53 Chapter 53

Gabriel placed his left palm on the second Crystal Sphere and waited.

The Crystal started changing its color as soon as it came in contact with his hand.

"As expected, you pass the threshold. I wish I could see your exact Talent on this crystal, but it only shows if you pass the threshold or not. What a disappointment." The old lady let out a tired sigh.

She didn't know how glad Gabriel was that she couldn't see his exact Talent. He had already attracted too much attention as it was. He didn't want to attract more due to his talent because he already knew what it was going to show.

Even amongst the Talent Prodigies, his talent was at the absolute peak, thanks to the Grimoire of Death and Necromancy. At the same time, his Soul Talent was also boosted by the Grimoire, making him a double Prodigy which was hard to come around.

That much attention wasn't good for him. What happened now was already bad enough. He didn't want to make it worse since he understood what could happen.

If he was just a talented Mage, the Academy was going to focus on him. But if he was a Double Prodigy while being the youngest awakened mage, the news was going to attract outside attention as well, including the attention from the Church of Light which he wanted to avoid at any cost.

p From what he had heard, the Head of the Church of Light never made an appearance outside, which was the only good news for him. The Ring of Apophis, mixed with his gloves, could fool the Head Priests of the Church of Light for the most part, but the Head of the Church of Light was a different deal altogether.

Just like him, the Head of the Church of other Churches were Sacred Mages who were connected to their Grimoires. They could see what others couldn't and possessed the abilities to see through such illusions. At least that's what Lambard told him.

In any case, Gabriel could feel that uncertain times were ahead.

"Place your hand on the third crystal." The old Woman tapped the third Crystal.

Gabriel placed his hand on the third crystal.

"Interesting. So you've never used a Spirit Crystal. You do look to be from a rich family from your attire. May I ask why you didn't use a Spirit Crystal before?"

"I'm not from a rich family," Gabriel answered.

His initial plan was to show off as if he was from a wealthy family since it gave him some advantages while also explaining why he wore such an expensive-looking attire.

Unfortunately, now that his true age was exposed, that came with a lot of excess burden.

His actual age was exposed. If he claimed he was from a wealthy family, it was going to open him up to a barrage of new questions. If his family was wealthy, there was no way they lived in a town that didn't have a Church of Light Branch. And even if they lived somewhere like that, there was still no way for them to not know about the Church at least.

If he was truly from a rich family, there was no way he would have remained unknown after becoming the youngest mage to awaken the element.

The old lady was right as well with that line of thinking. It was really hard for such a talented person to stay unknown.

What she didn't know was that it wasn't the first time a young mage was discovered who awakened an element at the age of eighteen. There was another she didn't know about who was discovered by the Church of Light. The church didn't tell anyone about that discovery, so even the Academy didn't know about it.

However, that other person was also none other than Gabriel. If she had known about Gabriel before, she would've been at least a little suspicious about having another person awaken the same element at around the same age

To avoid any excess questioning about why he was unknown, Gabriel went with a different story than he had initially planned.

"I'm not from a rich family. In my tribe, we don't give importance to money or such things. We live with the bare minimum on the mountains, which provide us with everything we need to survive," Gabriel answered, swiftly coming up with a new story.

"Oh, no wonder you didn't use the Spirit Crystals. Don't worry though. You're exceptional. The Academy won't leave any stone unturned in your training." The old lady smiled. "You came to the right place, young man."

Gabriel nodded as he started going toward the group that was selected for further examination of Level One Grade.

"Wait. You don't need to go with them." The old lady called out.

"Hmm?" Gabriel frowned as he turned back. What did she mean by that?

"Just wait here. You don't need to give any entrance exams. You're already selected without any need for further examination," the old lady explained.

"I've sent a message to Eliana. Since the Dean has left for some important work, in his absence, Eliana is handling everything at the Academy. She would be right here to take care of any formality. You can just wait for her here."

'Eliana?' Gabriel didn't know who she was. He couldn't recall hearing that name. It was because even Lira didn't have that much information about the Academy since people at the Academy often kept changing.

Lira had only informed him about the basic structure, and going by that, he could take an educated guess as to who Eliana was.

In essence, the Academy of Elements was divided into Seven Houses, each belonging to an Element. They were: the House of Light, the House of Lightning, the House of Water, the House of Wind, the House of Fire, the House of Nature, the House of Earth, and the House of Summoning.

Each of these Houses taught mages that belonged to their Elements, and they all had multiple talented Mages as teachers. Only the strongest of the Teachers was given the position of the Head of a House.

There was also a Head Council at the Academy, which consisted only of these Head of Houses who took essential policy decisions. If there was one person who was above any Head of Houses, it was the Dean of the Academy himself.

'Eliana is taking care of the Academy in the absence of Dean? If I'm not wrong, that position would only fall to a Head of a House in the absence of the Dean. And since the strongest House is the House of Holy Light, that means Eliana must be the Head of House of Light.'

'It's also good though. I don't know how strong the Dean is, but I don't want to test the strength of my Illusion before the Dean. If Eliana is the Head of the House of Light, then she should be comparable to a Head Priest at the Church of Light. The Illusion should be able to fool her.'

'As long as the Dean doesn't return for seven days, even under this extreme attention, I might be able to succeed if no one sees through my Illusion.'

Just as Gabriel summarized that he didn't need to worry about anything, someone came flying in his direction.