Damien witnessed the entire battle in awe and understood what Yuki meant. He seemed so carefree with all the pressure he went through. Cal walked back to Damien and Yuki with a lax smile.
“What did you think? I removed some stress for both of us!”
They wrapped each other over their shoulders and laughed like they have been best friends forever. Yuki rolled her eyes at the scene they caused.
“By the way Cal, how did you win so easily?”
Cal straightened up by Damien’s question.
“I just played to my advantages. I have two
elemental affinities with light and darkness. Plus I’m really strong.”
Damien was surprised to hear his response. He wasn’t sure about how rare these affinities were and on top of having two affinities. Noticing his look Yuki decided to chime in.
“It’s pretty rare to have two elemental affinities. The special thing about this annoying kid is the fact that he has an affinity for light and darkness. It is rare to have one but together it is near impossible to find someone else.”
Damien finally understood how special Cal really was and it wasn’t just for how much he could talk.
Wexley came up to the three, which caused Yuki to scowl with her expression. She dared not to say anything so she turned her head away from him.
“That was a class act as usual Cal, remember you can come after class any time for advice. Also, I’ll be seeing you soon as well Damien.”
With that statement he walked away from them and announced to everyone that class was dismissed.
When they finally walked out of the class Yuki pinched the back of Damien’s arm. Damien yelped in pain and looked at Yuki with incredulity.
“I know you don’t like me but what was that for?”
“Idiot, you’re too naive. You shouldn’t have asked Professor Cloudshade to tutor you.”
Damien got visibly frustrated with Yuki and tried paying her back with a pinch of his own. She quickly dodged his attempt and pinched him once again.
“Okay, I give up. Just tell me why I shouldn’t have done that.”
“Wexley Cloudshade is a shady character. He has mentored many “geniuses'' who hoped to advance quickly under his guidance. All of them ended up becoming former shells of themselves and eventually they dropped out. All I know is that you just gave yourself a death sentence.”
“Can’t I just cancel on him and continue on with my life? Easy right?”
Cal patted his shoulder and just started shaking his head while looking down.
“It’s not that simple. If you withdraw you’ll get on his bad side and he will create roadblocks for you here.”
Damien seemed to accept his fate as he slumped his shoulders. They walked down the hallway heading towards the last class of the day.
“Next class is ‘Rune Studies’ with Professor Izil Fordor. She’s perfect, the most beautiful person that I’m gonna marry, give all my love to, treasure…-.”
Before he could continue going on, Yuki delivered a backhanded blow to his neck. Cal lost function of his body and crumpled to the floor. His amazing performance from last period disappeared from Damien’s mind and all that was left was apathy.
Yuki dragged Damien away to stop him from helping Cal back up. All Damien could do was pray Cal wouldn’t be late to class. The two arrived at their next class and sat in the front as they had been doing. Erik and his group passed by without even giving a dirty look at Damien. He seemed deflated and downcast.
As he wondered when Cal would show up, the door opened. A woman in her mid-twenties with silky black hair and a pair of fox ears walked towards the podium. Her eyes were keen like narrow slits carrying a sharp aura. Three fluffy tails followed behind her and Damien could only describe her as intoxicatingly beautiful.
Behind her was Cal, helping her carry a stack of textbooks. Damien could see his mouth moving rapidly and he could only imagine how he was trying to woo her. Cal placed the books on her desk and went to his seat. Yuki gave him a kick to the shin when he sat down and he quietly moaned with pain.
“Attention class, due to the arrival of a new student I’ll quickly go over the basics once again before I continue to where we left off.”
This time around no one acted dissatisfied with Damien.
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“Runes are found everywhere in life and there’s a reason for that. Runes are a versatile tool that could be used in many fields. They help mages use elements they are not familiar with. This helps with their natural shortcomings if they are limited by their talent or knowledge. Runes can be used as a support for Swordsmen, bolstering their offenses. They are called Rune Swordsmen and are very fearsome in battle. If you are to face one in battle as a mage I would suggest creating as much space as possible. But Runes are not just for spells, they are also used to enhance artifacts. Inscribing runes on them enhances their capabilities by adding the Runes effects on the artifact. The act of inscribing Runes is called ‘Rune Coding.’ The versatility is what makes Runes special and a keystone to our society today.”
Izil continued on with her normal lessons after that introduction. Damien and the class were made to practice basic Runes. Many students failed and had the inscription implode in their area, while others did it effortlessly. As for Damien he struggled for the entirety of the class without completing a single rune.
Quite a few of them also imploded on him which caused a few laughs to be thrown at him. Many were relieved to find something he was not good at and the ‘genius’ aura surrounding him crumbled to many of them. The class came to an end and for many the day was over. They were allowed to do as they liked as long as they made curfew at 22:00. Izil came up to Damien before he walked out, causing Cal to perk up.
“Your mana control is horrible. Don’t practice runes until you manage your situation. I recommend taking extracurricular classes that deal with mana control. Use your off weeks wisely.”
Damien accepted her advice with a quick bow and departed the classroom instantly.
‘Why is my heart beating so fast and my face burning.’
Damien conjured up an unknown feeling and decided to tactically retreat until he knew his condition. Cal noticed his reaction and felt a sense of deeper camaraderie. Once outside the class Yuki came up to Damien.
“Since we are not punished to guard duty anymore because of you, I wanted to wish you good luck with Professor Cloudshade. So, good luck with that.”
She left on that note which left Damien stunned for a bit.
“I told you, she is not that bad. I’ll let you go, I gotta go train myself. Good luck!”
They both left his sight and he began to walk to Wexley’s class. On the way there he was thinking to himself that a professor couldn’t be as bad as they said.
Damien walked down the hallways and saw them empty out as everyone went to go do their extracurricular activities. He arrived at the door and peered inside. It was filled with darkness without a sign of life. He felt fear stirring inside and couldn’t help but gulp.
He waited a few seconds until he mustered the courage to open the door. As he began to turn the knob a sound came from behind him. He jumped in fright and saw that Wexley appeared behind him.
“Sorry I was late, I came from my other class I teach. Come on in.”
Damien followed behind him and entered the empty classroom. They walked to Wexley’s desk and they both sat across from each other. They kept staring at each other until Damien couldn’t handle the pressure and looked away.
Wexley couldn’t help but think to himself how impressive it was for him to handle his pressure for that duration. He also noticed the glasses Damien wore were something special.
“Today we are going to begin with your cultivation and understanding. These two go hand in hand. As you cultivate you will enter a deeper state of mediation and assimilate yourself with your surroundings. We call this state ‘Assimilation’ and everyone strives to enter this state. It is very difficult to do so.”
‘That sounds similar to my breathing technique! Maybe it can help me.’
Damien felt like he was already a step ahead of everyone else in this aspect.
“You have not even taken your first step in understanding the elements and that has left you far behind others. But you have something far greater than anyone here and it’s not your talent. It’s that you have zero understanding.”
Damien could not help but tilt his head in confusion.
“But professor, how does that make sense?”
Wexley clasped his hands together and leaned forward.
“You are not poisoned by others' thoughts. You can entirely create your own foundation without unknowingly using preconceived notions. Let the elements speak to you and get closer to the truth! Go on and read the book I gave you and cultivate in silence. Since it is a rudimentary technique, it will be quite slow to see any progress. This is just so you achieve a basic understanding of cultivating first. I will be here for any questions.”
With that Damien got up and found a space he liked in the classroom and sat down. He took out the book given to him and began going through it. It was a series of images that demonstrated how to circulate your mana through your meridians. The process showed that it would increase your capacity if you followed the steps shown.
Damien shut his eyes as Wexley stole a glance at his unique glasses. He wanted to study them but instead went on to read the scrolls he had on hand. Damien began meditating and looked into his inner self. He saw his white flame flowing and began to guide his mana through his meridians.
He slowly guided it through the pathway he was shown and completed a cycle. To Damien’s naked eye he could not tell if there was an increase. After a couple more cycles he clearly saw the effect of the cultivation technique and noticed an increase in mana mist. He got a bit too excited that it deterred his circulation, causing a backlash. He jolted awake from his state and calmed himself down again.
‘It’s just a minor success. I have to focus on the big picture or I’ll never catch up.’
He continued cultivating and making sure he memorized the pathways so he could do it without thinking. Eventually he was doing it without thinking and was reaping in the benefits. His once desolate core was now slowly being filled with more and more mist.
‘This technique is rather slow just like Professor Cloudshade mentioned. I’ll have to obtain a better one from the library later!’
What Damien did not know was that he was achieving a better efficiency with a rudimentary technique than anyone else who used it. His gains were massive and even Wexley was dumbfounded when he saw a white mist circulating around Damien on the outside.
He put his scrolls down and dedicated himself to observing the phenomenon occurring right in front of him. Damien didn’t notice as he was too focused on going to the next step. He wanted to begin understanding the Fire Dao as that was his greatest strength. He began concentrating on the surrounding elements and he could feel them passing all around him.
The only problem was that the element particles were far too sparse. He could clearly feel the 5 basic elemental dao of life which are: fire, earth, water, wind, and metal. They were like fireflies of different colors flowing in the direction they were predestined to go.
Damien began focusing on the fire particles floating around. As he focused on them they gradually began to flow toward him like a magnet. He felt the few flame particles attach themselves to his body.
‘I think I hear them saying something. It’s just so low and soft. I thought I would hear them clearer with my natural talents.’
Without getting too frustrated, he began to experiment by meditating on top of his cultivation state. To his surprise once he entered his calm state he heard the flame particles whispering to him. Not only that he started to hear murmurs from the other elemental particles around him. They weren’t as loud as the flame particles, but this was still an amazing discovery to Damien. He decided to put the other elements to the back of head and focused on the intentions of the fire element.
‘Moment of truth.’
As he heard them his enthusiasm became lower and lower. They were whispering elementary knowledge of fire such as, ‘Burn’, ‘Heat’, and ‘Destroy.’
‘This is all basic knowledge one knows from playing with fire! Does my environment have to do with why there are so few of them? Maybe if I were next to a large natural fire I would get a better understanding!’
Damien decided to stop gaining an understanding of the Fire Dao surrounding him at the moment and wanted to check back on his core. Once he peered into his flame core he had another idea.
‘My core is a flame. What if I tried understanding my own core? It's worth a try!’
Damien entered into his meditative state and his being was instantly rocked as began to feel the intentions of his core. Time seemed to freeze for Damien as he unlocked a secret within him.