As soon as they reached his study room, Elaria cast [Oculus Comprehensio], but now she didn’t leave him alone but rather kept her stern, angry gaze upon him as he read the rest of the book.

The rest of the book explained why it took him tens of tries to sense mana and why a massive headache came along after he finally managed to sense the mana.

You see, you are not supposed to sense mana through your whole body, but rather, you need to focus on one of your five-senses, whether it be sight, touch, taste, hearing, or smell. Using all five senses to sense mana is usually only done by third-circle mages, not a novice like him.

Oops.

Well, at least now I don’t need to return to the inner world to sense mana.

Way to go Josh!

The last chapter of the book told him about how mages need to form their own small mana core in the center of his chest just level of heart. To do that, you need to pull in the mana and compress it until it turns solid, and once you do that, you successfully turn into an Apprentice Mage, known otherwise as second circle mage.

While he was a novice mage, he could cast some magic, but he wouldn’t have his own mana reserves and would have to rely on ambient mana.

With a sigh he put down the book and asked his mentor. “Magus Elaria, I’ve read the book, but it still didn’t explain why mana was in different colors. Even now, I can see mana around you being light blue, while everywhere else in the room, it’s various other colors.” With an enquiring gaze, he asked his mentor.

She contemplated for a second before answering.

“The world is mostly made up of eight major elements. Most of the people have a major affinity for at least one element and a minor for another.” she thought about it for a second before continuing. “When sensing mana inside your inner world, what colors of mana you’ve seen represented your affinity towards magic. If you’ve seen blue mana motes, then your major element is Water which instantly brushes off fire, as you can’t have two conflicting elements as your affinity. The list goes on: brown earth cancels out transparent air, light yellow cancels out black darkness, green nature cancels out silver metal.” She explained to him.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

“So if I’ve seen most of the motes as red, with leftover being dark and transparent, that means I have a major affinity for fire and minor affinities for darkness and air?” Josh asked his mentor to clarify.

“Yes, you got it right. And you seeing mostly blue mana motes around me means I have a major affinity for water.” She replied.

“Or, more precisely, ice, but you would need to get to the level of Magus to know your true affinity,” she added.

“Does that mean I can only use fire magic with some darkness and air mixed in it? Under what affinity [Oculus Comprehensio] falls under then?” Feeling confused, Josh continued to barrage her with questions.

Elaria pondered for a second before putting her finger up and letting out a small fountain of water to freeze it over into a beautiful flower; she then put out her other hand, chanted [Scintilla], and produced a small spark of flame barely two inches in size.”

She cast a spell in a conflicting element, but it was way less powerful than in an element she has an affinity for.

“Does that answer your questions?” She asks him to study as she hands him the ice flower.

“You can cast spells in any element but the elements you have affinity for will be much easier to do?” He replied.

“Almost.” With an approving smile, she said, “You can cast spells with an element you have affinity for chantless but for elementless spells or spells that you don’t have affinity for, you have to use. Words of power.”

“Of course, that doesn’t take into account warlocks or priests, as they both use demonic mana or holy mana, which is a completely different branch of magic than the one I’m going to teach you,” she added after a couple of seconds.

“If your affinity is water, and mine is fire wouldn’t that make it hard for you to teach me?” Josh asked her after pondering for a moment.

“Think about what emotions embody fire?” she asked him.

That would be Passion, Anger, Excitement

As Josh was pondering, Elaria spoke once more: “Emotions fuel our magic. For me, it’s the calmness and indifference to the world around me that fuels my magic. What will fuel your magic, Josh?”

What will fuel my magic?

***

Only moments later, Josh and Elaria were outside, with the former one being in a lotus position meditating, trying to find the emotion that will fuel his magic.

Is it passion?

He definitely felt more passion for magic than basically anything else he has done in his life, but is it stronger than his other emotions to fuel magic?

Is it anger?

He definitely feels anger toward this world, but how much of that anger is towards change? Towards himself? After all, however crude this world might be, it’s still a blank canvas for him to fill.

Is it excitement?

Is it excitement at what magic might bring to him at the sheer amount of excitement he gets filled with the moment he even hears the word magic?

Why not all of them?

He does feel anger at the world, yet he is still excited by the possibilities it might bring, he does feel passion at the magic and is even more excited at what that might bring.

Ever since he was a kid, he was throwing himself at everything head first, why should he stop doing that now.

Elaria gasped, not believing in what she was seeing. A novice mage who barely learned how to sense mana summoned a whole firestorm of magic as he meditated. If she wasn’t around here, the entire manor would have burned down by now.

“What kind of emotions must fuel a novice mage with a six rating to produce this kind of magic?” she uttered with no one but herself to hear.

Knowing that he would soon start to burn his life force as fuel towards his magic, she burned herself as she walked into the whirlwind to wake Josh up.