Human:The Origins

Chapter 4 - Decision

"This child is too unlucky..."sighed the middle-aged man and the looked at the boy."Let's go."he said, and the walked out of the room together with Alaister.

The 9 people in the room remained silent for a few seconds and then a man with short red hair spoke."His mental expanse could allow anyone with an affinity higher than third class to reach the peak of the Spirit realm in no more than two hundred years, after all mental expanse corresponds directly with training speed and comprehension while law affinity corresponds with the bottlenecks one would encounter in the process. If he had at least a third class law affinity I'm confident that he could have become one of the experts of the world. What a pity though...as he is now, with a forth class water affinity I'm afraid that even reaching the peak of the Mortal realm would be difficult and reaching the Spirit realm will be almost impossible." There were clear distinctions between the law affinity classes. First class meant that you were basically loved by the respective law and there will be no bottlenecks in your training, though it would be useless without a high mental expanse to support it. People with second class affinity will encounter bottlenecks while trying to reach higher realms like when going from Mortal to Spirit and from Spirit to Divine while people with third class affinity will also encounter bottlenecks at every stage higher than Law Seed. People with forth class affinity basically don't hold any hope of reaching higher than the peak of the first realm, while fifth class affinity means that reaching the 3rd stage would be a miracle in itself.

"Still, we should keep an eye on that boy. After all, he is the first in history to have a mental expanse exceeding 90. Even that old monster who reached the peak of the Child Of Law stage and is acclaimed to be the number one expert in the whole human history only has a mental expanse of 82."said the old woman.

"Sadly, you can't compare this kid with that old fart. It is said that when that monster was tested for law affinity, he was found to have first class affinities with 3 laws, second class affinity with 5 laws, and the rest were all third class! I'm still wondering if he is even human, or just something that the universe created to laugh at us for being so mediocre."said the white haired man.

"I guess we will just have to wait and see..."

Coming back to Alaister who was being dragged along by the middle-aged man....

"Wha...what just happened? What were those people talking about there?"asked Alaister. He truly had little knowledge about the testing process, affinities and laws, after all, he only comes from a small and isolated village with not much knowledge about the world's affairs.

"You don't even know this...forget it. You just need to know that from now on you will be going to the Northern Dead Ice Academy to train. I'll leave you with your parents while I go and arrange for your transport and letter of recommendation"

"I..I'm going to an academy?"Alaister started radiating joy when he heard this. Based on the disappointed looks on the faces of those nine back in the room, he thought that he had no chance to be accepted. In a while they reached the room where his parents where. 

"Mom,dad! I got in an academy!!"

"Whaaat?!?"screamed both of them. They truly didn't hold any hope for their child to be accepted. They only came so as to fulfill Alaister's desire. Their only thought was that after this their child would understand more about the world and start to slowly build his own life in their small village. Slowly a solemn look appeared on his father's face while the eyes of his mother started getting watery.

"Why are you looking like this mom,dad? Aren't you happy for me?"asked Alaister.

"Alaister, do you know what this means?"asked the father.

"What are you talking about,dad?"

"This means that in the future you won't be able to see us anymore. Those who study at the academies need to focus wholeheartedly on their law training. Once you step on this path you will be in a completely different world from us the ordinary people. The personality of those who cultivate the laws changes...they come to see the world differently and so their priorities change. We are just an ordinary family from a small village, we never had any desires of stepping into the grand world, we just wanted to have a normal life. Even though we are poor, we are still a happy family. The only thing we can offer you is the same type of life we have. So I ask you, son, is this the path you want to tread?"Despite his poor background, the father seemed to have quite an understanding about some of the matters of the world.

"I..."Alaister truly didn't know what to say. He didn't know that going to an academy would be like this. Suddenly, what should have been an easy decision became a very hard one. By going to the academy he could easily ensure that enough money were sent to his parents so that they could leave a better life and also without him burdening them everyday. But he also loved his parents very much, and he was their treasure, how could it be easy to leave them?

These thoughts rapidly crossed Alaister's mind, as he was pondering really hard on what should he do. He knew that whatever decision he would take, his parents would fully support him. As he thought about about this he said to himself"They have always supported me, isn't it time for me to do the same?"A resolute look appeared on the still childish face of Alaister.

"I... want to go to the academy!"said Alaister with a determined look.

His father looked at his child with a complicated look while the mother couldn't hold back the tears from streaming down her face. Still, in the end she spoke with a trembling tone.

"My beautiful child, if this is your final decision, your father and I will definitely support you!"

While all of these were taking place, none of the 3 people in the room realized the existence of a white haired old man who was observing everything from a corner of the room. It was like there was some sort of barrier which reflected the light surrounding the man, making him invisible to the naked eye. Even though he looked very ancient, his jet black eyes had a bright light lingering in them and while looking at the scene which was unfolding before him a proud smile appeared on his face. Waving his hand, a distortion appeared around him and he disappeared.

The middle-aged man from earlier came back and told the family that he sent word to the respective academy, and a teacher will come to take Alaister in 2 days. The family truly didn't have much time left together. And two days passed by in a flash.

Alaister was staying in front of an huge building, accompanied by his parents. This building was enormous though it's massiveness was shadowed by the World Law Pagoda branch which was at least twice as big. This was were the flying ships were stationed. In the many years that passed after the great war, humanity slowly recreated their past machines, though they are mostly controlled by the military and the World Law Pagoda and the availability for the public is greatly limited. That is why there is such a big difference between how people live. Here you could find people who have all sorts of technology and they don't really need to do much besides relaxing and going on with their lives, whereas a few miles away you could find a village like the one Alaister is from, where people barely have any food to eat, not mentioning electricity or machines.

"Woah...will I enter one of those?"asked Alaister excitedly.

Before his parents could say anything an old woman voice sounded from behind them.

"Hmph, you think that academies would stoop so low as to use these artificial things?You will understand later kid. For now, we should leave."