Chapter 151: Descendant of the First Child

"Toilet? Are you serious?" The boy laughed. "Everywhere is a bathroom here."

Magna expected that answer as he sighed. He just hoped there would at least be some kind of camp bathroom where he could take care of his business properly.

After getting the answer to the most important question, he continued with the less important ones.

"What’s your name?"

"Matrim Rockford." He scooped another spoonful into his mouth while watching Magna’s face from the corner of his eye.

He was expecting some kind of reaction, but Magna’s calm expression told him otherwise. Either Magna didn’t know the household name, or he simply didn’t care about it.

In fact, it was both. Magna had never heard the name before, and he didn’t care much about it either.

"Your body is exceptionally heavy. Is it your bloodline trait?"

This trait had caught Magna’s interest quite a bit. He even wondered if he would choose something like that if Gaia ever offered it to him.

It actually had both pros and cons when it came to having such a heavy body.

First of all, one of the cons was that it would make him incredibly slow, as carrying all that extra weight would require much more muscle strength.

On the other hand, it would make his kicks and punches much more powerful.

"Yeah, my flesh is much heavier than normal." He held out the bowl for Magna to continue eating, having taken only a few spoonfuls. "Why do you think I’m this skinny?"

Magna took the bowl. He wanted to eat, but he didn’t want to fill his mana reserve yet, so he set it aside.

Matrim continued. "My bones and muscles aren’t durable enough yet, so I need to keep my flesh and body fat at a minimum, or it would slow me down considerably, not to mention that my bloodline trait could end up killing me."

It was one of the cons Magna had already thought about, since dying that way would be more shameful than painful.

Matrim also glanced at his golden eyes, apparently wanting to ask what kind of bloodline trait they were, but he didn’t in the end.

He was still a child for sure, but he had enough life experience and etiquette to understand his current position.

No matter how friendly the two of them were, after the life-or-death fight earlier, he understood that what Magna was showing him was merely mercy. That meant Magna was currently the one who got to ask the questions.

Magna silently appreciated his attitude. Though their meeting had started quite badly, the child wasn’t that bad at all. He was actually quite polite.

Taking advantage of that, he kept asking questions while they continued chatting for a while.

He first learned what exactly this place was.

"It’s a training area as well as a trial for us," was the answer he got.

The fact that it was a training area was fine. He could understand that, but when he asked what the trial was for, Matrim strangely shook his head, admitting that he didn’t know.

But he did have some theories in mind, along with some gossip he had heard, so he shared what he knew.

According to what he had heard, the Tower occasionally selected the Witches and Shadows they considered the most talented, gathered them together, and put them through some kind of trial.

Only the most successful among them were chosen afterward and placed into a special group to receive further training.

What that special group was for, of course, he had no idea. He didn’t even have a theory about it.

"My family head is a 16th Trial Witch who works as an executive at the Tower. Even she had no idea about the matter.

The only thing I know is that she was quite happy when she heard I had been chosen for this trial." He said it with a sigh, feeling the weight of the expectations placed on him before adding, "My sister is also currently at another trial site for Witches. She’s the real genius of our family, so I have no doubt she’ll pass it."

As a few pieces of the puzzle slowly started falling into place in Magna’s mind, he continued asking questions based on what he had learned.

"How long does this trial last? What exactly do they expect from us?"

Matrim thought for a while.

"Well, I came here 4 days ago. Some of us came even earlier, and the one who’s been here the longest has been here for 10 or 11 days. So far, the only thing we’ve done is eat and sleep, apart from Master telling us to find our own food. But the real trial will probably start tomorrow morning. We’ll find out together what it is."

Magna nodded again.

"By Master, you mean that old man?"

"Old man?" Matrim repeated the words in a whisper, his face suddenly turning serious. "Don’t call Master that. Never, in front of anyone."

"Why? Who is he?" Magna was already sure the man was some kind of big shot, but he simply didn’t know how big he was.

Matrim started massaging his temples, feeling a headache coming on.

"How can you not know who he is? Did you grow up in a cave or something?"

He only meant it as a figure of speech, never guessing it was actually true.

’Better keep the goblin part to myself,’ Magna thought, staying silent as he listened to the introduction.

"Master is the oldest known Shadow. He was the first Shadow to ever make a contract with a Witch. Almost every Shadow who became a legend was trained by him at some point."

He leaned closer too, before adding in a very low voice, "He’s also said to come from the direct lineage of the First Child."

Magna tried to digest the information, realizing that the old man was actually ancient. Then that last piece of information left him even more taken aback.

He knew who the First Child was, since the term had appeared in the Five Stages of Genesis a few times in the history book he had read.

He just never imagined that someone from that bloodline could still be alive.

Well, when he thought about how his own eyes were considered a bloodline trait of the Matriarch of Death, he actually found it believable.

He also tried to learn what kind of bloodline traits someone from the First Child’s bloodline might have.

Unfortunately, the boy had no idea about that either. As far as he knew, Master had many known and unknown bloodline traits, so numerous that no one could even begin to guess them all.

Hearing this actually made Magna feel a little less special, since he had thought he would be the only one with many bloodline traits.

But when he thought about how he had Gaia and could obtain an unlimited number of them, he didn’t care much.

He only asked Matrim out of curiosity and to gain some general knowledge.

"How many bloodline traits do you have?"

He wasn’t actually expecting him to answer, but surprisingly, he did without hesitation.

"5 so far. There’s 1 more from my lineage, but so far, apart from my sister and my deceased great-great-great-grandmother, no one has awakened it."