With her booklet in hand, Relenah leisurely walked out of her dormitory. She turned her head and saw several students chatting with each other or walking around the area. When those students saw her, they all stopped and looked at her in wonder.
"Wow, did you see that? She's in S class?!" Relenah could hear one of the students whispering.
"She seems young though, I wonder what year she's in," another student replied.
At first Relenah was confused on how they figured out she was in S class. But after looking at the other students she remembered that her robes were different to theirs. She saw some of the students' robes had different colored embroideries. Relenah assumed this was how students were separated into different classes.
Looking through her booklet again, Relenah turned the pages and stopped when she reached information regarding class rankings. Apparently, based on how well a student is able to control his or her element, they were separated into different rankings.
White was given to those with lowest aptitude to magic, usually those that were born outside of the city were whites since they were never exposed to magic.
Following that was green, which was given to most commoners that live near the city. Then it is blue, which mostly consisted of those from wealthy merchant families or lower nobles.
Relenah continued reading and was surprised at what she read next. Purple was mostly given to those that were of higher noble birth such as dukes, viscounts, and even royal families. Gold was only given to one person from each element and was not prejudiced on nobility, but more on the person's strength.
Well, Relenah now understands why people didn't outright attack her for being a gold. She continued reading and found that the class rankings were given based on students' performance and strength, it just so happens that, those from wealthier families had more resources, such as reading material and tutors.
Relenah gulped at the thought. She wonders if people would come for her now. She was still relatively new to magic and still had a lot to learn since she has been training on her own the past few years. Especially those from purple classes, she was slightly anxious at the thought that they might find trouble with her just to take her spot in S class.
Relenah then paused and tried to recall what the facial paralyzed teacher said earlier when he was leading her to the dormitory, "It just so happens that your power is considered stronger than that of the current strongest fifth year."
Relenah let out a relieved sigh at that. If the teacher said so, then at least, she would be relatively safe for now. It would be too far-fetched to make a first year an S class. Meaning, her current level is higher than the strongest fifth year in water element. But she still kept her guard up in case those from other elements wanted to pick a fight with her.
Relenah was snapped out of her reverie when she suddenly heard a loud boom and a yell. She looked around her and was shocked that she already reached the main building. Talk about being distracted.
She turned her head and followed the sound, which happened to come from the training area. Pushing the doors open, she saw a group of people standing at least twenty feet away from a girl with cracked glasses. Her hair looked like it just came back from an explosion, her robes had burnt marks and her face was black with cinders.
"There she goes again. I really wish the teachers would separate her from the rest of us, her explosions are getting bigger and bigger by the day!" Relenah heard a student in the crowd said lowly.
"I think it's a shame that her spells keep failing. If her spells didn't end up exploding, I'm pretty sure she would be in blue or even purple class by now." Another student replied while shaking their heads.
Relenah turned her attention back on the cinder-covered girl when she heard her exclaim, "So close! I was so close! What did I do wrong this time?"
The other students slowly dispersed when they saw that she was unharmed.
Relenah stayed rooted in her spot and glanced around to see students going back to their training sessions. "Why does it keep exploding before it even reached the target? I did everything right!" the girl continued lamenting.
As soon as Relenah's eyes met the cinder-covered girl's, the other girl suddenly looked at her in wonder. Relenah was confused but then remembered that she was wearing a gold embroidered robe. Relenah slowly walked towards the other girl and was amused when the girl seemed to be frozen in place.
"What trouble are you having with your spells?" Relenah cleared her throat and tried to ask nicely.
The other girl was snapped out of her train of thought and quickly stood in front of Relenah, "I found this book on making explosions a few months ago. I've consulted with teachers and conducted many experiments but I could never get the spell right!"
Now that Relenah was standing directly in front of the girl, she finally noticed that the other girl's robe was bright red in color and had green embroideries. "How does the spell go? Maybe I can help give you a fresh insight," Relenah suggested.
"Really?! That would be so helpful. So, the spell first entails that I have to gather fire element and form them into a ball. Then, I have to shoot the ball to a target. Once it reaches the target, I have to make the fire elements in the ball vibrate and explode. Or at least, that's the general idea of it."
Relenah closed her eyes and tried to envision the steps that girl said. "My name is Relenah, what's yours by the way?" Relenah asked.
The other girl slapped her own forehead lightly before replying, "Sorry, I forgot to introduce myself, my name is Emylia."
Relenah gave Emylia a polite smile, "Nice to meet you. You think you can show me the spell one more time?"
Emylia nodded her head and stepped away from Relenah until they were at least ten feet away from each other. "I don't want to hurt you, so if things start turning out badly, you should run the other way," Emylia called out.
Relenah gave her a nod.
Emylia stood still for a few seconds and then she lifted her hands until they were chest level, "I call upon thee, fire sprites, lend me your mischievous power and burn down my foe," Emylia chanted while she waved her hands around an imaginary ball.
Relenah could feel another brain cell break when she saw that. Thankfully, Emylia didn't start dancing, if she did, Relenah would've turned around and left the training area already.
Relenah suddenly felt the fire elements around Emylia going rampant. She scrunched her eyebrows and watched Emylia intently. Emylia's ball of fire was slowly growing but it was unstable. Before she could react, Relenah watched in surprise as Emylia's ball of fire suddenly exploded.
Relenah acted instinctively when she saw the explosion and quickly formed an ice shield in front of herself. She couldn't see anything but she did hear the loud explosion and the ground shook a little.
Peeking out from the side of her ice shield, Relenah tilted her head and stared at Emylia, who had more cinders on her robe now.
Emylia was coughing and she had her hands on her face trying to wipe away the cinders from her glasses. When Emylia could finally see, she was surprised when she saw a human sized wall of ice in front of her.
"What… how did this get here?" Emylia asked out loud.
Relenah let out a light cough and waved her hands, making the ice wall melt and evaporate. "Sorry, I just reacted on instinct. How are you?" Relenah asked and tried to change the topic.
"Oh, I'm fine. A bit of an explosion like this won't kill me," Emylia waved her hands and gave Relenah a smile. But then that smile quickly turned into a frown, "I failed again. I don't know what happened. First it was going smoothly and I had a ball of fire, next thing I know it explodes in my face."
Relenah looked back at Emylia and spoke hesitantly, "I think it's because, the fire elements were already vibrating at a fast speed when you were gathering them. Didn't you say that you were supposed to make them do that when you want them to explode?" Her voice got softer when she reached the end of her sentence.
Emylia looked up at Relenah in shock, "How did you know that? Even I didn't notice them vibrating when I gathered them."
Relenah let out a small cough and scratched the back of her head, "It's a similar concept to my ice making. But instead of making my water elements vibrate, I have to mash them so that they're compact."
Emylia nodded her head at that, "I see, that makes sense."
Relenah let out a silent relieved sigh at that and continued speaking, "So, when you're gathering your fire, try to keep the elements close together and as calm as possible, then as you're throwing them, slowly make the elements vibrate, that way they'll explode upon contact."
Emylia had a confused look on her face but nonetheless, she dusted herself and slowly did what Relenah said, "I call upon thee, fire sprites, lend me your mischievous power and burn down my foe."
Emylia's hands were gracefully moving in a circular motion. Relenah could see a small ball of fire appear, "Move your hands slower and focus on making sure the elements aren't vibrating as much," Relenah said. Emylia nodded her head, and Relenah watched happily as the small ball of fire slowly got bigger but didn't explode this time.
"Now, take a deep breath, and throw your ball of fire at the target. When it gets near, release your breath and focus on vibrating those fire elements!" Relenah said in a serious voice. This was the hard part. Emylia has to completely focus on those few seconds where the fireball makes contact with the target in order to make it explode.
Emylia opened her eyes, took a deep breath in, and with a yell, she threw the fireball in her hands towards a target and kept her eyes on it the whole time. As soon as she saw the fireball was two feet away from the target, she let out her breath and focused on vibrating the fire elements in the fireball.
She watched in astonishment as she saw her fireball explode upon contact with the target. The target had scorch marks on it and black smoke hovered above the target. Emylia suddenly felt like she wanted to cry tears of joy. She finally did it!
"OMG yes! Finally! Woo hoo!" Emylia started jumping in place with a giant smile on her face.
Relenah looked at her and laughed. She smiled when she saw the target. In the back of her mind, she remembered the steps Emylia did. Whenever she is alone, she will want to try that spell as well.
"Congratulations on your success," Relenah walked over to Emylia and patted her on the shoulder.
Emylia finally stopped jumping. She turned around and gave Relenah a big fat smile, "This was all thanks to you! As expected of those from S class. You guys really are a cut different from the rest of us common folk," she laughed brightly.
Relenah felt her face heat up slightly at the comment, "I… it… it was nothing," she turned her head away.
"Oh right, I've never seen you before. What year are you in? You seem a bit too young to be a fifth year," Emylia asked, tilting her head to the side.
Relenah stood stiff as she tried to weigh out the pros and cons of telling the truth. Letting out a deep sigh, she decided on just telling the truth, "I'm actually new. I'm a first year."
Silence enveloped both girls. One of them was frozen in shock while the other was nervous and anxious.
"Y-you're a-a… f-first… year?" Emylia slowly stuttered.
Relenah nodded her head.
Emylia opened her mouth but before she could speak, another voice interrupted her, "You're actually a first year? Did the water elementals hit a new low? And here I was, excited to duel Harvey."
Relenah and Emylia turned their heads to the side and saw a youth walking with several male students behind him. The youth in the front had a sarcastic smile on his face and seemed to be the leader of the group, "How about I challenge you to a duel instead? I want to see how powerful the new water element S class student is."
The rest of the students behind the youth gave Relenah condescending looks, "Won't that just be bullying? Even if she's in S class, she's still a first year. Just barely got out of her training wheels," one of the students sneered.
Another student replied, "Who knows, maybe she got into the S class by other means. Think about it, unless you were taught since young and have unlimited resources, it's almost impossible for a first year to be in S class."
The other students nodded their heads. The youth that initially spoke sent Relenah another sarcastic smile, "How about this, I'll give you a handicap. That ought to make things fair."
Relenah could feel a sweat drop behind her head. Maybe she should've not said she was a first year. She knew it would bring trouble, but she didn't think it'd be this quick!