As those words came out the old man choked on his saliva and started to have a coughing fit.
"Cough! Cough! are you stupid? How can becoming a Chosen be as simple as you asking him! It's him who chooses you dumb kid! I'm sorry master he is too young and stupid ill have a talk with him later!" The old man shouted as he smacked Jino on the back of the head.
Looking up from the scroll the attractive man turned his deep purple eyes towards the two which gave them both goosebumps. Edyta had taught him how to check for talent and he actually wanted to give it a try so why not do it now? He raised his hand to stop the old man's anger before he had a sudden heart attack.
"It's fine, I don't mind it. Also call me young master from now on and make sure to let the villagers know that as well. And you, come here" He said pointing his finger at Jino.
The two become nervous but Jino moved quickly not wanting to upset the powerful divine and stood by his side.
"Give me your hand" He said as he extended his open hand forward.
Jino was confused but he quickly put his hand inside the young man's hand. He was surprised to find how pale and soft it was which was completely different from all the other men in the village that constantly worked with tools the whole day, it could even be easily mistaken for a girl's hand.
Malik's left eye twitched slightly as he noticed what Jino was thinking but he chose to ignore it.
"It might hurt a bit but just hold on." he said as he inserted the pure darkness element slowly into Jino's body as gently as he could.
Jino could see a darkness moving from Malik's girly hand into his own from under their skin. He was scared but he didn't dare move.
As the darkness element moved into his body the black haired man closed his eyes in concentration as he quietly watched what was happening in the kid's body with his own mana.
The darkness element was in a strange state in between liquid and gas and when it made its way to the center of Jino's body it started to slowly spread out. It was only when his body became full and started to reject the darkness element did he stop.
On the outside Jino and the village head were frozen in fear. Jino had black tendril like things moving around inside his skin all over his body even behind his eyes it was extremely terrifying but they didn't dare make a peep. If he wanted to kill them all there was no need to go through all this trouble so they could only trust him. Also Jino didn't seem to be in pain at all so it should be okay right?
The elements could be converted passively into mana by their bodies but how much it could do at once showed how talented you are with said element. Inside Jino's body he found that the amount of darkness element was only enough to fill a tenth of his body.
Seeing this he shook his head in disappointment. Someone with just average talent would be able to fill at least around half their body with the element. An average talent's training speed will be at half the speed which they could train their life force, and half of that would be 25% the speed and so on. So Jino would have to train five times as normal just to keep up with an average talented Chosen.
But of course darkness wasn't the only element Malik had so after waiting around 5 min for the darkness element to dissipate from Jino's body he started to inject the element of gravity as well however a few minutes later he looked surprised at the even smaller amount of element sitting in the kids body. 'How can someone be so untalented??!"
There was one last thing he could try though. Using his finger he poked the little sand crab asleep on the side of the table gently until she opened her eyes and looked at him in confusion. Using his mana he told her to try checking the boy's talent with her earth element.
Nodding her head the little crab scuttled to his side and put up her claw towards him. Jino only looked confused at the little sand crab not knowing what she wanted. The little crab stomped on the table in anger and pointed her small claw towards his hand. It was only then that he understood and put his hand opened next to the table where she put her small claw on his hand.
Doing the same thing Malik did she inserted the earth element into him though she wasn't as gentle making jino feel a bit of pain but it was nothing he couldn't handle. A minute later she took back her little claw, turned her head to him and shook it slightly before going back to her place and plopping down on the table going back to sleep.
Jino could already tell there probably wasn't going to be good news but he still quietly waited for the young divine to speak.
"I'm sorry but you don't have any talent with the elements we have so it isn't possible to make you a Chosen, it will simply be a waste of time." He said giving it to him straight, there was no point to coddle him. Also he was a divine being, Why should he coddle the kid? That would affect his image!
Jino looked as if his whole world crashed as he looked down at his feet and clenching his fists tightly. It looked like he was going to cry. Seeing this the village head wanted to console him but just as he opened his mouth to say something the kid looked up and spoke out.
"I'm willing to work harder than everyone else! Please! If I'm half as talented I'll work twice as hard! If I'm a quarter as talented I'll work 4 times as hard please just give me a chance!" He said desperately looking deep into the purple eyes of the powerful divine sitting at the end of the table. The old man wanted to say something but he decided to hold back and just sighed quietly.
Honestly he already knew why the kid was so desperate for strength when he had read his mind. His mother had been killed by beasts before and this kid swore he was going to work hard to never let something like this happen again, and he had indeed been working extremely hard you could see by the amount of mana he had in his body. The kid was already a peak mortal about to break into a first level warrior at his age which was already very surprising since the resources in this village were extremely limited.
He truly felt bad for him but he has limited spots for chosen wouldn't it be a waste to use it on someone so untalented ? Even if he became stronger the amount of Element he could even hold in his body at once would be a fraction as anyone else. The maximum amount of element a person can hold is multiplied by three after each breakthrough which means not only would he have slower breakthroughs but the difference between the amount of element he could hold in his body to someone more talented would only grow bigger. And that's not counting the true geniuses that did not follow common sense!
He did feel really bad for him though and the kid had this main character look in his eyes of 'I won't give up!' that made it hard for him to say no, fortunately he knew exactly what he should do.
"Fine I'll give you a chance, since you aren't talented in any of the elements you have to at least be a talented warrior or else there is no point. I will be creating the Chosen in one month from now. If you can break through to second level Warrior by then I'll make you one of my chosen." He said with a slight smile on his face.
Hearing that the old man on the back sighed again and shook his head quietly. Even Jino seemed to realize how hard it was to do something like that, his father was over 30 years old and even while constantly hunting and training he has only been able to reach mid second level warrior.
But how can he just give up? "Second level warrior? No problem! Just make sure to keep my spot open! Young master, grandfather, I'll go train now excuse me!" He said with determination before bowing and quickly running out of the building.
The old man looked at the kid's back before letting out a big sigh.
"Thank you for not denying him outright. At least he will still have something to work towards." The old man spoke with helplessness in his voice.
Hearing the old man, Malik nodded his head before turning his head back down to continue working on the scroll once again.
An hour later people started to showing up for the meeting. It was finally time to decide on the village's future!