hair, and a red fox tail with a white tip coming out of the tail hole in his pants. For some reason the word fox morph came to mind so I would figure out what he was.

Cameron: “You look really interesting, are you some kind of special fox type Beast?”

Mick: “Well kind of, I’m what is called a fox-morph. My mom is a fox type Beast and my dad is a human, so since part of me looks human I’m considered a morph.”

Cameron: “Cool, want to be friends?”

He was the first kid near my age that wasn’t a part of my family I had ever been able to, and had, talked to. That and he did look kind of unique just like I did, since there aren’t very many pure black wolf Beasts.

Mick: “Sure I will be your friend, also since you’re the first kid here to not completely avoid me, and you seem really nice.”

Just about that time the doors slammed shut since a group of three wolf men walked in and shut the doors behind them. I assumed that they would be our instructors since they carried themselves like soldiers and walked to the front of the room and turned to face kids in the room.

Instructor: “Hello children, and welcome to the demihuman citizenship test. I’m your head instructor and these are my two assistants.” He motioned to the two wolves beside him and they both made a small wave when he motioned to them. “For those of you who haven’t taken the test before, the purpose is to see if you are able to channel mana yet or not. The reason we instruct you then give you an hour to be able to do so is because it is the demihuman way for survival of fittest. While that might sound harsh, since most, if not all, have never left your villages or homes until now and our continent is the most dangerous in the world. This is because Gaia, what we call our world and the goddess who holds dominion of the planet, decided that our continent would have the heaviest concentration of mana. While this causes us demihumans to be very powerful and have very long lives compared to the other species of this world, it also causes this continent to give birth too much stronger and more numerous monsters, magical creatures and living dungeons than the other continents. When we use magic, it comes from within us and all our magical abilities either affect our bodies, or allow us to release a magical attack from our bodies, using it as the focal point for the release of the attack. All demihuman are able to use the mana in our bodies to also strengthen and increase our natural attributes, such as making our claws sharper or increasing our speed or strength when we channel mana to those areas. We also have elemental affinities that we are born with that determine what forms and magic types are the easiest for us to use. The purpose of today is to teach you how to utilize basic mana manipulation, and find out your birth affinities. While you may be born with one element, which is what normally occurs, you are still able to learn others through training later in life. First however I will have my assistant here show you the difference between attacks that use no mana, and one that use mana to strengthen your claws.”

The assistant he motioned to nodded and then approached a thick wooden log that was attached to the floor. He then slashed the log as powerfully as he could with his claws, which only cut about half an inch into the log, which was a foot thick. The second time he attack he faced the other side of the log so we could see the back of his paw before he attacked this time. He held his claw up and told us he was now channeling mana to his claws, which caused his black claw like fingernails to give off a slight shine. This time his slash took out a chunk wider than his paw and about 6 inches into the log. The reason he slashed away from us this time was so that we wouldn’t get hit with pieces of the log or the force of the slash, which very small markings on the wall about 2 feet in the direction of the slash.

Instructor: “That is just a small example of what basic mana can do to increase your bodies abilities. It is necessary to be able to do this to become a citizen of the demihuman continent since all of the creatures on this continent are able to do this as well. If you can manipulate mana you have a much better chance of surviving even the weakest of creatures on our continent, which could almost certainly kill you if you can’t. My assistants will now hand out affinity stones before we teach you how to channel your mana so you get a small time increase for your test. While they are doing that I will now explain about magic affinities and what they have to do with your test. The only way for the alter of citizenship to activate and reveal your status and create your ID plate, is by channeling a small amount of your mana into the crystal altar. Long ago, our ancestors found out that you could also place an affinity stone you had put some of your mana in to would also allow this process to occur, thus the citizenship test was created. Affinity stones will change color after absorbing your mana to reflect what your birth affinities are, which also change the color of your ID plate. Since I was born with only a fire affinity, and haven’t learned any others yet, my ID plate has a red color to it. Since an ID plate is made by using your mana, it is considered a part of you and you can summon it by thinking of bringing it out and channeling some mana to your hand.” All of a sudden a small metal and rectangular card appeared in his hand. It gave off a red shine that was only noticeable because of the light producing stones in the room and the card then disappeared almost as quickly as it had appeared. “When we demihumans use certain elemental mana types our bodies transform to allow us access to that element type. The types you can get are based off of your tribe and species. Beast type demihumans have the widest variation and our affinities are based off mainly what our species is. We have you all separated into different rooms based off your species since we will also tell you what possible affinities you can have. Since you are all of the canine type species of demihumans the possible affinities you might have are fire, ice, lightning, and darkness. The three possible forms you have are hellhound, frost-wolf, and lightning fox, with darkness not having a form but some other abilities however it is the rarest. If you are wondering what transformations look like I will show you what a partial hellhound transformation is like. I will only do a partial since if I went full hellhound some of you might not be able to take the heat I will give off.”

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The instructor held up his right hand as he channeled mana into it. As he did so his hand began to change to a black burnt color and what glowing red lines of what looked like magma appeared on the blackened arm. The temperature in the room noticeably increased and that was just from him changing his arm. He then dispelled the effect as the assistants had finished handing out the affinity stones and his arm returned to normal. I looked at the affinity stone I had received and looked at it closely. It was a circular gray crystal and was cool to the touch.

Instructor: “For the training and test taking part you are able to group up and even help each other during the test on tips to channel mana. While we might put emphasis on the most skilled and powerful to be leaders, are leader isn’t a leader if he has no one to follow and help him or her.”

We moved all of the chairs out of the way and we sat down in groups on the floor, with me and Mick grouping together.

Instructor: “The first time you channel and utilize mana is one of the hardest, but it is a bit easier if you are in a crossed legged sitting position. The part that will take the longest is finding and accessing your mana pool. For this step I’m going to need you all to take the position I’m in, hold your affinity crystal in your hands and close your eyes. Closing your eyes makes it a bit easier to find your inner mana. Now I want you all to try and clear your mind and picture yourself in your mind. You then need to “look” inwards and try and fell the power sitting dormant inside you. Most people describe your inner mana’s feeling to a pool or a force you can’t really explain. Once you find this force I want you to picture it flowing from wherever it is inside of you to your hands. You will know if you successfully channeled your mana to your hands if you feel the gem in your hand heating up. These stones will naturally absorb the mana you channel to your hands and will change color based off your current birth affinity or affinities. The test begins now, good luck kids.”

After about 5 minutes there was a shout of glee as the first kid had succeeded in channeling mana to his stone. This caused Mick and I to open our eyes to look at who was the first to pass and saw that the kid looked almost 2 years old. I whispered to Mick that it probably wasn’t his first time taking the test so that’s why he did it so fast which elicited a nod from Mick. The nearest assistant walked over the quieted the boy and looked at his crystal which was glowing red. Mick and I then went back to trying to channel our mana for the first time.

About 30 minutes later the room was still half full of younger kids who were definitely taking the test for the first time. It was about this time that I heard Mick speak for the first time during the test.

Mick: “No way I actually got it to work, hey Cameron look at this.”

I opened my eyes to look at him with a smile on his face and the crystal he was showing me. I looked at the crystal and saw that it had 4 colors on it which were red, white, yellow, and black. So far there had been about 3 kids who had 2 color gems so that meant that Mick had an affinity for all 4 of the elements we had been told about.

Cameron: “Wow you have all four affinities, congratulations Mick. Now how did you find your inner mana since I’m having trouble finding mine?”

Mick: “Thanks, and for me I felt it like a flame in the center of my chest. I don’t know if that helps but good luck.” Mick then motioned for the instructor to come over and look at his stone.

The instructor was wide-eyed when he saw Mick’s stone and told him to go down the hall to the preparation area for the ceremony. He then went to talk to his assistants and they were all surprised and excited that they were going to see a four element demihuman in their lifetime.

With about 10 minutes left of the test I finally felt a strange sensation in the middle of my chest. Whatever this power was, I had never felt anything like it before. I then pictured the strange new force to my hands, which started to feel warm meaning I had done it. I opened my eyes to look at the gem and saw the same 4 colors that had been in Mick’s, but there seemed to be a fifth trying to appear in the center of the gem. The colors in the gem started to swirl when all of a sudden the gem shattered apart in my hands as I was feeding the crystal mana. I raised my right hand to try to get the instructors attention and noticed that on the back of it there was a crimson pattern that had not been there before. While I waited for the instructor to walk over to me I rubbed the mark and realized that my fur had changed color to this mark that had a solid circle with arrows pointed away from it in a x pattern.

Instructor: “Hello there, did you succeed or have a problem?” he said kind of half hearted since about half the kids were still in the room and were most likely not going to succeed with the test.

Cameron: “Yes instructor, I managed to channel mana into my gem, but it broke after I had done so.” I showed him the pieces of the crystal that were back to gray and sitting in my palm.

Instructor: “Well that’s never happened before. Why don’t I give you another gem and watch you do it this time.” He then handed me an affinity gem from a small bag on his belt.

I repeated what I had done last time, except it was much easier and I could do it with my eyes open as well. This time I would get to see what happened with the gem to make it shatter and the entire process. However this time all that occurred was that the gem started to glow and then shattered before it changed colors like it had done the previous time.

Instructor: “What the fuuu—uuur was that!” If I hadn’t had some memories of a previous life I wouldn’t have known that he had almost sworn in front of a child which caused me to silently snicker. “Why don’t we go to the head of the test and see what he thinks we should do. Is that ok with you…and weren’t you pure black when you first came in here?”

I looked at myself a little bit and found that there more patch of fur that had turned crimson and they seemed to make some sort of tribal pattern. This caused me to just shrug my shoulders like I had no idea, since I really didn’t. The instructor just sighed and told his assistants to finish proctoring the test since he would take me to the head of the testing and we were soon in front of an office that was also in the underground of the stadium.

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Lily: “Hey mom, where is Cameron? I don’t see him down there with the other kids who passed and all of the kids who failed have already come back up to their families.”

Mom: “I don’t know Lily, but there is one empty chair at the end so that might be his. We just have to wait and see since there has never been a delay in the ceremony before.”

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Head of Test: “You weren’t kidding when you said that the gem had just shattered.” I had just repeated the feat of shattering an affinity gem to the head of the test to prove it was true. “Let’s just put him at the end and have him use mana to make his ID plate like they used to do. If what he said about having five colors then he deserves to be the only person behind the four colors you also had. What a year, first we have the first four affinity in about a hundred years and then an unheard of five affinity as well, if that is even possible.”

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Mom: “Look Lily there is Cameron being led out to the chair at the end of the kids. He looks a little different, but I can smell from here that it is definitely him.”

June, Jane and Lily: “He’s the last one? No way!”

Dad: “What did I tell you honey, I knew he was special when he was born.”

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When I was finally seated with the other kids who had passed I was sitting next to Mick. He congratulated on passing as well and was surprised that I didn’t have an affinity stone with me and that I was behind him since those with the most affinities were at the end.

During the ceremony we formed a line one row at a time to use the ID altar. There was someone who was putting the small metallic plate on the altar after each kid finished and had absorbed their ID plate. All the kids had to do was put their charged affinity stone in a designated spot on the altar and then put and hold their hands down on the metal plate. When they placed their hand on the plate a large blue screen appeared in the air that showed what would be written on the plate. The magical thin screen that looked like it belonged in a video game would make one rotation before minimizing back into the altar on right where the ID plate was. The screen displayed the child’s name, rank which I’m pretty sure has to do with the guild since all kids had the same, profession which for most all was citizen, and at the bottom there was a special spot for any special abilities which nobody had gotten yet.

When it was finally down to Mick and I he stepped up to the altar and did the same thing as everyone else had. When his screen popped up it had some differences than all of those before us. First of all I had no idea how I was able to read any of these since I didn’t know any written language in this world so I just attributed it to the magic of the altar. But Mick’s differences were that for profession he had “Potential Hero” and under his special abilities he had “Four Affinity Beast”. I looked at his plate before it was absorbed into his body and saw that it had four squares that were the same colors as his affinities. After he was done he looked at me and gave me a thumbs up and he walked to the side of the stage since he was told to wait their by the people in charge of the ceremony most likely because of his profession. Then it was finally my turn to do the ceremony. The person in charge told me that I had to do it the original way so I had to continuously channel mana into my plate on the altar until I absorbed my plate. While waiting in line I had been practicing and could tell when I was using mana to strengthen my palm and when I wasn’t so I was sure I could do it. I stepped up to the altar and put my hand on my ID plate and started to channel mana into it. I saw in the edge of my vision that the screen popped up like it should have but became very nervous as it started to spin. Up until now there had been tons of cheering for every kid so far, and even more for Mick, but when my popped up the stadium was dead silent. I looked to the side and saw that even the people in charge of the ceremony were staring in shock at what was on the magic screen so I decided to look as well since it stopped rotating where I could read it before it went into the plate beneath my hand.

NameCameron ShadowfurRankNoneProfessionHero of ChaosSpecial Abilities

* Chaos Mana Affinity

* Blessing of a God of Chaos

* Broken Soul

Well that’s what caused the silence.

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Author’s Note: Well here is the chapter that at least partially explains the magic system of this world. Also the next chapter might take about a week to do since it will be a lore heavy chapter. Feel free to let me know what you think so far.