Zane agreed.
Coin beamed.
"Excellent choice, son."
He let go of Zane's shoulders.
Zane shook his head, exhaling a mouthful of air.
Now that I agreed, the safest option is to get two Gleam Tier skills and be admitted to the Commoners batch. The Halocrat batch will be a valley of death.
Coin stepped to the side, giving full view of the slab to Zane.
The solid chunk of gold, stuck in the center of Dwarkam, Zane felt as if it was alive.
Golden veins ran on the skin of the slab and seeing it close, Zane understood its craze.
But his chest—the damned X mark on his chest—raged, thumped as if it would come out of his ribcage.
Zane held on and reached out his hand towards the slab.
He bit his lip as the X became more violent than ever and in defeat, he placed his left hand over his chest. He finally scratched it in front of everyone.
Zane's right hand inches away from the slab, Coin spoke:
"I should tell you it depends on your soul resonance what tier of skill you will awaken. Underprivileged children like you usually get an Ember tier, and Gleam Tier if they are lucky. Also, I will know which tier you awaken seeing the length and thickness of the pillar erected from the Haloheart. May the First Flame have mercy on you."
Zane nodded. His expectations lower, especially after hearing about Soul Resonance and luck.
He took a deep breath and finally placed his hand on the Golden Slab.
"Ughh.."
Zane rubbed the X scar on his chest back and forth as it was begging for it. Now more than ever.
Then he felt the slab pulsating under his right palm, the heat invading inside it.
All eyes fixated on Zane and the next second…
SHING!
The slab reacted.
A golden thin pillar erected from the slab.
It stopped some feet away from the Citadel's ceiling and then went back inside the slab.
"Gleam." Coin muttered, sighing.
Zane sighed too.
No admission for me.
He proceeded to remove his hand from the slab.
He frowned.
The hand wasn't moving.
His chest itched.
He jerked his head at Coin and before Coin could express something on his face…
SHING!
Another thin pillar shot up.
The same height.
It stopped at the exact same place as the previous pillar.
Zane's eyes lit up and Coin smiled.
"Two Gleams."
My admission is clear.
The 2nd pillar went inside the slab.
Zane exhaled in relief but…
"Angghh!"
It was short lived.
His pain finally got words as he couldn't handle his chest anymore.
His right hand refused to budge from the slab and his left hand worked overtime to satisfy the X on his chest.
Coin and everyone else other than the Halocrats watched the scene with complex expressions.
They only saw a boy scratching his chest with one hand and touching the slab with the other.
Zane couldn't care less about the eyes anymore.
He felt the X on his chest was alive. Like it wanted something. Like it wanted to do something Zane didn't know.
His face turned red, blood seeped around the scar which was dormant for years.
He wanted one more hand to relieve his chest but the second hand was still glued to the slab.
He endured to the best of his abilities and if that wasn't enough…
SHING!
Another pillar erected from the slab.
Gasps escaped from the Gutterborns and Commoners.
Eyes of the Halocrats finally registered Zane.
The ground near Zane, Coin and the Slab rumbled as the Pillar rose.
Coin stared at the third pillar of light and at the ground, and as the pillar rose, Zane's chest went through hellish agony.
He was forced to see it himself to know what was actually going on with his scar.
As he laid his eyes upon the X on his chest, his eyes bulged.
He thought it felt like X was moving. But his mind couldn't comprehend the current scene as the X on his chest was really moving.
It was turning clockwise.
As the thin golden pillar kept moving up, the X kept turning right.
The slightest moment from X made Zane wish for instant death.
The pillar moved.
The X moved.
As the pillar reached just below the ceiling of the Citadel, it stopped.
Along with that, the X stopped as well.
Zane panted heavily and as he saw his chest, it made him question reality.
The X scar on his chest which belonged to him for as long as he remembered, the ever-red scar, it wasn't red anymore and it wasn't X anymore.
The X moved clockwise enough…
It became a +
A dark crimson +
In that instant, the golden thin pillar of light went inside the slab.
Zane finally felt the relief of a thousand lives and the next thing that hit his ears:
"Zane Atlas awakened three Gleam Tier Skills!"
All heads turned to Zane and Zane shivered.
What he wanted didn't happen. And what happened was something he didn't even think could happen.
Coin was all smiles and Zane jerked his head at Halocrats seated on his left side.
Their faces already had scowls and frowns after hearing Priest Coin and Zane didn't want any problems right now. So he removed his right hand from the slab.
… Or so he thought.
His right hand still didn't budge.
He looked at Coin and the Priest was busy writing something on a sheet of paper.
Zane tried harder but his hand was glued.
He opened his mouth to call for help but before words could come out…
[ DING! ]
A bell rang inside Zane's mind.
And Zane, who didn't know anything about the slab, understood one thing.
The third pillar of light was misunderstood by everyone.
The third pillar didn't mean another Gleam Tier Skill.
It meant something else.
And the next moment, Zane saw what it meant in front of his eyes.
[ CONFLUX SYSTEM INITIALIZING…]
[ Host Detected: Zane Atlas ]
[ Soul Resonance: ACCEPTED ]
[ Synchronization: 0.01% ]
[ Warning: Incomplete Convergence! ]
[ Warning: Do. Not. Tell. A. Single. Soul. ]
[ ??? ]
[ ??? ]