The Tale of the Void Emperor

" Who might be you, young gentleman? "

Athan slightly frowned but still answered, " You can call me Athan. I just arrived here after learning the Cloud of Chaos order technique. In your words, I am from the latest batch of recruits. "

" Ahh!... Wait seriously? " The lady had elves ear but had orange hair, and her eyes went wide because she first believed Athan but then expressed her doubt.

" If I remember correctly. It's been just four hours since the latest batch arrived here. Are you saying you learned the technique in four hours? "

Athan indifferently nodded his head while thinking, ' So long-winded. '

Mitra looked at Athan for a moment before stretching her hands in front of him, " Show me your black card. "

Athan gave her the black card, and when she grabbed it and looked at it, She was shocked and looked at Athan, " You are not lying. "

" What's going on, Mitra? "

Athan saw a man walking towards them who also wore clothes similar to the staff here.

Mitra turned around with a wry smile, " Jace, It looks like someone from the latest batch is already here. Hehe, Very unexpected. We didn't even prepare a proper guide outside yet. "

Jace raised his eyebrows in a surprised manner after hearing her before looking at Athan.

" Well, since he is here, then let's register him. Considering his speed of coming here, He had broken the previous record. " Jace spoke with a smile as he gestured Athan to follow him.

Mitra, Jace, and Athan walked towards the desk.

" Once we finish your registration here, we will move to the basic assessment phase. " Jace spoke as he walked behind the desk before sitting on the chair. He picked up a weird-looking ink brush before pointing at the slate on the table. Weird because there didn't seem to be any ink on the brush nor anywhere on the table.

" First question, Your name. Remember, this name will be your official name here. Your records from now on will be saved under this name. "

Athan nodded before answering, " Athan Void. "

" Your age? "

" Seven and a half years. "

*crack...*

Jace mistakenly put too much pressure on the desk after hearing the answer of Athan before he and Mitra both looked at him with intense doubt.

" Did you just say seven and a half years or seventeen? or maybe Seventy? " Mitra asked with confusion on her face.

Athan was speechless at their reaction. Though he still repeated with a wry smile, " It's been seven years and six months approx since I became Novice order apprentice with a Tier-1 order base. "

" A-alright. I'll write it as seven years and six months. I hope you tell the truth because it will be clear how old you are once we begin the assessment phase. " Jace looked deeply at Athan before speaking. He then proceeded to register his age, as stated by Athan.

Athan's lips twitched slightly, but he didn't care, ' It looks like reaching this stage in just seven years is indeed a bit overkill. ' 

" Third question, Have you been walking on the path of any order occupation? Or are you trying to learn any? "

" Nope. I haven't grasped any and didn't try to learn any too. "

Hearing that, Mitra and Jace sighed a relief.

" Giggles...It would be weird if you learned any order occupation with your current age. " Mitra chuckled before speaking.

" Alright. Now we'll go to the place where you will receive a basic assessment. " Mitra spoke with a smile as she led Athan towards the left corridor of this vast hall.

While walking, Mitra told Athan about the record-breaking feat. The previous record was learning the Order of Cloud in three days. But since Athan had broken the record, He will have his name written in the record-breaking hall.

" That's all? Just name written in the record-breaking hall? Are there any benefits about that, or is it just for show? " Athan asked with doubt. 

Mitra smiled before speaking, " Of course there are benefits. Actually, each record-breaking feat has its own benefits. In your case, You broke the record of learning the Cloud of Chaos fastest. So, you will receive a complete manual of Cloud of Chaos. "

" Oh..." Athan nodded plainly.

Mitra stopped walking and looked at Athan with a serious expression, " Hey, You must be thinking that the reward doesn't seem that impressive for a record-breaking feat, right? "

" Eh...No, Of cour-" Before Athan could finish his sentence with a speechless expression, Mitra started speaking in a serious voice.

" Humph, Listen. The Cloud of chaos is a very powerful and versatile flying order technique. Usually, You would need to spend a fortune to buy the subsequent scrolls of this technique one by one. At its highest stage, This technique is considered a king-rank technique. For your information, Only fourteen people here have this technique at its highest level. Now, do you understand how great of a benefit achieving that record-breaking feat? "

" Yeah yeah, I got it. Now let's continue with our main objective. " Athan nodded with a tired smile.

Mitra pouted and frowned, " Your expression tells that you are not thrilled or interested in the reward you are going to it. This tells others how ignorant one can be. You are ignoring it because you haven't seen its true power or know its value. That's how frog in the well thi--"

" I know! I know that king-rank techniques are awesome, fabulous, and mind-blowing. Now can we continue moving already? " Athan interrupted her with a what the fuck expression on his face.

' What a pain in the ass. ' 

...

Both of them passed the corridor before appearing in another hall. This hall had round internal with many doors on its walls with the same distance to each other.

Mitra led Athan to the nearest room before both of them entered inside.

The room was big with several weird things in it.

Mitra first went to the table that had a square stone placed on it. The stone was glowing white.

" First, We will determine the strength and rank of your soul and...your age. "