Day of Sunar, 6:58 am.
Inside a room in Graham's Lodge House.
Woooh!
Sss…
"Arrrggghhh!" Torr groaned as he bit down hard against a twisted cloth between his teeth when a [Fire Arrow] burst out of Vivian's hand and shot through his forearm, leaving a hole and burning its flesh before disappearing when it hit the metal slab.
His face was pale, he had dark eye bags, his body covered in sweat, and his cheeks were sunken
Felize and Gaze were sitting on his side and supporting him.
Vivian cast another skill.
[Heal].
A faint yellow light enveloped Torr's body and cured his wounds.
Vivian turned her head away and stared at the windows. The rays of the sun were slipping through the curtains.
She returned her gaze at him.
"Did you open your [Fire Mastery]?"
A pained expression appeared on Torr's face and he lowered his head.
"Not… yet, Priestess…"
"I see."
Felize wiped the sweat on Torr's forehead with a piece of cloth and then turned to Vivian.
"Priestess…" she said hesitatingly and then bit her lower lip.
Vivian knitted her brows.
"What is it?"
"Torr, Gaze and I talked about this many times already before. But since we didn't have the means to really confirm it, we couldn't reach a proper conclusion -- that is until we met you."
Vivian didn't say anything and let the girl continue.
"Since [Fire Mastery] is one of the easiest Magic Arts to open because a person only has to expose themselves to fire, we figured that Torr would eventually open his [Fire Mastery] one day as long as he keeps burning himself. But now that he hasn't opened it after 2 days despite with your help, we decided that he must have a [False Fire Mastery]."
"[False Fire Mastery]?"
"Yes, Priestess. According to what I've learned back in the library at the Temple of Wizards, although a person can find out what are his or her Magic Art Affinities with the help of an Affinity Crystal, it can't confirm if it's a True or False Affinity. The only way to find out if the person has a True or False Affinity is to expose the person with the Magic Art spells from the specific Affinity that he or she supposedly has at least a hundred times.
"And in Torr's case, since he has been constantly burning himself and also been exposed from your [Fire Arrow] for 2 days now yet still hasn't opened his [Fire Mastery], then it could only mean that he has a [False Fire Mastery]."
There's such a thing…?
Vivian recalled the details regarding her Affinities at the Status Panel.
Not counting my x5 boost, I have Poison x1.4, Fire x1.2 and Dagger x1.2...
So what does a [False Fire Mastery] look like...?
Truth be told, if Torr had the power of the Status Panel and Vivian could view it, it would've looked like this:
***
Name: Torr L. Sander
Class: Warrior
Race: Human
Age: 15
Affinity:
• Spear - x1.5
• Dark - 1.6
• (Magic Art) Fire - x2.2
• (Body Art) Whip - x1.1
Stats:
• Str - 11 (+10)
• Vit - 10 (+7)
• Agi - 8 (+8)
• Int - 11 (+2)
Mana: 26/26
Skills:
• [Spear Mastery] - Level 1 (x5) (Max/67) - Power Thrust (10 mana points)
• [Spear Mastery] - Level 2 (x5) (Max/33) - +2 Str, +2 Vit, +1 Agi, +1 Int
• [Spear Mastery] - Level 3 (x5) (??/667) - +2 Str, +2 Vit, +1 Agi
• [Spear Mastery] - Level 4 (x5) (??/3,333)
• [Body Art Mastery] (Spear Mastery) - Level 1 (x5) (Max/50) - +2 Str, +2 Agi
• [Body Art Mastery] (Spear Mastery) - Level 2 (x5) (Max/250) - +2 Vit
• [Body Art Mastery] (Spear Mastery) - Level 3 (x5) (Max/500) - +1 Vit, +1 Int
• [Body Art Mastery] (Spear Mastery) - Level 4 (x5) (??/2,500)
• [Fist Mastery] - Level 1 (x5) (Max/100) - Power Fist (10 mana points)
• [Fist Mastery] - Level 2 (x5) (Max/500)
• [Leg Mastery] - Level 1 (x5) (Max/100) - Power Leg (10 mana points)
• [Leg Mastery] - Level 2 (x5) (??/500)
• [Body Art Mastery] (Leg Mastery) - Level 1 (x5) (Max/50) - +2 Str, +2 Agi
• [Body Art Mastery] (Leg Mastery) - Level 2 (x5) (??/250)
• [Sword Mastery] - Level 1 (x5) (Max/100) - Power Slash (10 mana points)
• [Sword Mastery] - Level 2 (x5) (??/500)
• [Body Art Mastery] (Sword Mastery) - Level 1 (x5) (Max/50) - +2 Str, +2 Agi
• [Body Art Mastery] (Sword Mastery) - Level 2 (x5) (??/250)
Lore:
• City Boy
• Sweet Son
• Adventurer
***
"I see," Vivian said to Felize before turning to Torr and looking straight at him.
"Raise your head and look at me."
He raised his head and met Vivian's eyes.
"Tell me, what's your decision? You want to continue one more night or we stop here?"
Torr turned to Felize and Gaze.
Felize was able to open her [Wind Mastery] after 2 nights.
Meanwhile, him, despite constantly burning himself for days now ever since they've found out about their Affinities, gotten Classes and become adventurers, and also had help from Vivian for 2 nights, he still hasn't opened his [Fire Mastery].
He gritted his teeth for a moment and then relaxed before finally returning his gaze to Vivian.
"Let's stop here, Priestess. I don't want to inconvenience anyone here, especially you. Anyway, I can still learn it as long as I keep burning myself. Thank you for all of your help, especially you, Priestess Vivian," Torr said and bowed his head.
"If that is your decision. Also, you don't need to be thankful. After all, I also got [Light-- you helped me with my experiments."
Vivian almost forgot that the reason she gave them as to why she wanted Felize to use her [Lightning Arrow] on her was so that she could gather data for an experiment she was interested in, it wasn't because she could learn [Lightning Mastery] and possibly [Dark Mastery] in the future as well.
Based on all the information she has gathered so far, her x5 boost which allows her to level up her Masteries as quickly as possible was already quite OP. And if people also found out she can also learn all of the Affinities, then it makes her even more OP.
She wouldn't be surprised if someone would want to assassinate her while she was still growing.
Furthermore, she also concluded that if people also found out that she was from another world, she too wouldn't be surprised if they would want to conduct experiments on her and put her through all sorts of torture to extract information from her.
By my estimate, as long as I keep grinding, within a year I would be so powerful that only a handful of people could stand toe-to-toe with me and I wouldn't have to worry anymore about people knowing my true identity…
I could simply crush them if I feel threatened…!
"Also, once you've finally opened your [Dark Mastery], come to me. I want to conduct experiments again," said Vivian.
Torr raised his head.
"I promise to gather the coins as soon as possible so that I can open my [Dark Mastery] and repay you for your kindness!"
"We promise, Priestess!" said Felize.
"Yes!" said Gaze.
"By the way, how much coins does it usually cost to open a mastery?" asked Vivian.
The kids glanced at each other with a confused look for a moment because the price was common knowledge.
However, they simply dismissed it as nothing but Vivian asking strange questions as usual and was probably just testing their basic and common knowledge about the world.
"The price is 50 gold coins, Priestess," replied Felize.
Vivian's eyes widened.
"50 gold coins?!"
The kids were startled by Vivian's reaction, causing them to flinch and lean back.
Vivian quickly cleared her throat.
"Sorry about that," she said.
"I-It's fine, Priestess... It was our fault for overreacting..." Felize said and forced a smile.
"Y-Yeah... Definitely..." said Torr and Gaze.
"So 50 gold coins, huh?" asked Vivian.
"Yes, Priestess," replied Felize.
"And that's just for one Affinity?"
"Yes, Priestess."
What the fuck…
So I threw 100 gold coins at these kids…?!
Well, I did get [Lightning Mastery] so it's 50…
But still…!
She recalled the time when she had her [Light], [Fire] and [Wind Mastery] opened for free.
So the Temple of Priests is really different…