The sharpness of the spear’s blade could be seen on its glittering tip. When the light shone on the tip, the spear unveiled a giant needle puncturing the sun.

It had two pairs of wings on the side of the spearhead. The first pair looked like the wings of a bat while the second pair was shaped like a pair of spider legs. The spearhead was embedded with intricate Viking runes. Forged in gold, the extraordinariness of the spear could not be concealed.

It was a widely known school trivia that the statue was constructed in honor of the founder of the academy, and the spear it wielded was said to be the founder’s mythical spirit relic.

The spear-type spirit relic was rumored to be Gungnar. It was the spear wielded by the Scandinavian Empire’s proclaimed king of gods, Odin, during the Age of Gods. It brought forth numerous destruction and unyielding protection of the constituents of Scandinavia.

Max was taught about the general knowledge about spirit relics in the academy. From the various known spirit relics, their grades, and even their types - all of these topics were part of the current educational system.

Spirit relics were artifacts wielded by the different magical beings throughout the history of Earth’s civilizations. It ranged from the normal weapons of beings in the lower magical realms up to the personal weapons of the gods of different empires.

The student from the news report yesterday awakened a legendary weapon-type spirit relic, Excalibur, that was used by one of the strongest knights of the Arthurian Empire.

Aside from the grade of spirit bodies, spirit relics were also dependent on one's luck. A lottery, for many. Unlucky human beings may awaken very common spirit relics such as the combs of normal mermaids, axes of common barbarians, or swords and shields of the lowest-ranked soldiers.

Additionally, spirit relics were further classified into weapon-types, plant-types, accessory-types, stone-types, vehicle-types, ornament-types, instrument-types, and body-types.

Weapon-type spirit relics were the most common, while the rest were uncommon. Although weapon-type spirit relics possessed established strength, the unorthodox method of wielding uncommon types also brought headaches to the battlefield. A sword could not necessarily win against a comb, nor shields could be more unyielding than a necklace.

Max also learned in the academy that the grade of spirit relics was dependent on the spirit body and attribute affinity an individual possesses.

Based on the historical records of the academy, it was said that the founder possessed a very pure golden spirit body and had a very high affinity to both war and life attributes. Gungnar was a war-life dual attribute spirit relic, hence, the founder’s acquisition.

It was impossible for a human with a high affinity to fire elemental attributes to awaken Excalibur or Gungnar because of the conflicting attributes.

At least 99% of the known spirit relics possessed a single attribute, while the two mentioned spirit relics belong to the remaining 1% that have two attributes. Furthermore, some attributes are usually better than others.

No spirit relics were similar, however, the strength of the attribute and magic they possess made the clear division between their grades. A rare comb was expected to win against a common one, a legendary shield over a rare shield, and mythical spirit relics over legendary grades.

“It must be nice to awaken a mythical spirit relic just like the founder!”, Max thought subconsciously. He always longed for the high-grade spirit relics. After all, children were full of hope, and it was only until they grew up that they gradually lost it. But when hope was lost, how could one cope?

Spirit relics were divided into seven grades, namely; ruin, common, rare, special, legendary, mythical, and divine.

Ruin spirit relics were said to be the most useless relics because every spirit relic in this grade was either broken or unusable. Although they were graded lower than common, their rarity was on par with mythical spirit relics!

Very few individuals are extremely unlucky enough to awaken such weak spirit relics. It was a known fact that only the unluckiest humans awakened ruin spirit relics while the luckiest humans awakened mythical spirit relics!

As for divine spirit relics, Max shook his head for there were no news nor even leaked information about divine relic users as of this moment. A son of heaven? A descendant of a god? Maybe a reincarnated one? Only the most illustrious individuals can acquire such godly treasures.

Brrrring. Brrring. Brrrring.

He was awakened from his thinking stupor by the sound of the school bell, signifying that the classes were about to start.

Max was currently in the final year of preparatory school.

Topics that were being taught in preparatory school also include similar subjects from the past era such as math, science, geography, and languages. However, this stage of education was mainly focused on educating children's knowledge about spirit relics, spirit body, foundation consolidation, and history.

Foundation consolidation was the major subject of the final year where students were being taught vital information that would help stabilize their spirit bodies and would prepare them for their spirit relic awakening.

Max hurriedly passed by the square with the statue and went to a 20-story building intended for students in the final year.

A 20-story building might be considered gigantic for teaching senior students during the past era. However, these floors were important areas of education due to the equipment of varied technologies that were essential in the education system of the Age of Spirit Relics.

Battle simulation rooms, battle arenas, meditation rooms, relic laboratories, and teaching classrooms were all located in this same building.

Elevators were used in reaching higher floors, however, Max chose to climb the building using the stairs. After several minutes of climbing, he reached Room 13-5 on the 13th floor with little to no sweat and stable breathing – clear evidence of how strong spirit bodies were.

Every human born on Earth during the dawn of the Age of Spirit Relics possessed bodies that were sturdier and stronger than normal humans. Magical powers and the strength given by the spirit relics were too great for a measly human body to handle. Hence, bodies were usually reconstructed during awakening to suit the spirit relics best.

Room 13-5 was a 900 square feet teaching room intended for Class 10. Max hurriedly entered the classroom through the back door and sat at the furthermost seat away from the teacher’s elevated podium.

“Whew, just made it in time”, he said to himself after noticing that their teacher was only about to start the lecture.

He was in the senior preparatory year for a year already. Regardless of age, the only requirement for a student to be admitted to the final year was to be at the peak stage of being a spirit apprentice.

All human beings were born with spirit bodies, however, these spirit bodies were empty. Spirit power was needed to fill them.

Spirit power was the particles present in the air ever since time immemorial. However, normal humans could not perceive or absorb these particles without the help of spirit bodies. The Age of Spirit Relics started with the generation that was born 1330 years ago, the year 2020 of the Common Era.

The particles were differently colored and were imbued with attributes that could not be visibly perceived by the eyes. A year after the start of this age, humans knew that these particles could be perceived and absorbed by the spirit bodies through intense meditation training.

Through meditation, the spirit bodies would enter a state of stillness. After entering this state where spirit bodies became one with earth, motes of different-colored particles or spirit power would enter through the body pores and fill the empty spirit body in the field of consciousness known as the spirit world.

All humans living in this era possessed spirit bodies, hence, they can already be considered as spirit apprentices from their very birth. However, humans were not able to perceive spirit power at their earliest years, instead, the perception would gradually grow as they age.

Spirit apprentice was the initial realm before wielding spirit relics. It was divided into five stages. Max was currently at the peak stage wherein his spirit body was already 80% filled with spirit power. Percentage filled served as the demarcation between each stage. Reaching the consummate stage or a fully-filled spirit body was one of the requirements in awakening a spirit relic.

Speaking of stages, he looked at a young man sitting in the front row. At an age of eight, he was already qualified to enter the senior class. His name was Ethan Solace and was rumored to have started absorbing spirit power at the early age of three.

Most children only started perceiving spirit power at the age of six, however, there were cases of prodigies such as Ethan who started at very young ages. The rate of absorption also varied per child, prodigies could already reach the peak stage in four years while average children took eight.

Aside from Ethan, there was another girl sitting in front that could also be considered a prodigy. Her name was Miranda Gonzales. And just like Ethan, she also started meditating at the age of three.

Most of Max’s classmates were aged between 11-12 years old while the oldest ones were at least 15. Therefore, his talent could be considered average at the very least.

However, what his classmates or his teachers never knew was that he started meditating using the unknown meditation technique at a more prodigious age of two. Still, what baffled him the most was that he only reached the peak stage after almost 10 years of bitter meditation.