Chapter 8

Two people came into the room, carrying an apparatus. They placed the object on the table carefully and left after giving a bow to Turstin and the heroes.

"So this device can evaluate our affinities to the elementals" Tristan said while he was examining the device.

The device has 6 orbs with different shade of colors. A platform with a hexagonal shaped and a clear glass like ball was in the middle.

"Yes, the first one evaluates the basic elemental. Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Ice and Thunder" Turstin answered.

"I'm curious on what are your affinities" He said while urging the young ones to be evaluated.

"Then I'll go first" Tristan volunteered "What should I do then?"

"Touch the glass on the middle and let mana flow into it. I'll assist you on the mana flow"

Tristan then followed the instruction. He gripped the glass orb, and slowly he felt a static like feel. Turstin then placed his right palm just above his hand and feint blue glow flashed.

A low tune buzzed from the glass, and a flash of light came. Similarly like a camera flash.

"Woah!!" Tristan let out a yell, he stepped back, lost strength on his knees and he then fell down on his behind. The girls had a worried look and ask if he fine. "Are you hurt?"

"I'm fine" Raze lend a hand and helped him stand up "There was this awful feeling like I fell down from somewhere high" Tristan replied while a bit embarrassed.

"That's normal, it's because your mana is unstable. The device forcefully sucked out your mana since you still don't know how to manipulate mana." Turstin explained.

Turtins looked at the result on the device, a look of disbelief showed on his face when he saw the glowing lights on the device. Razed too, was secretly alarmed

The device glowed with different colors. The bright ones were colored brown, bright blue, and red.

Turstin then analyzed the orbs and then relayed the info.

"Three elements with good grades!" He said while smiling. 'a triad in front of me!'

In this world, if a person has three affinities with a good grade is enough to be given a title or ennoblement by a country, nurtured by royalties. People who have three affinities are called triads. Having two affinities with good grades are called duos and they mostly get hired by nobles or they are taken as disciples of great mages. And a person with a single affinity with good grades is enrolled to mages academies or the mage guilds.

'If we can pull him to our side, it'll help us advance our research on the summoning spell' The old mage spoke in his mind.

"So I have them glowing, what does that mean?" Tristan asked.

He cleared his throat before he spoke. "You see, having three orbs glow as bright like this means you have good affinities with the elements. Those who has three elements like yours, we call them Triads. We estimate that a triad shows every hundred years." He explained in details.

"I see, I must be amazing then" Tristan said while he was fixing his glasses.

"Me next!" Roan moved in front of the device quickly and place his palm on the orb. "I'm ready, old man. Hit it up!" He said, showing his excitement

'He's that kind of a kid huh?' Turtin didn't like this attitude. He just smiled to hide his annoyance and assisted Roan with the device.

With a glow, the device sucked out mana from Roan. He then stepped back and lost strength. Since they knew what happened previously, Raze and Tristan were at Roan's back and caught him before he fell.

Turstin didn't even waited for Roan to talk and analyzed the device. Two glowing orbs were the result. Yellow light and a brighter red than Tristan's.

"Son, you have two elements. We call people with two elements, as Duos." He said in a monotone voice. Not even showing an ounce of excitement.

"Aww... I was expecting something like four or more affinities. This kinda sucks." Roan said, displeased. "Heroes usually have cheat like abilities and all, you know what I mean?"

"Certainly I was also expecting that, but I guess everything's not like the way we thought" Tristan followed.

"So you know, a Quad or a person with four affinities rarely shows up, the one on the records were from a thousand years ago, so we estimate they show up once every millennium." Turstin explained. "And If a person with five or more affinities. Showed up, that person might be a person from legends, a divine or a god." He explained in details

"Okay then, I'll just take what I have. You're one lucky dude, Tris". Roan shrugged. His voice sounds quite disappointed.

"Don't take it to the heart, man. It's was by chance" Tristan tried to console Roan and gave him a fist on his shoulder. "Yeah yeah" Roan replied.

"Who's next?" Turstin waited.

Fia timidly raises her hand. "Can I be next?" She meekly asked.

"Of course, young lady. Step right up and be careful" Turstin politely said. Roan had a displeased face. And Tristan just shook his head.

Fia began gripping the glass, behind her were Amelia and Raze to support. Assisted by Turstin, Flash- she fell back, but the two caught her. Turstin checked the orbs.

The result was... She was a Duo. Two orbs lit up, brown and green. Excitement showed on her face. 'I can be a magical girl!' she jokingly thought inside.

Next to use the device was Amelia, she tried to grab the glass, hands trembling. Somehow scared of the pain mentioned by Roan and Tristan.

"It'll be fine, it feels like jumping on a trampoline." Fia cheered her up. Amelia mustered her courage and finally touched the glass.

Flash- after being assisted by Turstin, she also stepped back and lost her strength. Like deja vu, she was caught by Fia and Tristan.

Her results were.... Also a Duo. Blue and yellow orbs lit up. Amelia doesn't how to feel about her affinities. Fia was congratulating her. ’we're like magical sisters’ Fia whispered to her. Wry smile came from her face.

"You're the last one, O silent Protag." Roan queered.

'I was silent because I was observing'

"Give us a surprise" Tristan followed.

'You'll be surprised, alright'

"You'll be fine, you'll probably have two like us at least" Amelia said.

'I hope so...'

"We'll be right at your back" Fia supported.

'I leave my back to you.'

Raze then walked towards the device. He can use the device normally but since they didn't know he can, he has to receive Turstin's assistance.

'I should also act like falling back.' He thought. With a took a deep breath and grabbed the glass. "I'm ready, Sir"

The old mage nodded and moved his hand above the gripped glass. Like the previous actions. And glow and flash came. Raze then gently stepped back. "Huh?" Fia and Roan caught him but, they didn't felt any force at all.

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"Thank you, sorry" Raze thanked and apologized them and stood up like nothing happened.

"It's 'kay" "Anytime." Roan and Fia replied. They didn't expect a gentle landing at all. 'Should I have pushed myself back a bit more?' Raze thought.

"Ohoo... Well, this is unfortunate" they heard Turstin's voiced. "Well at least its has a higher grade than normal" he added.

The party then looks at the result of the orb and...... A single green light was lit.

A silence spreads the room. Turstin was also quite disappointed. 'He only have one'

Pfffft- Roan contained his urge to laugh. 'Dude, shhh' Tristan whispered and elbowed him.

Amelia glared at Roan and said "hey! That's rude". While Fia tugged raze's shirt. "It's okay, I..."doesn't tknow what to say to him.

"It's fine, don't think too much about it" He only smiled and waved his hands, showing he's fine. 'I already knew about the results anyway

The Old mage saw Raze's reaction and wondered why he didn't feel bad about it.

'Most people would feel disappointed but he's rather taking this calmly.' He became suspicious about his behavior. 'Does he know his affinity before hand? No, that's impossible. Self-appraise? But learning it instantly is also impossible.' He kept thinking.

'He probably doesn't have any interest in magic or he doesn't really know the magnificence of having affinities. That must be it' he finally came to a conclusion.

........

Well since we already know you're affinities, I'll explain now the details of the ranks.

The apprentice mage then gave papers to Turstin,

"I've already asked my disciple here to compile your elemental rankings here. I'll read it out for you.

......

Tristan Denver Fire Water Earth Wind Ice Thunder C D- C+ D C E

Roan Hiiro Fire Water Earth Wind Ice Thunder C+ E D- D- E C

Fia Cellania Fire Water Earth Wind Ice Thunder E D- C C D- D-

Amelia Strauss Fire Water Earth Wind Ice Thunder E D+ D D- C+ C

Razelux Valence Fire Water Earth Wind Ice Thunder D C- D- B- D- D-

......

Now let's continue. Basically, the higher your ranking is, the better you are with the element you have affinities with. Quite simple isn't it? The higher rank you are, the better you are to feel the element, amplify the effect, to learn magic under its category, increase resistance with the same element and more."

"The higher ranked you are with an element, the easier you are in unlocking higher tier or spells. There's also a way to increase one's affinity ranks, One is by understanding the element and breaking the current rank's limit. Two, Using an Elemental Essence captured withing Krystallos Orbs. Three, Undertaking and completing trials." Turstin ended his long explanation and waited for the young one's reactions.

"So it's quite similar to that world huh, Roan" Tristan said to Roan

"Yeah, some minor difference but I get the gist of it." He followed

'What!?' Turstin and the apprentice weren't expecting those words. Turstin almost yelled. Raze was also shocked regarding about it but he tried his best not to show it.

"Excuse me but, would you please clarify what you meant by another world?"

"You see, me and Roan here are quite experience with another world's magic system."

"We've dive to another world occasionally, and we call this "

When Fia heard what they said, she slowly placed her hand on her temple. 'Oh please...' She thought. Amelia noticed this and asked in a whisper 'are they bluffing?' 'Probably' Fia replied.

The two explained that they have their own avatars and they've roamed the other worlds. They mentioned that world used a similar magic system. They've also added they cannot tell more about it since there's a Law and they can only tell little about it.

Even though they said little about it. Turstin in the other had become wary. 'So we cannot be careless now that they know more about other worlds. A simple trick might not be able to fool them' He inwardly thought.

The two only made a small lie about it but they didn't know it actually save them some troubles. But it also made the other side become careful.

The talk continued till noon when they decided to take a break when the party remembers something from the talk they had this morning.

"Oh yeah, We got a problem here, Mr. Turstin. You see, Raze seems quite different from us. He seems to be on a different timeline than us." Amelia reminded

'Hmm?! Is this my fault? Did my modification on one of the runes caused this to happen?' The news made him panicked inwardly.

"I- I see... Is something wrong with Mr. Raze? Is his health fine? Do you feel anything wrong with yourself?" Turstin wanted to know if his modification made some sort of failure with the spell.

"I don't feel anything wrong at all, sir. I'll be fine. if there is, I'll be sure to give you my word immediately." Raze replied. Turstin felt relieved with those words.

"Don't worry, son. We will investigate on why is there a difference in your situation. It was never supposed to be like this so there must be a reason for this." He assured Raze.

"It's okay sir. I don't particularly mind. I'm fine as long as I'm alright." Raze replied.

Even though Raze said he's fine, Turstin still asked and checked him if there's any differences. He also casted a healing spell.

 ..........

Turstin remembered something back when they were summoned and wanted to talk about it with the heroes.

"Also, I want to talk about something. We apologized in advance for this." Turstin said with a voice not sure how to speak a word about it.

The party let out a questioning look? Roan somehow felt something amiss.

Turstin then signaled his apprentice and the apprentice went outside to call out a certain knight.

"Yesterday on the time you were all summoned. A certain something flew" 

Moments later, the apprentice mage came back with a knight. the knight was holding a peculiar rectangular shape platform. Painted in blue, and the middle part lost its previous light. 

Roan took a step slowly, "My..... that's my....". At this moment, Turstin knew the owner of the object was from this young lad.

"GAAAAAHH!!! MY HOVER BOARD!!" Roan ran and quickly took the device from the knight's hand. He looked at the device to look for damage. A few seconds later, his hands were trembling. The knight backed off a few step, with sweat forming on his head.

"Why Is there..........." Roan whispered in an angry tone. Raze had a confused look. While the others had a wry smile, with a single glance on the device they knew why Roan is acting like that.

"WHODAHELLBROKEMYHOVERBOARD!!" Roan yelled in rage. The three were expecting this. The girls looked at Raze and Tristan, signaling them to do something. Raze still has no idea why Roan was angry, while Tristan face palmed.

Turstin shook his head, he assumed the device might have been a very important item for the young boy. 'We just met and we've already made him angry'. A silent sigh escaped the old man's mouth

Looking closely at the device, it has a slashed on the middle part of it. With a little twist, it might turn into two. The knight who saw the owner in rage, he knew at this moment, he screwed up.

BAM!!- The knight quickly went down on all four. His back had a cold sweat. And shouted.

"I APOLOGIZED, MILORD!" Then the knight went onto his knees and unsheathe a dagger on his thigh. "IF MY LIFE CAN PACIFY YOUR ANGER, I'LL OFFER LIFE". He then put his hands on the pommel and hilt. The knight planning to stab his heart.

"WAH!" "NO!" "THE HELL!?" Fia, Amelia, and Tristan yelled respectively and tackled the knight. The two girls were pinning down the knight while Tristan secured the dagger.

Raze and the apprentice mage stood stiffly with a confused face, having no idea how to react to what just happened. Roan's mind was on his hover board and didn't notice the commotion that just happened.

"Hey, dude! A little help here?" Tristan yelled at Roan.

After some time, he finally noticed them.  "Huh? what are you guys doing?" Roan 

...........