"Elemental affinity is a very long talk. But since we have finish this meeting soon I will try to tell in short, there are 5 basic elements & each is represented by a colour – Air (White), Water (Blue), Earth (Brown), Fire (Crimson red) & Lighting (Yellow). Similarly, the next set of elements is known as deviants because they are based on the 2 or more basic elements. They are – Ice (Teal), Magma (Orange), Metal (Silver), Poison (Purple), and Fauna (Green). Then there are the special elements – Dark (black), Light (Pink), Space (Violet) and Time (Grey). Out of the elements, Time is the rarest one. Only 1 in every 1,00,000 have it. Space is next rarest with around 5-10 in 75,000. Dark and Light are rare as only 1-3 out of 10,000. If we take the rarity of elemental affinity from most rare to least rare it will be time, space, fauna, poison, light, dark, magma, metal, ice, lightning, air, water, fire and earth. Even though fauna and poison are deviants they are found like 1-2 in every 10,000 only. Every combination of elemental-force-Job-weapon affinity creates a job or its variation of basic 6 combat professions or non-combat professions. "

"The problem with rarer elements is that it is hard to ingredients for creating higher-level portions and soul beasts that have the same capacity to become great. There are 9 levels every human reaches. Elves, Dwarves, Beastkins, etc. also follow these level scales. Even tamed soul beasts are represented in these levels they are-

Novice - Level 1 – 24

Apprentice – Level 25 – 49

Journeyman – Level 50 – 74

Master – Level 75 – 99

Grandmaster – Level 100 – 149

Sage – Level 150 – 199

Saint – Level 200 – 299

Demigod – Level 300 – 499

God – Level 500 above

The Highest level I heard about an alive human was about a teacher who travels across the country. He was at the pinnacle of saint level. They said that in a few more years he could become a demigod. Among Elves and Dwarves there said to have 2 or 3 Demigods and Dozen or so Saints. They usually live longer so they have more people at higher levels. The average age of humans of 125, whereas that of elves, is 210 and that of dwarves is 160. Beastkins generally live almost the same as a human there are variations according to their main branch. "

A collective gasp could be heard at this point. Mr. Silva gave a small chuckle and continued

"The advancement is also influenced by 2 other factors other than elemental or force affinity. Those are Mental capacity and Dantian Capacity. Mental capacity is also known as Mind Sea level or mind consciousness level. Every person has both Mind Sea and Dantian. The forces, be it Ki or Aatma or Mana are all present in the environment outside. But they are not directly useable by anybody be they humans or other living beings. Dantian helps in purifying these forces from unusable to useable. The mind sea is the place where the purified force is kept or stored. A large mind sea means larger storage capacity and a larger capacity for Dantian means a larger quantity of force can be converted into useful energy. Dantian is situated in the middle of the chest. Just above your stomach." He touched his body above his shirt and pointed it to us.

"The 3 energies all are sent to the entire body in a different way. Ki is sent to the heart which transports it along with the blood to the entire body. That is how Ki enables the entire body. Mana on the other hand is transported to hands, legs, eyes, ears, nose and mouth or throat. Mana is not sent entire body. These are the places through which mana is manipulated. Purified mana helps manipulated the mana in the air. Aatma is a bit of both. It is only sent to the places same as mana. But aatma can only be sent out from 2 places one from the hands, the other from the eyes. But sending Aatma through eyes takes long years of training. Moreover, the soul beasts usually reside in the mental sea of mana and ki users and Aatma users also have a portion of their soul beasts inside their mind sea which allows them mental communication."

"For every Martial advancement, i.e., to move from Novice to apprentice or to above, they need the support of soul beast in addition to portions. For those who don't have Aatma as their primary, the procedure is to kill a soul beast and merge with them. While merging with them they would get a skill of the soul beast. While Aatma users don't kill the beasts. They soul link with the beast by making them obedient to their orders or wishes. The not killing of beasts affects the growth speed of every Aatma user. Non-Aatma users just have to kill and make the soul beast surrender to them. But Aatma users have to familiarise themselves and be friendly and ask the beast to be with them. The beasts can deny to be familiar with an Aatma user. Even if forcefully tamed, the beast will not obey any orders or commands."

"The soul beasts of the non-Aatma users usually reside in their mind sea. Aatma users' soul beasts usually stay in the open. But what happened is that once the number of beasts goes beyond a limit it becomes very hard to travel, moreover, beasts cannot travel to every place. Cold temperatures are not suitable for certain beasts like water back camels or Earth scaled snakes while hot desert temperatures are a big no-no for beasts like a charred snow leopard or yeti ape."

"This problem was solved by the invention of the beast ring which is a dimensional ring but instead of a dark and blank ring, it is a ring that is capable of providing the best suitable place for the soul beast. If more than 2 beasts exist then there would be a transparent partition that allows beasts to travel and communicate with each other inside the ring and also recuperate. All the Aatma user needs to do is call upon the beast via the pact seal which lies in the mental sea of the person. This seal allows users to find the beasts no matter where they go.

Even though pact is considered as an identity of Aatma users. Non-Aatma users can also make a pact. They have a limit of 1 pact per lifetime, moreover, they can't use the beast ring. To make beast ring work you need aatma energy."

"For aatma users the number of beasts starts at 4 then you can add 2 for every martial stage. Someone who has reached Level 500 or God level will have 20 soul beasts. But the problem that arises for most aatma users is how to store the beasts before making a pact. If you have a beast that you did not make a pact with storing becomes a bit of trouble especially if don't have at least a couple of 10s in gold. For the non-aatma users, they can kill the beast and get soul beads that contain the essence of soul beasts. They use these soul beasts to merge with them."

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

"The aatma users can make a pact with so many beasts, they can change all the beasts except one. That one beast is known as primo. They can never change a primo. Primo is the first beast any tamer conyratcs. If a primo is ever killed then the user can never make a pact with another beast again. His other beasts will not break the pact. But he cannot make new pacts. When I say he could change beasts, he needs the beast's permission to change. If a beast is left without its permission the user may lose his life depending upon the time period the beast has stayed with him. At the very least he could lose his mind. "

"Haah" he sighed a breath. "Next, all those students who don't have a beast soul can meet with Miss Simone after the meeting in room no. 7. There you will find teachers who will assist you. And aatma users I have to say sorry to you. The school could only get 3 beasts at the infant stage and 1 beast egg. We know that there are 27 of you but it has been not easy to get infant beasts or beast eggs from the government. And frankly speaking, we didn't expect the number to be this high. I will tell you which beasts we have. The beasts are wind squirrel, monocled monkey of the water element, water lily and egg of Hunchback bull which we think will be earth element. So, you guys discuss it among yourselves and decide who gets it."

I didn't want any of the beasts mentioned so I was not concerned with it. Some aatma users were looking around to ask or maybe look at who is going to be their competition. But Mr Silva once again disturbed the commotion by slapping hard on his book twice. The hall became silent after that.

"I believe all of you have an idea of the procedure of merging from the teachings from the school. The merging portion will be given to you guys soon."

Before he completed the sentence 4 teachers carrying 2 boxes entered the hall. They started distributing portions. Each person got 2 portions. Mr Silva continued his speech as the distribution started.

"If unfortunately, your initial merging procedure fails for any reason I would suggest you get a check-up from the hospital or alchemist guild before doing the procedure again. If both portions are somehow finished you could buy these from the adventurer association. Before drinking the portion be sure to add an elemental item to the portion. You could buy it from an alchemist's store. It would be best for you beginners to buy powdered elemental essence. All of you can afford it. It's commonly available. You guys know where to buy it from"

He paused after that. The shop he was talking about was his wife's. It may look like a forced promotion but his wife's shop was actually an old shop. Her ancestors were the ones that started the shop hundreds of years ago. When it came to alchemy ingredients, they are the most trusted and preferred shop in the village. Especially if you are a kid who cannot differentiate the quality of ingredients minutely.

"Moving on, if you have a soul bead with you but don't know which beast it is, you can get it identified in the school today. Go to room no. 8 where you could find 3 or 4 teachers with people from the alchemy association. If you have doubts about beasts or beast taming or soul pact it would be best if you visit our beast tamer guild for it. They also have the sale of beasts for contracting. You could find the beasts you like from there. So, that's the start of what you get about soul beasts, if anyone has any doubts you can ask now"

Two or three hands went up. He answered each and every one of the questions in a brief and direct manner. If it required a lot of details, he pointed to the person from whom they could get the answer. After some time, there were no more hands.

"I believe there are no more doubts. If there are more you could ask at the adventurer association or the guilds. Just ensure that you ask the staff not the members. Okay, moving on, next in our itinerary is to talk about universities. To my left is the screen where you guys could find the timings of exams held by each university. The procedures and exam patterns of each university are different. The empire has ensured that no university conducts exams on the same days. You could always go to more than one university without any fear. As you can see there are at least 2 days between each exam. The exams will be held only after Autumn Equinox. You can prepare for the exams. The classes will start in the month of Capricorn"

We have 12 months Aquarius, Pisces, Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpius, Sagittarius and Capricorn. Classes usually start in the month of Capricorn because of the cold. During the next 3 months, its colder climates hunting as well as farming will be a lot less. People could adjust and prepare for the spring equinox better.

'Autumn equinox will be in Virgo month so 3 months for people who want to study to get into a university.' I thought

Mr Silva continued "All of the test your capabilities and talent. They also factor in the capacity and force affinity you got. Most universities require at least a 4 in your capacity test to be eligible for application and attend their entrance exam. But some universities have a higher cut-off. For example, at Taxila university, you require a minimum of 7 in the capacity test while in Nalandha you require to score at least 8 at the same time the University of Thekku, situated in the south of our village only requires a score of 6 for alchemy-oriented courses." He paused for a second

"Similarly, The Kaanch University requires a score of 8 but in Naga university, it is 7 and at Sukin University in the Northeast it is 6 for martial oriented courses. So, the cut-off and competition and requirements of each university are different as well as narrow. But sometimes these universities admit you even if you are below the capacity if you could pass their special test. But if you enter through a special test the fees that have to be paid will be higher than the lowest-ranked student on the normal test. The normal test will help you get a scholarship from the empire but a special test will not allow that. The fees of the universities will be minimum of 70 gold per annum. So, I advise you to plan carefully and smartly. You need not have to go to a university to learn many skills. You could learn directly from a master under apprenticeship. So, keep your mind open to choices"

I need not have to worry about money. If I want to get into any university I will get a scholarship, most probably.

"For aatma users, to those among you guys who want to specialise in beast related it is a bit difficult because there are only 4 universities that provide your specialities like Beast taming, Soul martialling, or beast specialisation etc. The universities are Naga University in the Kindha Kingdom, Miduva University in the southwest of us in the Pannya Kingdom, Gauva university in the Jabla Kingdom Northwest of us and Pesthir University located north of Kaanch University. All of them are a great option and each of them has a unique beast specialisation so keep that in mind while applying. Our neighbouring empire to the south Helabima also has a beast specializing university. And our neighbour to the north also has some beast specialisation but I don't recommend apply there as they are very tough to deal with. We don't have a good relationship with northern borders. So, keep that in mind." He paused to get a glass of water.

"Further, I want to say to all of you that you get yourselves registered with adventurer's association or any guild. So, you can properly get yourselves resources for development as well as get knowledge updated from there. Also, guidance from different members at lower levels at the start. Try to explore more, learn more and most importantly contribute to the country more."

Travelling between universities will be hard within a short time if you don't have a lot of money. It's about 1 gold for travelling via teleportation within the empire on average. So, unless you are really in a pinch only the rich use teleportation.