Years passed by relatively quickly. Ciaran had a quiet life. The old woman passed away when he was three years old. It was the first time since he was born in Mearth that he felt a pang of sadness.

As soon as he learnt to walk, he started exploring the surroundings. Starting from his decrepit house, he little by little expanded his horizon and learnt a few things in his escapades.

Science seemed to be almost nonexistent in this world. People knew that an apple would fall to the ground, that an item with little mass would float on water but they would not really try to understand why. The most he learnt by asking people was a “Because that’s the way it is”. Perhaps because of the essence of the common magic, nobody really cared about this world’s rules. Magic could overthrow them anyway. Apparently, if he wanted to learn about this world’s rules, only the most powerful mages could help him. They were the ones who created new theories and spells and most likely the only ones able to answer his questions.

Those “discoveries” led him to try to learn more about magic. Those few years spent in this world steeled his resolve. Since he somehow got transported in this world, it meant that there was a way to go back to Earth. And he knew that magic was his best track.

Magic spells were theories that materialized using mana as a fuel. In the beginning, everyone had to learn the why and how a fireball could appear, which led to a very elitist circle of mages. Mages were scarce and their power immense. Then came a wizard of legend, a true Genius. He theorized the entire system of the world, and sacrificed his life in order to give birth to the System everyone knew and used today. The two purposes of the System was to show one’s general informations and to ease the use of spells. Spell casting thus became a lot more common, and began the golden age of Europia.

One last thing, and it was far from being the least important of the bunch, was that mana regeneration somehow decreased during the last couple of centuries, leading to the end of the golden age and the beginning of a slow but inexorable decline in prosperity and the current state of things. The most worrying part was that nobody knew why it happened, and nobody was able to circumvent the anomaly.

As for the first use of the System was not the main focus of the Genius mage, and thus stayed crude, only allowing one to see their name, age, race and their Gift if they had one. The status was activated in any sentient being at the age of five, and Ciaran was looking forward to this moment since knowing his gift would be of the utmost importance in his future endeavors.

All in all, everything was going well and his future was starting to draw itself pretty neatly. His outward appearance didn’t change much, making other kids his age flee at his sight, treating of ghost or whatever came into their young minds, but Ciaran didn’t really care either. Less time spent pretending to play was more time spent trying to reach his goal. He wanted to go back to Earth, preferably with Sive and the others, and meet back with his sister Esper. His plan in order to achieve that feat was already made.

Every child awakened their Gift at the age of five -if they had one-, and would thus be appraised by the local church of Churdilt by a bearer of the Minor Gift ‘Eye of Appraisal’ in order to fish out the talents as soon as possible.

As a Gift bearer, he was bound to have a greater than average mana pool and would thus be admitted in one of the numerous magic schools of the continent. Then he had to distinguish himself at school in order to be accepted in the most prominent academy of the continent. -Ironically, said academy was sitting at the center of the city he was born in, the capital of the Consortium of Europia-. Finally, he would need to befriend the powerful mage teachers there in order to get his hands on the drafted theories about space travel and dimensional jumps.

And thus, the fated day came.

*****

Romus was the head priest of the branch of Church of Churdilt of the poor districts of Swordhold, the capital city. He was a stout man in his fifties with shorts grey hair and a rough face. He was a bearer of the minor Gift ‘Detect Lie’ and his presence was thus required during the Appraisal ceremony. He was meant to guarantee that the bearer of the ‘Eye of Appraisal’ wouldn’t lie and give a false report.

Romus sighed and stood up from his chair. It was almost time for the ceremony to begin. He swiftly left his office and headed to the choir of the church, his duty was calling.

Once arrived, he gazed coldly to the small bunch of children in front of him. It was like that every day, every child from the poor commoners and the slums would come here the day of their birthday, shaking in expectative, stress visible in their eyes. And he would have to tell them again that they weren’t Gifted people. The first few times left scars in his heart, telling young children that their future would be in the mud and garbage of the streets wasn’t pleasant, but he grew colder and colder and now it was just another boring task in his schedule.

Romus’ gaze swoop over the kids, gauging their character in an instant, it wasn’t very difficult anyway, all the five years olds were the same. His initial movement was interrupted by two kids. One of them was a young girl with grey eyes and red hair, she was almost jumping in joy. ‘Hmmm, perhaps we do have a bearer today and she already experienced her Gift.’ The other was a young boy a little taller than average clad in blackish rags. His hair, skin, and even his irises were of a ghostly white. But what really caught the priest’s attention was his gaze. Way to calm and composed for a brat. ‘This one gives me the creeps, well, I will never see him again so why should I care? I better get to work, the earlier we start, the earlier we finish’.

*****

Ciaran entered the choir of the church with his biological mother and the other kids. ‘Pretty sure the name of this world’s goddess is not Churdilt, well I was too shocked back then to care to remember her name so whatever.’ Two people were waiting for them. One of them was a young man giving off a kind feeling, the pointy hat covering his brown hair signified that he was an apprentice mage. The other was a man in his fifties build like a bear even though he donned a priest’s attire. His gaze contrasted greatly with the young man’s, the other children visibly cowering before him. ‘I would have expected a priest to look more friendly.’ The priest opened his mouth. “Put yourself in line, Arion here will appraise all of you so there is no need to push. As for me, my name is Romus, and I will make sure that no lie is uttered in this sacred ground.”

“First one in the line, come forward.” A shaking boy in plain clothes approached briskly, his steps uncertain.

Arion gave him a long gaze before looking at the kid in the eyes. “I’m sorry, you don’t have a Gift.”

“It’s the truth.” The boy walked away under the sympathetic gaze of the kids and their parents. The same process repeated itself a few times, and in a few minutes, only Ciaran and a girl with red hair and grey eyes were remaining.

“Next.” The girl walked forward, happiness visible in her eyes.

Arion spoke with a tinge of joy in his voice. “Congratulations little miss, you are blessed with the Gift ‘Divine Cooking’. You mana capacity is slightly above the average adult. A bright future awaits you, miss.”

She skipped toward the exit of the church, looking at Ciaran with stars in her eyes. ‘Why is she looking at me like that, she should be creeped out like all the others.’

“Finally, next.” Ciaran smirked, the priest’s voice sounded almost relieved.

Arion looked at him longer than any other of the children before speaking with a dumbfounded voice. “W-we have two Gifted people today. Congratulations kid, you Gift is called Archon, I don’t think it was ever recorded before. Your mana pool is way higher than the average human.”

Romus pulled out a book thicker than an adult’s hand and fiddled with the pages for a minute. He then closed it with slightly shaking hands. “It has not been recorded.”

Suddenly, Arion opened his eyes wider than it should be possible. He looked at Romus. “H-his m-mana.”

“What?” The priest answered dryly.

“It just increased a bit.”

“WHAT!?”