Both Mara and Ray were standing a few meters away from each other. Although Ray had offered to give some insights about flame magic that supposedly would increase her strength immediately, she was rightfully suspicious and slightly irritated. She was suspicious of such a sudden need to increase her strength, and that led to her frustration. Did he think that she was too weak to entertain him? To be his match?
Naturally, she had to admit that he was an outstanding mage. His mana control and the way he manipulated his spells were so precise and suited to himself that it made her feel like she was fighting an elder of her family instead of a peer.
"Let's start this by making a question. What are affinities?"
Ray was never a teacher, nor did he ever teach anything in his life, as far as he could remember. However, considering that the reason on why he was now walking around a new era and attending a kid's test had not been forgotten. He was meant to find the New Hero and teach her something important, important enough for it to be mentioned in a prophecy regarding the fate of the world.
While preparing for the entrance exams, a thought would be found drifting in his mind incredibly often. How do I become a teacher?
And that's how Ray found a unique hobby in this new era. To think about things to teach and how to teach them. He had thought about several topics, this one being included, so he was prepared.
"Affinities are a natural alignment of the soul towards a certain element. This means that anything with any connection to the soul, like mana and aura, is influenced by the affinity, instinctually shaping itself into the element the soul is more aligned with. In the case of unique affinities, instead of a specific element, the correct term would be an alignment with a specific phenomenon."
Mara answered in the same way she would respond to one of her instructors, something that surprised her. Why was she being so open and eager to respond all of a sudden?
"Now, another question: what is an element?"
That left her a little stumped. Normally, an instructor would ask, "What are the principal elements in the world?" and she would respond with, "Wind, Water, Earth, Fire, Light, Darkness, Time, and Space." But what elements were? She was never asked or taught about it.
So the best answer that she could give was...
"The world is made out of elements . . . ?"
". . . , Correct, but not the answer I was waiting for. Yes, the world is made out of elements, much like a body is made out of several organs and systems. But what is an element? And the answer is remarkably simple. Elements are conjunctions of concepts."
Conjunctions of concepts?
She never heard of such a thing.
"Elements are basically several concepts brought together to form a physical form by balancing the importance of each concept while bringing them together."
Ray held out his hand and conjured a simple flame in it, making it dance freely with the wind.
"Take the Fire element, for example. The concepts that bring this element to existence are Heat, Light, Destruction and Form. Using these concepts at different ratios might end up as a different element, but with the right ratios you get Fire."
Mara's eyes widened. The idea of concepts engraved in her mind mixing itself with her own knowledge of Magic Theory. Nothing she had learned beforehand could disprove the theory, or rather, the facts that Ray was laying in front of her.
With just that knowledge in, she could now think of several different ways to visualize spells. Knowing the concepts that made up part of the fire element made her feel a lot closer to the element itself, it wasn't just a feeling or delusion, this feeling was supernatural and made her feel actually stronger.
"Don't get too excited, I'm not finished."
"What?"
There was more?!
She was not complaining, she was quite eager to hear it, she just found it quite surprising to know that there was more of such miracle knowledge.
"Let's shift the topic a little to better understand the next part of the lesson. At the dawn of time, when all the races were being created, they all had an element of origin. Demons were born from Darkness, Angels from Light, Fairies from Wind, Sea-People from Water, Dragons from Fire, and so on."
Mara had heard of this. There were several theories about the start of the world. Using legends and accounts of the Age of Heroes and the Age of Monsters, the people from this era were struggling to figure it out, however, there seemed to be a theory that was generally accepted by the public ever since before the Age of Heroes. These beliefs dated the Age of Demons and maybe even before!
"And yet there was always a mystery. Where did humans come from?"
And there was the flaw of the theory and the reason why the scientific organizations refused to believe it and the reason why they were in constant confrontation with other organizations like the Church and even governments. This Theory/Legend did not explain the origin of humanity, rather it gave the humans a huge air of mystery.
The legend/theory itself stated that there was no explanation for the origin of humanity, there were no explanations why humans were the way they were or where they came from. According to it, they just appeared one day to the surprise of the numerous races that were already living in the world for thousands of years.
"There is no answer for that, I'm afraid. But there was always a good question surrounding them. What are humans capable of? You see, most races have a unique ability of their own. Angels could generate Divine Power by themselves, Demons could do the same with Demonic Power, Elves could form contracts with Fairies and Dragons had Dragon Hearts. But the humans didn't have anything like that."
Mara listened attentivelly, right now she couldn't even question Ray how he knew such things, she was just so engrossed in it and interested that she almost forgot they were supposed to be fighting.
"Most believe that humans simply are like that, and they don't have a special ability. But they are wrong. Because the ability that humans have is something that can be misinterpreted to be just another facade of elements. And that's the ability to add concepts to already existing elements through culture."
Mara was a little confused now. That was until she started thinking. Although the concepts surrounding flame magic were heat, light, destruction and shape, how could some of the elders of her family heal with their flames? You could stop bleeding with heat, but you couldn't close a wound or regenerate an eye with destruction, could you?
But adding concepts to already existing elements through culture? There were certain cultures that represented fire in not just a way to destroy. Some cultures saw fire as something purifying, a sign of life and rebirth.
Her mind went to the Fire Baptism. A ritual from the Flamma family where a newborn baby is baptized by flames that supposedly purify any bad omen that could have been placed on the child.
Her mind could not comprehend just how many concepts could be added due to the different ways cultures view fire. Some saw it as a sign of War, or Love, or Bravery or even Wrath and Revolt.
"It seems that you understood what I was getting at. Indeed, during humanity's more than a thousand years of history and evolution, several cultures were created and destroyed, however, every single one added concepts to the elements, some of the other races didn't even notice this, believing this to be just hidden facets of the elements they had been wielding all their lifes."
However, that had not been the case when even humans had been in the dark when it came to their own ability, how could other races easily notice it? In the end, it took several hundred years, several attentive heads, and several researchers for such knowledge to become common sense among the big figures of the continent.
That was how Ray had come across this information. By comparing his own magical arts with the magecraft of other powerful figures, he was able to notice the true power of humanity.
Culture.
With it, several humans could think and have the same ideals across time and space, without meeting.
Perhaps that was the reason they were now everywhere after his sealing.
"After explaining this, I will show the fascinating part."
The flames he had conjured before started darkening and becoming more erratic. If Mara concentrated, she would notice the temperature of the flames falling.
"All these concepts can be manipulated. When you prepare a spell, you feed a certain part of your mana that you had channeled to the concepts of the element. If you focus on certain concepts, you can bring their power to another level. Like what I am doing now, I'm channeling the mana that had originally gone to the concepts of light, heat, and shape towards the concept of destruction. These flames now barely have form, they barely produce light, and they just have a little bit of warmth. However, they are more destructive than ever, going from small-scale destruction to higher-scale destruction towards true destruction. Unfortunately, it's impossible to completely drain one of the original concepts of an element of mana, otherwise the spell dissipates."
Ray then dispelled the flames, letting their destructive remnants float in the air and falling to the stony ground.
"Now, Mara Flamma. Show me how much this lesson gave you."
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With this, I have mostly solidified this novel's power system. Leave your thoughts in the comments.