Kai and his new companions quickly took their seats in the spacious lecture hall. Their teacher for combat magic was Mr Heinrich, a man with a stern look on his face whose hair was neatly combed to one side to cover his left eye.

Heinrich spoke coldly, "Settle down quickly, students. There're quite a couple of things to be done today and I don't want to waste any precious time." After everyone was ready, he continued, "Today's lesson may be a little dry as I'll be covering the fundamentals of magic followed by the comparison between magic and Enigma abilities, which I believe some of you may be familiar with."

Heinrich then turned over one sheet of paper out of several pages that were clamped onto his board that was sitting atop a metal A-frame. The second page was completely empty at first, but after Heinrich infused his mana into the paper a diagram surfaced on it. Kai thought, "Amazing, magic can do wonders like this…"

Heinrich continued, "As you should all know, mana is present within and outside us. After all, mana is life energy and can be used by all living things technically. However, only trained individuals can utilise the mana within their bodies to imbue their physical attributes and even fewer among those individuals can convert their mana into other forms from this raw form.

Yes, magic is simply the ability to convert the mana within our bodies into other things present in our physical realm. Now that we all know what magic entails, let's move onto the categories of magic."

Heinrich flipped to the next page and repeated the earlier process as a new diagram surfaced. He said, "In my lessons, I shall not be covering support magic, for that would be taught by Mr Samuel in the Support Magic class. However, for those that are really keen, support magic can be simply defined as magic which aids in battle without directly hurting the enemy. They include healing magic, binding magic and so on.

Back to our main topic on combat magic, there are 2 main classes, namely elemental and psionic. Elemental magic, the most basic of them all, refer to the alteration of physical phenomena outside our bodies with mana. For instance, producing a fire.

Psionic magic, on the other hand, is related to the power of our minds and its ability to enforce its will on both physical objects and senses. Telekinesis, telepathy and illusions are all good illustrations of psionic magic. As psionic magic is rather advanced and not everybody would be able to use it to great extents, our Academy only teaches psionic magic from Year 3 onwards, and only to selected students who pass the aptitude test. Back to elemental magic."

Heinrich flipped to the next page and quickly revealed a wheel diagram. He continued, "There are 7 known elements today, which every single one of you here has an affinity to at least one of them. They are Fire, Water, Lightning, Earth, Wind, Light and Darkness. The first 5 elements mentioned each have an element they're strong against and another which they're weak to.

As you can see from the wheel, basically, an element is strong against the one to its left while weak against the one to its right. For instance, Fire is strong against Wind but weak to Water. For the last 2 elements, Light and Darkness, there is simply no clear victor between the two.

Now, on to affinities. Having an affinity for a certain element does not imply that you can't use magic from the other elements. It simply means that the spells used of that particular element would be more efficient than those of other elements. In other words, you can get more from using less mana if you stick to spells of your elemental affinity, which explains why in battle, most magicians would stick to their affinity even when facing an opponent with an elemental affinity they are weak to, unless the situation calls otherwise.

After all, in a magic battle, the victor is not solely decided by elemental affinities but also the amount of mana they had utilised in their respective spells. An Expert tier Fire spell would easily vaporise a Beginner tier Water spell, if you needed an example."

Heinrich cleared his throat before resuming, "It's also interesting to note that the various elements have their own unique effects apart from their physical properties. For instance, Darkness spells can be used as debuffs to weaken an opponent without physically hurting them. As you all can see, this ties in very closely with Support Magic, which demonstrates why it's important to have a good foundation in elemental magic.

At last, we've come to the exciting part of the day. There are a few special orbs lined in front of me. I want you all to come forward and infuse your mana into any one of these orbs. Remember the colour that appears, for it would help deduce your affinity."

One by one, the students placed their hands on the orbs, and a myriad of colours surfaced, leading to active murmuring among the students as they discussed their affinities. Among Kai's friends, Julian's was red, Julia got green and Jean obtained white.

When Kai and Adeline stepped forward, the colours their orbs displayed invited exclamations of surprise. While Kai's orb glowed largely yellow with a few swirls of white, Adeline's glowed with a heterogeneous mix of blue and white, much like a Yin Yang circle.

Heinrich muttered, "Interesting…it seems like our 2 friends here have dual affinities. Young man, I can tell that your Lightning affinity is dominant, but you do have a bit of affinity for Light, what a rare combination. As for you, young lady, having both Water and Light affinities makes you an excellent combat support, since both affinities have very strong support capabilities. Wonderful!"

The whole class looked on in envy as Kai and Adeline returned sheepishly to their seats. Kai didn't want too much attention, especially after what happened the day before. He was certain that Adeline was feeling the same way, given her shy disposition.

On the contrary, Adeline wasn't focusing on the attention heaped onto her. She stole a glance at Kai. His Light affinity was further proof that he had Sylph blood running through his veins, as all Sylphs possessed Light affinities, evidence of their noble heritage.

Heinrich clapped his hands in an attempt to capture the class' attention. However, the excitement failed to die down as the students were still actively discussing their affinities. Suddenly, a wave of dread flew through the entire classroom and the class immediately went silent.

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Kai felt fear tugging at his heart but was able to maintain a calm expression. A few resistant ones like Adeline and Jean were unperturbed by the sudden dread but a few students who were more susceptible were seen breaking out in cold sweat as they couldn't stop quivering in fear. Suddenly, the feeling of dread disappeared as fast as it had arrived.

Heinrich explained, "That was a basic Dark affinity spell [Dread]. It's meant as a debuff and a momentary distraction, but to the less resistant ones, it could have more serious repercussions than just the feeling of fear, as some of you have personally experienced. Now, shall we carry on with the next part of the lesson?"

Kai was pleasantly surprised. Mr Heinrich really did know his stuff as he could use a simple debuff spell to get everyone's attention. Not to mention that a few students nearly passed out because of the fear, which proved Mr Heinrich's capabilities as a magician.

Heinrich continued, "Now, we move onto Enigma Abilities. As the name implies, these abilities are a real mystery to us as they do not fall under the conventional categories of magic. Some of these abilities utilise mana while others don't, though the latter is more rare."

Heinrich took a sip of water from his bottle before resuming, "Enigma Abilities can vary in power and usefulness, but it is their sheer number of possibilities that make kingdoms covet them. The same Enigma Ability can be present in different individuals, though such abilities are few and tend to be generic. Enigma Ability users are usually very capable individuals. In fact, there's one in this school whom I know of."

Adeline gulped. Had the Academy discovered Kai's Enigma Ability and wanted him for themselves? Heinrich said excitedly, "Our esteemed Headmaster Zilean is an Enigma Ability user himself, though his ability is only privy to trusted members among his staff. Must be a pretty great ability huh!"

Adeline heaved a sigh of relief. However, this feeling of relief was cut short as Heinrich added, "Actually, there're many more Enigma Ability users in this school who we know about, which proves that our Academy is successful in attracting talent!"

The class broke into excitement before Heinrich interrupted in a serious tone, "And that concludes my lesson today. Our next lesson would be focused on the different tiers of spells and you guys would get to practise Beginner tier spells firsthand. Those who are diligent can attempt to practise these spells on your own before my lesson, but I recommend caution as they are offensive spells after all.

A tip to those who have never practised magic before, think of magic as an extension of your body and mind, willing your mana to flow out of your body in your desired form. That's the fundamentals of using magic. With that, thank you for your attention." Just as Heinrich finished his sentence, the bell rang which meant it was time to move onto the next lesson.

The rest of the day for Kai was rather mundane as they revolved about topics which were either boring such as First Aid or areas which he was already very familiar with such as unarmed combat and swordsmanship. Nonetheless, Kai still went through those routines, as he believed that strengthening his basics would go a long way to improving his skill, especially in swordsmanship which he had rather little practice in since both his father and he specialised in the spear.

After persevering through all those lessons, school finally ended and Kai was excited to return home to practise his magic, which he knew would surely entertain his sister. Although he was invited by Julian and his clique to join them, he politely declined as he knew he had to make up to his dear sister for not returning home yesterday. For reasons unknown, Adeline also declined Julian's offer, which led to some giggles by Julia which Kai did not comprehend.

Kai was swiftly making his way out of Zion Academy and was about to start jogging home when he heard a voice behind him. "Wait for me! Huu, you sure are fast." Adeline panted as she finally caught up to him. Kai shot her a puzzled look and asked, "Where're you going? I'm heading back home to see my sister, she must have missed me a lot."

Adeline shyly replied, "Is that so? As I don't have much family or friends here, would you mind if I tag along and get to know your sister better? After all, you're my first friend here." Kai replied without hesitation, "Why not? My sister doesn't have much friends due to her shy nature as well so it'll be good for her to have a new friend. Let's go!"

Adeline was surprised that Kai readily agreed to her request. Given that he was a half-Sylph, Adeline wanted to know more about his family, especially who his Sylph parent was. Even if he/she disguised as a human, Adeline could distinguish between a Sylph and a human, for it was in their blood to be able to recognise a fellow brethren.

After all, Adeline's mission given by her father was to investigate Sylph-Human relations after the Great Purge a 100 years ago. She could never forgive the humans for nearly driving them to extinction then, but if the humans today are willing to recognise and apologise for their sins against the Sylphs, it could mean a peaceful resolution between both races in the distant future. Nobody, especially the Sylphs, desire further bloodshed but they definitely wanted to reclaim their lost territory.

Apart from her mission, deep down in Adeline's heart she really longed for a close friend, someone who she can wholeheartedly trust and reveal all her troubles to. Kai seems to fit the bill perfectly, a carefree boy with seemingly no worries at all.

When they had arrived at Kai's place, a simple terrace, Adeline immediately noticed a shadow rushing towards them. It was Yuri, as she nearly crashed into her older brother. "Big Brother! I missed you so much!" Yuri cried as she hugged Kai tightly. Despite her young age, the little girl was pretty strong, so Kai nearly suffocated from her vice-like grip.

Kai replied, gasping for air, "I-I'm home, Yuri…could you please let go of me now?" Yuri's face flushed a little in embarrassment as she quickly let go of her brother. Yuri then realised that her brother had company, a teenage blue-haired girl who was around his height.

Tilting her head to one side as she scrutinised the stranger, Yuri asked innocently, "Brother Kai, who's this? Your girlfriend?" Adeline's face turned as red as a beetroot as Kai immediately attempted to gag Yuri, crying, "Oh for God's sake she's just a friend! I brought her back because I thought it would be nice for you to have an additional friend. I believe both of you would get along pretty well. Come, introduce yourself, Adeline."

Before Adeline could recover from her shock and open her mouth, Yuri went up to her and extended her little hand, a wide grin on her face, "My name's Yuri, nice to meet you! You are?" Adeline replied with a gentle smile, her nervousness all gone from Yuri's cheerful disposition, "My name's Adeline, I'm glad to meet you too."

Adeline was extremely happy, though she didn't show it completely on her face. Yuri was the ideal, adorable little sister she had dreamed of as a kid. Likewise, Yuri was overjoyed as well, as she really wanted a older female companion who she could look up to, especially since she barely had any memories of her mother.

Kai was glad that Yuri was enjoying herself as the trio spent the entire afternoon together, with Kai and Adeline demonstrating a little of what they had learnt. Adeline awed Yuri with her excellent control of water magic, while Kai made them burst into laughter with his feeble attempts at lightning magic, the best being a weak lightning bolt that charred a nearby tree slightly.

Being an inquisitive child, Yuri demanded to learn the basics of magic though her magic potential had yet to be certified. To everyone's surprise, Yuri grasped the concept of magic very quickly and soon began to play with a small fireball bigger than anything Kai could muster.

Adeline quipped, "Your sister must be a magic prodigy. To pick up magic within minutes, she sure has a lot of potential." Kai felt a tinge of embarrassment for being trounced by his sister but he resolved to train harder to make up for his lack of potential. The trio practised magic together all the way till sunset, as darkness of the night slowly began to creep in, a tell-tale sign of what's to come in the future…