Chapter 15: Aptitude

Eric injected a little bit of his Qi into the crystal and it started glow. At first it was a very dim, faint yellow; but after a couple seconds, the color changed to yellow. After another moment, the color changed once again and it was now glowing dark yellow.

A cultivator's aptitude was divided into two classes: the high class and the low class. Shades of yellow, red and blue made up the low class; while the high class consisted of the various shades of gold, crimson and azure.

Having even a single aptitude of the high class would be enough to call someone highly gifted in cultivation, while having two or more high class aptitudes was a trait of a true genius.

At this moment, Eric's talent in the soul cultivation was just at the threshold of the higher class; if it advanced one more time, his future would be several times better than if it were to stop where it currently was.

Both Eric and his parents were sincerely hoping and praying to the gods of luck that the color would change once again. The tension in the situation had started to seriously rise. All this happened in a fraction of a second as they waited for the crystal to update its color.

For Eric and especially, his dad, thinking so much in such a miniscule time period was not a big deal as they were cultivators.

With the family's hopes at stake, the crystal reacted; its color had changed to light gold!

Blake and Jane breathed a sigh of relief as if they had avoided some sort of disaster and Eric was also pleased with the result.

'Even if it stops here, at least it's going to be a high class aptitude. Even if I'm not a peerless genius, I will use my determination and cheats: the Scam System, to become the strongest.' Eric was satisfied, nonetheless; but he still expected to get a slightly better result.

His initial speed of sensing and absorbing Qi for the first time was extremely fast; to him that could only mean that he had an extremely high level of aptitude for soul cultivation.

He looked at the crystal with hopeful eyes.

The crystal; which only Eric was paying attention to, as his parents were still busy celebrating, changed its color once again.

It was now gold in color and both of Eric's parents started at it in awe. They were already content with light gold, but this was even better.

This time, even Eric was smiling at the crystal. Having a gold aptitude for soul cultivation was very rare. Eric didn't really mind; nor did he expect the crystal to reach the final level, so decided to take his eyes off the gold colored crystal in his hand.

Eric was content, but the crystal was not. As he was about to divert his attention to the other two aptitude crystals, he saw the gold crystal in his hand change colors one final time.

It started radiating golden light from itself all over the living room of his house.

The sight he saw was simply splendid. For the entire time period the crystal remained that dazzling shade of gold, Eric was mesmerized by it and could not take his eyes off it. After looking at the crystal for a couple more seconds, he saw it revert back to its original, translucent state.

Eric, who had just realized that he had the highest aptitude possible for the cultivation of the soul was barely able to keep his excitement contained within himself.

'Holy fuck! I am definitely a protagonist!' Eric's thoughts were simple, but contained a whole lot of excitement to them.

On the other hand, Blake did not even care in the slightest to keep his thoughts to himself.

"RADIANT GOLD APTITUDE!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! TODAY, A PEERLESS GENIUS HAS BEEN BORN, AND HE IS MY SON!!!" he bellowed loudly.

His scream emanated a strong pressure akin to the roar of a mighty dragon. Strong cultivators at Blake's level were able to exert pressure even by doing something as simple as shouting out of happiness.

Jane also didn't contain her emotions; but her display was a bit tamer than her husband's. Her eyes started to well up with tears of joy and she wore an extremely bright smile on her face.

Even though they had completely opposite types of reactions, the basic sentiment they showed was the same: pride. They looked at their son with a look of pride in their eyes; having the highest level aptitude in any path of cultivation was a feat that on average occurred once every couple centuries. If their son had such a level of talent, it was only natural for them to be proud of him.

'Come to think about it, with such a fast initial cultivation speed along with an equally exceptional time taken to first comprehend the cultivation method and successfully absorb qi; it only makes sense to have a Radiant Gold aptitude, right?

According to my memories, the text on the method and what my parents told me; my speed was unheard of in the entire history of the kingdom. With such a speed of cultivation, the highest possible aptitude of soul cultivation should be a given.' Eric analyzed the situation in his head.

Even if this was an almost obvious outcome in hindsight, it was still shocking for the family. The sheer rarity and importance of the highest level of aptitude in a type of cultivation was too much for them to take in.

After a minute or two of Eric trying to calm his parents down, he was ready to test the other two crystals.

The tension this time, however, wasn't nearly the same as the first time. They had already witnessed him achieving the highest possible aptitude and wouldn't really be surprised by anything that they could possibly witness.

Eric picked up the red crystal and injected his Qi into it. It started to slowly change colors and eventually came to a stop at the Crimson color. His aptitude for cultivating the body was also very high and Eric was way more than satisfied as he saw this.

He finally tested the last crystal: the blue crystal for the cultivation of the mind. The final crystal changed colors and stopped at the Light Azure shade. It was the worst of his three aptitudes, but it was still a high tier aptitude, nonetheless.

The results filled Eric with delight, as all three of his aptitudes were high grade. The collective talent in all the three paths that he possessed would be considered unrivaled in at least a thousand years.

After testing his aptitude for all three paths of cultivation, Eric received a notification from the system and once his parents weren't focused on him, he checked his profile.

[Profile

Personal Information

Name: Eric Tyler

Age: 11

Date of Birth: October 27

Cultivation

Soul: Spirit Apprentice Realm 2nd Layer

Body: Not a cultivator

Mind: Not a cultivator

Aptitude

Soul: Radiant Gold

Body: Crimson

Mind: Light Azure]

Sure enough, it had added his aptitudes in his profile, just like it had done for Blake.