Gates Bernstein was not particularly nervous on the morning before his affinity testing. After all, he was a high noble, and his father and mother had seen that his education was top notch. In terms of affinity, his parents said that he had the ideal bloodline that no commoner could compare to, and that they expected success.

In terms of affinity, anyone above 50% in any element was allowed to become a mage. There were never any dual-elemental practitioners, but the elements that a practitioner had lower affinity infused some properties with the primary element. However, no practitioner could ever become a true dual-elementalist or tri-elementalist because of the Spirit Choosing Ceremony, where only one spirit could call out to the 16-year-old soon-to-be practitioners.

A good example would be Gates’s father, Lord Bernstein who was a Grandmaster ranked Earth mage with a secondary fire affinity, so he could sometimes create a weak lava-like molten rock with his spirit. He had a 75% affinity for earth, which was quite high, but only a 57% affinity for fire, so he was chosen by a Guardian ranked Earth Spirit during the Spirit Choosing. In short, his father had good natural talent, and married another Grandmaster ranked mage, so he expected his son to be at least as talented as himself.

Looking back on his years up until now, at age 14, Gates was overworked, and had overly great expectations placed on him. Ever day he would study etiquette, history, math, sciences, and continual work out to improve his fitness level so that he would be ready to be a good mage.

His many bad memories of work, study, training, and meeting the young children of other nobles were mixed with a few good ones. Gates remembered playing with Arisa in the park, hiding from the servants in the yard, and happily conversing with Arisa.

Arisa Ashfort was the Daughter of another high noble, Lord Ashfort. Gates believed her to be his only true friend, and the only truly fulfilling moments of his life were when he was with her. He was in a good mood because he knew that since she was the same age as him, she would be at the affinity testing in Radiston city this afternoon. All fourteen-year-olds always got their affinity tested in a ceremony in the nearest city, be it noble or commoner. The affinity testing was one of the two most important moments in the coming of age of any child on the Grand Sky continent.

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The other was the Spirit Choosing ceremony. In the Spirit Choosing ceremony, the 16-year-old Children who passed the greater than 50% affinity check before the ceremony would be teleported to the Spirit Plane, which to them looked like a vast treasure room filled with various items, clothes, and weapons. Each of these items was a spirit. However, the participants in the ceremony could not just pick any spirit that they liked, the spirit picked them.

Spirits rankings are the following in order from least to greatest: Lesser, Average, Greater, Guardian, Duke, and God. The God-level spirits were extremely special, as there was only one god for each element, and a mage with a God-level spirit generally appeared less than once every millennium, and currently there were no living mages with a God-Ranked spirit. Another requirement for having a God-level spirit is that you must having the greatest affinity of any mage of your generation in that element, and that affinity must be over 90%.

Gates knew that a God-level spirit was out of the question, but he hoped that in two years he would get a Guardian-level spirit like his father’s. His parents said that if he was extremely lucky, he might even be able to get a Duke-ranked spirit like his great-great-grandfather had once had.

“Gates, it’s time to leave. The carriage is ready.”

“Coming mother.”