IImar spent the rest of the night roaming the streets thinking of his memories of this life and his past life before he knew it morning had arrived and he made his way out of the shanty town to the outer district where he took the ‘centipede’ train to the middle district heading to school.
With his student ID, the train ride was free, it had many benefits around the city and this was one of them. His ride to school had always been an enjoyable daily activity in his memories.
The ‘centipede’ train was an upside-down train made with alchemy and mechanical technology.
The levels attained as far as technology was concerned was far ahead of his previous life but it was in a different direction than Artificial Intelligence and Computer processors.
The centipede train had interconnected passenger cabins or capsules like a Ferris wheel or similar amusement park ride and hung down its cabins similar to a straightened Ferris Wheel.
The Red Centipede he took for free was an old model hundreds of years old but still fully operational.
The other trains you had to pay to use and even with his student discount it was a hefty sum. He also had no money, having left home for good.
Furthermore, the Red Centipede was the only train that was close to the entrances of the shanty town.
IImar admired the wonderful mechanical structure with faded paint even now as he was in melancholy.
Some 30 minutes later he disembarked.
On his way to the school gate, he saw a familiar figure waving to him from afar.
It was his cheap best friend Jellal.
“What’s up?” IImar asked seeing him run up to himself short of breath.
“You bastard, I reminded you to meet me at 7 to take the train together. It’s already 9.” Jellal nudged him in displeasure.
IImar was baffled, “Isn’t the ceremony at 1? We’re already plenty early. What in go-the seven gods would possess you to want to leave that early?”
“Hey did you forget, it’s first come first serve, the other kids would have already started gathering at six, it would be even earlier if the school didn’t open at 6 on the dot.” Jellal said in exasperation.
“Whatever, it’s not like there’s limited spots. We'll get our turn anyways.” IImar said in nonchalance.
Jellal looked at his calm demeanor and felt he should smack him over the head with a brick to satiate his anger.
“Well fuck you. Anyways here’s your belated birthday gift.” Jellal tossed him a box.
“You already gave me a present,” IImar said puzzlingly as he caught it.
“Open it.” Jellal said excitedly.
“Alright Alright don’t get your panties knotted up.”
IImar brushed off his friend’s grubby paws and opened it.
“!!!”
Inside the box was a dried-up branch with inscriptions engraved upon its bark. Light red veins covered its body granulated body. It had a smooth metallic glow like the surface of a gun barrel.
“Th-This is the Black Iron Curse Material [Sakim’s Withered Branch]. Where did you-? How-?”
IImar, having inherited the memories of his useless predecessor was well-read and immediately recognized the item.
This was a refined quality item!
Black Iron curse materials had different levels of purity and strength based on the depth of mystic power and the strength of the owner of the material when they were alive. The levels of black iron materials were: rough, ordinary, tough, refined, and pristine.
A rough quality material was worth dozens of silver but a refined quality was even more expensive and could go up in the 50s and 60s.
“This is too expensive i can’t accept it.” IImar took a deep breath and pushed it back to Jellal.
“Take it, you can pay me back when we both awaken. If you dare default on your debt then I’ll take your sister as mortage! It’s not like this is a guaranteed awakening but it's pretty good, I have high hopes for you young man.” Jellal patted his shoulder and acted like an adult giving advice.
IImar felt a warm feeling in his heart, unlike the sticky sense of disgust and unease like before.
This friend, he accepted it!
“No, I really don’t need it. Like you said it’s not a guarantee and it’s not like we have two chances to awaken, after the ceremony an individual offering can’t grant abilities at all unless its super great according to Old Mac. I’ve already decided to perform the Epic Ritual with the God of Tales and Heroes.”
“!!!” Jellal was taken aback before he quickly uttered the following: “Are you crazy!”
The Epic Ritual was the exclusive paragon ritual pointing to Aurudamir, the God of Epics, Tales, and Heroes.
Each God had several rituals pointing to them and the Paragon Rituals were those that had a trace of divinity from the gods.
The Epic Ritual was a Paragon ritual of the God of Tales and Heroes.
The Epic Ritual was a famous ritual not only due to it being the one of the only ones ordinary mortals can perform but also it was the only ritual that could be done at the Awakening Ceremony. It also had a quirk that benefits the poor.
An ordinary ritual typically had several stringent requirements both material and immaterial except for the Epic Ritual.
Its fame had been brought forth hundreds of years ago when Ludas the Trickster managed to trick the God into giving him abilities with his silver tongue.
Later it was found that this was a legitimate method of awakening high-level abilities and somehow became a ritual of sorts.
Of course, it helped that Ludas ascended to the realm of the Sages and was no longer cursed as a prankster and trickster.
The following heroes birthed by the Epic Ritual also painted a gold cake for the masses.
Theracles the Unbroken managed to do it and carve out his own legend even down to the most recent Saintess of Love; the dual apostle of the Pantheon of Heroes and Church of Love and Blood, who managed to do so 40-something years ago.
But was this something that anyone could do?
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Far from it!
The countless starry-eyed poor children at the bottom had tried to do the same but only a few were successful. The ritual requirements were too loose so nothing was guaranteed.
The school labeled this method as unreliable and exhorted students not to take this path and do something more concrete like pray to a specific god to favor and bless them instead of asking for a trial ritual.
“You don’t need to take such a risk, look you remember what Old Mac said about our seniors who tried. Even those successful mostly got ridiculous talents like [Mimic Sound], [Rejuvenating Laughter] and [Deceitful Hands].”
“That’s if they weren’t unlucky enough to not awaken and simply get some random item like a tattered cloth or old shoe that they could only resell to make their life’s greatest fortune!”
Jellal felt his friend had gone crazy trying to use such an outrageous method when there was a more stable way.
The Epic Ritual was synonymous with giving up and handing in all your cards!
Feeling he was overburdened by his gift he once again encouraged, “ Come on you’ve done a lot for me, I remember I went hungry close to sickness a few times and it was you who gave me your food so I could fight for another day, without you I might not even be alive, what’s a small gift between friends.”
Jellal beamingly put the box in IImar’s hand but he didn’t grasp it.
Illmar knew if he didn’t give a good reason this stubborn friend would stick to him like a dog skin plaster so he explained further.
“You misunderstand, you said it yourself remember, it's not a guarantee let’s say your refined quality Black Iron curse material is articulary good, and that my lineage wasn’t below average and normal instead.” IImar continued, and he put up 3 fingers.
“That only moves my wonderful peak chance from 3% to 33% and 10% to 43% for normal awakening.”
Of course, the actual chances for IImar would be a base chance of 5% or less as a ‘sinner’ with lacking heritage. So 30% more would only be 35% and that was if this was a pristine quality curse material, not a refined quality.
“That’s still a over 50% chance of remaining ordinary even then i might get no abilities or a weak one since the balanced nature of Sakim’s Withered Branch means it's not biased to any one ability so it’s more likely to get nothing or just [Weak Nature Affinity] or [Minor Regeneration] if you’re successful. Those are just Ember-quality talents. I'd rather risk it all for something greater.”
IImar’s eyes lit aflame as the ambition within his heart smoldered. Traveling to such a magical world, how could he remain ordinary!
Jellal’s persuasive words were blocked in his throat as soon as he saw the look in IImar’s eyes.
He had seen that look before in his eldest brother.
Whenever he was about to do something outrageous and succeeded to the chagrin of many.
“...”
“Give it back. You took out a loan, didn’t you? After the last sagas of people trying to leech off your eldest brother, he became strict with helping outsiders so I'm sure you just used his name or the orphanage’s fame to take a loan and buy it. Were you someone else I’m sure they’d say you have to pay it back and can’t take it back so easily but the tiger skin of your eldest brother is still there and they have to take it back no matter how unwilling they might be.”
IImar was at ease his friend could get back his money and be out of debt otherwise he would be uneasy and struggle whether he should risk it all or not he knew himself well and didn’t want to disappoint this friend and cause him harm due to his selfishness.
Yuhan Provost was a household name as the first Class F ‘slave’ in recent times to rise so high, there had been some before him but none so radiant. His legend hung on the tongues of everyone in the slum district and even the entire White Star District.
A monstrous Scorched Earth quality talent.
Terrifying Combat ability.
Slaying countless Aberrations.
Favored by the God of War and Victory and the Goddess of Blood and Love.
Engaged to a high-born noble lady as a former slave.
Leader of a powerful demon slayer team.
All at the mere age of 18. His current biography was the same as several heroes and sages in their youth and many had high hopes for him.
Furthermore, he was already a Class A citizen and was far above everyone within the White Star District, no one would dare offend him.
So IImar was content that his friend’s money would be returned.
“Let’s go, we need to line up.”
IImar dragged the deflated Jellal.
–‘Damn it, I went through so much trouble too’
Jellal thought in displeasure but could only give a defeated sigh. He knew better than to try and convince this stubborn mule once he made up his mind.
When they arrived near the Awakening Chamber his nervousness and excitement drowned his annoyance and he excitedly started his hobby of chattering incessantly.
“Hey that’s the school belle from our year Summer Rayniss from the Rayniss family, I bet she’ll awaken their family’s ability [Ice Maiden Transformation]. A Spark level talent so enviable.”
“That’s the rich second-generation Stephan Baltore. Who does he think he’s fooling with those clothes, the Baltore family is barely a Knight and just a merchant family although I hear the wicked bastard actually got a Brass quality sacrifice material this time. Hate, Envy, Jealousy!”
“That’s the genius four eyes Lei Bin. I hear the school fronted his compatibility testing due to his grades and gave him a scholarship to buy the related curse materials. The lucky bastard.”
“Ou Ou it's Victor, his brother awakened three years ago so he has a high chance of awakening the same ability or something similar. [Sword Affinity] is a good skill for swordsmen, cutting bullets is so handsome.”
IImar listened to the chatter of his friend as they joined the line for awakening, the waiting area had the lines curved at the neck of the entrance to the corridor to the Chamber of Awakening and a wide open area with orderly lines was present with each student a shoulder width apart from the other.
As one of the only 7 Awakener Institutions in the middle city, it was understandable that there were many teenagers present who had to be packed tightly.
The death rate for combatants was astonishingly high which was why the gods encouraged reproduction for the race rich in numbers; humanity. Another reason why the rich couldn’t block this path of ascension.
***
In Hallmaine, families were subsidized as long as they had young children, and even the shanty town dwellers stripped of most rights were allowed to have two children within 15 years matching the awakening period.
The parents of these children were guaranteed ‘basic’ work and could live on the main leaf as long as the children were under 15.
After 15 the risk of being assigned or reallocated to various areas such as the ‘Under leaf’, ‘Farms’, ‘Mines’ ‘Outposts’, and even the ‘Research Centres’ were heightened for the families.
Life on the upper side was harsh but at least it wasn’t dangerous. But even that would be stripped from them after a while if the upper class saw fit and they no longer had any direct protection from the gods and system.
The aberrations were rampant on the outside away from the stem and one’s life hung by the balance as an ordinary mortal but the existence of such facilities was necessary for the ongoing livelihood of society to feed the many mouths on the leaves.
While the leaves of the White Guardian were huge they had limits, as the population swelled with the passing of the years and human productivity it became necessary to grow food, smelt metal and even dispose of waste elsewhere off the stem since the living area was so precious.
Thus areas were opened up within the earth and even above ground to facilitate human’s continued survival.
However, this labor force and even the revered Mystic Masters were regularly mowed down by evil aberrants and the supply must be replenished regularly.
Thus men were encouraged to take many wives, and families were urged to have many children. Of course, slaves or Class F individuals with debts to the city or organizations had no such rights and were limited to just two children. This was only if they had no awakeners in their family in recent years.
With ordinary D class citizens having 4-7 children, and C class and above averaging three per wife it was understandable that the population of students to be awakened was high. Just the Yulian Blossom Institute that IImar was a part of had 20,000 students in this batch to awaken.
Above the room of chattering and nervous sweaty children was a room unseen by them covered by an ordinary wall but those within the room could see outside with no problem.
“This year's fresh blood is about to come. My apprentices are either seasoned or dead now so someone’s got to clean my dirty boots in the field!” One scar-faced fellow chuckled menacingly.
“How many do you think will successfully awaken? Last year was not that good and the percentage of awakeners was only 6.8% alas 10% would be good but it's not always the case.” One voice lamented.
“Ha without the year of heroes, we would be in quite a bit of trouble on the frontlines as usual but we haven’t had such a good time in decades. It should still be alright unless the next three batches are complete trash.” Someone commented.
“Indeed, with Astrel the Swordmaster from our academy, and the others led by Yuhan Provost that year’s quality was unparalleled in the entire century. Yuhan alone would have been enough but the others are not exactly that far behind him either and they are making a name for themselves as well.”
“Heroes come before the youth after all.”
“Youth. How enviable.”