Chapter 9: The Adventurers' Threshold

Xierna first found Helena, who was buying vegetables, in Bigen Village, and told her to hurry home to look after William. Then she ran all the way to Mobius Town, where she found David and his four companions waiting to accept commissions at the Adventurers' Guild, and together they returned to Bigen Village; by then it was already afternoon.

At this moment, the awakened magic power inside William's body was no longer chaotic, but began to become gentle and orderly, so the pain in William's body also lessened considerably.

Besides William's mother Helena, who was more worried about whether her son would be alright, the other five all looked expectant, waiting for the result of William's magic power awakening.

"Don't worry, Helena, everyone looks like this when they awaken their magic power; it'll be fine in a moment," Geilan said to comfort Helena from beside her.

"But I remember that when I awakened my magic power, I wasn't nearly as painful as William," Helena asked doubtfully.

David explained: "That's because your awakened magic quality is life, which produces a relatively small amount of magic; the pain comes from the magic power initially surging chaotically inside the body when it awakens, and the greater the amount of magic awakened, the greater the corresponding pain."

Geilan nodded and said: "That's right; seeing William suffer like this, his awakened magic quality should be no lower than moon, and might even reach sun level."

"That's also hard to say, after all William only started putting in effort over the past year," David said, scratching his temple with a finger.

Xierna patted David's back and laughed: "Don't worry, little William has worked so hard this past year; he'll definitely be fine!"

"I hope so..." David said.

The door on the first floor opened, and Ouli and Finley hurried up to the second floor.

Geilan greeted the two and asked: "Ouli, did you bring the item back?"

Ouli handed a crystal ball to Geilan, then the two of them, exhausted, leaned against the wall and sat on the floor; Ouli panted and replied: "Here... this is the crystal... crystal ball used to test magic power; after use it has to be returned to the guild."

Upon hearing the news that William was about to awaken his magic power, they immediately ran back to Bigen Village, but realizing they had no magic-testing tools on hand, they sent Ouli and Finley running back to Mobius Town to borrow a crystal ball for testing magic power from the Adventurers' Guild.

"You're back just in time, thanks for the hard work!" Geilan said.

After a while, William's body finally stopped generating new magic power, indicating that his magic power awakening was now completely finished.

All five members of the White Eagle Squad gathered around William; Xierna placed the crystal ball in front of him, her face full of anticipation, and said: "William, quickly put your hand on it so we can see what magic quality you have awakened."

William was also nervous at this moment, but thinking that his magic quality in his previous life had been extinction, he knew this life couldn't be worse than the last, so he gathered his courage and placed his right palm on the crystal ball.

As William poured magic power into the crystal ball, a rotating colored nebula appeared inside it.

The crystal ball is one of the most common tools in this world for testing magic quality levels; the method is for the tester to pour magic power into the crystal ball, after which the ball displays a specific color according to the attribute of the infused magic power.

Black represents extinction, white life, yellow star, blue moon, red sun, green hero, and purple legendary.

As the nebula inside the crystal ball rotated, the whole mass gradually turned into a single color; amid everyone's eager gazes, a yellow nebula slowly formed inside the crystal ball, and then the nebula inside the ball completely stabilized.

William withdrew his right hand, and the nebula inside the crystal ball vanished with it, leaving the entire room utterly silent.

"Um,"

"William's awakened magic power is star, right?" Sensing the eerie atmosphere in the room, Helena was the first to break the silence and speak.

Xierna found it hard to accept the crystal ball's result, saying: "There must be some mistake! William has worked so hard this past year, eating all kinds of magic beast supplements every day; the five of us have been teaching him together, and we know better than anyone how great his potential is—how could his awakened magic quality be merely star!"

"Ouli, did you drop the crystal ball on the way? Could this crystal ball be faulty? Please go back to the Adventurers' Guild and borrow another one for us," Geilan said to Ouli and Finley.

Ouli nodded and said: "Okay, I'm going now."

"Wait a moment."

David stopped Ouli, who was about to leave, sighed, and said to Geilan: "Geilan, you should also know how small the chance is for a crystal ball to malfunction. William is my son; I am even less willing than any of you to see him fail to awaken a strong magic quality, but you also have to accept the reality that William's awakened magic quality is indeed star."

Upon hearing that, Geilan slammed his fist heavily on the table and said: "Damn it, we five have been teaching William together for a year, so why did this happen! Damn it!"

"Enough, give it a rest!" Xierna scolded, then she lowered her voice to Geilan and the others: "I know you're all unwilling, and I'm no different, but right now the one who should be feeling the worst is probably William. He's been practically killing himself with training every day, and we've all seen those efforts—so stop complaining and go comfort William together."

Upon hearing this, Geilan and the others finally realized their mistake, and Geilan apologized: "Sorry, it was my fault."

Everyone turned to look at William and said: "William, don't worry about it; even a star-rank magic quality can make a decent adventurer..."

They had barely gotten halfway through their words of comfort when they stopped, seeing William stare in disbelief at his right hand resting on the crystal ball, murmuring softly over and over: "Success, success, I succeeded..."

"Hey, William, are you okay? David, could William have been so shocked that his brain broke?" Geilan asked anxiously.

Xierna retorted angrily: "Geilan, how dare you speak like that—it's your brain that's broken!"

David walked up to his son, concerned, and asked: "William, are you alright? What did you say about succeeding?"

William, completely unaware of the disappointment on everyone's faces, exclaimed excitedly: "Father, I succeeded! I awakened a star-rank magic quality, and I have met the basic requirement to become an adventurer!"

In his previous life, William continued living a salted-fish existence on Earth after his transmigration, so he never trained before awakening his magic quality, which ultimately resulted in him awakening an extinction magic quality.

Therefore, after his parents died, no matter how desperately he trained afterward, he could only advance to the bronze rank at most.

However, for ordinary people whose awakened magic quality is life and who cannot become adventurers, William's being an extinction-quality individual yet managing to reach the bronze rank as an adventurer is already nothing short of a miracle.

In this life, William awakened a star magic quality.

He is confident that, as long as he puts in effort and sweat no less than in his previous life, he will surely become a gold-rank or even mythril-rank adventurer, thereby reversing the tragedies that befell those around him in his former life!

David looked at his son brimming with confidence, somewhat at a loss for words, and said: "Meeting the basic requirement for an adventurer... that... counts as pretty impressive, right..."

"Right? It's impressive! Never mind, I'm going to train!" Having said that, William dashed downstairs full of vigor, leaving the six people in the room staring at each other.

"Hahahaha! Hahahaha!"

Geilan suddenly burst out laughing, saying: "Really, I've been defeated by William! It's just that his awakened magic quality is star—it's not a big deal. If I had William's mindset back then, I might not have stopped at silver rank; as his teacher, I've completely lost to my disciple!"

Helena also sighed and said: "Yeah, we've all been beaten by William. Just the fact that he possesses this mindset means he is destined to become strong in the future."

Everyone was uplifted by William's emotion; they not only forgot their previous disappointment, but also felt instantly relieved about the regret of their own limited development on the adventurer's path due to lacking genius-level talent.

David clenched his fists, his whole body trembling from excitement as he said: "As a father, seeing my son this strong makes my own blood boil; Geilan, Xierna, Ouli, and Finley—I decide from today onward not to remain a silver-rank adventurer, even though I'm already in my thirties, I want to strive to become stronger!"

"That's what it means to be a man!" Xierna laughed and said.

Finley weakly nodded and said: "Count me in......"

Ouli: "Let's do it together."

Geilan: "Let's say we do it and do it—let's all charge toward becoming gold-rank adventurers, or even higher!"