Several miles deep within the General District of Pearlcrest city lay a luxurious sight. Over here, anybody not familiar with Pearlcrest city would be stun by overwhelming awe.

This place is was what all residents referred to as the downtown area.

It was the primary hotspot and traffic hub for the various kinds of residents inhabiting the city. Numerous diverse stories littered the streets in this area, giving residents a surplus of options to choose from.

However, there were several main attractions that significantly set this area apart from, say, where Asher lives.

The downtown area was home to the most prominent and most expansive buildings of the General District area of Pearlcrest City.

These buildings topple over everything else. All of them reached miles deep into the skies and stretched over thousands of acres of land.

For some of these buildings, their design had a unique traditional aesthetic as if inspired by ancient history.

These more uniquely historic design places were referred to as Sects. No average resident dared to come too close to these Sects for in respect and fear. Mainly those who wore specific uniform robes were seen walking in, out, and around these Sects.

Sects were all tremendous forces of powers, essentially having their own rules and laws that not even the Mayor of Pearlcrest City can intervene with.

Nobody was foolish enough to be daring with Sects.

Directly contrasting these traditional design buildings were more modern style Academy buildings. Just like the Sects, Academy buildings all were overly tall and stretched over vast spaces of land.

Compared to Sects, far more residents were willing to walk near Academies. Academies had friendlier notoriety, being generally more open than Sects.

Furthermore, all Academies rival Sects tremendous forces, putting subtle equality between them.

Despite numerous tall and wide attractions here, nothing was clamped or bunched up. Everything was at reasonable miles or half a mile distance from each other, allowing for these places to have plenty of free-roaming spaces.

And, of course, there was space for roads and sidewalks for the regular residents of Pearlcrest City to traverse on.

Amidst the bustling downtown area, there were several subway systems. And at one subway system, Asher swiftly exited from it, walking into the bustling crowds of people.

Asher only needed to take one glance around his general area before deciding on a specific direction to go on.

He locked his sights on a specific Academy building and briskly headed on over there. Just like how he knows the quickest route to the Decrypted Woods, Asher also knows the fastest route to his Academy.

Asher smoothly shuffled through the noisy streets of the downtown area, perfectly avoiding bumping into anyone.

As he got close to his Academy, Asher's eyes came upon the familiar huge white sign within the Academy's gates.

It read, 'Balreth Academy.'

While Asher got close to Balreth Academy, his eyes began surveying the front area. His eyebrows slightly quirked as a mild feeling of surprise nestled within his mind.

Nearly if not every day when coming here, there would always be the usual late or lagging behind students.

But there were none of them here today presenting the Academy as if all students were diligent.

Even as it was the start of the afternoon, there would be several students still hanging out here at this time.

'Then again, it is Ceremony day. Not even the rowdy bunch would want to miss today.' Asher mused to himself while coming up on the open gates of Balreth Academy.

Asher didn't stop and calmly walked through the open gates.

But before he could take a whole step into Balreth Academy grounds, a beeping sound went off at the open gates.

Asher felt an unmovable force block his way, preventing him access from going into the Academy grounds. However, all Asher did was reach into his pocket and brought out his silver ID card.

When showing his ID card, the beeping noise from the gate deactivated, and a green flash sparked on the gates.

The unmovable force vanished, allowing Asher full entrance now.

Freed from the unmovable force, Asher began swiftly shuffling into Balreth Academy. As he walked, he suddenly heard Yuki's voice echo out loud in his mind.

'Hmmm….now I get the full picture. So that's how they do it, huh.'

Asher kept his face impassive as he started to question Yuki, 'Hm? What are you-'

'Oh nothing, nothing.' Yuki quickly interrupted Asher's question though she had a sweet tone when doing so. 'You'll understand after this event.'

Asher filled whatever Yuki might bring up for later and continued into Balreth Academy.

….

Asher quickly made his way through Balreth Academy, being able to walk freely in its mostly empty halls today. Just for this specific date, nearly all staff and students would be grouped up in their colossal auditorium.

And though all students should be in the auditorium right about now, Asher still walked past several loitering students.

They were either hanging out in a secluded space in the hallways or around in the staircases.

Typically, Asher wouldn't bother listening to whatever useless gossip these students have going on. But for an important day like this, he had actually come upon some intriguing news.

As Asher passed by one group of loitering students, his ears picked up on,

"I think I'll be taking the safe bets. Like all other students, all my money is on Hayato being the strongest uprising talent for next year. Like literally, out of the thousands of us, he actually awoken god damn Sword Qi powers!"

"Not only this guy got so lucky, this basically tells us all that his talent will be so damn high in the future. Next year's bets are gonna be a doozy."

"I don't have this crazed expectation like you guys. But, I'll admit, he does have this amazing chance of actually entering into the Balreth Top Ten rankings."

Intrigue filled his mind as Asher rummaged over these students' words. 'Hayato awaken that, huh? Interesting….he certainly gonna cause some noise.' Asher didn't think too profoundly beyond this, filling this subject to the back of his mind.

Eventually, Asher made it towards the basement of the Academy and reached two huge metal doors. Even before going in the doors, Asher could hear the loud bustling of students clambering about nonstop.

Typically, when coming in here on this date, any students would've felt a burst of nerves. Asher wouldn't be different if the previous events of today didn't happen.

Right now, Asher was entirely calm. He swung open the huge metal doors and strode inside Balreth's auditorium.

And as expected, Balreth's auditorium was overly massive in size. Though it had to be to fit the several thousands of students. Amazingly enough, however, the auditorium size still exceeded the number of students.

Gazing around the place, Asher had to fathom this place could possibly fit up to tens of thousands of people at the same time.

The auditorium was filled to the brim with the chatters of students, making it quite difficult to even focus on one's own thoughts.

Not even when Asher came through large metallic doors did anybody notice him or the noises from the door. Before Asher continued walking, his eyes briefly scanned through the crowd, attempting to find some familiar faces.

But of course, with how packed this place was, this was more difficult than trying to find a needle in a haystack.

Asher shook his head, deciding to do it later since he reckons the ceremony would allow him to spot his friends.

Asher had then turned his attention forward, looking all the way down at the back end of the auditorium.

There was a vast stage at the back end of the auditorium, and several people were on the stage. There were three adult men all wearing Balreth Academy-specific uniforms which consisted of conventional black and white clothing.

These three men were currently operating a unique-looking machine.

It was a gray control panel stand that had several wires connected towards a large gray metallic circle laying flat on the stage.

The only other person on the stage was a student, and he was just coming off the metallic circle when Asher walked in.

There was an elated look of joy encompassing this student's expression. He had just got fed some excellent news, and he rushed back towards his friends' group to tell them all about it.

When this student left the stage, no other students were remaining, making it seem like the Ceremony event was just about to close.

But, before any conclusion to this event happened, Asher briskly walked towards the stage.

As he walked, some of the more curious students wandered their gazes across Asher.

"Hm? Isn't it that guy? Heh! Look at him, cutting a bit close don't you think?"

"I, for one, wouldn't treat this day so lightly."

"It would be too strange for anyone to do."

Several students commented on Asher's tardiness but didn't bother more with him. They continued back to their own conversations, already filling Asher out from their minds.

Asher didn't mind any wandering gazes on him, nor could he really hear any comments on him. Though he wouldn't really care what comments they made about him.

'Hmmm....mostly standard. Some subpar. And some actually decent enough ones. Ah, this will do us for now.' Yuki made her own comments while Asher walked.

Asher found what she said curious but couldn't focus on her now.

With a calm stride, Asher strolled up on the stage and walked towards the three staff.

The three staff really were just about to call it. But when Asher strolled up on stage, they paused as a mild look of surprise swirled in their eyes.

One of the staff looked Asher up on down with a scrutinizing gaze. "Hoh? Look what we have here? Don't you think you're cutting it a bit too late, boy?"

Asher didn't immediately respond. He took out his ID card and handed it over to the staff who spoke to him while saying,

"Sorry, I just had some really important stuff to take care of earlier," Asher spoke in an even tone, unbothered by the three staff gazes.

He knew as long as he got here before a specific time cut off, then it wouldn't matter how close he was cutting it.

The first staff took Asher's ID card, briefly looking it over. "Important stuff, eh? Sure you did. Well, it doesn't really concern us what you do off Academy grounds."

The staff gave Asher his ID card back and turned his gaze over to the gray metallic circle. "Alright, kid, just stand over that metallic plate. And don't resist any sensations that will befall on you."

Asher nodded, walked on to the metallic circle, and already felt a cool sensation directly traveled up from his feet.

Focusing a bit on this sensation, Asher perceived that there was actually a bit of some kind of energy permeating from the metallic plate.

Under standard times, this would be it. This would be the defining moment in Asher's life.

However, now it only became an event he must do in order to avoid seeming suspicious.

Asher may have no nerves about this event, but as he stood, he was hoping that at least something good could come from the ceremony.