Chapter 70: Soul shock

The next morning, William joined the sea of students gathered in the main hall. Dark circles shadowed nearly every face—hardly anyone had managed to catch a decent night's sleep after Mark's announcement. Still, the sheer, nervous excitement buzzing through the room easily compensated for their exhaustion.

​“When is this actually going to start?” Caleb asked, bouncing on his heels, completely unable to stand still.

​“I don't know,” William replied, adjusting his collar. “We were only told to gather in the hall first thing in the morning.”

​“I can't stop thinking about what sort of magic I'll end up with,” Caleb admitted, shaking his head. “And the worst part is we don't even know what the different types of magic are yet.”

​William turned to glance at Edward, Arya, and Martha. Their expressions mirrored Caleb's—a mix of high anxiety and suppressed anticipation.

‘​It looks like every single one of us is wondering the exact same thing, William thought.’

​A sharp, loud cough echoed through the hall, instantly cutting through the noisy chatter. Standing near the front was the very same young woman who had guided them to their first classroom lecture.

​After waiting a silent beat to ensure she had everyone's undivided attention, she turned on her heel and began walking toward the inner corridors.

​“Follow me,” she instructed, her voice crisp and even. “And do not wander around.”

‘​How does she manage to appear out of nowhere without making a sound every single time?’ William wondered, quickening his stride to fall into line behind her.

The group of students followed the young woman deeper into the academy's interior. She led them down a completely unfamiliar route, weaving through a labyrinth of twists and turns across silent, empty corridors. Finally, they arrived before a massive chamber sealed by a heavy metal door.

​The brown-haired guide pushed the heavy door open and stepped inside, leaving the students standing in the quiet hallway. After a brief pause, her voice echoed from within.

​“Enter.”

​Stepping into the vast room, the students found her standing directly in the center.

​“Today, you will all undergo your awakening ceremony under the direct supervision of Lady Espara, Professor of Arrays and Formations at the academy and a Tier 3 Arrayist,” the guide explained, her tone formal and crisp.

​“Can we... know what exactly the ceremony entails?” a student asked, their voice hesitant.

​The guide fixated her gaze on the student for a quiet second before continuing.

​“The process is officially known as the Soul Shock Ceremony. As the name suggests, it delivers a direct shock to your soul. Normally, the physical body acts as a vessel that insulates your soul from the raw mana circulating through the world. The array inside this chamber briefly bypasses that physical shield—exposing your soul directly to external mana for a fraction of a second. That sudden exposure triggers and draws out any dormant magical affinities resting within your soul.”

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​She paused, letting the weight of the mechanism sink in.

​“Before this method was perfected, extreme trauma, near-death experiences, and volatile emotions were required to force a soul into awakening—a practice that was extraordinarily dangerous and often lethal,” she added. “That changed two thousand, two hundred, and eighty-seven years ago, when Count Roland Espara, a Tier 4 Arrayist and the Chairman and founder of the Tower of Arrays, constructed this standardized awakening array after which the array was constantly upgraded to increase its safety and efficacy”.

After finishing her explanation, the young woman pulled a long scroll from her satchel.

​“Now, I am going to call your names one by one,” she announced, her voice echoing off the chamber walls. “The person whose name I speak will enter the door behind me, while the rest of you will wait quietly for your turn.”

​As she spoke, the students' eyes tracked her gaze toward the back wall. A narrow door—one that had been so completely blended into the stone masonry a moment ago as to be invisible—silently revealed itself.

​“First: Tye,” she read off.

​Tye—the confident student William had spoken with two days prior during physical exercises—stepped out from the crowd. Though he maintained a bold posture, William could sense the rigid tension in his every step. Tye pushed the door open and vanished inside.

​A heavy quiet fell over the waiting students. Every few minutes, the guide called another name, sending another anxious commoner through the threshold. Soon, both Caleb and Edward were called.

​Finally, on the ninth turn, William's name echoed across the hall.

​“William.”

​The woman spoke his name flatly, without looking up from her scroll.

​William slowly walked toward the hidden threshold, his heart thumping against his ribs.

​’So this is it,’ he thought, staring at the heavy door. Behind this door lies the answer. ‘I just hope I get something good.

​Taking a deep breath to steady his pulse,’ William pushed the door open—only to be instantly blinded by a sudden, brilliant flash of light.

As the blinding illumination gradually subsided, William squinted, his eyes slowly adjusting to the radiant glow filling the chamber. The room was dominated by a massive, intricate pattern etched directly into the stone floor, its complicated geometric lines and runic shapes occupying the entire center.

​Before he could process the sight, a flat, commanding voice cut through the silence.

​“Go and stand at the center of the formation.”

​William turned toward the sound and spotted a woman seated at the edge of the array, tracing its outer runes with her fingertips.

​’That must be Professor Espara,’ William thought, swallowing the lump in his throat.

​He stepped carefully onto the stone, walking along the quiet channels of the pattern until he reached the center. Pausing, he turned to take another look at the Arrayist—only to run into a strange, unsettling sensation. The moment he shifted his gaze away from her, every detail of her face instantly vanished from his memory.

‘​Her features are completely plain,’ ' he realizes with a chill. ‘It’s like looking at a blank canvas—a face designed to be forgotten the second you look away.’

​Before he could ponder the strange mental fog further, the professor rose and stepped back from the array's perimeter.

​“Close your eyes and count to three,” she instructed curtly.

​William hurriedly shut his eyes and began to tally in his head.

‘​One... two... three—’

​The world vanished as the array roared to life, a surge of blinding mana sweeping upward to envelope his body entirely.