A few hundred years ago scientists found the existence of what was thought to be a legend until now everywhere in the air, the mana. Everybody thought it came from the imagination of some random guy but it actually existed in every human in the world.
After lots of research around the subject it was found that the mana could be cultivated to strengthen the body or could be used outside of the body which is what we call magic, at first people used it in everyday life and it didn't really change the world's face but when the mana concentration started to grow animals evolved, they became stronger, bigger, faster and more aggressive and some of the strongest mutants were even attributed elements such as the legendary Phoenix, evolved from the eagle that was coated in fire and could be reborn from it.
The humans tried using weapons to fight back but guns became useless, missiles were too expensive to be used to defend against the beasts and sometimes useless too, this is when the profession of Hunter was born.
Hunters were people that cultivated their mana and used their bodies and magic powers to fight the beasts, at the same time a few other professions appeared, people used their mana to make weapons and armors for the Hunters and they used the best materials available in the world, ore for the weapons and beast skin for the armors they are the Blacksmiths.
After them came the Alchemists who used the parts of the beasts such as their organs or their blood and plants to make a lot of different types of potions, from the simple healing potion to the strongest Phoenix blood which was rumored to be able to resurrect almost dead people .
The first generation of Hunters became legends around the world, after some time the Hunters became more and more since the price of beasts materials grew a lot due to the Blacksmiths and Alchemists buying the raw materials at very high prices, the resulting potions and equipments sold at exorbitant prices so the richest in the world very soon became the Hunters, the Blacksmiths and the Alchesmists.
Very fast, the world began the spin around them, they were the center of the attention and lots of people wanted to become like them.
A few years later the beasts weren't a massive danger anymore, sometimes they formed a horde and attacked a city those were the rare times Hunters were required, the rest of the time each one was busy with his own things.
Amongst these Hunters a few became teachers in the first Hunter schools in the world, they are the North, East and West colleges.
The north college surnamed the Kraken's depths is in the north of Europe, a very cold place where the student specializes in water, ice magic and body defense.
Next comes the east college also called the Roc's nest which is in the United States, there their students study the air magic and speed, their best students and teachers can use magic to fly, when strong aerial beasts attack anywhere in the world they are the ones taking care of it.
Finally the west college or the Dragon's gate in China which was founded by one of the first generation of Hunters Long Diyi the first dragon, his students follow his path and train in the way of fire and strength, all of them are strong enough to hold on against one students from each of the other two schools.
Of course there are other elements that those three but no school focus on them so people that are born with affinity to other elements either don't try to become Hunters or try their luck by forging their own way, people often don't succeed but the first generation did it this way so these people had an example and kept motivated.
Before being accepted into one of these prestigious colleges, kids have to go through an aptitude test when they hit the age of 15, after the test it will be decided if they are going to a normal high school and live a banal life or are going to a high school affiliated to one of the three colleges, train for three years and maybe have the chance to join one of the three giants.
Sam was born in France, since he was born until the age of fifteen he was a mediocre kid : average looks, average grades, average body. He was neither strong nor weak, neither handsome nor ugly and he never shone in class, he just stayed in the back and lazily took in whatever information was thrown at him.
He had one big brother and one little sister, his big brother already had his mana affinity test done 2 years earlier and he was attributed a C+ in water magic, this grade definitely wasn't enough to enter one of the famous colleges after high school but he wasn't interested in anything related to magic from the start, he just wanted to live a normal life so he went into a normal high school without feeling dejected.
2 weeks ago Sam had celebrated his 15th birthday and today was the monthly affinity test, after this Sam will go to high school whatever the result was, if it was bad he'll go to a normal high school and live a normal life like his big brother if it was good he'll go to a high school affiliated to one of the three giant colleges.
In the school auditorium were already waiting a dozen of kids, all of them had hit 15 years old recently ; the age of the test wasn't chosen randomly, it was now common knowledge that the human body was done adapting to mana around this age, if kids learnt mana before this age it will reduce their talent and some might even die due to their body not being strong enough to withstand the presence of mana.
Sam went in the auditorium, he recognized a few people but none of them were close to him, in the middle of the room was a platform where a middle aged woman, a middle aged man and an old man which was probably over 200 years old were sitting.
After the adaptation to mana people's lifespan rose a lot, the strongest people which were at the top of the Hunters could live a few hundred years without aging a bit. The oldest person at the moment was rumored to be the first dragon which was around 800 years old.
After a few minutes of waiting, the woman stood up and went to the microphone and started talking: " Let's start since everybody seems to be here, this is a decisive moment in your life, free your mind and inject your mana into the diamond here. " She looked at a list in her hand and named the first one to go, they passed in alphabetical order so Sam was in the end, after around an hour it was Sam's turn. Before him only a few had been rated more than B or more and those that had an affinity with one of the three elements were even less, only two people made it.
Sam went to the diamond and put his hand on it, if it glowed red, blue or yellow it meant that he had an affinity with respectively fire, water or air and the force of the glow would determine his grade. Sam put his hand on the diamond, he was feeling expectant, all of his life he had lived as a nobody and now was his chance to shine, when he started to inject his mana into the diamond the glow was fully white, as everybody else's since the element was determined after the compatibility with mana.
The glow started to rise slowly, after a few seconds the glow was illuminating all of the hall and it kept growing, nobody before him had made the glow this strong. Behind him the three adults were already standing with eyes wide and the old man said
" He already made it to the A grade and it doesn't seems like it's going to stop anytime soon, if he have an affinity with water I must take him back to the north with me !"
The glow kept on rising more and more until everyone had to shut their eyes to not get blinded, only that old man kept staring at Sam and whispered
" S… S grade it's an S grade ! Only the Dragon's gate have an S grade student at the moment if we get this kid we can surpass the Roc's nest and maybe overtake the immovable first !"
After this the glow stopped rising and a color started to slowly infuse in it, it was purple, a very deep purple which gave off an explosive feeling.
The old man's eyes dimmed a bit but it very soon went back to normal he looked at the man and woman beside him and said
" Chairman, I'll take this kid away with me, you have nothing to say right ?"
The middle aged man stopped staring at Sam and replied while looking at the old man
" He is compatible with Thunder so even if you take him you can do nothing with him, why not leave him to the Dragon's gate ? They use fire but they have a few Thunder affiliated teachers… I'm sorry to say it this way but won't a S class talent be wasted in the north ?"
The old man didn't seem to take the chairman's words seriously he said
" Let's let the kid decide."
He went a few steps near Sam and looked smilingly at the stunned kid and said
" What's your name kid ?"
Sam looked at him and felt a bit of pressure being emitted by the old man, he felt that this old man must be someone very strong so he answered honestly
" My name is Sam Angevin, sir."
The old man felt someone coming closer from behind and knew it was the school's Chairman, he had to act fast and not leave him the chance to speak so he instantly said
" Nice to meet you Sam, my name is Ottar and I'm a teacher from the Kraken's depths."