10 Pressure

The Sanctum doors were over ten feet tall and almost as wide. They were made of some ancient heavy looking wood that was a deep earthen brown. The doors were very plain – there was no engraving, and the wood was glossy, but had no grain pattern. The wood was of such a mystical quality that the doors were all the more majestic for their lack of decoration.

The attendant who sat at the booth near the doors called up the children five at a time and explained what they would do when they went inside, before sending them in.

By the time Lady Ariel and her brother had finished talking, William and Lucy had already entered the temple along with three other children. The baptism process took different lengths of time for different people, but due to the laws of time within the temple, regardless of how long everyone took, they would all exit at the same time.

On stand-by at the doors were healers, as it was not uncommon for children's bodies to be slightly overwhelmed, especially if they pushed themselves to absorb more of the baptism energy during the awakening process. 

On the other side of the booth, taking up half of the front facing wall of the Sanctum, a massive projection screen had been set up. Several mana stones were placed in a complicated magic formation. In one direction, the formation fed to the projection, and in the other, it was linked to a high-grade reveal stone which was engraved on a pedestal.

Once the children completed the baptism, they would touch the reveal stone, and their Level one class and stats would be revealed to the audience. This was part of the reason so many nobles would try to send an attendant or a family member to observe the awakening process, to scout out potential gems for recruitment, and to confirm the potential growth of their rivals.

Around ten or so minutes later, the massive temple doors swung open, and five rays of prismatic light shimmered into view. These lights materialised into the form of five children. Three of these children were standing and managed to walk forward, but two came out crouching, and struggled to move. They were unharmed on the surface and still conscious but were obviously in intense pain. The healers rushed over to attend to them.

Damon felt quite satisfied when he looked at them. It was clear that both Damon and Lucy had pushed themselves to absorb as much of the baptism energy as they could. They could move, though barely, so the damage wasn't permanent. Still, it was bad optics for them to be the only two to look worse for wear.

A murmur ran through the crowd and a more than a few nobles shot snide looks at Damon's mother.

Fernand shook his head sagely. "You see what I mean, my dear sister? As much as you may treasure those two, at the end of the day you have to make decisions using your head and not your heat."

"Hold your tongue until the reveal Fernand." Said Ariel.

As Lucy and William were receiving treatment, the other three children took turns touching the reveal stone. There were some appreciative murmurs from the crowd, but the children did not really stand out. Two warriors and one archer, all with fairly normal stats.

As he had done for the previous three, the attendant stood by Lucy's side and announced her name and station, boosting his voice with wind magic. "Lucia Marlow, trainee attendant of Prince Damon Solis Aristum"

Lucy was clearly nervous as she approached the pedestal and took a few deep breaths before touching the stone.

A ripple of chatter surged through the crowd of sitting nobles. 

Some of the conversations were so loud that Damon caught snippets of them.

"..to think the Marlow family had such a talent! Viscount Marlow really is shrewd with how well guarded he is with his news."

"Still, isn't a waste for a talent like that to be an attendant. Just what else do the Marlow's have under their sleeve, I bet…"

"Honestly, I thought that old fool was only good for fighting. Who knew he was such a capable schemer. To honest I heard that when he was younger..."

"… I told you, the rift between the Marlows and the queen was merely a charade. They were probably safeguarding this child in preparation for this."

"…no wonder the queen made such a fuss to get her to stand forward, a talent like this is worth showing off!"

Their surprise was well warranted – Lucy's stats were amazing for her age.

Age: 10

Height/Weight: 4ft 5 inch / 29 kg

Level/Class/Sub-Class: Level 1 / Earth Mage / --

Stamina: F (High)

Speed: F (Mid)

Strength: F (Mid)

Durability: E (Low)

Agility: F (Mid)

Mana: D (Mid)

Aura: --

It was no wonder that she had struggled when walking out of the Sanctum – her mana had jumped the barrier from E to D, and risen to D(Mid)!

With that, she was guaranteed to be a powerful mage in future. Not only that, but some of her other stats had improved through the awakening process as well. Surprisingly, she had her stamina at F(High) and her durability had crossed into E and was standing at E(Low).

Most important however, was her class. Normally, the starting classes were Warrior, Archer and Mage and classes only became more diverse or specialized upon leveling up. The only exception to this was if one was talented enough that the system recognized their talent or defunct to such a degree that the system recognized their incompetence. If that was the case, then the starting class would differ. These were known as variant classes.

Lucy was an Earth Mage at level 1. This had downsides, in that it made magic using other attributes more difficult for her, but on the whole, it was an overwhelming advantage as it meant that earth magic would come easy to her, and she was likely to become a master of earth attribute magic. 

What's more, whilst a reveal stone could not display innate abilities, it was common knowledge that for an individual to be so gifted in a single element meant that they likely had an attribute affinity of some level.

With stats like this, the general consensus of the crowd was that Lucy's talent was well known to her family and that everything, from the rift between Ariel and her family, to Lucy's display here in the first wave of awakenings, had been planned by her family. 

The truth was, only Fernand and Ariel knew just how surprised the two of them were. 

Ariel was doing her best to keep a calm demeanor in public, but Damon could feel her heart rate quickening with excitement. 

Weirdly, Fernand seemed even more agitated than her. His body was visibly trembling and there was an obsessive look in his eyes as he stared at the projection.

He grabbed Ariel by her shoulders, his eyes gleaming.

"So even a defect can be recovered? What exactly did you do sister! – you must write down the steps of your treatment method!" 

In his passion, his hands were shaking as he spoke.

"Uncle will be overjoyed! I must arrange for her quarters and her training straight away. It definitely won't do for her to return to the housing she was previously in". His mind was racing, already thinking through the logistics of Lucy's return to their family.

Ehem!

Ariel's cough and pointed stare seemed to snap Fernand out of his excitement. Realizing he was drawing attention, he released her shoulders and turned to the projection again. 

"It seems that you have forgotten that Lucy is still under my jurisdiction." Said Ariel.

Fernand chuckled at this.

"It seems that you have forgotten that the bet doesn't revolve around her results, but those of the commoner. A miracle like this won't happen twice sister. Honestly, this is for the best, sure her attitude needs fixing, but she'll be a great help to the family." Fernand said.

He looked at his sister again, narrowing his eyes.

"More importantly, how exactly did you manage to heal her?" He asked.

"William, trainee Bodyguard of Prince Damon Solis Aristum." The attendant's announcement cut through the gossip of the crowd and all eyes were on William. 

Even Fernand stopped talking and focused again on the projection.

Now healed, William walked with his back straight and his head held high. When he touched the stone, the crowd did not react in the same way that they had reacted for Lucy.

The silence outside the Sanctum was palpable. 

Silence. Terrifying silence!

The crowd was deeply shocked. Damon was possibly the calmest in the crowd. He looked at William's stats with a satisfied smile.

Age: 10

Height/Weight: 5ft 7 inch / 54.9 kg

Level/Class/Sub-Class: Level 1 / Great Warrior / --

Stamina: E (High)

Speed: F (High)

Strength: E (Mid)

Durability: D (Low)

Agility: F (High)

Mana: --

Aura: E (Mid)

At level 1, William had stats that could be compared to a newly promoted Level 2 warrior of poor talent. Purely based on his physical stats, it was no doubt that he would become one of the strongest in the kingdom is he kept up his projected trajectory. 

His Durability was at D. "It may have been due to his steadfast practicing whilst his mana veins were in a recovering state" thought Damon. Whilst E was the peak of what a human could train themselves to be, D was the beginning of what one would consider superhuman. For a child to have any stat at D was mind boggling.

What made Damon happiest though, was his Aura. Even Damon was slightly taken aback – he had hoped that William would cross the barrier in E, but to think that he had withstood enough of the baptism energy to jump straight to E(Mid)!

For the crowd, the class 'Great Warrior' was the main cause of this silence. It was one thing for Lucy to be a variant class level 1. She was from the Marlow family and it wasn't far-fetched to imagine that she had been raised with a wealth of resources dedicated to her growth.

The issue here was that William was a commoner. A commoner who showed enough potential to become a grand general of the kingdom. A commoner who was bound by service to the second Prince. 

A prince who had two variant attendants.

Many members in their seats sought out their servants, transmitting urgent messages. Damon knew that before sunset, all the major houses in the capital would have any and all information regarding William, from his birthday to his family background and history.

Queen Ariel herself had sensed the atmosphere and was already standing up. She snatched the scroll from Fernand and walked towards the tent exit in one swift motion, leaving him speechless, still staring at the board.

Her butler, Alan Carlington, had managed to appear on state and was escorting Lucy and William towards the carriage.

The crowd had their eyes focused on Queen Ariel as she walked with her son in arms and the two attendants trailing them, escorted by her butler and the royal guards. 

Perhaps for the first time, these nobles felt pressure coming from this mild - mannered queen.

As they walked, Damon could hear his mother whispering to Alan.

"We will need to increase the security of the Manor. Also, investigate sword masters who are neutral, or at the very least, are not directly against our faction. I can teach Lucy Magic, but William will need a real sword master. Also, prepare the necessary paperwork. I intend to make both of them official attendants, that should be enough reason to dismiss the current teachers they have."

Alan nodded at this.

"Should I arrange to dispose of the current teachers?" He asked, speaking as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

"No, they were aware that I was aware that they were spies. They did not cross the line, so no need to cause Queen Isabella to be even more wary." Said Ariel.

Damon clenched his fists at this. His mother was too soft. Those servants would have been deemed disposable the minute they were given that job. Letting them return unharmed would only serve to embolden the first Queen. Once he was old enough, he would have to find time to make an example. 

Ariel turned to William and Lucy, who still seemed somber despite their performance. This was to be expected – awakening put one close to the essence of a deceased god – it would often leave children rattled for a few days.

"The both of you did amazingly well. I am truly proud." She said, smiling at them as they approached the carriage.

"Let's go home." She said.