Damien felt the stares and sneers from everyone behind him. They all wanted to see his downfall, especially Erik who sat in the back. Everyone acknowledged his sword skill but they refused to believe he had any potential in magic.

“Alright kid, get up here onto the center stage.”

Damien stood up from his seat and walked where he was directed to. He faced the class where he could see the face of every student and the feelings they wore on their face. He was just as curious as the rest of them and wondered if he had any potential or not. If he didn’t, he would put his focus elsewhere where he would yield better results.

Wexley brought out a clear sphere that fit into the palm of his hands.

“This is a primal stone, it will detect the Dao element you have most affinity with. The brighter the glow the higher potential you have. But if you have no affinity it will just stay as it is, so don’t be stunned by that outcome either.”

Wexley handed over the primal stone to Damien so he could demonstrate the results to everyone present. Damien, who never had anything to do with magic except witnessing it, was not sure what to do with the primal stone he was holding. His face contorted with confusion as he tried to understand what he needed to do. Wexley noticed his confusion and sneered at him.

“Have you any experience with anything like this?”

“No Professor Cloudshade, I don’t know anything about magic as a matter of fact.”

Without trying to hold in his laughter Wexley pompously explained it to him.

“Focus your inner energy, which we call Mana, and guide it along your meridians towards your hands. This is common knowledge, kid.”

Damien listened to his instruction even though it came off as condescending. He focused his attention with his breathing technique and felt an energy flowing through his meridians that coalesced back into the center of his body. At the center he noticed a pure white energy that was flowing like a flame. Surprised, he asked professor Cloudshade about it.

“Professor Cloudshade, is there supposed to be a shaped energy within you?”

“Yes, everyone has something that has to do with their affinities. Are you saying you do see something, kid?”

Wexley was a bit surprised, but still had little faith in his abilities. Damien focused his mana and tried guiding it towards his hand. He was able to witness the mana flowing in his meridians, building up into his hand. The mana inside his body was finally agitated awake for the first time. It began to flow through his body like a vortex causing even his eyes to glow brightly under his glasses. 

Once the white energy built up enough it was sucked into the primal stone. The primal stone was like a black hole, taking almost all his mana out of his body. With his eyes shut he didn’t get to witness the shock going through the class. Inside the primal stone, appeared a white flame enveloping the entire space inside it. 

It appeared like it would escape its confinement and flow towards the outside world. It kept getting brighter and bigger until the stone cracked. Instantly the primal stone turned to dust leaving Wexley too stunned to even react. Damien opened his eyes and noticed that the stone was now a pile of sparkling dust on his hand and the floor around him. Looking around the class for help he found classmates standing from their seats and his professor frozen. He decided to go up to Wexley and ask him about what just happened.

“Professor Cloudshade… what were the results?”

Slowly Wexley remembered his role as a professor and explained what occurred without a trace of his previous arrogance.

“You have amazing... no perfect affinity for fire. It’s on par or even greater than what a high ranked phoenix would have. For some reason it was a white flame which is very odd. I haven’t witnessed or read in records anything about a white flame or of a human attaining a truly perfect affinity. Are you actually a human, Damien?”

Damien received alarming information that he could not handle at the moment. 

“I am certainly human… What are you trying to say, Professor Cloudshade?”

“Kid, I’m saying that you are actually ‘special’. You were born for the fire element, or maybe you are made of it. And you said you knew nothing about magic at all?”

“That’s correct Professor Cloudshade, this is all news to me too…”

Damien appeared to have taken the results in stride at this point, but inside he was overjoyed to know that he had talent. All he had to do now was learn about magic and practice it. He had his eyes set on the world and now he was given the potential to explore it to his heart’s content.

“In all my 839 years of life, you are the first of this kind I’ve seen… I’ve seen plenty of talented kids let it get to their heads and end up becoming nothing. The question is what will you become, kid?”

Damien said nothing and let the statement seep in his being. He was so overjoyed that he was already thinking he had it easy from here on out. Then he thought of the reality of it all.

There are many people out in the world that are thousands of times stronger than him, and many more talented that have so much more years of training. If he had this much potential flowing through him, then surely there were beings out there that were the same. Wexley told him that a high ranked phoenix was this talented in fire and those creatures are rivaled by dragons, golden crows, nine-tailed foxes, and many more that roam this world. 

That’s not to mention the demon race who are born nearly perfect and all the other advantages the other races bear. 

‘Like Professor Cloudshade said this was something he hasn’t seen or read of a ‘human’ achieving.’

After having his quick moment of realization he calmed his spirits. He let the joy seep out from his body and ironed his will once again. He looked straight into Wexley’s eyes and replied to his question.

“Strong. Undeniably strong. How do I begin practicing, Professor Cloudshade?”

To all of the class's surprise, Wexley smiled at Damien’s response.

“To be undeniably strong? Like I’ve said before I have seen many like you fall short from that path. You already have a late start but you can close that gap here.”

Damien thought about what he needed to do to catch up so he took a deep bow toward Wexley.

“Professor Cloudshade, would you be willing to tutor me personally?”

Damien continued to hold his bow so he was not able to notice Wexley’s smile contort wickedly for an instant. No one in the class was able to see that slight change except Yuki. Her eyes squinted sharply as she kept her thoughts to herself for now.

Wexley pondered for a moment keeping Damien in his bowed posture.

“Starting today you can come find me here after your classes are over. You can come see me two times a week.”

Damien lifted his posture back with clenched fists at his sides. He wanted to learn as much as he could to be able to catch up to everyone else. Damien proceeded to walk back to his seat with all eyes on him. Once he sat in between Cal and Yuki, Wexley cleared his throat to bring the attention back to him. He walked back to his podium where he began to speak.

“Today we will focus on the basics. I’ll give a quick review of the two schools of thoughts in magic. I’m sure most of you already know this, but this can just be a reminder.”

Once he finished his announcement he noticed many of his students eyeing Damien with disgruntled looks. They were disgruntled due to having to hear something they already knew, but now Damien was also surprisingly earning his favoritism. They did not dare to voice any complaints because they knew what kind of professor Wexley is and he would not tolerate a complaint. With a resounding voice Wexley spoke out once again.

“There are two schools of thought regarding magic. One is about using the knowledge and comprehension of our predecessors with Rune Magic. The other path is to comprehend the mysteries of the elements ourselves and create knowledge we call our own. This is what we call Dao Magic. I shall begin on Rune Magic. Rune Magic is utilized by drawing runes that contain the comprehension of a certain spell. To draw a rune you must focus your mana into your fingertip and draw it precisely and accurately. This will cost you some of your mana in exchange for the activation of the rune spell. I’ll demonstrate this for you.”

Suddenly Wexley’s right fingertip was glowing blue as he drew a rune in the air. The rune became suspended in space and flashed a blue light. In the next moment an icicle appeared where the rune was. To the fascination of only Damien, Wexley pointed out with his finger and the icicle began to rotate and shoot out towards the open end of the classroom. The icicle crashed loudly into a barrier which protected the walls.

“I just activated an Earth Realm Icicle Rune. The idea is that I borrowed the comprehension of the being who created this Rune Spell. All I need is enough mana and the basic gist of knowledge into the element to activate it. You can easily advance in this path as long as you have enough mana to activate the rune. As the comprehension delves deeper and into higher level spells the consumption becomes immense. To be able to use something you don’t actually comprehend is offset by the staggering mana cost. The pitfall of this path is the bottleneck you will reach in the higher stages. You will only be able to follow a paved path that has an end, and you will never truly reach the pinnacle. Not to mention that high level Heaven Realm Runes are legacies only inherited by ancient families who had them for generations. For example the Ashea Family is graced by Sirius’ Grimiore containing runes she created for the prosperity of her clan. Any questions?”

Damien absorbed all this new information and thought how amazing it is to know Rune Spells. He can quickly grow using this path but he did worry about the bottlenecks it had. He thought for a second and raised his hand. Wexley gestured for him to speak.

“Does that mean I could use Rune Spells to comprehend the knowledge within and turn it into my own Dao Magic?”

Wexley anticipated a question like this and quickly replied.

“Yes, that is a possibility. Rune Spells originally come from Dao Magic. The difficulty comes in deciphering the rune itself. The creator makes it incredibly difficult to even begin understanding the rune’s knowledge. But let’s just say that you are able to accomplish that. Their comprehension might just be gibberish to you, leading you down a path you were not supposed to go. Everyone understands the Dao differently so it would not be wise to use others as a benchmark. Are you following along?”

Damien nodded his head keeping his mind focused for the rest of the lecture.

“Very well. Now let’s get into Dao Magic. This is all about your ability to comprehend the mysteries of the world. The elements are all around us, if you focus carefully you can feel them moving about in every direction. It is about how you understand the concepts of these elements and bring them to life with your comprehension. You will find a path in there that leads to multiple and back to one. The parts of nature that attune to your understanding will come under your guidance following what they were meant to do. Once you achieve success in this field you will not need runes to activate a spell, you just need a thought of your intentions and it will come to life.”

Wexley then went on to put his hands together like in a prayer. He slowly opened them up and electricity flowed in between the space he created. Eventually his whole body was crackling with blue electricity, heightening his senses and speed. After a moment of his demonstration he brought his hand back together and the electricity vanished.

“As you can see I don’t not need a Rune Spell to activate the element.”

When Wexley looked up he saw that most of his students were interested in his display. Everyone respects and envies the strong, so he grabbed their full attention. Satisfied with himself he was going to move onto the next portion of class until he saw Damien’s hand raised again. He then gestured for him to speak again.

“Professor Cloudshade, does that mean I’ll be able to understand the Dao of Fire easier?”

“Your fire affinity will let you connect with the Dao of Fire. You will be able to hear it whisper in your meditations. Now that I’ve explained the basics to you I will move onto the next portion of class.”

The energy of the whole class shifted and his classmates stood up walking towards the open field.

“Cal, what’s the next portion?”

Slamming his fist into his open palm Cal forgot to really explain anything about this class.

“It’s time for duel practice.”