Wednesday, August 13. 23:59:00
After being knocked unconscious by Xavier earlier in the day, Alfred was thrown into a medicinal fluid and left to the resident doctors and nurses by his father.
As he was sleeping peacefully in the health pod, he didn't know that he was currently surrounded by his father, aunt and brother. The three of them were sitting and waiting anxiously for the 24th hour to pass.
When it comes to awakening on Rivellus, it doesn't matter what hour the individual was born. Their awakening will be guaranteed to take place on the very first minute on the day of their 6th and 16th birthday respectively.
The process of awakening isn't painful or tedious by any means. It's simply the body resonating with the Origin Qi in the surroundings and opening the energy channels in one go. Forcing out the impurities in the blocked energy channels. In fact could be said to be quite comfortable, akin to soaking in a hot spring.
Of course, the number of energy channels opened upon awakening is not the same for everyone. Some people open more and some open less. But what is guaranteed is that there would always be channels opened.
Of course no matter in what world, there will always be differences between people. And this is where the problem of martial arts talent comes into play.
In the human body, there are 99 energy channels and 1 Dantian. Once someone awakens, they will immediately be in the Aperture Opening Realm which is essentially realm 0 since every human beyond the age of 6 will enter this stage regardless.
To proceed from realm 0 Aperture Opening Realm, one must open their Dantian which is the said "aperture" to be opened. Of course, it's not impossible to open the Dantian with 1 energy channel, the odds of success are simply almost nonexistent. The more opened energy channels present in the body, the more connected they are and the faster the circulation of ambient Origin Qi which in turn increases the odds of "opening aperture".
Of course, there is always a con to everything. Take this case for example. Because there are more opened energy channels it means they need more energy to circulate through them. However because the body cannot contain energy by itself without the "container" aka Dantian, the energy is only circulating and nothing else. Which causes more and more time to be needed the more opened energy channels there are. A very vicious cycle.
And this is why martial arts talent is so important.
Talent for martial arts is separated into 8 categories. Namely: SS, S, A, B, C, D, E and F grades.
Anyone with an F grade talent can be considered having no fate with martial arts and can only peacefully wait for their second awakening, of course assuming that they have enough Anima present in their blood. The reason is because of the pitiful amount of energy channels opened. If you happen to be unlucky enough and fall into this category by opening less than 15 energy channels, then wave goodbye to ever being a One-Man Army because no amount of resources can solve your problem.
E-grade talent isn't much better off either, but at least there is room for resistance since their range of talent is a little broader. This group of people will open anywhere from 15-34 energy channels in one go.
People with D grade talent can be considered as not bad since they open between 35 and 54 channels, which is infinitely close to half. They are just slightly worse than average and may take around 10-20 years to open all channels if lacking resources.
C grade is considered as the average talent on this planet since they are halfway and possibly 3/4 of the way to the Molding Realm. Opening 55-74 channels is indeed not bad. They typically take 7-10 years to enter the Molding Realm with this grade of talent.
B grade and A grade talents open 75-84 and 85-94 energy channels respectively and on average they can enter the Molding Realm in under 5 years. This is why John is so proud of Xavier as he had awakened with a middle-rank A-grade talent opening 89 energy channels at awakening. If he is lucky Xavier should enter the Molding Realm in another 1.5 to 2 years since he is currently sitting on his 96th channel.
S grade talents are generally one in a million, and SS grade is even harder to find. Sometimes an SS grade talent wouldn't even be found in a 100 years. For S grade talented individuals, they open anywhere from 95-99 channels, which means on average they can enter the Molding Realm between the age of 7-8.
Such a huge difference!
Compare an S grade talent to a C grader who can only grind and spend 10-20 years as an ordinary human before achieving the same others did while they were 8 years old. How frustrating that must be?
The legendary once a century SS grade genius?
They awaken in the Molding Realm... Well not quite. Technically they are still in the Aperture Opening Realm, but it doesn't make a difference since they awaken with all channels and even the Dantian opened. Within a few months or even weeks, they can break through and wave being a commoner goodbye. Adios!
The amount of time spent in the Aperture Opening Realm can be considered the most arduous. It is without a doubt the most difficult and annoying realm to be in for anyone with less than an SS grade talent. Take Xavier for example. How high is his talent? How many opened energy channels does he have? Yet wasn't he still beaten by an ordinary 5-year-old kid? It's indeed quite frustrating to be stuck as ordinary for so long when you are so talented. Simply because this realm is the largest watershed for humans to become Martial Artists.
***
23:59:50
Ten seconds before his awakening, Alfred's dad John started pacing around while feeling anxious.
"Does you walking around so much make a difference?" Janine asked him cynically. "It's not like you'll know what rank of talent he has right now anyway."
"I can't help it. That brat has been very lazy and didn't train one bit, so his body's receptivity to Origin Qi, in theory, should be very low but can't I still hope." John said impatiently.
"Well it should be over by now, so there is no point dancing around like ants in a hot wok anymore." Janine looked at Alfred through the glass pod worriedly. Although she said all this, she has also been exceptionally worried as well. After all, she is also guilty of spoiling the kid. But it's not like they could force him to train right?
...
[Ding!]
While in his dreams, Alfred was awoken by a few crisp notifications.