Mortal Plane of Arton-:
In the House of Messorem, today was a festive day. This was because today was the day 17 children of the House ware going to get their inherent gifts identified. These not only included the average ones which would make a decent addition to the House but also a few talented ones. These talented ones were to be the true pillars for future of the House. Even among them were 2 who shined brighter than the rest of the children. One of the was the second daughter of the current House Master who was born with nearly 7 times more mana than normal children and also the young master of the House who was born with over 20 times the mana.
In the plane of Arton all kinds of magic exists like the magic of stars or [Astral Magic], which was practiced by House Messorem, or magic of Spirits, [Spirit Magic] which was practiced by House Animus. There are more kinds like the tough to control [Soul Magic] or the feared [Spectral Magic]. With all these different kinds of magic the competition to determine the best also existed due to which wars were fought. 100 years back the strongest of the groups came forward and decided that more wars will only be harmful to all and figured out a peaceful solution of letting selective individuals participate in competition for different age groups and then decide the ruling House on the combined result of said competition. This worked well for the coming years but the signs of war were have not completely vanished and at any moment world could be in chaos again.
Living in a world such as this makes power the best and ony way to survive. Any kind of magic require a sacrifice to work. Some require absurd sacrifices like soul of others while other require you to sacrifice your blood and the like. This places magic as an art of trding something to accomplish something. To bypass this trade where you have to hurt yourself to hurt your enemy some magic evolved to work by sacrificing a different energy, Mana. Everyone is born with mana, albiet some with more while some with less. Usually being born with more mana means that you are more likely to have more mana than your peers at any given point in your life. Sometimes people born with less mana could end up accumilating more mana with training while people born with more can end up with less than average because of some factor. Its rare but it does happen.
So when mana was started being used as the power source, those with more mana were going to have an advantge over those with less. Being born with 5 times more mana was already considered a genius level individual, so when House Messorem got 2 individuals with genius level mana capacity with one of them being in a league of his own in the very same year they were bound to celebrate.
And today was the day when those 2 children were going to identify their inherent skills. Inherent skills were something of an enigma in the current society of Arton. Everybody was born with atleast one inherent skill and the most mysterious thing about them was that nobody knew why somebody had that particular inherent skill. People could be born with literally any kind of inherent skill whether it be Body Strenghtning, Proficency Enhancement, or Information Gathering. So usually these skills decide what kind of future a person would have.
Today 17 of the younger generation were going to have their skills identified. The group was compromised of the 17 children in the middle, one middle aged man in the front and 2 old men in the back.
"Today is the day when you guys are going to learn what [Inherent Skills] you guys possess so I want you guys to understand a few things beforehand. Most Inherent Skills are classified as Offense, Defence, or Support Skills. While ther are some skills that stand in the gray areas but you are not very likely to encounter them as they are rare. Also, you are at all times to be in the eyesight of either me or the 2 elders. While the world may be at peace but the practices carried out in the dark are still there." Said the middle aged man to the children.
"We understand uncle Mark. I am sure none of us will defy your instructions." Said one of the boys who was in the lead. All the other children were looking at him with a look of reverence.
"I am sure you would understand young master Jaden. But still all of the children including you and young lady Emily were made my responsibility when I was tasked with protection you during the identification ceremony" Mark replied to the young boy reffered to as young master Jaden when he showed his approval to the instruction. When Mark replied to Jaden he had an appreciating look in his eyes. Even the elders were looking at him with favor.
Jaden was the first born son of the House Master and was treated really well . He was born with over 20 times the mana of a normal child and the gap has only grown bigger due to the amount of the hardwork he put into training. Now he had nearly 25 times the mana as a regular 8 year old. This was too high considering that increasing even a tiny bit of mana requires alot of effort. This only goes to prove how much talent he has. He was the one most likely to become the next House Master.
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House Messorem was one of the specials Houses out there. Here the next House Master is the one who is able to pass all the predasigned tests of the House and gain approval of more than half of the elders of the House. This meant that absolutely anyone born to the House has the right to become the next House Master. Those born to the higher ups will have the advantage but its not a very hard one to overcome.
"OK here we are." After travelling for another hour they arrived infront of a temple. This was the temple of the Goddess who is the worshipped in the Plane of Arton. This is because she was the one who gifted the Status. In simple terms it allows the person to learn the various aspects of his own body with the numerical representation. But this is only possible with the origin stone and only the Ruling House has the control of stone. There are some counterfeit that can only show the Inherent Skills. Here was one of those.
When the children arrived they were looking at the temple with awe. The temple was tall that one could see it from miles away. There was a human sized gem at the top of the temple that creating a barrier around it. The whole temple was white with various decorations and the roof was held with 12 pillars each having a gem of different colour on them.
"Wow!" Exclaimed one of the girls who stopped walking after entering the temple."Big Brother, This temple looks so huge!" Said the girl facing Jaden.
Jaden looks back at her and smiles "Come on Emily, I know that the temple is huge but if you keep dallying there then you are going to be left behind."
"Coming." Replied Emily. She was the Second Daughter of the current House Master but was born to a different mother than Jaden. She had showed great talent since she was 4 years old. The House is also troubled with what to do to her. She could have easily been used as a negotiating tool as an alliance with other Houses. But she always refused to potential candidates and nobody wants to force her as she is doted on by both the current House Master and Jaden, one most likely to become the next House Master. There's her talent to consider too as if Jaden was not there then she was nearly gaurenteed to become the next House Master. Right now she has nearly 9 times the mana of a regular 8 year old.
The group walked for another 5 minutes then arrived infront of a large stone. It was called as the Identification Stone. When somebody touches the stone and injects their mana then it projects their Inherent Skills.
"We have arrived children. Now I am going to call you guys one by one. You will stand infront of the stone and inject your mana in it so that we can learn about your skills and set you on correct paths." Mark stood infront of the children. After talking with the Gaurdian there and exchanging some pleseantries with him, he faced the children and gave them the instructions.
The children followed his instructions and injected mana in the stone. Most of them had common Inherent Skills like [Body Strenghtning x2], [Fire Manipulation(Minor)], [Peek(Minor)], etc. Then it came Emily's turn. When she touched the stone it glowed and projected 2 Skills.This meant that she had 2 Inherent Skills.
One of them was [Blessing of Stars(Superior)]. It was one of the most sought after skill in the House Messorem as it boosted the efficency of [Astral Magic]. One of the bad points of [Astral Magic] was that it was weaker in the daytime but this blessing mostly covered that weak point. The second Skill was [Light Magic]. Sometimes Magics are inherited from the parents. Emily's mother was skillful in [Light Magic]. This set of skills were better than just getting 2 skills. While getting 2 skills was rare but these skills suited each other and boosted efficency of the other. [Light Magic] has a wide variety of skills ranging from offense spells to healing spells but they are weaker than other similar spells from other systems which focus in that particular aspect of spells. But [Astral Magic] has very few individual skills as most of the skills are buffing skills i.e. they focus on supporting other spells. Few individual spells of [Astral Magic] are too high tiered so they are inefficient in battles. But if Emily is to focus on [Light Magic] as a means to attack then she can use [Astral Magic} to boost their power.
While the other children were still awestruck at Emily's skills, Mark called Jaden up. Immidiately the children started thinking what skills could Jaden have as he is considered as the talent of the century in the House. When Jaden Injected mana in the stone then 2 sklills came up but nobody was able to understand the situation. This was because the skills that came up had never before been seen or recorded.
"Um.... Uncle Mark, could you be so kind to explain me the effects of the skills" Jaden was the first one to take the situation in and turned back to see a stunned uncle Mark, confused children, and flabbergasted elders. It should be noted that the 2 elders had completely learned all the books in the House library and there shouldn't be a skill out there that they don't know about.
"Uhmm....ah...yes, the elders should be able to explain them." There was hesitation in Mark's voice and it was due to good reason because if they were new skills then it was going to be a big thing. It has been more than 500 years since a new skill has appeared and now 2 new ones emerged in the same guy was going to cause some sensations.
"We should return to the House because it is not good to waste time here." The elders soon regained their composure and suggested to return as even they were unsure what these skills did.
Mark and the children complied and prepared for the return journey. And so, they left the temple with confusion, hesitation, doubt, and fear of uncertainity in their hearts. and the skills which were projected on the stone which caused all this confusion here were [Analyze] and [Decomposition Magic]. Never have they been seen before and will most likely never will be seen again.