It was my 10th birthday.
Or as they called it in the village, my 'Awakening.'
Whenever someone reached 10 years of age, they would go to the village square, to have their soul affinity evaluated by the Village sorcerer.
I was no exception.
My swordsmanship teacher patted me down and smoothened the creases on my small black robes.
My pale skin was washed down with a long bath and my mind was cleared out after a few consolations with fellow village children who had already gotten their evaluations.
When I arrived at the Village square, there was a small homely crowd of people waiting.
I recognized most of them, and I felt the tensions on my shoulders triple.
I couldn't fail now, in this moment that would decide my future.
The village sorcerer was an old man with 3 eyes, he was bald, skinny and a bit strange. His skin was pitch-black, with a few red veins scattered here and there.
That's all I could take away from our 4 meetings.
Anyhow, I walked up to him and he began preparing a strange mystical sphere that seemed to have been made from normal glass.
He rubbed his fingers on this 'normal' glass sphere for a few more minutes before he took one deep breath in and decided the time was ripe to evaluate me.
"Come, youngling. The gods have accepted my calling. You are to be judged."
I slowly shuffled my way toward the old sorcerer.
I was so nervous that I couldn't even mimic the smallest look of bravery.
My feet were scraping against the gravel below childishly as I looked up, and met with the village sorcerer's 3 eyes staring down at me.
"Touch the sphere, boy."
I shuddered and unconfidently, I sent a hand out.
My young self stuttered in reluctance at the time.
'No-. No way-. This is scary.'
And my young self drew his hand back innocently.
The old sorcerer's 3 eyes bulged widely as his voice boomed outward, scaring the living daylight out of me.
"TOUCH IT."
As he shouted down my ears, I was engulfed by fear.
I stubbornly allowed my arm to protract outward.
I tapped the sphere lightly.
The sorcerer was pleased.
"Good... That's good..."
The empty glass sphere was suddenly filled with a strange smoky substance.
It was black smoke.
But the black smoke was then joined by a luminous blue fragrance.
The two smoky substances were indifferent to each other and awkwardly swirled around each other within the confines of the glass sphere.
"Oh. Ho. Ho. Ho. Ho."
"This is joyous."
The sorcerer began waving the glass sphere around madly.
"LOOK."
He shoved the smoky glass sphere in front of my young self's nose.
I could smell smoke.
Who would have thought?
The sorcerer began cackling wildly, as he showed the sphere around to the small crowd of villagers.
"Lookie here."
"We've got ourselves a little duelment."
I raised a hand, my mind was shaking actively.
I was incredibly confused.
"W-what's a duelment?"
The sorcerer allowed a pleasured grin to spread across his face before he answered my simple question.
"Someone with two elemental soul affinities."
"They're quite rare. You're the only duelment in our village with the exception of the chief."
I nodded, my young self's mind was whirring on and on.
'That's good right?'
'Does this mean I can be like teacher?'
'Or does this mean I can become the chief one day?'
'Eh. It definitely means something good.'
An old lady from the crowd was tired of the overstretched act.
She croaked outwardly in bitter impatience.
"What are the elements? Stop being an insufferable man, Girold."
The sorcerer's eyes squinted in annoyance.
He muttered a rather unholy word under his breath.
"...Bitch."
He cleared his throat loudly.
"The Gods have blessed this one dearly!"
"Not only will his darkness propel him through any situation with deafening violence, but his iciness will allow him to freeze over all that stands before him."
"I think he deserves a little praise."
A small round of clapping emerged from the equally small crowd.
Clap.
Clap.
Clap.
Clap.
I was confused at the time.
I hadn't done anything worthy of praise.
But nevertheless, I took advantage of the opportunity and rose my head up, absorbing all the praise like a human whirlpool.
'Hehe. This will definitely make teacher proud.'
The sorcerer handed the young me an arcane text that contained both the ice and darkness elements.
Arcane texts were merely sheets of paper with strange characters drawn on them.
I was to translate it with my mind , and it would supposedly take me a lifetime to fully comprehend the Arcane text handed to me at that moment.
The arcane characters were viewed differently by every single creature alive and this made translating arcane texts a major hassle.
Since the day I received my arcane text, I managed to fathom 3 spells.
Keep in mind that I spent 2 years translating the Arcane text.
For a measly 3 spells.
Nevertheless, the young me was overjoyed at this achievement and I was praised by the villagers, they said I had a talent for arcane and I ate their words happily.
I learned Dark Bolt, Ice Path, and Ice Crash.
But I was forbidden from using them in the village.
Not just me, but the entire village was forbidden from using any magic that we translated from the arcane texts.
There was some sort of restriction present in our enclosed domain.
I was 10, or in other words, at the age where I could finally begin diving deep into these sorts of topics.
I managed to easily conclude that we were banished to this domain and banned from arcane as a collective due to some strange reasoning.
I failed to understand said strange reasoning, but it was worth a shot.
And so, on that day I unlocked my potential as a duelment for Ice and Darkness.