Walking through the door Ashur appeared outside and what greeted him was a pubescent boy, barely sparing Ashur a look he simply tossed a small plate at him, before hinting at Ashur to follow him, after which he started walking away from the application building.

Catching the plate, Ashur could observe that it seemed to simply be made out of wood with a glass bead at the top that turned grey when he touched the plate, followed by words that included his name, major and the mark of the Academy, a simple broad river with small trees around it.

Following the boy on a road that looked rarely walked upon they eventually arrived at a shabby three stories high building. After simply pointing at it the boy turned around and walked away.

Left with no other choice Ashur entered it.

Walking inside, a plump woman standing behind a counter greeted his sight. The building being even shabbier on the inside.

This place is barely fit for pigs to live in, do I really have to stay here!? Ashur thought at the sight of this place.

“Yes, this is the place all magic students below the age of twelve has to stay before they have been truly accepted to the Academy and can move out of the “pigsty”.” The plump woman responded to him sarcastically.

Ashur looked fearfully at the woman, had another mind reader appeared? Not knowing what to do, his face still covered by the robe the woman could not make out his face. But she noticed his hesitation and chuckled a bit.

“Don’t worry, I wont bite. Come here and show me your plate so I know where to put you.”

Steeling himself and trying not to think he walked forward and showed his plate after which he was given a key to the third floor. Turning around and finding the stairs he made his way up.

Thinking on how he should handle the mind reader, he reached the second floor turned around to walk towards the next set of stairs, when something bumped into him and he fell backwards. A shrill voice screamed out and two bumps could be heard as he and whatever walked into him both fell on the floor.

“Oww, oww… Watch where you’re going! YOU! You’re that kid that made fun of me earlier!” The thing that had bumped into him spoke and as he looked up he could see it was that little girl he had talked with before while waiting in line.

“Why aren’t you saying anything? Cat’s got your tongue eh? What’s the whole point of covering yourself up entirely anyways! You ugly or something!” Words just kept pouring out of the girl’s mouth as she angrily stared at Ashur.

Not knowing what part to respond to in all of that he finally snapped at the last words and tore of the top of his robe revealing his face.

“Yeah, I’m ugly, what’s that got to do with you!?”

“You!” Only uttering a single you after which the girl became unable to speak only opening and closing her mouth like a fish on land and pointing at him. All she could do was think. If your ugly then what is everyone else? Worms crawling in mud?

Standing up, Ashur gently dusted of his robe before continuing to walk up the stairs.

“Wait!” A shrill scream came from behind.

“What do you want?” He said without turning his head.

“My names Miranda Eastwood, what’s your name?” The girl asked shyly.

“I’m Ashur…. Goodbye.” Continuing his trek up the stairs, he finally reached his room.

The room was small holding only a small bed, a big wardrobe and a reading table. The table held some fruits and with the bed being already made, since there was nothing better to do Ashur decided that it would probably be best to just sleep.  

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“Today we will talk about magic and the different elements, since after the first three months you spend here you will be divided into either combat, manufacturing or support classes. Now the four major elements are fire, wind, earth and water. The chosen colours representing these are red, green, brown and blue. The first two are mainly used for combat while the two others are mainly used in manufacturing or support classes.” Said Erik the teacher assigned to the newly arrived magic students.

 “They are also the most common elements to become the chosen element of an astral soul. Now nothing prevents you from learning or using the other elements, but outside of the colour you felt connected too during the door test. The usage of other elements will be weaker, more draining and harder to learn. Therefore, it is recommended that you major in your chosen element and then minor in one or two other elements. Now are there any more questions… Yes, what are you wondering about?” Erik asked Ashur who held his hand raised high.

“Well I choose the grey colour but what element is that associated with?” Ashur asked.

Everyone stared at him because all of them including the teacher had taken for granted that everyone knew what the colours represented before coming here, especially since most of them had already gotten a basic understanding of magic before.

“Ehum, well, you see grey represent metal. I see you’re the student that chose the grey door correct? The metal element you see is primarily a manufacturing element and is highly sought after by the kingdom, since a skilled metal magician could supply a whole army with arms. So, after your schooling is done you’d never have to worry about getting a job!” Erik told Ashur and especially explained the last part highlighting that Ashur was now pretty much set for life.

Didn’t that mean that I’ll be a simple production belt for the rest of my life!? I can’t let that happen! Ashur was not amused at his future life prospect.

While being annoyed at what life had given him, envious gazes focused on him and they burned with more envy after the teacher continued.

“Normally only one in a thousand people will be born with the talent, and among them only one in ten will have talent strong enough to learn magic. Among them eight out of ten people will most often have one of the four major elements as their main element. The last two people will usually then be divided amongst the other four minor elements light, darkness, space and time. Now they are called major and minor elements mostly if the majority of people are aligned to said element or not. However within the four major elements there are also branches that can be called minor elements on their own.”

“However very few people are aligned to these branch elements. Among those eight people that has the major element barely one in a hundred will have this. There is however no gain without a loss, a person who gains this will mostly be unable to use the element this speciality is associated with except for the part that has to do with their speciality. However, their control, power and mana use will be hundreds sometimes even thousands of times better then everyone else when it comes to said part. Controlling their element will be more akin to an instinct then usage or magic.”

“Fire has magma and heat, water is ice and cold. While heat and cold sounds like nothing special and the magician will almost lose control of most of their magic the heat and cold the respective elements can exhibit, is able to melt or freeze almost anything. Wind’s two specialities are lightning and storm. Lastly earth has metal and flora. So, in short while everyone else in this class is a one in ten thousand people, you are a one found in eight hundred thousands, kind of person. Now do you realize why I said you wouldn’t have difficulties finding a job? In fact I do believe that in the whole of our kingdom there is only four other people that is known to have the metal speciality, they are all directly employed by the crown. Metal also holds a special spot above all other elements or speciality when it comes to their importance to a kingdom, though flora is a close second.” Erik finished his long explanation with envy in his voice.

Why wouldn’t he or everyone else not feel envy? To the crown the importance of a metal shaper, as many called them, was almost important enough to marry of a princess to them simply to bind them down to the crown.

Grinding of teethes could be heard from all around while Ashur lamented over his future as a production belt.

Later on while sitting at the dining room and waiting for his dinner to arrive, Ashur held the knife meant for his meal and watched it intently. He could feel a strange connection with it, it was unexplainable but he just knew that the knife had been made with poor craftsmanship and that many impurities had been left inside of it. Focusing on it, the knife gave of a feeling of slowly starting to become a part of his body.

The knife felt unclean…dirty, it was itchy, he wasn’t holding a knife anymore but a wriggling mass of filth that tried to bore its way into his hand and become a part of him. He had to get away before it was too late, the itching became unbearable and… a loud slam brought Ashur back to reality, still sitting at the table with the dining knife in his hand. The waiter had tripped and dropped a plate full of steaming hot food and the noise had brought Ashur back.

Surprised at what had happened he tried to gather his thoughts.

Perhaps being in that sword for too long has affected me on a deeper level then I thought. Did my unconsciousness try to make me become a sword again, but I was appalled at the metal I was about to inhabit?

Thinking about it he could feel some truth in it. He had been a sword for to long. The feeling of a fleshy body confused him.

Looking at the knife now reduced to barely a third of it's previous size he simply sighed before dropping it to pick up a new knife. As the knife touched the wooden floor it easily pierced through it creating a thin hole before dissapearing into the darkness.

A plate filled with steamed vegetables and a small piece of over cooked meat was given to him. Looking up he noticed that the one giving the plate was Gwen.

“Sorry for not being there to guide you Ashur, I had to go report to the higher ups and it took longer than I expected.” Gwen said sounding genuinely sorry for leaving him alone.

“It’s not a problem, not like you need to hold my hand all the time.” Ashur said proudly, when had he ever needed a hand.

“Perhaps... perhaps I don’t, but I’ll always be there for you.” She sounded a bit down as she responded. “By the way what door did you chose?”

“Haha, it was a grey one, they said I am really special and you should have seen how everyone started at me!” Being envious of him was simply a sign of him being superior. Nothing could make him happier.

“Grey!? You’re the one who choose the grey door today that everyone has been talking about… that’s… that’s wonderful, you’ve become really popular already.” Yelling out grey her talking became lower as she continued on until the last few words were inaudible.

Ashur turned out to have the metal element!!! I shouldn’t have brought him here, this turned out to become a real crisis. There will be a ton of marriage proposals for him…and once they find out how he looks and that he has no family. People will come and start forcing the Academy to make marriage arrangements for him! This will not do!

While Ashur was busy with his food, Gwen started to plan and decide Ashur’s future with him being none the wiser.