Chapter 29 - Nexus
Kiana looked around and checked that the situation in the room was fine before speaking. If she spoke at an inopportune moment when someone was announcing something or the host was speaking, it would be considered dishonorable.
Thankfully, everyone was busy in their own conversation and eating food, thus she was free to speak.
“In general there are two ways one can find out if they have a gift or not. The first way is the most common one where a person can go to the appraisal hall to get it appraised. Even if one has not awakened their gift, the appraisal hall can assist them a little bit.
The second method is the full awakening. This is relatively rare and happens for those that awaken their gift later in their lives; usually in the late teens. When a full awakening happens one will innately understand what their gift is, what its name is, and its effects.” Kiana explained.
“Ah… I see. But is it still possible for one to find out the name of the gift, if only the ability is activated?” Lucius asked, wanting to expand his possibilities.
He didn’t want to go to the appraisal hall to get his gift appraised, as he didn’t know much about it and revealing it directly could be potentially counterproductive to his plans in the future.
Sometimes have no talent is considered better in the society than having little talent in something.
Kiana thought for a bit before answering Lucius’s question.
“For the specifics, you will have to ask Priest Maleck as he is the expert in this, but I have heard of several instances where some people were able to guess the names of the gifts.
This is actually a gambling sport in some of the cities too. They bet on who will be able to guess the gift of a person. Though the people the usually participate in it are the ones who are yet to awaken their gift.
The method to do that is to sense their Aether within their body. Since Gifts are considered to be part of one’s souls, the names of their gifts are innately linked to them.
If I remember correctly, this is how the names of the gifts are created. The appraisal altar checks the soul of a person for the name of the gift. That is how the name of new gifts are found out as well.” Kiana spoke.
Lucius rubbed his chin while he pondered more on it. He felt like it was similar to some of the meditative techniques he had seen in his past life. For a lot of mages that used normal mana, their main method of increasing their magic was by either meditation or constant practice.
Because of this, a lot of mediation methods were available in the market. Lucius himself had researched them but hadn’t truly needed them because his magic was direly channeled from hell due to him being part of the Great Barrom Clan.
“Thank you for the information, Kiana.” Lucius said.
“Ah, that was nothing. If you have any questions at all, I will always be there for you.” Kiana replied with a smile.
Lucius nodded his head and pretended to focus back on his plate and the food on it. While he was doing this, he was recalling one of the common mediation methods of his past life. It wasn’t even used for the practice of magic and was a simple one that was used to increase one’s concentration.
Anyone could use this mediation method and it was common knowledge to nearly everyone in the world, or if they didn’t know they could easily find out about it through many channels such as libraries.
Lucius controlled his breathing and closed his eyes gently. He maintained this for a couple of minutes before calming down his breathing even more. He focused within his body and sensed a very faint energy of some kind flowing around.
Lucius could tell that this was perhaps aether since he had felt a similar energy from the healers and the priests before. That had actually helped him in recognizing his Aether. His mind ‘touched’ the Aether and then almost instantly a word came to his mind.
“NEXUS”
Lucius opened his eyes and innately understood that this was the name of his gift and that it truly was a gift. Along with the name, he also had some more information appear in his head; it was the method to use his gift.
“So that’s why it didn’t work properly…” Lucius muttered to himself.
He closed his eyes again and followed the method of using his gift; then a wall of text appeared in his vision.
Gift Name: Nexus
Description: Access the records of the divines and peer into the gifts of all that exists.
Type: Analytical
Rank: Unranked
Evolution: Not possible
A smile appeared on Lucius’s face after reading the text. This time he had targeted himself and used the gift, this had lead to the information about his gift being revealed to himself.
When he mediated and sensed the Aether in his body, he only got the understanding of the gift along with the name. The other things that were revealed when he use the gift on himself were rather surprising to him.
The first two parts were what he had kind of known, but even then the description was rather interesting to him. The next three items; the type, rank, and evolution were intriguing as well. The type was understandable to Lucius as he figured that out from the use automatically.
The Rank though, confused him a bit, as Unranked could either mean the gift was never seen before or that the gift was below the common rank. The final part about evolution sent a train of thoughts running across Lucius’s mind.
‘Hmm… so gifts can evolve too. But is this common knowledge or something kept hidden… I need to find out on my own.’ Lucius thought.
He finished up the food on his plate and asked for more serving. After all, if he wanted to be strong, he needed to be healthy first.