The City Temple was not the biggest building in the city but it was certainly the most extravagant. The walls and columns were made of white gold, that made one pick up a pickaxe and starts mining it. It showed how important were the gods to the people in this world, Venerial. Lance frowned while he looked at the opulence of this single building, thinking about when he came here how he saw some people so poor that they were a step away from dying, living on the streets.
He stepped inside along with Caius and a bunch of other people that were also bringing their children to the Awakening Ceremony. Inside the temple, there were five enormous marble statues representing the 5 Ancient God and the Seer Goddess. And on the back of the temple as if it was standing above all the other gods while they can only be the attendants by his side and not the leading one, the Sun God.
Lance could even feel the divine power of the statues if stood close enough, but the moment he gazed at the statue of the Sun God he felt as if he was standing in front of a massive sun that with a single burst could create everything and also destroy anything. Caius put one hand on his back as if knew that he would fall back if for him.
"Don't worry, everyone feels like that when they see it for the first time. It is because of that vision that many believe that the Sun God is the governor of all the other gods."
Lance nodded while shuddering thinking about that vision. Being a scientist with a very significant curriculum in physics he was sure that wasn't a Sun, but something else, this made him feel fear for the first time since he came to this world. Even when he found out that magic existed in this world and mages could destroy a mountain if they were strong enough, that didn't scare him on the contrary it only made him curious about magic. But when he stood in front of that Sun he felt like a tiny ant that, that his fate wasn't in his hands and would only take thought of that existence for him to cease to exist.
Caius guided Lance towards the center of the temple were many others were waiting. On the center of the temple, there was a fat priest that was guarding a pedestal where it stood a crystal orb. There Caius paid the front priest and the priest gave him a paper with a number.
Lance go wait over there. When that priest calls the number 22#, go to him."
Lance headed to where a crowd of teenagers almost the same age as he was waiting for the fat priest to call their number. Most of the teenagers were waiting in groups as most of them came from the same village and had some ties.
"Number 1#, step forward!"
The fat man called out and all the teenagers stop whispering while they were trying to find out who was number 7#. Just after a few seconds, a frail girl with golden locks and a face that seemed to have a little of that baby fat stepped forward to the fat priest.
"Y-es,ye-s... I'm here!"
Anybody could see from the stuttering and the trembling in her legs that she was nervous, beside the watchful eye of the crowd. She approached the fat priest and looked at him.
"Put your right hand on top of the orb, be quick with it! We have already wasted enough time!" The fat priest with a very stern and fill of contempt face said to the frightened girl.
The girl put her hand on top of the orb and right when the hand touched the clear surface of the orb, the orb began to shine like a rainbow. This spectacle of lights immediately lightened the mood amongst the teenagers. After a while, fire sparks began to appear all around the girl while she stood there with her eyes closed enjoying the warm feeling coming from her hand.
"Fire, 2 Star-talent!"
The moment the fat priest finished talking the girl opened her eyes and heard what he said, her face was filled with delight after all even if her talent was bad she was still a person with the potential to become a mage.
Mages were divided into both elements and Star-talent. Most mages had one of the 5 Elements: fire, earth, water, and wind. And in some very rare cases, they could awaken one of the 3 Legendary Elements: Space, time, and gravity. There were many more elements that mages could awaken but because they either were useless or dangerous most people wished that they could have one of the 5 elements and perhaps because of that if they had the potential to become a mage they would awaken one of the 5.
The Star-talent was a way of judging the future potential of the mage. 1 Star-talent could only be an inferior-grade Apprentice Mage; 2 Star-talent a mid-grade Apprentice Mage; 3 Star-talent. a high-grade Apprentice Mage. After that 4-6 Star-talent one would be an Adept Mage, 7-9 Star-talent Master Mage, 10-12 Star-talent GrandMaster Mage, and after 12 Star-talent would be the Legendary Arch Mage.
After the girl stepped out of the pedestal, the fat priest began to call the numbers again.
"Number 2#!"
"Wind, 1 Star-talent!"
..............
"Number 4#!"
"No talent to be a mage!"
.............
"Number 11#!"
"No talent to be a mage!"
........
"Number 19#!"
"Healing Element, 5 Star-talent!"
When the priest saw that this boy had the talent and the element to become a priest his eyes turned from frigid to gentle. He talked gently to the boy about his future where the temple would gladly take him under their wing so that he one day could become someone powerful. The boy hearing that became radiant and ran directly to his father leading him to thank the sympathy of the fat priest.
....................
"Number 22"
After some time, it finally came Lance's turn. Confident, he walked steadily towards the pedestal where he nodded towards the fat priest without any arrogance and put his hand on the orb.
The orb flashed with radiance much stronger than the other teenagers drowning the whole temple in rainbow light and a bit even made its way outside. The fat priest was astonished by the radiance and became delighted at the arrival of a genius talent during his shift. That would certainly elevate his status in the temple.
When he was just about to lick his lips, his face turned livid with fear when he saw lightning bolts appearing all around Lance. The sound of thunder was so powerful that it seemed to be wanting to bring the temple down as the temple began to tremble.
"Ligh-tning Ele-me-nt, 10 Star-tale-nt!"
He at the same time he whispered with difficulty these words, he took out his wand and attacked Lance with a fireball. Lance still in trance because of the warm current coming from the orb didn't notice that death was coming for him. Right when the fireball was about to incinerate Lance, a shouted rumbled the temple.
"LANCE, GET DOWN!!!!!!!!"