A new day arrived and, Cael with Kev following closely behind, returned under the shade of the threes and started their second actual lesson:
"Before starting the magical training we will need to check your type of affinity" Started Cael.
"There are three different types: Mind, Spirit and body." He added.
The old man then went on to explain more in detail:
Those more adept with the mind can practice the elemental mage path, who wields the power of nature with their different elemental affinities.
Then those more adept with the spirit can practice the spirit mage path, who wields the power of the soul and pure mana manipulation.
Lastly those more adept with the body can practice the weapon mage path, who wields the power over weapon techniques and body tempering.
"There are different ways to check what path an individual can take, and we will do that right now" Cael said.
He was actually very impressed with how much interest Kevrass was listening, usually he would either complain or just dismiss everything and daydream. That was normal: as a 9 years old kid he often acted this way, being secluded in the tower with just some mute servants and books all day for the past year bored him to death.
"We will start with the weapon mage path test" Cael stated; "it's very simple actually" he said while showing a small dagger with his hand, the dagger had a little white crystal in its hilt; "Just hold it and if the crystal lights up it means you are adept in the weapon mage path"
Kev took the dagger and held it between his two hands, he watched intensely at the crystal waiting for something to happen but after a while nothing changed.
"It looks like this isn't it, don't be discouraged however, this is only the first test."
He pocketed the dagger and took out what seemed like a glass of water.
"The next test is even easier, with this this we can check both the elemental mage path and the spirit mage path, you just have to put you finger inside the glass, this transparent liquid is in fact the blood of a particular type of magical beast which reacts to the mana by showing a different colour. It was observed that the colours either represent an elemental affinity or the spirit one."
The colors were:
Red - Fire
Green - Wind
Maroon -Earth
Blue - Water
White - Light
Black - Darkness
No change - Spirit
Kev then put his finger in, he hoped for a cool affinity like fire or a double of triple one, he knew it was a possibility that the colours could be more, he read it in a book.
However no colour emerged which meant he had the affinity with the spirit mage path.
"Interesting" Cael commented while stroking his beard. "Spirit magic is the most difficult one to learn and master, don't be afraid though, I know many people that walked this path and are extremely strong!"
He the went one with the lesson, explaining every type more in depth:
For the elemental ones there exists the basic affinities:
Fire
Water
Wind
Earth
Light
Darkness
These are the first type and most of the population has one.
Then there exists the advanced affinities, which are the combination of two basic affinities and are somewhat uncommon:
Lightning (Fire+Light)
Ice (Water+Darkness)
Then the rarest elemental affinities are the combination of three basic ones:
Plant (Water+Earth+light)
Metal (Fire+Earth+Darkness)
These affinities can only be practiced only by a Master mage tier individual, who had previously been a dual or triple affinity True mage tier.
During the breakthrough of tier if they are successful the elements merge and form the advanced affinity.
"An advanced affinity doesn't particularly mean it's better, every one has its strengths and weaknesses" Cael wisely commented.
There existed even more combinations of affinities, however those he mentioned where the most common ones, as well as the main types.
He then explained the body tempering and weapon techniques, which are of the weapon mage type.
Body tempering was something that could be done by everyone actually; however it was more suitable and effective for the weapon mages.
It consisted of consuming some specifically made elixirs which improved tremendously every aspect of the body. The process was often painful but necessary to get stronger, ironically the elixirs were extremely expensive, so you basically paid for pain.
Then Cael explained the techniques, which consisted in performing specific movements while channelling mana through the body or the weapon. These techniques oftentimes were either something passed down through family or directly created by the person.
"As for spirit mages like yourself, they use something called (PARI) which is something unique to them" Cael explained, it was almost noon at this point, and Kev was listening intently since it was finally time for his path to be explained.
"(PARI) is quite simple and difficult to understand at the same time" Cael continued, "Basically, whatever you can normally do, PARI does for you and instead of using your own strength it uses mana"
"Take the action of lifting a book for example, instead of you physically picking it up with your hands, the book would float in the same way as if your pair of hands would. Now, let's say you'd tried lifting a mountain, since you physically can't, even if you had enough mana to sustain that action, the mountain wouldn't even budge.
The advantages of PARI where as many as the disadvantages, to list some of the advantages, for example, since you have way more mana than stamina, you could literally do something way more times than usual, like, let's say you normally can swing a sword 100 times before feeling fatigued, with the use of PARI, the same sword can be swung 1000 times easily.
The other thing that spirit mages are more adept is in the soul aspect, a spirit mage can cure, wound or manipulate the soul way more easily than everyone else. It may not be an interesting or simple field of study, but that's that."
***
Cael and Kev then kept the lesson going until sundown, then the old man went away after mentioning that they would resume their lessons the next day.
Kev reflected about their lesson while eating supper, he now understood that he was somewhat abnormal, he had attained a high realm for his age but he had no idea how or why, apparently being a true mage at the age of 8 was unheard of and usually it was achieved by adulthood at the very least. That was the reason he was brought here by the old man and was being trained, the goal of this training though wasn't mentioned by the elder and he didn't dare to ask.
Kev was pretty smart actually, however the situation he found himself into was a very peculiar one, this tower in which he was confined seemed like paradise at the start, however after more than a year passed he started to find the luxury rather dull. The servants where all mute and he didn't even know their names.
Kev subconsciously acted cocky and lively while around the elder, for two reasons: the first was that it was the way he acted before being brought here, and the second was that it was a way for him to hide his true thoughts. He was really scared deep in his heart but he was refusing to acknowledge his feelings and tried his best to keep going, of course he didn't do all this purposely, it was his way of living this situation as a child.