On Althea, grading talent has always come from two things..
Mana affinity
Aura rings..
Where for the mana pathway practioners, they're generally(publicly) graded as,
F>E>D>C>B>A>S>SS>SSS
Where an F grade affinity is basically trash, E,D being slightly less worse, C, being considered normal, B and A being considered talented, then S~SSS being considered geniuses and prodigies…
For the aura pathway practitioners however, theirs is graded by the number of rings one's aura has…
No ringed auras
Singled ringed auras
Dual ringed auras
3 ringed auras
4 ringed auras
5 ringed auras and
6 ringed auras…
The general public would often awaken as no ringed aura practioners, placing them in the same garbage pile as F,E,D grade mana pathway practitioners
A single ringed aura being on the same level as a C grade mana affinity, and so on..
With a 6 Ringed Aura, being on par with an SSSmana affinity, a prodigy among geniuses…
But…
Above and beyond these established hierarchies,
Their existed other, more profound, hierarchies that wasn't privy to the general populace, mostly because most would never be able to attain an affinity or aura of such a level..
The Transcended Grade affinity for mana practitioners…
The Limit break auras, for aura pathway practitioners…
Naturally, in a world where the magical is second nature, it is to be expected for there to be ways to transcend your affinity or break the limits of your aura, but, awakening as a limit break aura user? That places you in monster territory, and Raiden? He just went above and beyond just breaking the limit….
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Silence reigned within the hall
Until it was broken by a stuttering voice,
"Ten, a ten ringed aura"gulp~~ Micheal couldn't help swallowing at the ridiculousness of it all…
He was a talent himself, awakening with an 8 ringed limit break aura..
Though now, the number of rings he's attained would make what his son has now, look like child's play, he knew how difficult it was to reach that goal…
Yet now, his son just blew through that roof and landed right on the ascended aura tier…
That too on his awakening…
"That's just cheating at this point" he couldn't help but smile bitterly, after all, the greater your headstart, the easier it would be to continue shattering those ceilings in the future…
As the commotion died down, and his aura settled firmly around him,
A Ten ringed Ascended aura draping around his form, he looked like a deity descended on the mortal realm…
A particularly deadly look for one bombshell of a maid that had her heart doing rollercoatsers in her chest…
Chime!!!
A resonant chime broke through everyone's thoughts, the will of the world finally acknowledging his awakening…
[AWAKENING SUCCESSFUL]
[You have unlocked the pathway {aura master} ]
[You have activated your prana heart, and have unlocked your {aura}
{Aura}
Grade: Ten ringed ascended
Type: Neutral
]
DINGGG!!!!
[ Your two semi-active traits {UNDYING} and {PAIN IMMUNITY} are fully active}
Raiden, seeing the slew of notifications from the world's will, couldn't help smiling…
"Finally" he breathed..
"I hope you guys made use of the headstart I gave you, because here I come" he added with a dangerous curl to his lips…
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"Hahahahaha" Aaron burst out in jovial laughter, first it was his other grandson awakening as a dual path practioner, and not just a normal one, and now this? An ascended aura immediately he awakened?
If the cosmos wasn't playing favorites with him then he didn't know what is, regardless, he was very very happy…
"Come Raiden, you seem to have gotten two traits, check what they are and tell me" his grandfather urged..
"Alright grandpa" Raiden complied..
Navigating his records, he opened the one for his newly activated traits,
[Traits]
{Undying}: unless your soul and body are vanquished at the same time, you cannot die..
Nigh instantaneous regeneration from ANY and ALL DAMAGE…
Ps: your soul bears the UNDYING characteristics too, full immunity to all soul attacks…
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{Pain Immunity}: it's already in the name, what more do you want to know? You're incapable of feeling any form of pain unless you will it so…
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Two traits, simple in their descriptions, but absolutely horrifying in their implications…
The trait {Undying} literally made him unkillable, whilst being capable of regenerating from ANY and ALL forms of damage, this could include a shattered heart, decapitation, anything, and he'll bounce back good as new, so long as you didn't damage his soul..
And as for damaging his soul? The trait made it unkillable too, all the while going further to make soul attacks redundant…
And as for {Pain Immunity} it basically just meant that, he can fight as wildly as he wants, not needing to worry about dying or the pain of feeling your body parts ripped out…
The synergy just made him the perfect beserker…
And {Pain Immunity} had more practical use, like in the case of body refinement, an extremely painful and risky endeavor, but with his two traits, it just made body refinement a piece of cake, one where he can attempt the most risky and daring of them all with no risks whatsoever..
Forbidden techniques? Self harming techniques that give ridiculous boosts? All right up his alley…
All waiting for him to abuse…
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The moment he finished telling them the descriptions of both his traits…
The moment the ridiculousness of what they just heard settled in their minds…
The moment the full implications of what these two traits could create bloomed fully within them,
""""FUCK, that's just cheating!""""
They all yelled out…
Even the elegant and soft mannered Seraphina was not exempt from cursing..
For truly, not just heaven, but, creation itself played favorites just now….
A/N: I know most of y'all thought my boy was going to be a dual path practitioner, no? After all, they seem to be the more powerful variants.. but nope, my boy is a man's man, we wreck 'em all… aura pathway for the win…
What's your favorite pathway..
And do y'all truly believe that dual paths are more powerful?
Keep reading and we'll know if that conjecture is true…
Thanks for reading..
Don't forget to give power stones and drop a comment or few..
Let me at least know that I have people looking forward to Sunday mass release…
Arigato 🫡