014 - The Gathering of Aspirants

“Hi Sarah!”

Sarah looked at me with the same deadpan stare she always has.

I felt like I was looking at a doll rather than a person.

I continue to smile. I didn’t mean anything by it anyway. I was just on cloud nine thinking about the benefits she gave me and would continue to give me.

“Don’t talk to me.”

She said in a deadpan voice void of any emotion behind it.

“Hey, come on. I just came to wish you good luck!”

She once again looked at me but this time her eyes locked into mine and she slightly tilted her head to the side.

“Why?”, she asked.

I paused.

“Why, you mean, isn’t it natural… to wish each other good luck?”

She answered without moving her body or blinking.

“No. We’re competitors. Why would I want my opponent to do well?”

Her answer struck me for a second.

“That may be true, but we're aiming for the same thing at the end of the day, so shouldn't we wish each other luck?”

We continued to stare for a few seconds before I noticed a small, but chilling smile covering her thin lips.

She was the one who broke the silence.

Her body moved to face me completely this time.

“Interesting. Well, in that case, good luck to you too, Anshe. But don’t expect mercy if we do end up against each other later.”

I came out of my stupor and smiled back.

“Oh, I look forward to it!”

She studied me for a second longer, then turned away, dismissing me.

‘Isn't she cheeky for a brat?’

I moved my attention towards the other aspirants here.

Suddenly my eyes darted towards someone I was not expecting to see here, but I was pleasantly surprised.

Gwen. She was the one who had awakened the Adept rank ability to conjure a fountain pen.

She was standing at the edge of the crowd, shoulders hunched, staring down at the ground. Like she wanted to disappear.

My lips curled. My interest in her ability hadn’t faded.

I confidently walked towards her.

“Hey, aren’t you Gwen?”

The girl jumped at my sudden greeting. She slowly turned her head to look at me.

She was the girl who got the ability to summon a fountain pen with her innate ability.

I was very surprised to see an ability conjure up a physical object like that. So I had intended to make her a target just for her interesting skill.

“Ah-h, I-I’m sorry, but, who are you?”

She stuttered a little, am I that scary? Or is she just an extreme introvert?

“Oh, sorry, sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you, just that I remember you from yesterday’s assessment, you’re the one who can conjure that fountain pen, aren’t you?”

My words caused her to be frozen stiff. She looked down, I could see her shoulders quiver.

‘Wait, what did I do? Is she crying!?’

I don’t have much experience dealing with children, so I don’t know how to console one.

Suddenly, a guy came towards her hurriedly and stopped in front of her.

He gave me a look of someone who was ready to throw hands.

He looked older than her by a year or two, but they looked like siblings.

He had emerald coloured hair, just like hers, but unlike her skinny and frail appearance, he was slightly on a buffer side.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“Don’t you dare bully my older sister, you bastard!”

Older sister? Really?

“Wait, wait, there seems to be a misunderstanding here!”

He didn’t believe me and the little girl was also hiding behind her younger brother’s back.

“I was just curious to meet such a unique skill user, I had never seen such an ability in my life so I wanted to come here and introduce myself, I didn’t want to make her upset, believe me!”

Both of them suddenly showed such a weird expression looking at me.

“Y-you didn’t come here to make fun of me?”

She asked meekly while peeking from behind her brother’s back.

“Why would I make fun of you? I really liked your skill!”

Yes, I really liked it and I wanted it for myself. Of course I only said that part quietly.

She suddenly blushed and hid behind her brother even more.

Her brother too looked awkwardly at me.

“I-I’m sorry. I thought you were here to bully my sister like everyone else.”

Now that I look around, none of the people around are talking to these two. I could hear them muttering something while looking at us.

I saw some of those unkind gazes land on me too, but frankly I couldn’t care less what a bunch of children thought of me, so I ignored them and continued with the siblings.

“Why would anyone make fun of you?”

They hesitated looking at each other before the younger one sighed and explained it to me.

They were both from the small farming village at the base of the mountain, Gorthan, where the entrance of the Four Golden Sect was located.

Unlike the small nobles and people connected to the sect, not many people can afford to awaken their abilities artificially. Most common people have to wait naturally.

Such was the case for the young boy before me. His name was Roy and he was the younger brother of the girl who I had assumed to be her little sister but is actually the older one, around twelve years of age, Gwen.

She hadn’t awakened her ability naturally for a long time, but when her brother awakened his naturally before her and it was also a very good combat ability called , their parents had assumed that she too would awaken a useful ability, but it was not the case.

When they returned to the village yesterday, they had become the laughing stock of the small town.

Their parents, who had wasted all their savings trying to awaken the older sister, also didn’t try to protect her. Rather, they were even more disappointed.

So they were kicked out of the house. Gwen was; Roy, the younger one just followed behind her.

But still, it was Gwen’s dream to become Mage so she decided to come back for the assessment with her brother.

She may not get selected, but at least she would try.

Listening to their story, I looked at the little girl. Too quiet. Too fragile.

Although I wanted the ability, I couldn’t deny I was feeling bad for the kid.

‘It’s not like I enjoy seeing people suffer.’

I extended my hand toward them.

“My name’s Anshe. Would you guys like to be friends?”

Both of them looked at my hand extended towards them, and rather than taking it, the boy just started hugging me.

“I’m sorry, man, I thought you would be like the others as well, I would love to be friends with someone like you!”

He quickly let me go, as although he was my age, he looked significantly older, must be because of his skill.

This time, I extended my hands towards Gwen, which she took with a slight blush.

“I, too, would love to be friends with you.”

[Suitable target for Soul Binding found - Gwen Stonewall. Establish connection? Yes/No]

‘Yes.’

[Connection established with target.]

I cannot wait to see what kinds of benefits these new friends of mine give me.

Just then another message surprised me.

[Warning: Too much strain on the soul detected. Another soul binding target not recommended until system level is raised.]

[Threshold reached. Unlocking second ability of The Insatiable System - Eye of the Devourer]

[Eye of the Devourer - Grants the power to sense the general location of marked targets and reveals threads of their connections, desires, and hidden values.]

I felt a burning sensation in my eye suddenly and if I was able to see what was happening from the outside. I would've noticed that my eyes now had darkened in colour.

Previously, I had light brown eyes like my mom, but now they were a deep shade of black. I involuntarily covered my eyes because of the sudden pain.

The siblings looked at me weirdly but I laughed it off saying something got in my eye and continued our conversation before moving away a little.

I really wanted to try the new ability immediately.

‘Avaria, will people be able to sense this ability if I were to activate it right now?’

[No, no one will be able to detect it as it is a physical ability.]

I activated it, and I felt my surroundings growing even darker and I could see some of the people around kind of fade to black, but what was peculiar was that some of them seemed to be glowing a little bit. Not the targets, no.

‘Why are they glowing like this Avaria?’

[The ones’ highlighted are people who are suitable to be targeted, they show the most potential under the Eye of the Devourer.]

What surprised me the most was that the siblings seemed to be glowing too, Roy was glowing a little but Gwen was practically blinding from where I was standing.

Compared to the people around, she was among the top ones, the eyes had deemed them to be target worthy.

Since I couldn’t make any new connections right now, I ignored all of them for now and focused on my marked targets.

I looked down and saw some black coloured threads coming out of me and I could instinctively tell which thread belonged to who.

I saw them extend outwards into infinity and could see one of these threads connecting me to my mom, who wasn’t here yet, but I could tell she wasn’t far and was making her way here. One of the threads went behind me to Gwen and one towards the front where the little princess stood.

I could also see the thread which belonged to Lily stretching towards the Shining Cauldron Peak. She wasn’t allowed to oversee this test so she stayed back to train.

Of course, she wasn’t happy about it, she almost threw a tantrum but a stern gaze by mom shut her up real quick.

Deactivating the ability I focused back to the crowd while keeping in mind the people who were glowing before.

‘Let’s hope I’m able to level up during this assessment.’