The students gathered inside the Awakening Hall. It was a cavernous, high-ceilinged stadium specifically designed to accommodate even the largest and most volatile beast summons without collapsing.
Right in the center of the hall stood an elevated stone platform. Five massive pillars rose from the floor, each topped with a swirling, translucent sphere. The students knew exactly what they were.
Those were the Spirit Cores. To awaken a summon, a student had to place their hands on the glass and pour their raw soul essence into it.
Five at a time, huh? Arthur noted, shuffling forward into the crowd.
He found himself standing right beside Isoreth. He tried his best to focus on the stage and lock in for the most important moment of his life, but his intrusive thoughts were winning a losing battle. His eyes kept helplessly drifting downward, tracking the tight curve of her hips.
Isoreth definitely noticed his intense stare, but true to her ice-queen reputation, she simply ignored him and kept her eyes locked forward.
Mrs. Alger stood at the top of the platform, the ambient light of the pulsing orbs casting sharp shadows across her stern face.
"I am assuming you all know exactly why you are standing in this hall today," she began, her voice echoing clearly through the massive stadium.
This is it, Arthur thought, his chest tightening. The moment that decides the rest of my life.
"Every year, across every academy in the country, students who reach the age of eighteen must be tested to see if they possess the latent mana required to pull a creature from the Rift," Mrs. Alger continued.
"You have all reached that age. Awakening a summon today guarantees you a direct path to the upper echelons of society. A decent lifestyle, respect, or a life of absolute wealth and luxury. If any of you manages to summon a high-tier beast, your future is set. For those who fail, it is not the end of the road. You can still pursue civilian studies and find a stable job."
A wave of anxious murmurs rippled through the crowd. Stable job? No one in this room wanted to grind a soul-crushing nine-to-five in an office cubicle while the lucky elite saved the world, cleared dungeons, and got filthy rich and famous in the process.
"As a reminder, there are five recognized Beast Tiers in our world," Mrs. Alger said, gesturing to a massive holographic screen that flickered to life above the stage. "The tiers are measured by their baseline Fortitude rating:"
[SYSTEM RANKING : BEAST FORTITUDE]
- Iron Tier : F 1.0 – 2.9
- Bronze Tier : F 3.0 – 4.9
- Silver Tier : F 5.0 – 6.9
- Gold Tier : F 7.0 – 8.9
- Platinum Tier. : F 9.0 –10.0
Everyone in the hall stared at the Platinum rank with hungry, desperate eyes. But they all knew it was an incredibly rare anomaly. If anyone in this entire school had a genetic shot at summoning a Platinum-tier beast today, it was Isoreth.
Not even a privileged brute like Sidwig could realistically hope to touch that legendary tier.
"That being said, when I call your name, step forward immediately," Mrs. Alger commanded, unrolling a long glowing scroll.
She began rattling off the first batch of names. "Alexa Vance. Thomas Lowe. Guru Llama. Cedric Toro..."
One by one, the chosen students nervously walked up the stone steps. Finally, Mrs. Alger paused, her eyes scanning the crowd before locking onto the front row.
"And last... Isoreth Godolkin."
A collective breath caught in the throats of everyone in the hall. Arthur watched as Isoreth stepped out of the crowd, moving toward the Awakening Platform with absolute grace, her silver hair swaying effortlessly behind her. It was like she was just walking to a regular class.
The five selected students took their places on the stage, each standing before a different pulsing Spirit Core.
"Take a deep breath and pour your soul essence into the core," the assistant woman carrying the gauging device instructed. "It's just like breathing, but with your entire body."
They did as they were told. One by one, the students closed their eyes and focused. The ambient energy in the hall grew heavy, but not all of the cores responded. Out of the five, only two orbs actually began to glow.
The first to flare up belonged to Alexa Vance. Her Spirit Core erupted in a deep violet light drawing gasps from the watching students.
Directly in front of her, a matching violet summoning circle materialized on the stone floor. A dark silhouette began to take shape within the light. When the blinding glare finally faded, the students leaned forward, their eyes widening in shock.
Alexa had summoned an Umbralon, a terrifying shadow-aspected beast that resembled a panther, but magnified to the terrifying size of a full-grown human. Its sleek coat seemed to swallow the light, and its eyes glowed with a dangerous violet hue.
The assistant holding the fortitude gauge looked up from the glowing screen. "Fortitude: 3.4. Bronze tier."
"Yes!" Alexa cheered, pumping her fist in the air. A massive wave of relief washed over her. Not only had she successfully awakened a summon, but she had managed to skip the bottom-barrel Iron tier entirely.
"Congratulations, Miss Vance," Mrs. Alger said with a rare, approving nod. Then, her focus instantly shifted toward the only other student whose orb was currently active.
"She seems to be doing exceptionally well," Mrs. Alger muttered, her eyes locked onto Isoreth.
Isoreth's Spirit Core was blinding. A brilliant, radiant white light poured from the glass, completely overpowering the violet glow of Alexa's panther.
On the platform beneath Isoreth's feet, a massive summoning circle manifested. It was twice the size of Alexa's, its intricate runes spinning wildly as a colossal, overwhelming pressure filled the cavernous hall. From the center of the brilliant white light, a massive, towering form began to materialize.
Gasps and terrified murmurs tore through the ranks of the students as the silhouette continued to expand, growing taller and wider until it reached a massive fifteen feet in height.
When the blinding light finally cleared, a majestic, terrifying dragon stood proudly on the podium. The sheer, suffocating pressure radiating from the beast was so intense that it forced Alexa, along with the three panicked students who had failed to summon anything, to scramble backward and sprint off the platform entirely.
"Hey... she summoned my dream," Arthur muttered to himself, his jaw practically hitting the floor.
It was a magnificent, white-scaled beast. Its pristine scales looked like armor carved from solid glacier ice, reflecting the overhead stadium lights with a blinding, diamond-like sheen. Two massive, leathery wings folded neatly against its sleek, muscular body, and its piercing sapphire eyes locked onto the crowd with the natural, chilling arrogance of an apex predator.
"As expected, she didn't disappoint," Christoffer murmured from the crowd, his voice filled with awe. "It makes sense. Her father commands a True Dragon, after all. It's in her bloodline."
The assistant holding the gauge meter stared down at her tablet, her fingers trembling in absolute shock.
"What is the Fortitude rating?" Mrs. Alger asked, desperately trying to keep her voice calm and professional, though a bead of sweat rolled down her temple.
"Forti... Fortitude 8.7!" the assistant stammered, her voice cracking. "With a peak growth potential of 9.8!"
An absolute explosion of gasps and frantic murmurs rippled through the crowd of teenagers.
[SUMMON COMPATIBILITY]
- Entity: Frost-Weaver Wyvern (True Dragon Kin)
- Current Fortitude: 8.7 (High Gold Tier)
- Growth Potential : 9.8 (Calamity Platinum Tier)
"My god... a guaranteed Platinum-tier," someone whispered in horror and envy.
Isoreth stood perfectly still before the towering, white-scaled beast, her expression as cool and detached as ever, even as she cemented her status as the absolute royalty of the school.
"A worthy beast. You have an incredibly bright future ahead of you, Isoreth," Mrs. Alger said, a rare, genuine smile breaking across her stern face.
She looked up at the massive white dragon that seemed to dominate the entire stadium, its icy breath lightly frosting the air. "You can release your summon now so that we can create room for the others who haven't had their shot at the Spirit Cores yet."
"Releasing your summon should be relatively straightforward. You just need to close your eyes, sever the mana-tether, and..." the assistant began to explain, but the words died in her throat.
She didn't need to finish. Isoreth hadn't even closed her eyes. With a simple, effortless flick of her wrist, the towering dragon dissolved into a harmless cloud of glittering white particles, disintegrating into thin air within seconds.
"She really is a prodigy," Mrs. Alger muttered, genuinely impressed by the flawless mana control.
Once the remnants of the dragon were completely gone and the platform was clear, Mrs. Alger unrolled her scroll again to call forward the next batch of students.
The tension in the room remained high, but the luck of the draw was brutal. Out of the next five nervous teenagers to step onto the stage, only one managed to make their Spirit Core spark to life.
Christoffer Vance closed his eyes, pouring every ounce of his essence into the glass until his orb erupted in a bright, polished silver light. A heavy, swirling gray mist blanketed his section of the platform. When the fog rolled back, a fierce, armor-scaled Dire-Wolf stood snarling beside him.
The assistant checked her device, nodding with approval. "Fortitude 5.8. Silver Tier."
Christoffer let out a massive sigh of relief, a cocky grin instantly returning to his face as he dismissed his wolf and swaggered off the stage. He hadn't touched Isoreth's legendary golden-platinum rating, but a Silver-tier beast on a first awakening was more than enough to guarantee him a luxurious future.
Mrs. Alger stared down at her scroll, her eyes skimming the remaining names on the roster.
"The next group of students, step forward," she commanded. "Sidwig Gudgeon... Marie Marinade, Tobias Snyder, Heineken Braus... and Arthur Cole."