Martial Spirit Awakening Commence!

In an open field located somewhere in the large gale clan, a youth was steadily throwing out punches. The dazzling sun was relentless, and the youth wasn't alone on this training field, as numerous youths around his age vigorously trained their different martial arts, with some of them even sparring a little with each other. Unlike most of the other youths, this youth stood all alone, yet he kept his back straight, and he just threw his punches, all alone.

Since coming to this new world, 2 weeks had already passed, and Damien had grown a bit more accustomed to this life. Even though nothing exciting had happened, he had managed to remember the only martial art that this body's original owner knew, and he had practiced it diligently since then. This martial art was actually just a normal martial art that all clan members learned upon becoming ten years old, and it was called the Basic Fist Manual.

Though it was relatively simple, the original owner of this body had been lazy and a little dull, so his training had been subpar, only managing to learn it to the intermediate realm after three years of work. Though intermediate doesn't sound too bad, three years was a long time. After successfully learning a martial art, you would be a complete beginner right? Then what came after that? When it came to the proficiency of martial arts, it was divided into four different grades: beginner, intermediate, advanced and perfection.

In less than two weeks, Damien had managed to reach the perfection realm, which was amazing compared to the previous body's owner. Even compared to other geniuses of the clan, he was unmatched. Though that was the case, from other people's perspectives, it took him three whole years to get to this point, which was far from impressive. Though he had reached the perfection realm a while ago, Damien still relentlessly practiced this Basic Fist Manual.

He couldn't reach any further with it, but he could still strengthen his body while growing even more familiar with it, this was the only strength he had at the moment after all. Today was a special day, so he stopped training after only half an hour. Today was the date of the martial spirit awakening ceremony. Not only was it an important day for him, but for the entire clan, as they would get a bunch of new talents after today, and who knows, maybe one of them would lead their clan to newfound glory?

After finishing his practice, he left the clan quite promptly. No one paid any attention to him as usual, and as he left through the main gate of the clan, he even directly left the city. After entering the neighbouring forest, he quickly arrived at his own little special location. It was nothing special in reality, but there was a small clear pond right in front of him, and he didn't hesitate for even half a second before he dived right in.

There was nothing better than taking a swim after finishing a round of practice, especially when it was this hot outside. As he floated around in the water for a while, he let his mind run free, he felt truly at peace here. He couldn't relax for even a second in the clan, as he never knew when he might do something wrong and stand out weirdly.

After swimming for nearly half an hour, Damien promptly left the pond, and just sat next to it for a while. As he peered deep into the pond, what he saw was merely his own reflection staring back at him. His enchanting emerald eyes were easy to get lost in, and of all his features, they were easily the most captivating. His face wasn't bad either, but compared to his eyes, it could only be considered above average.

Another striking feature was his rather short snow white hair. Though it was often something you would associate with old people who had lost their vitality and vigour, it truly looked good on Damien. In reality, Damien was quite the handsome young man, and his unassuming facial features would probably grow more distinct as he got older.

Though handsome people would usually be surrounded and liked by their peers, Damien was not. In this world, nothing mattered as much as strength did, and there were plenty of strong people who were attractive, so why would they associate themselves with someone who had no future ahead of him, just because he was attractive?

As he thought a little about it, Damien shook his head slightly, and got up to leave. When he came back to the clan, the atmosphere was quite different compared to when he left, and he knew what that meant! The martial spirit awakening ceremony was about to begin! As the thought crossed his mind, he started walking toward the clan's ancestral hall. This hall was a fairly big building in the clan, and important ceremonies were often held here.

As he arrived, he noticed that a lot of different people had already arrived, and were pushing their way into the ancestral hall. They were all youths around his age, yet some of them looked way more dignified and important than the others, and Damien instinctively kept his distance from them. Getting involved with people that had their lineage to rely on was never a good idea, especially not for someone like Damien who had neither support nor strength.

Once he arrived inside of the ancestral hall, he instantly noticed the large amount of youths, who were all expectantly watching the stage where a couple of elders were quietly sitting. The elders all looked dignified, and they were all sitting around a large black stele. The black stele looked quite imposing and mysterious, with numerous patterns spread across its surface.

It naturally drew people's attention, but everyone lost interest after only a few glances, as it just stood there and did nothing. Damien was interested as well, but he was more interested in these elders that were all sitting and waiting patiently. He didn't really know why, but they just seemed so powerful for some reason, and it fascinated him.

As more and more youths gathered, the old men sitting on the stage all stood up, and one of them promptly began speaking. "The martial spirit awakening ceremony will now begin! If your name is called, then get on the stage, and if it's not, then just wait around for your turn!"

With that said, another old man took a step forward and started calling out names one after one.

"Andrew Gale!"

"Edward Gale!"

"Emilia Gale!"

"…!"

The old man didn't stop calling out names after he had called for exactly 20 people. The 20 kids were all nervous and excited to be the first to awaken their martial spirits, it was finally their time to shine! Even Damien was excited even though he wasn't someone whose name was called. He just watched with excitement as he wondered what kind of wondrous martial spirits he was going to see today.

He didn't really know what martial spirit he wanted to awaken himself, but he knew for sure that he wanted it to be an offensive martial spirit, as defence seemed both painful and less proactive!