Ed didn't want to trust diablo completely, so he decided to hide certain facts.
Ed mulled over what ever he wanted to say and finally spoke " My name is Edward Farlorn, son of Edgar Farlorn who was the second son of Ferdinand Farlorn. The Farlorn family still lives it has reduced to a local clan, but by the way they treated my father and mother i am for sure that they will sooner or later perish from this earth. As for my technique it came from my father who chanced upon it in battlefield , other than it i have no secrets."
Diablo knew that the Farlorn family would diminish after Alfred's demise but it was secretly happy to have found a capable Farlorn member even though he had just lied through his teeth.
Diablo said " Young man i still don't about your personality so i will hold on for sometime before signing the contract, but until then i will provide my guidance to you if you ever need it."
Ed thought that was a decent deal so he agreed.
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Ed spent the rest of his days in the company of his mother and friends Rose, Tom and Tim, Ben.
Before two day prior to the talent hunt that will be held in the capital, transport arrangements were made from all corners of the kingdom to pick up the participants. This didn't include the nobility as they had a separate exam.
Ed said his farewell to his mother and his friends before boarding the spacious carriage pulled by a magical beast of labor. He had specifically asked aunt Laura to take care of his mother, but since their economic success they had little trouble.
Jenn and the others stood along the road until the carriage disappeared into the horizon. Jenn was crying but Laura and others comforted her saying that it was for Ed's betterment.
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This was Ed's first time travelling outside the village and so it was an exciting journey. The carriage stopped at various villages along the way and children of ages 6-8 flooded the carriage. There were lot of commoners who were sending their children to take part in the exams.
Ed was happy to see many promising children as he could feel many had faint aura of Mana in them, Ed made some new acquaintances today.
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After two days of travel the carriage had reached the Royal capital. All children were escorted to a large building were they were allowed to rest and freshen up before the exam.
Ed was for most part of the journey meditating, he was not cultivating as he had just had a breakthrough. Other children didn't disturb him.
Diablo had also yet to make contact with him through telepathy.
A guard came in to the building to escort the children to the capital's military barracks where the selection would take place. Ed woke from his meditation and followed along with the children. Along the way he could feel a slight killing intent directed towards his group, Ed opened his mind eye and started to sense the Mana signatures nearby, he could feel some significant Mana signatures hiddenly following their group. Ed made sure to remember their Mana signature so that he could keep an eye on them. His train of thoughts were disturbed by Diablo.
" Ed could you sense some people tailing our group, it seems that the noble families want to scout some talents and if some threat arises they want to make them disappear it seems." said Diablo.
Ed calmly nodded his head. Diablo knew Ed's power level as he had been analyzing Ed for the past few days. Ed had another powerful cultivation technique on par with the Titan's might, Diablo wondered how a brat from a neglected branch of a rundown family got his hands on such powerful techniques, but Diablo kept his thoughts to himself.
" I know that you are powerful enough to take care of these people but i would advise you against it and lay low for now. You see there were some people who were only behind Alfred in terms of power 800 years ago and they would have surely left behind powerful inheritances for their descendants so i would recommend you to raise your power further before taking action." said Diablo.
Ed was not an idiot so he knew that he was still not powerful enough to revolt. Ed's dreams were not confined to this kingdom and he had still long time to raise his power clandestinely and beat them nobles in their own game.
Ed suddenly asked Diablo " Hey wouldn't they have sensed my power if you could do the same?"
Diablo answered smugly " You don't have to worry about that my friend, the day you picked me up i had started to mask your Mana's signature so they will not see your humungus mana atleast without the help of similar treasures like me."
Ed for the first time felt Diablo was useful and so he thanked it. Diablo also felt good as he had never been thanked in his life as he was always a servant. He started to like the kid.
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Military barrack
Felix Tyder , the king of Saurd was flanked by his most trusted aides. They were standing on a rampart overlooking a crowd of 10000 children. Felix was unlike his predecessors, he was an able administrator he had put forth many revolutionary changes in the administration and made the kingdom stable. But his legislations were not favorable to the nobles of the country, there was a general friction between the nobles and the king. The nobles tried to get rid of the king by conspiring with one of his young concubines but their plans were defeated by Felix who initiated a bloody purge on whoever was involved. Unfortunately he couldn't get enough evidence against the main culprit and he had escaped his judgement. The nobles had become awfully quiet and this made Felix uncomfortable , so Felix started to clip the noble influence in the kingdom. He had planned to achieve this by diluting their power and the best way was to start from the root. He had opened the royal academy to the commoners and if he found good talent here he would use them to replace the unwanted, unyielding nobles. But Felix didn't know that most to the nobles had already bought off good saplings. They had planted the mole even before they became powerful.
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The children were standing silently as a senior official was instructing them about the process.
There was an large Magic array and a contraption that looked like a punching machine used to measure the strength of the punch. The children were instructed to first pass through the array and then punch the contraption with all their strength.
" Edward, block off all the mana that will be trying to enter inside you in the array and just punch the contraption with 1/10 of your might." said Diablo.
" how does the array work?" asked Ed, Diablo was surprised as Ed had asked the most relevant question than asking why.
" These children are not like you, they hadn't cultivated before so they could not absorb Mana naturally as of now. The array bypasses that condition and directly feeds Mana for 5 minutes straight into the participants body. Depending on the magical talent Mana will be absorbed by the body and the remaining will be sent out. More the absorption more the talent. The punching test is to measure the striking force of the muscles that had been nourished with the mana." explained Diablo.
Diablo further said " Since you are planning to lay low this is the best option as of now"
Ed said " My plan on coming to this very test is to learn about various techniques that were restricted from the common people"
Diablo replied " I will provide you the books and materials you just use the beast cores provided by them to cultivate, Alfred's personal collection of mage and knight techniques are within me "
Ed replied " Then why am i still here let us leave the capital and infiltrate the beast man territory and harvest cores and other stuff and you could guide me "
Diablo just replied " Trust me you will not regret taking my advice".
While Ed was conversing with Diablo his turn to get tested came and he came back to reality.
Ed walks up to the array and announced his name as other participants did.
"I am Edward Farlorn" he roared.