The elder raised his head to speak once more.

"The paper in your hand signifies your element, in the entirety of our bloodline there has never been a main primary element other than dark. The reason for this is that from all the elements in the world, light and darkness rule above the others. Fire, water, earth, wind, darkness, light. These are the six primary elements in magic and through these primary elements, people can create branches within their elements. An example of this is lava which originates from the fire and the earth element. Though it's only a secondary element, its power can be said to be even greater than the primary elements of fire and earth."

The kids all discussed among themselves speculating.

"I know you all are wondering why it originates from fire and earth when a person can only have one. The answer is: dual attributes. Some special people about one in a thousand are born with this, and even then they might not necessarily be able to use both. A prime example for dual elements is the current duke of the Mariko Palace, he has control of the primary elements wind and water. But having dual attributes doesn't mean you're limited to those two, with two elements you can use the secondary branches, he can create ice with his dual attributes."

Kai furrowed his brows.

If he can create ice with water and wind as his primary elements, why did I feel ice in my body when my primary element is darkness?

"Kai, can I say something?"

"Go ahead."

"Now that I think about it, having dual attributes mean you have two primary elements. Since your primary element is darkness and the other element you acquired is ice, it doesn't match up to the innate ability of dual attributes."

"So you're saying I acquired something different?"

"Exactly!"

Reo appeared in front of Kai invisible to everyone else's eye. Reo's eyes looked into Kai's, they were piqued with curiosity.

"I can't really tell what it is even with the pieces of information inside my head, I'm going to need time to figure it out."

"But aren't you still a kid?"

"By spirit standards? Yes. But from human standards, I would be considered an ancestor of yours. I've lived for over a millenium."

(A/N: Millennium equates to a thousand years.)

"A millenium...?"

I guess having a physical body and not having a physical body makes a huge difference.

"The downside to not having a physical body is that I can't improve unless I encounter a human who can help me form a spirit body or a fortuitous event occuring that would help me form a spirit body."

"A spirit body?"

Kai asked Reo.

"A spirit cannot take over a physical body since that goes against the will of the heavens but a spirit body is like a physical body with the difference being a spirit body is a hollow shell and built for the sole purpose of spirits entering them."

"So you can get stronger if I give you a spirit body or if you get a spirit body on your own?"

Reo nodded.

"Yes, but the chances of finding an unused spirit body are nearly zero."

Kai pondered for a bit.

"How can I make a spirit body?"

"You don't have to think about that for now, you're still quite a ways off from forming one. In any case, I can still increase the magic power in my body if your magic power grows so train harder!"

So a spirit cannot train in any techniques if it doesn't have a spirit body but it can train its magic power to aid the summoner by lending some of its magic power to the summoner. I can't really see Reo using physical techniques though.

A bead of sweat dripped down Kai's forehead when he thought of it.

"Anyway, back to the matter at hand. What are we going to do about your attributes?"

"Since my element of darkness has already been revealed, if I reveal my ice element now; it would mean that I have three primary attributes and would cause troubles for my clan. I'd rather not reveal it right now."

Even if Kai's body has not matured enough, he understood the current status of the clan just from listening to the conversations of others. Even if he was currently a kid, he used to be a youth at the age of seventeen. Naturally, he knew about the world.

What if he has two more elements which birthed ice?

Reo shook his head repeatedly at this thought. That would be too outrageous as he had never heard of a human wielding more than two main elements. If he was of a different race then there may be a possibility but he's undoubtedly human, even his blood was pure.

The elder continued the lessons and the practical training had ended. The kids had still stayed behind and talked to each other while the elders had already departed.

"I only took thirty minutes to awaken my dark attribute!"

A kid had smug look on his face and had his chin raised up.

"Oh, well I took twenty five minutes!"

Another one replied as if competing.

"You two should get on my level, I only needed twenty minutes."

""Twenty minutes!?""

The first two kids yelled back in shock.

"Twenty minutes."

The third kid stated it again.

"You three are outstanding but compared to the genius over there, you're worth nothing. Yoko is really amazing. Not just in talent, intelligence, and status but even her beauty!"

The three nodded in response to the other one who just appeared. They had no way to refute his words.

"She's probably going to be insanely pretty in the future!"

"I think so too! She's incredibly pretty now, I can't even think about what would happen in the future..."

"I would be happy if she wasn't our relative so we could actually get a chance but unfortunately we're all related one way or another."

Three kids talked in a way that doesn't befit their age just because of a single girl. If any of the adults heard this they would have facepalmed over how their kids were speaking.

Kai was sitting on the floor with crossed legs. Akane was sitting next to him also cross-legged but she was actually just staring and sitting beside Kai. Kai had his eyes closed and still hadn't opened them.

"What's he doing?"

Akane tilted her head.

"Kaiii, let's goooo! I wanna play already! Training is too borriinnngg!

Akane was throwing a tantrum at Kai who had closed eyes.

Kai furrowed his brows but kept his eyes closed. Akane had noticed the change in his expression and tilted her head.

What is going on with him?

Akane asked herself.

Akane immediately stopped throwing a tantrum and tried to notice the minute changes in his expression. Pain, despair, hope, and fulfillment. His expression switched from these four randomly.

Akane also furrowed her brows at this. It seemed like he was having a dream but he was actually awake, she knew he couldn't open his eyes but she didn't understand the reason why.

A few minutes later, Kai had opened his eyes. He was sweating all over like he had just experienced something very frightening.

A few minutes ago.

"Reo, I feel something happening to the ice element in my body."

"What happened to it?"

"I think it's trying to break out. I'm feeling it being restless. The people near me are starting to feel cold and my skin has become a bit frosty."

"This is of grave importance, your element might go out of control and freeze you to death. I can solve it but you'll have to experience an illusion inside your mind while I do this. No matter what happens in the illusion, you won't actually experience it in your true body because it is only a hallucination. If your mind was strong enough, you could skip the part about the illusion but unfortunately you're not at that level yet."

Reo appeared in front of Kai once more and closed his eyes. A moment later, he opened it and the violet in his eys glowed. His eyes also began to emit faint purple smoke.

"Look into my eyes, Kai."

Kai stared blankly into his eyes. His consciousness had already departed from his body, it went to a world far beyond what he knew.

He was standing there in his previous life's body, he was standing in the middle ofdarkness.

"What is this place?"

"Kai!"

"Reo?"

Kai looked around but saw nothing.

"Kai!"

Another voice rang out, this time it was Akane.

"Akane, where are you?"

Kai looked around again. There was nothing but darkness as far as the eye could see.

"This is only an illusion. I can't be shaken."

Kai stood straight and started walking. Illusory steps appeared in front of him which led him higher.

"Kai, help!"

Kai furrowed his brows. A scene appeared at the side of the stairs, the image of Akane being kidnapped by bandits and her parents slain.

"Akane!"

Kai clenched his fist and teeth. He reached out his hand after them but found that his body returned to that of a child's.

"It's an illusion. It's an illusion. It's an illusion. It's an illusion. It's an illusion. It's an illusion..."

He repeated it like a chant as he walked forward once more.

"KAI, RUN AWAY!"

"KAI!"

Two voices rang out, when it reached Kai's ears, he had trembled.

"FATHER! MOTHER!"

A group of cloaked men using magic were bombarding his father and mother with magic. They were trying to cover for Kai to let him get away in time.

"It's an illusion. It's an illusion. It's an illusion. It's an illusion. It's an illusion. It's an illusion. It's an illusion. It's an illusion. It's an illusion. It's an illusion. It's an illusion. It's an illusion. It's an illusion. It's an illusion. It's an illusion. It's an illusion. It's an illusion..."

He repeated once more. His attitude has always been one who could not bear the suffering of his loved ones. Even if they weren't really his first parents and first friend, they were first for this world. He loved them just as much as he loved his previous family- or at least, some of them.

He stepped forward once more. He closed his eyes and tried to breathe deeply. His steps started clumsily but began to stabilize. His teeth and fist clenched at the same time.

For a few minutes, multiple scenarios like these happened. Kai was already pale from watching everyone he cherished die. Even people from his past life weren't spared. He felt like this once before, when he saw that girl getting beaten in front of those men.

They were likely to beat, abuse, and do other things befit of carnal behavior. But his resolve to save her forced the men into a sour mood and skipped those parts. Instead of the girl, his body had received the pain. He experienced many sorts of torture, each time they were about to hurt the girl, he grabbed their feet so they would switch their anger back to him.

The girl was watching him whilst crying, he could tell that she wasn't crying because it would happen to her. She was crying for him, he took everything she would have suffered and made it his own. Though her life was not spared in the end, she was given relief of the things Kai had suffered. Kai died suffering but she died crying with guilt.

The only similarity was that he wasn't hurt physically. During those times, his body was numb and could only think of ways for her to escape. Though he didn't succeed in the end.

His resolve during that time was that he wanted to be of use to somebody. He had been following everyone all his life. He was a push-over, he did things they asked for with no hesitation, he became a machine.

Now, he had gotten powers. His body was strengthened to match the strongest body builders of his previous world. Yet, he still felt quite powerless. This was only an illusion but he cursed his weakness. The few minutes of mental suffering he had witnessed felt like centuries. He could count each second falling and despaired over the time that was left.

This had continued until Kai was crawling to the light. He saw hope, he could finally escape this torturous place. Mental pain is a lot harder to bear than physical pain simply because you could not defend against it through normal means, you needed to have a firm will.

When he crawled out of this door, he had been brought to the place where his eyes met Akane. His body was sweating all over and he was panting.

Akane was watching him with worried eyes.

Kai gave a smile as he stood up.

"I'm fine."

The worry in Akane's eyes never disappeared but it lessened greatly.

"Phew. I thought something happened to you..."

Akane sighed in relief.

"I'm really fine, I was just trying to dwell deeper into my element."

"Darkness made you that sweaty? It wasn't even regular sweat, it was cold sweat. You were nervous."

Akane said as she also stood up.

"Let's go."

Kai avoided answering any more of her questions, Akane followed in tow.

"I don't think we should play today, you should go rest. I lost my will to have fun after seeing you earlier."

Kai smiled. She was really worried for him. This is how family should be.

When he thinks of what happened to her during the illusion, his heart ached. There wasn't just a single occurence, it happened multiple times with varying situations.

But unbeknowst to Kai, because of this experience, his mind and soul power had improved greatly.

"Kai, I managed to seal your ice element by covering it with darkness. It only succeeded because you command darkness as well. We're lucky. The darkness surrounding your body was the reason for the illusion, I don't even know what transpired but I can tell your resolve became steel."

"Thanks."

Kai gave his word of gratitude.

"It's fine, it's fine. I'm going to be leeching off you in the future so helping you this much is fair. Though if I had made only one mistake you would've been swallowed by the ice and darkness."

A bead of cold sweat dripped down Kai's forehead when he heard that.

"I need to take a bath."

Kai said as he looked at his clothes and body.

"Akane, I'll head home first."

"Alright. Take care of yourself."

Akane nodded at Kai's words.

Kai headed straight back home and took a bath.

"Kai, how did the first day go?"

His father asked him as the three of them, him, and his parents were eating at the table.

"I was alright, I didn't find any trouble keeping up at all."

Kai replied nonchanlantly.

"That's very good. I remember myself having trouble with the elder who instructed us at the first day. Though, I've heard that everyone in your batch is outstanding. You should memorize everyone well, they might be future leaders along with you."

His father praised Kai with pride.

"Dear, you shouldn't be putting that much pressure on his shoulders."

His mother scolded Kai's father.

These two were his parents: Kuroshi Juro, and Kuroshi Akemi. Father and mother respectively.

"No matter, since his magic had already been released, I'm giving him special training."

"Are you sure about that?"

His mother, Akemi answered in a grave tone.

"He has to know eventually."

Akemi sighed.

"I guess you've got a point."

Kai was looking at them back and forth in confusion. What was happening?!

"Kai."

His father looked at him seriously.

"You're going have to learn about surviving alone."