"As I thought, this thing is too big for you!"
"It's okay. I can hold it. Do it slowly."
Aaron sighed. He and Natasha were forced to do this since it was a direct order from their instructors at the academy. They couldn't refuse it even if they didn't like it.
The two walked through the corridors of the academy while carrying boxes containing system watches, books, talent cards, and elixirs. Aaron was forced to take a few items from Natasha's box so the woman wouldn't feel burdened.
From ahead, 300 last-year students of the London Cadet Academy gathered in the academy's main hall. They were dressed in blue and white uniforms.
Instructor Melinda raised her hand, asking Aaron and Natasha to bring the boxes near her. In return, Melinda handed over the purple and blue elixir to them.
[Item Status:]
[1 TP Elixir Lv.1]
[1 MP Elixir Lv. 1]
"You two should leave here," Melinda ordered. Aaron and Natasha said yes.
Other than last year's students of the London Cadet Academy, no other students were allowed to see the talent inauguration ceremony. This could be regarded as sacred due to the talent's confidentiality and the talent owner's safety.
"Where are you going, Aaron?" asked Natasha.
"I got the TP elixir, I'm gonna try to increase my talent level."
Natasha got the TP elixir just like Aaron, but her talent points were currently full and waiting for ascension to the third stage. That made her TP elixir not very useful for now.
"My talent points are full and waiting for ascension. Let me stay with you, Aaron."
Aaron did not object, as Natasha had always been his closest friend. The two had known each other since five and continued to the current age of 18.
Despite growing up together, Natasha had bigger dreams. She was set on becoming the world's first female Great Ruler.
Since the end of the nuclear war, the Great Ruler had always been male and was selected through the Earth Core Tower qualification method. Those who made it to the peak of the 100th floor could put themselves forward as Great Ruler candidates.
That was the position Natasha wanted, even though she knew she would be up against many other talented men.
Arriving at the Tulip Garden, there were eight circles in the place. Five circles were taken when Aaron arrived, leaving three remaining.
"Alright. I'll increase my talent points," Aaron replied. Natasha cleared her throat in response.
Aaron sat cross-legged and opened the lid of the TP elixir. The man downed the purple-colored elixir and sensed a steady stream of energy flowing through the veins in his body.
[TP +150]
Slowly, Natasha could see the natural energy begin to enter Aaron's body, although the amount was not that large. For those who wished to gain many talent points, their best option was to go to the dungeon or the Earth Core Tower.
[Gathering Talent Points:]
[Name: Aaron Lewis]
[Age: 18]
[Talent: Stealth]
[Rank: C]
[Stage: 1]
[Talent Point: 8540/12.000]
[Efficiency: 21-25tp/hour]
[Description: The Stealth Talent allows the user to camouflage in the surrounding area, whether physical or magical].
Aaron focused on collecting points for his talent even though he knew the maximum limit for using the Tulip Garden magic circle was five hours daily. It was short but much better than being lazy.
[TP +24]
[TP +23]
Natasha sat on the iron chair with her legs crossed, called her pet, and let her pamper it. Two hours had passed, and Aaron was still seated in the magic circle, focused on absorbing the talent points given by the tulips in the garden.
"The maximum number of points that can be accumulated is 125, but the exact number of points that can be obtained cannot be fixed."
The pet on Natasha's lap was a blue fur fox, one of those fairly powerful foxes but not classified as a legendary-level pet.
She had made a contract with the pet three months ago, and there was no objection whatsoever to the contract process.
[TP +25]
[TP +24]
[TP +23]
In the end, Aaron opened his eyes and stopped his talent point gathering. The blue panel that appeared before him clearly showed the accumulated number of talent points.
[Accumulated Talent Point Gathering]
[Talent: Stealth]
[Stage: 1]
[Accumulated TP: 119tp]
[Talent Point: 8659/12.000]
Aaron sighed. In the five hours he sat in the magic circle of the tulip garden, he had only earned 119tp to increase his talent points. He looked straight ahead and saw Natasha was sitting on a metal chair with a blue fox on her lap.
"How? Didn't I tell you going to the dungeon and killing monsters is much better?"
"My combat power is weak. What can the Stealth talent do besides stealing?" asked Aaron, walking up to him by stepping out of the magic circle of the tulip garden.
His place was immediately filled by other academy students who wanted to perform the Talent Point Gathering process. Aaron didn't mind and stood before Natasha.
"Don't worry. I'll help you gather lots of XP and TP elixirs."
"If you want, I'll wait for you at the academy's portal yard tomorrow. How about it?" asked Natasha, sincerely wanting to help Aaron so that he could advance to the intermediate phase of stage one quickly before the year ended.
Aaron had to admit Natasha's strength was truly extraordinary. At her age, her talent was already at the peak of stage two, only needing an ascension to reach the third stage.
Also, her talent wasn't random, she was able to control and manipulate light, it could be used for defense, offense, or escape.
"Alright. I'm sorry to trouble you, Natasha."
"Don't be like that. We're friends, remember?"
Aaron smiled. The two stepped away from the tulip garden to return to their class. Little did they know, a male student was staring at Aaron with a resentful look. He was upset that Aaron was being too close to Natasha.
"Damn it. That trash talent is still trying to get close to Natasha."
"What should we do?"
"We'll teach him a lesson he won't easily forget!" threatened the boy, Bernard.
The afternoon turned to evening just as the sun was going down. The class at the London Cadet Academy was over, the students walked out one after another to return to their homes.
Aaron and Natasha walked separately. It was an opportunity for Bernard to follow and beat Aaron if he had the chance.
Although someone was following him, Aaron didn't feel anything. He hasn't learned detection skills yet, so he can't track Bernard and his two friends' whereabouts.
BOM!
The sky-high purple light startled Aaron, as well as Bernard and his friends. Aaron dashed while dropping the bag he was carrying to reach his house as soon as possible.
The young man was pretty sure the purple light came from his house, considering his mother's talent was dark dimensional.
Aaron arrived at the house's front yard and saw the entire building was on fire. The young man suddenly shouted his mother's name aloud, unwilling to let bad things happen to her.
Bernard and his friends did not respond. They were still frozen in shock and couldn't believe what they saw. Aaron's house was ablaze in yellow and red flames.
"Wh-What the hell is happening?"
"MOM!" shouted Aaron.
The roof of his house began to collapse due to the burning, people around his house began to gather to see what happened to the Lewis Family residence. People were sympathetic, feeling sorry to realize Aaron had to live alone without anyone.
Aaron dropped to his knees with his head bowed languidly. Tears fell endlessly as his right hand punched the ground, feeling upset about what was happening.
"Aaron!" someone called, the voice soft and gentle.
"Mom...?"
Sure enough, the figure of his mother's soul appeared before Aaron. The young man looked at the surrounding area; there was nothing except black. The ground he stood on was not fully soil but a puddle of water.
His mother's beautiful face, wrapped in a mass of purple energy, floated before Aaron. A bitter smile was printed clearly as she knew she would be separated from Aaron for a long time.
Aaron was aware of his mother's current situation. She wasn't completely dead and was still in soul form. However, the young man didn't know what he had to do to get his mother back to her former self.
"I leave my Dark Dimension Talent to you. Use it wisely and carefully," Aaron's mother, Lucy, explained.
Lucy threw a wisp of purple energy and entered Aaron's body through his forehead. Now, the distinctive pattern of the dark dimension talent was vividly stamped on the young man's forehead.
The woman also pointed her hand forward, the purple light rushing into Aaron's heart. Lucy clenched her fist, and the dark energy seal in Aaron's heart was broken.
The veins all over Aaron's body seemed blackened mixed with violet color. His eyes were filled with a dark and powerful violet color. Aaron screamed loudly with both hands clenched, bearing the pain.
The people near Aaron saw him kneeling with his head bowed. A strong gust of wind accompanied by the thunder of purple lightning struck the place.
The group who came to kill Lucy sensed the Dark Dimensional Talent that should have belonged to Lucy, had now passed to her son, Aaron.
Panic broke out in the place, people ran for their lives. The Sages of the London Cadet Academy flew towards the large dark energy fluctuations, seeing the center of the energy coming from one of the academy's second-year students.
"What a terrifying dark energy."
"We must stop it before its power destroys over half the city."
"HYAAAAA!"
Aaron shouted as he stood up, floating in the air with violet-glowing eyes. His two palms were filled with different colored lightning, the right with purple lightning and the left with black lightning.
[TP +24]
[TP +150]
[TP +2500]
[TP +15000]
[TP +300000]
One of the sages saw an astonishing increase in Talent Points, 300000tp in a few seconds, which could make him rise to the peak phase in the third stage.
"Terrifying and devastating power. Who is he really?"
[WARNING!]
[System detected Darkness attribute energy increase]
[Initiates talent rank evolution]
[Adjusting talents with attributes]
[Evolution Completed]
[Main Talent: Dark Dimensional Reality]
[Rank: SSS-Rank]
A crack of void appeared behind Aaron, a woman with red hair and a stylish black dress appeared to stand beside Aaron. With just a sideways hand swing, she shattered the wind vortex.
"Who are you?" asked one of the sages.
"I'm Aerith."
She rubbed Aaron's face and knocked him out, an amazing power that no human had ever known. However, those who saw Aerith in human form believed she was a human.
She wasn't! She was a transformation of the will of a dark dimensional mind while visiting a new magical world.
Earth was classified as a new magic world after the earth's core released its radiation to all humans, precisely after the annihilation caused by the nuclear war.
"Which Union are you from?" asked the sage, Aerith laughed.
She swung her hand to the side again, opening a dimensional crack as she placed Aaron's body inside of it. Aerith returned her haughty gaze to the ground.
"I am the ruler of the Dark Dimension. I do not know what a Union is and how weak it is."
"You!"
"What are you going to do with that boy?" asked one of the female sages, worried because Aaron was part of the London Cadet Academy.
"Him? You'll see."