Adam woke up in the middle of the night.
The stillness of the night was broken by the weather, the winds roared and blasted in the house alongside snow, and thunders roared in the background. It was a massive blizzard combined with a thunderstorm.
The weather wasn't unexpected thou. Everyone knows that the first day of the year starts with weather anomalies. The situation was like that in every place in the world, the weather was a welcoming song meant for new adults from around the world.
Adam laid in bed for a few hours, getting up wouldn't lead to anything productive either way, as there was no way someone was going to go outside in this weather.
He started to daydream about the future, where he would go, what adventures awaited him, and who will he meet. Time flew by quickly, as Adam's mind wandered.
The weather gradually decreased in its aggressiveness. But before the world returned to silence, Adam started to convulse.
A groan escaped his mouth, his muscles spasmed. Soon after, he relaxed and moaned.
He was just attuned with mana.
He felt filled as if he was an empty vase his whole life, and now someone filled him with hot water. The sense of fullness was overwhelming, his body was hot, in a pleasurable way. He felt incredible, calm and relaxed so much that he fell asleep again.
Sleeping this way was amazing, he woke up sometime later, to the smell of fried eggs.
Now, after cooling down from the initial excitement, Adam tried to feel the mana inside his body. He didn't know what it was supposed to feel like, or how much it many, but he was already filled with hope.
One of many rumours about becoming a mage was that people with talent were filled with incredible pleasure during their attunement, if that sense of fullness didn't apply, he didn't know what could.
Now, he tried to see into himself, like imagining the position of his organs. What he felt was a vast amount of power, stored about evenly throughout his body. There were two main congregation points where its density was higher thou, around his heart and brain.
Adam's face brightened up, as he realised the greatness of the situation.
He could become a mage!
After calming down, he put on his clothes and walked out of his room.
"Well, guess who got up! Our little princess finally decided to grace us with her presence!" Said Derek while cooking something deliciously smelling on a pan above the fireplace.
"What are you cooking?" Asked Adam
"Eggs with bacon. I would make something grander for your first day amongst adults, but someone was supposed to wake me up, and guess what? He didn't." Answered sarcastically, Derek.
"Sorry, I just had my attunement, It was amazing!"
"Congrats! So, you are going to try aura? I can't wait to show you some moves."
"I think I have a shot at becoming a mage, actually."
"Seriously?! Why do you think so?"
"I've got the signs! It was an amazing feeling, like I was full, whole."
"Whoa. Seems serious. but remember to to let it get to your head, nothing is certain."
"Eat quickly and go, they surely already started at the square." Added Dorian after seeing That Adam was staring with a blank face at his egg.
Adam quickly finished his meal and ran out of the house. Luckily today was rather warm with about -3* Celsius and he didn't have to wear anything more than his new armour and a coat, as a resident of the town that is nearly always covered with snow, Adam developed minor resistance to cold.
While running to the town square, he passed many people heading in the same direction and nearly every one of them was his age. While not everyone wanted to become a fighter, even if they had a talent for it, every new adult was obliged to take part in a seven-day training, it was always better to be overprepared. Thou, calling a seven-day training an overpreparing is an overstatement, it's a minimum, especially after a beast tide destroyed the town a few years back.
After Adam arrived at the square, he quickly came to the magic stall. Which was empty, and that wasn't a surprise.
There were a lot of stalls in the square, one for each weapon possible to learn. The magic one was more of a formality, Adam heard that there is only one in the capital, where they have a genuine one. Behind the stalls stood instructors, who were just guards proficient in a weapon type represented on the stall. That's the reason the magic stall was useless, there was no instructor.
The problem with learning magic was simple. Not only do you have to pass ridiculous requirements to start practising, but you also have to hire yourself a teacher, or a master. The first one is if you are wealthy enough to pay for such education, the second would mean essentially becoming a servant.
While it is possible to learn magic without a teacher, it's much, much harder. The warriors have much easier in this aspect, not only is their preferred art easier to comprehend, but there are far more people willing to teach how to use a sword for example.
Adam looked around the stalls and noticed a few patterns.
Most of those who willed to become fighters grouped around the swordsmanship instructor, while many were also in other places, that where the biggest group was located.
He knew most of his peers around the town, there wasn't that much of them anyway, so it was easy to recognize who wanted to do what.
Those who preferred calm life, on the other hand, were mostly located near the spears section. It wasn't surprising, as adults always said that the spear is the thing to reach for when defending if a beast tide came. It was just very simple to use, at least at the most basic level, and was very effective at what it did. Another factor was that spears are super common, to make a spear, you need just a stick and a sharp stone, not a lot of requirements.
After looking around, Adam headed towards a training plaza, located behind Ferston. That's where the rest of the ceremony was about to happen.