Erez sighed to himself, as he saw the blank expression on the kid's faces. He understood that this was their first time seeing something like this, but they needed to get used to this or they would never become truly strong. Erez's belief was strength mattered, however when compassion was needed, you should give it. When cruelty was needed, you should become cruel. When mercy was needed, you should become merciful.
"Life is something that can end with the swift of a hand. You should cherish it, and protect it the hardest you can. That doesn't mean you should be merciful to enemies though." The kids’ brains soaked up the information, however the kids themselves weren't paying attention. Only Wess was paying attention, and that was only because of his intense and focused blood-lust, even with this he still felt nauseated.
"I'm going back to my cabin." Julie suddenly said that, and started walking away. This was the sign that everyone could leave, and slowly everyone else left, leaving only Erez and Wess.
"Those little brats. Well seems I'll be off."
"Harummph!" Wess coughed to show that he was still here, and startled Erez. Erez composed himself almost immediately and looked at Wess with a look of confusion.
"Kid you're interesting. If you want I can tell you why I haven't noticed you yet." Erez's eyes shone with interest.
"Hmmm. Ok, tell me why." Wess was curious as to why no one noticed him.
"You're aura is quite interesting. It looks like it's only at a quarter of its original power. This is why it is much harder to notice you, especially when combined with everyone else's aura. Normally experts don't use their eyes normally, because we don't need to look at people normally, we can just sense their aura. Of course if you approach me, or stick out I will notice you. It's like in a painting of many people. If you look at it, you see the people sticking out and not the ones faded in the background. However if someone points a specific thing out to you, then you will, of course, notice it." Erez closed his eyes after he finished his explanation, and sighed faintly. He liked thinking of explanations, but could not come up with a explanation. You can't seal aura, it comes from your power levels. The only way is because of mutations. Some people are born abnormally large auras, which people abuse to scare off magical beasts. While others are born with small auras, making them capable of hiding themselves better and hiding their true ability.
"I-I guess?"
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"Oh yeah, I guess I should explain what you have to do now. Seeing how you were the only that hasn't left, it seems suitable to give you this advantage." Erez paused. "Basically everyone is going to get a master to teach them some spells. The masters will help direct their respective students in the right direction, however they can't tell the students too much. This will test the student's talent in regards to learning spells concerning their elements." Wess lifted his hand, and Erez became silent.
"Didn't we have an exam, why should we do this again?"
"The exam was to vaguely put you into groups. That was to test how well your body reacts to that elements, but these other tests will be to fully test your ability in understanding spells. It will test stuff like your comprehension, so how quickly you can learn the base or outline of the spell. It will also test your affinity to the element in more detail, like which part of the elements you are better with, or how much affinity you have with the element specifically. An example of this is some people may be more suited to the ice aspects of water than the flow aspects of water.
It will also test your willpower, without the will to get stronger then you cannot get stronger yourself. Also the last thing it sometimes tells us is whether or not you have any other affinities to the 'other' elements.
If you have more than one element then your skills will be spread out to fit the other elements. This will allow us a much better outline of the power of your elements, in exchange for detail of one.
My bet on the best is that kid called Artemis. He was born with the talent towards alchemy, making him inherently smart towards spells, pills and potions. His comprehension is also pretty good from what I've seen, and he even is pretty hard working." When Wess heard this he snorted in dissatisfaction, and his face turned slightly red.
"Hahahaha! It's ok to be second best in this exam, after all it doesn't tell us your battle prowess or anything else. It just tells how quickly you can learn spells. Plus you have the best teacher on this boat. Me!" Wess didn't respond to what he thought was Erez's joke, and just silently stood there.
"Bwah! Fine, you have a chance as well. It's not always about your knowledge, talent is a big factor as well." Erez's words comforted Wess unconsciously. "Ok now follow me, I'll teach you your first spell." Erez quickly walked out of the arena and continued walking, with Wess tailing but having a hard time keeping up.
This went on for about 5 hours, and they had exited the ship 4 hours ago. There was a waterfall up ahead and Wess's eyes shone. He hadn't had any food or drink for around 15 hours now.
"Master, there's a waterfall up ahead. Can we rest there?"
"Rest there? We're going to train there kiddo!"