Grand Saint Alloy

All the teens were lined up before Elder Forest the next day. Tristan was in the middle of the crowd, which was a mistake. His parents thought that crutches would help with an injured lung and sent him with a pair. They did not help.

Elder Forest stood tall inspecting the new teens. When his eyes landed on Tristan, he grimaced, like he had eaten something sour. Several men off to his right and left, doing their best to look imposing. The only one who succeeded was directly off to Forest’s right.

This man was tall, basically a mountain of muscle. He was wearing a red robe, with silver armor strapped over the top of it. The half plate covered his shoulders, chest, and head. If he was wearing any armor on his legs, it was covered up by the robe. He was one of the tier three warriors. Judging by the red robes he had a fire kern.

Today was where the thirteen-year-olds would be sorted based on their potential. It was like an internship, several managers would offer to teach them and the teen would choose the one that they believed suited them best.

Elder Forest smiled and clapped his hands together, “All right everyone, today we have our work cut out for us. You youngsters have had it easy up until now. After today, you are going to learn about your future occupation, and when you turn sixteen, you get to start your adult life.”

Tristan was not excited about today, he did not know who he would be assigned to. There were several possibilities, however, his talent was not great enough to be sure. However, from the Elder's perspective, his survival was due to a lack of talent.

Tristan had several possible paths that he could potentially leverage his metal kern with. He could be sent to the crafters, as many of them worked with metal implements. They might send them to the smiths, a metal affinity could be useful there. Maybe a bank would want him, he might be able to spot counterfeit currency. Or depending on how much they wanted him dead they could send him with the Warriors. A tier zero would not be able to stop even the weakest of mythical beasts.

“Are you excited?” a young, female voice said from beside him.

Tristan looked over to see Harp, he shivered a little bit. Would she still be his friend after today, she had most likely seen everything that happened yesterday, “no, I’m more scared. I don’t know what’s gonna happen. What about you?”

Harp shrugged,” I’m basically guaranteed to be working in the fields. I got both of my parent's affinities for light and dark, so I’m OK with plants, but not quite as good as I could be without the dark affinity.”

She had an uncertain expression. Like she wanted to ask something, but was unsure of the consequences of speaking. Tristan would not be surprised if her parents had told her to stay away from him.

Tristan distracted himself with her previous statement, “That rough, getting a contradictory kern.”

The dark affinity was a scouting or combat affinity, and Harp was definitely not a warrior. The light affinity was great with plants, no one was sure why, but they guessed had something to do with the sun. They also tended to be weaker elements, despite the grand ancestor, being of the dark affinity, most people of the same affinity only had a tier zero kern.

Forest continued his speech, “When I call your name, I am going to direct you to one of these managers. Please line up behind the one I direct you to. If I say multiple managers, then it is your choice.”

Forest started with the most prominent members of the community. That would be the warrior's children. They were not all born with tier three kerns however the battlefield was a good place to get artifacts to raise that tier. Sometimes the claws and teeth of the mythical beasts would have enough essence to double as artifacts.

After the warriors came the managers. If you went by prominence, that would mean that Tristan would be called up first. In all honesty, he should have been before the warriors. However, that was not true. Harp was called up first. She seemed to be surprised, her family was a manager family, but it was a lower-ranked one. Tristan wondered if Elder Forest was calling out his inadequacies.

“Harp, daughter of our dear Light Weaver, please come forward.” Elder Forest said with a slight smile.

Harp smiled sadly and squeezed Tristan‘s arm, “Good luck.” She then turned and made her way through the gathering to the stage.

Forest gestured to an older man with greying hair, “ You will be going with manager Tom, I believe you’re familiar with him as he leads the farming division under your parents.”

Harp nodded and went to stand with the other thirteen-year-olds behind Tom. So she had been right about her future. That gave Tristan a little bit of hope for himself. He knew most of the managers, with the exception of the man at the far right. They were all if not kind, results-oriented people.

Several other managers and children were called up and people were starting to look over at him. Shadow Fist was one of the most prominent managers. Tristan, not being called up, could be seen as an insult to his father. Tristan clenched his fists, that’s probably what it was, Shadow Fist had a lower pedigree, and Elder Forest was more than happy to shift the blame of Tristan onto his brother-in-law.

All the managers were done, and Forest moved on to the workers. Tristan still had not been called up. He just stood there on his crutches as the group around him dwindled. And finally, after the old drunkard’s son was called up. It was Tristan’s turn.

Except Elder Forest, did something different he stepped off the stage, walked up to Tristan, and turned to face the gathered youth, “Today young men, and women. We have a special lesson for you all.”

Elder Forest squeezed Tristan’s shoulder as if to stop him from running away. Which was ridiculous because he was on crutches, “ today we have our first tribesmen who has a metal kern.”

Most of the teens didn’t seem to care. True they had been told to fear the monsters of history with metal powers however, they had also lived in entire lives, knowing Tristan. They really had no reason to fear him.

The adults were a different story. They narrowed their eyes and stared suspiciously at Tristan. They seemed to glance at each other hoping that somebody else would be given this responsibility. Adults it seemed looked at the world more cynically, they were actually ready to believe that someone they watched grow up could be a monster.

“ You may be asking yourself why we let this boy live, “ Elder Forest paused for a few seconds to allow for the brief spatter of murmuring among children, “Well as you can see, he was injured what you may not know who is, this was a punishment bestowed by the remnant of the grand elder himself. I myself do not believe, that I am qualified to overrule the grand ancestors ruling, I believe that he was sent to us as an example, an example of how broken our enemy is.”

Elder Forest grabbed the crutch and pulled it out from under his arm. Tristan stumbled forward. There wasn’t anything wrong with his legs however, the sudden pressure on his lungs made it hard to breathe. It wasn’t impossible, but the feeling was so alien and painful that he just wanted to curl up into a ball and cry. The Elder obliged him.

Placing a hand on Tristan’s back he shoved him forward. Unable to keep his balance, he fell to the ground. It was actually easier to breathe on the ground, there was less pressure.

“ I am not going to assign him to anyone, as you can see, he is weak. If it was not for the symbol he represented, I’m not sure how long it would be before he was exiled. So I will not force this burden on any of you managers, which one of you will take him?”

Surprisingly, it didn’t take long for someone to step forward. It was a short man with scared skin and a raspy voice, “ I don’t think he will last long, but his talent might be useful in the mine. “

He was also the one that Tristan did not recognize. He was the only one that Tristan did not know the personality of.