Chapter 22: Epic Ranked Gift

Lucius looked on in interest as he waited for Maleck's answer.

"The gift Scholar's mind: Arthritic is one of the many sub-types of the Scholar mind's gifts. Each and every type of the gift makes that person talented in a specific field of academia. With the Arithmetic one, your sun will be a genius at numerical calculations and theories.

In fact, I believe the artificers guild may be willing to take over your child's education." Maleck answered.

Hearing the words of Maleck made the parents very happy, more so even after hearing that the gift their child had was so good. While it may not have any offensive value like the other two gifts, the gift will ensure that their child will become an artificer which was a rather lucrative trade.

Lucius was intrigued by this even more. He knew there were people that were natural-born geniuses but it happening though a gift seemed rather strange. He couldn't figure out how the gift would exactly work. Would it continuously be active or would they have to use Aether to keep it active?

There were many questions that could not be answered for him, and thus he had to wait till he was healed. He was really getting frustrated because of his condition and wanted nothing more than for the priest of Alana to arrive and heal him.

'Kiana did say that they should be here anytime this week. Hopefully, it's as early as it can be.' Lucius thought.

There was a commotion in the audience as they heard that the baby had a scholarly gift, more so because of the fact that the Artificers guild would be taking over the education of the child. A lot of parents whose children did not have good gifts or were gift less wished to get their children educated by the artificers guild.

But the cost of education there was very expensive, and there were only a handful of families that would be able to afford it. The artificers guild did have recruitment exams for people though, which if they passed would merit them a scholarship.

Still, the competition was tough and the contestants many. Thus having a gift like this was a direct entry to the future ranks of the artificers guild.

Now, only the final baby was left to be appraised. These four babies were the most celebrated, as babies awakening their gifts was very rare. And if they awakened their gifts at that age, they were nearly guaranteed to have a gift that was at the rare rank.

The parents of the final baby walked ahead, and Lucius closely observed them. Unlike the other three couples, this one seemed to be in a better financial condition. From the sword that hung on the father's waist and the quality of the mother's clothes, Lucius was sure that they were no common peasants.

"Ah! Sir John and lady Alessa, I've been waiting for you two. Etara has definitely blessed your child." Maleck said with a smile upon seeing the two.

'Sir and lady? So they really are not commoners.' Lucius thought.

"Whoa! So it was John and Alissa's daughter that awakened her gift, I didn't expect this. That's why he came back from the border so quick." Kiana spoke.

Lucius could hear the familiarity in her voice and assumed that these two were perhaps related to his own family in some way. And according to the words of Kiana, he concluded that John was a soldier himself, perhaps even an officer in the army.

'Hmm… He's not wearing any kind of a badge or anything that can confirm it, but he does have the demeanor.' Lucius thought.

"The pleasure is all ours, priest Maleck. We never expected Cia to awaken her gift like this. The circumstances of it were… a bit surprising to us though." John spoke with a slight apprehension on his face.

"Oh? What exactly happened?" Maleck asked in a low voice.

Alessa raised her hand and showed them to Maleck.

"Bandages? How did you get injured?" Maleck asked furtherer.

"Let me show you…" Alessa spoke before removing the bandages on her hand slightly.

"Oh, Etara!" Maleck said in shock.

Deep cuts could be seen on the hand of Alessa and the bleeding was being stopped by some kind of an ointment. Still, the depth of the wounds was easily assessable to Maleck, and he knew that a wound this deep was quite severe.

"And this was caused by little Cia here?" he questioned for confirmation.

"We believe so, yes. I do not think anyone else would attack her for no reason in our home." John replied.

"Alright, we'll know for sure after the appraisal," Maleck said and took a deep breath.

John held the hand of his baby daughter and placed it on the sphere floating over the marble book.

~Shua~

Unlike the previous times, the sphere started glowing almost instantly. But upon seeing the color of the light, everyone's eyes went wide and some people stood up in shock, their hands on their mouths.

"Blu-blue light! It's the Blue Light!" The people in the audience shouted, unable to hold back.

"Etara's Grace! Epic ranked gift!" Maleck declared.

Lucius's eyes went wide too as he heard the rank.

'Finally! Something more substantial. Now I can assess what the reach of the gifts can be a bit more…' Lucius thought as the corner of his mouth started twitching.

Unknown to him, a half-smile had appeared on his face. If Kiana saw this, she would have become shocked too, but she was already shocked seeing the appraisal so did not pay attention to Lucius's face.

John and Alessa were already elated due to the gift's rank and now were anxiously waiting for it to be told to them.

"The gift your child has is… Thorn Mistress!" Maleck announced.

As soon as the name was revealed, an even greater uproar was spread in the hall.

"Thorn Mistress! It's the lost gift of the great warrior Delia!" Someone in the audience shouted.

"It has finally reappeared! After a century of waiting!" Another person said.