"Everyone, pay attention," the voice came from the centre of the field, calm and commanding.
In the centre of the field, the person who spoke, the headmaster of the academy, stood imposingly, his frame radiating pure power without even trying.
Surrounding him were the students of the Veritas Academy, the only nurturing academy on the planet, Veritas.
At a single glance, they numbered more than five thousand.
Behind the headmaster stood teachers, over a hundred, each one holding a device in their hand.
The students murmured within themselves, each one conveying their joy and anxiety about the awakening.
Among them, Silas, a boy with a face that seemed to be carefully sculpted by gods themselves, stood. His eyes were silver, extremely diluted to the point that they seemed hollow. His white hair glowed down his neck, stopping at his collarbone. Not arranged, but still aligned perfectly. A single strand strayed, resting just above his eyes.
He didn't bother to remove it; he just left it as he looked at the headmaster.
He wore a blue long-sleeve shirt with black jeans.
"Silas, you seem eerily quiet today," a person said behind him, her voice soft.
Looking back, he saw the girl, almost the same age as him, with orange hair tied in ponytails, purple eyes that seemed to absorb light and a gentle presence.
She was adorned in a pink gown that reached her knees.
"Amelia, how were you able to see me through the crowd?" He asked, brushing her question off entirely.
Amelia pouted at his question. "Were you intentionally ignoring me?" She asked.
"No," Silas quickly replied, raising his hands to avoid getting entangled in whatever thing she was plotting in her mind.
"Whatever," she clicked her tongue.
"What do you think your talent tier would be?" Amelia asked. "As the most talented person in the history of the academy, you definitely wouldn't awaken anything less than c-tier," she added.
Silas just smiled. "We wouldn't know unless we find out."
As if it were a trigger, the headmaster spoke immediately.
"I will now release my aether into your bodies, don't resist and guide it the way you have been taught," the headmaster spoke again.
Everyone nodded, stopping their chats immediately as their gazes became focused.
They could not afford to be reckless. If they absorbed aether wrongly, the least that could happen was them losing a few parts of their body.
Boom.
The air shook as the headmaster's aether burst into the atmosphere like a tide.
'So this is the power of a Marshal rank cultivator,' Silas thought with admiration.
The headmaster was one of the strongest on the planet, second only to the planet governor, who was rumoured to have reached the Ascendant Realm, beyond the Mortal Realm.
As the aether spread, it began to enter their body through their pores.
Everyone did not hesitate; they guided aether through their bodies.
Boom.
Soon, the first person erupted in a sudden burst of aether.
One of the nearby teachers reacted instantly, reaching him immediately.
Across the field, similar occurrences began to happen as students awakened their connection to aether.
After 30 minutes, the aether had stopped flowing through the air.
"Now that you have all awakened, meet a teacher to test your talent tier," the headmaster warned again, before vanishing in a flicker.
He had to restore his energy after using so much aether.
Lining up on a straight line, everyone began to move towards the teacher.
Soon, it was Silas's turn.
"If it isn't our genius," the teacher praised with a smile. Her eagerness to test him was very evident from the way she even acted.
Silas just scratched his head in embarrassment.
The teacher placed a scanner on him. It beeped with a green light before she removed it.
"This…" Her eyes widened as she tried to come to terms with what she saw.
"SSS-tier talent," she muttered with shock.
At her word, everyone dropped whatever they were doing. All scanning stopped, all murmurs ceased. Even though they were in the open, if a pin dropped to the floor, everyone would have heard it clearly.
Then, like a fragile glass, everyone exploded. No one knew where it started from.
"SSS tier." The teacher who said it sucked in cold air.
"Is our planet about to rise from Low-tier?"
"How is it even possible on a Low-tier planet?"
"I heard that the highest talent on our planet was C-tier and that is the current governor."
As the commotion spread, the governor, who had already been called by the teachers, reached the field.
His face was etched with shock and pride.
Everything returned to order under the headmaster's careful instructions, and everyone began to take the test normally again.
His face turned to the cause of the commotion, Silas, who just stood calmly to the side as if all that had happened was just a passing breeze.
"Silas Lancaster, you continue to break all records on our planet," the headmaster praised genuinely.
In his eyes, Silas was no longer a young prodigy. He was a force whom he dared not offend.
"You flatter me, headmaster," Silas smiled.
"S-tier talent," another teacher yelled from another side, his face locked on the student like they were a monster.
"No way Silas got a higher talent than mine," the person complained with a somewhat pitiful gaze.
"You should take what you have," Silas said with a shrug and a smile.
"Tch… Showoff," Amelia rolled her eyes.
Seeing both of them, everyone in the academy felt their worldview turn.
A person who was not satisfied with an S-tier talent. Even in High-tier planets, it was more than enough to be called a genius, not to mention their backwater planet.
"It seems Veritas is on its path to the top," the headmaster said with a smile.
"If this is reported to the Governor of our sector, you two should be able to apply to the Human Federation University with your talents," the headmaster said.
"Right now, our Planet's governor will come get you," he assured, leading them to his office.
The office was moderately sized with a sleek wooden table at the far end. A single chair where the principal would sit, and two others for visitors.
The headmaster sat on his chair while he signalled for them to sit in the two.
"It seems neither of you wants to leave the other," he joked.
At this, both of them smiled.