CH9 UNEXPECTED HAPPENINGS

When Alex woke up the next morning he headed to Sylvia's hut as quickly as he could in order to continue his training. When he got there he was disappointed There was a large lock on the door and Sylvia was nowhere to be found. He looked around and noticed that all the huts in the area were in a similar condition. Worried Alex quickly began searching the village from head to toe. To his relief he found everyone gathered in the village square with a somewhat excited look on their faces. They were all staring at a large white stone slab that was located at the southern end of the arena. Seeing everyone staring at the slab perked Alex's curiosity and hee too took a look at the slab. He was a bit shocked when he noticed the slab was completely blank. And could not help but think that something strange was going to happen soon. A few moments later the big stone tablet lit up and a single message was displayed in blood-red color. The words said, "BE PREPARED".The message was welcomed by cheers as everyone in the village started cheering much to the confusion of young Alex. Aanya seated just in front of the slab noticed his appearance and gestured him to come here.

Alex(Walking over to Aanya): Would you mind explaining what in the world is going on, What's with that message, and why is everyone so happy.

Aanya: The thing is our application to become an official village has been accepted and a representative from the town we are under will send an official to study inspect our Tribe to see if it is worthy of being a Village.

Alex: So why are you all so happy, I mean he's just coming to inspect us right so why all the cheers.

Aanya: Only the applications from Tribe that fit a certain requirement are accepted.Meaning there is an 80% chance of our application being approved.

Alex: Oh, On what basis are they going to approve our application.

Aanya: You ask Sylvia about that I need to make preparations.

Aanya called Sylvia over and tells her to answer any questions that Alex had. Sylvia sits down on a nearby patch of grass and called Alex over to answer his questions.

Sylvia: Ask any questions you have regarding the inspections.

Alex: On what is the tribe being judged.

Sylvia: The judging mainly relies on three categories technology, The overall skill of the mages in the village, and information or knowledge that the village possesses.

Alex: What are the advantages of becoming higher ranked.

Sylvia: Well being higher ranked means that we will get better access to medicine and technology from towns or cities.

Alex: Why can't we get those right now.

Sylvia: The kingdomes lock up the technology, Unless the place you stay upgrades itself we won't be able to get those technologies unless of course, we make them here ourselves.

Alex: Then why can't we do that.

Sylvia: every time a talented inventor appears the higher ranking establishments pay more money than he would get in his hometown to take him away. Just like towns and cities inventors and alchemists have ranks too.

Alex: Would you mind telling me what they are.

Sylvia: The ranking system for alchemists and inventors is divided into four parts.Lower tire, Middle tire, Upper tire, Royal tire, and divine tier. each division has three ranks lesser, greater, and elder. In society, these people command more respect than even the captain of the royal knights or the commander of the army. The only person with more power than them would be a great Emperor.

Alex: You mean that divine tier Inventor has more power than the king of our country.

Sylvia: Yes pretty much.

Alex: I have a lot more questions now.

Sylvia: You will have to put that on hold for now, The inspection committee representatives have come.

Alex Hearing her words looks up to see a big Griffin. The beast was the size of your average school bus. What surprised Alex more was the people who got of the Griffin. The three men had an extremely dominating presence and Alex felt like they could crush him simply by waving a hand in his direction. A sudden screech brought Alex back from the depths of his thoughts.Another Griffin descended from the sky as a young woman dressed completely in black dismounted and walked over the three men who bowed in respect.

Alex(to himself): Either that lady is extremely powerful or important for those three monsters to bow in front of her.

The woman in black along with her three companions walk over to the stage where they are treated by Aanya and her aids.

The woman in black(clears her throat and says): My name is Emilia and I am from the town of Brasilia. I and my team have come today to inspect your tribe to determine if it was worthy to be promoted to a village. We seek your cooperation Thank you.

Saying that Emilia turns back to her seat and sits down while Aanya and her team are in a heated discussion. After a few moments, all of them rise and they head over with the members of the committee to help them with their inspections.

It was late afternoon by the time the first inspection was complete and Alex noticed that Aanya looked relatively happy by the time she reached the central gathering spot.

Aanya:I am happy to say that we have passed the first round of inspections. For the second round, I want the best fire mages and Spatial mages to come forward for the magic test.

Hearing her words roughly two dozen mages came forward when Sylvia filtered them only 12 remained.

Aanya: These twelve shall represent us in the test of magic. make sure you cheer for them now.

Aanya's statement was received very well by the crowd as they began cheering. The twelve motivated followed Aanya to their testing site