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Chapter 36: Earth Rank
🕑 Added 2025-06-11 10:23:07 +0000 UTCEthan’s eyes were wide with disbelief. "My god, I can't believe it. One million credits! How long would it take an ordinary family to save that much?"
Mayor Everett Thorne sighed, his expression becoming serious. "And that is why, for an ordinary person, the Awakening is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. A second test requires the exact same amount of energy as the initial Awakening. So, unless one is willing and able to pay for it themselves, they cannot get a second test."
"But what if someone really has a powerful innate talent, but the initial test goes wrong for some reason?" Ethan asked.
Mayor Thorne said helplessly, "There's no easy way around it. Just providing the nation's students with a single free opportunity to awaken their abilities already costs so much. If we were to let them have free re-tests on demand, even with the central government's intervention, we might be able to barely sustain two or three extra tests per city. After that, those specialized staff members who are responsible for maintaining the stone’s energy would probably have to resign in disgrace for the budget overruns."
"This thingamajig… is pretty expensive," Ethan muttered, finally understanding the scale of the operation.
"So," the Mayor concluded, "the free awakening is the absolute limit of what the Global Concord can currently do for its citizens. But don't you worry too much about it. The talent detection process hasn't had any verifiable errors for many, many years. Even if there are issues or strange manifestations after awakening, that's usually attributed to the individual's own unique psionic problem. It's really only because of incredibly powerful or unique talents that the detection sometimes shows anomalous results. The probability of this is very low, but it can eventually be discovered. The entire third year of high school is for dedicated training and observation. Every student who awakens an ability must spend that year diligently channeling Aura in school. The arrangement is specifically designed to have them secretly observed by trained talent scouts. If a student's innate talent level is really strong, their training speed will definitely increase rapidly, and they will be noticed."
With that, Mayor Thorne seemed to suddenly remember something and said in a tone of careful explanation, "Oh, right. The few people who have used the spare energy before did indeed pay the full fee, but please don't misunderstand that I'm misappropriating public funds. All of this money will be handed over directly to the public treasury to be used for strengthening our city's defensive power and infrastructure."
Ethan nodded continuously. "Understood, understood!"
Lily finally cut in. "Alright, we've talked so much about the politics of it. We're here to get his talent re-tested, Uncle Everett. Please help my nephew get a re-test. How much is the fee?"
Mayor Thorne smiled and waved his hand dismissively. "Why talk about credits between us? It's so formal. Before, when you awakened your own Legendary-rank talent, you brought so much glory and prestige to our city. I still feel that the reward I gave you back then was not enough. For this re-test for your nephew, there's no need to pay."
"Alright then, it's settled!" Lily was also one to seize an opportunity. Seeing that it was free, she immediately agreed with a bright smile.
"Follow me," the Mayor said.
Mayor Thorne led the two of them to a heavily guarded room deep within the government building. Outside the massive steel door, there were dozens of psionic soldiers patrolling, all armed with live ammunition. "The Awakening Crystals are extremely precious and a high-priority strategic asset, so they are all heavily guarded. The people stationed here are at least Rank Two psionicists." He took out a high-level keycard and swiped it on a panel by the door. The large door hissed open, and inside were rows upon rows of shimmering crystal balls, all identical. At a rough count, there were at least a hundred of them.
"To prevent them from being stolen by a clever thief or a spatial-ability user," the Mayor explained, "only one of these is genuine; the rest are high-quality, psionically-charged fakes. Only through a special scanning method can the real one be identified. Every year, during the Awakening season, the real crystal is rotated randomly among several different schools to further enhance security." He took out something that looked like a specialized radar device. "This is a unique energy-signature detector. Only with it can the real Awakening Crystal's signal be detected."
He activated the detector, and a single red dot appeared on its screen. Mayor Thorne led the two of them to the location marked by the red dot. "This is the one. Ethan, put your hand on it."
Ethan, his heart pounding, placed his right hand on the cool, smooth surface of the crystal ball. After waiting for a while, there was no reaction at all.
Lily frowned. "What's wrong?"
Mayor Thorne coughed. "Looks like… this one is also fake. I told you my luck isn't that good."
Ethan: ??? Lily: ??? Are you kidding me?
The Mayor coughed twice again and said with some embarrassment, "After all, there's only one true detector in the city. Although its test for the real crystal is brilliant, there can still be sophisticated fakes that mimic the energy signature closely. So, as an extra security measure, I had our technicians set up between one and twenty fakes that give off a similar, but not identical, reading. They are randomly designated crystal balls. It's possible the first one we test is real, but it's also possible the twentieth one is real, and all the rest are fakes."
Ethan stared at him, deadpan. "You are truly so cautious, sir!"
"You flatter me," the Mayor said, not detecting the sarcasm.
Mayor Thorne led the two of them to test a dozen more crystals before they finally found the genuine one. After Ethan placed his hand on it, the Awakening Crystal instantly emitted a dazzling, brilliant golden-brown light that filled the entire room.
Mayor Thorne gasped, his eyes wide with shock and elation. "Earth… Earth Rank! It's actually another Earth Rank talent! My god, normally we might only get one of these every fifty years, but this year we actually have three!" One must not underestimate this one extra person. Lily was different; though she was a Legendary-rank talent, her nature and future were tied to the national-level Factions and Pinnacle University. She was a great source of pride for the entire New Veridia, a feather in its cap, but these Earth Rank talents were the future pillars of the city itself. With them, New Veridia could be seen as a rising power even in the larger, more competitive cities.
The appearance of two new Earth Rank talents in a row would make his own political achievements during his term as mayor look very, very good. And this also meant that New Veridia would have another powerful pillar of strength in the future. Whether for public or private reasons, this was excellent news! At this moment, Mayor Thorne was extremely glad that he had agreed to this re-test. Otherwise, such a good gem, a future powerhouse, would have been covered in dust and lost to obscurity.
After Ethan removed his hand, Mayor Thorne stepped forward, his demeanor now even more warm and sincere. "It seems that what you said, Lily, is indeed true. There was a significant problem with the talent test back then. This is a dereliction of duty on the part of the government. I'm really sorry to have held you back for so long, Ethan. As such, I can apply for three advanced-grade psionic potions for you from the city's strategic reserve as official compensation. What do you think?"
To say that it was the government's fault was, of course, pure political nonsense. The talent test had not made a verifiable mistake in hundreds of years. How could it just happen to make a mistake for him? A discerning person could tell at a glance that there must be some special problem with his unique ability, or perhaps some hidden characteristic, that led to his initial awakening being detected as "No-rank."
Mayor Thorne also knew this, but his words were purely to build a good relationship with Ethan. Firstly, Ethan's now-confirmed Earth-rank talent, even if placed in those big capital cities, would be highly sought after, let alone in their small city of New Veridia; that was a top-tier asset. Furthermore, he was also very good friends with the two heirs of the Vance and Linley families. Securing a good relationship with him was equivalent to securing a good relationship with those two powerful families as well.
Who were Marcus and Seraphina? They were the heirs to the two strongest second-tier families in New Veridia. Although they were indeed not as good as the number one family, the Thorne family (his own), one must not forget that Marcus also had an Earth-rank talent, and Seraphina only had a slightly inferior Superior-rank. When they grew up, they would also be two top-tier combat powers. In the future, when they matured, they would definitely be influential figures in New Veridia. To be able to befriend three top-tier geniuses at the same time now, by paying the small price of three potions and using credits that weren't even his own, but the city's, why would he possibly not do it?
