Chapter 7
Grey had freshened up, took his breakfast and hurriedly left the house for the library in hope of getting a scroll which he could use in unlocking any one of his affinities.
He was on the street with his hands in his pants pockets and his face down while walking.
'I wonder what affinity I will unlock first. Maybe the lightning attribute would be cool since I like the way it works and it increases a person's speed and it is quite rare. Or I will unlock the fire attribute like that first mage.'
'Funny thing is that these attributes are quite rare. If I were to unlock them, I would love to see everyone's face that looked down on me.' Grey smiled at this.
'I haven't told mom yet because I want it to be a special surprise to her when she eventually finds out.'
Finally after a few minutes of walking, Grey was now in front of the library and with a sigh, he pushed it open and walked in confidently than ever before.
He approached the shelves, and went through all the books he wanted to look at. He kept skimming past the books one by one until his eyes caught two books that fancied him.
He quickly pulled them out and went to take a seat and began checking the books.
'I don't have money to rent the books for some days so I will just have to come here and look at the books in hope of learning one or two things.' He thought as he opened a book that had the title.
*Introduction to the use of Fire magic*
Grey began skimming through the book carefully while memorizing each and every thing written in it quickly. He read and read everything written there over and over again.
The book had the basics of fire magic, how to unlock the affinity, the conditions and also the use of fire magic and how to understand it.
Grey read everything until it became a muscle memory to him.
"Okay, time for the spell book of this magic." He said as he picked the second book to read.
The reason Grey had picked the fire magic book was because when he picked the lightning book and was skimming through it, the criterias of unlocking it was quite rare and dangerous and he wasn't ready for that.
While the criteria for the fire magic was much easier than lightning and still dangerous at the same time but Grey was ready to take risks at this point.
Grey read all the basic spells he could and how to perform them easily. He learned both the words a person would utter to activate them and also the hand formations a person would perform.
Grey didn't know that he had a special talent of remembering whatever he read or heard easily without stress and it was what he revealed when he cultivated his mana core all on his own.
And finally, after a few hours of reading and reading, Grey had finally known all the basic fire spells he could and he was more than excited to try it but that would have to wait till the next day as it was quite late.
Exiting the library, Grey was more happy than usual unknown to him that his happiness would soon turn to annoyance.
"Hey weakling!" A voice was heard shouting at Grey.
He turned around with his eyes twitching as he had recognized the voice and who it belonged to.
"Clark!" Grey muttered in anger as he knew what would happen next.
"What are you doing at the library?" Clark asked.
"Huh?" Grey raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Isn't the library for everyone?"
"Yes it is_it is, but it's for mages not weaklings like you." Clark laughed.
Grey just sighed and muttered under his breath. "If only you knew."
"What's that? Are you cursing me under your breath?" Clark asked furiously.
Clark's shout had gathered the attention of adults and when they came over, saw Grey, they left again as they already knew what was going on and they didn't feel like intervening.
If the people being bullied, couldn't stand up for themselves, why should they stand up for them. This was how the world worked now and nothing could change it.
"Why should I curse you under my breath? When you are already cursed!" Grey chuckled in excitement.
Clark was so angry that a vein was seen popping up on his head as if it would pop.
'I'm gonna teach you not to mess with me. The new wind spell that took me months to learn, would finally be tested on you.' Clark thought as he raised his hands up.
Clark quickly raised his dominant hand hand out, his palm facing downwards and then he quickly flicked his wrist while at the same time shouting out words.
"Aerius!" Clark shouted after flicking his wrist towards Grey who was a few feet away from him.
Immediately a burst of transparent swirling air erupted from Clark's hand, accompanied by a loud whooshing sound. And it erupted out towards Grey at a decent speed and then it crashed into him knocking him back a few feet.
Grey was seen on the floor in pain as the strike hit him then he heard footsteps heading towards him.
"You see the difference between us, you can never bridge it and I will advice you to keep quiet when next I'm talking." Clark said and was about walking off.
"Hey Clark!" Grey called out and Clark stopped walking while slowly turning around.
Then Grey smiled and raised his hands up almost like how Clark did then he pointed his dominant hand while making it face downward. Seeing Grey perform the hand signs, Clark was feeling scared as his heart thumped loudly.
'Is he going to perform the Aerius strike? But that took me months to learn with many try and failure. No, he doesn't even have a mana core.' Clark thought and then he saw Grey put his hands close to each other.
And then he quickly put his hands together and bowed down.
"Thank you for teaching me this valuable lesson and I promise not to forget it."
"What!!?!!!" Clark exclaimed then he scoffed.
"As expected from a weakling like you." Clark said as he walked off.
As Clark stormed away, the street grew quiet. Grey rubbed his aching chest, wincing as he leaned against the wall.
But then, a faint warmth pulsed from deep within his core. It wasn't painful, but it was insistent—a steady rhythm, like the beat of a distant drum.
Grey's eyes widened. He focused inward, and for the first time, he felt it clearly: mana, swirling and gathering in his chest like a simmering flame waiting to ignite.
A slow smile crept across his face.
"Tomorrow,everything changes." He thought.