“Not bad at all…” the bald man said after all the children walked out of the hall. “Now come on…stand orderly… we have 81 so let’s see…  quickly form 10 lines…” he ordered as the guards began pushing the children around to stand in lines.

Astor casually stood between them as he waited for what would come next… He had two options.

The first was to let this play out as it did in his past life, which would be fine but would be a major waste of time and he had no intentions of getting beaten like a dog for the next few months.

The next option was to fasten things a bit… This would be a little dangerous, but… he paused and searched the children for the girl while crossing his fingers….

There she was, Reyna Black Dove!

He could tell because he saw her photo back then when her father, who was a general in the imperial army, came searching for her… She was standing nervously looking around not knowing what to do with her teary eyes.

Good girl… She was his ticket out of this place. Hopefully, her results would be similar to what it was in their past life.

 

“Let’s begin…” the bald man suddenly said as he watched the men bring a huge pot full of some kind of soup and then place it in front of the lines.

“Listen up…” he said as he turned to face the children. “Now one by one, I want you to come and take a sip of this… you must be hungry…” he said.

“Move it!” One guard quickly pushed the first kid in the first line without waiting for his boss to explain further.

 

The child slowly moved to the bowl where one of the guards scooped a bowl for the kid and then made him drink it in one go.

“Now go back to your position to sit and eat!” the bald man said to the kid giving him a loaf of bread as the guard pushed the next child toward the pot. No one dared to say anything as the line slowly moved bit by bit. The children were truly famished. The flame burnt all the food in their stomachs.

None of the children realized that this soup was a mixture of some very nasty drugs that would cause them to lose their old memories, and in a way weaken their souls making them a little more obedient and easier to control!

Those men planned to make the children drink this for the next week, eroding their memories bit by bit as they were still in their weakest period after the burning. Hot metals were easier to shape than cold ones after all!

This soup was one of the reasons Astor suffered in his past life. It made him forget some very important things that he should have remembered after the burning.

 

Soon it was his turn. He didn’t hesitate as he grabbed the bowl and then drank it in one go.

Thankfully, due to the extra number of unexpected survivors, the guards seemed to have not prepared the right dosage, and the soup was very light. Astor didn’t have to employ any tricks to eliminate it from his system. In a way, this soup right now was acting as a medicine for him. It was good for the headache he was having. A side effect of time travel.

 

Those guys would definitely correct this the next day though, but Astor who quickly began to eat his meal like the others was not sure they would survive until then.  

The silent meal took about 30 Minutes to finish just enough for the soup to start affecting them.

During this time, Astor made sure to inspect every one of the children while acting as one of them. He didn't know many of them after they left this place, as due to the rudimentary awakening method and primitive training regime that followed, most of them ended up with severe weaknesses that caused their deaths.

 

Soon the bald man who was watching the meal with his sharp eyes stood from his chair.

“Now… All of you here are children we brought from the streets… You were destined to die of hunger or from cold, yet you are here, surviving the burning!” he said as if he were a charitable person. “Do you know what the flame you survived was?” he asked.

No one answered. No one dared to…  They knew that this question was Rhetorical… They were only allowed to answer if they were questioned one to one, and only if they were allowed to talk!

They had been taught that the first day they were brought here!

 

“It is called the flame of awakening…” he said casually, mankind the kids gasped in shock one by one as they realized what he meant. They have been too preoccupied with what happened to them to recognize that they had been through the fabled Awakening Ritual. The one only the rich and powerful could attempt to become players.

“YES! All of you are now awakened! Just like me!” he added as he made a fireball appear in his hand then threw it to the sky making it explode in an array of colors.

A cheap trick, but it was enough to stun the children whose eyes began to change from desperation to shock to Amazement as they looked at the sky.

Everyone knew what being Awakened meant.

It all began 100 years ago when the first divine flame storm engulfed the entire planet.

It lasted three days in which the face of the world changed as numerous gates leading to other worlds opened and all kinds of creatures and demons began to invade the world.

Some said the storm caused the cataclysm, and some claimed the opposite was true. No one knew the truth, but this storm was the hope that allowed the humans who were on the verge of extinction to fight back. It granted some people the potential to become superhumans possessing great power They called themselves the Awakened.

In a matter of 50 years, they managed to not only push the invaders back but even began to launch campaigns to the other worlds!

Nowadays, being awakened is a great honor as the awakened gets to be treated as a first-class citizen, enjoying many rights and privileges as society depends on them not only to protect the world’s order but also to travel to other worlds and bring back many of the otherworldly materials that society needs.

Still.. The privilege of becoming awakened was not granted to anyone. It was both simple and dangerous!

To become awakened one must burn in the heavenly flames that appeared once every 10 years.

That was the basic rule. And this burning could happen in many ways.

The first was very rare and happened by accident as the flames had the tendency to be attracted to certain individuals more than others. Hitting them by chance like lightning bolts as others watched the storm that made the sky shine in bright colors for an hour or so.

People called those awakened Naturals, and they usually turn out to be the best at controlling their powers.

The second way was artificial. It was conducted in a ceremonial manner by forcibly attracting the flames using an inscribed rod made out of celestial copper that had a large flame affinity and energy conductivity. It acted just like a lightning rod.

This method was very dangerous, and hard though.

First of all, the materials needed like celestial copper and the flame-resistant devil wool stone that the awakening hall must be built with were rare and brought from beyond the gate.

Secondly, to ensure the survival of all the participants, one very rare element was needed. It is called Eternal ice glass and only 7 pieces of it have been discovered so far. And those had been long divided between the royal family, the three dukes, and the three academies. Without it, the ritual would have an 80% mortality rate.

The people here of course had no access to such a stone so like many scammers and minor powers who wanted to raise their own secret awakening armies. They chose to do an incomplete retail. Compensating for the high mortality rates by cramming as many participants as possible in the attraction rod's area of effect.

Celestial copper, although rare, was still obtainable with the right price and if you were not stingy about the purity.

 It has the property to repel low-level and unintelligent demonic beasts by interfering with their mana reception, so it was not unnatural if someone requested some to be transferred to a far location like this one.

Astor looked at the amazed children's smiles then sighed. Those kids had no idea what hellish training was awaiting them. This awakening ritual was not for free!

The one behind this place, the mysterious young master who paid a ton of money to build this base in a hurry, was in fact the Seventh prince of the royal family who was secretly preparing for the fight for the throne. The base here was meant to train a group of assassins to attack his brothers secretly!

That’s why this place was only run by a few trusted aides, and when it was discovered and raided in his past life, no one helped them.

“Still… Since you have awakened you must realize that this was not for free!” the bald man said after a short pause. “From now on you work for us, it is the price for helping you… I hope you don’t mind…” the man added as if the children had a choice.

Well, it was not that they had any other place to go, all of those kids didn’t have a family, and they came from the streets. That’s what the man believed.

He stopped talking a bit again as if waiting for any of the children to object. He wanted to set an example for them… Too bad none of them were stupid enough to talk… No, not exactly, there was one stupid girl who was about to open her mouth, but another one beside her quickly pulled her back.

“Ehm… Now then… It is time to test your aptitude!” he said as the guards carried a small black iron box that he opened using a key bound by a chain around his neck.

From inside he took two things. A strange white cubical gem and a glass orb that he carried with utmost care then placed next to each other on a specially made pedestal.

This was a very basic test method to discern an awakened meridian’s strength. The main thing that supposedly determined an awakened power.

In a normal test, the meridians' affinity should be tested too, but the guys here didn’t care about that as they planned to change the meridians of everyone here to be Elemental Dark.

The kids who watched couldn’t contain their excitement as everything was prepared.

“This is called an energy stone… It is to test your aptitude now come on… Let’s begin…” the bald man said as again the children formed a line then began to approach the stone one by one, including Astor who began to weigh his options.

“Place your left hand on the cube gem and never let go no matter what happens…” the bald man told the first kid who nodded and then nervously slowly put his hand on the stone.

“Now, place your other palm on the orb…” the man said.

The kid did as was told, then frowned as he felt the energy go through his body from one hand to the other. It was not painful, but it felt like a water stream was running through his own veins.

The energy in the high-quality gem would naturally find its way through the human body to the orb, testing if there were any blockages or problems on the way.

 

Moments later, the orb began to shine with a faint white light, and the symbol 6

Astor knew that this indicated the energy resistance of the veins. A 6 was a little above average result.

“Good! You can let go” the man said,  writing something then looking at the kid and at the guard beside him who all of a sudden took the kid’s hand and pressed a strange-looking staff onto the back of his hand.

“Ahh…” the kid yelped and tried to pull back, but couldn’t until the guards finished branding him with a number.

“Don’t scream like that… It is not that painful, it is a magical energy, not flame!” the man scolded as he grabbed the kid’s hand and checked it. “From now on, you are number one! This is your name, if you were to be called by any other name you would be punished!” he said to the kid who realized that the number branded with purple ink on his hand really didn’t hurt.

 

“NEXT!” he yelled at the kids.

They didn’t want to go forward, but a guard with a leather whip quickly made the kids change their minds. Especially after witnessing that the kid who was branded earlier stopped screaming and was now inspecting his hand and how the brand seemed to fade on its own. This was a magical brand that only appeared when injecting energy of a specific frequency onto it.

“Come on now…” the bald man said. “We don't have the entire fucking day!”

 

One by one the children were tested, branded, and then separated into six groups that represented their scores.

Those in the bottom group were the most. They had a score of 9, barely usable, and destined to be cannon fodders for the rest of their lives.

On the contrary, there were only 5 people with a rank of 4. They were quickly pulled to the side where they were given an extra serving of food and soup. Those were destined to be the organization's striking hand.

 

As for people with scores 3 or higher… Those didn’t exist here. The change from 4 to 3 was a qualitative jump that required not only luck but immense talent.

Even in the top noble families, those guys would be considered elites.

For Astor, who purposely stood at the very back to make sure that the results of the others were similar to the ones in his past life, his turn came at last.

He casually approached and touched the orb and the energy stone, letting a wisp of energy swiftly travel through his perfect meridians until it reached his heart then turned to leave through his other hand…

That’s when he activated his spark, letting it eat the energy. Not only did he need to fail this test. This wisp of energy might come in handy later, as pure energy like this was not easy to come by for someone like him.

“Another f*cking blocked meridian!” the bald man scolded, gesturing to the guards to grab Astor then threw him with 8 others who had similar problems without even caring to brand him.

The children looked at Astor with disdain as he acted shocked while trying to grab the stone again before one of the guards hit his stomach with his baton, and then threw him away.

He landed with his face hitting the ground right next to Renya, who thankfully got the same results as the one from his past life. Her meridians were blocked!

Making sure he covered his face with enough dirt, he sat up then, while totally ignoring everything, he stared to secretly test how much energy he absorbed from that stone. He had to force himself not to smile. He took it all and the energy stone was now practically empty… Thankfully he was the last one, and this would not be discovered.

“I thought those with blocked meridians were rare…” the guard who hit Astor said as he returned to his position.

“It might have something with the dragon urine…” another one whispered in reply.

“Now…” the bald man who completely heard them, shot them a glare then cleared his throat as the guards carried the testing equipment away then turned to face the children.

“I know you kids have a lot of questions. We will address all of them tomorrow, once the young master arrives…“ he said kindly. “For now you will follow those kind men here to your dormitories and get some sleep! Now stand up!”

The children who were divided into groups and were sitting on the ground quickly stood up and rearranged their lines as the guards began guiding them orderly to their dormitories… The children, although still wary, couldn't hide the excitement on their faces… Especially the ones in the ‘elite’ group.

Everyone moved except for Astor’s group… The rejects. The guards forced them to wait until the others left.

Then the bald man, making sure that the others left, approached them.

“What should we do with those?” one guard asked.

“ I have an idea… Follow me…” the bold man said, licking his lips as he guided them back toward the awakening hall where he stood by the door. “Go in…” he said.

The children obediently walked in, not daring to question him.

“Let’s put you to good use… It is already 6.30… the sun will set in an hour. You have until the morning to clean this entire place up… there is a gutter in the corner, you can push the dust there!” he said as the guards threw the kids a few brooms, five to be exact, of those Astor quickly grabbed two as he was the last to enter the room and was naturally closest to the door…. That’s what he wanted the others to think anyway.

The bald man said nothing as he gave the children one last look and began to close the door before pausing at the last moment.

" Oh… And you have 9 people in your group… that's too many useless mouths to feed. If there are more than five people still alive in the morning I will kill all of you in a very painful way!" he said casually with a playful smile before closing the door and locking it, leaving the children to decide on their own, the ones they are going to sacrifice under the disturbed look of the guards.

This was a game he liked to play, and since those failures were meant to be disposed of anyway, why not put them to good use… And he needed five faithful dogs to vent their shortcomings on others.