With hastened steps, I entered the last very specific corridor. Both Loid and Aurora were already sitting behind a door, together with two well-equipped adventurers, keeping watch.

“Heros!” Aurora said, waving her hand.

“Do I need to call him Heros too?” Loid whispered to Aurora.

I smirked. “You can call me that, yes,” I said, stopping in front of them. “You two are ready?” I asked.

“Not really,” Aurora said, giving me a really weak smile.

“You had three days to prepare. Now or never,” I said. I had chills. I was excited. But perhaps the fact that I knew I had at least one element to look forward to, helped.

“I know,” Aurora muttered, sighing.

“Who’s first?” I asked.

“Me!” Loid said quickly, trying to be as cheerful as ever.

“Are you ready?”

“Of course. I was born ready!”

I laughed. “Sure!”

As we got a nod from one of the guards, we entered the room. It was a room with no windows, but there were candles everywhere, spreading light to every corner. In front of us was a stand, holding the spyglass. And even more ahead, on the wall, there was a lot of pictures and texts, explaining all the known elements and how they show themselves inside the spyglass. The idea was that if someone came here alone, they could still search up their powers. Some were harder to figure out, compared to the others.

“Wicked,” Loid said, looking around the room. “So, I just have to place my hand on the orb?” he asked.

I nodded. “That’s it.”

Loid nodded. “Alright!” But he didn’t do anything. He just stared at the ball. I could see how he was afraid to discover the truth. What if he was magicless? What if his element and pool size were near to nothing? What if today means he has to abandon adventuring? I could understand his fears.

“Loid, it’s going to be alright! Even if you’re magicless, you’ll figure it out. You always do!” I put my hand on his shoulder, trying to give him some of my courage. As he nodded and pushed his hand forward, I let him go, looking at the orb.

He finally placed his hand on top of the spyglass. We saw magic gather at the center of the orb. I could already feel Loid muscles relaxing. The worst was behind him already, and the first element became really visible. Small dirt pieces started to gather at the center of the orb, putting together a rather large clump of dirt.

“Holy shit, I’m an earth magician!” Loud almost shouted from excitement. “That’s like-”

But as there was more movement, he shut his mouth and kept staring at the dirt. It separated into two parts. Then both of them separated into yet new pieces. And then all of them separated into yet another pieces of dirt. And it continued until the orb was full of small dirt cubes.

“W-what does that mean?” Loid said, looking at me, and then looking at the list on the wall.

I smirked. “Loid…” He stopped and looked at me. “It’s the ability to copy.” I raised my hand to point at a similar sketch, except a different element near the very bottom of the list.

Loid’s jaw dropped. “Not only I own a rare element, but I can… copy?” He muttered.

“And you also have a rather massive magical pool,” I mentioned. To be fair, I was slightly jealous of him. His magical power was certainly… interesting. And his magical essence pool was also rather large.

“Isn’t that power like… super rare?”

I shook my shoulders. “Honestly, I have no idea. But seeing that it is listed at the bottom with a small text, I would say yes. We can ask from Stanley. But I assume that you probably-”

“Yeah, we can ask him,” Loid responded, nodding.

“Are you sure?”

Loid nodded. “Stanley is my grandfather, so I know him pretty well.”

“Wait, what? But… But weren’t you like surprised by his powers?”

Loid grinned. “That’s why I was surprised. I knew he could do earth, but I never knew that he could do the nature magic. He had always kept it as a secret.”

“That’s interesting,” I said, rubbing my chin. “Either way, it’s time for you to go out. Wait there for five minutes or so. I’ll make sure it’s gone and then invite Aurora when everything’s ready.”

“So long?” Loid asked.

“You inserted a shit-ton of magic in there. Gotta give it time to clear,” I said, smiling.

“Oh, yeah. That’s true.” He gave me a nod and turned around. But as he took a spin, he almost fell. I managed to catch him just in time. “Careful. Apparently, you’re a wizard, not a sorcerer.”

“I do feel quite dizzy,” Loid muttered, now carefully walking towards the exit. “I’ll just go...” He opened the door, leaving the room and closing the door behind. But he couldn’t help but smile.

 

I immediately looked at the orb. By the time he was leaving, all the dirt started to shatter into pieces and disappearing completely.

But the moment the orb was clear, I pushed my hand on it, excited.

A very tiny light began to appear at the very center of the orb, lighting the room even more up. But it wasn’t by a lot. As expected, it felt like I had a very tiny magical pool. But as I was about to give up and accept the fact that I could really do only light magic, I noticed something new. Slight stars began to appear around the globe. I didn’t need to look at the wall to realize what that meant.

“Cosmic,” I mumbled. “Fuck. This is like super rare!” But it made only sense. If my magical pool was that small and the light overpowers all those small dots, no wonder we couldn’t see the cosmic energy around the leaf. And often enough, the main element can be similar to the special element. Cosmic and light - totally fits.

A wide smile appeared on my face. For the first time since forever, I felt something went well, or I was lucky.

But merely half a second later, they all disappeared. And as I turned around and took a step away, I knew yet another thing - I was a sorcerer. Probably even if I was a wizard, my pool still wouldn’t be large. It was really hard to understand my pool size in the first place with the cosmic and light element. But I could assume.

 

I pushed the door opened, looking at Aurora. “Ready?” I asked.

Aurora gave me a nod and stood up. Loid was still as excited as ever, but very exhausted. She entered the room with me. “You took your sweet time,” she whispered.

I smiled. “I’ll be honest, I reminded myself of the feeling when I placed my hand on the orb the very first time,” I lied, giving her a weak smile.

“But according to stories, you never were an adventurer?”

I sighed. “You don’t need to be an adventurer to request checking your elements. But it’s a bit awkward to tell people that, so I didn’t tell anyone about it,” I said, scratching my back.

“So, you’re a sorcerer?” she whispered. “You don’t look exhausted at all.”

That girl… I thought. We both shared a smile.

“So, has something changed?” Aurora asked, stepping in front of the orb.

“No,” I said.

She nodded, looking at the spyglass. “What if I’m magicless?” she asked quietly.

“Then you’re magicless. But that’s not the end of the world, is it?”

She looked at me once more, giving me a weak smile. “Here goes nothing.”

She pushed both of her hands forward, finally landing on top of the glass. But she closed her eyes as a reaction, afraid to look at the result.

There was a moment of pause. “It’s alright,” I whispered. “You can look now.”

I felt intrigued, and happy. Both of them had amazing or interesting powers, and I could experience their discovery.

Aurora opened her eyes, but very slowly. At first, her vision was slightly blurry, but she immediately lowered her hands and looked at the center of the orb.

“I-” she was confused. “I… don’t understand?”

I smirked. “This is a very interesting combination of powers. The very center thing looks like a keyhole, right?”

“Yes? Why it looks like that?”

“I don’t honestly know. I assume it can take a shape that we know of? Either way, it’s on the list, but near the very bottom written in smaller letters.” Like before, I pointed my finger at the text.

“Can open any door, that’s not necessarily a door,” she mumbled, cocking her head slightly. “I… What? Okay.”

“And the second one is two very red eyes,” I said. There were indeed two eyes, each eye at one side of the keyhole.

“I have demon powers?” Aurora immediately deduced.

“Not entirely true,” I muttered. “It’s… an element of fear.”

“I…” Aurora muttered. “I have two special powers, but neither of them is for fighting?”

I nodded. “Well, it really depends how you use them… But you have certainly very unique powers.”

“No main element...”

I nodded. “No main element.”

She half sighed, but also half smirked. “I guess I’ll take it. It’s… interesting for sure.” She then turned around and hugged. “I’m not magicless. Thank god!”

“You’re not magicless,” I whispered, slowly hugging her back, giving her slight comfort. I could hear her sniffing.

“And I’m also sorcerer,” she added, looking up, eyes slightly teary. “I still feel completely fine.”

I grinned. “With your powers, it might be for the best?”

She nodded. “I agree.” She then quickly let me go, feeling slightly embarrassed for hugging me. “Thank you for coming with me.”

I gave her a wide smile. “You are very welcome!”