Time flies, and in the blink of an eye, a week passes, and the Emblem Preparation Class officially starts.
However, before the start of school, Lin Ke first has to undergo an Emblem potential evaluation.
As the name suggests, the higher the potential of the Emblem, the more valuable it is for cultivation, and although those with low potential are also considered extraordinary, their future growth space is not large.
"Lin Ke, according to your file, you are the first person in your family to awaken the Emblem. Do you need me to explain the knowledge of emblem potential evaluation to you?" the teacher at the evaluation center specifically asked.
Lin Ke knew very little about Emblem 101, so he naturally nodded in agreement.
"Let's start with the basics," the teacher said. "Both emblem users and monsters can cultivate the elemental energies of the heavens and the earth. These energies have different attributes: earth, fire, water, wind, grass, thunder, steel, time, space, and illusion."
"Therefore, emblems also have attributes and innate skills. Your emblem is of the thunder attribute, and the innate skill 'Mind's Eye', also known as "Insight", you awakened is also a thunder attribute skill."
"Every rune user can engrave up to nine emblem mark slots on their emblems, one per ten-level. Marks are forged by special inscription masters who collect various materials, and then the emblem users engrave them on their emblems themselves. Unlike emblem itself, emblem marks have a variety of attributes."
"Emblem Marks have different functions. For example, amplifying marks can increase the emblem user's strength, speed, stamina, and elemental capacity; skill-type marks allow the rune user to use specific seal skills; resistance-type marks allow the emblem user to resist or even be immune to status ailments like paralysis, freezing, and burning. Some powerful and rare emblem marks can even have multiple effects at once. Currently, we categorize divine seals into four levels: Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3, and Tier 4, with higher-level marks having stronger effects but also being more difficult to forge and engrave."
"One point we need to emphasize repeatedly is that engraving marks is not permanent. As long as they meet the attribute requirements of the marks, emblem users can replace any mark slots at will!"
"Having introduced the marks, we can now explain the issue of Emblem grades. Ranging from super grade to ninth grade, for every slots with attribute requirements among the nine slots of a emblem user, the grade of the emblem decreases by one."
"Generally speaking, the higher the grade of the emblem, the faster the cultivation speed."
Lin Ke nodded and echoed, "Seven of my emblem mark slots have attribute requirements, and two are without attributes, so my grade is seventh. Does this mean that my emblem potential grade is also seventh?"
The evaluation teacher shook her head and said, "It's not that simple."
She paused before continuing, "The combination of the attributes of the marks is the core in emblem potential evaluation.
Let's take two people with ninth-grade emblems as an example. Allen has a more reasonable set of attribute requirements for their nine slots, such as five with water attributes and four with grass attributes. This kind of symbiotic attributes facilitates the cultivation of elemental energy and skill combinations. Even if Allen's emblem grade is just ninth, their potential will not be too low."
"On the contrary, if John has nine marks with all different attributes, then John's cultivation and seal combination will become extremely difficult, which is undoubtedly the lowest potential situation."
"Even worse, if John's emblem is of water attribute and all nine mark slots are of fire attribute, the attributes of the emblem and the mark slots would conflict and be unable to harmonize, basically making cultivation impossible."
The assessment teacher pointed at Lin Ke and said, "Although your emblem level is only at the seventh grade, among the seven attribute-required emblem marks, three are thunder attributes, two are time attributes, one is steel attribute, and one is water attribute; it's not disorderly to an outrageous extent. As long as your engraved emblem marks are well-combined, they can exhibit stronger effects."
"From what I mentioned earlier, you can see that there are countless permutations and combinations arising from the emblem rank, emblem mark attributes, plus the attribute arrangement order from one to nine in the emblem mark slots, not to mention the levels and effects of emblem marks, it's exhaustive."
"Therefore, the purpose of our emblem potential assessment is not to rank everyone in order, but to set three intervals. For those with first grad emblem, transcendent emblems, the top 0.01% of emblem users will sign confidentiality agreements to receive special training; and the lower 20% of the potential rank will be advised to develop into logistic specialties in the future. A large number of students like you, Lin Ke, who are not in these two intervals, will receive a 'qualified' rating."
Seeing that Lin Ke had digested the words just now, the assessment teacher continued, "The last thing I have not explained is the [Talent Skill], also known as the innate skill. As a natural gift of the emblem awakening, each emblem user's talent skill is different.
Your skill is to open the 'Mind's Eye,' which is a special perceptual ability that can temporarily enhance your own senses, thereby improving personal strength."
"This is a very practical skill. You should know about the emblem aristocrats of Yuecheng, the Lei family; their most famous talent skill is called the 'Observation Eye', while the 'Mind's Eye' is its simplified version. As you continue to practice, there is a certain probability that the talent skill can be upgraded."
"In short, the teacher just wants you to know that your emblem has great potential. Do not get discouraged because of the temporary seventh rank."
"The teacher also hopes that you can make breakthroughs in your senior year of high school and be admitted to your ideal emblem university!"
After the teacher's speech, Lin Ke finally had a basic understanding of the emblem cultivation system.
"By the way, teacher, is there a relationship between the level of the emblem user and the strength of the engraved emblem marks?" Lin Ke realized that the teacher had not mentioned this.
"There is no absolute in the world," the teacher explained, "The engraving of emblem marks is related to one's own abilities, willpower, mental power, and even luck. In history, there have been instances where weak individuals accidentally engraved a Tier 1 emblem mark at level 10, as well as strong individuals failing with a Tier 4 emblem mark at level 50s."
Lin Ke nodded in understanding.
"You have just awakened your emblem. After a period of practice, you will be able to engrave your first emblem mark. The selection of emblem marks, rules for future emblem mark engravings, and such will be taught by the mentors in your new class. For the sake of saving time, I will not explain it temporarily here."
"The most important thing now is to practice well and engrave the first emblem mark as soon as possible. This is of utmost importance."
As there were still more than a dozen students waiting for the emblem potential assessment, Lin Ke did not delay the teacher's time any longer, thanked her, and left the testing classroom.
In the afternoon, less than half an hour after everyone's tests were finished, the class allocation results were out.
Lin Ke was assigned to senior year class three, with a total of twelve people in the class.
Situ Bo and Tang Yuhan, two old classmates who had been together for two years, were also in his class.
In addition to them, class three had two 'big names' familiar to Lin Ke — Lei Ao from Yuecheng's Lei family and Xia Yi from Yuecheng's Xia family. These two came from genuine emblem families.
It seems that high school life will be very interesting.