"Gordon! Why are you late? The awakening ceremony is right now!"
Jessica said urgently when she saw Gordon come through the doors of the awakening center.
Shrugging Gordon didn't say anything. The last thing in the world that he wanted to do was tell this beautiful girl that he had been tripped and beaten on the way to school today. It was times like this that he wished that he bruised more easily. Then maybe he could get some attention. But this thought was fleeting in his mind.
Gordon actually preferred to deal with his problems in his own way. And awakening to become a beast tamer and maybe even have his own talent would be the first step. Once he had a powerful beast the bullies wouldn't dare pick on him. As he transmigrator he felt like he had a good chance to awaken his cheat and bond with some type of mythical beast.
"Come on, let's get in line."
Jessica whispered to Gordon when she realized that he wasn't going to tell her what had happened.
Fooling no one, Gordon knew that Jessica had already sized him up and knew exactly who had waylaid him and why. There was no need to belabor it and with more important things going on there was a sense of hope and expectation for future possibilities that they both shared.
Looking around Gordon felt like he was in some kind of over size hospital operating room from his previous world. The entire upper floors of the space were one way glass viewing rooms. Just right for the awakening center's elite, the school's monitors, and any media attending to watch in comfort. Gordon didn't know anyone who had been on the other side of that glass, but he had heard quite a bit about how amazing it was.
Ignoring the hype Gordon swallowed back his thoughts and followed Jessica.
Together they went to the back of the arena type auditorium to wait for their turn to awaken. They had been friends since childhood and had been there for each other through thick and thin. Jessica had been the only friend that stuck with him despite all of his quirks. He had been a nerd in his previous life, but that went double here. If anything his current body was even weaker. Instead of sports, Gordon had retreated into his classes and joined a few science clubs.
But this was all behind him. He was going to be able to tame a beast, receive spiritual feedback and starting today become stronger. Slowly the line inched forward. Occasionally some people in their class would cheer if in addition to becoming a beast master a student also awakened a talent.
Up on the stand in the center of the area stood their homeroom teacher Miss Paulsen and the awakening official. Tech surrounded them as various machines measured and tested the amount of various spiritual and physical readings in the arena. It was all very scientific.
Gordon was hopeful that he was going to awaken his system today. Ever since transmigrating to this world as a baby he had been waiting for his cheat to come on line. It was what every transmigrator deserved, right. A cheat that would make them super powerful, giving them a head start. But now as he came closer to putting his hand down on the awakening crystal he started to have doubts.
'Shouldn't the system already have arrived? Will I even get a talent? What if this isn't the trigger for the system to download?'
There were a lot of questions in his mind. But with no way to answer them besides patiently wait for his turn Gordon just calmly stood there and let these thoughts pass by in his mind. There would be time to make plans later.
Finally Jessica's turn came up.
"Good luck!"
He told her as she stepped up onto the platform.
She looked back and gave him a bright smile. Coming from a long line of soldiers, Jessica Philos was born and bred to be a fighting genius. The Philos clan prioritized raising fighting beasts and in training soldiers. And Jessica had been tested for her beast master talent at a young age. Just like all the other Philos all the beast master and talent tests had come back in the positive.
The way the taming ability and the talent worked no test could be completely correct. How most second or third generation kids, the nobles, and the most promising students were tested. If they where flagged by the tests for ability and talent they were given additional resources.
So it wasn't unexpected when she put her hand down on the crystal ball and immediately it lit up with a dark green color. Green was the color of beast master talent. The depth of the color though meant a lot. The darker the color the more powerful the beast master.
It meant that Jessica could either select from quite a broad range of beasts to tame her affinity and/or tame a more than one beast her allotment. Gordon hoped that she would have both. It was actually highly likely that she would have both considering her background. But you never knew.
Then she smiled back down at him and Gordon knew, she had both a wide affinity and a large allotment. It was just something that he intuitively knew. He knew she was happy. It was the kind of knowing that only people who have known each other for years could have.
And then the ball changed back to white as if it was clearing itself. In the next instant the ball became stained with a blue color. It was stunning as this time the color started dark and then rapidly became more and more light. Finally the color stopped changing when the crystal was the fairest sky blue.
This time Jessica couldn't reserve her reaction and she shot up a fist in triumph. Their teacher Miss Poulsen and the awakening tech conferred for a few moments over the computer to make sure that there had been no mistakes, but then Miss Poulsen turned around and smiled at Jessica and nodded.
Regaining her cool Jessica smiled back and carefully walked off the other side of the stand where the rest of the students were standing.
It was Gordon's turn and he stepped up onto the platform with some confidence. Despite all the questions running through his head this was his second life. He could hold his emotions. Both beast tamer and talents were scored from GGG to SSS. If he wanted to get into a good college he would have to have at least a C level beast tamer score. It was even possible to get into a good college with an F ranked ability, but he would have to have a really good talent.
It all depended on what was going to happen in the next few minutes.
His life was about to change. Carefully he put his hand down on the crystal and waited for it to change colors. After thirty seconds passed Miss Poulsen sighed and a look of sympathy appeared on her face. Usually a student's beast tamer affinity could be awakened immediately if it took this long then it most likely meant that he didn't have the ability.
This wasn't a big deal, in the Bright Empire in which Gordon lived a method for forcibly awakening a beast master ability had long been developed. It was just that the forced method of awakening always resulted in the weakest of grade of ability the G grade. Still it was better than nothing.
After another thirty seconds the crystal went completely black. Under Gordon's hand he could feel the crystal vibrate for a few seconds and then it was done. The crystal turned a generic gray color.
'That was it? I have awakened a beast master ability at all?'
Stunned Gordon realized that the system had not downloaded and that everything was over. Absent mindedly he started to take his hand off the crystal.
"Hold on, wait another moment while we test for a talent."
The awakening tech cautioned Gordon.
Surprised that he his test wasn't over Gordon continued to stand with his hand on the crystal. He had always assumed that a talent was impossible if you didn't naturally have the beast taming ability. But confronted with his own assumptions Gordon had to rethink.
'It must be possible to have a talent even without a beast taming ability.'
Excitement stirred suddenly as hope rekindled. Yet in the next moment the tech shook his head and gestured to Gordon to exit the stage. Miss Poulsen gave him an encouraging smile. It wasn't the end of the world. Most of his fellow students probably had an FFF level ability or higher. But there were three others in his class that were in the same GGG to G range of ability having been forcibly awakened.
Walking over to Jessica Gordon decided not to concentrate on his own problems and said.
"Wow, that was amazing. You must have received an excellent ability and talent! What did you get?"
But Jessica was holding her phone and typing barely able to acknowledge his question.
"Everyone, that is enough for today. You don't have to come back to school for three days. Use this time to find a beast to tame and bond with it. For those of you who don't have an arranged situation the school will provide your first beast which you can claim at the Beast Center using your school identity card. Good luck everyone!"
Miss Poulson called out and the group of students broke up. Some of Gordon's fellow students literally ran out of the doors of the arena impatient to start this new phase of their lives.
"I am sorry Gordon, I have to go, my family is waiting. Let's talk more soon!"
Jessica didn't quite run, but she very enthusiastically removed herself from the room.
Soon Gordon was the only one left and he stood there silently gazing into the distance as a text box showed up in front of his face.
[System found ...]
[Initializing system ... 1%]
'Good system, nice system, thank you system!'
Was all Gordon could think as he waited for his cheat code to come on line.