A few moments later after Chouji cried
"Now where was I in the story?"
"Jisan I believe you were telling about the exorcist's specialties."
"Right so..."
Those who specialize in weapons with inscriptions were called weapon specialist. Any weapon can do things that's out of this world, only an inscription master's imagination and creativity is the limit. Of course, the exorcist's fitness is also a major factor since it relies for them to move in extremes and that is a requirement for them.
Speaking of which, those who writes inscriptions are called inscription masters and are separated from an exorcist three categories since they don't do combat, or they don't exorcise hollows. But just like how a good body is a requirement for a weapon specialist, an inscription master's requirement would be talent, effort, patience and a lot of time. If you lack even one, then you're not cut out to be one.
Moving on to another area of specialization of an exorcist is the element specialist. They summon the elements of fire, wind, water, earth, and lightning through an inscription tag. Variants of the main elements were also discovered such as ice under water, Lava under fire, wood under earth, metal under lightning, and the most unique variant of elements which is healing under wind.
If a weapon specialist's important factor is their fitness or body construction then an element specialist's important factor is the amount of their spiritual energy, their fine control over it and finally what element they can control. Some can use one element and its variant normally while some who can use two are considered talented.
If you can use three then you're a genius found in 100 years, four and you're a genius rarely found in 500 years while those who can use all elements were extremely rare that only three people showed in 1000 years of exorcist's existence.
If an inscription tag can summon a fire ball the size of a baseball from a weapon specialist's hands, then in the hands of an element specialist hands it can summon a fire ball the size of a boulder or even bigger depending on his spirit energy capacity and control.
And finally, the last one is called Summoner specialist. Just as the name suggests they summon familiars called spirit beasts by creating inscription circles. Now this field is the only specialization that has one very important requirement, compatibility.
Spirit Beasts can only be contracted and become your familiar if you are compatible with them when you first call them using summoning inscription. Beyond that is your ability to be able to form a contract with them if they favor you upon meeting for the first time.
Spirit Beasts also have ranks. From normal spirit beasts, wild spirit beast, ancient spirit beasts, and finally mythical spirit beasts. For normal spirit beast examples are dogs, cats, rats, doves etc. Meanwhile Wild beasts' examples are just like how it sounds such as wolves, bears, tiger, lion, etc., oh eagles are considered wild beasts by the way. Ancient types of Spirit beast are like golems, griffins, basilisks, chimeras etc.
And finally Mythical spirit beasts, they are so rare only 4 were contracted and summoned in a thousand years of exorcist history. The first time an exorcist was able to form a contract with was a fire dragon. The second time was able to form a contract with a Lightning Roc. The third time one was able to form a contract with an Ice Fenrir while the last one was able to form a contract with a lightning Qilin.
"Hmmmn. It seems like the 2nd and 4th contractor of a mythical spirit beasts have some kind of connection to be able to tame lightning type spirit beasts." Commented Yon to which his grandfather shook a little. He didn't pay much attention to it and continue with his story, but that reaction obviously didn't escape Yon's cultivator perception.
Anyway, along with these developments we were also able to secure our secrecy with the help of inscriptions that can erase and renew a human's memories if ever they were able to witness us. This was how we were able to escape the eyes of others especially after the Quincys lost the war almost a thousand years ago. Then 200 years ago they were eradicated by the soul reapers but a select few was successful in hiding. One of which is Kurosaki Masaki.
In the span of thousand years since we were formed, we were able to deduct our lifespan was a century long. No more than that unless we die before we reach such an age. Therefore, we maintained our policy of saving our clansmen only and never interfere with other humans or beings like those of soul reapers. All this but still we remain to monitor the living world and its developments.
'I have a bad feeling about the life span part Jisan.' Yon could only say inside his mind and continue to listen to his grandfather's story.
Exorcist all have one uniform ranks no matter what we specialize in. From the moment an exorcist awakens he is already considered a Beginner Exorcist. This is how the ranks works.
Beginner - Newly awakened exorcist
Student - Trains and study how to be an exorcist since awakening. (No age requirement).
Novice - Completed the required 3 years of training upon reaching 12 years of age. (Junior high in the human world)
Veteran - Has a minimum of 2 years' experience exorcising hollows/spiritual monsters.
Pseudo Master Exorcist - Once an exorcist reaches the age of 40 but still didn't master his specialty, they can be considered a Pseudo Master Specialist due to their experience in exorcism. They are required to teach 1st year student exorcists.
Master Exorcist - (No age requirement) Highest rank in each specialization, it means he/she mastered his specialty or area of expertise in exorcism. Can take down a single or two level 2 hollows with intellegence (Adjuchas). Required to teach 2nd year student exorcists.
Expert Exorcist - Achieved Master Exorcist rank. Can take down any number of level 2 hollows. Required to teach 3rd year student exorcists.
A Pseudo Master exorcist still has a chance to become a fully pledged master rank exorcist but can never become an expert rank exorcist in his/her 100 years of life. However, all expert exorcist has never ever stepped foot in the rank of a pseudo master rank. They only came from a Novice or veteran rank and jumped directly to master rank and becomes an expert in a few years' time depending on the individual's effort.
Elder Exorcist - Achieved Expert Exorcist rank twice, it means an exorcist who is a master of two specialization. Either a Weapon/Summoner Specialist, Weapon/Element Specialist or Element/Summoner Specialist.
Required to defeat 2 Expert Exorcist in a match. Required to have one core disciple and two Inner disciples. They are normally a director of a department. For example: Education Department, Monitoring Department, Security Department, Inscription Department and so on.
Clan Head - The leader of the Exorcist clan. Chosen by the previous clan head. Approved by the majority of the elder exorcists. And passed the test to become the clan head.
There is a position inside the exorcist clan that is not included in the ranking just like how inscription masters were not included. It's called the head disciple position.
Head Disciple - Personally picked by the current clan head to be the next clan head and is assigned as the leader of all disciples of all elder exorcist. Although a head disciple is weaker than an elder because they can be chosen while they are still students, their authority is pretty much almost the same.
The head disciple position has three spots. The assigned head disciple, first reserve head disciple and second reserve head disciple. The assigned head disciple is personally handpicked by the Clan Head while the reserves were chosen by the elders.
And finally, inscription masters. They have 3 normal ranks and 2 special ranks. And they are:
Student - Started studying inscriptions at the age of 7 years old even before awakening. Although Inscription masters can have a rank as a combatant exorcist, none of them in a thousand years had the time to consider and this continued even today.
Novice - Graduated. Even as they start creating inscriptions personally, they are still Novice. Has at east 1 year of experience to be called as such.
Master – At least 5 years of experience.
Grand Master – Achieved Master rank and has made single or more contributions as an inscription master. Approved by Elder Exorcists afterwards.
Esteemed Expert – Can only be bestowed by the Clan Head after recognition of what one has achieved.
"Wow, It seems like the number of exorcists has increased a lot since then based on what your telling me Jisan." Yon exclaimed. 'The more I hear about it the more it resembles a sect if this was a cultivation world' Yon commented inside his head.
"Hahahaha! Ofcourse we did. We have branches all over the living world now. And the west branch is even located near Karakura town." Chouji bragged.
"By the way Jisan how do we become a master of two specialization?"
"I want to say you can with years of training, effort and experience but, there are exceptions like I mentioned a while ago."
"Let me guess, Talent?"
"Yes, talent. It's a very important trait for an exorcist. And I know you have that trait." Chouji pointed out his grandson's forehead to which Yon smiled.
"Alright alright. Now we get to the cool part." Said chouji as he opens the large box he placed in the dining table earlier.
"Ohh!!! What are those!" asked Yon as stars sparkled in his eyes.
"These are exorcist inscription tags used by element specialists, inscribed weapons used by weapon specialist and guide books used by summoner specialist on how to create inscription circles that will help them connect with the spirit beast compatible to them." said Chouji as he pulled an inscribed dagger out.
"This dagger is inscribed with an ability to be controlled in the air using spirit energy." Yon's face became disappointed at the first weapon. 'I can already do that, in fact I rode on a sword to get home' Chouji saw this and pulled out a katana but before he could even explain about it, Yon cut him off.
"These-"
"What about those papers with weird writings Jisan?" Yon asked excitedly as he pointed them out with his index finger. 'So you inherited your mother's interest in inscription tags too huh'
"Those are called inscription tags for element specialist and Summoner specialist. Would you like to try them?"
"Do you even have to ask Jisan? lets go!"
It was already early in the morning and the sun was already rising in the sky. Both went to the open field at the back of their house. Chouji brought the large box with him and picked up 5 inscription tags.
"Each of this tag can summon one of the 5 main elements once you add spirit energy on it. We will be able to know which element you can control and use. Here why don't you try it?"
End of chapter 2
Volume 2: Exorcist Arc