Metello and Mrs Richardson were walking through the mess of alleys of the poor residential district. Metello had never dressed so well as he was wearing clothes a bit above cheap. The orphanage had planned budgets for coming to age ceremonies, but the donations they received were not very high. Mrs Richardson couldn't afford real nice clothes for soon-to-be adults, especially as Metello needed some money to buy weapons too.

Nonetheless, Metello was happy with his gray leather pants and white woolen shirt, but all the more for his gray felt brimmed hat. His new headgear was a lot cooler than leather ones under the sun, and he liked gray and white color pairing for his stuff. It let him stay inconspicuous while being more stylish than usual, and he fancied both.

As usual for the ceremonies, his tutor wore her celebration robe. The specifications of [Calor Priests] were their orange color and lack of sleeves. She was flashy as the sun, not that the priestess was disturbed by it.

They traveled through the poor market district, walked along the border of the rich market district, and arrived at Gods Square. Centuries ago, someone had decided this was the place to build the ten gods' temples and had used hundreds of [Workers] to shape the large area like that. There were hardly any reasons for him to go there before the ceremony. He had never had business to do with the temples until now. Each of them had some particular activity, but the soon-to-be adult didn't know much about it besides Anima's temple healing service and Calor's temple funeral service. Having a priest at home made it useless for him.

There were already many people at Gods Square going toward the Nihil temple. Around the area, Metello could see the sacred buildings were not randomly put. He had learned at the library about the Merit church against Equality church conflict, and the square was the perfect illustration of it.

The monumental temples of the Merit order were on the south half of the square, luxurious buildings dedicated to Petrus, Aqua, Lux, Fulgur, and Menta. For each of them, statues of the gods were welcoming visitors and showing their wealth, using precious and shiny materials. The Aqua's temple even had some ornamental fountains. All these art pieces were displayed on one-meter-high stone-built platforms near the building entries and therefore were visible from afar. Metello couldn't help but admire this gathering of beautiful things. He had rarely been near such beautiful and pricey things. The last time would have been the unlucky meeting with Mr Moore. As they had some time left, the boy walked closer to the Lux temple with his headmistress so he could better contemplate the three statues there, but [Guards] were standing at least 25 meters in front of each merit order building to keep curious people out of reach. Metello was not an exception.

On the other side of the Gods Square, there were the more modest temples of Nihil, Aeris, Calor, Vegeta, and Anima, members of the Equality church. Aeris and Vegeta didn't even have a building and were left with enclosed areas, favoring flowing air for the first and big trees for the second. Calor and Anima had dedicated constructions, but they were much smaller and much less show off than the Merit's ones. Nonetheless, these four temples sported a god statue each.

Metello and his ceremony tutor passed by all of them to take a quick look and went toward Nihil's temple. The sacred building was the largest one of the Equality's church. Once close enough, Metello could see the lone statue of the god. It was smaller and more modest than those of the Merit's church, but it didn't seem cheaply made either. The god of time, space, and the system was 2 meters high and stood barehanded and bare-chested, entirely made of sculpted white stone. The crowd of soon-to-be adults and their tutors piled up near the entrance, barring better access to the sculpture for Metello. Nonetheless, what he could see from his standpoint was enough to please him.

Taking a peek inside the building, he could see the large free space furnished mainly with rows of benches inside the temple needed to welcome the coming of age ceremonies every month. Unable to see more interesting things inside, he looked back at the statue.

While Metello was filling his eyes with the statue's image, trapped by the mass of kids and tutors who had arrived, he heard the 14th bell being stricken. It was time to go inside. Every month, around 150 children from the city and nearby villages came of age in this building. They had to come along with an adult each to be their tutor. That amounted to about 300 people ready to enter. The crowd gently started to move.

All of Ironforge's social classes were here. Most of them were poor or modest people, a bit were middle to rich, while the four at the very front were obviously nobles. Metello managed to hear when one of the noble children looked back at the crowd and asked his father out loud.

“Why are there so much poor people here? Are they coming of age all at the same time ?”

“Have you not learned with your [Scholars] that there were many poor people in the city ?”

The last thing Metello heard before he turned around again toward the doors was something like that: “We did, sir, but I never thought they were that numerous.”

Metello didn't blame him for it. As it was well-known they were mainly living behind the noble's walls inside the city walls, he understood the rich boy couldn't have seen that much of the poor kind. It was the second time he saw some rich person after his much-beloved Mr Moore. Comparing the two, he could say they were less colorful but wore more jewelry. He could see expensive-looking golden earrings and silver bracelets here and there on their bodies.

Near the big doors, Metello saw two women behind a desk he presumed were [Acolytes] or [Priestess] in the white robes of Nihil. They were using Identify Person on the children and searched their names on the list. They had to be sure that no child had their ceremony sooner than they should. Mrs Richardson came here for every orphan she hosted, so she knew well the two women. When their turn came, she had a quick talk with them, and they gave her a token with a number before both of them went inside.

The noise of walking people filled the space. Mettelo noticed a 50 cm taller statue of Nihil than the one at the entrance, standing at the front of the rows of benches. He was again standing bare-handed and shirtless, entirely made in white stone. Metello followed Mrs. Richardson in a back row with the number 152 written. They sat, and he observed the things going.

An altar was placed too between the white statue and the benches. It was a seemingly long wooden table twice as wide as the representation of the god and covered by a white sheet of fabric. His eyes wandering around the hall, he couldn't miss that one of the nobles and his presumable father were sitting just two benches in front of him. The others were dispatched randomly inside the building. He had to ask his tutor to understand why.

“Why are all the noble not in the front ?”

After thinking a bit, his tutor answered with another question.“What do you know about the attributes of Nihil ?”

“Hmm. I know he is the god of time, space, and system, and I think the basic class associated with him is the [Civil Servant] one. I don't remember much more.”

“So you ignore his favorite virtue is order. He likes everything being tidy, and being the god of time and space, ordering according to time and space is the best way to do it for their followers. Wealth is not important for that. The number we got permits that the head [High Priest] can call the children one at a time in birth cycle order and bench order at the same time. The precedence of time and space over wealth for Nihil followers is one of the reasons Nihil's temple is a part of the Equality order and not the Merit one.”

By the time she finished the explanation, the child and tutor pairs mostly filled the hall. He was at the last occupied bench.

“Why are we at the last bench? Am I not born the first of Aerisus ?”

She was taken aback for a moment. Then, the [Priestess] answered slowly. “You are aware that nobody knew of you when you arrived at the orphanage. Nobody knew your birth cycle either, so we evaluated you were born around Aerisus 892 and chose the first cycle. Since we are not sure, Nihil's head [High Priest] preferred you to be the last to be certain the rest of the ceremony is orderly. It happened for one of our girls some years ago too.”

Learning he was not born the first Aerisus was a bit of a shock. Metello knew very little about his past, and now, even some of the things he thought he knew weren't true. It was a good thing he was about to become an adult. He would then be able to read about his parents' murder in the guardhouse's archives from the next cycle. Even if he feared the moment he would have to, he would learn a lot about his past by browsing these files.

He was interrupted in his thoughts by a powerful and confident voice from the altar. Other than it, the whole room had gone silent.

It was the head [High Priestess]. She wore the same white robe as the other Nihil's followers, but the long necklace, barely visible from Metello's standpoint, hanging in front of her robe signaled her rank. Behind her, some other [Priests] were standing silently.

“Nihil welcome all of you, children of Ironholes and around. Let's chant the Prayer of Thanks first to show your faith to your future class patrons.”

As the chant began, Metello felt overwhelmed. The sheer number of people participating was nowhere near what he had experienced for a Prayer of Thanks. He was surprised to feel divine energy surrounding him for the few seconds it lasted. At the end of the prayer, he recognized the sensation of a blessing leveling up.

Around fifteen minutes of a speech given by the head priestess followed the prayer. She promoted the need for order to strive in the world and the greatness of the system which has always helped the progress of humankind overall and sometimes provided heroes to fight the chaos of Nox. Then, she explained how to maintain order throughout the ceremony.

“I, as Nihil's representative, will lead the ceremony by calling you one by one. Then, with the power of Nihil, we will bestow you with the Absorb core blessing and then give you twenty level one cores to use. You will go back to your tutor and wait for us to bestow all of you the blessing. Then, you will be allowed to absorb the cores. The few who will be able to absorb them all at once will be gaining their first level and will have access to the class choosing status. Those who do not have a high enough divine power reserve will have to absorb the remaining ones in their homes. All of that will take place under Nihil's eyes. If someone does not abide by this order, Nihil might override your system as a punishment.”

Metello was probably not the only child to be shocked by the idea of losing the system help. Even the most unruly child would stay calm for the ceremony if he understood what was at stake. The first to be called was a girl named Clarissa. She did all as explained with spring under her feet, and she was back to her bench about one and a half minutes later. Then the second came, and the third. Metello estimated how much time he had to wait for his turn. His excitement came down suddenly.

It had been two and a half hours of a monotonous orderly procession when it was finally Metello's turn. He walked down the lane between the benches to the altar. He stopped before the [High Priestess] like all the other. Some seconds later, he felt a familiar strand of divine energy coming into his body, settle into his stomach before disappearing, the sign of the bestowal of a blessing. It was the second of the cycle, and there was still the best part. It felt good. Then, he went to the other side of the altar to get his little box which contained the twenty monster cores.

When it is your turn, times flow differently. He barely felt having stood up from his bench when he sat down on it again. Seeing Metello was back, the [High Priestess] started to speak to the hall.

“Now, we'll show we are grateful to Nihil by saying a last Prayer of Thanks.”

It was not too early when the prayer finished and the priestess made her following announcement.

“You shall now absorb the cores in silence.”

Suddenly, the rustling of clothes and box opening filled the place. Metello looked at his mentor, who nodded to him. He retrieved the first core of the box.

Mrs. Richardson whispered to him.

“Just take it in your hand and will to absorb it.”

Nodding back, he did as he was said. He had a vague and weak feeling in his stomach when the core disappeared. It was a bit similar to the feeling of divine energy, but he knew it was the ether from the monster's core. It was different. He took the second, the third, and went on until the twentieth core. On the last, he could better identify the vague push of a little bit of ether into his stomach. A severe headache was now hitting him, but he knew his limits from experience, and both the habit and the excitation made him not mind much.

Metello didn't sense anything different from absorbing the cores besides the presence of ether in his stomach. With a questioning look, he directed his gaze to his headmistress who whispered to him.

“Are you OK?"

She watched doubtfully as Metello nodded.

"Now, you have to say a class selection Prayer of Status. Will to change class and replace the last words of the chant with “Class change”.”

As instructed, he closed his eyes and began the chant, a smile on his face and hammers hitting the insides of his head. Here and there, in the hall, the same scene was playing, and chants echoed. But the vast majority of the children were frustrated. The nobles' kids had used some alchemical products to help them and were among the chanting ones.

“Nihil, great divine, please help me understand myself and show me your evaluation of me. Class change!”

Class change Pick a class Achievement Class selection None Worker Prayer of thanks (2) ; Prayer to Lux (2) Lux Acolyte Graphic arts (2) ; Sight Sense (2) Artist Read (4) ; Write (1) Civil servant

His heart was rumbling, hard. Emotions overwhelmed him. Impatience, relief, expectation, self-pride, excitement. All of it mixed in his body and mind. Metello waited a little more, enjoying the moment, but he couldn't hang on too much, impatience and expectation gaining the upper hand.

He chose the [Lux Acolyte] class.