Golden Finger and Awakening Day

The next day,

At the entrance to a villa, Wayne, the blond boy, rubbed his sleepy blue eyes and boarded a carriage bound for the center of Rose City.

Once he was seated, Butler Zobel drove toward the center.

Naturally, the descendants of meritorious families like them already lived in the central district; it was simply an enormous place.

There were quite a few people like them. Among the descendants of meritorious families in their area alone, there were more than five hundred children of the appropriate age for the twelve-year-old assessment.

As for those of the appropriate age elsewhere in Rose Territory, they were simply too numerous to count.

An hour later,

At the edge of the plaza, Wayne jumped down from the carriage, making Zobel's eyelids twitch repeatedly.

But seeing that Wayne was unharmed,

Zobel could only force a helpless smile. After all, butlers like them existed as servants.

Ordinarily, it would have been nothing,

But what day was today?

It was Awakening Day, when knight and wizard aptitudes were tested. If Wayne got bruised or hurt,

And entered with injuries all over his face,

Then,

The Rose Marquis's fury was easy enough to imagine.

[Butler Zobel (terrified expression): I almost became an abuser. I'm sweating bullets, everyone!]

Once Wayne was steady on his feet,

Butler Zobel took Wayne by the hand and led him toward the enormous plaza. The moment they entered,

It was exceptionally lively,

With crowds surging everywhere.

Since it was still early, the Awakening Hall had not yet opened. Wayne did not look around,

After all,

He had been wandering around Rose City ever since he was six. As one of the most dazzling places in Rose Territory, he had naturally visited it before.

Still, it was worth mentioning that,

After six years,

He still had not finished exploring Rose City. Just thinking about it filled him with longing.

The map was so vast.

Tsk, tsk. He could feel the farming genes in his bones beginning to awaken!

An hour later,

Wayne and Zobel stepped down from a circulating carriage.

After getting off,

What greeted them was a massive gate, still tightly shut.

Carved on the right side of the gate was an enormous silver-white tower, surrounded by colors representing the various elements.

On the left stood a Temple,

Complemented by winding dragons.

Wayne knew

That they represented the Tower of Truth, symbolizing wizards, and the Paladin Hall, symbolizing knights.

Yet before the massive gate,

Or rather, along the straight path facing the gate, was empty ground that no one occupied. Everyone else stood on either side of it.

Zobel found a spot with Wayne,

And they began waiting quietly.

With nothing else to do, Wayne shifted his thoughts, and a grid resembling an equipment slot that only he could see

Appeared before his eyes.

But he had not placed anything inside it, so it remained blank. This was his golden finger: [Infinite Slots].

It differed slightly from the descriptions in his previous life.

After coming to this world, his golden finger had changed somewhat. Infinite Slots began with one slot while he was still an ordinary person.

This was why,

Over all these years, Wayne had never planned to start cultivating early and had instead spent his time traveling around.

Of course, it was also because one could not cultivate before the age of twelve without awakening a talent.

Besides, he had acquired his golden finger long ago.

It was merely a matter of becoming invincible sooner or later. Since he already knew what lay ahead, he naturally remained calm.

As for what to put in the slot,

Wayne had already made plans. It all depended on how his talent awakened next.

Would he begin on hard mode,

Or easy mode? It all came down to this one moment.

As he pondered,

Three dragon roars rang out from the sky.

Wayne looked up,

And saw a hundred-meter-long dragon, its entire body resembling ice crystals, roaring toward the heavens.

On either side of it,

Were two dragons nearly half again as large.

One was an entirely sky-blue dragon,

And the other was blue-white all over.

Wayne's eyes lit up at the sight. There was no other reason: he had seen these three dragons before.

The Awakening Day ceremony was about to begin.

These three dragons

Were the Ice Dragon, Water Dragon, and Frost Dragon.

These three dragons

All belonged to the Rose Marquis—Anne Hathaway.

Sure enough,

After roaring and circling through the skies, the three dragons began descending one after another.

At the same time, atop the Ice Dragon,

A figure in wizard robes, with a Rose Medal hanging from the robes,

Floated down from above.

The figure finally landed on the ground. Before Wayne could react, waves of voices rose up,

Joining into a single sentence.

"Greetings, Rose Marquis."

Seeing the adults around him and throughout the plaza bowing in salute, Wayne could not help but understand how Liu Bang had felt back then.

At the same time, Liu Bang's words surfaced in his mind.

"A true man should be like this."

Tsk, tsk.

The ancestors truly never deceived us!!!

"Rise."

As Wayne lost himself in thought, a cool voice rang in everyone's ears.

At the same time,

The moment those cool words fell,

The doors of the Awakening Hall opened, drawing everyone's attention. Once the doors were fully open,

Two groups emerged from within.

One group wore wizard robes, while the other wore knight armor.

At the front stood two middle-aged men.

"Hahaha, it's Awakening Day again. I wonder how this year's batch will turn out."

As the words fell,

The middle-aged man in wizard robes, with a Star Emblem on his chest signifying his status as a fourth-level Star Wizard, glanced helplessly at the armored middle-aged man

Who had just spoken.

Then he bowed.

"Greetings, Rose Marquis."

As soon as he finished speaking,

Everyone else followed suit and bowed.

At this sight,

Anne Hathaway merely nodded lightly.

"Begin the awakening."

As her words fell,

The two middle-aged men at the front raised their hands at the same time.

Two streams of energy

Shot from their hands toward the top of the Awakening Hall.

A moment later, two pillars of energy soared into the sky, forming two towering blue columns of light.

At the same time, the two men lowered their hands

And spoke in unison.

"Great Sanctuary Will, please heed the children's prayers and bless these newly sprouted buds,

Let the children

Feel Your compassion."

As the words fell,

An indescribable yet tangible gaze descended upon every twelve-year-old child.

At the same time,

Countless dazzling motes of light appeared in the sky.

The motes descended evenly

Upon every twelve-year-old child.

Faced with this scene,

Wayne was not nervous. Including this occasion, which he was experiencing firsthand, he had already witnessed it six times.

As for the so-called blessing,

Wayne only had a vague understanding of it. He knew only that when the gaze of the Sanctuary World's Will descended,

It injected a strand of elemental energy into children who had reached the age of twelve,

Serving as the energy to activate their talents.

Feeling the warm power within his body, Wayne could not help stretching a little.

How should he describe this feeling?

It was as though his entire body were soaking in warm sunlight.

Before Wayne could think further,

The Rose Marquis's voice rang out.

"Descendants of meritorious families from Rose Territory, step forward and prepare to awaken."

The moment those words were spoken,

The scene fell silent. Wayne raised his eyes and saw that the Rose Marquis had somehow

Already arrived at the entrance of the Awakening Hall,

Standing before everyone.

Wayne was accustomed to this sight, since he had witnessed it before.

After nodding to Zobel,

He stepped out first, onto the empty path. In the next instant, everyone's gaze focused

On Wayne.