The boys rested for a couple of days after they returned from recovering the object that Macarthur had sent them to retrieve from the Kord family. The three of them met In the basement that they used for Regius' initial retraining of rank one but in the middle stood a small cement tower with a completely clear orb nestled on the top of it.
The structure came up to the boy's height when either stood next to it. Macarthur coughed and pushed up his glasses which the boys now knew meant he was about to go into a long explanation of something that had to do with mana.
Regius seeing this trained behavior immediately sat down to spare his legs while the Magic Nerd explained to them. "So what I had you guys retrieve was this orb that sits on top of the stone stele. The orb is what humans use to break past rank 1 and into rank 2.
During the first great demon invasion and the returning of mana, we were at our wits end an endlessly renewable energy source that the human body was able to manipulate at will but only at such a rudimentary level at first. The applications were near-limitless but the Demons were capable of doing things with mana that no human could fathom.
It wasn't until the first awakening stone was discovered that we realized that we had just put our foot in the door that was mana and there would be so much to learn. That's what I've got in front of you both, through the back channels and through you guys taking the awakening stone from the Kord Family we've got our awakening pillar.
The adventurers union controls all of the awakening pillars so that they can keep track of all of the spirits that people awaken, no two peoples spirits being the exact same but the Ten imperial families all have their own so that their descendants can keep theirs hidden at almost all times. I acquired this for the same reason so that we can keep the awakening of you two secret.
The reason behind that is not so much Peter but you Regius. There's a particular group of people that all awaken some form of a dragon as their spirit. It was one of the reasons that the ten imperial families used it as a means to go after your family.
Your father and several of your siblings all managed to awaken dragon spirits but the only other people known to do this have been the demon royal family. From first-hand experience I can tell you that your father had no concept he was just that powerful and dragon spirits are quite literally the top of the food chain when it comes to spirits with their lowest rating being Archduke. Your father's spirit when he went through this ceremony came out as a grade 11 god-ranked spirit and that propelled him to heights that people didn't think possible of someone with no concept.
So without further ado let's get started. Peter put your hand on the orb and the stele will do the rest."
Peter did as he was told and placed his hand on the orb and almost instantly a light burst across the room. There were red and blue beams of light that shone around his hand and shone steadily on the walls of the basement room.
A black shadow came from the top of the orb and through his hand and shot towards the ceiling of the room. The shadow reached the roof and right before it crashed into the roof it flipped itself and fired itself completely downward toward Peter.
It took only a blink of an eye for the shadow to be about to pierce him but right before the shadow connected all of its momentum just seemed to stop and the shadow spread its wings and alighted on his shoulder. The shadow was a bird, a dark black bird with an almost purple shimmer with a beak reminiscent of a small blade. The bird brandished its feathers and the purple shimmer seemed to gather at the tip of each wing to form a spinning purple vortex-like symbol.
The light died down and Peter finally removed his hand from the stele, the bird then shot off of his shoulder before turning back around and zooming directly into his forehead. Macarthur on the side could hardly contain his excitement; he had studied every spirit to ever awaken and never had he seen the spirit that was just present; it meant that Peter had awakened an unbounded spirit.
Macarthur grabbed Peter by the shoulders and shook him he would explain unbound spirits to the boys but only after he learned the spirits name only the person that awakened the spirit would know exactly what it was called the knowledge would appear in the mind of the Mana initiate the moment the spirit found purchase inside of the being that awakened to it.
"The name of the spirit is the Midnight Kingfisher," said Peter as Macarthur ruthlessly shook him.
Macarthur put on a wide grin as he turned to Regius. "One down, you're up. I'll explain things after you are done." said Macarthur.