Priest never change huh? Even in this world they continue to be creepy.
My parents stared at the priest as if their Jaw muscles were broken and they were incapable of closing their mouth. My dad began to inch closer to me and bring me away from the priest, while my Mom began to raise her fists as if we wouldn't go down without a fight.
"Excuse me that came out wrong, You need to take off your shirt so I can check your mana circulation and core."
"Ah…got it, sorry about that."
"No problem... So you can back away Ma'am."
As I took off my shirt, I saw the transparent orb begin to give off a faint glow, it seemed to be an ocean blue.
"Before we start I have to explain the cores to you so you can't hit us with a lawsuit. Is that alright?"
'Why would he say that…?'
"Yes, please explain."
"Okay, cores are essentially your inner soul, or what holds your Magic Ability. Although the power of your core won't dictate how strong your Ability is, it usually correlates. Weaker abilities with less variety and are also fairly simple tend to be of the weakest cores. While complex abilities that could manipulate reality tend to have the strongest cores. The ranking goes Underground, Soil, Earth, Sky, and Heaven from weakest to strongest. The higher cores such as Sky and Heaven not only release a strong mana pressure but also have a higher mana limit. However, the higher the core, the harder it is to rank it up."
"So how would I rank up?"
"In order to rank up you must circulate mana into the core, thus breaking it. Once you break it you have about a month to fix it and repair into a stronger one before your magic leaks out of your soul, thus crippling your mana never allowing you to use it again. It is very dangerous and it is why there are not many people who rank up to the Heaven or Sky cores."
"..wow that's intense…"
'What helpful exposition for the story'
"Alright, are you ready to begin testing?"
"Yes sir!"
"Perfect, move over to the soul orb and place your back on it. Try and relax as much as you can, and take deep slow breaths. The soul is a very delicate area and we have to do our best to keep it stable."
As I moved over to the orb it began to give off a more iridescent glow, it seemed to be vibrating giving off a low frequency that only I could hear. It was a very…relaxing feeling.
"Once you find out your core, you should be able to see the details of your Magic ability, alright?"
I began to take deep relaxing breaths and that low humming sound became louder by the second to the point all I could hear was that low vibration and my slow breaths. It was a very calming and relaxing experience and I swear I began to see something. A blue Background with clouds, and what seemed to be a small but incredibly bright green orb. The green orb seemed to be inching closer to me until finally it was floating on my chest.
'This is so beautiful, maybe that god wasn't that big of an asshole.'
I then began to see many guns being fired, a tank rolling on the ground, lots of missiles being shot everywhere, artillery, and finally a nuke…? There was a heavy scent of gunpowder permeating throughout the air, it was practically suffocating. Strangely, I felt at peace..or maybe connected to it all…?
'I watched like one War movie…why is this all appearing?'
Suddenly I disconnect from it and come back to a vast sky. I felt the wind brush past me in this vast expanse of space and slowly the low vibration humming began to slow down until I was able to open my eyes again.
Looking behind me the orb showed the image of a large and vast blue background with clouds in it.
"Congratulations, it seems you have awakened a Sky core, the second highest. Try and release some magic pressure to get accustomed to your new core."
Looking back at the priest, I saw my parents with the widest grins on their faces practically shaking with I think is excitement
'Luckyyyy'
I felt deep within myself and began to release this heavy feeling within me. A dark green aura began to cover around my body and I began to see the air shake a little. Like a heat wave.
"Good job, Now we just have to record your abilities and pay for the fee, and you can be on your way!"
"Mhm"
-Priest-
This August kid is pretty rare, even among the "Peak Generation". For some odd reason, many children awoke Earth cores and above. Many even possessing a Heaven Core. As I cleaned up the preparations and got ready for the next customer, I faintly heard the Family's conversation,
"C'mere baby, who's my cute August? You are! Yes you!"
"That's definitely my seed, I raised you since I was a young teenager!"
...that creeped me out for some reason that I just cant explain. The kid seems to love the praise, holding his nose up high and a new found confidence and pressure could be seen in him.
Regardless, it seems the University will be filled with extraordinary talent in the coming years, epically with all these high ranked cores. I brought out my notepad and began to walk towards the boy,
"Alright..so you have a Sky rank core and exactly how old is he?"
"7"
"Great,Great...Okay kid can you describe what you saw to the best of your knowledge?"
"uhhh...it smelled like gun powder, with lots of big and small Canons that caused lots of fire and exploison. There was also a big big explosion in the end."
I began to gawk at him. Quickly composing myself I thought, that sounds like a lot of power.
"Got it..Could you perhaps showcase this power?"
A array of brown, black, and green....poles? come around his body. I begin to inspect them and try to sense the mana that comes from it. It's giving off an extremely volatile atmosphere, them being pointed at me just feels like trouble.
"So what exactly do these..logs do?"
"Do you have a area where I can shoot them?"
'shoot?'
"Yes right this way,"
As we walked over to the testing area I went into deep thought. Just what are those logs, poles, I can't tell. The kid said it had something to do with cannons, maybe they summon the cannons or fire cannon balls or fire? Welp, we're about to find out.
"You can shoot any of the dummies you see, whenever your ready."
I'm really intrigued how this will loo-
*POW*
-Narrator-
As August began to fire his weapons, the onlookers and other staff looked in awe at the raw damage and destruction that was taking place. A rain of gunfire poured onto the dummy at the center of the arena that produced loud bangs. Explosive pops filled the air with the constant fire of the Automatic Rifles behind him.
-August-
As of right now I'm only able to summon about 10 guns at a time. M-16s, AK-47s, AR-15s, AWPS, TEC-9s, and Uzis are what I can access of right now. I don't know when I'll be able to gather the energy to summon tanks or missiles but hopefully its soon.
-Jordan-
.....
...
...damn he's strong.