28 Getting my foundation grade, officially

A/N: Gimme Power Stones, people. And enjoy the story. :D

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I finally stopped staring at the statue and getting lost in my memory of the image of the goddess from the game.

'I wonder how she looks in real life.'

[Definitely beautiful, if I had to guess. She's a goddess. There are no ugly goddesses. At least not in this world.]

'True.'

As far as my experience went, Emma was better-looking in real life than in the game. Her features were even more refined as a 3-dimensional being. Maybe real-life girls were better than Eroge game girls after all. At least in this world that was based on an Eroge known for its beautiful art style and solely in terms of appearance. (A/N: Heretic! I'll smite you! ╰（‵□′）╯ Jk. I know it's a fact because I made it so.)

After everyone offered a simple prayer to the Goddess, the archbishop took us to the room where children got their foundation Tier and got them graded as well.

After that, I was made to do some simple procedures inside a large golden bronze magic circle, the color of the Goddess of light's magic. And then I experienced a strange sensation of my body being cuddled by light itself. Once it resided I felt…

Nothing.

Nothing because it didn't work. I didn't have my foundation established since I already did it on my own (with the help of a disgusting pill).

"Alright, you can come out of now. It is over."

The archbishop informed while holding a parchment on a pedestal that was located near the magic circle. I heeded his words and came out to the group of people nearby, watching over the whole process.

"It seemed to have gone well. Did you feel anything strange?"

The archbishop inquired.

"Hmm, I felt like I was cuddled by a warm light."

"Umu, that's right. That's the magic of the goddess giving you her blessing. She's kind and offers her blessing to everyone who prays to her."

'Wait, I was supposed to pray? Nobody told me that. Did I actually mess it up?'

"Is that all, father? Am I supposed to feel something else too?"

"No, that's pretty much it. Since you already have your foundation, you probably only felt the warm cuddle of her light. If you had no foundation, you would have noticed your core feeling strange and the violent mana inside getting compressed. That's all there is to it.

Truth be told, you can do the same anywhere else and get your foundation, but you can receive the goddesses' blessing only in a church. That's why everyone, even the Royalty comes to one of our churches to do it. It's a custom that is followed since long ago."

"I see."

He casually glossed over the fact that it was also because that way it was easier for the country to keep track of all the potential talents in their country. But of course, he wouldn't say that. And I was not gonna bring that up either.

On another note, he really meant it when he said the royalty and everyone came to their church (keyword: 'their'), as in the Goddess of Light's church. She was the patron goddess of this Empire and many other countries. You can say she was the most popular goddess on this continent. There were of course churches of other goddesses but this country and many others on the continent treated her as the no. 1 goddess.

As for the truth, the 13 gods didn't really have a hierarchy between them and were pretty much equals, but due to them getting part of their divinity from the prayers of mortals, the Goddess of Light was considered to be the strongest.

After confirming that I hadn't fucked anything up, I was relieved.

I was given a parchment that the priest held in his hand. On it, my foundation grade was written in bold letters.

Silver.

"Silver."

I read the paper out loud.

"Indeed. Now, do not be down thinking it isn't as good as your elder sister's. Both Silver and Gold are considered great grades. Getting either guarantees you can grow to be decently strong with training and experience."

I looked at my mother and sisters who seemed to take my stoic attitude as my disappointment. Perhaps they thought I was dissatisfied that I didn't get the best grade, that is, Gold like Emma.

Again, we don't consider Platinum here since it's just too rare and special of a grade. Most people, including nobility and royalty, treat Gold as the top grade in the list, followed by Silver, Copper, and so on till the lowest, tin. Platinum was so rare and special that most people either forgot it existed or they hid it from the world since it's too much of a cheat, or too dangerous according to them.

In the game, only a couple dozen people in the whole world had that grade. And that was including all other races, such as Elves, Beastkin, and even Dragons. Well, Dragons were still special on their own, but that's beside the point.

Anyway, it wasn't anything like that. Why would I be disappointed when I myself made it happen? In the first place, I had the best tier possible in this world, and in the second place, Silver allowed me the most freedom, even more than Gold, in my tasks. I chose Silver because Gold-graded people had to face too many annoying and troublesome things in the Academy from the teachers, other jealous/pious students, and nobility. And even from the evil side who wanted to target and eliminate all Gold grades from the academy so they don't become a hindrance to their motives in the future, along with other people of interest.

Oh boy, I haven't mentioned them once, but they're there and there were all kinds of evil, from evil individuals to evil organizations to evil beings, etc. The academy arc was where they slowly started showing their presence to the player, but I'm sure, this being the real world, they're already out there somewhere, planning their nefarious actions.

We'll certainly get to them in due time.

The Demon King wasn't the only threat to the world, nor was he actually the worst. The Final Boss of the DLCs, the hidden boss, Demon God was the bigger threat. The demon-worshipping cult was one of the major antagonist groups in the game and a real pain in the ass every time they showed themselves. Those motherfuckers.

It's all pretty cliché, I know. There's always that hidden boss you find after finishing the supposed final boss. That's how most such story-driven videogames work and Cryotopia was no exception. It's just that, them coming to life and becoming real in the world where I now lived made my stomach hurl. Okay, not the best analogy. But you get the point. They are a detestable bunch.

'I sure hope the MC is strong by the time the fiasco begins. I don't wanna have to deal with all that shit on my own. I'll beat him with his own damn Holy Sword if he slacked on his training.'

[LOL. XD]

I was going to live my life in relative peace and comfort while trying to seduce various women that interested me and grow stronger BECAUSE I wanted to not be threatened by others. Not because I wanted to save the world. That's what heroes do. And I wasn't one. It was for my and my loved ones'(present and future) survival.

But as it is with all Isekais, you can never run away from your fate and troublesome events. The same will happen to me as well. Even if I'm not really a protagonist or anything. But I would try to deal with them somehow. (A/N: Stop scratching the 4th wall, MC. I won't let you break it.)

Due to my prolonged silence, thanks to my monologuing to nobody, my family grew a bit nervous.

"Alex, sweetie, Silver is a very good grade. You don't need to feel like you're not good enough. Silver signifies that you have talent and potential. Your father was Silver grade too and look at him. He was able to reach such heights and accomplish so much with that. The same is the case with other people as well. And remember, we'll love you no matter your grade."

She put me in a hug and Alice too decided to console me.

'Yeah, I should open my mouth and let them know I'm fine.'

"It's nothing like that, mother. I'm satisfied with my grade. I know Silver is a very good grade. And I will work hard to grow stronger, to protect my family."

"Oh, you sweet boy! Mommy loves her sensible young man so much."

"I love you too, brother."

Alice too pitched in.

"Jeez, stop it. You're suffocating him, mother."

'No, I think I'm fine, Emma. I can hold my breath for a while longer. Let me enjoy my time here.'

Who needed breathing anyway? Breathing was overrated.

After Emma mentioned that, my mother let me go. Welp.

"Mm, I'm glad you're not feeling down because of it. But we were worried since you were so quiet."

"Ah, well, I was just thinking about magic. I'm really excited to finally learn how to use magic."

And that was not a lie. After 2 years of painfully waiting for my damn foundation to be built, I was truly excited to finally use this world's magic. So far, I had only seen glimpses of it here and there. For whatever reason, this household didn't seem to employ magic that much. The maids used traditional means rather than the cleansing spell, and my mother and Emma didn't really show much interest in it either.

Well, it was understandable for Emma since she sucked at it. I knew that from both my game's memory and from this life as well.

I had inquired about it with my family due to curiosity and I got a… strange response. They didn't seem to care that much about magic. My mother didn't feel any need to use it since she was always busy with something or the other from her work. But she knew how to use magic and had learned some spells.

Some of the maids knew how to use magic as well, but Laura, the head maid, didn't allow the use of any magic during cleaning. Something to do with traditions and stuff, as one of the maids I inquired told me. But they did show me some very basic spells when I requested. It was awesome.

I looked at the maid's hand as she conjured a ball of water and then threw it outside the window. It had no momentum or attack power. It was as if someone had thrown a glass of water from the upper floors. She apologized but refused to show me anything more powerful than that without the express permission of my mother, who obviously didn't give it to me.

In fact, the most interesting magic spell that I had seen since my reincarnation was the spells the head wizard used to analyze me those times. It was a strange feeling. Like I was hit by a warm current, but it somehow seeped through my body. Weird.

Anyway, now I was hyped to finally shoot some fireballs and shit. I had already been training my mana for the last few days after I healed up. I still stayed in my room, resting since my mother decided I needed at least a week-long rest. That worrywart. I do like how much she cares for me.

Using my memories, and knowledge from the game(it didn't really have much info on Magic. In the game, there was a whole different way to learn magic. But here it was different apparently.) and with Iris's guidance, I was able to manipulate and extract mana from within my core. In fact, I was able to do it quite easily thanks to my great adaptability, but I couldn't convert that mana into an elemental or non-elemental form. That required the knowledge of spell crafting, which I didn't have.

Iris suggested I should ask for spell books and magic fundamentals from my mother. How come there were no such books in the library, I wondered. Did they keep it hidden or something? Maybe.

But finally, it was time I dived into the subject of magic. Ah, but that'll have to wait for a day or so. I still had a birthday party to attend.

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