Epic Of The Demonic Sage

Maleck did not answer right away but just looked at the book in front of him. The marble book was shut tight and he even tried to open it with his hands, only for it to repel them. 

~sua~

Then all of a sudden, the sphere returned to its normal white marble color and the book landed back on the altar as well, showing that the altar had run out of Aether.

"In the thirty years I've been a priest of Etara, I've never seen something like this…" Maleck muttered.

While Kiana was confused, Lucius already had a good guess of what had happened after seeing the information given by the Nexus. The Appraisal Sphere of Etara had been unable to find what his gift was because it had never existed before and thus there were no records of it.

The black color of the sphere was also because of this, as that was one of the signs of failure to appraise. This was different from when one did not have a gift as then the sphere would just not show any reaction.

Plus another sign of it was that it had used up two entire Aether crystals in less than a minute, whereas these same Aether crystals would have been enough to appraise at least a hundred people.

One would ask if two aether crystals were enough for hundred people, then why did priest Maleck ask for them only for Asher? The answer was simple… that was the minimum number required to activate the altar.

This was also the main reason why normal people waited for the actual appraisal ceremony to come before coming to appraise their gifts as they simply could not afford the two Aether crystals needed for it.

Usually, these two Aether crystals were supplied by the Church of Etara itself, as they considered this to be their basic duty. There were such appraisal halls all over the world, and not just in the Grantz kingdom. But despite that, there was just 'one' Land of Etara in the world and that was where the Inanis family lived and ruled.

"Priest Maleck?" Kiana spoke up again, seeing that the man had not responded yet.

Lucius also looked up at the man and saw the shock apparent in his eyes.

"I hope our earlier agreement will stay in effect, Priest Maleck despite what happened just now, which I believe is quite unusual," Lucius said just in case, though he was ready to act if something problematic happened.

Maleck finally looked at him and shook his head.

"Even if I wanted to tell the others, I would have nothing to say… the altar has failed to appraise your gift." Maleck finally answered.

"Failed to appraise? How can this be?" Kiana said, in shock.

"It is rare… extremely rare, such that I've never even seen this in my life. Forget me, I think in the past two hundred years there has been no such occurrence recorded in the church of Etara." Priest Maleck replied.

"But what exactly happened?" Kiana questioned.

"Young Lord Asher's gift… it is unknown…" Maleck answered.

"Unknown? Of course, it's unknown, isn't that why we are here?" Kiana asked, not fully understanding.

"No, I don't mean that. I mean that… the gift itself has never been seen before in the world… it means that it is a completely unique gift." Maleck explained.

Kiana was stunned upon hearing this and didn't know what to think of it.

"So that's why the sphere didn't show any light and turned black instead. The lights are based on the rarity of the gift. If there has literally been no occurrence of a gift before, then there will simply be no light." Lucius simplified.

"Indeed, Young Lord Asher." Priest Maleck agreed.

Finally, Kiana understood.

"Then does this mean… Asher's gift is perhaps the rarest gift in the world at this moment? Above legendary… mythic… or even the divine gifts?" Kiana asked in a trembling voice.

"I fear blaspheming goddess Etara and thus I'll control my words, but the divine gifts are in a league of their own. Even if they are the rarest, their power is not what other gifts can compare with. While Young Lord Asher's gift might be the most unique in the world, its power is still something we don't have an estimate on." Maleck explained carefully.

Lucius had been looking into the eyes of the man the entire time and could judge that he was telling the truth. But that was not all he got from his eyes. Lucius could also tell that the man was afraid… nay terrified of something.

Kiana on the other hand, suddenly felt excited. While priest Maleck did not know the power of Lucius's gift, Kiana had seen what it could do first hand. The uses of Lucius's gifts were varied and not specific. 

This variation in use was a trait that was usually seen in legendary gifts as they were not as specific as those of the lower ranked gifts.

For example, the rare ranked fire whip gift allowed the owner to create whips of fire that could be used to attack. But this was also a restriction on the user, as they would only be able to use fire in this form.

If they want to turn that very fire into a sword, or just into a ball, they would be unable to do that. It was the restriction that came with the gift and was said to be a limiter set by the divine gods themselves.

But legendary gifts did not really have such restrictions, at least not as strict as those. If one compared a fire type Legendary ranked gift, Flame Master, the user was able to use fire as he wanted.

He could change it into whatever shape he wanted to while also controlling the range of it as they felt like it.

Lucius' gift had multiple uses, and this placed it at the legendary rank, at the very least, in Kiana's eyes.