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10.29% The Only Son Amongst The Daughters Of Eros / Chapter 20: Awakened Test •1

Chapter 20: Awakened Test •1

They took Aeric to a smaller building beside the school, amongst other smaller buildings. However, to be fair, this building was not small at all.

It was like a miniature castle, the size of a bungalow but the shape of a fortress. It had spires and a golden door with a painting of what Aeric assumed to be Eros posing like a celestial being with arms stretched and the insignia of all five regions below him.

Aeric scoffed after laying eyes on it. 'Narcissist,' he thought.

They led him inside the building and everything suddenly seemed to be different than the outside. Well, not really when it came to the looks. It was still made of gold and more shiny materials that caused the room to sparkle, but it seemed to be some kind of shrine.

It was structured like a small hall, curved from the ceiling, stretching to the corners of the room and down to the floor where a red mat was spread. There were silver ropes dangling at all corners with something that seemed to be glowing beads that the ropes connected into.

Vines of luminescent ivy crawled along the walls, and they also seemed to glow with some magical essence. They danced across the intricate carvings of celestial symbols that were etched into the stone. At the deepest end on the farthest wall of the shrine was a massive, circular doorway framed by a delicate lattice of shimmering crystal.

Beyond that doorway lied the inner sanctum, where some more stronger divine practices were held.

After scanning the room curiously, Aeric's eyes landed on a strange old man with a white long beard and a beautiful but old purple cloak, hunching with his back facing them. He seemed to be in some kind of prayer.

Aeric glanced at Lysandra and the Divine Speaker, wondering whether they were going to interrupt the man's prayer or just wait it out.

They waited it out.

Eventually, the man turned around and faced them, eyes studying the three of them one by one, but very quickly, as though he was being bothered.

"Divine Speaker." He acknowledged the Speaker and walked toward a chair that looked something reminiscent of a throne.

"Divine Priest," the Speaker greeted back with a nod.

"Lady Lysandra," the Priest acknowledged her as well.

"Priest," the Head Mistress said sternly.

Aeric waited for them to get to him, but when the Divine Priest didn't say anything, he pouted. 'Son Aeric?' he mimicked the Priest's aged voice in his mind. 'Why thank you. Divine Priest.'

After a long inspection, the Divine Priest sighed and sat back, he had this aura of knowledge and power, one that he had certainly earned from his long years.

"This the Son Aeric if I'm not mistaken?" he asked the two grownups.

"Yes he is," the Divine Speaker answered.

The Priest looked at him with more curiosity now, scanning his features. "Why have you brought him here? Should he not be at his Declaration?"

"Well, that is the issue, Divine Priest," the Speaker stepped forward. "The Divine Crystal refused to emit a glow of any intensity. It remained the same when the Son touched it."

The Priest seemed to grunt with dissatisfaction. "Did the boy perform his Coming of Age ritual?"

"He claims so, and his sisters both seem to concur with it. Apparently, the courtesan he performed the ritual with was a spy assassin, sent by Mother Selene, and so she was killed. That is the claim."

"Hmm." The Divine Priest adjusted himself in his seat. "That is a very serious allegation. But for now, I will focus on the Son." He shifted his wise eyes to Aeric who stood still and stiff. "It is against the Divine Laws to speak of your Class and Main Skill before it is Declared, and doing so could affect the intensity of your divine glow. Did you tell anyone about your Class or your Main Skill, Aeric of Starlight?"

Gazing at the man, almost lost in the ardency in his eyes, Aeric shook his head. "No. I didn't."

The Priest rubbed his long beard with his hands, thinking. "Hmm." He rose up from his seat, mind seemingly made up. "Very well. This is a unique situation. I've never heard of it before but I always believed it to be a possibility. And there could be several instances that could lead to such... developments."

Aeric frowned. 'I'm sure none of which includes a system that overrides the game world and gives me a unique Class and Main Skill.'

"You will perform an Awakened Test," the Divine Priest announced.

Aeric frowned. 'An Awakened Test? What the hell's that?'

[Awakened Tests are powerful Divinity Searching Protocols which when performed can assess genuine Divinity availability and sustainability inside an Awakened Player.]

'So it's just the Divine Crystal... but stronger?'

[Awakened Tests are usually more refined and nuanced than the Divine Crystal. They reveal the total Divine Body and the Divinity present, while the Crystal only reveals the soul core which is just the reflection of the Divine Body.]

'That's a lot of word salad. Long story cut short, can you block out the Awakened Test?'

[Any attempts to shield against Awakened Tests return futile.]

'Well try!'

[Invalid request. Awakened Tests are irrefutable.]

'Back in the hall room, you said no outside source can not withdraw information from me!'

[Your soul core is the crux of information. Your soul core has been shielded by the system. However, the Awakened Test does not pry into the soul core, they attain information from the Divine Body itself which is what the Soul Core reflects.]

Aeric thought of it like an x-ray device. These Awakened Tests were going to show the Divine Body which was apparently similar to the skeletal systems and nervous systems. That way, it could reveal if there was actually any Divinity flowing in that system, the same way as blood would flow in the circulatory system.

'Fuck. My cover is being blown already?'

"You don't intend to stand there and gape all day, do you?" the Divine Priest asked, turning to look at him as he had already begun walking to that door in the far wall.

Aeric shook his head, returning to the present. "No... Divine Priest," he replied.

"Then move those royal legs of yours. Follow me into the inner sanctum." He turned around and walked further, while Aeric still watched with some hesitance. The Divine Priest opened the door with a magic spell that unlocked it, then he walked inside.


Chapter 21: Awakened Test •2

Aeric stumbled forward as Head Mistress Lysandra gave him a slight shove. When he turned around, her sharp eyes dared him to argue. "What are you waiting for?" she snapped. "Move!"

Aeric looked away from her and straightened his posture, then he inhaled sharply before walking to the round door and stepping through the threshold of the sanctum. Once he entered the dark place, the door creaked shut behind him with a dum! that made his skin prickle.

There was very little that he could see there. The stone walls were dark and they pressed in around him, making him feel like there were people standing beside him at all corners, watching him. It was also strangely colder here, and an energy thickened the air, buzzing on his skin like static.

Shadows curled in every corner, refusing to be dispelled by the poor light provided by the floating crystal orbs overhead. They glowed softly, giving just enough bluish light for him to see a staircase below although it had made everything seem slightly distorted.

"Watch your step," he heard the Divine Priest say.

'Yeah, now you say it. I could have fallen and shattered my skull if I wasn't more careful,' Aeric thought with slight annoyance. He didn't like at all to be told to do something when he had already done or was about to do it, now it felt like he was doing it only because he was told to.

The staircase was winding and it led him deeper into the chamber, with each step he took, it creaked slightly beneath his weight, causing him to worry that the whole thing might break anyway. Didn't matter how careful he was.

As he descended, he felt the air grow denser, carrying with it the undeniable scent of old magic and earth. The floor opened into a wide circular chamber where the walls seemed to sing with power, lined with special drawings of celestial bodies and ancient symbols.

The center of the chamber was bare except for a large, cracked sigil inscribed into the stone floor as it shimmered faintly with a dull light. Overhead, the ceiling was arched, disappearing into the shadows above, leaving him to feel as though he was standing beneath an endless void.

'This looks like an inner sanctum alright,' Aeric thought. 'What an ominous place.' His eyes danced around the room cautiously. He couldn't quite pinpoint what made the place so unsettling, maybe it was the disconcerting stillness, or the feeling that something was watching him from within the stone itself.

"Prepare yourself for the tests," the Divine Priest's voice echoed through the chamber, breaking the silence as he began to arrange the needed supplements. As usual, his tone was flat and emotionless.

Aeric blinked, confused at what the Priest meant. So he asked. "What do you mean, prepare? What am I supposed to do?"

The Divine Priest looked at him with a gaze that could freeze a sea of magma, and in his cold, unfeeling tone, he said, "Remove your clothes."

Aeric's heart skipped a beat, and his eyes widened as a wave of disbelief crashed over him. "You said what now?"

"Remove them," the Priest repeated, his eyes never leaving Aeric's.

"Look... " Aeric said, clearing his throat and looking around. "I don't know what kind of freaky stuff you're into, or if this is some kind of bribe... I just, I don't move... that way."

The Priest looked at him with no change in his emotion. "Take off your clothes, boy."

Aeric looked into his eyes and saw that he was not messing about. 'Wait, he's actually being serious? Why would he want me to... Ugh, whatever."

He obeyed and began to take off his expensive royal clothing.

As he did this, the Divine Priest began to place some golden magical objects on the ground, making a circle with them, while explaining the need of him removing his clothes.

"It is necessary for the test to be pure, unobstructed. Clothes, especially those woven with magical fibers, can interfere with the revelation of your Divine Body. We need to see the truth."

'The truth,' Aeric pondered, half naked. He should have felt a sting of humiliation rise in his chest, but not when he possessed the kind of body he had now. Remembering his life back in the real world, all those shredded guys who were always waiting for an opportunity to show their sick abs. He was those guys now.

After a short while, Aeric had completely peeled off his garments, and he felt the cool air bite at his skin once he was fully disrobed. Soon, he stood there, stripped bare, his chiseled body catching the faint glow of the room. His muscles were tense, his frame tall and sturdy, showing the blessing of peak physical beauty and fitness that came with being a child of Eros.

A brief flicker of pride tried to sneak into his mind — after all, he knew he looked good. But it was quickly buried under the weight of his growing dread. His thoughts raced as he tried to keep his mind still.

The Divine Priest lifted his head and his eyes stopped at Aeric's manhood. He seemed shocked, though his emotionless face barely showed any surprise, the way he stared at it was telling, and Aeric was quickly becoming uncomfortable.

The Priest's gaze finally left Aeric's crotch and found his face. "I see you have abundance," he commented.

Aeric frowned. 'Abundance? Is that his way of saying I have a large cock?'

Feeling uneasy, he watched as the Divine Priest moved to the edge of the sigil, then placed the remaining of the various magical objects on the ground. They were runes, small crystal tokens, and what looked like a bowl of some strange shimmering liquid.

He worked with silent precision, his robes gliding as he moved.

'I don't know why this feels so wrong... but something about this is off. What the hell kind of test requires this?'

In order to understand what was happening, Aeric decided his best bet was to ask questions. Although he had to be careful of how he structured them, in order not to draw suspicion from the wise Priest.

"So... uhm." He cleared his throat again. "This test is gonna like... tell you what my Class and Main Skill are?"

"No. Not that. This will reveal the truth of your Divinity," the Priest explained absently, still focusing on the ground. "The aim of the test is to find out if you have any amount of Divinity inside of you. If you have a Divine Body and if there's Divinity present. That way we can be sure that you truly performed the Coming of Age and you are actually Awakened."

"Oh. That's interesting."

A stream of relief rushed through Aeric. His Personalized Class was still safe! No one knew about the God Tyrant, and even after this, no one would have to know! This was awesome. Why has eve even been so worried in the first place?

"I am bound to my Beast Companion," he pointed out to the Priest. "Doesn't that show that I'm already Awakened?"

"It is much more nuanced than that, Son Aeric."

The Prince stayed silent after that. 'Well this gets more ominous every second.'

"Are the tests difficult?" he asked.

The Priest rose to his full height and looked at him. "No."

Everything was arranged now and the magical objects already seemed to reverberate through the stone floor. As the Divine Priest spoke, the air around them thickened, vibrating with energy. He thrust his hand into the air and shouted a strong sentence of power. "Reveal the Awakened Bridge!"

Suddenly, the room darkened, transforming into a realm of pure darkness. In the very center of this realm, a bridge appeared — dark and ethereal. It extended out into a void that hadn't been there moments before. It hovered over nothingness, a thin path of bright light and shadow suspended in midair.

'What the hell is this?' Aeric's mind raced.

"You stand before the Awakened Bridge," the Divine Priest's voice echoed from afar, some distance behind him. "Walk it, Son of Starlight. Let us see your Divinity revealed."


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