thomasdarkrose
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Vol. 3 - Education - Chapter 25
🕑 Added 2019-02-01 15:16:37 +0000 UTCAs they stepped into the classroom, Thomas noticed that he and Serena were not the first to arrive. He glanced at the other two students, the first was the woman that had used light magic as a laser and the second was the man that had used the wood element to launch arrows. Thomas smiled at them before returning his attention to Serena, "I forgot to ask while we were eating lunch. Is there a particular reason you chose Fulin as your teacher?"
Serena laughed lightly as she glanced at Thomas. She gave him a somewhat teasing look as she asked in return, "Did you join his class without knowing anything about him?"
Thomas shrugged his shoulders, "At the meet and greet with the teachers he stuck out like a sore thumb. After I approached him his attitude and demeanor reminded me a lot of Master Hekrin so I thought he might be interesting to learn from. In all honesty, it doesn't really matter who I learn magic from, as long as I can just learn five elements and get them to rank twenty-five Master Hekrin will be satisfied."
The two of them made their way to the seating tiers as she explained, "Fulin is one of the best teachers in the academy, at least, as far as magical knowledge goes. However, he's also known for having a slobby appearance and poor attitude. The only reason he isn't kicked out of the school entirely is because of his magical knowledge. Despite only having an affinity for a single element, he has gained a high level of mastery in many elements. No one is entirely sure how many elements he has mastered to a high degree though. The only thing I've been able to learn is that when he was scouted for the academy the dean himself witnessed him using at least ten elements."
Having arrived where Serena had chosen to sit she elegantly sat down then looked up at Thomas to continue, "For you learning ten elements probably wouldn't be too hard since you have an affinity with all of them. However, for someone with only a single affinity, it is rather difficult to gain such mastery in so many elements. This makes him a valuable educator so those who know do their best to get into his class."
She sighed and shook her head, "It's not easy to get into his class. He seems to dislike working, at least on the surface. To get into his class I had to do several things. I found out later that he just seems to randomly make up requirements for a person to become a student in his class."
As she was speaking, Brao entered the classroom. When he spotted Thomas and Selena having a nice talk next to her seat his face immediately darkened as he grew enraged. Thomas glanced at the door when he heard it open, and seeing Brao there he gave the young man a polite smile. To Brao that smile was like Thomas's was saying 'It's my victory!' and angered him further.
Unaware of the animosity he was generating, or maybe not caring, Thomas returned his attention to Serena, "The requirements he placed on me weren't so bad. He just said I had to have an affinity with two elements and a recommendation from a high ranking official."
Serena giggled and shook her head, "Maybe because you're an otherworlder you don't realize just how high a bar those requirements are. At least eighty percent of the world's population only has an affinity with a single element. So that requirement alone would prevent a majority of people from getting into his class. As for a high ranking official, most officials aren't considered to be high rank unless they have a direct connection to the King. So even more students would be blocked from joining his class with that requirement."
Thomas's eyebrows rose as his eyes widened in surprise. He'd had no idea that multiple elemental affinities were so uncommon in the world. He'd already had a hint at how high ranking Hekrin was, but hearing more from Serena had shown him a hint of just how high ranked Hekrin really had been. Thomas let out a sigh and looked at Serena closely as he asked, "Serena, who exactly is Hekrin?"
She looked at him quizzically before her lips curled into a playful smile, "He hasn't told you yet?"
Thomas shook his head, which caused her to giggle and say, "Then I won't spoil the surprise!"
Thomas groaned and rubbed the center of his forehead, which caused Serena's giggles to become peals of laughter. Thomas sighed and lowered his hand as he looked at Serena again, "Then let me ask something else. Who are you?"
Serena slowly stopped her laughing and looked at Thomas with an amused expression, "You really want to know?"
Thomas nodded his head rapidly in response. Serena gave him a playful look while she smiled, "S.e.c.r.e.t."
Thomas had only been mildly curious about her identity before. After all, what mattered wasn't who she was, but her personality. Even if she was the empress of the whole world he wouldn't give a damn about her if she was a complete bitch. Though her answer just now made the small spark of curiosity about her turn into a raging inferno. Now he really wanted to know who she was. Maybe that was the point of her answer?
As he was about to continue talking to her the door to the classroom slid open again and Fulin stepped into the classroom while calling out, "Alright, get to your seats."
Thomas glanced at Fulin and sighed at the interruption. He turned his attention back to Serena, "We'll have to continue this later."
She giggled and gave him a little finger wave as he made his way up to the top tier at the back of the classroom and took a seat. He looked over the classroom and noticed that at some point the other students had arrived while he'd been speaking to Serena. Brao glanced back at him and gave him a dirty look that he just ignored.
Fulin made his way to the center of the classroom and looked over his students, "First I want to go over what I observed while you all were practicing earlier."
He pointed to the man who had been casting wood element bolts, "Feller, you did pretty well. Just keep in mind that the wood element specializes in controlling battlefields. As we learn more remember that wood focuses on using grass, vines, or even entire trees to hinder and stop your enemies so your companions can fight them with ease. You should focus on making your ability to control the battle your top priority."
He moved on and pointed to the woman who had been using the light element magic, "Essa, your light element is a combination of offensive, utility, and defensive magic. It can perform all of them but doesn't really specialize so you will need to gain a wide breadth of knowledge so you can attack, defend, and control the battlefield. You will need to work on your combat sense so you can make proper decisions at the right time."
He pointed his finger at Brao, "Brao, earth magic is a combination of defensive and control abilities. Creating walls or sand pits to control the flow of a battle and shields to protect your allies from harm."
He moved his finger to aim it at Serena, "Serena, ice magic is excellent for damage and control. You can launch ice spears of various sizes to cause harm or encase portions of your foe's body in ice to hinder them. Ice magic also has excellent potential for dealing a lot of damage to large groups by drastically lowering the temperature of an area to well below the freezing point. Furthermore, if you can combine your ice element with your water element you could easily cause devastating sleet and hail storms on top of your foes."
His finger moved to the last woman in the class, "Treena, my counsel to you is the same as Brao since you too used the earth element."
Lastly, his finger moved to point at Thomas, "And you!" Fulin lowered his hand and let out a sigh that made him seem deeply aggrieved, "I don't even know where to begin with you! Not only did you randomly practice eight elements, you even used the lightning element without thinking of the basics of the element and even went so far as to cast a modified metal element spell! Is there something wrong with your head? Are you an idiot?!"
Brao had a smug look on his face from Thomas being scolded while Fulin continued, "Not only do most people just practice one element at a time, no one would even consider modifying or creating a new spell without a serious amount of knowledge on the element in question with a lot of forethought and planning! You were exceedingly lucky that what you did didn't blow up in your face! Did no one even bother to teach you common sense? From now on you are banned from using an element without consulting me first. Additionally, you will NOT EVER modify a spell while there are other students nearby. You may not have much value for your own life but I will not have you killing me!"
There is a distinct pause before Fulin hastily added, "Or any of your fellow students!"
Thomas grimaced a little, which seemed to please Fulin. He liked to experiment since it was some of the best fun you could have in a new game. Still, he resigned himself and nodded in agreement to Fulin's demands. However he couldn't let it go like that so he spoke to defend himself a bit, "Actually, no one taught me anything about magic at all until I stepped into this classroom earlier today. So, yes, I do lack common sense when it comes to magic. After all, it doesn't exist in the world I was summoned from."
Fulin stopped and contemplated Thomas's words for a moment before he let out a somewhat depressed sounding groan, "This is just going to mean more work for me in the future isn't it?"
Fulin pinched the bridge of his nose as he spoke to Thomas, "See me after class. I will give you a book on basic spells and their expected forms for you to read so you can at least have some understanding of what you're doing. It's a children's book, but since that's about the level of your knowledge it seems fitting."
Fulins words caused the other students to chuckle a bit at his expense. Thomas didn't mind it though. If he was to allow some false sense of pride to get in the way of him learning new things he would never have become a master crafter in so many games in the past. He just nodded and replied seriously, "Thank you, I would greatly appreciate that."
Aside from Brao, who continued to laugh at his expense, everyone else went silent at his serious tone and the clear signs of his determination to learn. They were all here to learn so they had at least a little respect for his attitude. The only person who hadn't found humor in Thomas's ignorance had been Serena. She had already been aware of it so it was no surprise for her to hear Fulin's words.
Fulin looked over the class for a moment before he spoke, "I think that instead of taking questions from you all I will give a brief speech on the basics of magic using the four primary elements as examples."
Some of the students groaned but none dared to complain as Fulin placed his hands behind his back and took on a lecturing tone, "The four basic elements of the world are earth, fire, wind, and water. All four are the foundations of life in our world. Earth gives us the food we eat and a place to exist. Fire gives us heat to protect from the cold, light to see in the dark and allows us to cook food. Wind gives us the air we breathe. Water gives us rain, rivers, and oceans bringing us water to drink and food to eat. If any of those elements were missing then there would be no life to speak of on our world."
He looked over the class as he continued, "Mastery of one of these elements is like gaining mastery over an aspect of life itself." Fulin lifted his right hand from behind his back and held it out palm up. A mana sphere appeared floating above his hand and slowly began to rotate through the four elements he'd spoken of, "If you can master one, or even all four, of these elements you will find that learning additional elements related to them is a lot easier. Though there are so many elements that make up our world that can be manipulated by magic, they all start with these four."
Thomas paid close attention to Fulin's speech and smiled to himself. There wasn't a whole lot that was different between this way of explaining magic and others he had experienced before. A lot of magic systems started with those four particular elements being the foundation with the remaining elements being some aspect of them pushed in a certain direction. For example, light magic would just be an extension of fire magic that focuses on the light produced by fire magic.
Fulin smiled as he looked over the crowd while they paid attention to him. It might be the basics that all of them should know but they were all paying close attention on the off chance they would learn something new. Thomas noted the smile on Fulin's face and thought he looked a lot more approachable when he was smiling. Fulin took a deep breath and got ready to continue his explanation.
Comments
Heru Kane
As I said earlier I also really like the fact that there seems to be two categories of ways to do things. The one category is learning the elements, which is the broad spectrum of magical Lord. The other category is learning individual spells, which are distinct effects. One needs to know both categories and the two categories help each other. It's actually really really cool. Nice stuff on here.
Heru Kane
Other world leaders have an interesting thing about it because they don't know the fundamentals of how magic Works in this world. Which means for them they don't know that they should be able to a bend things. Which gives them both advantages and disadvantages. What helps of course is I'm not having an affinity as it allows them to experiment and play around and have fun with the magic. It's actually really billion system.
