George walked to the top of the dias, his gaze passing over every candidate.

"You will only have this one chance to awaken your Soul core but do not mistake this as the end. Awakening does not mean you are a contractor; it simply means you are somewhat different from a normal human. After this you will now prepare yourselves for Contracting of your first beast," he calmly said.

Murmurs dominated the room at once.

"Silence!," The hall went dead quiet," Begin."

There are always those who are in too much of a hurry. The first screams were quiet just sharp intakes of breath and muffled gasps.

Silver calmly observed them all, the process of integration and their reactions. One by one, they placed the stones against their chest.

The stones dissolved upon contact. His eyes widened for a fraction. Although he had expected this, the fact that a coloured stone had been dissolved into a sort of light and vanished still surprised him.

Having it in memory and personally seeing it were two different things.

Visible energy surged inward, almost forcefully.

Silver watched as one boy’s entire body stiffened, his veins pushing outwards, leaving bumps on the skin. Another hit the ground with a sickening crunch when he fell on his knees.

This was awakening. This is what it means when you force something foreign into your soul and make it yours.

Silver exhaled slowly. He wasn’t scared per se, he was used to pain. Being a soldier in his previous life meant he was more familiar with it.

He raised his hand. The moment the stone touched his chest, it dissolved into pure energy and entered.

Warm and cold energy simultaneously rushed into his core. He could finally feel it finally finding the core. When it reached the core, it paused, then pushed through the narrow core.

Silver could feel it, his soul core was not large. It was even worse than he had expected. His soul was the kind that limited growth before it could even begin.

The energy settled. Unlike the usual funfair of the others, his core was just silent. The process ended, just like that.

Silver stood there, completely unaffected.

"That’s disappointing."

Silver wasn’t disappointed because he had failed, No, everything had gone just as he had expected. In the novel, the Former Silver had gone through almost the same experience.

It seemed that getting rid of the plot influence was going to be hard or the body had problems. Silver himself never considered that he might be the problem in all of this because the awakening results just didn’t make sense.

He rolled his shoulder once his gaze shifted to those who were still undergoing the awakening. For a moment his eyes settled on Cruella. She, as expected had been given a black origin stone.

At the moment, her face was serene with her hands on her chest. There was no outward reaction to the stone. His gaze didn’t stay on her much longer, it moved to his fifteenth and nineteenth cousins the ones who had also gotten the best of the stones.

All of them seemed to be enjoying the process. A groan caught his attention, and a girl three people from him fell to her knees. She tried to stand up but fell again.

Seat dripped down her forehead, her face creasing as though she was in pain. She had bitten through her lip and blood dropped down her chin.

She didn’t last long. A small scream was forced out before she fell forward. The attendant took her away immediately.

’So she failed.’

Time passed. Minutes, maybe longer. One by one, the awakening finished. Those who had succeeded were all smiles and those who had failed were quietly taken out of the awakening hall.

The rest stood in silence, waiting for the next part of the awakening, heart in their throat.

It was time for their soul core Capacity to be measured. While everyone in the room had awakened their soul power, it didn’t mean all of them had gotten the same soul power capacity.

A soul could awaken and remain weak.

The attendants moved through the hall with practised ease, carrying small black rectangular tablets carved from a material that resembled an origin stone, placing them on their chests for a few seconds.

Soul measuring tablets.

It was one of the best technologies that had been developed. It has been fifty years since they were made and it has made it easier to measure and classify Beast masters.

The attendants continued their work without pause, the tablets displaying numbers. They recorded everything that was written on the tablets passing it all to the head attendant, George.

All this went on until the measurements were taken without the candidates seeing their results. The results were to be announced after everyone was done.

Silver stood near the edge of the hall, isolated from the crowd of twitching teenagers. Some started to whisper amongst themselves but a cough cut through the small noises.

George stood at the front, a large tablet at hand. His gaze wasn’t on them, but at the tablet as he obviously gazed at the results.

Silver straightened, his concentration fully on the man. He knew this part was important. It wasn’t for the awakening itself but for the rankings.

In this era, everything was not judged on talent alone. It revolved around measurable soul structure. Soul power was structured into three basic categories.

Soul Capacity, how large your awakened soul core is.

Tattoo compatibility, how many beast tattoos your body could carry in accordance with the soul Capacity.

Power manifestation, how many abilities can one get from the beasts they integrate?

These were the three interconnected systems that determined the ceiling of a beast master.

George adjusted his sleeve before speaking his voice carrying naturally through the whole chamber.

"Since everyone is awakening for the first time," he said calmly," understand this clearly."

He gestured to one of the tablets that still had numbers displayed on it. This speech was something for everyone to understand, especially commoners who had gotten the opportunity to come to the awakening.

The former silver was just lazy.

"The tablet not only measures soul power quantity. It evaluates the structure of your soul core itself."

Several candidates straightened immediately.

"A weak soul that tries to integrate excessive power will eventually collapse but that doesn’t only apply to the weak. A powerful soul that with insufficient control will eventually mutate. The sanctuary has had to kill some of their best beast masters because of mutations, do not join those ranks."

"What you all must strive to achieve is make sure your soul remains stable," his eyes narrowed," a stable soul allows better evolution of your beasts."

George fully turned towards the candidates now, his eyes scanning them. It passed over Silver as though he didn’t exist but stopped at Cruella’s side.

A small smile touched his lips.