Walking into Zeus's vault was like stepping into a time machine. There was nothing I imagined to be in the armory. In fact... there were only three swords and three helmets, along with some shields and potions. It was extremely pathetic.
When he opened a chest tucked away in a corner, however, he pulled out a stone colored with white and blue particles in the middle. This must've been an air stone...
Zeus threw the stone with a force I almost couldn't handle. With the stone in my hand, he looked at me from across the room. "Go on. Eat it." He told me.
He wasn't kidding... was he...?
"Um, this looks like it won't go down my throat," I told him, observing the rock in my hands. It was about as big as my palm.
"It's not supposed to! You chew it." He explained, motioning his mouth as I should've.
"It's a rock... can I even chew this?" I asked Zeus. He seemed confused that I wasn't immediately eating it and nodded, explaining that I just had to chew really hard. He was being dead serious... well, if it's what it takes to fight Joro, I guess this is a small price to pay.
I stuffed the rock in my mouth with my left hand, but it was soon sucked out by the gelatinous substance that replaced my left arm. "Hey! Give that back Shima!" I told it. By some weird force, my slime arm crushed it into millions of bits and absorbed it back into itself.
[Mana Increased by 2000]
[Air Affinity - Gained]
"That worked... I didn't have to eat it." I told Zeus. He seemed pretty surprised by it, walking closer to me and leading me out of the armory.
"I think you're the first person who hasn't eaten that stone. Well, you got the air affinity, right?" Zeus asked me, to which I confirmed.
"Great, it's smooth sailing from here. Although, I should warn you. For a while, you might have some bad headaches." He said. I could tell he was trying to entice me into asking why, like how everybody else did. I still didn't like that.
"In case you're wondering why it's because you're opening up your skill selection. All normal people are born with three skill slots, air affinity doubles those skills slots." He said. I wasn't normal, I was a Hero, which meant that I now had twelve skill slots? That was interesting, but I wanted to learn about air skills.
"That's fine, I can deal with the headaches. So, what does the air affinity do for me? What kind of skills can I use? Will I get stronger because of it?" I asked Zeus. We walked out of his armory and back toward his throne atop a ton of stone slabs that were easy for him to walk up. I was a third of his size, so I had to jump and push myself up the slabs as I climbed up beside his throne. On the bright side, I had a great view of the city.
"Well, the strength depends on how many skills you can use. Skills have that maximum threshold on their level, so everything stops working after a while. When you use air skills, you might get stronger against Earth." He said.
"I see, but what kind of skills are in the affinity of air?" I asked again. Zeus seemed to be dodging that question, which was starting to make me nervous.
"Well tons. Are you asking me for examples?" I nodded at Zeus's question, and he began to demonstrate how to use the element itself.
"The air element is everywhere, just like water, so the important part of wielding the air element isn't knowing where to begin, it's knowing where to stop. You are constantly holding part of the air, you need to get it out. [Dispersion] would be your first skill for this, which is why air and water affinities are so closely linked. You are constantly holding both, you just need to limit yourself." Zeus told me. It was great I learned the name of the first necessary skill... but I couldn't learn it just from Zeus explaining it!
"And how would I use that skill you just talked about? I can't memorize it from your speech, nor store it." I told him. Zeus shrugged again. For such a big guy with a big head, he was quite an idiot.
I didn't want to use it, but I used up the last of the magic parchment in my inventory to write down the details after pressing them out of Zeus, thus memorizing the skill [Dispersion]. Something interesting about the skill was that it couldn't be ranked up past the base level.
"Why is it so weak? Is there a reason why?" I asked Zeus.
"Because it's not an attacking skill. It's a Branch Skill, a skill you must use before using any other air element. You can't wield it without [Dispersion]." Zeus explained.
I understood... so, you need to learn [Dispersion], otherwise the air element would be completely useless in the hands of a normal person. The reason is that they wield too much, limit how much you use... I understood it now! This was the core of the entire element. The skills are derived from [Dispersion], which means there are probably endless possibilities to the number of things you can do with air... I see. I wonder if that's how you collided elements, such as water and air to get ice as Joro did.
This was the kind of stuff I'd been waiting to learn! I can become a much more powerful mage with this stuff... can I fly?!
"There you guys are! I was about to begin class without you. Everybody, meet your new classmate, Potion Mortal!" Zeus told people below us. Classmate?
Zeus slapped me in the back and I was thrown down the stairs, falling beside the people. I felt the air element against my legs and I slowly floated downwards.
"I can walk just fine you know!" I yelled up to Zeus. He laughed with a thundering roar before waving his hand to dismiss the concern.
"Nice to meet you Potion Mortal, I'm Axe Mortal and this is Sword Mortal, we look forward to working with you." Axe Mortal said to me.
"Huh? What about your actual names?" I asked them.
"What actual names? We were never given any." They told me.
Huh...