Essence is the heart and breath of the universe, it's the fuel for every change that occurred, is occurring and will occur in the future.
A formless source of nearly endless energy that is capable of anything given the right circumstances.
And this cube right here was a tool used to test a person's attributes and compatibility with each of the elements.
This generally represented a person's talent, it would show how easily he can digest a material of such element and how much of that essence would truly be put to use.
Thus this test was of immense importance when choosing new students and paladins to groom, since a low fire attribute talent disciple for example, if he ingests the same medicine as a high class one ,he would be unable to utilise a tenth of the effectiveness of said medicine than the later would.
It was also of importance when determining what path of mystic training a paladin should choose, what kind of mystic art he would train , and even what weapon to utilise since most weapons are far more effective for some attributes compared to others.
And thus, Aric stood facing the crystal tool with his hand laying on top of it , and his heart beating fast.
The way this cube functioned was that in it's base settled a small amount of different elemental energies in each section, appearing like a liquid through the use of special techniques and runes.
A candidate would lay they're Hand on the cube, and feel the elemental forces and start pulling at the essence within.
The cube is made in a way that makes it harder to pull at the essence the higher it goes, and how high the tester can make the essence reach will represent how much control he has on that said element.
So Aric put his hand on top of the cube and let his mind wonder within its astral structure.
It was hard to localize the essence within the cube, it would seem like an easy concept, clearly it's at the bottom of it, but for essence such dimensional concepts don't apply.
Essence exists in a different plan of reality, it wasn't material in existence, only its effects that were physical and sensual.
Contact with essense is an act done through the soul and it's view on the astral realm through the great filter of the body.
To feel the essence within the cube, usually it would take Aric several minutes to do so, which was considered relatively good for a mortal, but nothing extraordinary at all.
How fast you can spot essence was also a kind of talent, it represented how pure and powerful one's spirit was, and it was of great importance when achieving breakthroughs and studying mystic arts.
But at the end of the day, spiritual power still stands secondary to your elemental talent, in the orthodox schools that will always be the case.
As for Aric, he was feeling kind of weird this time, the moment he laid his eyes on the crystal cube, it felt like he could see the liquid essence within it so clearly and distinct , it felt like he could make out every detail of the essence, every change and move it made and every breath and clash they had within themselves.
He put his arm over the cube and he felt it's cold texture and smooth surface, and he immediately dived into the cube's inter structure, and he felt like the most bizarre feeling took over him.
He felt like he was urged and guided to the essence by an instinct of unknown origin, like a shark smelling the blood of a fish miles away in the open ocean, he dived deeper and deeper into the cube and in just a couple of breaths, he found himself clinging around all six of the liquid essences within the crystal cube.
The headmaster standing beside him was shocked, she watched as the liquid started to slowly pulse within the cube in moments after Aric laid his hand on the cube.
It wasn't like she've never witnessed an attendee handling the essence within the trail in a short period of time, although neglected, soul talent was still a valuable asset at times to the ancestral schools, and in the vast lands of the Damar empire, countless talents rose and fell like stars,a lot of which were blessed of body and spirit.
But even among all the talent assessments that she witnessed, nobody did it as exaggerated as this boy did, it took him three seconds to locate the essence, that was five times the existing record within the entire empire this year , it was terrifying!
" Was the royal assessment wrong? Is this kid a divine soul talent? ...or was he just hiding his true talent all along? " the headmaster silently contemplated, it would be a great occasion for a soul talent to be born within the royal family, and he'd probably be groomed with the best of resources and tools, but if this said talent was a bastard, then he would be a variable that none of the existing branches of the royal family want alive, and he would most likely die at a much younger age than the Aric standing before her.
The headmaster looked at the young, brown haired, handsome boy standing there and thought of how fesanating it was that he kept his talent a secret all along for the sake of his survival.
Headmaster Laince knew of Aric's story better than most did, in fact she knew of its details better than even Aric himself did.
Since a young age , he was an outcast of the royal family, he was raised by his uncle in the countryside, he never met his father even once and his mother was killed not long after he was born, buried in the memorial royal grounds, he never had a chance to even visit her grave.
Bullied and abused by his nephews as a kid, it was a wonder how he was able to make it this far and still remain a Sane confident kid, and not be a total mess in the head.
After these thoughts passed through her head, the headmaster felt quite touched, for Aric to reveal his soul talent in front of her was as if he was interested in her with his deepest and most important secret.
He was willing to do so, to start a new leaf outside of the royal life where he can study the mystic under her wing and not be bothered by the politics and struggles of the outside world.
Having thought of this far, the headmaster couldn't help a smile appearing on her face, she was already willing to take Aric under her wing for the political struggle going over the throne in the capital. him being of royal blood made him a valid asset in the struggle.
But now she felt even more inclined to do so, just for the sake of him opening his heart to her, and being so trustful of her.
And while the headmaster roamed in her fantasies, Aric was dumbstruck.
" How the hell did I do that ??! " Aric didn't know how to react, to change the power of one's soul was far easier said than done, it was a time consuming process that most paladins would avoid going through for the uselessness of it on they're abilities and achievement along the line, except for those shooting for the highest of realms, to most soul force was of little importance.
And even if practiced and groomed in the best of way and using the top of methods, soul force wouldn't grow in such an explosive manner as he did.
It hasn't been more than a couple of years since Aric last tested his talent in the royal sector in Amar city, and he went In such a small time from taking a couple of minutes to locate the essence within the cube, to an almost instantaneous find, that was too great a change that even he couldn't believe.
But Aric was not In a position to contemplate what happened, he woke up from the shock when he felt his grip on the elemental forces loosen up, and put back all his focus on the test.
The elemental forces rose within the cube at different speeds, some traversing the beginning of it with ease, and others finding a certain resistance even before they started climbing up.
The difference in elemental control for Aric was quite obvious, and in just a couple of seconds, his test was done, even though he kept pushing and pushing with his spirit at the cube with all he got, the liquid within the crystal stopped moving any further.
Headmaster Laince looked at the results of Aric's test and sighed, then started marking down on a paper each of his elemental marks.
" Earth attribute - 4,2 - subpar.
Wind attribute - 3,8 - subpar.
Water attribute - 2,8 - low class.
Fire attribute - 6,5 - decent .
Dark attribute - 1,0 - low class.
Light attribute - 6,8 - decent.
"
The test was in the range of 1 to 12 , 1 being trash and 12 being god-like, and although Laince had never seen an 11th marking and above before with her own eyes. She knew that even in high tier guilds and organizations, Aric's evaluation would be taken as a barely pass.
But nevertheless he was now an ancestral disciple, and with his spirit talent, and the school's ample resources and guidance, he can achieve great things down the road of mystic training.
" It seems he didn't get much of his father's blood, in the light domain, I heard most princes got an above nine evaluation, and that one even got a legendary above divine evaluation, yet he got a six, as for his fire attribute, that would probably be his mother's..."
Headmaster Laince contemplated silently, although she wasn't told on the full story of this kid's mother, being an important member of one of the prominent duke houses of the empire, she knew that they're was more to it then simply being killed by demonic experts to antagonize the Aric empire.
But Nevertheless this was none of her business and far beyond her power or status to meddle in such matters, she finished marking her notes and was going to stop Aric from struggling with the attribute test, since once one reached their limits they can't go any further, not by any normal means.
As for Aric, he was determined to push it to the very limit, he pushed and kept going even when his head started buzzing and dizziness assaulted his conscious almost getting him to his knees.
He made it this far and didn't feel like stopping till the last breath, he wanted to proof to everyone that looked down on him and mocked him wrong, he was agitated and hot blooded and wanted to cool some of that pent up frustration in pushing to the very limit in this test, even if it didn't mean much, and not like it would change the test by anything really, but since he was already a student of the academy, might as well do as his heart desire.
But suddenly things changed, he felt heat birthing in the core of his heart , the same heat he felt when he just woke up at the clinic, but now it felt unbearably hot.
The feeling like something was calling for him resounded in his soul and he looked within himself and found a small crystal lying within his heart, crimson in color and radiating a suffocating pressure.
Aric was shocked at this discovery, he was sure this crystal wasn't there before, it didn't feel like a real crystal, it felt more like essence, but not like truly the same as essence, it felt different, like an agitated Beast or a chained monster , and for some unknown reason, it seemed like it was agitated because of his own emotions.
Aric reached with his soul forse slowly , trying to investigate it , but the moment his soul force made contact with it, things in the cube became chaotic.
The essence within the cube started shaking uncontrollably, like it wanted to escape the confines of the cube, slamming to its walls, and condensing further and further, till the cube started cracking on its own.
Headmaster Laince could do nothing but stand dazed on the spot as all of this happened so fast, everything was fine yet in two, three breaths of time, the cube was brought to the brink of Demise.
She reached to pull Aric back and stop him, but the moment her hand landed on his shoulder she was shocked.
Laince felt all the essence within her in agitation and went wild the moment her hand touched Aric, and it took her three seconds to Bring all of it down to submission.
But these three seconds were more than enough, cracks filled the cube, and the essence within kept growing more and more chaotic, and with a crack the whole thing fell apart and exploded.
Laince was dazed, she didn't understand a thing that happened, it was too much to take in and understand, she pulled Aric in her arms, and controlled her aura to surround the two of them in a cocoon of raging wind.
Laince wouldn't be harmed by these flying Sharpnels, she was at the false immortal rank and such an explosion wouldn't do her body any harm, but her clothes we're not, and thus she formed the shield to protect both herself and Aric from the essence explosion.
She looked down to see Aric and he seemed daze, he wasn't hurt but he was deep in thought, the moment his soul made contact with the crystal in his heart, he felt his mind burning in hellish flames, and from within these flames he discovered an art, a legacy of sorts buried within his brain, like it had always been there , like a distant memory that he forgot.
He was out to study it further when he felt the explosion and he opened his eyes to see the entire storage warehouse in rebels .
He found himself lying in the headmaster's hands, and she was looking at him in shock, like he was some sort of a monster.