After we finished, we went to the middle of his training's spot.
"Let me guess, you don't have a clue for what elements you have a high affinity for."
"How am I supposed to know in the first place?"
"Alright, I did read that for most magical beasts, the elements they have a high affinity for show on their body through their colors." I looked at him expectant.
"Yeah, and?"
"Seriously, you know what I want. Just transform into your beast form."
He stared me into the eyes seemingly unwilling, but I didn't flinch and took the challenge.
-He has really pretty eyes. Around his black pupil slits is the iris white, turns darker blue and at the edge it is nearly black. –
"Fine, I give up." He closed his eyes and started to concentrate.
-Yes, I won. – I was maybe a bit too happy about that.
As I noticed that mana was concentrating around him, I used mana sensing to better pick up the elements.
-It's difficult to pinpoint the elements, it's like every element helps him but some more than others. I don't think that he has a high affinity for fire, at least I don't sense too much of it. On the other hand, water or more like ice is abundant.
I have the most practice and understanding with those two. So, the others will be more difficult to discern. Let's see there is one… no two more he has a high affinity for. On feels familiar the other not. I just can't figure out what it is, maybe on I don't have much understanding of… that would be darkness or light.
As for the other elements I know, most likely average or below average talent. – Meanwhile drops of sweat formed on my forehead.
"Are you sleeping?"
As I heard his annoyed voice, I opened my eyes and… Naomi.exe stopped working. I just stared at him, my eyes nearly popping out and my mouth wide open.
His wyvern form was so captivating that I just froze. His scales were a dark black that turned blue at the tip. The skin at his wings was a blackish blue with a thing of violet and his two horns, his claws and the tip of his tail were a dark violet that turned lighter at the edges.
"Stop staring and say something."
"Breathtaking…but a bit small…" I murmured.
"That wasn't what I meant. Besides I'm still growing."
"Oh, um, sorry. But you really look mesmerizing. So, the colors are black, blue and violet."
"Thanks, I guess. So, my elements are water, darkness and, what is violet?"
-I don't have a clue or to be more precise I didn't encounter an element in this world for that color. Time for an educated guess… -
"Water and ice to be exact, as for violet I could be either lighting or gravity. That is at least of what I could think."
"Isn't lighting yellow?"
-Yes, but in some books, I read it is also violet. I can't tell him that."
"Yes, but if you observed some lightings, you'd noticed that they can be violet too."
"Hmm, yeah maybe and what now?"
-Zero take a picture! –
[Saving visual]
"I don't think that it is necessary to learn the respective runes first, you most likely won't have a problem attracting the elements without help, so I'll teach you some spells for ice/water and darkness. As for lighting or gravity, I can't teach you anything related to gravity for now, lighting on the other hand isn't a problem but I'd prefer to concentrate on the elements we are sure about."
-I don't have as high an understanding of lighting as of fire or water but I didn't notice an abundance of it. So, either I plainly didn't notice it, or it is gravity. It could also be something entirely different but that is a different story. –
"What is your dragon fire like?"
"It freezes stuff."
"Show me." I made my puppy eyes
"Arg, all right but stop looking like that at me."
-My puppy eyes are rather effective. I wonder if they'd worked this well in my last live to, should have tried it. –
He breath in and exhaled. Form his moth came blue flames that froze everything they touched.
After the flames died down, I plucked a frozen flower. "Your dragon's, um I mean wyvern breath has more use than one." I stored the flower inside my bag.
"I gave you last time instructions on the fire element, you don't need to study that for a while. We'll start with water or ice. Change back to your human form and I'll start explaining the basics of water and ice magic."
He changes back. "Why can't I just learn the rune and start us it?"
"If you want to be just some mediocre magus in your life than look for someone else to teach you."
He looked at me puzzled.
"Sigh, a rune helps you attract the desired element, but understanding of the element helps you attract it by yourself and makes it use easier."
I lit a flame in my left hand in less than one second and drew with my right hand a fire rune afterwards lit a flam in it in 5 seconds. "As you should have noticed it takes longer to use a rune, that is why the goal is to don't use them if possible. So now listen to my explanation and raise your hand if you have a question."
For the remaining afternoon I thought him the basics of water magic. He was diligent and absorbed everything I taught.
***
"That's all for today. Train what I taught you and try to attract water element particles. I'll visit you in two weeks again."
"I thought you'd only visit once a month."
"At your learning speed that'd be too little too rarely. You'd get bored and try something, most like stupid and dangerous, that's why I'll come more often. Be happy and stop being so suspicious about me."
"Sure, like you'd just trust a stranger."
"I'll get your trust sooner or later, by the way here." I went to my basket and took two sacks of corn out. "It's not the tastiest but it'll do its job. I but some recipes in the book. Before you ask why, I can't have you go to the marked stealing food and getting hurt or even arrested."
He looked at me suspicious. "I guess you don't have a reason to poison me, so thanks I guess."
"Where did that come from? Why should I invest this much and kill you afterwards? Seriously you're too paranoid."
"Either you'll become paranoid too or you'll die."
"Probably, anyways be a good boy and study diligently till I visit you again. See you."
"Bye."
I waved at him and left.
-I wonder how long it'll take me to gain his trust. As for the unknown element. I could teach him mana sensing, but that is a precious technique I'm not sure if I want to teach him that. But this way he could attract the elements faster and easier, and most importantly I could learn it too.
Sight, for the beginning I'll teach him water, ice and darkness then there is swordsmanship and combined magic with it, after that I can still teach him mana sensing… But he needs to train in it for some time to use it properly. Arg, I won't teach him next time, so I'll just decide after the next lesson.
So, the next problem on my list is to find a combination spell for Anthony. His style is defensive… No that isn't right, he uses that style when he teaches me but otherwise, he uses… a lot of different styles. So, I need a versatile spell.
He has keen senses; he most likely doesn't necessarily need a protection or a fully aware spell. Ice spears? No, besides that isn't really a combo spell. His sword leaving a fire line? Does that even work with enough of his styles? Besides it's quite obvious, I'm not sure that is something he wants.
Oh, I'm there. I'll think about this later some more. –
***
Benjamin and Nathalie were already waiting. My suspicion that there is more to them than just friendship, is getting stronger. Anyway, Nathalie and I flew back to the village. I went back home and 'read' in the library. After some time, Anthony joined me.
The next two days were normal, and I came up with an idea for a combo spell for Anthony.
***
At the training's spot in the forest.
"I came up with a great spell that fits well with your style change, the problem is that it's a rather complicated spell."
Anthony just looked at me, signaling me to continue.
"You know when you blow out a candle the flame leaves smoke. If you hold a flame near the smoke, you'll ignite the flame at the candle again. That is the principal behind the combo spell.
Your sword will leave a near invisible trace of smoke and you can ignite it at will. The problem is that there is no smoke rune as of my knowledge, so you'll need to attract the element particle yourself."
"That'd cooperate well with my fighting style. How long will it take me to master it?"
-His magic talent is high. The problem lies in his lack of interest…"
"About three months, you don't have much experience with magic training that adds to the time needed."
For the remain mooring I taught him how to sense the smoke element particles. It took me some time to figure out how the feel them but because of mana sensing and that they are a mix between the fire and air element I got the hang of it in time. That made it also easier for Anthony.
***
I became a bad consciousness because of Tim, so I tried to come up with a way to improve his mana reserves. As I observed Anthony, Luca and myself training to sense mana particles I notice a minimal increase in mana reserves.
Because I didn't have any long-term studies, I couldn't base any technique on it. So, decided to collect information before I try to come up with something. In the meantime, I taught Tim how to use the mana rune which helped him to learn more advanced spells.
I also decided at it'd be good to teach Luca etiquette, because he'll be able to become a magus, so he needs to be taken seriously be other magi. As for Tim… I'll need to improve his mana reserves first.
I also needed to be able to process the information my diagnostic spell gives me. I first started training with focusing on one point. That was easier said than done. And before I could master it, it was already time to visit Luca again.