How did I have an affinity towards all elements? I know Avery said that everyone had some affinity towards all of them, but I didn't just have a slight affinity towards them, I was proficient in all elements!
'I think this due to you awakening at such a young age and your mana pathways not being degraded as much. It could also have to do with your soul that comes from a different world.
Also, it isn't unheard of to be proficient in all elements. There is a legend about a legendary hero who controlled all the elements and founded the empire of humans in this world long ago.' Comforted Avery.
Well, there was no point looking a gift horse in the mouth(Where did that saying come from anyway?), so I quickly moved on to using magic. My caretakers weren't back yet and from what I saw of my parent's studies, they were swamped with a backlog of work from my birth and taking care of me.
I was most proficient with neutral magic so I decided to try that out first.
'Avery give me a description of neutral magic.'
'Neutral magic, as its name suggests, is neutral to the world and is very versatile. Neutral magic is also considered to be one of the most common and easy magics to use out there.
Some applications of Neutral magic are telekinesis, energy manipulation, matter manipulation, and neutral strengthening. I would suggest that you try telekinesis first, as it will probably be the easiest for you to try out.
To use telekinesis, just guide neutral mana out of your body and will it to influence something.'
I did as Avery suggested and pulled mana out of my body while thinking of making it neutral. I could instinctually feel which mana pathways to guide it through and soon I had a sliver of energy to work with outside my body. There was a book on a nearby chair so I guided my mana to it, enveloped it, and willed it to go up. As my mana reached the book the link from my body to it was severed with the distance.
Soon the book started rising slowly as the mana surrounding it got slimmer and slimmer. I had to constantly send out mana to reinforce it and after a few seconds of holding the book in the air, around a foot off the chair, I stopped my magic and dispersed it.
Just that simple maneuver had already dropped my mana by 90 points, consuming 50 energy to initiate, and 5 energy per second after that to continue it. I also got a notification from Avery saying I had learned the telekinesis skill, so I pulled up my stats.
< ------ >
Name: Alexander Bellmont
Age: 3 weeks (23 years)
Race: Human
Affiliations: Heir of the Bellmont Family
Job/Class: None
Core: Dark-Scarlet
Affinities(Highest to Lowest): Neutral, Lightning, Light, Water, Dark, Fire, Air, and Earth
Stats: Strength: 0(0.4), Vitality: 1(0.6), Endurance: 1(0.5), Dexterity: 1(0.6), Agility: 0(0.6), Intelligence: 1(1.3), Focus: 1(0.8), Perception: 2(2.3), Luck: 10
Mana: 720/810
Skills:
Active: Mindspace, Telekinesis(T. 0)
Passive: Mana Sense
< ------ >
Just as Avery said, there was Telekinesis. What was the (T. 0) next to it though? I asked Avery about my question.
'All spells are ranked Tiers 1-10, with Tier 1 spells being the weakest and Tier 10 being the strongest. Tiers 0 spells are rare, immeasurable spells. Most of the time, their strength depends on the user or the amount of mana input.
Telekinesis is one of the most widely known and used Tier 0 spells. Most spells that come from neutral magic are Tier 0.'
These spells were very useful then, I should experiment more with magic. An absurd thought then suddenly came to my head. The book looked around a pound, and I had used 50 out of my 810 mana points to lift it for a second. I, as a normal 3-week-old baby, should weigh around 10 or 11 pounds at most.
That would mean it should take around 550 mana to raise myself up right? I started gathering mana and refilled my core quickly. I could now get close to 100 mana every attempt.
I then repeated the process of bringing out my mana and this time instead of letting the mana sever itself from my body like when it went to the book, I made sure to keep a firm link between myself and the neutral mana I was using.
Then I covered myself with the mana and willed it to push me up. It took a lot more out of me than with the book. I felt my body rise above the bed by a foot and held myself there as I turned facing down. I felt my mana tick down my 50 every second just as I was running on empty, I lowered myself down and sat on the bed.
That whole experiment had left me with just 10 mana left in my core, but I had done it. I had learned to float and fly before I could even walk or crawl.
I could hear some footsteps coming near, so I quickly suppressed my excitement before returning to acting as a baby. My grandparents had come back from whatever they were doing and I could faintly hear them talking to my father and my mother who had also come to my father's study.
'Use neutral mana to strengthen your ears' called out Avery, and I did exactly that while recovering my mana. Another system notification rang out saying I had learned the skill (Neutral Body Strengthening). I could hear what they were talking about now.
"...The beasts are acting up. This might turn bad real soon." called out the voice of my grandfather.
"How bad and how soon?" replied my father.
"Pretty bad son. It might be a couple of high yellows, but it might even be a Lime, and god forbid maybe a low Green."
"Well, shit. That would decimate us, or at least everyone around us. How so soon?"
"2 weeks, maybe a month at best."
"This just turned from bad to worse. Reinforcements will barely arrive on time, let alone powerful ones. How many are there?"
"On the low end 10, on the high, well 50. Either way, casualties will be high."
"And of course, this is happening right after Alex's birth. How were we not warned sooner?"
This time my grandmother answered, "The Beastkin knew about it, but it wasn't predicted to come to us. They only learned of the direction change a week before and had sent someone out to us, but they never arrived. We only learned of it now after someone teleported to us as reinforcements and as a sorry."
"How strong are they?"
"Dull Lime, Earth Mage"
"Good, we might just survive this. Rally up the forces and alert the border guard. We'll intercept it before it even sets one foot in here. And have the Earth Mage help with defenses."
"Alright." After my grandmother said that, two sets of footsteps walked out of the study.
"Can I do anything, John?" asked my mother.
"No, Katherine, you're still recovering and not at full force yet. You should wait here and stay with Alex." Was the reply my father gave.
"While you go out by yourself? Absolutely not! Alex needs his father here as well."
"Come on honey, I'll be needed out there, and besides your parents are with me, and so is the Earth Mage. In case you forgot, I'm one of the few Lime cores this empire has. I'll be able to handle myself."
"Last time I checked, you were at the (Dark-Lime) core mister. You heard what Father said, there could be multiple High-Yellows, or even a High-Lime to Low-Green."
"I doubt it'd be a Green, love. Even if it's a High-Lime, with me, your parents, and the earth mage, I think we'd be able to take it down."
"Just stay safe alright, John? I'm going to Alex."
"Alright Kathy, love you."
"Love you too."
I heard my mother coming into the room and quickly pretended to be asleep, only rousing as my mother made her way towards me. It kind of reminded me of when I was a kid and would pretend to be asleep at night while playing games so my parents wouldn't find out.
The (Neutral Body Strengthening) was also turned off as it consumed 10 mana per second and the conversation had been well over a minute long. It was much harder to cultivate while using magic, and I could only bring in ten mana each attempt as I split my focus. Each attempt also took around 3 seconds to complete.
I was being fed by my mother as I pondered the things I had learned in my conversation. There was a core realm I hadn't heard of, (Lime). It was probably the realm after yellow judging by the context of the conversation.
Something big was also happening. My father said there would be casualties so maybe an attack of some kind? There was also something about beasts said in there, maybe it was like one of those beast hordes that appeared so much in fantasy novels.
In this world, the word beasts was used in a very similar way to fantasy novels. Beasts were animals that had awakened and could use the magic around them to a certain extent. There were also Magic Beasts, who had awakened mana to such a point that instead of just using mana to strengthen themselves, they could use spells and were typically (Yellow) core and above.
Grandfather had also said something about 10-50 something. Was that 10-50 beasts? Hundreds? Thousands? This was something to think about for another time as the milk I drank made me sleepy, and I had been up for a long time now for being barely a month old.
I would think more after some sleep. I closed my eyes and dozed off.
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