Chapter 21 - Rare Gifts
Soon the entire hall was filled with the people, and they all looked at the front.
There were a variety of emotions on their faces, from excited to nervous, to scared. They were all waiting for their turn and observed the ones that were getting appraised. The appraisal for gifts was always done according to the age and Children would be first before teens and then adults.
The process of appraisal was free for everyone up to the age of 18 and the ones above that could get themselves appraise for a fee. The fee wasn’t that much and could still be afforded by most people. The appraisal could be done twice a year at the most and could be done all the way till one was old and close to death.
Most people that were going to awaken their gifts would do so in their younger years.
50% awakened it between ten to fifteen years.
30% did it between sixteen to eighteen years.
9% did it between eighteen to twenty five years.
5% did it between five to ten years.
3% did it between one to four years of age.
2% did it below one year of age.
1% did it above twenty five years of age.
Unless a child’s ability was very apparent, they would only start getting tested from the five years of age. Because the Appraisal process used up the aether from one’s body, it could potentially be harmful to the growth of a normal child.
If there were signs that the child had awakened their gift naturally, they would be allowed to get it appraised. During the appraisal, the altar would give them a better clue about their gift and the others would also be able to see what it was as it would give its name.
Lucius watched as the parents of the youngest baby brought it to the altar.
“Carefully place his hand on the sphere,” Maleck directed.
“Alright, priest Maleck.” The parents said before holding the hand of the baby and placing it on top of the floating sphere.
Lucius carefully watched it and had expected something to happen instantly, but nothing did. In fact, two minutes passed just like that without any reaction and they were just standing there same as before.
‘Is there something wrong?’ Lucius wondered.
His eyes moved around, taking in the reactions of everyone. No one seemed to be worried about it thus he thought that perhaps this was normal.
“Priest Maleck?” the mother of the baby spoke, concern showing on her face.
“Don’t worry, the aether in the baby’s body is very less thus it can take a longer time.” Maleck assured.
~Shua~
And just as Maleck said this, the floating sphere started to glow in a yellow light.
~Gasp~
“The yellow light! It is a rare ranked gift!” Priest Maleck exclaimed.
Joy appeared on the faces of the parents while the baby started crying instead, kicking its legs and trying to pull its hand back. It was evident that it had become quite uncomfortable due to all this.
“You can let him rest now. I’ll read out the name of the gift.” Maleck said.
“Thank you, priest Maleck.” The parents said before holding their baby boy close.
Maleck looked into the book that was made out of marble below the floating sphere and chanted something before words started to appear on the marble book.
“The gift that your baby has is… Fire Whip!” Maleck announced.
The parents of the baby seemed to be content with it and took a breath of relief.
“We had seen flames light up on his hand before and knew that it was going to be a fire related gift, but this is simply amazing.” The father of the baby spoke.
“Goddess Etara has blessed you, may your child’s gift bloom and prosper.” Priest Maleck blessed and directed them to sit.
As soon as the parents were seated, the next couple approached with their baby. Lucius had been watching the entire thing, and hearing the name ‘Fire Whip’ made him feel a bit disappointed. Just from the name, he could imagine what kind of effects the gift would have, but if he compared it with his past world, such a thing could be accomplished by anyone who knew intermediate level of fire magic.
‘Just for something like this to be called rare… I’m having a hard time understanding this world…’ Lucius thought to himself.
The second baby’s hand had already been placed on the sphere for two minutes and it started to glow, which brought Lucius out of his thoughts.
“Yellow Light! It is a rare ranked gift as well!” Maleck announced.
A similar level of joy appeared on the faces of the parents, and they waited for Maleck to announce the name of the gift.
“The gift your baby has is… High Lancer!” Priest Maleck announced.
The parents of the child seemed a bit confused after hearing the gift’s name, and Maleck understood their thoughts.
“Congratulations, your child is a born soldier. High Lancer is a gift that makes one innately talented in using lances. They can learn specialized martial arts that no normal soldier can use.” Maleck explained.
They took a breath of relief and walked away, letting the third couple come forward. Lucius was now getting interested more after having heard the effect of the gift ‘high lancer’.
‘A gift that can innately increase one’s talent in using a specific type of weapon? Hmm… this is rather unorthodox… I don’t think there was any magic that increased one’s talent in the usage of weaponry specifically.’ Lucius thought.
The sphere that was floating started to glow again, and it was the yellow light once again. Maleck read the name of the gift that had appeared in the book and nodded.
“The gift that your child has is… Scholar’s Mind: Arithmetic.” Maleck announced.
Lucius was once again confused after hearing a name like this and could guess the effect, but didn’t know if he would be accurate or not.
“Priest Maleck what does the gift do? We knew our baby had awakened his gift when the book in our house started opening automatically.” The parents asked.