"So is this magic? It's a lot simpler than I thought." After reading through four chapters, Thomas was so absorbed by the book he couldn't stop reading. Non-elemental Magic or Neutral Magic is the art to cannalize the Internal energy of the user in order to perform spells and incantations that doesn't belong to any element.
Most Neutral Spells could be used with almost any kind of energy, only its power and effects could vary a little depending on the nature of the energy used.
The first three chapters were about the nature of the Non-elemental magic, its origins, basics and foundations. From the fourth chapter onward it would show examples of Introductory-level and intermediary-level basic spells.
Unlike anima techniques that need a lot more practice, spells on the Introductory level needed almost little to no effort at all. Anyone with some kind of energy in their bodies could cast them with just a few tries.
Among them were [Sleep], [Unlock], [Double Impact], [Magic Bullet], [Magic Wall], [Illuminate], [Absorb Energy], [Alarm Rune] and [Translate].
Such spells didn't have that powerful of a effect but could prove to be useful on certain occasions. With [Alarm Rune], Thomas could mark any object like a door and he would be warned when somebody else tries to open that door.
As for [Translate], well, it can translate any language when the user knows a little about it. Inside his room Thomas eyes locked on the empty soda can on the corner of his desk.
"Let me try one of these."
[Magic Bullet]
A thin green ray shot out of his finger and flew straight at the can before passed through it like butter.
"Oh..." Leaving his bed he went towards the bottle and once picking it up and giving a closer look he saw a thin hole on the size of a needle.
[Anima Energy: 898/900] Paying attention at the energy bar, it didn't seem to cost much energy as well.
"Its not very effective at the moment, but these are the only spells I can learn. Maybe one day I can try the spells on the later chapters." As he though, the magic bullet he shot wasn't too weak to be used in battle. Still, Thomas decided to memorize all those spells just in case.
"Oh, its 13:10! I should get ready." Thomas lost so much time with the book he didn't felt the hours passing. Heading straight to bath, Thomas cleaned himself and went to choose his clothes.
He stopped for a moment before putting on his battle suit and a leather jacket.
The address Katherine gave him was a little far away from the city's center so he took an intelligent car. It was 14:26 when the car stopped right next to empty street with nothing but a single three story villa. This villa took up a huge amount of space, with the garden and a fontain taking most of its space.
A young woman in a military battle suit waiting by the door yelled at: "Thomas I see you just here, hurry up and come with me. Everybody is waiting."
Katherine brought Thomas and quickly entered the villa. As she took him to the higher floors, the Elite Adept had blurry eyes as she dived into her own thoughts.
"Chief. We're here." Katherine loudly greeted as she entered the room as the end of the second floor.
"Hm?" Thomas was slightly surprised. All this time there were close to nothing about the leader of the Azure Garden Society, other than some rumors about this said person, none were trusted though.
"Katherine, this youth is Thomas right. He certainly looks like a promising young fella." Said the soft, yet aged voice.
"Yes, chief." Katherine respectfully responded before heading to her own sit.
Thomas looked around carefully before he sighed in surprise. There were five people standing beside the gentle-looking middle aged lady. A man in a dark red suit sat on the left corner. Thomas realized something the second he saw that man, he was the same one he met on the associations building, the vice-head of the branch!
Other than him was a thin old man in white, a burly looking man in his early thirties. Of course the most surprising of all was the familiar masked-woman.
He didn't think she would appear again wearing the exact same mask as before. 'Does she have a whole bunch of them hidden somewhere?'
"Young Thomas, please take your seat." The gentle-looking middle aged woman pointed at the last empty chair on the Flame Empress' left.
"Oh right." Thomas went right away and sat right next to the red-haired female.
The middle-aged woman nodded. "Good, Katherine told us about you and we have since decided to accept you among us, thought the decision of which you join us or not belongs to you. But before you give us your answer, it is time we introduced ourselves first. "
Standing up, the middle-aged woman was the first to introduce herself. "As you must have guessed I'm the leader of the Azure Garden Society, Alice Barnett."
Thomas froze for a second, immediately lots of information he learned back in school flooded his mind. "The Azure Princess Alice Barnett?! Isn't it one of the top ten Adepts way before the colony of mars was founded?"
If his memory and school lessons were right, right at the beginning when Adepts were still kept as a secret by the newly established Human Alliance, Major Barnett was the top first generation Female Adept. Fighting for her her Alliance, she killed over a dozen thousand demonic beasts on the east sea invasion back then.
Nowadays with the evolution of Anima technology and further improvement in the division with different levels between adepts, there were some speculation Alice and the other members of the Top 10 were mostly at the level of a Master Adept.
Still, in terms of compliance and fame, she was much greater than the Adept King Jin Lesso. However if memory serves him right, wasn't she born in the year 2001?
Thomas gave her a second look. Despite not having the astonishing beauty of the Flame Empress nor the ferocious yet charming looks of Katherine, she certainly didn't look so bad for a sixty-seven year old granny...
"Hey! What exactly are you thinking about, want to share with the rest of us?" Sensing the cold glare, Thomas immediately felt a shiver down his spine togething.
"No nothing, I was just a little surprised. I didn't expect I would be in a team with someone famous like chief. Sorry if I seemed disrespectful. Wait, this pressure doesn't feel much stronger than Instructor Katherine."
Katherine and the other four kept silent, and not much longer later Alice responded. "That? I guess as a possible new member of the team you should know about that. Ten years ago when I leaded the Azure Garden at its strongest moment, I fought a rogue Adept with strange powers. In our fight, I ended up with some hidden injuries in my body. Those injuries make so only a small amount of Anima Energy could be kept in my body while the rest would leak until I regressed back to being an Elite Adept."
"After what happened, I retired from working actively on the Human Alliance went to work as an purely as an Adept. As for how the Azure Garden Society became the weakest team, there is no much to know after this."
Thomas felt as if he just learned some sort of super secret information. Thomas felt as if he just learned some sort of super secret information. Well it must be since this wasn't reported to the public.
"Sebastian Krahl, the Deputy Head of Dexia City's Adept Association, I usually take care of the data processing and communications.
Then the man in red stood up from his seat. But what was strange was that the voice did not come out of his mouth, no, yet he could still hear the voice in his mind.
'Oh, so this is his ability.'
Next was the burly guy: "Professor William Crois, 2-star Elite Adept, Chief Weaponsmith and specialist in explosions."
The man snapped his fingers and a small explosion formed on the tip of his fingers. Unlike others could expect from a guy with his stature, the bald and very muscular figure of a man wore a white coat thin glasses.
'Other than Katherine and the Flame Empress, most of the Azure Garden Members were of older generations. Those guys should be pretty powerful, so to be the weakest team in the rank should be because of the lack of numbers other than ability.' Thomas had already made his mind at this point when it was the the Flame Empress' turn.
Without even getting off her seat, the masked female waved her hand. "I am the Flame Empress as you must already know.
'She's really blunt, huh.' Towards the former's blunt and straightforward way of speaking, the other members simply sighed lowly while lowering their heads. Thomas could see from their expressions this way of hers wasn't recent at all, yet now that he heard her voice a second time he couldn't shake the feeling he heard this voice before.
After everyone had introduced themselves, Thomas felt it would be rude of himself to stay silent and so he spoke what he had in mind. "I've already made my mind. I, Thomas Ries will enter the Azure Garden."