Chapter 53: Awakening ceremony 3

Rick found a girl moving through the crowd just like him in the front. He knew her so he called out 'Hey Kira are you too one of the participants?' Kira slowed down and let Ryu and Kyro reach her before answering in a meek voice 'Yes.' Both Rick and Kyro were surprised. Kyro too knew her, but just in the name. 'But aunt Lyla never mentioned you were one of the participants this year?' Rick asked her. 'hmm but you never asked.' Rick wanted to face palm himself. Isn't it like a big thing to attend this, so aren't you supposed to let people know your child is going to attend the ceremony this year?

'Okay let's go there together.'Rick offered. So all three of them moved to the stage together. Within a few minutes Rick found himself with sweaty palm. 'If I mess things up and let them on my capabilities, there will definitely no cover up after this.' Rick warned himself once more. 'You can always kill them all hehehe' came a voice from inside him. Rick froze in his tracks. That was definitely the demon or his alter ego or for that matter whatever it was, the simple fact was this was bad news for him. 'Hey Ryu, why stop there we need to move to the center, come.' Kyro held his hands tugging him toward the center stage where the three elders were standing.

Rick had no choice, he rapidly began chanting the mantra, the Dragon told him. After 2-3 chants he heard the demon again 'hehe kid you won't be hiding behind these chants for much longer hahaha heheh'. With that Rick could feel he was gone for now atleast. Moving towards the elders Rick met the gaze of the hateful guy sitting on a higher ground then the stage next to Eric. Rick gave him a death stare but Jim just smiled at him and looked away from him. Rick knew that Jim considered him nothing but dirt. Jim was already an impressive mage well on his way to be just like his father while Rick was not even able to manipulate a single thread of mana. Rick can only move forward at the moment.

Next Rick saw the pregnant mother of Jim but the prideful look on her face told him somehow let him know maybe Eric was the only good person in his whole family, if he can call him that. But there was one person with an amiable smile on her face, looking towards him with intense gaze that wanted to pry out all his secrets. Truthfully speaking this amiable old lady was the one who he was most scared that she might notice something. All of the commoner participants stood in a line infront of the elders when Rick counted them to be 13 in total including him. 'Now let me ask the young generation of the noble families to come down.' Eric spoke.

After 5 mins of Eric's announcement Rick saw 3 more participants entering the stage from the opposite side. Rick knew one of them. Jake was smiling all the way, his sight fixated on both his friends. He broke off from his other noble co-participants and walked towards his friends. A feat that everyone on the stage except the granny frowned at. 'Haha how are you brothers? Please forgive me I was not allowed to move out from my home before till I do not get over with this event. Both of you know my mom.' Jake apologized. Both Rick and Kyro laughed at him and all three of them hugged. Rick felt all of this too natural but this was actually first time he has met this person. Maybe it was Ryu memories sub-consciously affecting him.

'Ahem.. Ahem.. May I ask everyone to maintain a little order here we need to start.' Rick heard one of the elder speaking. He turned to look most participants were looking at them with scowl. All three of them understood this was not the time to catch up, so they moved in line and since they had wasted some time, they can only join at the end. Rick was at the last behind Jake. 'Since all participants have joined us. I know that most of you must already be familiar with the procedure but I will re re-iterate it anyway briefly. Please listen carefully.'

Then the elder explained what they had to do. There was a pedestal placed behind the elders on which another elder placed a crystal ball. One by one the participants will move in front of the ball placing both their hands on it. He or she will wait for the elders commands and once given the go ahead they will need to focus all their attention and meditate. They will need to maintain this focus as long as they can to achieve maximum benefit. At the end of which the crystal will display some kind of statistics. With that the ceremony commenced as the first guy in the line move towards the crystal and placing his hands.

This one was from one the noble branch family so he was very confident with what he was doing. All three of the elders placed one of their hands on his back and gave him a go ahead. Closing his eyes the boy concentrated. Nothing worth mentioning took place for the first minute, but after that his body was surrounded by a grey hue. After 5 mins all the hue collected on his hands and it glowed for few seconds and then dimmed out. After which the crystal displayed two stats mana reserves at a single star and cultivation level with 2 stars. From the previous explanations Rick wa aware that there were 5 stars that can be awarded to the participants based on the reserves of mana they can carry. While the other star actually showed the cultivation level at the mortal level. So that meant he was at 2nd level of mortal mage stage.

Coming to the cultivation level Ryu's memory only had access to information for mortal and junior stages. 'Congratulationskid, it looks like you invoked strengthening type magic. Good luck for your future. Next.' Although the elder congratulated him but Rick can see the boy was disappointed and none of the people sitting on the stage looked particularly interested too.' 'This must not be up to the mark for the nobility atleast.' Rick concluded. The line started shortening as the same repeated with the partakers after the noble boy. Various forms of mana controls were invoked by the ones infront of Rick and the highest was 2 stars of reserves and 3 for cultivation for the other noble boy. But that too didn't managed to hold the interest of dignitaries for long enough until a girl with large boobs placed her hands on the crystal. Within minutes a dark blue mana surrounded her churning like a tide around her. Looking at the shock on the faces present, Rick discerned this must be some kind of awesome ability.

Kira was able to concentrate for whole 10 mins after which the mana got collected over her head and disappeared. She felt a little dizzy but maintained her balance. Seeing her score she was filled with excitement, a 4 star for reserves and 3 for cultivation. She had actually doubled the highest score for mana reserves before her. Rick and his two friends can see shock on each other's faces. Nobody assumed that the daughter of the milklady will be this talented. 'Congratulations to you child. Although you got an elemental mana affinity but looking at your talent you can achieve great things in future I am sure and remember although elemental mana can be weak at earlier stages but if you manage to increase your cultivation then sky will be the limit.' Kira was too shy to respond as she just hummed and moved back in the line.

'I guess you might be interested in her granny?' Eric asked the old lady beside him. 'Haha Yes I am interested but there is someone who I am looking forward to more then Kira.' she replied in a mysterious voice. 'Who will that be? Eric asked curiously. 'You will see that chief.' Eric knew she would not out the things she didn't want to. Although he was the chief but that was someone with athority over the town only. There were many higher powers with just their base of operations in Korua. He cannot offend them and the old lady beside him was from one herself.

Nothing interesting happened after that and Rick was waiting for Kyro's turn. After half an hour of boring drama Kyro was the one with his hands on the crystal ball. He managed ti maintain concentration for 8 minutes. Kyro invoked wind magic and with a score of 3 & 3. That was an impressive score considering it was coming from a commoner. Kyro can't seem to believe in the score.