Just as Soren was going to pour mana to the affinity stone, suddenly a man with red hair entered the room as if he was in a rush and Soren stopped his hand just a few centimeters apart from the affinity stone. Lavenza also woke up from the noise the man made when he entered the room and looked at him. Once the three of them had a good look on the man, they realised that this was bishop Tobias and the priest was the one to address to him while bowing.
"Bishop Tobias. How may I be of assistance?" The priest spoke respectfully.
"Bishop Tobias. Forgive me for not showing any manners when you entered." Soren said seriously as well while bowing.
"Kyuu~!" Lavenza also bowed, although she could only lower her head.
Tobias didm't pay much attention to the courtesy right now and said:
"There is no need for such courtesy right now. Priest, I'll will overlook the young man's affinity test since you are required for a job. Speak with one of the paladins on the third hall, they should inform you the rest." Tobias said seriously.
"Yes, sir." After that, the priest left the room immidiately and now Soren, Lavenza and bishop Tobias were left in the room. The atmosphere was a bit awkward for Soren, since he was going to be doing a simple affinity test, but now with bishop Tobias in the room, it felt like a final exam with eyes everywhere looking at Soren.
"Don't be nervous Soren. Whatever the affinity test shows, it won't leave from this room." Tobias said that seriously.
"I see, but how did you know that I going to take an affinity test?" Soren asked curiously.
"I didn't. In reality I didn't notice you were here until a couple of minutes ago when I was delivering a few documents to one of my colleagues and once I saw you, I had to deliver them first and then check on you, to make sure you cause another show." Tobias said seriously with the last part being said jokingly.
"What..." Soren was confused at this moment.
"I'll explain the full gist of it in a bit. For now, why don't you check your affinity?" When Tobias said that, Soren then saw that until he took his affinity test, there wasn't any room for conversation.
This time, Soren felt a bit nervous, but decided that hesitation would only make things worse. At that moment, Soren started pouring mana on the affinity stone and the stone started shining. The light that it showed, was a mix of a blue light and a dark purple light that shone as brightly as the blue light. Soren didn't know well enough what that meant, but Tobias' jaw nearly dropped on the floor the moment he saw those bright lights.
"Ho-ho-ho-ho-how? HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE!? DUAL ELEMENTS OF THE HIGHEST AFFINITY!? JUST WHAT ARE YOU KID!? THE SECOND COMING QUAN OR SOMETHING!?" Tobias screamed as loudly as he could voice could get.
"Ouch. Can you please not scream in my ear? I don't need any more pain to be added in my current condition." Soren said with an annoyed expression while closing his ears to prevent them from bleeding. Lavenza also was in a similar situation, but because her hands hadn't come out yet, she could only suffer while using her tail to close her ears as much as she could.
"Oh. *cough* I am so sorry. I lost my cool there." Tobias said after geting his composure back.
"Alright, then let me explain a bit the way this test works, now that we have the results. First and foremost, this test is divided in two parts, the lights it shows and their... Brightness, for a lack of a better word. Let's start with the colors of the lights. The lights have 6 different colors, red, green, brown, blue, yellow and purple. Each of those colors symbolize the six elements, fire, wind, earth, water, light and darkness. That part is pretty self-explanatory so we don't need to dwell on it for long. Now the brightness of the lights. That symbolises the affinity level of your elements and the brighter it is, the higher your affinity is for that said element. Your example, in this case, would be of the highest affinity, equal of the hero Quan at the very least." Tobias explained.
'Quan again. I should really research this guy whenever I get an opportunity.' Soren thought to himself before he said:
"If the light that appeared was of the highest affinity, why were there 2 different lights?" Soren asked curiously.
"That depends usually on two factors. Your own self, or your own actions. You see, affinities aren't set on stone. There are times where we can easily learn water magic, just saying for example, and the next day, we feel like it's much harder than before. That usually means that something changed. It could be us changing, or it could be something we did, but in the end, something did happen to change our affinity. It isn't very easy to find what triggered the change, but it is still doable and reversable, so it's really up to you to find out and reverse it, if you desire to do so." Tobias explained.
'So it could be my own self, or maybe I did something bad. But nothing really fits the criteria of the reason for having maximum darkness affinity. The closest thing that could possibly be a reason for that is one of my friends from elementary school, but I haven't seen the guy for 4 years ever since we parted ways to go to different middle schools. Uhhh... I can't think of anything at all.' Soren thought to himself for the maximum darkness affinity before giving up in dejection. After that, he decided to ask for something else that piqued his interest:
"So, can you explain a bit that "second coming of Quan" part please?"
"Oh, that. I still can't believe I lost my cool there. I'm just glad that these rooms are soundproof, otherwise the entire church and probably every merman within the vicinity of the church would be waiting outside the door to see the big prodigy. Anyways, Quan was actually a dual user when he was alive around 500 years ago. His elements also happened to be water and darkness, just like you, but with the only difference being Quan's affinities being slightly inferior to yours." Tobias explained while he complained a bit.
"So I have magic affinities, comparable to Quan. Great, as if this day could get any better." Soren said sarcastically. He just felt another headache coming to him after having realised that he has to hide his darkness affinty, just like with everything else that could show that he is completely abnormal and potentially exposing the fact that he is an other-worlder.
"Anyways, can Lavenza get her affinity check as well?" Soren asked seriously.
"Of course she can. Go ahead little girl." Tobias said that while looking at Lavenza on his shoulder while rubbing her head with her tail. When Lavenza heard that, she saw Tobias looking at her, then she looked at Soren a bit nervously. Soren noticed that Lavenza was slightly nervous, but he smiled and said:
"Don't worry Lavenza. After my display, I doubt if anything could even come close to beating a double max affinty show. Just go ahead, besides no one has had anything to lose from an affinity check."
"Kyuu~." Lavenza nodded and then swam in front the stone and poured mana into it. This time, the light showed a strong blue and yellow light at around the same level of brightnesa, but slightly less brighter than Soren's.
"Holy seaweeds and barnacles. Another double affinity? You two are just making me numb to seeing those bright lights. Still, it was slightly darker than Soren's, so your affinity would be just one tiny step lower than Soren's, but aside from that, it is around the same level. Honestly, is history going to repeat itself with the White Beauty and the Black Beast again?" Tobias felt slightly numb while he said that before he ended the sentence with a hint of dejection.
The moment Soren heard that last sentence, he got curious about that and decided to ask about it:
"White Beauty and Black Beast? Is that a story or something?"
"No, those are a couple of nicknames of two of the founders of Crystalia City." Tobias said calmly.
"Then whose were those nicknames?" Soren asked curiously.
"The White Beauty is the current head of the church, while the Black Beast was the protector of the city." Tobias answered back.
'So Laventhign was the White Beauty and Quan was the Black Beast. Now, that is a history that will stay in the history books, or should I say it did stay in the books.' Soren thought to himself.
"I guess the affinity test is over now. Can I ask something final?" Soren asked seriously.
"Go ahead." Tobias answered casually.
"Are you going to say anything to her?"
"Knowing her, it would be on my best interests to report everything, lest I would want to lose my head and end up having to trouble you as well." Tobias answered dejectedly.
Soren shivered at the thought of seeing Laventhign going on a rampage.
"At least don't say anything to anyone else. I would prefer if almost no one knew about this now. I don't intend to hide forever, but I don't want anyone to know right now. Otherwise I will be hounded by groups to join them." Soren shivered at the thought of being hunted by groups of people for his absurd talent in magic.
"Hehe. My lips are sealed." Tobias said happily with a hint mischeviousness. After that, the three of them left the room and reached the room with the big door that leads to the main area of the church.
"I hope you were satisfied with your results." Tobias said seriously.
"I was. Thank you for overseeing sir. May you have a pleasant day." Soren said respectively before he left with Lavenza. Just as those two were leaving, Tobias said to himself:
"Maybe it could be the second coming of the White Beauty and the Black Beast. Hehe."