Chapter 5 – Initiation Ceremony (2)
Even after William's name was declared, most students lost interest immediately and went back to discussing Luke Brightsteel’s awakening. That was what he expected after all, since he was a relatively unknown student who did not participate in many extracurricular activities. Most of his free time went into his part time job. He couldn't compare with Luke, who pretty much had celebrity status already. To his side, Finn was quiet as a whistle and could only manage to nod nervously to him.
He shuffled past the other students in his row and began to walk down the red carpeted stairs towards the stage while his mind raced. There was no way that he could beat Luke Brightsteel’s evaluation. As the world’s first dual ability awakener, Luke’s claim to be on track to overtake his cousin Cassius had real merit.
Somehow, the Brightsteel family had figured out how to pre-awaken Luke with his body manipulation ability before his initiation. If the media got wind of that, they would have a field day because pre-awakening an ability before initiation was unheard of.
William only knew of this because Luke openly displayed it yesterday. Now that he was officially a level seven dual ability awakener, his arrogance would know no bounds. He didn’t look forward to seeing his smug face inevitably plastered on every article and billboard around the city alongside other celebrities.
“Good luck, William!” Evelyn called out to him as he passed by her.
He gave her an acknowledging nod, feeling a small boost in confidence. What a day, he thought. Just like how this was the first day Finn decided to finally share what happened to his brother, this was also the first day Evelyn ever said something encouraging to him without anything else tacked onto it. Her usual conversations with him revolved around what to do, what not to do, how to act, and how not to act, all with her moderately patronizing tone and equally subtle savior complex sprinkled in.
“Who was that?” Isabella whispered to her.
“My subject for Charity Aid, the one I told you about.”
“Really? I always thought you were referring to the other one with glasses. This one doesn’t look like an orphan to me.” Isabella paused. “Actually, you’re right, I mean look at how sloppily he's dressed. But at least he has some potential, with the right outfit.”
Perhaps William had developed a keen sense of hearing over the years, because he was pretty sure he wasn’t supposed to have heard that. Isabella’s remark sounded like an insult wrapped in a compliment.
Thank god Finn didn’t hear that, he suddenly thought. Finn was already a nervous wreck today without the added pressure of getting casually roasted by Evelyn’s friend.
Feeling somewhat amused, William ascended the stairs to the stage and walked towards the orb. He took one last chance to review his ability control and meditative breathing exercises just like how the forums said, clearing his mind slowly of any trivial thoughts as the reality of the situation returned to him. His performance here could determine his entire future. If he failed here, the great frontier beyond the gates and its ripe opportunities might forever be closed to him.
In every era, the frontrunners who dove courageously and resourcefully into the unknown were those who carved their name into the annals of history. Whether it be the industrialists of the common era, or the sailors who first looked to the stars for guidance during the imperial era, fortune smiled upon those who understood the frontier better than their contemporaries, and had both the foresight and the means to act upon their vision.
And yet the path to fortune had always been fraught with difficulties. Danger came from the unknown itself, but also from the spirit of competition that marked the indomitable human spirit. Seldom was there a man with an isolated vision that escaped the rest of humanity. People theorized, learned, copied, even stole, and thus when one man set course for the seas so too did others shortly afterwards.
In the lively spirit of competition, every minor advantage was magnified tenfold, or even a hundredfold. Possession of a technological advantage of just ten years could mean the difference between the establishment of an empire and total ruin. The Altean gyroscope's profound effect on naval warfare during the imperial era was a prime example of this principle. With just a simple gyroscope that could predict currents, the Altean navy won one victory after another by harnessing the tubulent nature of the sea to devastating effect.
In the corner of his eye, he noticed in the audience that Luke’s friends were now betting on his performance and miming the numbers one and zero at him.
“Whenever you’re ready,” the silver fox instructor said to him in an understanding tone.
William nodded, then reached out his hand towards the orb. He could feel his heart beating heavily in his chest in anticipation. The moment of truth had arrived.
Level 3 fire ability, he thought repeatedly in his head. Or at the very least give me something that’s useful in a practical sense. He dared not set his hopes too high.
As his palm touched the orb, a strange trickle of warm energy began to seep from the orb into his arm, then into his torso, before spreading across his entire body. He had read about it for so many months, but experiencing otherworld energy was something completely indescribable. The hairs on the back of his neck were sticking up as he felt a slightly euphoric sensation.
This was it. He could tell that he was manifesting some kind of ability.
He watched the gray mist within the orb begin to churn like a rumbling storm, as the faintest glint of a pale blue glow emerged from the center of the colorless storm. It was so faint that he couldn’t even be sure if he was just seeing things again due to the changes in his perception from the awakening. Such a faint color was strange. Out of all the different awakenings today, he hadn’t seen any quite like this, but there were plenty of unusual ones so it was possible that it didn't mean anything.
At that moment, something began to feel wrong. Instead of the energy properly flowing into him to awaken his ability, he suddenly felt that the connection was beginning to fade as the energy started to slip away from his fingertips.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
No, he thought. Don’t leave!
The pale blue glow had completely vanished from the epicenter of the colorless storm, swallowed up by the sandy storm, and the mist swirled once more developing into something new. It began to form a weak yellow orange ball.
All at once, something felt hot in his pocket, burning hot. It was starting to scorch his thigh and he yelped in pain, jerking his hand from the orb as a small flame appeared into the air. Without even registering the flame due to the scorching pain on his thigh, William grabbed inside his pocket and threw out the burning hot object, which landed on the ground with a clatter.
With the source of the pain gone, he came back to his senses. He looked at the ground in confusion only to see his phone lying face up, the screen set to hot white and at maximum brightness, the same setting he normally used when using it as a flashlight during deliveries. Did he accidentally turn it on when he was walking up the stage just now?
He reached down and turned off the phone, which was already not as hot as before for some reason, and put it into his other pocket. How strange.
In the audience, Luke Brightsteel and Jared Pain were hooting with laughter at his embarrassing display.
"Look at that," Jared Pain heckled, his voice dripping with mockery as he pointed at the stage. "He freaked out like a girl and dropped his phone!”
William tried to ignore Luke’s friends as he raised his head, but the back of his head nearly collided against his own floating flame. He managed to dodge at the last moment after feeling the heat on his back hair.
He was starting to feel a bit uneasy, a feeling only worsened when he noticed that the flame he had produced was only a bit larger than the size of his thumb. William instantly recognized that this was the weakest manifestation of power all day long. Even the other level one fire users were able to produce a flame the size of their fist, and level three fire users like Isabella could make a whole cascade of flames appear. William’s glorified lighter flame looked weak as it floated harmlessly in the air. He felt a mixture of disappointment and confusion.
Following the procedure like for all the other awakenings before him, the soldier took the orb’s reading and reported to the panel, who discussed briefly. Now that William was actually on stage himself, he realized that he could hear what they were saying.
“The orb’s energy display was certainly unusual,” one of the panelists said. “If my eyes did not deceive me, there appeared to be two parts to it, where the flame aspect arrived second.”
“Are you implying that he may also be a dual ability awakener?” the second panelist said.
“Maybe,” the first panelist replied. “We’ve learned today that it is certainly possible.”
“Possible, but close to zero chance,” a third panelist cut in. “The scanner reading came at the lowest level, and we clearly didn’t see him use a second ability besides that pitiful display of the fire ability. If we review the facts holistically, he is just a bottom rung fire user with an eccentric orb energy display.”
“He’s right,” the second panelist agreed. “According to protocol, we have to go by his manifestation and his scanner level, both of which point towards him being a low level fire ability user. Let’s not get distracted by any mischief caused by orb trickery. And besides, there wasn’t any other color from the first part of the orb’s energy display, so that would mean that he awakened some kind of elementless ability, like telekinesis or flight, which we didn’t see at all.”
“Very well,” said the first panelist. “It’s decided then.”
The clipboard was passed to the instructor, who announced the results to the entire auditorium. “Power level of one, Fire!”
William headed back to his seat with mixed feelings. He’d gotten the fire ability that he wanted so desperately, but other than that, the worst case scenario had happened. Being a level one ability user meant that his plan of getting into a mid tier guild was now probably impossible, which meant that his growth would get stunted even further as everyone else got stronger around him.
He’d have to find a low tier guild that would take him, and those normally came with pretty unfavorable contracts that meant he’d be working for marginally better wages than his current fast food delivery job. Maybe he could find a way to work both jobs at the same time. Either way, the outlook was bleak. His fire ability was also noticeably weaker than the other level one fire users.
However, he couldn’t stop thinking about that strange feeling when he first touched the orb, and how the very center of that gray dust storm seemed to glow with a strange blue light. Could that first evaluator have been right, and did he somehow awaken two abilities at once? And what exactly happened with his phone? Now that he had time to mentally organize the sequence of events, he could say with absolute certainty that he did not turn on the phone screen by himself. He’d never make a rookie mistake like that after all those years running delivery routes while trying to preserve his phone’s battery life. Impossible.
Naturally, if he followed that sequence of logic, then it meant that there was only one explanation left–his awakening had something to do with his phone turning on. But what exactly?
Someone grabbed his sleeve as he was walking back to his seat. He looked down and saw it was Evelyn.
“I’m proud of you, you got the fire ability!” she said, before dropping to a whisper. “Just ignore them, please."
She indicated towards Luke’s gang, and apparently one of them had bet his expensive designer watch on William’s power level and was now handing it to another student. If William had bet and lost a watch like that, he’d have to eat rice and beans and wallow in his own tears for months to compensate, but those with considerable wealth didn’t even bat an eye at betting something that expensive. They really lived in a different world.
“Thanks, and I know, I’ll try not to.”
Sitting beside Evelyn, Isabella also stared at William with some interest, probably judging him in some way or another, based on what he overheard earlier.
To his surprise, she reached out her hand for a handshake.
“I’m Isabella,” she said. “Nice to meet you. I heard all about you from Evelyn. Looks like you’ll be in my fire elemental class in the future.”
He shook her hand, which was surprisingly cold given that she was a fire element user. “Likewise, looking forward to it.”
He passed by them and crossed over to Finn again as the announcer called up another student.
“Nice work, fire is pretty cool,” said Finn. “All DPS and no armor from what I heard.”
Hearing Finn’s ridiculous comment lightened William’s mood a bit. Of course he would say something like that. But still, he couldn't shake the feeling of profound confusion over his new ability, or maybe abilities.
“Power level of four, Wind ability!” the announcer called.
William sat down and looked around the room. Lots of students who already awakened were now practicing their new abilities at their seats, which was actually quite dangerous, but the soldiers and instructors didn’t seem to mind it. He scanned the auditorium and saw a group of healers. No wonder they didn’t mind, since the healers could heal anyone up if they got injured.
“I’m going to practice my ability a bit if you don’t mind,” said William.
“Be my guest,” Finn replied. “Just try not to set our seats on fire.”
“Can’t guarantee you that."
He opened his palm, concentrating on that feeling from earlier while remembering everything he learned from the forums. Going through the casting and breathing exercises, he quickly summoned the flame again.
The flame was disappointingly small as expected, about the same size as a matchstick.
He squinted his eyes and looked closer. There had to be some trick to this.