Chapter 2 – Talent? Or Hardwork?
Year 508, New Era
Silver Village, Florence Kingdom
"Man, village life sucks," spoke a boy who looked like 10 years of age. While lying under the shade of a tree, the boy was lazily looking towards the sky.
"I wish to know what lies beyond the horizon," the boy spoke.
"There you are, Arthur," suddenly he was interrupted by the voice of a girl.
Arthur sat upright and looked towards the figure of a girl approaching him.
Her name was Lena, and she was his childhood friend.
"What is it, Lena? Are you already missing me after we just met this morning?" Arthur spoke with a cheeky smile.
To which Lena yelled, "Dumb Arthur! Why would I miss you? You are just a dumb idiot with delusional dreams."
Arthur replied, "Is that so? But I don't think my dream would be an illusion after today.
You see, after today's initiation, I will surely get an A-rank mana compatibility, and then I would attend the Royal Knights Academy," Arthur spoke with an intense flame in his eyes.
Lena could not help but blush after seeing Arthur's determination and passion.
Arthur then turned to Lena and made a demon smile on his face, "Hey, what was that about calling my dreams delusional?"
Lena stepped back and started running while making a face towards Arthur.
"So what, your dreams are delusional, moron Arthur."
Arthur started laughing like a demon while chasing her.
"Don't cry when I catch you, brat!"
The village people in the surroundings looked at their banter and laughed.
"There he goes again. Anyone want to bet if little Arthur would manage to catch Lena before she reaches his mom?"
With this, the children kept running till they reached the village academy.
---
Silver Village Academy
A place where people of the village started with their elementary studies about mana before their initiation.
Lena stopped running when she spotted a woman about 30 years of age.
"Aunt Sara, Arthur is bullying me again," spoke Lena with a pitiful expression on her face.
"Arthur, you really want a spanking from me?" spoke Sara.
Hearing this, Arthur's face turned beet red.
"Mom, you are ruining my reputation," spoke Arthur in an embarrassed tone.
"Ahem… Ahem! May I have your attention, please!!" Hearing this, everyone turned towards the person.
"It's Headmaster Zach," one of the parents present there spoke.
"It brings me extreme joy to announce that this batch of academy is finally ready for their initiation ceremony."
As he continued speaking, Arthur grimaced, "Not with that long speech again…"
To Arthur's relief, the speech ended after about 10 minutes.
"Now then, for the initiation ceremony, I would like the students to step on the stage in groups of five."
As the first group gathered, the instructors put their hands on the students' backs.
"Don't resist the flow of mana from the instructors," Zach spoke.
After 15 minutes, every kid present in the academy had finished the initiation.
---
"What we did just now…"
"…was introducing the omnipresent energy known as mana into your body," Zach explained.
"Before this, all of your bodies were sealed containers. But now, using foreign mana, those seals were broken."
As he was speaking, a student shouted:
"What's happening to me?!"
He was surrounded by a pink halo of light. Soon, several students started showing the same phenomenon, though everyone's colour of halo was different.
"Looks like I do not need to explain further," smiled Zach.
When the light faded and everyone calmed down, Zach started speaking again.
"What just happened here was a representation of your physical body absorbing the intangible energy called mana."
"But Headmaster, why did everyone have a different colour surrounding them?" asked a boy, and everyone looked towards the headmaster.
"Little Arnot, it does not concern you all right now what the colours mean." Zach paused.
"What you kids need to know right now is your mana compatibility."
With this, he presented an orb on a table.
"This is a Talent Orb. What you all need to do is shroud yourself with a mana layer and touch the orb to reveal your talent."
Hearing this, everyone became quite nervous because they knew what 'Mana Compatibility' — or simply, 'Talent' — signified.
---
The Talents Were Graded As Follows:
1. SSS Rank – 1 in 10 billion
2. SS Rank – 1 in 1 billion
3. S Rank – 1 in 100 million
4. A Rank – 1 in 10 million
5. B Rank – 1 in 1 million
6. C Rank – 1 in 100,000
7. D Rank – 1 in 10,000
8. E Rank – 1 in 1,000
9. F Rank – 1 in 100
The talent grading represented the compatibility of one's body with mana.
Therefore, one with higher talent had an easier time mastering the use of mana than others.
"Though this may seem unfair, there are many legends in history who overcame this bottleneck known as talent and were able to make a name for themselves," Zach spoke with an encouraging voice.
"Now then, my dear students, let's see what fate has in store for you — and whether someone here will be able to defy their fate."
"Let the testing begin!"