Fire and Darkness
I woke up with a cold sweat.
"...Wasn't too bad, I guess?"
Looking at my status window, I saw a flood of notifications.
I had cleared the small enlightenment quest, and had thus reached the third layer.
Apparently... the analysis skill I was using on items could now be used on people?
Definitely a valuable upgrade.
But what excited me most was that my elemental affinities had awakened.
Opening my status window, it was as I had expected.
[Furio Ars Notoria]
Body: Stage 2 - Lowest
Reflex: Stage 2 - Low
Magic: Layer 3 - Lowest
Traits: Circuitry of Infinity (EX), The Notary Art (F), Dragon-Slaying (FFF), Swordsmanship (E)
Elemental Affinities: Fire (High - 63%), Darkness (Low - 17%)
All of my three main stats had rose.
From my training, my body stat had reached stage two, but I did not feel a massive difference unlike when I would have a breakthrough in magic.
My reflex also rose slightly, but that was not particularly interesting to me.
What mattered was my magic had reached the third layer.
Now, I would be able to imbue my magic bullet with an element.
It was possible to use elemental magic without having an affinity for it, such as a first layer mage using fireball, but the applications were limited, only being able to use very basic spells.
Trying to make a water magic bullet without having an affinity for water would be impossible.
But having an affinity for an element meant that I could easily imbue an element into my spell.
"Fire... and darkness, huh?"
It was as my master had said.
I had a high affinity for fire, and a low affinity for darkness.
I knew having a dual affinity was relatively uncommon, so I was pleased with the result.
Opening the window in my room, I took a deep breath.
The circle for magic bullet was constructed.
The second ring, rifling, was created to add spin to the bullet.
The third ring, fire, was added with minimal effort.
The entire magical circle turned a fiery orange.
I maximised the strength of the circle, and released the spell.
Five orange magic bullets soared through the air at high speeds, ripping through the tundra's fog and reaching a longer distance than I had ever previously reached.
My magic output had increased, and I could tell the bullets were powerful.
If I had used this, I might have been able to take that snake out in one go.
When they finally began to fizzle out, they let out a small explosion.
"It's good."
Next, I practiced with my darkness element.
I repeated the same constructions, but creating a ring of darkness was more difficult.
My inherent understand of darkness... felt lacking? At least, when compared to fire.
But after a few seconds, I was able to imbue darkness upon my magic bullet.
They shot through the sky, albeit with less firepower than the fire bullets.
'Still, not bad, right?'
The bullets inherited the traits of darkness, making barely any sound.
If I had used them at night, they'd probably be borderline invisible under the night sky.
"Well, I guess I should show master."
"Fire and darkness, a dual element isn't bad, I guess."
"What's with the 'I guess', only about one in ten mages have a dual element."
"Heh, I suppose I have high standards."
I sought out my master, and informed him of my achievement.
He did not seem particularly impressed with the fact I had awakened two elemental affinities.
I wasn't particularly bothered by the fact, moreso curious as to what his 'high standards' were.
"Alright then, what elemental affinities do you have?"
"Well, I suppose like you, I was also born with a gift and a curse."
I tilted my head in confusion.
"I was born with a perfect affinity to five of the six elements, only missing an affinity to light."
A perfect affinity?
According to the status window, my fire affinity was sixty-three percent, enough to be called high.
A perfect affinity would probably mean one hundred percent.
'Crazy.'
Whilst thinking about how powerful my master was, I decided to try out my upgraded analysis skill.
[Analysis]
Lich King Xerxes
Threat Level: Overwhelming
'How useless.'
Maybe the results were so poor because my master was that far above me?
All that came up was his name and extremely dark text stating that his threat level was overwhelming.
No shit, who would've guessed the Lich King might be a little threatening?
Returning to the conversation, I spoke up.
"...Well, I guess if that's the case a dual element is nothing."
"No, it's not bad... we'll be able to do a lot with that."
I nodded my head, happy to hear that my master would be teaching me something.
'To think about it, all he's done up until now is torture me with that god forsaken circulation technique and then make Skelly beat me up.'
I did not let my treacherous thoughts show, on my face, though.
"So, the trial, how was that?"
Thinking back to the trial, it wasn't too bad.
I felt some satisfaction knowing who had killed me.
Although, it was disappointing to find out that it really was Lan, a childhood friend, who had done the deed.
All because he wanted a little bit of money?
He was one of the few people I could call a friend in my past life, so a betrayal from him, even if fourteen years had passed in this life, was upsetting.
"...It was alright, I guess... I had to kill a friend."
"That's life, kiddo."
He did not ask about the trial after that, probably not wanting to poke at whatever 'trauma' I had.
Moving on, I asked my master about his promise.
"Aren't you supposed to be teaching me a cool trick? I'm expecting a lot, it's my birthday, after all."
Today, I had turned fourteen.
Funilly enough, I had not even known, simply being informed by a random status window at midnight.
"Birthday, eh? Well, I'll be giving you a trump card, so to speak, so yeah, you should be satisfied."
'A trump card?'
The idea sounded exciting, but I wondered what he could teach me when all I could use is magic bullet.
"...But, it'll be painful, understand?"
My pain tolerance was probably significantly above that of a normal human or even mage at my level, thanks to my use of the calamity bursting circulation technique.
"Yeah, just teach me."
"Glad to hear it."
LOG 23 - ELEMENTS
There are six basic elements, fire, water, wind, earth, light and darkness. When a mage reaches the third layer, they awaken an elemental affinity, and when they reach the sixth, they are able to obtain an advanced element. Elemental affinities are largely based on the personality of someone. A calm and serene person may have an affinity for wind and water. A headstrong and tenacious person would have earth. A forceful and passionate person would have fire. A very kind and faithful person would have light, and a gloomy and violent person would have darkness. These characteristics being linked to elements are fare from absolute, rather being one factor that contributes to the affinity.
