บท 9: The Universe
A lot of the young men and women were confused. They asked the people next to them if they knew what a Magus was, however, they also didn't have any ideas except for those groups of boys and girls in their black and white attires. They remained calm.
"Magus? What do you mean by magus?" asked a random boy.
Minerva raised one hand and the wind around the whole room stirred. Trails of wind around headed to Minerva and converged into her hand. Wind wasn't usually visible, but there it was, a large sphere of wind spinning at the top of her hand. She casually explained, "Magus, sorcerer, witch, magician, wizard, shaman, warlock, element weaver, etc. These are all different terms for different worlds but all pertain to the same thing. People who have talents in wielding the universe's primordial energy around them. There are trillions of people in existence throughout our galaxy but only hundreds of thousands have the ability to handle the universe's power. And as you all can see, I am wielding the wind's energy."
Almost everyone had their eyes peeled out and mouths gaped in disbelief. For a lot of them, this was the first they had seen such a spectacle.
Minerva clasped her hand and the wind lightly exploded before dispersing to its natural state. She smirked as she looked around a little amused at these little boys and girls reacting with such expressions. She asked, "I wonder – have any of you seen magic done before?"
Less than a third of them raised their hands. That was including Klea.
"Klea, you as well?" Julian exclaimed in doubt.
Klea pulled back her hand and crossed her arm. "Of course. The priests in our court sometimes do rituals for a fruitful year by making it rain or having the Nile River flooded. On some special occasions as well, they put out a performance by turning staves into snakes."
Her elegance, arrogance at times, and the way she referred to her people, Emery had noticed it and couldn't help but think she comes from a noble background.
Minerva nodded and asked another question. "Next, who among you are already capable of handling the universe's energy?"
This time fewer people raised their hands. It was like 1-2 in every 10 people. In fact, most of them even came from those arrogant boys and girls, sitting in the front with black and white uniforms that raised their hands.
Emery wanted to know more if there were others that could do magic. He found another, sitting in the corner opposite to them. Since he had good eyesight, he could make out what the girl somewhat looked like.
She had long black hair that was peeking through the large dark veil she was wearing. Her pale skin was almost as white as the dress she was wearing.
And as Emery stared at her, her veil suddenly shifted toward his direction and Emery felt a chill run down his spine, making him look away and turning his attention back to Minerva.
Minerva had an unimpressed face. She walked closer to the group of young boys and girls at the front and touched the bracelet on her wrist.
The room darkened and her bracelet flashed an image in the middle of the room. At the center of the image, a big sphere was floating with four tails spiraling toward the edge of the image and lots of tiny shining dots in between the tails. The dots were of different colors: blue, white, yellow, orange, red, and of different sizes.
Minerva pointed her wrist at the group of young people and the floating image of lights zoomed in and focused on a green and blue ball. She said with an unimpressed tone, "World 0623, Kalios. So all of you came from a magus world. I guess it isn't surprising that 18 people from your world were chosen."
She flicked her wrist and the floating ball disappeared. Minerva said, "Our galaxy has hundreds of thousands of human worlds. Every year, 10,000 talented young people are selected from 1,000 lucky worlds..."
Since there were hundreds of thousands of worlds, it usually took hundreds of years before a world was re-elected. Of course, there were some worlds that got special treatment, such as Kalios.
The human worlds were divided into three categories: lower class worlds that still hadn't harnessed the power of nature; middle class worlds that made use of metals, water, earth to the human's advantage. It would be to describe middle-class worlds as an industrial age. Lastly, the upper-class worlds, wherein great inventions were made such as harnessing the power of electricity, like those who had reached the modern era or even better magus era.
Kalios belonged to the upper class worlds. At least there would be 10 people selected from upper class worlds. In fact, these worlds receive the opportunity once every 5 years.
Emery listened intently to Minerva's explanation. So, he couldn't help but think that those arrogant boys and girls were in their place to act high and mighty.
Julian commented, "Our world is so big but only five of us were chosen. It looks like our world gets selected at least tens of years or hundreds of years. It seems we are very lucky!"
Minerva continued her explanation. "Since first year acolytes only get seven days of studying, it is best that all of you study diligently. This may be a once in a lifetime for you and maybe your world. Do not waste the chance we are giving you."
Emery couldn't help but feel glad at the prospect of learning a skill called magic. Studying was what he was best at and he was always interested in learning new things.
"Now that we've got that settled, the first step in learning to become a magus is to know yourself." Minerva flicked her finger and another round object appeared. "I need everyone to stand up and wait for this crystal ball to fly over your head. Let's see how many talented children we have this year."
Minerva smiled as she waited for the 100 young people to stand up and did she had instructed. That smile, however, made Emery and the others uncomfortable.
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