2 - Talent Awakening

"It's finally time. It's finally the day for me to start my new life, my new adventure. It's finally time for me to awaken my talent and start my rise to the top."

A young boy with shining silver hair with a light blue tinge stood up out of bed, wiping the sleep out of his large, bright green eyes. The boy was Val, an orphan living in a small town called Vicla town. It was the young silver-haired boy's 10th birthday and the day he would awaken.

All children awaken on their 10th birthday, but not all children awaken equally. It is not known what one's talent is based on, often talents may be similar to their families but not always, and the ranking of the talent can vary drastically. There have been children of very powerful men and women with B-Rank, A-Rank, and even the legendary S-Rank who awoke to F-Rank, E-Rank, and D-Rank talents. Therefore no one knows exactly what their talent will be, so often children are very nervous, worried, and scared on their 10th birthday when they will awaken their talent because the results will determine the future for them and it is completely out of their control.

However, it was different for Val, he knew, he was sure that he would awaken to a strong talent, and begin his path to the top. He couldn't explain it, he just knew. He had always been confident and self-assured, but after what happened 6 months ago, his mindset changed. He knew no one would support him, no one cared, and no one had his back, so he had to look after himself. And to do so, he would have to awaken a powerful talent.

Talent awakening had several elements to it;

There are 2 types of talents, Magic Talents, and Martial Talents.

Then there is the grade of talent, which ranges from F-Rank being the lowest to S-rank being the highest.

Both types of talents allow you to learn skills within those talents. All skills are also ranked from F-Rank to S-Rank.

You can only learn skills up to your talent rank. However, you can increase your proficiency with skills with continuous use and improved understanding and comprehension of the skills. A skills comprehension is ranked from lv 1 (lowest) to lv 10 (highest, perfect understanding and comprehension). It is possible to learn a skill of a single grade higher than your talent if you have reached lv 10 proficiency of a similar skill at your grade peak, but this is very rare and only applicable to old veterans, as getting to proficiency lv 10 is unbelievably hard and most people will never reach it in their lifetime even whilst using the skill there entire life.

When you awaken your talent, you will also awaken 1 skill per talent, this skill can range between your talent rank and below, so even if you awaken a high-rank talent you may still only gain an F-rank skill.

Skills are hard to obtain, there are only three ways known to the public how to gain skill stones. The first is finding one in a monster, there is a very slight chance that a monster will have a skill stone in its body when it dies, however, you will not be able to tell what the skill is, though you will be able to tell the general rank of the skill based on the color (the deeper the color the higher the rank), size and the mana density (if you have the means to sense mana).

Depending on your lineage, there is a chance you will awaken a physique. Physiques are different from talent, physiques do not have a rank and there is a large variety of physiques. No one knows the exact number, but most people do not awaken a physique. However, it is possible to awaken a physique later in life and most people with physiques did not awaken them at the age of 10 but later on in their lives through finding special treasures. If you awaken a physique, you will also awaken a physique-specific skill, and you can gain skills by strengthening your physique with special items and potions, however, this is quite difficult because unless you awaken a physique that is well known or you are trained by someone with the same physique its almost impossible for you to know what will strengthen your physique.

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Val got himself ready and had a quick bite to eat for breakfast in the communal dining room. The dining room was full of about 25 kids all younger than 10 years old. The orphanage always had children moving in, and even though it was not uncommon for kids to be adopted, there were still new kids joining regularly as Vicla Town was close to a forest with dangerous beasts and monsters, and as it was just a small town it didn't have strong protection.

As Val ate his breakfast, none of the children wished him a happy birthday or good luck on his awakening. None of the other kids even spoke to him, and Val was fine with that, he didn't particularly want to speak to any of them either. As he got up to leave, a young girl who was nearly 9 years old, walked over.

"I would wish you luck in your awakening, but I know you'll awaken some amazing talent, so instead, I'll just say; I hope we can meet again as adventurers in the future."

The little girl was Anna, she was a sweet girl who was always pleasant to Val, she had nice brown hair down to her shoulders and big brown eyes, she trains hard with a bow and was quite a good shot. If there was one kid in the orphanage that Val liked it was her. But after what happened 6 months ago, he wasn't willing to open up to anyone or become close with anyone, due to fear of the pain that it could cause.

"Thanks, Anna, your right and I'll be looking forward to that in the future. I hope you can awaken a strong Bow talent and maybe a magic talent to go with it, when you awaken in a year."

After that Val left the dining room and started heading to the exit of the orphanage, leaving Anna teary-eyed but with a smile.

Right before leaving, Val was stopped, he was stopped by a kind-looking older lady, looking to be in her mid 40's. She had blonde hair and blue eyes, she looked like she would have been a beauty in her prime. She had a large bust and good curves. She was the head caretaker of the orphanage, Miss Selina.

"Val, today is the day, Happy 10th birthday, I wish you the best in your awakening and your future adventures. I know you won't be coming back after today, so I wish to tell you to take care of yourself and remember to stay as safe as possible."

The older lady said with a warm smile. She may not have been very close with Val but she had raised and looked after him his entire life, as she had found him on her doorstep when he was around a month old. Though she had never shown him unfair favoritism, she did like Val quite a bit. He was generally well-behaved and stuck to himself or with flair. The only problem she had with him was when he would fight with Nigel, and she knew that was Nigel's fault.

"Thank you, Miss Selina, I really appreciate that you took me in and raised me since I was a baby. But you are right, I won't be back for now, my adventure is about to begin."

Miss Selina didn't say anymore, she just bent down a little and give a big, warm hug to Val.

She said goodbye and watched as he left.

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Val made his way to the adventurers guild, where the awakening stone was. The way awakening worked, was that on or after your 10th birthday, you just had to touch one of these God-gifted awakening stones. Awakening stones were gifted to humans and other highly intelligent human-like people, such as elves, dwarfs, demons, and beastmen. It was the gods that gifted people the ability to awaken millennia ago. No one knows why, and no one dares to try and find out. The Gods are all powerful and no one is willing to risk pissing them off. There are many gods and demigods, people know this as it is possible to be blessed by a God or Demigod but it is very unlikely to happen, and if you somehow piss them off, the blessing can be taken away. Different blessings can provide different benefits and not all blessings from the same Gods or demigods are equal. It is all up to the almighty being to decide what benefits they wish to bestow.

As Val arrived at the adventurers guild in this small town, he took a deep breath to prepare himself for this monumental occasion. Once done psyching himself up, he opened the front door to the adventurers guild and took a step forward, entering the adventurers guild building.

Once he entered the building, Val took a quick sweep of the inside, noticing a few adventurers looking at available requests. As Vicla town was pretty small, the number of adventurers who operated from this guild branch was also quite low.

Val didn't take much notice of the adventurers and walked up to the counter. He was greeted by an average-looking, middle age woman with black hair and eyes.

"Hello young man, how can I help you?"

She smiled at the young silver-haired boy, who was very cute and would definitely be a handsome man when he was older.

"Hello ma'am, I would like to awaken."

Val promptly replied without returning the smile to the middle-aged woman, showing a stoic face to the woman, void of any emotion.

The woman found this quite strange as usually kids who are about to awaken are very nervous and scared, but the cute boy in front of her, who she guesses is a half elf-half human based on her experience as a guild employee. As a guild employee, she has met, interacted with, and spoken to a wide variety of people, and was experienced with all people except demons.

"Sure thing, I just need to know if you are already 10 years old?"

The middle-aged receptionist replied.

"Yes, today is my 10th birthday."

Even though Val is an orphan, he was aware of the day he was born as it was left on a note, which also said his name 'Val', the note was left with him on the doorstep of the orphanage. The current date was the 16th of August, of the year 36910. On this planet, named Azgard, there are 12 months, and each month consists of 4 weeks, which consist of 7 days, therefore there are 28 days per month and 336 days in a year.

"Okay, come with me to the awakening room in the back."

The middle-aged lady got up and headed to a room in the back, Val just nodded and followed.

They quickly made their way to the back. Val followed the middle-aged woman through a corridor, till they reached a door, she opened the door and moved to the side. Val walked past her, and as he did she spoke a few words.

"Best of luck kid. I will be waiting here for you, let me know once you are finished if you want to become an adventurer."

Val just nodded to her words, continuing into the room. The door was closed behind him.

Awakening was done by one's self. No one else was allowed inside the room. As awakening was a gift from the gods, the gods also made the rules. One had to be alone when awakening, it was also not allowed for anyone to forcefully make someone share their talent or skills. It is said in folklore and stories that people who have broken the God's words have been severely punished, with punishments including their talent destroyed, or even death. But no one is entirely sure because it hasn't happened in thousands of years.

Val looks around the room, the room is dimly lit, and just has a large rainbow glowing stone, the room was empty aside from the stone which was clearly the awakening stone.

The young silver-haired boy takes a deep breath, preparing himself for the future to come, and takes a step forward. He quickly reaches the stone and slowly places his hand on it.

In that instant, Val's sight is blinded by a swirl of light. Val feels so many things, he feels cold, he feels sharp, he feels like he's somewhere else, but he also feels more alive than ever before, but most importantly, he feels powerful.

Val shuts his eyes tightly, and the light leaves along with these feelings. A large amount of information becomes visible in his mental sights.