Golden Mysterious Pattern

However, seeing the self-righteous expression, Aur was pretty sure the blonde-haired boy's body wasn't taken over by the other entity right now.

"Yes," the golden-haired boy walked to the room and started to walk in at a steady pace.

"I wonder how many steps he can take," Aur thought as he curiously observed.

"Hey, how many steps do you think I will take?"

"Zero," a cold voice rang in the head of William, which made him chuckle as he focused ahead.

Aur's eyes widened when he saw William effortlessly cross the twenty-five steps, officially making him a Middle-grade talent.

The leader nodded his head as he had a satisfied expression on his face. It was very rare for people with his talent to show up in a century, so having more middle-grade talent wasn't bad, and this batch already has ten. If we count William, it would be eleven.

"Let's see how many more steps he can take," the man said as he watched William with interest in his eyes. After all, middle-grade talent were basically the elders of the village with little effort and resources, even Aur, who was at the bottom tier still had a similar possibility. 

There was only one man who reached the peak tier in middle-grade talent, the third eldest child, except that all the others were all average in third-grade talent.

However, as the village leader watched, his eyes widened as he saw William effortlessly take forty steps. He stood up from his seat with excitement.

"Kid, don't disappoint me," the village leader said as he carefully looked at William, as if piercing his soul.

The village elders' eyes lit up as well, seeing this. However, they were all still silent, each having different thoughts in their heads.

"Fifty," the village leader said in a loud voice with excitement, his eyes lighting up even more as he walked almost towards the room with pure excitement.

"We finally have a worthy successor to become a village head," he said as he quickly regained his demeanor. Although he was a relaxed man, it didn't mean he didn't have a reputation.

He returned to his seat as he continued to wait.

"What is this kid's name, Sixth Elder?" the man asked one of the individuals who was wearing glasses with a lab coat.

The elder had a contemplative expression as he took out a paper that listed everything about the kids who were participating here.

"Sir, his name is Williams. He seems to be…"

"Say it."

"He seems to be the illegitimate child of one of the landlords."

"Who?" the village leader had a contemplative expression.

"Steele."

Instantly, the elders' eyes widened, and they began to discuss among themselves.

"That Steele family?"

"Their power is terrifying. Although they don't have third-tier mages, they have at least ten second-tier mages, with rumours suggesting that they have connections to the royal family in the capital. Why is this kid even here for the awakening? Don't they have their own awakening chamber?"

The village leader frowned when he heard the murmurs, and his expression became cold. "The Steele family is quite difficult to deal with; however, they can't take the gem away from us. I will personally talk to the family."

Hearing the cold voice of the leader, everyone became silent, nodding their heads.

"I took seventy steps; let's see how many steps he can take…" A smile appeared on the village leader's face as he sat back in his seat, observing William take step by step.

….

"See, old thing? I already took fifty steps; that means I am a higher-grade talent…" William said to himself with excitement in his tone.

The voice was silent, hearing nothing. William just snickered.

As he walked further and further, finally stopping at eighty steps, a terrifying pressure descended on him, causing him to kneel to the ground.

"Looks like this is my limit…" William sighed as the mist gently gathered and entered inside his body before traveling to his brain.

However, the strange thing was, as the mental space was being constructed, the strange golden symbol started appearing with it, making the pitch-black mental space lit up with a golden light.

William's eyes widened when he saw the golden text.

"Is this from the golden text that I got from that paper?" The golden patterns were in a strange arrangement that William couldn't understand even a single bit.

However, his eyes narrowed as he carefully looked at the bright text.

There seemed to be a strange shadow of a man being chained reflected inside the golden text.

William rubbed his eyes and looked at it again. The shadow was still there.

"Is that you?"

William said in a loud voice, but no reply came, which made him frown.

"Fine if you don't want to talk about it," he said as he was about to exit.

"Yeah, it is me."

A deep male voice rang in his ears, which made William pause.

"So you are trapped in this golden text?"

William waited patiently; however, no reply came, which made him shrug his shoulder, and he returned back to the real world.

"If you don't want to talk about it, why should I ask?" he thought to himself.

As William returned back to the waiting place, instantly, all the children's eyes lit up. However, most were hesitant to even talk to William, with only the middle-grade talent walking up to him as they tried to socialise with him.

William's expression turned cold as he said, "Get lost," with an annoyed tone.

"William…"

"I said get lost."

The children who wanted to socialize with William came back embarrassed.

"Aur, why didn't you go?" Leo asked with some surprise.

"I am just barely at the lower tier of the middle-grade mage. I want to go, but I am not worthy." Aur simply said with a smile on his face as he watched William be in an isolated place with an arrogant expression.

"Well, if you say so." Leo could only helplessly shake his head as he consoled Aur.

The awakening finished relatively quickly after William's turn, although one of the kids reached forty-nine steps and was just a nick away from reaching the high-grade talent. But under the bright light of William's talent, he was nothing but a small pebble put aside in the radiant light of William.