Ethan brandished his hammer as he roared and ran towards Miranda. Arriving in front of the latter, the former raised his spirit relic and hammered it towards her, resulting in an earth-shattering roar.

Miranda, with her petite figure, kept on dodging as Ethan continued to hit her. Both the former spirit apprentices, now spirit masters after awakening their spirit relics, were fighting in a stalemate.

“Enough of this, I know I can’t win with you in an attrition of brute force!”, said Miranda.

“Okay, as you wish. Then, please prepare to receive the brunt of my attack,” responded Ethan.

After speaking, Ethan’s spirit relic glowed with a fiery red. Together with the huge hammer, he was lifted ten centimeters above the ground. His body was quickly oriented to a jumping stance, with both his arms raised, and both his hands holding the spirit relic at his back. He roared and shouted “Volcanic Rupture!”.

Simultaneously, the pendant on Miranda’s necklace glowed with hot pink as the sculpted eye rapidly opened. On her forehead, the third eye also showed signs of opening. After a second, both the eyes opened, while the irises of the three eyes on her face slowly turned pink. Her body also floated ten centimeters above the ground, with her hair dangling at the sides. “Eye of Prayers, Open!”, she shouted.

All the viewers held their breath after witnessing the spirit masters taking out their spirit relics. Their eyes were filled with longing for such power and were filled with hope towards their future.

Ethan's [Volcanic Rupture] arrived in front of Miranda. After that, a loud thud was heard followed by the hissing of smoke that obstructed the vision of the viewers.

During this exchange, most of the students thought that Ethan would win given the destructive power and the domineering might brought upon by the first skill of his spirit relic.

However, contrary to their expectations, [Volcanic Rupture] did not hit Miranda even though the distance between them is very short. On Miranda’s previous position, cracks overflowing with magma were imprinted after Ethan’s spirit relic hit it - evident of the domineering might it contained.

Ethan snorted and continued wielding his hammer as he continuously hit Miranda. Magically, Miranda kept on evading all of Ethan’s attacks as if luck was on her side.

“Interesting!,” mused Max to himself. “Miranda awakened a luck-attributed spirit relic, and her [Eye of Prayers] kept her body from being hit even though it was only a hair’s breadth”. Different thoughts kept on ringing inside his head while watching the battle.

Awakening the spirit relic would give the user a magical skill. It could be an offensive skill, or defensive, or auxiliary, or even movement.

“Wooaaah!”. Max was awakened from his stupor by the shocked shouts of the students. It was found out that after Miranda kept on evading Ethan’s attacks, she wielded a dagger from her waist and pointed it at Max’s forehead - closing the curtains of the magical battle.

“Oh, it looks like the [Eye of Prayers] has a short time limit that's why Miranda decided to finish the battle as early as possible. Ethan cannot continuously cast [Volcanic Rupture], so it is only fair that her awakened skill also has limitations”.

Every skill has a buffer time before it could be cast again just like the skill cooldowns from video games. After all, the spirit relic would still process the magical model of the skill. The skill was the resulting value from a quadratic equation, the magical model being the quadratic equation, while the spirit relic was the calculator.

Furthermore, each skill has quantitative and qualitative requirements for spirit energies. Spirit energies were the expendable spirit power obtained once the relic users entered the realm of spirit warriors. Going by the earlier analogy, it can be said that the energy needed to supply for the calculator to finish one calculation is the spirit energy, while the whole energy in the form of a battery is the spirit power. Spirit relics do not contain such unlimited resources, and will only be accumulated through time.

After the battle, fatigue was evidently observed on the faces of Ethan and Miranda. Some of the students went on congratulating Miranda after her first-ever win, even though it was still a training session. On the other hand, some consoled Ethan while others like Max went back to their respective classrooms.

A week of schooling, working at The Arthur’s, and meditation passed by in the blink of an eye. Max finally reached the consummate realm after 13 months - signaling his eligibility for spirit relic awakening.

He entered his spirit world and found that his spirit body was full of spirit power, emitting a blinding light in this dark spirit world. “I can finally awaken my spirit relic after a decade of arduous meditation. Please don’t fail my expectations”.

Before awakening, Max first went to Uncle Arthur to check his preparations. Uncle Arthur thoroughly checked his physical state, his mental state, and unbeknownst to Max, even the state of his spirit world in the field of consciousness.

Uncle Arthur’s eyes shone with excitement after witnessing his spirit body inside the spirit world, clearly excited for the future that was about to come. “Indeed, he possesses such a spirit body”, thought Arthur.

After chatting with Uncle Arthur, Max directly went to Nightlocke Spirit Academy. Mister Wilson only refreshed the students with the information they learned from their earlier years during the class session. Following the discussion, he asked Max and the other two students that were ready for awakening to stay.

“Max, Mike, and Romeo, it looks like the three of you are now ready for awakening”, declared Mister Wilson. “As you know, the awakening of your spirit relics will be done at the building’s final floor. There, the Keeper will guide you through”.

All the students know who the Keeper was. It was that lazy-ass old man guarding the final floor, strictly not permitting the students who will not awaken to enter. Occasionally, younger students would fool around with the elevator, clicking the final floor’s button and surprising the usually sleeping old man at the reception counter.

Max and the other two students nodded their heads seriously.

“Yeah right, I don’t really have high expectations for the three of you but I hope you can awaken special spirit relics too!”, added Mister Wilson.

The three of them, including Max, shook their heads. Max was already 12 years old, Mike and Romeo, on the other hand, were 14 years old. They, themselves, clearly knew their capabilities, and only laughed as a reply to Mister Wilson's expectations. However, it was apparent from the eyes of the three teens, that they, too, long for great power.

After the short briefing with Mister Wilson, the three students left the classroom and proceeded to the final floor through the elevator.

Max held his breath during the whole duration of elevator climbing. His eyes were filled with intense longing for a bright future, for a strong spirit relic. Although always unconfident, a tiny inextinguishable flame of hope was continuously burning inside his heart.

“I am also a prodigy! I also started meditating at the age of two! Although I have always been unlucky, who knows, maybe the mother of luck will finally cast her gaze upon me”, different thoughts were continuously stirring inside his head.

Nervousness. Excitement. Hope. A myriad of emotions was currently coursing through his body.

[Ding] The sound of the elevator arriving at the final floor awakened the trio from their silent thinking. Heaving deep sighs, the three of them smiled at each other and left the elevator platform. They walked towards the reception counter where the Keeper, as always, was sleeping.

“Uhmm, good day Mister Keeper!”, greeted Max.

The old man fell off his chair and was awakened from his evidently pleasant slumber.

“Damn it! Who-”, before the Keeper could finish his sentence, he cast a gaze upon the three newly-arrived students before finally locking his sight at Max.

“Oh, what a resplendent spirit body!”, he thought to himself. His mood quickly turned from an annoyance into excitement. He couldn’t help but think thrillingly about a possible prospect of a legendary spirit relic wielder.

The Keeper, also known as Old Man Caine, tidied himself in front of the students, still possessing at least a little bit of decency an academy staff should have. “It looks like the three of you are now ready for spirit relic awakening!”.

“First, let me test the spirit body of the three of you”. Old Man Caine retrieved three wooden boxes containing power stones from a nearby safe and distributed them to the three students.

Power stones were magical stones used to measure the grade of spirit bodies. During the dawn of the Age of Spirit Relics, not just humans but also the different forces of nature gave birth to various objects and living things that possessed spirit bodies.

Power stones became one of those kinds after evolving from various types of mineral rocks. However, these stones could only absorb spirit power when an extremely high concentration of spirit power was contacted with the surface.

Since spirit bodies contain an extreme concentration of spirit power, power stones will absorb spirit power from them. The rate of absorption would vary depending on the grade of the spirit body it was contacted into. The resulting color of the power stone would indicate the rate of absorption, therefore, implying the holder’s spirit body grade.