Planet Fluxara, Augustine Manor, The Master Bedroom
As Valerio pondered, thinking about his future, another conversation was taking place in the Augustine Manor.
The stern voice of Maximus echoed in the large bedroom, "Isadora, you and I both know Valerio, as smart as he is, he's too naive. He has no idea of the world beyond! Can't you see? He believes our strength is all there is, that there will be no battles for him to fight.
We can't let this continue anymore! He's a Tier 1 First Plane as a 17-year-old!"
"I know love. But haven't you seen him work? It's like he's in his own world, too immersed to realise I'm watching, to realise it's time for dinner. Also! He's excellent at what he does. Besides, we both know there are paths to power with a single profession or a single one of the four arts. Let alone two of each." Isadora smiled lovingly.
"And we both know that those paths won't be enough. He's my son too. I know him better than he knows himself. Everything else aside, don't you think it's a shame to let his talent go to waste? If they found out about him, about who he was… If we couldn't—" Maximus took a deep breath, and continued with a gentle tone,
"What would we do if we lost him?"
Isadora's eyes seemed to soften as she thought about the path she and her husband had taken to reach their heights, the path they continued to walk. It was not merciful, and they both knew it could very well spill over to his.
"I know I know, I want him to be happy, that's all. However, for his future, I'll support you on his birthday. It's time our son lives up to his potential.
…We won't be able to hide forever."
Maximus leaned forward and placed Isadora's head against his chest, tightly holding her by her waist. However, his expression, separate from his love for his wife, wasn't loving nor warming—it was filled with resolution.
***
Planet Fluxara, Valerio's Abode
"Ahhhhh…"
Valerio yawned as he stretched his arms.
He sat up straight in his bed while trying to blink the sleepiness out of his eyes. With a lazy glance out of his window, he realised it was already noon. His eyes widened as he immediately sobered up, the laziness in his bones disappearing in an instant. He rushed out of bed and started to plan his day. He already knew he'd look at his talent examination today, since he was going to cultivate, he'd have to know the cards he'd been dealt. Though technology wasn't always 100% accurate regarding cultivation, his family had some of the best equipment at hand to asses talent.
Valerio couldn't help but be curious about his talents; after all, it was almost like a gacha was played with every new baby being born. Existence itself assigned an arbitrary talent to them. Talents could very well forge one's destiny.
When he'd initially gotten his talents assessed, Valerio had insisted on not seeing them. The exact thought had been: 'I'm never going to need them anyway.'
In all honesty, he likely wouldn't have taken the test if not for his parents' constant nagging, and the test would've at least provided him some leeway in his arguments. He couldn't help but smile, remembering all the arguments he had gone through regarding his talents as he stood up, and reached for his nightstand, where he'd placed his results before sleeping. He wanted to see his results after a refreshing night's sleep and plenty of time to research them in the day.
As Valerio picked up the transparent hologram, it lit up in blue colours. He quickly inputted his password and the hologram flickered to display his results:
—
Talent Assessment: Valerio Augustine
Bloodline: [Void Born]
Rank: [Chosen]
Meridians: [Dreamweaver's Pathways]
Rank: [Forgotten]
Soul: [Architect's Soul]
Rank: [Forgotten]
Physique: [Voidwoven]
Rank: [Chosen]
Pupils: [Unknown]
Rank: [Forgotten]
—
'Whoa.'
No wonder his parents had been urging him to cultivate, he had actually been born with his family's rarest talent, the [Voidwoven] physique.
Valerio smiled, a budding feeling of pride blooming. Of course, he had his family's bloodline, but seeing it on the tablet made him feel strangely… happy.
'Hmm, what else?'
Valerio's eyes widened, 'A soul talent?'
Valerio stared at his soul talent, he hadn't expected himself to be born with the best of the best, but seeing a forgotten ranked talent he didn't recognise felt odd, though at least the library might have information on it.
'3 forgotten and 2 chosen, what interesting cards to be dealt.'
Talent rankings were quite abstract, there were of course talents with more or less potential and consequently more or less power. However, their ranking was assessed completely differently…
It was the impact the wielders of talents had on the world that was used to assess a talent's rank. This was measured in 5 ranks, with Forgotten being the lowest and Chosen being the highest:
Forgotten (lowest impact on the world)Witness Seer Participant Chosen (highest impact on the world)
Each level represented a level of fate attached to a talent, representing how far others with the same talents have gone and how significant their feats had been. There were countless talents in existence, thus millions could fit under a ranking, the only exception were Chosen ranked talents. There could only be a thousand Chosen ranked talents at a time for each pillar of talent (meridians, soul etc). The higher ranking within the thousand a Chosen talent was, the more benefits existence itself rewarded that person. After all, a grander fate could have more than one positive effect on a creature.
Thinking back to his Chosen talents, he still found it hard to believe that he had been born with his bloodline physique, the only other person with it was his dad, Maximus.
'I guess I'll have to ask him about it soon.'
Having planned to talk to his dad, Valerio switched his focus back onto the tablet.
'Hmm [Dreamweaver's Pathways], I've never heard of them, could it be a talent outside of this galaxy? Maybe a lost talent? I'll also have to visit the libraries again. I'll have to look at what it means for the name of my pupil talents to be [Unknown].'
He was actually very surprised to even see [Unknown] for his pupils after all, pupil talents were basically unheard of, the only talent almost everyone was born without. Though his excitement had been doused down by the [Unknown] status, it could just be an error relating to some other external factor. Perhaps the machine couldn't analyse it?
'Well, no point thinking too much about it without information first.'
Valerio grabbed a silk jacket from his chair and left the room in his pyjamas. His destination?
The Augustine Library.