-Monday Afternoon, 7th Of the 1st Month, Year 910-
AOD Chapter 9: Mystic Arts Aptitude Test (Part 2)
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Everything in the room, except the Altar, is covered by darkness.
'What's going on?' I try to take my hands off the crystal ball, but they won't budge, 'Seriously?'
I try to call out to Mrs. Russo, but I can't even open my mouth. I can only wiggle my body a little.
Suddenly, my body starts to heat up, and I can feel an overbearing presence above me, releasing a strong pressure onto my body. Compared to the being above me, Ms. Dyer's gaze was nothing. Under its pressure, I can barely think, let alone move or circulate my Qi.
“Kid.” I feel a huge scaly hand touch my head and all the strength in my legs disappears.
I hear Mrs. Russo gasp as I fall to my knees. I can barely feel my body anymore, and my clothes are soaked with sweat, but my hands are still clinging to the crystal ball.
"Huuu, Haaa..." Using what little strength I have left, I take deep breaths trying to calm down.
“So weak.” The being above me sighs, sounding disappointed.
‘...I am weak but you're too strong, way too strong to compare yourself to me,’ I complain to myself feeling angry at the being.
“You're too weak right now, so for now all I’ll tell you is this, good luck and get stronger soon.” The being's presence fades away, and the pressure disappears along with the heat.
Free of its pressure my body feels lighter, after taking a few more breaths, I stand up slowly using the crystal ball to support me. I try to take my hands off again and this time they come off without any trouble and the light starts to fade away.
I open and close my eyes a few times to readjust to the room's light. Now, I can see the objects in the room and Mrs. Russo who's on the ground with both hands covering her mouth.
“Mrs. Russo?” I call out to her after collecting my breath.
After calling her a couple more times, she finally responds, “...Yes?”
“What just happened?” She never said anything like this would happen, so I'm feeling confused because I don't know if that was supposed to happen or not.
After getting up, she stays quiet for a moment before saying, "A very very rare occurrence,” I tilt my head wanting a better explanation, she takes a deep breath and explains, “The Crystal Ball and Altar are part of the Mystical Artifact called the Spirit’s Blessing Detection Device. The function of the device to gauge your Mystic Art Aptitude and realm. It does this by sending a strand of energy into your body and making contact with the Spirit’s imprint in your body-”
“U-Um- I don’t really understand what you're saying,” I scratch the back of my head feeling embarrassed.
“I’m sorry, I forgot that you didn’t learn all this yet,” I shake my head back and forth feeling bad that she's apologizing for my lack of understanding.
“Haha, I’m okay, you don’t have to worry about me.” She laughs a bit and waves her hand.
“I’m sorry,” I apologize one last time, still feeling bad.
“It’s fine,” She smiles and pats my head softly, feeling her hand’s softness most of the bad feelings go away, “Better? Now let me give you a simpler explanation?”
She takes her hand off my head and I nod still wanting an explanation.
“Alright, think about it like this, the Crystal Ball moved a strand of energy into your body when you placed your hands on it and that energy made contact with the Spirit’s power in your body. Unlike usual the spirit’s power in your body rejected the crystal’s energy, causing it to release a black light. Up to that point it could still only be considered rare although I saw it a couple of times today,” Her eyes start sparkling as she continues, “But what happened next is something that has only ever been reported to have occurred five times on the continent, yet it happened to you today making you the sixth-no the seventh in history to make the crystal react like that!”
“What about my blessing?” I'm able to follow her explanation this time and I know that it's something amazing but I don’t know what it means.
“Well, the black light signifies that you’re a successor and that your potential is-” She hesitates for a moment, and her excitement cools down, “-Well your potential is good, and as long as you train hard enough you can reach a high realm.”
I smile a bit hearing that my potential is good, but something about her explanation bothers me. But I don't know what, so I ask about something else from her explanation that I haven't heard of, “What’s a successor?”
“Well, a successor is someone who received the highest blessing from their spirit and a portion of their authority allowing them to use special abilities that others can’t once they reach a certain realm. Spirits only choose one successor each and won’t pass on the blessing until the holder dies or commits an act that betrays the spirit’s expectations.” I nod my head understanding that being a successor makes me more special than others but I have a bad feeling about it.
“Can I ask you a couple of questions?” I nod my head lightly hoping that she won’t ask questions that I can’t answer, “To start with where are you from? Who are your parents?”
“Cara Village. As for my parents, I can’t say." My parents told me not to tell anyone their names because it could cause problems.
“Are you an orphan?”
“No," I shake my head strongly.
“Then why can’t you say?” She frowns and looks at me strangely.
“Because they told me not to," I tell her what my parents told me.
“Wh-wait your blessing,” She thinks for a moment and murmurs some words, “...Black Dragon...Spirit...Xygen...Destruction...Black Dragon Clan…So that’s why.”
She must have figured something out because she goes quiet for a moment. I don’t want to interrupt her so I stay quiet and wait for her to talk.
“...I understand your situation now,” She pats my head even softer than earlier and sighs before telling me, “You’re such an unlucky child.”
I don’t say anything not because I don’t know what she's talking about, but because I don’t want to talk to someone I just met about it.
“I won’t ask you anything else about that, but I’ll tell you this, you passed the test, your aptitude is more than enough to practice Mystic Arts.” She takes her hand away and looks at her watch. Her eyes jump open and in a hurry, she tells me, “We've been here for a while so we should go.”
She turns around and starts walking toward the hallway we entered from. I take a quick look around and chase after her, then I remember the letter and stop, “Mrs. Russo can I give you something?”
“What is it?” She stops walking and turns around.
“A letter from my Dad, he wanted me to give it to a friend of his but I have no idea how to find that friend, so I was wondering if you could give it to them in my place?” I scratch the back of my head feeling bad for asking her to do something I was supposed to do, but I’m not sure I’ll pass the exam so it’s better if I have someone in the academy deliver it instead. Mrs. Russo seems like a nice person so I should be able to trust her to deliver it.
She thinks for a moment and her eyes widen, “This must be what the Vice-Principal was talking about before.”
I don’t know what she’s talking about, but I take out the letter feeling that it would be okay and hand it to her.
“I promise, I’ll get this letter to your Dad’s friend,” She pats my head one last time, “Now let’s go meet up with the others, I’m sure they’re waiting for us at the entrance.”
Author's Note: Pyris
Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Also thanks to those who added the Novel to their reading list, next chapter is a pause before the beginning of the combat test.
Read it on our site: https://deceitfixation.wixsite.com/mysite
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