30 Chapter 30. Meeting Eupheme again

'How the hell do I find that lifeless log in this mess?' Leo sighed in his mind as he arrived at the can field.

Tall symmetrically organized portable food stalls were lined up and beautifully set up in the clan field. Its makeshift alleys filled with people who were busy roaming the streets for food. And at the far end of the field was a huge vast empty clearing that was filled with countless people who were joyfully talking to each other while sitting down on a hard wooden chair. Upon arriving here, Leo immediately walked towards the clearing as he did not bother with the food stalls, he had used heavenly eyes and found that Eupheme was nowhere to be seen around the food stalls.

"Thank goodness I have these eyes..." Leo gratefully spoke to himself as he felt proud that he chose this talent.

And upon arriving at the clearing, Leo saw that all the commoners and nobles were all split into two groups. It seemed that all the nobles got all the chairs and were all huddled up in a corner of the field and furthermore, they were all sitting in group and each group somehow seemed to represent a certain clan as the color of clothes of each person in each group were all the same. They all seemed to ignore each other and were haughtily laughing within their group while drinking wine. On the other hand, the commoner all seemed to be standing on the ground as they seemed to be denied access to a chair. Nevertheless, Leo saw an extremely heartwarming scene as all the commoners on the field seemed to be happily talking to each other as smiled filled the field as parents conversed, talking about their kids and how proud they are and how they hoped for their sons and daughters to be bestowed with good talent.

'Amazing... All these commoners look so much happier than all of the nobles,' Leo thought in amazement.

"Now, to find that numpty, I need to hurry a bit," Leo quietly spoke to himself as he began to move a pace quicker and silently shuffled past a crowd of people.

"Looking for me?" Eupheme's lifeless sounded from behind Leo while he was busy making his way through the massive mess of commoners.

Leo was suddenly surprised as he did not expect Eupheme to manage to sneak behind him, "When did you sneak behind me?" Leo asked in surprise as he slowly turned to see Eupheme in his previous attire.

"I just wanted to have a bit of fun," Eupheme gave a slight smile as he sheepishly laughed.

"That is not like you, it definitely doesn't suit you," Leo scarily spoke as he looked at Eupheme with fear.

"Haha, I was looking for you too. I was surprised when I didn't see you in the Decan clan seatings, so I was about to come to the arena but it looks like I won't have to, now that I've found you," Eupheme spoke in a relieved tone, "Let's go and find a good place to talk."

Eupheme then turned around and moved to an isolated corner of the field that was opposite from the noble's section with Leo quickly following behind.

"Is there something bothering you?" Eupheme asked as he sensed that there was something bothering Leo.

"Not really, it's not that great of a problem. I'm really curious regarding how affinities work?" Leo admitted with a wry smile.

"Oh, that was all that was bothering you?" Eupheme asked in surprise as he sniggered lightly.

"Is it really stupid?" Leo innocently asked.

"No, since you come from a village, I'm not that surprised that you do not know about them. I'll explain it. Affinities are, in simple terms, the compatibility of the magical energy, that we call chakra, that is around you with your body. The magical energy in this world can also be broken into six elements. They are fire, water, earth, lightning, wind, and sound. The elements and their affinities are often determined through the strength of a hereditary bloodline or it is obtained from someone but that is a whole different topic. It can also be improved through the concoction of potions and herbal mixes but they often come at a high price as they often cost a lot of money to find and buy the ingredients. But you can expect that from the people here in Sapphire, the nobles will probably have the highest affinities talent levels here," Eupheme carefully explained.

"Wait-wait. You said talent level?" Leo suddenly cut in.

"Yes, affinities can also be called talents," Eupheme confusedly replied.

"How are the affinities ranked?" Leo anxiously asked as an arrogant air suddenly radiated from him as a mischievous smile appeared on his face.

"Heh?" Eupheme paused in confusion as he could not find out why such the word 'talents' has caused such a change in his tone of voice. But he began to explain anyways, "Affinities or as you like to call them 'talents' are ranked primarily in seven grades, they start from green, blue, bronze, silver, gold, pink, and diamond with green being the weakest and diamond being the strongest. And along with the grades, they also have a subcategory for ranking the grades which are rings. They can go from one to ten and once one's talent surpasses a ten ringed stage then their talent grade goes up a rank."

"I see... Then how much do you expect the nobles in this city to achieve?" Leo suddenly asked again.

"Well... I don't have high hopes for this city but I think that a two to four-ringed gold would be expected. I don't think that anyone will get higher than seven-gold rings," Eupheme spoke in a slight chuckle.

"Only gold huh..." Leo disappointedly spoke as his head suddenly dropped, only to be raised as Leo asked yet another question, "What is the best talent you have seen or heard of?"

Hearing this, Eupheme suddenly broke out in a short laugh, "Confidence is key. Well, in my whole life the highest talent that I have seen was a ten-ringed pink fire affinity and that belongs to a close friend of mine in my sect and he only got that after spending almost all of his fortune on ingredients. But the best talent I have heard of would belong to the crystal emperor, I once read in a book that his talent was said to have been a three-ringed diamond Earth and fire affinity."

"Hmm... How disappointing," Leo quietly commented in disappointment as he lazily stretched his arms.

"Oh yeah! That reminds me, what's your talent?" Leo asked as he suddenly grew curious.

"I have a one-ringed pink earth and wind affinity," Eupheme proudly answered.

"Do people normally get two affinities often? And what is the requirement to get into your sect?" Leo asked as he was filled with curiosity.

"You are a very interesting boy," Eupheme commented before answering Leo, "The number of affinities really depends on one's bloodline. It is quite normal for people to have one to two affinities, but it is extremely rare and almost unheard of for someone to have over four affinities. Even the crystal emperor himself is only said to have four. And to answer your second question, I admire your ambition. The requirement for the sect is to have extremely heaven shaking talent, the requirement is to be at least twelve years of age and to have seven-ringed pink grade affinity along with cultivation of peak condensation realm. The number of affinities does not matter as long as your talent meets the mark. And along with that, you have to be invited by an elder from the sect to be able to join."

"Wait, but you said you are only a one-ringed pink, why is it so high?" Leo suddenly argued.

"Haha! I was lucky you see, I am the grandson of one of the sect's elders so I was accepted into the sect from birth. The sect requirements are now really high because we have a lot of sect disciples already and our sect leader apparently wants to flush out the weaker people in the sect," Eupheme answered haughtily.

"Interesting. So what will happen after the testing? What will happen to the commoners and nobles?" Leo curiously asked.

"Well, you can't see them here because they aren't here yet but have you wondered why the testing is taking such a long time to begin?" Eupheme suddenly asked in response.

"Nope," Leo replied confusedly.

"It hasn't started yet because of the sect elders who are going to attend this. This is the start of their scouting you could say. Here, many elders from different sects will come here and observe to find some good seed that they can take back to their sect to nurture. It's an extremely beneficial tactic," Euhpeme answered.

"Why only scouting? Why don't you guys just take them into the sect yet?" Leo spoke.

"They are still too young. You guys are only five to six. It is too early to take you guys and the parents of these children would not feel alright about it," Eupheme explained.

"Understandable... So what are the requirements for the sects nearby?"

"Well... I don't know much about them but I reckon that they will need at least a minimum of a gold grade and might even go down to silver if the child has multiple affinities," Eupheme replied uninterestedly.

"I see... Well then, I am a hundred percent sure that you will enjoy the testing today, enjoy Aurora's result. Mine will be a surprise," Leo spoke as he sensed Eupheme's boredom, he gave Eupheme as thumbs up and a mischievous smile and began walking off in the direction of the arena, "Your master is calling you," he informed Eupheme

"Oh, I see. Well then, I'll be waiting to see what talent you will obtain," Eupheme replied nonchalantly as he walked off in the direction of the Weaver clan's seating area.

'There's no way that a mere village child like him to possibly obtain such a talent,' Eupheme thought but then his mind became conflicted, 'But he did look extremely confident and alongside that, I can vaguely sense that they have indeed started cultivation. My mind truly can make heads or tails of this. But if there are any valuable prospects in the crowd then I will need to inform father about it.'