As I entered the chamber my mind was racing. What kind of ability would I awaken? I've researched all the possibilities of course. Humans are innately good at utilizing tools, so almost everyone finds themselves skilled at using some kind of weapon like a sword, staff, hammer, etc... Everyone is attuned to an element of some sort, just everyone uses it differently. There are three main categories of cultivators, dantian, heartforce, and mindspace which is decided at birth.
Almost everyone stores their energy in their dantian. Dantian cultivator's tend to advance in strength faster than any others, and have more energy than other types of cultivators. Most dantian cultivator's become tool cultivators focusing on a weapon to the point that they become one with it. Almost 90% of cultivators fall into this category.
Heartforce cultivators are notoriously difficult to kill. These cultivators usually travel one of two paths. The elementalists take the path of transforming their entire bodies into a single element, controlling it as their main weapon. Air elementalist's are almost impossible to kill. While body cultivator's use their energy and element to continuously refine their bodies, eventually creating a type of energy called body force. These cultivator's heal incredibly quickly, while also being extremely difficult to hurt. About 9% of cultivators open their heartforce.
The least common of all are those who open their mindspace. These cultivators are both the easiest and most difficult to deal with. Low level mindspace cultivators are weaker than any other kind, while high level mindspace cultivators are almost unequaled. With every increase in level, their mental faculties increase at an exponential rate. So, almost all high level mindspace cultivators are proficient if not masters in the art of formations, alchemy, or enchanting. Sometimes all of the above. Also, after a certain point mindspace cultivators learn telekinesis which is the most basic level of mindforce. The most important thing to remember about mindspace cultivators is they gain the special ability to use energy that isn't bound to someone else's will. Basically, magic. Only 1-2% of cultivators open their mindspace.
Now, some say that extremely high level cultivators reach a certain point where they gain the option to open another energy vessel. However, most don't as you have to retrain from the beginning when you do so. Some rumors say that without opening all vessels you can never reach immortality, but contemplating that is for a much later date.
After entering the chamber, an arrow points to the middle of a circle carved into the ground. On the walls, millions of markings flowed together making images of elemental forces. 'Mostly likely high level formations' I thought while walking to the circle.
A sign on the wall in front of me says, "Sit down in the middle of the circle. Find as comfortable a position as possible. Expect to feel some minor as we tested your bodies constitution and innate affinities, then a lot of pain as I was forcefully awakened." Now, I'm not much of a fan of pain (understatement), but I'd be willing to go through far worse to be able to cultivate.
After sitting down, I had a moment to think, what type of cultivator do I want to be? Hmm... OWWW!!!!!! I screamed in pain as the "minor" amount of pain flashed through me. At first, I felt cold, then wet, then hot, then I glowed a bright light, then absolute darkness covered me, a whipping wind tore through me cutting me to the bone, then I glowed again as I was electrocuted. "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Then, I doubled over as a punch hit me in my gut. My heart stopped for a moment as something grabbed it. Finally, I fell unconscious as something in my mind broke...
I woke up in a room I'd never been in before. Several nice couches surrounded a TV, a small kitchen in the far corner. Extra cots covered the floor, most of them empty. Sitting up, I grabbed my head in pain. Something felt... wrong with it. Like someone had scooped a hole out of my forehead. Slowly, the pain receded into a dull throb from a full on migraine. Standing up shakily, I looked around to find Beth, Connor, Rick, and a few others all passed out on the other side of the couch I was laying on. "Minor pain my ass!" I cursed
Observing the room, I saw a giant feast laid out with a sign on it. "Eat, then head back to the anatomy lab"
'I can get on board with that!' I thought as I rushed over to eat more food than I ever had before. At some point the others joined me, but I was too hungry to care. By the time I sat back and burped for a good 30 seconds, my belly distended slightly, I realized I had a stack of plates more than a foot high. Taking a moment to count them, I'd eaten 28 full plates of food in one sitting. "Dear god!"
I heard snickering, and turned to see Beth whipping her mouth with a napkin, an even larger pile of plates sitting in front of her. "I think we may need to buy you new clothes!" I laughed as I saw the always skinny and athletic Beth with her stomach sticking out, a food baby growing in her.
"Ignorant!" She scolded me while scowling, "It's a side affect to awakening, my mom said she ate two whole cows the first time after opening her dantian! Think I beat her?"
It wasn't long until all of us in the room where talking and joking in good cheer. The pain of the test left forgotten as the euphoria hit us. You have to understand, less than 2% of the world is capable of cultivating. Even in an elite academy like Gifted, the vast majority of it's alumnus didn't manage to awaken despite training for decades. Yet, after a few hours all of us could now cultivate! Not only that, but now that my hunger had been sated I started to notice differences. I could see and hear better, my thoughts seemed to move faster. Almost at the speed of lightning.
*Cough* The noise in the room lessened by at least half at the first cough. Knowing it could only be the Principal, the rest of us shut up real fast turning to look at him. "Congratulations! You 25 were the only group in the entire senior class to make it through the gravity test. As such, not only will each of you receive the highest grade implant you can handle currently, you'll also be moved into a new class starting Monday." Then, he turned to look out the window which showed a blizzard of historic proportions coming down, "Or whenever they get the roads open again. Now hurry, we need to get you all set up so we can send you home before it's too late." Waving for us to follow him, we all waddled behind him our bellies sticking out. The good cheer from before replaced with seriousness.
After we were back in the anatomy lab, we noticed that the metal testing chambers had disappeared. In it's place were 20 gleaming tubes with operators standing around them. Before we could do more than glance around, the principal was speaking again. "Now, as you all should know by now the implants are permanent. What you shouldn't know is that they can be upgraded. By that, I mean that except for the absolute base model implant, as you get stronger more features are able to unlocked. In some cases, through the use of formations the implants themselves can be expanded to allow for greater capabilities. There are different models available dependent on your elemental affinities, which energy vessel you've unlocked, and your future plans for enhancing your strength. Now, luckily for you the school is footing the bill for you're implants today. Which is great, because the base model costs nearly $5,000. More advanced models start at $20,000 and go up from there."
'Holy crap, thank god I didn't give up. Otherwise there's no way I'd be able to afford even the base model'
"For those of you worried about your schoolmates, don't. The government decided to offer students loans for these similar to college loans, and I think after you try them you'll understand that they're well worth it. Now, we don't have much time so come here to receive the results of your tests and quickly decide what implant you want. If you want advice I'm available to help you decide."
By the time I managed to grab my results, someone had already run off to one of the tubes to get his implant. I didn't rush though, this was something that'd effect me for the rest of my life. Now, lets see...
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Sam Hughes - Awakening Results
Race: Human
Age: 17 years and 6 months
Height: 5'11"
Weight: 168 lbs.
Constitution: Normal - High fitness levels and decent flexibility.
Elemental Affinities: Light (Low) Darkness (None) Water (None) Fire (None) Earth (None) Air (Extreme) Lightning (High)
Special Affinities: N/A
Energy Vessel: Mindscape level 1
Damage: Minimal, completely repaired (was near awakening before test no permanent harm done)
Suggested Implant: Blue series tri-elemental (Lightning, Air, and Light) with maximum processing speed.
Reason for suggestion: Normally, I'd only advise students to pursue medium or higher level elemental affinities. However, Mindscape energy vessels tend to find increasing elemental affinities easier and the healing abilities of the light attribute are out of this world. Also, whatever implant you get make sure to get maximum processing power. Mindscape users are able to use implants to their maximum potential, so the more processing power the better.
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'Damn, I really wanted to be an elemental. Oh well, I've always been interested in formations and I even got an extreme level affinity to wind!'
I was about to run to one of the open implant chambers, but noticed that Rick was staring at his paper as if it'd bit him. Unable to stop myself, I ripped it from his hands and read.
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Richard Pattington - Awakening results
Race: Human
Age: 17 years and 4 months
Weight: 185 lbs.
Constitution: Holy - Blessed during baptism by ************ Extremely high endurance, regenerative abilities increased.
Elemental Affinities: Light (Max) Dark (Unable) Water (None) Fire (Medium) Earth (None) Air (None) Lightning (Low)
Special Affinities: Holy (Medium)
Energy Vessel: Heartforce
Damage: Extreme - completely repaired (due to unforeseen interaction of holy element with darkness element extreme damage was done to body. Due to max level attribute to light and holy body constitution no permanent damage done. Repaired before opening of heartforce completed.
Suggested Implant: Holy Knight series
Reason for suggestion: Holy attribute is extremely rare, found only in those a higher power has deemed worthy. As for who that higher power is... even I don't know. In cases like yours there's only two options for a beginner implant. Priest and Holy Knight. Given that you're a heartforce cultivator with incredible endurance and regenerative powers you'd have to be insane not to attempt to become a Holy Knight.
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After reading, I turned to look at Rick and we just stared at each other unable to believe it. We stood like that until Beth suddenly appeared and grabbed both our results from our hands while handing me both her and Connor's results. Shaken from my stupor, my grin exploded. "I always knew you were a goody two-shoes."
Beth couldn't stop laughing as Rick instantly put me in a head lock while yelling, "Take it back! Take it back!" We probably would've continued like that for a while if we didn't all notice the principal glaring at us...
After the hilarity had passed, Rick and I looked over Beth and Connor's results.
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Elizabeth George - Awakening Results
Race: Human
Age: 17 years 1 month
Height: 5'2"
Weight: Covered in white out with "None of your business written over it"
Constitution - Normal (Extreme level of physical fitness and flexibility)
Elemental Affinities: Light (None) Dark (None) Water (None) Fire (Medium) Earth (High) Air (None) Lightning (None)
Special Affinities: N/A
Energy Vessel: Heartforce
Damage: Minimal - fully repaired (partially awakened before test no permanent damage done)
Suggested Implant: Red series dual affinity implant (Fire and Earth) with high level processing power; or Green series single affinity (earth) implant with max processing power
Reason for Suggestions: Elementalists are required to begin with a minimum of High level affinities. While dual elementalists do exist, they are extremely rare and require a minimum of Extreme level affinities in both elements in order for the elementalist to blend them together. Elementalists require max processing power, while body cultivators only require medium processing but I reccomend getting high level processing power. If you want max level, you'll have to pay for the upgrade yourself as it's more than I recommend. If you want to pursue body cultivation chose the red dual affinity implant, if you want to choose elmentalism choose the green single affinity implant
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Connor Davis - Awakening Results
Race: Human
Age: 17 years 8 months
Height: 6'1"
Weigh: 175 lbs.
Constitution: Normal (Above average levels of physical fitness and flexibility)
Elemental Affinities: Light (None) Dark (Medium) Water (None) Fire (None) Earth (None) Air (None) Lightning (Low)
Special Affinities: Metal (High)
Energy Vessel: Dantian
Damage: Moderate - requires healing (Mrs. Harmon took care of it) (No permanent damage if healed within 24 hours)
Suggested Implant: White series single affinity (dark) with special affinity modification (metal) with max level processing power
Reason for Suggested Implant: Dark and metal affinities for obvious reason, max level processing power suggested due to special affinity. Normally, Dantian cultivators require medium level at minimum and we suggest high.
Extra Suggestion: Metal Affinity cultivators are incredible sword masters and marksman. If you have even a basic level affinity with either swords or guns, pursue it to the peak!
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