Chapter 6: Baby Arc II : Future Cutest Grand Mage
"The first few results have come in, would you like to wait until all of them have been tested or would you like me to read them as they come?" The doctor asked the pair of parents, eyes still focused on the data that was being collected on the screen.
"Read them as they come if you could doctor" Paela answered, not wanting to wait for a second to know the potential future of her daughter.
Aereon nodded in agreement, and the doctor hummed in reply, before reading out the data displayed in front of him.
"Fire Magic, zero affinity, now don't panic when I say zero affinity as it is still possible and most probable that it would increase from now until the age of four, and it is perfectly normal for children to have multiple attributes at zero affinity" The doctor explained, he relayed the information that he had deemed as important before the parents behind him started bombarding him with questions in a stressed tone, having experienced it multiple times.
"Water Magic... zero affinity, now remember what I said and calm yourselves"
Despite having said that, Aereon had visibly twitched and was trying his hardest to hold in his emotions, he had always dreamed of passing his high affinity for Water Magic, or more specifically, Ice Magic, to his children and guide them with the methods he had learned over the years as well as tips and tricks.
Ice Magic was one of the few sub-attributes of Water Magic and Aereons affinity for Ice Magic could be put in the top 15% of the world, with his affinity for Water Magic being quite high as well as the main-attribute.
Scientists and mages had found a way to test the affinity one had for the sub-attributes of main-attributes as there had been solid proof that even in ranks of people with a similar affinity with a main-attribute like water, they had obvious talents in certain categories of that magic.
An example would be two people with similar affinity for Fire Magic, one person could be highly talented in explosive attacks related to fire, making them have a high affinity towards Explosion Magic, a sub-attribute of Fire Magic.
The other could be highly talented in increasing the temperature, making them have a high affinity for Heat Magic, another sub-attribute of Fire Magic.
Of course, your affinity towards any type of sub-attribute is directly linked to your affinity with the main-attribute, and thus having zero-affinity for Water Magic meant that Astraea also had zero-affinity for Ice Magic.
Though he was saddened, he looked forward to whatever attribute she would have talent in and lead her in the path of magic as best as he can.
"Air Magic, zero affinity, Earth Magic... also zero affinity." The doctor continued as his tone had started to change from reading four zero affinities in a row, especially for the four elements.
Both parents now became visibly shocked and concerned upon knowing that their daughter did not have a sliver of affinity for any of the four elements, as most people usually have at least one element with a decent affinity after the age of four.
The doctor was also internally worried for the child's future, while he had seen such results a few times before, it didn't detract from the fact that they were not good results, he and the parents behind him could only hope that she had good affinities with the rest of the attributes.
"Light Magic, zero affinity. Dark Magic, zero affinity, Nature Magic, zero affinity..."
Aereon's and Paela's pupils started shrinking as the doctor read the data displayed, starting to sweat himself.
"Metal Magic, zero affinity, Body Magic, zero affinity..."
Paela's shoulders slumped on hearing Astraea's affinity for Body Magic, as it was Magic she had the highest affinity for.
"Weather Magic, zero affinity, Space Magic, zero affinity..."
"...zero affinity...zero affinity"
"zero, zero, zero, zero..."
Both parents were frozen from the sounds that were assaulting their ears, wanting to block it all but knowing that they had to listen to the end, no words could even be spoken as they couldn't believe the possibility of the situation.
The doctor had eventually stopped stating the attributes' names and had just scrolling through the data and murmuring zero over and over, his only goal now was to find anything that differed from zero.
Just as the new parents started to lose hope and began planning how to support their daughter in the future, the doctor suddenly shouted out in joy, snapping the two out of their thoughts.
"Aha!! Found one!!! Neutral Magic, affinity threshold exceeded..." The doctor's tone of joy and relief turned into shock, having never seen any newborn ever exceed the threshold in relation to Neutral Magic.
Being part of a hospital that catered to the upper-middle-class society usually meant receiving families with prestigious magical backgrounds and thus he had seen his fair share of newborns that had exceeded the affinity threshold, so it wouldn't surprise him much.
The piece of equipment he was using was only able to measure affinity at a certain point, and any newborn that exceeded it would be considered to be a prodigy, though it wasn't always the case as certain attributes were more difficult to get a high affinity on.
While for the four elements, any newborn that exceeds the threshold would be considered a prodigy, for rarer attributes like light and dark magic, they would not need to exceed the threshold to be considered a prodigy.
For Neutral Magic that is proven to the attribute with the least number of talented users, even getting two-fifths of the threshold would make them a Neutral Magic prodigy.
Astraea's parents knew this as well and their original negative thoughts turned into and joy and relief. Relief over the fact that Astraea's future in magic was not bleak or non-existent, and joy over the fact that she was a prodigy among prodigies in respect to Neutral Magic.
"How is her affinity in comparison to the current Grand Mage of Neutral Magic?" Aereon eagerly asked, wanting to know how her potential by comparing her to the greatest Neutral Mage in the world currently.
"The current Grand Mage of Neutral Magic is said to have an affinity similar to upper-middle ranked mages, which would be the equivalent of 80% of the current threshold of this machine, so you could say that your child is at least 25% more talented than the current Grand Mage."
"More talented than the Grand Mage... did you hear that Paela, our little girl has the potential to surpass a Grand Mage!!" Aereon told her in excitement, Paela on the verge of crying in joy.
The doctor smiled happily as well, proud and honored of having witnessed this event and was looking forward to being called the doctor that tested the affinity of a future Grand Mage.
"Before you think more about your child's bright future, let us talk about the present, specifically on how to handle the results of the affinity test in order to protect your child."
Both parents immediately turned confused, before turning into worry as they started to think of the repercussions of releasing the results of the test. Their daughter will be under immense scrutiny not only from the public but also from the government and influential people, it was also possible that other countries would be interested in their daughter.
"Is...is there a way to hide or change the results?" Paela asked with a bit of hope, unwilling to put her daughter in danger by releasing the results.
"As it is required by the law for the affinity of a citizen to be documented, I am unable to hide the results, though there is nothing in the law that states that I am unable to alter the results as I have a license that allows me to document the results however I wish to"
"That being the case, I will be able to decrease the affinity your child has on paper to avoid scrutiny, but only up to a certain extent as there is no way to easily hide her immense talent. I will only be willing to decrease it up to 50% of the threshold."
The pair of parents were relieved once again upon hearing the doctors offer, and started discussing how much of her talent they wanted to expose.
After a short discussion, they both decided to decrease the results to 55%, taking into account the attention Astraea would attract, and her fixed affinity when she turns four as they had a hunch that no other attribute except Neutral Magic would increase in the next four years.
"I'll input the results as something close to 55% then. For the growth of her affinity in the next four years, I will recommend a believable amount when I see you next time as I'm quite unfamiliar with Neutral Magic and will need to do some research." The doctor finished as he inputted some commands and stopped the test.
The seat started retracting out of the hole, revealing Asteraea who had been in there longer than the usual amount of time, Aereon and Paela went over to check on her as they were still a bit worried, thankfully Astraea seemed to be fine as she was even giving them a cute smile with her big eyes wide open.
Astraea had once again unconsciously acted cute as she was anticipating the results of the test, and wanted to know what it was right away.
Sadly, she didn't get to find out as they made no attempt to discuss it or even talk in a baby voice to her, though the big smiles on their faces seemed to be a good sign, she didn't know if that was in reaction to her cuteness or the results of the test though.
---
After a few more hours of other tests that Astraea had no interest in, the family was finally allowed to go home with their new baby late at night.
The moment the family exited the hospital, it was as Astraea had entered a portal into another world, despite knowing she was in another in the first place. The hospital interior did not really give off the 'another world' kind of vibe despite the high-tech equipment.
The city that was displayed in front of her was like a beautiful piece of art, with building reaching higher than any building she had seen before, hundreds of uniquely shaped vehicles flying through the open sky and dozen of unique architecture that seemed to be floating in the air with no support whatsoever. It almost seemed as if it was still day as the amount of lighting in the city was nearly blinding and was a great contrast with the pitch-black sky
On the streets, there were still thousands of people going about their day with fashion not too dissimilar to the fashion on earth, but of course, there were a couple of unique ones as it was still another world. They all seemed to have some sort of gadget on their wrist that was able to project out what looked to be 3D holograms into open space.
When Astraea saw this, she internally screamed out 'holograms!!' and externally made excited baby noises while sporting a huge smile.
Aereon booked a hover taxi with his own holowatch while Astraea watched with glittering eyes and making cute noises while being held by Paela.
The ride home was even more amazing as the taxi flew above the rest of the vehicles and through the bustling city, allowing Astraea to enjoy the moving scenery by the window as her parents lovingly watched her become so excited from all the new experiences.
Though she may be amazed at the beauty of the new world she was in, the world will surely be amazed at the things she would do in the future.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
DestroKind
DestroKind Hope you liked it!!
Leave a comment and stuff cus it encourages me to write.
Not much progress again but I can't help myself as thats how I write, hope you'll stick around for the long journey ahead~
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