THE AWAKENING RITUAL
THE AWAKENING RITUAL
"Less check if there are useful things around here that we can use against the serpent", I asked my friends.
"Well, there's nothing here except these broken metals and some metal balls", Bommurs told us after a long and thorough search of the metallic shuttle.
Although the search was fruitless, the Serpent that attacked us gave up on us and left. After a long time, we were comfortable leaving the shuttle and returning home.
"We should be safe now, let's go back to the village and remind me never to come so deep into the forest again", Raven told us.
"Don't even remind me that I ever came here. This is the worst experience of my life", Bommurs told us.
"But I will return here", I told myself.
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Although I found a space shuttle in the deep forest of Slowan that had some powerful equipment inside, I couldn't use it. My previous life relied on his AI controller, Sara, to work with all the technology and without Sara, he was mostly useless with them.
However, the metals we brought back weren't completely useless to me.
They were made from space-faring alloys which were the toughest materials in the known universe without magical enhancements and I might be able to make something from them.
But the best forge we have in Slowan couldn't make it hot enough to bend the metals, so we'll just keep it for now.
There were, however, some loose ball bearings that we found in the shuttle, that could be useful to me.
Although the shuttle's metal parts weren't too useful to us, the magical creature parts that we carved from the carcasses we found in the forest were quite valuable.
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"Where did you boys find all these horns and claws?" Grammer the shopkeeper asked us.
"We found them in the forest, there was a Tanith there who killed a lot of creatures, and we took these from the carcasses", Raven told the shopkeeper.
"A Tanith, you boys better don't go so far into the forests, it's dangerous there", Grammer told us as he inspected and calculates the worth of the ivories that we were selling to him.
"A hundred and fifty silvers", Grammer told us as he handed over the money to us.
"Thank you very much", we said to the shopkeeper before we left the market, smiling and laughing as we went.
"A hundred and fifty silvers, hahaha", we said and laughed.
It was a great reward for doing nothing much.
"What are we going to do with so much money", Bommurs asked us.
"Well, I don't know about you guys, but I have enough for an Awakening Ritual again", I told them.
"Are you sure Orion, it would be your third time. What if you fail again in awakening, you could make better use of the money? Start a business maybe", Bommurs asked me.
"Getting awakened is my father's wish for me so I have to do it. Besides, he paid for the last two awakenings which used up all his savings, so I must be awakened this time to make his sacrifices worth it", I told my friends before I added, "Greenduff is coming back to the village soon".
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Conjurer Greenduff was a traveling Conjurer who had a small hut in Slowan forest, not far from our village town. Since we were young, me and my friends often visited the kooky magician and played near his hut, and he became like a family to us.
As a freelance Conjurer who wasn't engaged by one of the Barons and Earls, the main income of the magician was to perform Awakening Rituals on young children in the villages.
An Awakening Ritual was special magic performed on young children that would awaken a unique kind of magic in them, Templar magic, the magic practiced in these lands.
Templar magic doesn't require elaborate concentration or casting of spells but enhances the primary attributes of the Templar by awakening magical Templar Stars in their body, magical temples that augment them. This was the known and practiced magic of the Ten-Kingdoms.
Once awakened, a templar would develop a magical space inside their bodies that only they could access. Inside this reservoir of magic there were several partitions that govern the various attribute enhancement of templars.
"Power, Momentum, Constitution, Conjuring"
The Templar sky of Power determines the strength and brute force which could empower the strength of humans to become, frankly, superhumans, while Momentum sky improves speed and evasion.
Constitution improves a person's recovery rate from injury and would also add a layer of magical armor on his or her body, helping the people of this world deal with the powerful threats around them.
Conjuring on the other hand was something different. It doesn't enhance the physical attribute of a templar but is a mental attribute that allows magic casting by channeling the person's magic, usually through an item.
Conjurers could cast spells such as fireballs and ice walls if they have specially prepared staffs and wands with those spells while Templar Knights could conjure flaming blades or other magic on their swords or weapons.
Usually, at every level of a person's Templar development, one of the main templar Stars such as Power, Momentum, Constitution, and Conjuring would be improved accordingly and randomly, and each person's progress would be different which would also determine their specialty later in their development.
Whether the Templar would become a Knight, or a Conjurer, or just an ordinary templar peasant, would depend much on their talents.
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"Orion, you saved enough coins for an Awakening ritual again? Didn't I tell your father not to waste money on your awakening, not everyone in this world can become Templars and that is a fact that we have to accept in life", Greenduff said to me, persuading me to stop wasting money on more Awakening rituals.
I've tried the same ritual twice before to no effect and there was a high chance that additional rituals wouldn't fare better.
"This is something that I must do, for my father", I replied to the old Conjurer before handing him a pouch of coins.
A hundred silver coins for awakening was an enormous sum for a villager in Slowan but it wasn't a lucrative business for Greenduff because he charged me only for the reagents that were required which were expensive.
He made very little profit for himself.
Greenduff was practically performing Awakening ritual on me for free, so while he was in the village, I often ran small errands for him in return.
"It's the third time", I told Greenduff again.
"Very well let's begin", Greenduff said to me.
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