The training hall wasn't as big as Arthur hoped.
It was big, no doubt-rows of dumbbells stacked like soldiers, weighted bars, shooting ranges where students could test the accuracy and firepower of their spells, and even glossy pods that could simulate environments just to test the mind.
Somehow, though, it didn't really quite match what Arthur had in mind.
"Where is it?"
Arthur murmured, folding his arms as if unimpressed.
"Where's what, young master?"
Lucien asked, glancing sideways at him.
Arthur gestured vaguely at the hall.
"Where's everything? There is no grand training arena, no fountain of infinite elixirs so you could train forever. For how much I paid, you'd at least think it would be worth it."
He complained.
"You were expecting a fountain of elixirs?"
"A small one."
Before Lucien could respond, the guy standing in front of Arthur turned.
"You'll be surprised that many people paid eighty thousand for the membership, even before completing the exams."
The boy commented.
"Huh?"
The boy's sudden words caught Arthur off-guard.
"I'm sorry, what?"
"I said you'd be surprised that a lot of people paid eighty thousand for the level 1 membership."
"Membership? What membership?"
Arthur asked incredulously.
The boy hesitated, then shrugged.
"The membership."
He turned forward, realizing that these weren't the kind of people he wanted to engage in idle chatter with.
One just kept quiet, and the other one just felt.... weird.
'The Academy is really draining ever student for everything they're worth.'
He mused.
There was a level 1 membership, so there would be a level 2 membership, maybe even a level 3.
And Arthur could see himself paying for everything.
"At the very least I should at least get my money back if I don't awaken a soul weapon."
Arthur grumbled, though he very much doubted that.
The chances that he would get one was less than favorable considering that in the original story Arthur didn't have a soul weapon.
He was hoping that in the original, he didn't bother seeing he if had one, but just assumed that since he was talent-less he wouldn't have one.
'Well, even if I don't awaken mine, at least Lucien participated too.'
But the reason he had also paid for Lucien was different.
It was important that Lucien participated as well.
The silence in the hall was maddening. The only noise was the clatter of equipment as an instructor clumsily operated a machine.
The process was so slow that the first person to come in hadn't even began to try awakening his soul weapon.
Arthur's gaze went towards the pane, he could see applicants coming to join the line that had already gone through the door of the training hall.
'It's going to take a long time before they finally boot up that machine.'
Arthur thought.
Then, the air shifted.
As if the world was waiting for him to make that remark, the machine finished booted.
"Come forward."
The instructor said, motioning for the boy in the front to move closer.
The boy stood for everyone to see as the instructor plugged crystalline tubes to his hands and legs..
"As soon as you feel the essence surging in, focus all the essence you can to form a weapon."
The instructor said.
"Okay."
The boy said.
He stood with a determined look on his face.
The instructor activated the machine.
Almost instantly, the boy's expression changed.
He stretched his hand out as his body trembled, his breath turned ragged, while tendrils of pale-blue essence began taking form around him, raging in a spiraling form.
"Direct the essence into your hand, don't allow it to move freely around you. Form it into a weapon!"
The instructor directed.
The boy slowly began doing as told.
Slowly but surely, the essence stopped raging around him, and then formed into a ball.
The pressure from the ball of essence forced several people in the front to their knees.
"Use it to form a weapon!"
The glow intensified, pushing the air outward in waves.
Arthur watched it, clearly interested.
The boy let out a guttural groan, then it happened-
A blinding burst of light exploded forward, the raw essence expanding like a shock wave.
Those at the front of the line fell onto the ground, unable to bear the pressure.
Arthur, since he was at the back, only blinked furiously as the brightness momentarily blinded him.
The essence condensed, light fusing into matter.
"Congratulations, you've awakened your True Soul Weapon.... A hammer."
At the end, the instructor's voice sounded a little disappointment.
The boy beamed, lifting the hammer like he had just conquered the world.
"Boy, are you perhaps a Leobert?"
The instructor asked.
"Yes, sir."
"No wonder."
The man shook his head.
"When you gain admission into the academy, you'll be given the chance to learn the name of your weapon."
The instructor then sent the boy off, Arthur could've sworn that the boy seemed "giddy" as he skipped out of the training hall.
"Imagine catching someone skip like that in this age."
Arthur commented.
Even Lucien seemed somewhat disappointed by it.
"Those of you who got hit by the impact, move to the side."
The line was divided in half.
"Next."
The instructor called.
A girl came forward.
Fortunately, it didn't take long for the instructor to plug the drip to her and start it up.
At the end of it, she actually awakened her own True Soul Weapon: It was a bow.
"Next."
The next person, another girl failed, she couldn't stabilize the essence forming around her and almost blew herself up.
The person after her failed....
So did the next sixty people to go up.
"Lucien, you should go first."
Arthur said, they were the ones in the front.
Lucien didn't refute, he just stared at Arthur until he was called up.
"Next."