Chapter 2
F rank! Oh why him? Zale was stuck with an ability rated worst of the worst. Attracting lighting was not a good thing, at least not in any way he could think of. He also had no active skill at all, only two passives. He had never heard of that before, everyone received an active skill. This was worse than just getting an F rank passive, he didn’t even have an active that could help with any sort of job. The heavens really made a joke out of him.
Zale slumped away from the line, his eyes never leaving his spirit gem. This had to be a mistake, he had never heard of someone getting two passive skills. Something must be wrong with his spirit gem. Maybe he could get another. Zale moved toward the arrogant man who sat behind a wooden desk.
“You? Give me your hand, you can’t possibly have an A rank skill, it’s just not in your breed.”
Zale held in his rage, it’s one thing to disrespect him, but this man just disrespected his entire family. People like this that were born with everything always found it easy to scratch off those less fortunate at birth. They always seemed to forget that in this world birth doesn’t matter, all that matters is power. With enough power even someone with a background as low as a dirty farmer like Zale could make an entire city kneel in respect.
The arrogant man’s hand touched Zale’s spirit gem.
“Impossible!”
Zale couldn’t help but smirk. The man wasn’t patronizing him anymore, he was just as surprised as Zale was.
“I know, two passives and no active. There must be a mistake. Please, my spirit gem must be defective. Is there any way to fix this?” Zale asked.
Some of the other teenagers in the line perked up and started talking amongst themselves when they heard he had two passives. Just his luck. Now whenever he came to the city he would be a laughing stock. Good thing Zale only came to Jeskai once or twice a month with his father to sell the harvest or game they had stockpiled, picking up animal feed and such with the money they got.
“Shut your mouth boy and follow me,” the man yelled.
The man grabbed Zale’s shirt and dragged him back through a door that led to the inner chambers of the Spirit Hall. This section wasn’t open to the public, it was the offices and sleeping quarters of the Spirit Hall officials. The Empire put a Spirit Hall in every region to moderate and watch the local powers. While lords and nobles were given the right to rule by the Empire, they still wanted to show their presence else they leave room in arrogant nobles minds to forget or lose respect for them.
They stopped in front of a door and the man knocked politely, the arrogance in his demeanor had vanished. After a couple of moments of awkward silence he knocked again.
“Come in, come in.”
Zale was led inside by the man to a large office. The walls were all lined with large bookshelves except for a fireplace to the right of the doorway. A large chunky man with white hair and a moustache sat behind the desk. A strange machine that looked similar to the Spirit Furnace was next to his desk, the only reason Zale compared the two was because it had a similar place to place a hand with a spirit gem.
“What is it Delker?”
Zale would remember the name Delker for sure. Even though Delker's demeanor had changed a bit, he had still insulted his family.
“Well, Senior Abbot you need to see this boy's abilities,” Delker said excitedly.
The Senior Abbot motioned for Zale to come forward and give him his hand. Zale reluctantly complied. People’s abilities were everything, and it was generally better to not spread what abilities you had acquired else it would be easier for your enemies to plan and defeat you. Also, if you had a weak ability and lots of people knew, you would become a target for bullies and thieves.
The Senior Abbot touched Zale’s spirit gem and the information of his abilities passed through him like it had Zale. With a startle he jumped up and ran to one of the book shelves, muttering to himself. After a few seconds of looking he threw a book to Delker.
“That’s lightning abilities class C Volume 2 G-N, Impulse control should be in there,” the Senior Abbot said.
Delker flipped through the pages quickly while the Senior Abbot hurried to find another book.
“Ah here it is, two people recorded, one of the two only leveled the ability to three and found only a slight increase in reflexes. The other reached level five and achieved a large increase in agility and reflexes similar to that of the B rank ability Lightning Steps. The ability is ranked C because of how long it takes to level up opposed to similar skills, the one who reached level five trained it for over thirty years,” Delker stated.
Thirty Years, and that was only for level five! Ten was the max a skill could be leveled to and most people could level a C or lower ranked skill to ten in about twenty years, prodigies in less. Of course wealth could shorten the time with rare pills to speed up training. How was Zale ever going to make something of himself if it took thirty years to see the same results of another skill at level one?
Delker and the Senior Abbot didn’t seem dissuaded by this at all, it actually sped up the Senior Abbots search to be faster. He plucked a book from the shelf and plopped back in his cushy chair and flipped through the pages with gusto, slamming his hand down when he reached the page he wanted.
“Lightning Rod, only one recorded person, never leveled the ability past one, died while attempting to train it,” the Senior Abbot said.
Zale wasn’t surprised, it was F ranked. Who could possibly survive a real lightning strike? Some A rank abilities mimicked a lightning bolt but were nowhere near as powerful as a strike from the heavens themselves.
The Senior Abbot grabbed both of Zale’s hands and shook them vigorously.
“It’s such a great day, great things are in store for you my boy. We need to get these records transcribed so you will have to wait a couple hours for Delker to do that. We will sign you up for the tournament next year, I suspect you will be a pleasant surprise for all the academies even if you do poorly in the competition. Of course this next year the Spirit Hall will sponsor you, I won’t take no for an answer. While you wait for Delker I will set you up with some items that will help you train over the next year.”
The Senior Abbot seemed to be boundlessly happy. This was the worst day of Zale’s life, he was given two useless abilities and here the person in charge of Jeskai city’s Spirit Hall was ready to bend backwards for him like he received two S rank skills.
“I’m sorry sir. I don’t really understand what you’re going on about. I was just hoping it was possible to get a new spirit gem because mine seems to be broken. No one gets two passive abilities,” Zale said.
The Senior Abbot chuckled and gave the book containing Lightning Rod to Delker and dismissed him. With a motion of his hand toward a chair he told Zale to sit.
“What’s your name child?”
Zale sat down in the chair across the desk to comply to the Senior Abbots instructions.
“Zale Ashwater, sir.”
“Zale, what if I told you having two passives was a good thing? That it meant you were destined for greatness?”
Zale wished for that with all his might.
“I don’t see how. One of my abilities will literally kill me.”
“You definitely have a challenging road ahead of you, but like the speech we give all fourteen year olds at their awakening ceremony; abilities are chosen for a reason. They test us, make us become better, and strengthen our spirits. Do you know how you gain abilities after the awakening ceremony?”
Zale remembered what he was taught in school.
“You can use a scroll written by someone who reached level ten with that skill, the elements themselves can imprint it upon you if you impress them somehow, or you can develop one yourself, however lots of people spend years trying to develop skills with no result,” Zale answered.
“Textbook response. So at max how many abilities can one person have?” the Senior Abbot asked.
“Fourteen abilities, one active and one passive for each of the six elements plus the two they receive from their awakening,” Zale answered again.
The Senior Abbot nodded his head in approval.
“You pay good attention in school. You are no exception, except you will only be able to learn passives. Dual passives are an anomaly that happens once in every five hundred years. The last recorded case was the general that led the rebellion of Xander; Lang Fi. Before him was the founder of our Empire Resper Vurith himself. Dual passive users are reported to have exceptionally strong bodies, and willpower second to none,” Senior Abbot announced.
Too much. Zale was overwhelmed, Lang Fi and Resper Vurith were both legendary. Their tales were told by every bard and minstrel he had ever listened to. He couldn’t imagine himself as famous as them. He had been dreaming of breaking away but this seemed too good to be true. Almost too easy.
“That F rank skill of yours will be a problem. Attracting true lightning is a dangerous game. Surviving would be something not even true elemental masters would be sure of. Don’t lose faith though, and have confidence, every recorded dual passive holder was chosen by fate to define a century. You would not be here in front of me if you couldn’t handle that F rank skill,” the Senior Abbot said.
Zale knew he was right about one thing, Lightning Rod was either going to kill him or make him spoken about throughout the realm. He just wasn’t sure if being famous was worth risking death.