The Academy / Aptitude

Orion Prefecture, Mars, 9:00 a.m.

A campus that had a land area comparable to a small town greeted all of the students. The most eye-catching thing within that campus was the building in the center that had a lot of floors. This was the Orion Retracer Academy.

Krrrrrrinngg!!!

The bell rang loudly, warning the students that classes were going to start and they should head to their respective classrooms. It also warned those that weren't inside the campus to hurry and enter because the gate was closing. Dawn was one of the latter.

"Crap! My perfect attendance streak is gonna be broken!"

The only reason why Dawn was late was because of the events that happened earlier. Normally, Dawn would be inside the campus and enter the classroom at this time.

The gate gradually closed as it made creaking sounds, giving those students who were running a chance to enter the gate. Luckily, Dawn was close to the gate, entering without a problem.

After gasping for air for a short while, he let out a sigh of relief as he retrieved his identification card from his school bag.

"Phew. I made it in time."

Dawn went to a nearby student kiosk and swiped his card, increasing his perfect attendance streak by another day.

Afterwards, Dawn went inside the central building and walked up to the fourth floor, as that was where his classroom was.

...

A few minutes later, Dawn entered his classroom through the backdoor and sat on his seat. He then let out another sigh of relief because the teacher for the first subject is quite strict when it comes to schedule.

All of a sudden, someone tapped on Dawn's shoulder as the person asked, "Why'd you come so late today? Were you busy forming your god blood seed last night?"

Dawn looked at the person and smiled. The person had a pale complexion, which complemented his black hair and red eyes. Even more so with the person's tall stature. This was Dawn's bestfriend, Aurion.

"Oh, it's just you Aurion. I was late because of some circumstances earlier. Plus you know my aptitude right? Even if I persevered to form my god blood seed throughout the night, it would only increase it by a few percent."

Aurion chuckled at Dawn's answer. "Well that's quite true. Not everyone is like Kane. I heard that Kane has already formed his god blood seed 80% of the way to completion. If only I had an aptitude like Kane."

Concurrently, when Aurion was finished speaking, the front door to the classroom was opened, revealing an average-looking man. The man would definitely be average if not for the fact that he exuded an aura that made the students have an instinctive fear towards him.

The man didn't wait for the students to get back their seats. He started to talk monotonously.

"Good morning class. It's nice to see you again."

All of the students in the classroom, including Dawn and Aurion heard this voice and hurriedly stood up, giving a respectful bow.

"Good morning as well, Sir Horius!"

The man known by the students with the name Sir Horius nodded back and said, "Go to your respective seats."

The students did what they were said to do and looked at Sir Horius attentively, afraid of angering Sir Horius.

The reason why the students were like this was because Sir Horius was a bona fide Retracer.

Sir Horius ignored this and started to discuss.

"Well, let's recap what we discussed yesterday. The first step to becoming a Retracer is to form your god blood seed. The god blood seed is the foundation of your god blood, allowing you to gain unique effects once it awakens. Of course there are exceptions as there are families with their own distinguishing unique effects."

"It's quite easy for someone to form their god blood seed. You just have to visualize the process of your god blood seed forming and naturally, it'll happen in reality. But when people are different from one another, they're also different in terms of the speed of seed formation. We refer to this as aptitude."

"There are 5 levels of aptitude, from lowest to highest: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Jade, and Crystal in that respective order. Bronze grade aptitude wouldn't even let you become a Retracer. At most, you would only half-awaken your god blood, but that's enough for you guys right? If through luck, you complete your god blood seed, it would've taken you over ten years to do so."

"The next level of aptitude is Silver grade aptitude. This is a bit better than the Bronze grade but still bad nonetheless, only difference is that it gives you a 20% chance to become a Retracer. It takes someone with the Silver grade aptitude five to seven years before completely forming their god blood seed, and even then there would only be a miniscule chance for you to become a fully fledged Retracer."

"Gold grade aptitude, on the other hand, is quite average. It gives someone a 40% chance to become a Retracer, not too bad and not too good either. It takes someone around two to three years to form their god blood seed, and if fate wills it, you'll become a Retracer."

"Now, Jade grade aptitude is even better than Gold grade aptitude. It gives someone a 60% chance of becoming a Retracer. It also only takes over a year for those with the Jade grade aptitude to completely form their god blood seed."

"Last but not the least, the Crystal grade aptitude. Now this is the best of the bestm offering someone a near guaranteed chance of becoming a Retracer at 90%. It only takes them at least 6 months to form their god blood seed. And once they do, they'll become Retracers of humanity!"

As Sir Horius said this last statement, he unexpectedly sighed as he looked at the students in front of him.

"Haaah...Why aren't you guys blessed with a Jade grade aptitude like Kane? If even one of you guys became a successful Retracer, I would die without any regrets!"

The students bowed their head as they didn't dare to look at Sir Horius when he was ranting.

Kane was blessed by the heavens with a quasi-Crystal grade aptitude, an aptitude exceeding Jade grade but lacking to become a Crystal grade. But that alone was enough to make him the idol of all the students in the academy, Dawn included.

Dawn only had a Silver grade aptitude, but he still put in effort into forming his god blood seed because he still had dreams.

"I'm not only going to become a Retracer to make my parents proud and let them live a carefree life, but I'll also prove Sir Horius wrong!"

...

The first subject finished with Sir Horius ranting for an hour. The second and third subjects also lasted hours, but they taught basic subjects like Science and Math.

And so, after three subjects that lasted three hours, it was break time, a time for the students to try and form their god blood seed.

"Next!" An attendant shouted as they gave a red pearl to the student in front. The student that received the pearl smiled with joy as he ran, letting the next person in line come forward.

Dawn and Aurion were also in line but it wasn't their turn so they passed the time through talking.

"Hey Aurion, how many percent of the god blood seed have you formed already?"

Aurion grinned at Dawn's question. "Hehe. Last night, I finally reached 20% formation. I can only thank this achievement to luck."

Dawn gave Aurion a light punch on the shoulder as he frowned in a joking manner. "Luck? I know you, man. You were born with a quasi-Gold grade aptitude, it was a given you'll reach this achievement sooner or later."

Aurion scratched his head as he dryly laughed. "I'm just joking. Trying to lighten up the mood, you know? Oh yeah, I almost forgot. The sect recruitment event is happening in 6 months, are you gonna join?"

If academies were built to turn humans into Retracers, then sects were built to speed up the Retracers' retracing and also enhance their talents in their own specialized fields.

Dawn shook his head. "Not planning to. I'd become a laughingstock if I went up to the recruiters with a god blood seed that wasn't even a fifth of the way formed. I guess I'll just join next year."

Aurion could sense that Dawn became sad after asking the question so he placed his hand on Dawn's shoulder. "Sorry."

Dawn lightly smiled at Aurion as he said, "It's fine."

"Next!"

Dawn extended his arms out as the attendant dropped a red pearl on his hands. This was the Formation Hastening Pill, a basic pill used to hasten the seed formation without accumulating any detrimental side effects.

After getting his pearl, he waited for Aurion to get his and asked, "With the pearl on our hands, wanna go to the Seed Formation Chambers with me?"

Aurion contemplated for a bit before nodding. "Sure, let's go."