Fulin continued his speech, "Now, once you master the four base elements you open yourself up to many options. For example, you can combine two elements together to create a new one."

As he speaks the rotating elements in his hand come to a stop on the earth element. As he finished speaking the earth element began to heat up until it was glowing bright orange and emitting rippling waves of heat that even Thomas could feel. Thomas widened his eyes marginally as he looked at the ball of lava floating above Fulin's hand. Fulin grinned and spoke, "If you fuse earth and fire magic together you create lava and can cast lava element spells."

The lava vanished and the element in Fulins hand shifted to the wind element. The little ball of wind swirled violently until it began to emit sparks, "Or you can, alternatively, focus on one aspect of a single element to bring out another element."

The ball of wind slowly transformed into a bundle of lightning bolts though, unlike Thomas, Fulin kept perfect control over the bolts and kept them from going crazy, "Things just spiral out from here. As you learn more and more elements you can learn more and more ways to combine them to create the spells you wish to cast. You can push this until you find ultimate combinations such as Earth, Fire and Gravity magic to create the master level meteor spell."

Fulin clenched his hand into a fist and cut off his flow of mana to end the existence of the lightning, "Everything begins from the elements of life. With that in mind, we will work on mastering those four elements together." His eyes swept over the six students in his class, "Starting tomorrow you will only be allowed to work on mastering one of the four core elements. For the remainder of class today I will answer any questions you might have."

Fulin pointed to Essa. She was a young woman with dark hair, bright green eyes, and a slim figure, "We'll start with you, Essa."

Essa nodded enthusiastically and asked, "What's the best way to improve casting speed? It's still taking me a few seconds to cast a light beam and it's frustrating when compared to people learning from the trainers in the city."

Fulin nodded as if he expected a question like that at some point, "It just takes repetition until you master the form of the spell. The people who learn from the trainers have the form of the spell imprinted directly into their minds so they don't need the practice to cast the spell. They merely need to call out the name of the spell they wish to cast and the implanted knowledge will automatically trigger to cast the spell. It's very similar to how an enchantment works. This gives them an advantage in casting speed, but nothing else. Just practice and you will, eventually, be able to cast the spell just as fast and have the advantage of not having to call out the name of the spell and potentially warn your enemies of the actions you intend to take."

Essa nodded and looked thoughtful for a moment, "When I was casting the light beam spell at the target dummy I felt like it wasn't very efficient in dealing damage. Is that just because of my lack of experience?"

Fulin explained, "It's a combination of your lack of experience and the fact that using the light beam spell is pushing the light element back towards its origins in the fire element. Even if you master the light beam you will find that the damage it deals is still less than a fire spell of equal mastery. However, a control spell such as a blinding flash of pure light to blind your enemies will be much more mana efficient for the light element."

Essa seemed satisfied so Fulin gestured to Treena, "Did you have any questions Treena?"

Treena was a vivacious and well-curved woman with a bust much larger than a woman with her frame should have. She had long curly brown hair and soft brown eyes. She almost seemed like a personification of mother nature, she was well named by her parents. Treena tapped her chin with her index finger while she thought then asked, "I feel like what you said before about earth magic not really being excellent for offensive spells is accurate. Is there another low-level spell I could practice instead of the earth bolt spell to help me learn it?"

Fulin nodded, "There are a couple you can learn with your current Magic attribute. When we start to focus on the earth element later we'll go over them and you can learn them at that time. Anything else?"

Treena inclined her head, "Am I right in believing that the wood element is an aspect of the earth element?"

"That is correct. The wood element is mostly of the earth element, but with a hint of the water element as well. Once you learn both of them you will be able to use the wood element shortly after."

Treena seemed pleased with that and indicated she had no further questions. Fulin turned his attention to Selena, "What about you Selena? Any questions?"

Selena shook her head, "No, I'm good."

Fulin turned away from her and pointed at Brao, "What about you Brao?"

Brao contemplated for a moment then asked, "You said the earth element wasn't very good at dealing damage at low levels. Does it ever get better at dealing damage?"

"The earth element can become pretty powerful and deal a lot of damage. Though that requires you being able to create large constructs of earth and launch, or drop, them on your targets. Unfortunately, when it comes to damage, the earth element really isn't very good. Still, if you're creative with it you can spring some great surprises on people. Such as suddenly forming spikes beneath them and piercing their bodies from below. When it comes to the four base elements, the fire element is the best when it comes to dealing sheer raw damage. However, it's the element with the least finesse. Anything else?"

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Brao shook his head so Fulin moved on and gestured to the only other man in the class, aside from Thomas, "Feller?"

Feller was a somewhat burly young man with a head of shaggy dirty blonde hair and brown eyes. Fuller thought for a moment and asked, "I have an affinity with the wood element but not the earth element. Would it still be easier for me to learn the earth element since wood is an advanced form of the earth element?"

Fulin thought for a moment before he answered, "No. No one is really sure why, but even if you can use a more advanced form of an element it doesn't make learning an element you don't have an affinity with any easier. I can say that learning the earth element will help you out with your wood element though."

Feller thought about that and smiled, "Thanks, that's all I wanted to ask."

Fulin turned to the last student in his class, "I'm sure I will regret this, but do you have any questions?"

Thomas had a few of his questions answered by Fulin answering the other students but he still had a few of his own. Though one was rather important, "I do. My first question is pretty simple. Since I have an affinity with all elements I wanted to know if there are any taboo or even illegal elements I should stay away from practicing. I wouldn't want to break a law out of ignorance."

Fulin's eyes widened marginally, he hadn't considered that Thomas could easily use any element from that perspective before. He quickly replied, "Yes! There are several elements that you should never practice. You should never attempt to use Poison, Darkness, Unholy, or Mind magic. Poison and Darkness are not illegal, but many people view them in a very negative light as they can cause serious damage to entire cities. Just a single poison cloud spell could potentially kill a whole town. Darkness is feared and known as the magic of curses. Anyone who practices Darkness magic will find themselves suspected of any crimes in the area that might have even the most remote possibility of having something to do with Darkness magic. Unholy and Mind magic are outright against the law and practicing them will have a severe penalty, possibly even a death sentence."

Fulin took a breath as he continued to explain, "Unholy magic is feared and despised for its despicable curses and ability to revive the dead as abominations that mock life. There have been many tyrants who have used unholy magic to form armies of the dead in attempts to conquer territory. Even to this day, there is a whole island country that is ruled by the undead. Do not ever practice unholy magic."

Fulin looked extremely serious as he explained why the unholy element was forbidden. Thomas wasn't really surprised. Unholy magic was basically necromancy and lots of game worlds treated it as a very bad thing. Seeing that Thomas seemed to understand Fulin continued, "Mind magic is illegal because of how insidious it is. Mind magic manipulates the thoughts and actions of individuals or crowds into doing what the caster desires. No one could possibly be comfortable around someone that could influence their thoughts and actions. There have been many examples throughout history of people using mind magic to manipulate things in their favor, even inciting individuals to commit murder. Like Unholy magic, do not ever attempt to practice Mind magic."

Thomas nodded in understanding. He could see how people would fear magic that could affect their minds. However, he also saw potential in it for use in combat. Being able to blast someone with a bit of mind magic to confuse or disable them could be rather helpful. Still, he wasn't stupid enough to say that out loud or even attempt to practice mind magic while he was anywhere near the capital. Once he was out in the wild hunting for materials and experience though... Well, then anything was fair game.

Fulin studied Thomas for a moment before asking, "Anything else?"

Thomas thought for a moment then asked, "What is the rarest form of magic?"

"Holy. The holy element is granted by the gods above and is the ultimate form of healing magic able to cure the most grievous of wounds, cure the nastiest of curses and diseases, and even raise those who have recently died. Though it cannot raise those who have died of natural causes or those who have been dead for more than a few minutes. Holy magic is greatly respected and desired by everyone for its many uses." Fulin smirked, "Though you have an affinity for all elements that does not include Holy or Unholy for that matter, as those affinities can only be granted by the gods themselves. Anything else?"

Thomas smiled and asked, "What's the most useful form of magic?"

Fulin chuckled, he seemed to be expecting this question so he answered easily, "Space magic. Even those without an affinity for space magic will seek out a trainer to learn the most common space magic spell, Inventory magic. However, those who learn space magic itself can create larger inventories for themselves to carry more items more conveniently and can even, at a high enough level, move from one place to another almost instantly."

Thomas felt his entire brain grind to halt. Did Fulin just say 'inventory magic'? Thomas tried to swallow with his now dry mouth, "You're saying that a magic trainer in the city can teach people how to cast a spell to create an inventory to carry items inside of?"

Fulin looked at Thomas like he was an idiot, "It's the most common form of space magic and every trainer in every city in the world can teach it to anyone. Even kids can learn the spell to create an inventory for themselves to store their toys inside. In fact, most people learn the spell as a child and use it for most of their lives."

Thomas felt the sudden urge to bang his head into the table in front of him repeatedly until he was unconscious! He could have had an inventory this entire time! All he had to do was speak to a magic trainer once and he would have learned that. It was such common sense in the world that no one had bothered to mention it to him the entire time he had been playing. Feeling like an idiot he looked at the storage ring on his finger and helplessly asked, "Then why do things like storage rings exist?"

Fulin shrugged his shoulders, "Inventories created with inventory magic are limited in space and sometimes when people need more space they use storage items to carry more with them."

Thomas really, truly, wanted to find a hole to crawl into to hide. Or travel back in time and slap his past self while yelling at himself to go to a mage trainer and learn inventory magic. He'd spent three thousand gold to purchase his storage ring. Sure, he had plenty of gold at his disposal but that was still three thousand gold spent for no reason on an item he didn't technically need! He felt like an idiot and slouched in his chair as he emotionlessly said, "No more questions."