Chapter 3: Registration
"I think a good technique would be the Art of Thousand Divine Beasts, which I found in the ancient ruins during earlier life," suggested Long Hai.
Alex pondered for a second, trying to find a fragment of memory about this cultivation art.
"A very mysterious art, which if cultivated allows you to acquire the abilities of all creatures in the whole universe, as well as transform into them. However, this art needs its users to encounter those beasts and take something from their bodies, such as blood, claws or hearts," said Alex.
"Although I had a similar technique, it only allowed transforming into a Heavenly Five-Clawed Dragon, which was a very strong beast, but not unrivaled in a myriad of worlds."
"Although Wenrin is a huge place, with a lot of dangerous beast and demons it'll be very hard to meet a divine beast, such as a dragon."
"Ha-ha, here is where my abilities will be useful," suddenly Hypnos laughed and snapped his fingers.
A sudden surge of unknown memories entered Alex's brain and intense pain almost made him pass out. However, it took only a moment for the pain to appear and dissipate without a trace.
"Dream Manifestation…" muttered Alex and looked at the first star with astonishment.
"Right, with this art it's possible to make anything within your dream become real. Only I and a few other old Gods possessed such power of manipulating the reality."
"Impossible!" shouted Sherill, "How can you create something from nothing, it goes against basic laws of the universe!"
"Don't misunderstand, little girl, you must use Ren to invoke this ability."
"What?! Wait… Did you just call me a little girl?!" One of the five stars completely lost control over its emotions.
"Don't make things difficult, accept it," whispered Master Long.
"All of you can only bully me!"
"That's enough, let's focus our attention on Alex for now."
"Good."
"You?!" Queen of Mages sighed and didn't continue arguing with the other two.
It was the first time the legendary Queen of Mages, Lady of Wisdom Sherill experienced disdain from others.
"Seniors, I have decided to use the Art of Thousand Divine Beasts, thank you for your help," said Alex, intending to stop his previous reincarnations from fighting with each other.
"Don't be so courteous with us, well now, should you start researching magic?"
"Yes, yes!" screamed Sherill at the top of her voice, "Don't interrupt our discussion, I am an expert here, so! Ha-ha."
"We won't," said Null and smiled, his voice was warm and calm.
The star with Sherill's shadow trembled a little and looked at the other source of the voice. Queen of Mages lived an eventful life and encountered a lot of people, some of them were amazingly charming, but the voice she just heard, was in a completely different realm.
"Did I say anything wrong?" slowly asked Null.
"No…" Sherill acted like a young girl full of childish love, "Alex, well… So, let's focus on basic elements of magic first and then deduce which element is best suited for you."
After a few minutes of discussion and learning, Alex said, "Thank you, I'll be going then!"
His figure disappeared from the depth of his consciousness, at the same time five stars that surrounded his soul started rotating.
"Hypnos, tell me, why does it seem that Alex isn't influenced by our memories?" asked Subutai.
Null also couldn't stop his curious personality from asking as well, "It seems as if the memories are distant from him like he wasn't the one to experience them. What did you do?"
"I just isolated the influence of our memories and the most painful ones are still sealed, I thought it would be best to unseal them gradually."
"That should be a good thing," said Sherill.
This time she acted according to her status as a great personage from the Magic World.
Alex's consciousness returned from deep meditative state and he opened his eyes, a bright gleam passed through his gaze and disappeared.
"Brother?" a thin voice entered his ears and Judith came out of the bedroom.
"Judith, did you sleep well?" asked Alex with a warm smile on his face.
Even if the whole world crumbles, Alex won't show any tinge of fear or pain on his face before his little sister.
"Yes… Where's Mom?" she asked and looked around.
"I thought she was asleep…" Alex stood up and went into the bedroom, their mother wasn't there.
"Did you hear her leaving, Judith?" he asked his little sister.
"No, but there was something on the table," she answered and pointed at a small, old, wooden table.
There was only a piece of paper with some writing on it.
"Dear Alex, I know you'll be the one to read this letter, please, don't show it to Judith, it will be too much for her to handle… I am sorry… I am sorry for everything you are coming through right now, and for what I am doing to you and your sister, but there is no other choice. I know you have awakened and that's the only thing which eases my heart from worry but at the same time makes me hate myself even more… I've changed and you can feel it too, I think, I became an awakened as well, those memories are too real, they cannot be an illusion… Right now, I need time to figure out who I am exactly, that's why I asked Mr. Han to look after you, he is the man who helped your father and me when we escaped from the family. I've always been curious about your father's surname, why he didn't use it, why we used mine for you and Judith. The answer is simple, we were scared that your Dad's family will find us… Take him away and kill us… For now, use my surname – Bloom. Maybe one day I'll be able to take revenge and erase our fear… Love you, Mom."
"Mom… Why did you..." quietly asked Alex his mother, who drifted away with the wind, "I will find out my father's family and make them regret everything, Mom!"
Alex didn't know why his father was taken away but now, knowing everything, he couldn't control his anger anymore, there was some kind of pride inside, which made him think, 'How dare they?! Those lowly mortals!"
"Brother, where's Mom?" asked Judith leaning on the doorway.
"She… She went to the shop, don't worry."
"Alex… I can tell when you're lying to me," mumbled his sister with sadness in her eyes, her whole world crumbled, her parents disappeared, only her brother can help her feel that there is still hope.
"Sorry, Judith, it won't happen again."
They went into the main room and Alex prepared a simple breakfast of tea and bread. That was everything they had, even though Mom had left a few copper coins, that wasn't enough to survive for two or three days.
Knock… Knock…
Someone knocked at the door when the siblings just finished their meals.
"Who is there?" asked Alex with suspicion and moved closer to the entrance.
"It's Mr. Han, your Mom should've told about me," a displeased voice came from the other side.
"Oh, yes, please come in…" said Alex and opened the door.
Mr. Han was an old Chinees man, with grey hair, brows, and mustache, his back was slouched, legs trembled a little, it seemed as if he could break at any moment.
"Youngsters this day, know nothing of hospitality," crumbled Mr. Han and looked angrily at Alex.
"Sorry, would you like some tea, sir?"
"Hmph," was the only answer and the old man sat at the table.
"Who are you, grandpa?" asked Judith.
"Ho-ho-ho, what a cute little girl, my name is Mr. Han, but you can call me grandpa."
"Ok, grandpa, you can call me Judith!"
"Good, good," the old man was full of smiles when he talked to Judith.
'That's good,' thought Alex.
"What're you waiting for, kid?!" immediately Mr. Han changed his tone and turned to Alex.
"Sorry…"
'Why is his attitude so different towards me?'
After a minute of a tea talk between Judith and Mr. Han, the old man finally paid attention to her brother.
"Kid, did you awaken a strong reincarnation?"
"Yes… I think I can join a guild and start earning money."
"Don't be so impatient with your decision… It's better to start working alone and register at the association. Take some simple missions, gain experience within Wenrin and then take part in dungeon raids," seriously suggested Mr. Han.
"But, I thought that newcomers are better to join…"
"What do you know, ha? Guilds make people think that way, especially the ones that call themselves Sects or Schools. What can they teach? How to sacrifice their lives?" the old man angrily interrupted.
"Well, then I will listen to your advice, sir…"
"You better do, or else…" Mr. Han looked at the girl in front of him.
"Thank you!"
"Let's go and register you, already, hai…" he sighed.
"I will go with you!" shouted Judith.
Association is an organization composed of all existing countries right now, it does not matter if the country became a kingdom or if some strong awakened took rule over it, it will still be part of the association, or else it will get exterminated. Nobody knows how the Association got so powerful, where they take awakened or who is the leader right now. After the second year of examination, the association was covered in mystery. It's rumored that its head is the most powerful awakened who has 3 reincarnation stars and even if the heads of Three Great Guilds, Two Schools, and One Sect fight together against him, the only outcome is their defeat.
"Hello, sirs, how can I help you," asked the young man at the opened window.
"I would like to register…"
"Oh, a newly awakened, it's always a pleasure to see people like you," smiled the man, "please fill in this form."
'Name: Alex Bloom | Age: 14 | Country: Golden Lion Empire | City: City of New Hope
Power: F- | Date of register: 23.10.2XXX | Missions Success: 0 | Missions Failed: 0'
Alex got his newly made ID card with his photo and information, it was made out of unknown metal, people say it's impossible to destroy unless you possess the power of an S class. Association long ago created a rating system for power and strength: SSS – SS – S – A – B – C – D – E – F. Each of the major ratings has a lower rating: + and -, so it looked like this: F+, F, and F-. Right now, Alex didn't take the power testing, so he was assigned the lowest rank of F-.
"It looks beautiful, Alex, can I take a look?" asked Judith.
"Later, sis… Sir, so can I take missions right now?"
"Yes, but newcomers usually join the guilds and study there first, so…"
"No need for that," intervened Mr. Han and quickly flashed with his Association ID.
It was too fast, so Alex didn't clearly see what was on it.
"Oh, Mr. Han, nice to meet you. Then, you can just take the mission directly, which one do you want?"
The young man completely changed his attitude after seeing Mr. Han's ID, Alex got curious about what was written on it.
"Simple herb gathering, this one… Five F rank herbs for 5 silver each, exactly what he needs right now," said the old man and took the plate with the mission.
"Ok, does he need buffer time or start immediately?"
"Yes, he awakened just yesterday, he needs some training."
"No problem, then three days of buffer time and the mission will start after, you'll have then two days to accomplish it."
"Thank you, good-bye."
They left the Association building of New Hope City and headed home, all the talking was done by Mr. Han and Alex was just like the third wheel, although he was the one to take on the mission.
Weekly Power Status
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