Chapter 8: A Brief Introduction

Both Teo and Windle were quite familiar with this figure. They recognized her from their previous class. It was precisely Dina.

"Quite a big class we have today" her gaze swept through the class. She counted the number of students that were present and made sure it matched up with the number of students on the list.

Her eyes widen briefly when she recognize Windle and Teo from her previous class as well.

"I am instructor Dina, I will be in charge of teaching you how to use your elements for the next year or so"

Suddenly, as she smiled, a strong wind moved across the area and encircled her. Dina's figure rose up from the ground and levitated. It as if she was standing in midair, a few feet off the ground.

After a while, she finally descended back down

Seeing her display her power, the students were filled with excitement and awe. Soon they would learn how to do something similar.

Off to the distance, several prying eyes were watching her class. Although other people besides the assigned students were not allowed to enter this area while the class was in session, many were currently monitoring the class from afar.

"Now then, before we begin the lecture. I want everyone to introduce yourselves. State your name, elementalist type, as well as the elemental attributes you have"

Dina wanted to connect each name with their faces.

She pointed to a student

"Lets start with you"

The student stood up and spoke

"My name is Grifford Driftwood, a generalists. My elements are fire, earth, water, dark and metal"

The students introduced themselves one by one, until it reached to the group of haughty kids from before.

The quiet blacked haired youth within the group was first to speak.

"Zachery Rizon, Triad. Wind, Light and Lightning"

'So this must be the one' Dina thought

Before attending this class, the headmaster gave Dina instructions to take good care of the Triad within her class, but Dina was impartial, although she agreed, she had no plans of giving anyone in her class any special treatment.

The blonde haired young man spoke next.

"Kristofer Elmsfall. Dualist. My elements are Wind and Fire"

"Erin Elmsfall, Dualist too. Water and Lightning"

"Ash Moran, Dualist as well. Dark and Wind"

....

Introductions went by until it was Windle's turn

"Hello everyone, my name is Windle Char. I'm a specialist with Fire attribute"

Windle's introduction was very friendly compared to others.

Then Teo stood up after Windle.

"Teo Char, pure generalist"

He did not bother to say the other elements because being a pure generalist implied that he has all the other elements.

When everyone heard this, they were in shocked, even the haughty kids were somewhat surprised and a trace of dissatisfaction could be seen in their eyes. They thought of themselves as the elite of the elite in this class, and although a pure generalists is a non-combatant status, the major powers of the empire would always scramble to invite them

Dina was also surprised 'A pure generalists, I didn't think that I would meet one so quickly' she thought

....

The introductions continued until all the 27 students had introduced themselves.

Dina quickly remembered everyone's names and continued on with her lecture

"All of you should already know that there are some people are born with a special affinity with elements. Many have speculated that these are blessings from heavens, but no one really knows where it came from.

Despite the face that we do not know where it came from, we have learned how to utilize them"

Suddenly from her bag, 10 small stones flew up and floated around Dina. The stone sparkled in different colors. A black, white, brown, red, blue, green, yellow, cyan, silver and a transparent stone.

"The are elemental stones, I am sure that the academy gave you a respective stone for each of your elements when you enrolled. You all will need to use these stones as a key to learn how to use the power of the elements.

These stones are also called amirite stones. These special stone are able to absorb elemental energy. If the amirite stone absorbs more than one type of elemental energy, after a certain period of time, the stronger energy within the stone will push out the weaker ones; what we are left with is an elemental stone with only one type of elemental energy."

Everyone in class were listening intently, as if they were afraid to miss out on a single word.

"These elemental stones have a specific property. While they have a specific elemental energy within them, they can also generate elemental energy around them. These elemental energy is exactly what you will need to be able to sense the element's pulse.

The whole process of being able to control elemental energy are divided into 4 stages.

In order, they are the sensing, gathering, movement, and manipulating stages.

The sensing stage is to train your sensitivity to sense your specific elements. One cannot control what they don't understand. By training your senses, you will be able to feel and understand your elements. Upon basic mastery of this stage, you should be able to see your elements as clear as day. You can even smell, touch, taste or even hear your elements if you completely master to the peak level.

The better the mastery, the better you can understand the attributes and behaviors of your elements. This is the stage where all production elementalists should get to in order to be successful"

As she said this, her gaze fell on Grifford and then on Teo

"But of course, the more elements you have the more time it will take to master each one.

Continue on, the gathering stage will be learning how to proficiently gather elemental energies. You will have to use your body's energy, or 'Qi' to accomplish this. By using your Qi to excite the elemental attributes in your body, your Qi will act similar to that of an elemental stone. I will go into the specifics once most of you get to this stage.

The movement stage is similar to the gathering stage, but it involves controlling your Qi to be projected outside your body. Instead of gathering the elemental energy into your body, they will be gathered outside of it.

Once you have gathered enough energy, you can move on to the manipulation stage. This stage is where you manipulate the energy you gather in order to perform a certain task. This stage is quite difficult to master since there are many ways of manipulating your element. Some even keep their manipulation techniques a secret, so this stage will be learned mostly on your own. I will just teach you the well known ways of manipulating specific energies but you will have to rely on yourself to discover your own techniques"

As she spoke, she saw many of her students with questions on their faces, but were too afraid to ask it openly.

She predicted what questions they might have had and continued

"Elemental energy come from the world Qi. The world Qi is the energy all around us so there is no danger of running out of a specific elemental energy.

The world energy is like a mixture of many different colored paints. When we gather elemental energy, a specific colored of paint is extracted from this mixture, but unlike a simple mixture of paint, the world Qi is also like the sea, even if you extract a large amount of elemental energy from a single place, it would easily be filled up with the endless amount of world Qi surrounding it."

After the brief introduction on the 4 stages, she continued discussing the process of the Sensing stage into much more detail.

Before the class ended she said "From tomorrow until you have entered the sensing stage, you will need to bring your elemental stones to class. Don't forget!"

After the class ended, Dina returned to the central office.

She went through a cabinet and looked up the information of her students from the previous class.

After flipping through the pages, her face froze. She discovered something very odd within the information.

She had a disappointed look on her face.

"How can this be? I thought he would be an outstanding talent but his growth rate is so low!" Dina said to herself.

She finally understood why the academy did not become too crazy about the prospect of a pure generalist. Although the academy was required to keep such matters secret, it would have been only a matter of time before other major sects within the empire would find about such news.

But after a month, it was still very calm within the academy.

A figure behind her overheard her and looked over her shoulders. The figure saw the page she was looking at and the figure quietly walked away

…..

After the class ended, many of the students started to leave.

Zachery and his group glimpsed towards Teo.

They were unsatisfied and a hint of envy and anger were on their faces. They were suppose to be the elites among elites; the center of everyone's attention, but in the end, someone stole the limelight.

Soon, they left the area as well.

After a while, Teo and Windle also left.

As they exit from the area, they saw several senior students standing there as if they were waiting for someone. Many of the other students were surrounded by these seniors.

These seniors were from other factions within the academy.

The majority of them were in their sixth or seventh year, and were inviting the newly enrolled elementalists into their factions.

They could tell which ones were already in a faction thanks to the badges on their shoulders, so they easily targeted the students who did not join one but some recruiters went as far as try to poach students who had already joined a weaker faction.

As for Zachery and his group, they quickly passed through the crowd. It was because all of them were members of the Rizon faction. Although the others were not of Rizon blood, they had some relation with the Rizon family before entering the academy.

The seniors fought for the remaining students but when Teo's figure appeared before them, they dropped almost everything and headed straight towards him.

These recruiters watched the class from afar and knew that Teo was a pure generalist. Teo became the most important student that hey had to recruit. If they could create a relationship with Teo, it would bring many benefits to them in the future.

“Hello, I would like to introduced myself I am from the Blackshield faction, I would like you to join our faction”

“Would you like to join my Blue River association?”

Many seniors started speaking at the same time and Teo easily became overwhelmed.

They also looked towards Windle as well but saw he was already a member of the Emerald Pavilion, a large faction they could not compete against.

Seeing Teo overwhelmed, Windle quickly stepped forward and spoke loudly.

"Seniors, my friend here is not interested in joining a faction. Please let us through"

A tall burly man pushed through the crowds.

When the other recruiters saw this man, they all became quiet and stepped aside.

"Junior, I think your friend should speak for himself. What gives you the right to decide for him?"

When Teo and Windle saw the burly senior, they immediately recognize the badge on his sleeve. Besides the number 7 of his sleeve was a small silver sword badge.

This senior was a member of the Silver Sword Association!

Windle looked towards Teo, waiting for him to respond

"Seniors, at the moment, I do not wish to join a faction yet" Teo said

"Junior, I think it is the best if you join my faction early or you will not be rid of these pests" The burly man spoke as he looked at the other recruiters

Although he was disappointed and annoyed by Teo's statement, he did not easily give up.

"Are you going to reject my offer? I, who is a senior member of the Silver Sword Association?"

The burly senior tried to intimidate Teo into joining, but still kept a friendly smile.

Seeing this Windle quickly interrupted.

"Senior, my friend here already has some connection with the Martial faction" Windle said as if he was warning the senior not to overstep his bounds

The burly senior became quite annoyed with Windle, but he clearly knew that both the Martial faction and Emerald Pavilion were not to be messed with. He was a senior student, respected and feared by many. Being rejected and even warned by first year students was an insult to him, but he wanted to remain on friendly terms with Teo.

"Junior, if you ever change your mind and want to join a faction, our Silver Sword Association will gladly welcome you with open arms. I am called Nathan Ashbringer, I really hope you consider in becoming one of our members, with your talents you will definitely be given a high position"

Nathan did not fully gave up Teo. He knew that once he roped Teo in, their faction's standing would catapult to be second ranked. After graduating, having a connection with a pure generalist would also bring him many benefits.

Compared to the Silver Sword Association, the other factions are worth less than a fart. Seeing Nathan leave quietly, the rest of the recruiters decided to follow suit and give up on Teo

[Author's Note: Second Revision]