Chapter 3: Divination Rite

The following day was the day that Teo had to depart

Early in the morning, Ishwin came to pick up Teo

Teo carried a small sack with him, carrying only a few things and some food for the trip.

The academy provided new students with living quarters, uniform and food. Students were encouraged to only bring a few items with them once they had enrolled.

Looking at his son, Talwin placed his hand on Teo's shoulder and said:

"Teo, make sure to come back home right after you graduate"

Fei who was close by gave Teo a huge hug

"Teo write us often so mother won't get lonely"

Teo nodded his head

"Don't worry mom, I'll write back often"

Fei became quite emotional. Her last and youngest child was leaving as well. Although Aran was due to come back this year, they received a letter saying that Aran would not come home right away. Aran planned to explore the empire, perhaps even go outside the empire's borders.

Fei tried to hold back her tears, but a few still came out.

"Teo, We love you. Do your best out there", she said softly.

"Mother, Father, I love you guys too. Don't worry, I'll be back before you know it"

Teo tried to cheer up his parents.

Talwin did not want to show his weak side to his child so he did not shed a tear, but in his heart, he was crying worst than Fei

"Don't worry little brother, I'll watch over Teo until we reach the academy", Ishwin said to Talwin

Talwin nodded and rubbed Teo's head. He then placed his hand on Fei's shoulder, gesturing that it's time to let Teo go.

Fei's hug briefly became tighter as she gave Teo a kiss on the forehead before letting go of Teo

"Teo, let's go", Ishwin said

Ishwin and Teo started walking towards the town hall.

Talwin and Fei could only stand there and watch their youngest son leave for the academy.

The divination rite was held at the town hall. Parents were forbidden to accompany their children. This was because the results of each child have always been kept a secret from outsiders. It also prevented one parent to become jealous of the other parents.

Once the result was given to the child, the child could later send their results back to their parents if they wished.

....

Ishwin and Teo arrived at the town hall.

There was still some time before the ritual began but there were 13 other children already there.

After a long while, the ritual finally began.

A total of 24 children were present to take their divination today. The number was fewer than last year's but was still considered a lot for the small village of Char

The village chief walked in front of all 24 children.

With a loud and stern voice, he spoke

"Today will be the annual divination rite. Since you are all now 10-years-old, we will conduct the divination rite for every single one of you. The result of the divination will decide your potential and give us a general outline of your future accomplishments"

His gaze swept through each and every child within the room.

"Although it will not exactly determine your future, it will help lead you towards the right direction. Remember, just because you have been blessed with high potential does not mean that you will automatically be a success in the future. You must study diligently and work hard to become successful. The same goes for everyone who is not as blessed as the others. With enough effort, you can catch up to or even overcome the others who are blessed!"

After his speech, he paused for a short while

"When we call you, please come to the front"

An elder sat behind a huge table at the end of the room. The table contained many different colored stones. These stones were elemental stones. Each stone was of different color, each containing a different elemental essence.

The elder lit up 10 candles around the stones. One candle for each stone. These candles were special candles that were used to loosen the elemental essences within the stone. The elder took a needle and grabbed the first child's hand and then pricked it with a small needle. A drop of blood on the needle was then dropped into a small cup containing dark-colored liquid.

The candles started flickering one by one. Each flame grew and shrunk into different sizes. The essence from the elemental stones flowed into the cup and a red glow of light lit up within the cup.

The elder who observed the glow within the cup wrote down the result on a piece of paper. He made 2 copies and gave one to the child. He called for the next child to come up.

....

Time passed and it was finally Teo's turn

Teo watched the whole process for the other students who went ahead of him and knew what to do.

He stood beside the table and brought out his hand.

He braced himself for the needle that was sure to come

The elder took some of his blood and dropped it into the cup.

The candle light grew very small and 10 different dim glows appeared within the cup!

When the elder saw the 10 different glows he was instantly shocked! The other elders who were in the room also became shocked. The elder watched the cup in anticipation, but after a long wait, the lights did not glow any brighter.

A face of disbelief was on all the elders' faces. Even the village chief looked at the very strange result.

A hint of disappointment could be seen in all the elders' faces.

The elder in charge of the divination wrote the results down and gave Teo a copy.

Teo looked at the piece of paper and read it.

NameTeoVillageCharTypePure GeneralistFire1Metal1Water1Lightning1Wind1Dark1Earth1Light1Wood1Void1

At the side, there were elders who the kids could ask if they did not know what their results were. These elders would carefully explain their results to them.

Teo took his results and approached of the of elders.

"A pure generalist, it is very rare", the black-robed elder said

Teo became excited

'Rare means good right?', he thought

If he got a good result, he was sure that his parents and sister would be proud of him

Since the majority of the children would not even have an elemental attribute, having 10 attributes was indeed rare.

Seeing Teo's excited face, the robed elder had a complicated face.

-Sigh-

"Although it is very rare, your growth potential is very strange. I have never heard of a 'pure' having a growth potential of 1s."

He cleared his throat as he was prepared to explain the situation in full

"You see, the majority of elementalists have only 1 elemental attribute. We call these elementalists as 'specialists'. They specialize and excel at only a single elemental attribute. Like myself, I excel with fire element"

"Pure generalists, or 'pures' are elementalist who has all 10 elemental attributes, they have equal growth potential for all of their elemental attributes, a sort of 'Jack of all trades'. As I said before, it's quite rare to have all 10 attributes, but from past records, pures should have a growth potential of exactly 3 for all 10 elements equally. This is why I said it was very strange for you to have a growth potential of only 1s"

"Teo, you have to work hard and try to improve your elemental proficiency. From your results, having a growth potential with only 1s, would mean that your rate of improvement would be the slowest. Although it's predicted to be the slowest, it does not mean you can't improve your mastery and understanding of your elements"

"Remember, growth potential does not determine your elemental mastery! Though it would be very difficult compared to having a better growth potential, theoretically, you can still master an elemental on part with someone who has a better growth potential"

When Teo heard the explanation he was a little confused on what it actually meant, but seeing the expression from the black robed elder, he knew that although he was lucky to be an elementalist, his results were not that good at all.

Usually, a pure could be regarded as a very rare and special talent. It could be said that most pures' future would be bright. This, however, was not the case with Teo

Pures would have equal growth potential with all of their elements, which mean that regular generalist would have higher growth potential than pures. Though it would be considered as "low", it would always be a growth potential of 3s; having a growth potential of 1s was too low.

Soon, all 24 children finished their divination rites. A number of guards led the children out of the building and outside there were 2 carriages parked in front of the town hall.

"Okay everyone, get on the carriages. We'll have to travel for 3 days straight to reach the city of Mirth

....

The carriage was full of many children. Each carriage had 12 children and 2 guards within them.

On Teo's left side was a confident looking boy. He was the first kid who was called up earlier. One could easily see that this kid was trying to hide his obvious excitement. He looked at Teo and introduced himself

"Hello, my name is Windle! Let's get along"

"Hi, my name is Teo"

A girl on Teo's right also introduced herself. Her hair was very short, but she had strong bright eyes

"Hello, my name is Lina, but you guys can call me Lia, everyone calls me Lia"

Within the carriage, different groups randomly created their own circles and talked to each other

Based on their unplanned sitting arrangement, Lia, Windle, and Teo became one group

"So Teo, Lia, want to share your results?" Windle said. It was clear that he wanted to brag but went about it in a subtle way.

With a happy face, Windle said

"I'll start, I'm surprisingly a specialist"

Lia frowned as she replied

"I'm a non-elementalist"

Elementalists were divided into different types.

The first type was the most common. They were the 'Specialists'. Specialists were people who had only 1 elemental attribute. They were the type with the highest growth potential of all the others. Their growth potential ranged from 7 to 9 out of a 9 scale rating system.

The second type was not as common, which were dual elementalist or 'Dualists'. These were people who had 2 different elemental attributes. Their growth potential were a little lower than specialists which ranged from 6 to 8, but they were deemed much stronger than specialists. Why? Because of the fact that they had more options and their growth rate was high enough to challenge most specialists.

As for people who had 3 elemental attributes, 'Triads' or 4 elemental attributes 'Quadras' they were the rarest out of all types. Getting hit by lightning 5 times in 5 consecutive days would be more likely than becoming one. Their growth potentials were directly affected by the number of elements they had.

A triad would have a growth potential range from 5 to 7, it would be barely enough to contend with dualists and specialists. This was because the variations of their attacks would expand exponentially.

But in contrast, quadras would have a considerably lower combat potential than specialist's, dualist's and triad's. The main reason was their number of elemental attributes. The having more elemental attribute meant that the time to switch between each elements took a longer time.

Although people can have multiple elemental attributes, they can only use one type of element at a time. If they tried to use 2 or more different kinds of elements at the same time, they would end up damaging their bodies. Many occurrences of this had happened in the past, and everyone who tried this ended up crippling themselves or worst, killing themselves.

Because of this delay, the feasibility of quadras in combat was put into question. The time delay from switching was much worst than a triad's so they could be considered as being on the line between combatants and non-combatant roles, but this was not a big deal since quadras were extremely rare.

The next type were 'Generalists', these were people who would at least have 5 or more elemental attributes. Generalists were more common than dualists, and would have a growth potential of 3-4.

Usually, people with have a growth potential lower than 5 were considered non-combatants among the elementalists, especially if they have 5 or more elemental attributes.

This was because mastering 5 elements to a point where you can use them in combat was too time consuming. It was several times harder than mastering 1 or 2 elements instead. There was also the time lag regarding switching the use of elements which was impractical to use in combat.

Of course there were outliers among elementalists like these. Some would focus on a single element, and give up on the rest. By doing this, the time lag was no longer an issue and the mastery of a single element would improve considerably compared to mastering 5 or more elements. Although they could be considered combatants this way, they were like a much weaker version of a specialist. Not many elementalists took this path.

The next type were the Pure generalists, or 'Pures'. They were people who had all 10 elemental attributes. Pures were special not only because of the number of elements they had, but because the growth potential for all elemental attribute was always the same. In the history records, all pures would have a growth potential of 3. There had never been an occurrence of a pure having more or less than a growth potential of 3.

Pures were considered to be the best in crafting various treasures. Aside from special and mysterious treasures, they were praised for crafting the strongest defensive items. Though they could also make weapons with many different elemental attributes, most elementalist combatants only used 1 or 2 elemental attributes, so they could not fully utilize weapons with more than 3 attributes. For defensive items, it was best if the item could defend against all different types of elemental attributes; which is why pures were theoretically better at it.

In contrast, generalists were a more "specialized" craftsman. They could create better, specialized weapons with a single type of elemental attribute. Because the growth potential of generalist was uneven, they would become more proficient in a few elements more than the others. This improved their understanding of various materials to create many different items such as weapons, armors, devices and treasures.

Though pures were considered better than generalists, pures were as rare as triads so the majority of craftsmen across the lands were regular generalists. Only a very small number were pures.

The last group of people are the non-elementalists. Most of the population are placed in this category. They are people who do not have any elemental attribute. Within the village of Char, only a very few people were elementalists

"You're so lucky. I wish I had an elemental attribute" Lia said

"Ha ha, I was worried I would be a non-elementalist too. Thankfully I lucked out" Windle happily said

He looked towards Teo and Lia followed suit

"What about you Teo? What was your result?" Windle asked

"I'm a pure generalist" Teo answered

"Wow! A pure generalist! that's great!" Lia was extremely surprised and was really jealous of both Teo and Windle

"This is the first time I've seen a pure generalist before. Your growth potential should be all 3s right? Not bad at all!" Windle said

Teo suddenly shook his head

"No, my growth potential for all my elements are only 1s"

He took out his results and showed it to them.

Upon seeing it, both of them did not fully understood it yet. A pure generalist is still very rare! They thought that no matter how low it should still be very good.

"Don't worry about it, even if its low, you can just work hard! it's all about guts and effort! Don't give up!" Windle tried to cheer up Teo

Though Teo was not particularly depressed. Even though his results were low, he didn't really find being a craftsman too appealing. He didn't fully understand what craftsmen really do. His dream right now was to read the library in the academy. If he was to choose a job, he wanted to have a job where he could read all he want.

The majority of non-elementalists usually work jobs that did not require elemental power. Some would become cultivators as a non-elementalist to become a combatant. There was even a non-elementalist and non-combatant that became a great figure that had existed in the empire's history. It was the late Jade 'Truefeather' Lui, a brilliant strategist that lead the empire to victory.

"Thanks" Teo replied.

Although he was not too depressed about the issue, he appreciated Windle's effort of cheering him up.

The trip to Mirth city was long. During the trip, the 3 of them chatted and would sometimes "sleep".

The carriages stopped at least 6 times for breaks.

During Teo's "naps", he would enter the inner world and continue reading the book.

After 3 days, they finally arrived near Mirth City.

The city was huge compared to their village. From a distance, they could see that the whole city was surrounded by large brick walls.

Everyone was excited to see the city's silhouette but the carriages went by the city and headed towards the mountain ranges nearby.

A little further from Mirth city, one could see a group of buildings near the mountain range. An area of the mountain range was enclosed by tall iron fences.

The carriages arrived at the gate, one of the Char guards talked with the entrance guards. After a short while, the carriages were given passage through the gates.

Upon entering, the carriages followed a winding route that led to an open area in front of a large building. There were many other carriages that were parked nearby. There were at least 30 other carriages and several children stepped out of the carriages and quickly lined up

[Author's note: Second Revision]