Talent Measurement

*****

Arthur arrived in front of Masglow, the royal capital at sunset along with his parents plus his little sister and with just a glance at the city, Arthur was left dazed at its beauty and majestic aura.

In the heart of the human continent lay the resplendent city of Masglow, rightfully crowned the royal capital for its unparalleled grandeur and allure. Nestled amidst breathtaking natural landscapes, Masglow stood as a testament to the harmonious coexistence of nature's wonders and human ingenuity.

To the south, the enchanting city of Astoria beckoned with its quaint charm, while to the north, the majestic Drakarta mountain range commanded awe with its towering peaks and rugged beauty. The southern city and the northern mountains served as a captivating frame for the royal capital, adding to its mystique and splendor.

As the sun rose over Masglow, its ethereal beauty was illuminated by the golden light, casting a radiant glow upon the city's lush forests to the west. The verdant foliage danced in the gentle breeze, painting a mesmerizing tapestry of greenery that stretched as far as the eye could see. To the east, the sprawling deserts exuded an enigmatic allure, their vastness hinting at untold tales and ancient mysteries waiting to be unraveled.

At the heart of Masglow, the royal castle stood as a timeless symbol of elegance and regality, its spires reaching towards the heavens in a display of architectural splendor. Within its walls, the city's rich history and noble heritage were preserved, whispering tales of bygone eras and legendary monarchs. Adjacent to the castle, the Fahr Association emanated an aura of wisdom and knowledge, its presence a testament to the city's commitment to progress and enlightenment.

Masglow, the royal capital, was a symphony of natural beauty and human achievement, where the past and present converged in a harmonious blend of grandeur and elegance. With its captivating landscapes, rich history, and unwavering spirit, Masglow stood as a jewel in the crown of the human continent, an enchanting realm where dreams took flight and legends were born.

To enter the city, you had to properly prove your identity along with a huge barrier completely encompassing the city, which would check the person for any prohibited items. Of course, Arthur and his parents didn't join the longline that was standing in front of the long city walls respectfully awaiting their turn. There was a separate gate specifically constructed for each of the now four major families, but it was a necessary tradition to discard your carriage before entering, as to show respect for the royal family and only they had the authority to enter the city in a carriage.

Arthur along with his parents and little sister - who was sleeping peacefully in Alice's arms - chose to leave their carriage at a distance of few meters from the entrance. Although it was the time of sunset, a long line was still queued in front of the public entrance and after the carriage came to a halt, most of their eyes darted towards its direction.

First, Arthur's father respectfully exited the carriage and afterwards extended his arm for his mother who also exited next - with his sister - after taking a hold of the hand. Then Arthur after carefully checking his appearance, exited at last. Both Nolan and Alice were wearing their regal Blade dresses but Arthur couldn't wear it right now, not until the heir ceremony which was held at the age of 10. So he wore his favorite dress for formal occasions which was simply a formal suit, oxfords and a black overcoat which he was used to more than the normal ones because of his past life.

As they started walking towards the entrance, which was not more than a few meters, whispers already started to break out among the people at the public entrance at the sight before them.

"Hey! isn't that the Blade family?"

"Yeah, wonder what they are here for so late."

"You idiot, of course they are here for their son's talent measurement, you forgot?"

"Oh yeah, so that kid at the last is their son?...why does his gait and presence give me chills?"

"He's so cutee~"

"I know their son right, so cute~"

Of course, the adults weren't the only one gossiping, the young girls found themselves for a loss at the handsome appearance of Arthur. And they were not wrong, actually, Arthur was tall for his age of only 5 with a height of 4ft 1in and with his medium length pristine white hair billowing in the wind, he looked devilishly handsome. He had a sharp jawline for his age as well and high cheekbones plus his crystal blue eyes - which were quite different for his mother's deep blue- with their allure, gave his whole presence a charming and mystical aura. In addition, his all-black formal dressing contrasted heavily with his appearance which only intensified his aura.

Arthur released a small sigh at their whispers, which he was able to hear even at a distance, no doubt in his mind that his parents were hearing the same things as well if he could hear them this clearly. He maintained his public indifferent aura just like his previous life and didn't respond to the girls whispers. But he was not the only one hearing them, because Alice turned and gave Arthur a proud smile with a mischievous shimmer in her eyes which caused a shiver to travel up Arthur's spine making him look at his mother with a terrified gaze.

They identified themselves at the gate where the guards treated them with utmost respect and curiously looked at Arthur, because this was his first public appearance since he had been born. Even his birth had happened in the Blade household, where there were already a lot of doctors and nurses. His sister was no exception to this situation as well.

Instead of checking in at the hotel, they went to the HQ of MASS (Masglow Assassination and Security Services), which was a pillar of Blade's economy, and there, a welcome was already waiting for them. Even there, the curious glances did not stop but at least, they knew not to ask any questions right now as they understood the family was tired. Arthur quickly retired to his room where he took a shower and lay on his bed waiting for sleep to come. Because tomorrow, he knew, was going to be a long and tiring day.

*******

Contrary to Arthur's wishes, sleep didn't come that night. He couldn't sleep because of the nagging worry at his mind because of his talent. So he kept awake all night trying to think of a solution to this predicament but alas, no solution came but dawn came against all his wishes.

And with that he got up and took a shower again putting on a new set of formal clothes. After 30 minutes and carefully checking himself in the mirror once more, he got out of his room and headed downstairs where his family were already waiting for him at the dinner table. Normally these kind of things wouldn't be included in a HQ of a company but MASS was a skyscraper consisting of 100 floors in which 80 were for work services while the remaining 20 for any emergency in the capital or if they wanted to stay there for some time.

Even though he was now 5 years old and it was not necessary for him to wear his gloves anymore, Arthur kept wearing them because of the same reason as his talent. During these 2 years, he had perfectly opened up his mana veins and could use all the five skills at at their full potential for his rank.

Speaking of his rank, Arthur had advanced from the [Initiate++] rank to [Novice] rank during these 2 years which was one of the main reasons he kept wearing these gloves. The news that a boy who had just awakened his stigmata and completely skipped one tier would make the capital shake with terror and he did not want his to happen in any case whatsoever.

Arthur exited his building along with his family and set course for the talent measurement site or more precisely the Fahr Association. The Fahr Association was a project of the Royal family to manage Fahrs throughout the human continent. They recorded your identity in the database and also measured your talent. By luck if you had a high rank, the royal family would try to recruit the person into the association and also the major families would try to recruit the person using their guilds. All major families except the Blades had their guilds which were spread throughout the whole human continent. The HQ of F.A and the major family guilds, also called the top 3 guilds had their H.Q in Masglow along with smaller branches in other cities.

The Blades didn't establish a guild because of their already prospering company at the time which was MASS, and they were remained firm to this decision even today. Breaking him out of his stupor was his arrival at the F.A, which was also a skyscraper and was quite taller than the building of MASS, but it made sense because it was the project of royal family. It consisted of 150 floors each floor designed for different purposes for the management of Fahrs.

A guard opened the door and quickly led them inside after immediately watching the formal dresses of his parents. The interior was beautifully furnished and adorned with people hustling and bustling about their work. A manager quickly arrived to escort them to a floor where the talent measurement would be done after being informed by the guard, of the arrival of a major family.

To show and symbolize the respect for the major families, each family had its talent measurement done at a different day. One more reason, was to prevent any fight from breaking out in the capital as everyone knew how competitive and prideful these families were.

After being escorted to a different floor using an elevator, the manager quickly guided them towards an orb in the middle for the talent measurement. All the higher ups of the association were standing there including the chairman of the Fahr Association, Alexander Kent - who was a Virtuoso++ Fahr - and after seeing their arrival, all the higher ups bowed deeply to show their respects which Arthur's parents acknowledged with a nod. Arthur's parents stayed back and gestured him to go forward to the orb. He nodded quietly but inside, he was quite nervous of what was going to happen. His parents also although cold right now in public, were wishing for their child and his talent in their hearts even though they kind of expected him to display a monstrous talent.

Arthur calmly stepped up to the small platform and walked up to the black orb - which was the size of a basketball -suspended on a small pillar. The managers' voice came from behind to instruct him,

"Please put your hand on the orb for a few seconds and your talent will be displayed on the screen."

This was the moment, Arthur realized, the moment when his talent would be laid bare for the people to see and countless bounties would be put on his head. As he was going to put his hand on the orb, he remembered Hades. He had disappeared two days ago and no matter how much he called to him, he was gone, and Arthur didn't know where. He suddenly missed the god right now because of how he would support him during these situations. With a sigh, he put his hand on the orb, giving in to his fate. But, to his shock and surprise, a blue holographic screen instantly materialized in front of his eyes.

________________________

Would you like your talent to be displayed?

Y/N

If you want it to be displayed, please specify the talent level to be displayed.

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It was a simple question but Arthur's eyes widened and a flicker of hope instantly arose in his heart. He thought of denying his talent to be displayed first but quickly realized that if his talent would not display, although the bounties would not be placed, the uproar would be no less that having his talent truly displayed. He could hear the murmurs and annoyance of people behind him as to why the talent was not being displayed but he paid them no mind.

Finally, he chose to display his talent but he would limit his talent to [Ethereal] to avoid an uproar and the ridicule at the same time. If he would choose to display less then the people, although not at face, would ridicule the Blades for producing [Ethereal] talents in a row, such as his father and grandfather, Christopher Blade, and only to end up breaking the chain by producing a less talented heir.

'Yes. Limit the talent to [Ethereal].'

As if on cue, as soon as the words had been spoken in his mind, a golden glow appeared on the orb and it shined bright illuminating the room with its ethereal glow. And just as he had expected, voices of approval and happiness broke out and people started clapping loudly to celebrate the coming of a new monster that the Blades had produced. This was a normal reaction, and no uproar was caused which made Arthur sigh with relief. To prove further, a large screen suspended on the ceiling displayed the words in golden over the screen,

[ETHEREAL]

Arthur nodded in satisfaction and was roaring with happiness inside that he had avoided the outcome he didn't want. He turned around and walked back to his parents. His father and mother gave him a warm hug and expressed their profound happiness at their son even though they were expecting this to happen. By now, they had already realized that he was an unparalleled talent; a genius that was born once in a millennia.

Afterwards, his parents talked to some people and then they started to exit the building after heading to the lowest floor where people looked at Arthur with awestruck and bewildered gazes as he walked normally out of the building, indicating that, to him he had done nothing amazing. Even his parents didn't show any reaction or emotion as they were walking beside him as if producing an [Ethereal] talent was the simplest thing in the world.

But as he was exiting the building, he heard a familiar voice in head. A voice which belonged to the person Arthur thought had a hand in what had just happened, a voice which he really wanted to hear, a voice which he longed to hear.

[Well played kid.]

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Hello! Author here. This chapter got a little bit longer because I wanted to properly introduce somethings as well that will be pivotal to the story in the future but in any case, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and if so please drop of review or comment if you feel like it. :) :>