31 Chapter 31. Affinity test officially begins I

The time had come... Countless adults and teenagers came bustling into the arena stand as they sat in their own respected seats. The commoner were all piling up on the left side of the arena as the more hot-blooded people shuffled their way to the front, desperately fighting against the crowd for a view. And on the right side of the arena, the nobles began slowly piling up and making their way their own clan reserved allocated seats.

Opposite from the entrance, at the far back of the arena were twelve middle-aged cultivators who were calmly sitting down, each wearing a particular uniquely embroidered robe. There were nine manly-males and three extremely beautiful women and each of them had the cultivation of a stage six refinement realm. As they sat there, their sharp gazing eyes fell on the children on the arena as they slowly began to guess in their head who might be a good talent.

A pair of old men slowly walked out and arrived onto the arena from the entrance as they proudly puffed their chests out in their eye-catching blue robes and had very long beards that reached to their chest. They slowly walked to the middle of the arena and climbed the little stairs that were set up and got up to the slightly elevated platform. Upon reaching, their eyes slowly gaze around the crowd and then one of them approached the veiled object while the other began introducing themselves:

"Everybody, please listen up! Today you are all here for the element affinities ceremony! You will be in the care of me, Migi Pouea, an apprentice blacksmith, and my good fellow junior brother, Eren Vala, also an apprentice blacksmith! You have all been added to a list which is in my hands here and you will be called up in this order, all the commoner will come up first and then the noble children. Anyone who did not sign up will get to do so in the end but we will charge you extra. If your name was called and you did not come then you will be left out from this ceremony."

After saying this Migi's face lit up as he excitedly began explaining about the object in an extremely proud and arrogant tone, "This is an intermediate magic measuring device that was created by our master, the great Barik Paladin, a stage four blacksmith. So you can rest your worries as the result of this machine will always be accurate. I can personally guarantee it."

After that, Eren reached out and heavily tugged on the veil and showcased the measuring device to the crowd, a smooth beautiful ethereal colorless three-sided crystal with two large squares that were on one side at about the height of the children was revealed.

"Ok, listen up. We are going to get straight into this. When your name is called, please lay your hands on the square on the crystal and then concentrate on the crystal and try and feel something inside the stone. Okay, first up we are going to start with the commoners, Gead Mallark!" said Migi as he called out.

A young child nervously stood up and slowly walked across to the machine as all eyes in the arena were fixed on him as placed his hands on the crystal. After around fifteen seconds, the crystal began to form a glowing deep blue fire and a few more seconds later, eight rings appeared with around the crystal and the result had been finalized as Eren loudly declared the result.

"Eight ringed blue fire affinity!"

Hearing this the boy was quite surprised and he immediately looked over to the sect elders and found that their facial expressions did not change as all as they a nonchalant expression on their faces. Knowing that his talent was not enough, the boy could not do anything except walking back with his head down in an embarrassed defeated manner.

Then after that, a bunch of other kids came up, only to be disappointed by the frozen expressionless faces of the sect elders.

Being commoners, their lives were truly harsh. In this world where the weak were easily bullied and the difference in strength between peasants and nobles were like earth and sky, their only hope for fame and status was to gain the attention of a sect and hopefully join and be nurtured by them.

"Seven ringed bronze earth affinity!"

"Six ringed blue wind affinity!"

"Seven ringed bronze water affinity!"

"Three ringed silver lightning affinity!"

The deadlock of constant blue and bronze grade affinities was suddenly broken by the twenty-fourth child that was called up.

The crowd began discussing as their eyes were fixed on a small boy who was standing there as he looked at a certain area of the arena stand and happily waved at a couple in the crowd. The couple happily waved back as tears of joy appeared in their eyes.

At the appearance of a silver talent, the eyebrows of the sect elders slightly rose as it was quite rare to see a commoner with such a talent. If this was his basis talent then that would mean that he was a very promising prospect and was more interesting than more of the noble children who had forcefully increased their talent just for this ceremony.

The next two hours quickly passed as all the commoners were all tested, countless children went up, only to return with their heads down as each had high hopes that were inevitably crushed by the harsh truth that was being revealed in the crystal. A total of six children had managed to obtain a silver grade, with the highest being a seven-ringed sound affinity that came from a girl.

"Ok! We are now done with all the commoners in the city, now we will be calling up the clans in this city, starting from the weakest to the strongest. First, the Narra clan! Harlus Praven!" Migi declared as he called up the next child.

An extremely handsome child came out from the crowd and walked onto the stage. The crowd's attention was immediately fixed on him due to his appearance and his identity, he was the son of the Narra clan head.

There was a tremendous amount of pressure as he took a deep breath and place his hands on the squares.

A long pause followed as a sudden silence descended on the arena.

A bright glow appeared as a large crackling sound resonated as a golden flame appeared on the crystal.

"Good heavens! That is a gold grade affinity!" exclamations of surprise sounded from the crowd as gasps of shock and amazement appeared among the spectators.

After another five seconds, three bright white rings appeared on top of the golden flame. And the result was immediately announced by Eren, "Three-ringed gold fire affinity!"

Shouts of shock sounded in the arena as the crowd got to see the first gold talent of today. And it had unexpectedly come from the weakest clan in the city.

In the Narra clan's seating area, the clan head could be seen heaving a huge sigh of relief as an extremely passionate fatherly loving smile appeared on his face as he looked at the boy with complete joy.

The boy then slowly turned around to the sect elders who were currently looking at the boy with great interest, to be able to get a three-ringed gold affinity was an extremely rare talent. If this boy was admitted into the sect then they would have another elder-level powerhouse for the future generations.

"Next, Yaroglek Reyvadin" Migi blandly called out as he instructed Harlus to come down and take his seat again.

"Seven-ringed silver fire affinity!"

And just like that, another two hours would pass again before anyone important was called up. From all the children that had been called up, there were two that were at one ringed gold while most of them ranged from four-ringed silver to nine-ringed silver. The appearance of a gold ringed was indeed incredibly rare.

All these talents were a complete eye-opener for Leo as he realized how rare gold was and how impressive the talents of the silver ranked commoners were. Faces of jealousy, envy, and hate appeared on the clan children as they hatefully looked at the commoners who had almost the same talent as them. It was extremely degrading as these kids were spoilt from a young age and had grown to form hate and dissatisfaction for commoners.

'If Aurora comes on...." Leo gleefully thought as an evil smile appeared on his face as he pictured the expression on Wallace's face when he would find out. "But then..." Leo's face turned concerned and conflicted as he began to consider, "I have diamond affinities for all energy types. If I go out, it would bring a lot of trouble and unwanted attention to us. Is it just better for me to just not accept the test?" Leo whispered as a volume that only he could hear as he began intensely thinking, "But then... We would have the attention of the Iudex sect, it would benefit us extremely to join that sect. Hmmm..."

Just as Leo's mind was about to shut down from complexity and confusion, his attention was immediately caught by Migi who had declared:

"That does it for the Suno clan! Next, the Weaver clan! Wallace Weaver! Come up to the stage!"