After Hans finished explaining the process of ceremony he ordered the officials to manage the participants to form lines and await their turn. There were 5 huge crystals on round pedestals where people are brought to awaken their talents.
These crystals are called talent awakening crystals which help them awaken by sending in a jolt of soul energy into their souls and forcefully awaken their talent. Once talent is awakened the crystal glows brightly according to the grade of talent received by them.
There are 2 ways to awaken one is to use the crystals and the other is to awaken naturally after you have turned 18 however this can take time since awakening this way requires experiencing something that shakes the soul itself which is hard to encounter.
Very soon the first participant went ahead and got his talent awakened, the crystal shined golden at the participant's touch. The people above the stage 'were all smiles' when they saw a golden talent on the first try, however, Thor still had a disinterested look.
Not everyone is blessed that was the dark truth and it was soon revealed.
"Shit, how can I have only bronze talent and it is related to farming."
"Don't sweat it, bronze is better, look at those people receiving normal grade talents."
"Why me? wh..why? how will I face my family with a normal talent."
"YESS!! I have a silver talent [Fire Mage]. I can be a hunter now."
...
All sorts of noise began, some cheering and some crying, until a kid with a fair face, and black wavy hair came to the pedestal to get his talent. The kid looked uncannily similar to Levi who had a dark face as soon as he saw the kid take his turn.
He was James Anderson, second son of the Anderson Family Head , when Levi was 14 years old his mother contracted a disease that constantly gnawed at her vitality ending her life and turning Levi into an emotionless machine. Despite his and his Father's relentless efforts to request precious medicinal ingredients, they were denied mainly because his mother was from a commoner background and was not worth enough to spend such ingredients. Levi's Father was the family head's youngest brother with his position he was not qualified to bargain with the Anderson Elders or the family head. Shortly, after her mother's death, his father followed not able to bear the departure of his beloved, his health deteriorated until he lost his desire to live and took his own life.
Ever since then, Levi has harbored immense hatred towards the direct descendants of the Family Head.
When James was brought on for his turn, the old folks all turned serious, one particular Elder was harrumphing in arrogance with James' appearance, he was the Anderson Elder invited for the ceremony.
"This is going to be exciting." Hans said.
"Hmph, Of course, James is the treasure of the Andersons. The least he would awaken would be a Golden Grade Talent." Anderson Elder said with his nose almost pointing to the ceiling at this point.
"Easy Elder, aren't you afraid you will jinx it." Representatives of different families laughed out at this.
"You don't believe this old man? Haha, you will soon be proved wrong." The Anderson Elder was not backing down.
"What makes you so sure that one of your kids would--" one of them was going to pry the Elder when he was interrupted by a sudden blinding Golden light.
"Thi..This.. no way did you feed your James kid some soul nourishing medicine."
"Hahaha, I told you, it's a Platinum Grade talent, finally the Anderson family would have another powerhouse."
Even the disinterested General was a little excited at the attention-grabbing performance and finally showed some facial expressions. He suddenly spoke,
"What Talent has this kid awakened?"
The Old folks had their ears perked up a notch at this sentence.
"Sir Thor, Let me ask our James, he will not disappoint." The elder ran with lightning speed after saying this and appeared before James talked for a while and returned with the same speed.
"Sir Thor, James has awakened a [Thunder Physique] Talent"
The Elder had a wide smile plastered on his face after knowing the affinity the talent has. Thunder affinity of talent meant that the talent was more geared toward the thunder element, and in front of the Empire's general who cultivated a similar thunder talent meant that he was 90% confirmed to be a disciple under him.
Thor began to ponder while not showing on face, he was quite shocked inwardly, while his talent was [Thunder Fist] he was able to control lightning element due to its high grade. While [Thunder Physique] was more of a talent that had the ability to manipulate lightning or thunder elements with ease. After pondering for a moment he decided,
"Very well, we will take the kid to the empire's capital."
"Thank You! , Sir Thor."
Levi looked at all this with hatred emanating from his eyes, when a warm hand landed on his shoulder,
"Wish me luck!!"
Levi smiled as it was Caleb's turn now,
Caleb soon came out with a Golden Talent- [Rock Giant] but it was nowhere as amazing as James. No one budged an inch after James show of talent. Levi congratulated Caleb who was grumbling about not making as much commotion as James.
Soon the participants were clearing up when it got to Levi,
"This is it. I have to get more than James or else I would only be laughed at."
As soon as he got on the pedestal near the crystal, the Anderson elder instantly recognized him,
"Even this kid is here. That commoner woman's blood runs deep in this kid. He won't be able to show much. He might reach the Silver Grade, after all, he is a Anderson."
"Is this also an Anderson kid, elder?"
Even Thor began to pay attention to it when he heard this. After all, James' commotion was already too big, how could he ignore another descendant of the same family? Soon the representatives of the various families began to pay attention to him.
As soon as he touched the crystal, the crystal started glowing, he felt a warm stream enter from his hand, into his arm, and into his whole body, the energy was getting absorbed but he was not able to feel it, and this warm stream soon disappeared. However, he knew that this stream had not gone anywhere but was absorbed into his soul, a moment later he felt a slight headache with a vast knowledge incoming from the depth of his soul about his new talent. He had learned that talent with a vast amount of information meant that he would be awakening something ancient or powerful. This would mean it is at least a Golden Grade Talent.
Combing through so much of the information, some of which he did not even understand, was difficult since he was still in a headache with the influx of information that did not seem to stop. Finally, he got to know about the name of his talent - [Deconstruction Algorithm].
He opened his eyes excitedly to see his talent grade when he saw that the crystal was not shining that brightly and people were looking at him awkwardly, who was clutching his head a moment ago.
"...Normal Grade."
Even Thor for a second thought that the talent that could give someone a headache would not be a low level talent. But after seeing the dim light of the crystal he was convinced,
'Even if they have the same blood one would reach the sky and the other could only sweep the ground, such is the cruelty of life.'
The Elder was always unfavorable of Levi and did not pay much attention to the failure.
Soon Levi walked down feeling perplexed at the chain of events, his first thought was that he awakened an Arcane talent, since there is no talent with the name Deconstruction which has an affinity with any particular element of nature anywhere. Even if he racked his brains and searched the whole library of his family he had not heard of such kind of talent.
His other thought was that Arcane talents were usually mysterious and have a much higher grade due to the mysterious rules they follow. So why was the crystal emanating dim light?
'Anyways it's better that the talent is not exposed, otherwise the elders would have got me to tell my talent by hook or crook, for their own benefit.' while he was having such thoughts Caleb approached and bear hugged him.
"You don't need to think so much. This brother here will help you grow fast. With my [Rock Giant] talent I can raze the monsters with ease."
"Thanks, man." Levi's heart instantly warmed up when he heard Caleb.
He did not care whether he would awaken a splendid talent or not. All he cared was for a decent talent that would allow him to repay his sufferings tenfold. But he would have never thought he would land an Arcane Talent that many people die to get no matter their grade. And he had not even gone through the functions of his received talent, he calmed himself to explore once he returned to his apartment.