Ajax knew that with his experience, he could easily score much better than the rest. But he intentionally used poor posture and technique to get a lower score.
He didn't want any attention from any of the guards or his fellow trainees. It was not too much that the competitive ones would try to engage more with him and it was well above average that they wouldn't try to intimidate or oppress/bully him. He was quite satisfied till with those results and he expected the same when he touched the orb, but wasn't that lucky.
As Ajax came into contact with the orb, he found a suction force and a little mana moving into the orb as expected. But then, he was very confused. He expected it to go black indicating darkness but it was not so.
"Red? I am fire attributed?" he asked surprised as he looked at the orb. It was deep reddish-brown colour mostly on the orb with two small patches of bright red and pitch black while having a thin line of white surrounding the patch like a halo. Fire nature usually had the orb with bright red colour. So, he thought it was showing fire and felt that the orb was defective. He had already had his tested a long time ago in his palace it was definitely darkness that he remembered.
"I am not sure," said the guard as he moved to the side and called for others to see. A moment later, two other guards came but they too didn't say anything till the warden Angeline herself came to see.
"The orb is broken?" asked one of them. "You have seen this before?"
"Get another one. Let us make sure," said warden Angeline and immediately one of the guards moved brought another orb from his storage ring. Ajax tried and again and it was the same.
"It is a deviant," said Angeline as she looked at the orb confirming .
"A bit of fire element. As his secondary but mostly a deviant," she confirmed looking at the small red patch on the orb and then him. "You know your parents' attributes?"
"Darkness and fire," Ajax replied quickly. He almost told darkness and light but quickly changed light to fire so as to not let anyone compare him with the escaped prince of the Andar kingdom.
"Maybe a mixture of those two elements like dark fire," suggested one of the guards.
"Mixtures tend to show both original elements along with the mixed one," said Angeline as she kept observing the orb. She felt that she had heard of this brownish red one before but couldn't remember it.
"Put the deviant aside and test the others. You know the protocol for such cases. Also isolate him. Without having a technique for his attribute, it will be very hard for him to progress," she finally said letting go of her interest. "One of you send a message to the old guys and the librarian. Maybe they can identify."
"Ok," said a guard. "But he also seemed to have been strengthening his flesh. Look at his scores," he said showing Ajax's scores in the previous three tests. Looking at his scores, she raised her brows. For someone at Ajax's age, it implied that he was quite good at strengthening his flesh and body. It was even more impressive as he had a deviant attribute and it meant he had probably achieved this through using a fire-oriented technique and it was only for his secondary element.
"You use a fire-oriented method," she asked looking at him, thinking that he probably got one through one of his parents.
"No, a neutral method," answered Ajax. He knew that if he said fire oriented, they might consider him to be a genius for being able to use it when he had a mixed element attribute. So, he said that he had a neutral method. Even though, it is hard to progress using a neutral method and one who did so would be considered talented, it was nothing compared to one who did it through a method for the secondary element.
"Hmm," she said. "Ok, as I told before let us.."
Before she could finish saying, an old man floated right down right behind her. As he landed all the guards saluted him. The man was wearing a long yellowish brown colored robe, sporting a long saber dangling from a belt. He had long white shoulder length hair and a white beard that reached his chest. His eyes sparkled were deep brown and appeared like very calm. "Sir, Dustblade, I didn't expect you to arrive," said Angeline as she did a salute.
"At ease. It feels so odd seeing my granddaughter saluting me and calling me sir," said the old man waving his hand indicating her to relax.
"You can't expect me to relax, grandfather. Aren't you supposed to be resting," she said in a whisper approaching him.
"Don't be concerned, child. I broke through. I will be staying in this world long enough," said the man as he looked at the Ajax. The old man was Karl Dustblade, Krev's father. He was almost 500 years old and had recently broken through to a higher realm due to the forbidden potion given to him by Karl. Thus, gaining a new lease on his life, he decided to join the border guards again. This time he was given the post of a special commander of the border guard.
As he started back, he was also requested by Krev to look out for Ajax and also about his conversation with the emperor. So, when he had his ears out for the trainees and when he heard that Ajax was a deviant, he immediately came to see. He had slightly hoped that they wouldn't be able to find about his attribute as that would increase the chances of his youngest son to inherit the Darkhan empire.
"Try again kid," asked Karl looking at Ajax. Hearing him being addressed Dustblade, Ajax felt that he might have been sent by Krev to keep an eye on him. He quickly placed his hands on the orb again allowing Karl to have a look.
"Interesting," said Karl. "A deviant alright."
"So, you know," asked Angeline. The others also looked towards Karl. It was rare that one gets to see deviants.
"It is blood mostly with a bit of others like darkness and fire. The repository should have a cultivation method, but it still makes him deviant. He can't join any squad. He can train for now," explained Karl. Everyone was silent in shock as they heard Karl.
"Blood?" asked Angeline. "Is that even an attribute?"
"Yes, a very old and almost extinct one," said Karl.
"How does that even work? Is it of any use?" asked Angeline. It was hard for her to imagine what use an element like blood could have. Techniques usually involved using refined mana along with materials to fight.
Having blood as a attribute, she expected one to have to use blood along with refined mana but that was bound to have problems as blood can't be stored for long in liquid form outside. Blood essence which is refined and concentrated blood is store in special ways, but using large amounts of blood would have required immediate killing and even that didn't seem feasible as one had to quickly refine and then use it. So, using one's own blood seemed like the way but that would make one loose his own vitality.
"Nobody knows. That is why, even with a cultivation method, he would still remain a deviant," said Karl before turning to Ajax. He caught Ajax on his shoulder for now. "He is coming with me. I will return him to his quarters."
The next instant he began to float. Ajax was felt his feet rise above the ground. The wind itself was lifting him up by his feet as he floated. "You don't need to worry," said the old man before the both of them flew out of the ground.
"Is blood attribute important enough for the sir to personally take him?" asked one of the guards aloud.
"Don't talk. I have heard about someone who had it before. Just never knew anything else," said Angeline as she looked at the fly away. "Continue with the rest. The boy will probably be sent back."
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
In a minute, Ajax found himself transported at high speeds through the air before they got into a building. Even inside, the old man moved himself and Ajax through the corridors and steps in the same manner before they reached a dusty corner of building.
The room had an ornate wooden door with two plaques nailed beside it. One read "forbidden techniques" and the other read "condemned". As they approached, the designs started to glow forming a thin barrier. The old man didn't care about the two plaques or the barrier as he pulled out a token which immediately caused the barrier to pop out of existence. He placed his hand on the door as it vibrated for a second and moved to the side allowing them a thin stepped passage underground.
"Don't worry though this isn't the repository, I have the authority to access it. It is just unnecessary for others to know. We need to forward by foot and can't use mana inside," said Karl as he sawed the concerned expression on Ajax. He walked inside followed by Ajax as they went down the steps which spiraled down. After they walked down three flights of airs, they entered a big hall about 100 sq meters large. It was filled with dusty shelves. Some had books, some ornaments, vases but mostly lots of sealed boxes.
"Don't touch the shelves," said Karl as he walked towards a shelf filled with books. "They are warded and some even cursed. Just walk behind me."
As Karl came closer to the shelf a blue barrier sprung in front of him. He took out a foot long pyramid shaped stylus with a pointed tip. It had small runes inscribed on the flat sides which shone as he began to write on the barrier. He wrote a couple of runes on the barrier after which it went down.
"You haven't seen such a runic barrier before prince?" asked Karl looking back at him.
"I know of them. I know that they are used for defences and fortifications, but haven't seen such small ones. Never seen that kind of barrier or runic pens," said Ajax. "So, general Krev informed you about me?"
"Yes, my son did," said Karl giving a mild smile as he began to check the shelf.
"Don't worry, you are safe and now that your natural attribute changed to blood for some reason, you will be considered even more valuable by the guard," he explained as he removed a few books from the shelf.
"What is so special about it?" asked Ajax. He knew that there must be some reason for the old man to have been helping him personally.
"Special, forbidden, feared, revered, hated. Depends on who you ask," said Karl looking at him. "Don't worry though, those are common emotions whenever something new comes to light. There were times when darkness was considered the most evil of attributes and dark attributed cultivator were called demon spawn, but now there is a dynasty of the same ruling over an empire. That too an empire on the border thus being considered one of the more noble and trustworthy ones."
"The stronger someone is the more those feeling are invoked towards them. Is that what you mean to say?" asked Ajax.
"Wise for your age, huh," said Karl. "But not quite what I meant to say. It is not just strength in your case. All cultivator inspire fear, reverence, hatred, etc. among those weaker than them. Fighting other men for resources is one thing, but when you treat the other men as resources and become cannibalistic, then it would become a forbidden and evil practice."
"So, blood cultivators did that?" asked Ajax. "Wait! Darkness cultivators used to do that?"
"Of course, there are methods that would consume one's opponents using dark attributed mana. There is even a theory that for any attribute in the world there could be forbidden and evil method, just waiting to be invented," said Karl.
"Anyway, let us get back to point at hand," said Karl shoving the books into Ajax's arms. "One has a cultivation technique. There are three fighting methods. One book is about specialized alchemy and the last has lore."
"Lore about why this is forbidden?" asked Ajax.
"Yes. I recommend that you finish that first before any other book. It is not just lore and I believe it will be very useful. Went through quite a few adventures during my youth finding it," said Karl. "That is why I could realize what it was when I saw it."
"You have seen others with the same attribute?" asked Ajax.
"Almost became the meal of one, before I was saved by my peers," said Karl walking past Ajax. As he continued up the stairs, Ajax realized that Karl didn't want to talk anymore and followed behind him.
As they got out, into the corridor, Karl closed the door behind him and then again, the pair of them flew through the air back to the prison grounds. As they reached it, the found the grounds empty.
"It looks like they are done. I will drop you to your accommodation," said Karl and the next moment they flew into the prison. In a minute, he found himself sitting in a prison cell along with another trainee.