"Kyrell Onyx Everblack, did you awaken the Spirit Armament; Halo of Decay?"
Before Kyrell could even marvel at his newfound strength, a familiar voice entered his ears, and he turned his head at the source.
It was Prile who was standing at the edge of the Bloodline Pool who spoke. His cold voice contained a hint of excitement and expectation, but he was bound to be disappointed.
"No, I did not" Kyrell replied honestly. His Spirit Armament is Force Weaving and not the Halo of Decay.
"Is that so?"
Prile sighed in disappointment, much to Kyrell's confusion.
"Why does it feel like he was expecting a lot from me earlier, before learning that I did not awaken the Halo of Decay?" Kyrell asked himself.
Unbeknownst to him, when he was still trying to become an Ascendant, the Heretic's Codex absorbed a lot of energy from the Bloodline Pool.
Generally, the more energy was consumed, the stronger the potential was. It's too bad that he didn't awaken the clan's signature Spirit Armament.
"While you didn't awaken the Halo of Decay as the Patriarch wished, based on your performance earlier, you can become a secondary focus for cultivation if you do well. Also, since you have a different Spirit Armament, you should stop cultivating the Ashrot Meditation Manual."
"You can go to the clan's library and choose a different one. Of course, the other Meditation Technique's quality would definitely be lower, but at the very least, you might find a technique that complements your own Spirit Armament or, at the very least, a neutral one that wouldn't cause conflict"
The treatment that Prile gave to Kyrell is different, way different than before. In the past, Prile definitely wouldn't have been this helpful. After all, it was unclear whether Kyrell and the other Young Masters and Mistresses would survive and live more than 15 years of age.
"Master Prile, don't bother with that trash. Look! I did not disappoint Father, my Spirit Armament is the Halo of Decay!"
While Prile and Kyrell were conversing, a rude voice interrupted them, causing the two of them to look at the source.
Inside the pool, the youth from earlier who used Kyrell as an outlet to vent out his anxiety was smiling smugly. He was raising his hand while showing the gray light that covered his palm
After seeing that, Prile's eyes glowed, visibly happy. "Great job, Young Master Kendra. With the Halo of Decay Spirit Armament, you can continue cultivating the Ashrot Meditation Manual, and you will definitely receive more resources compared to others!"
Hearing that, Kendra's smile grew even bigger, and he looked at Kyrell provocatively. Too bad for him that the latter merely ignored him.
"Hahaha, yes! Yes! Brother, my Spirit Armament is our Clan's Halo of Decay! We will definitely live better lives in the future!"
At that moment, before Kendra could continue to provoke Kyrell, they heard another one of their half-siblings.
When Kyrell looked who it was, it was actually the anxious girl from earlier that was comforted by what he assumed was the girl's full blooded brother.
While Kyrell doesn't really think much of it, Kendra's face, on the other hand, turned ashen. With another person awakening the clan's signature Spirit Armament, resources would be divided due to competition. This was not something that he wanted to see
"Another one! Bravo!"
Even the normally cold Prile was ecstatic to see this. However, the girl's expression soon turned from joyful to panicked.
"B-brother? Big brother? Where are you?"
The girl frantically looked around her, desperately trying to search for her brother, but no matter how hard she tried to find him, her brother was nowhere to be found.
"Young Miss, your brother sacrificed himself for the clan" Prile said simply, his implication was clear.
"N-no... t-that can't be! He promised t-that we would b-both become A-Ascendants and b-bring glory to t-the clan!" She said pitifully, and Kyrell shook his head while watching.
"Fate... It's so fickle. The brother was mentally stronger than his sister, even comforting her despite being afraid himself. But now, that same brother is dead, and the immature sister has become a genius of the clan"
"Well, this is not their fault. This is because the Everblack Clan is such a rotten and disgusting Clan"
It was a pity, but Kyrell is sure that this was not the first time that this happened. Looking around him, out of the 20 youths that entered the Blood Pool, only 9 people remained.
While the death rate is 50% it does not mean that for every batch, only half will die. Sometimes more than half die, just like today, but there are also times when more than half survive.
"All of you must be tired. Go back to your rooms and rest. Also, 3 days from now, there will be an assessment for everyone of you. You will fight against each other, and the better you perform, the more resources you will get."
An assessment!
Kyrell's eyes lit up after hearing that. Now that he has become an Ascendant, resources are something he is desperately in need of.
Abundant resources can turn a talentless bastard into a talented genius, while the lack of them can turn a genius into an ordinary Ascendant.
Whether it be the real life that Kyrell is living in or the fictions he reads from his previous world, resources are always important.
He hates this blackhearted clan, but he would not be shy in relying on the same rotten family to rise into greatness!
—-
With only 3 days of preparation time, this is naturally not the time to rest. While it was said that one's performance will become the basis of how many resources one would get, Kyrell is not naïve enough to believe that everyone has an "equal chance".
Those who have the Halo of Decay are the priorities, no matter how badly they perform. As a realistic person, Kyrell does not hope for the best treatment, but he can still strive to get the second-best treatment.
As such, instead of resting, he directly went to the training facility of the Everblack Clan. Since he didn't awaken the Halo of Decay, and he does not have strong support due to his mother being dead, he can only use the public training ground since he doesn't own a private one.
Fortunately, the Patriarch, due to his "farming habits," had the clan build large training grounds to accommodate many of his children and other clan members.
When Kyrell arrived, he saw the place packed with a lot of people, but since the training ground was large, there were still available areas.
He can see various Spirit Armaments with varying forms. None of them was using the Halo of Decay though, and Kyrell surmised that those people might have their own training room.
"The Everback Clan, if it will be compared to the Middle Ages earth, this clan is part of the 'New Nobility.' It is a clan with status but is still inferior compared to 'Old Nobilities' that have been established already for years."
"The biggest difference is that established clans mostly have descendants awakening their signature Spirit Armament, while it was the opposite for the Everblack Clan. In here, few clansmen awaken the Halo of Decay"
It has become a habit of Kyrell to read situations due to the years of living while people treat him coldly or badly since they think that he will not survive passed fifteen.
Before becoming an Ascendant, Kyrell can only protect himself by reading people and the situation around him to avoid excessive bullying and oppression. But now, things are different.
With a heart filled with determination, he walked towards the training ground's staff to borrow a space for his own training, and he chose a relatively remote corner. He doesn't want people to pay attention to him as much as possible.
In this clan, many are hot-blooded due to the kind of environment they grew up in. While Kyrell has already become an Ascendant, it doesn't mean that he was already powerful. There are still a ton of people who can kill him easily.
The training ground is like a huge enclosed court with walls to make open rooms. These rooms have walls, but they do not have a door, as such, there is little privacy.
Well, most people here are the weak Ascendants of the clan. It's not like there was much to hide.
When Kyrell arrived at the room he chose, he went straight to the weapon racks and chose a light dagger amongst the many weapons present.
The current world he is living in has technology surpassing the modern earth, but its aesthetics are kind of diverse. There are high-rise metallic buildings, but there are also ancient-looking places.
Even the training room was like a mixture of Earth's old and modern eras. The weapon racks contained cold weapons such as swords, sabers, daggers, lances, and many more
However, there were also modern hot weapons, which are a variety of firearms.
Aside from weapons, there were also wooden dummies in each room. Of course, these wooden dummies are not just normal stationary wooden dummies.
These training dummies are controlled by AI, while the materials can auto-regenerate themselves either by letting it absorb the free aether in the air or by artificially infusing them with aether for faster regeneration.
In this world, fantasy and technology coexist both in lifestyle and aesthetics.
With a dagger in his palm, Kyrell activated his Spirit Armament Force Weaving, and the dagger started to float
Force Weaving... Strictly speaking, it was close to telekinesis power, but it was also much more than just that.