The Master Ceremony

It's been two years, Atlas is officially 7 years old. As is tradition, he has to choose a master to learn from. When noble children turn 7, regardless of their rank, they go to the capitol to pledge loyalty to the royal family and receive a master. Atlas had arrived in the capitol nearly a month early as his father wished to have clothes tailored for him, as he had for his sisters.

Standing in the center of a giant white square stood a group of around 30 noble children. Above the grounds, several spectator seats were filled to the brim with nobles, wealthy merchants, and several other guests of various origin.

Atlas was relatively tall for his age, nearly 140 centimeters. As such, he stood out from the rest of the nobles beside him, earning several different gazes. The gazes of most though, were wonder from the mages in the audience. Atlas had reached the third circle around a month beforehand after mastering all the first two books in the series had to offer. During this ceremony, children cannot wear anything that would inhibit their visage, as that would make certain types of masters unable to determine who they want. His glowing green eyes were clear for all to see. Once one becomes a third circle mage, your eyes glow constantly. Though the glow was relatively dim compared to most mages in the audience, it was still clear. No other child there had eyes like his.

Atlas' status as both the physically and magically strongest of all noble children present made many envious. Many of them had no clue who this kid was, as Atlas' family was not the type to partake in balls unless necessary. Many thought he may be the son of a Duke, though this rumor was quickly quashed as no Duchies had children aged 7 this year. As the whispers reached their peak, a man walks in.

During this ceremony, masters of several different fields would be brought before the children. The masters first select who they wish to teach, and then the children choose who they wish to teach them. Some children would leave without a master, and some masters would leave without pupils. As was the case for Arch-Mage Orion. He was nearing his 150th year, and had yet to produce one successful pupil. He had only ever taken one, who he subsequently kicked out for unknown reasons. He doesn't have a particularly bad personality or anything, he just has very strict requirements. If the kid doesn't have a class equal to or greater than his, he refuses to teach them.

As master Orion is guided to the square, he feels the presence of an incredible class and starts to get excited. Several other masters also feel this as well. Once you reach masterhood in your field, you are able to detect others' classes to some extent. Atlas being the third circle also didn't go unnoticed as one particularly unsavory mage attempted to prod into his circle to view his class. Probing classes is very frowned upon in every corner of the world. Unless specifically given permission, of course.

The second his stream of mana left his body, master Orion felt it. He forcefully cut the connection the mage tried to make. Another reason people don't probe one another, is the risk it entails. You're essentially sending a part of your circle to attempt reading anothers. Meaning, if your connection is severed, you lose the energy you sent out permanently. In the worst cases, your entire consciousness can be ripped from your body. Luckily, master Orion isn't a soul mage, so the unlucky fellow just lost a circle. The man went from five circles to four, losing nearly 20 years of work.

As master Orion steps out of the doorway, he sees Atlas staring right at the man who tried to probe his class.

'Hah! The young man already knew, huh?'

Atlas looks back forward again, emotionlessly staring ahead. His towering height makes the girl and boy beside him fidget uncomfortably, the girl feels her heart racing slightly, and the boy feels a sense of inferiority. Though, they're both children, so they have no idea what either of these things mean.

As soon as the masters take their place in front of everyone, a section at the front of the plaza that was empty, suddenly has people filling it slowly. Each person who appears there is extravagantly dressed in blues, the most rare dye in the country. A young man, whom Atlas thinks to be 24, appears with a haughty expression as he eyes up all of the noble women in the audience, every gaze he sends at someone causes them to tremble with fear. The next to appear is a young woman, whom Atlas thinks to be 20, appears with unnaturally red hair. She too looks through the audience with a cold expression before looking down at Atlas and licking her lips. Atlas notices this and gives her a look seemingly saying 'I dare you, fiend'. This causes her to smile even wider and more creepy than ever. The last one to appear was a timid young boy, who Atlas doesn't believe could be older than him, had a little green creature following behind him. As he sat down on his chair, the creature sat down beside him and laid its head in his lap.

Atlas thought to himself, 'So, we've got the woman murderer, the blood fiend, and the goblin kin. Father said that the woman murderer was the best fit for the throne, but at least the goblin kin has compassion. I guess Ser Julien was right… This kingdom is juiced.'

Finally, the last person arrived. It was a man with sickly pale skin and thinning white hair. He had no facial hair, save for the scraps of unkempt fur that wasn't shaved off. As he reaches his seat, he inspects the seat before sitting down. As he does, a knight stands beside him and a mage stands at the other side. He laboriously lifts his hand and waves the workers to go on.

With his blessing, the worker turns around and addresses the children and masters,

"Alright everyone, the children are going to do a little demonstration of their strength. Starting from the left, Arnold Shauzer."

The young red-haired boy steps forward and points his hand towards a clay golem created by the staff. After a few seconds, a small fireball starts floating over to the golem at a steady pace. After around two seconds, it reaches the golem. As it impacts, it explodes violently. This explosion causes small pieces of the golem to spread around everywhere.

The young boy bows as he's finished. The staff and the masters raise their eyebrows and smile while clapping,

"Well done! And please tell me, did you have your class read before-hand? If so, what was the prediction of your class?"

The boy nods his head and states,

"I was told I have the great class of fire mage, sir!"

The masters all flinch slightly at this. Whispering could be heard amongst the crowd of people,

"Fire mage, huh?"

"The boy has a slight chance to become an Arch-mage…"

After that, the staff sends the boy back.

"Alright, next, Jenine Ilrae."

A girl with white hair steps forward with a set of daggers at her waist. She stops at the same distance as the boy before her, right before the black line etched into the plaza. She takes out her daggers and turns invisible with a slight popping noise. Within a second, she reappears behind the clay dummy and slashes its throat, causing it to act as though it had died.

As she bows, less murmuring than before can be heard, though that wasn't the girls fault. There simply weren't that many master assassins who actually show up to this.

"She's pretty good, she's nearly gotten rid of the popping sound. At such a young age too."

"She'll be incredible in the future."

As the girl is asked about her class, she emotionlessly says,

"Light Assassin."

This causes even the knights and wizards in the masters to gasp. The light assassin is a grand class that has affinity with light instead of darkness, making them incredible daytime assassins!

The line continued on, before reaching Atlas.