In a log house in the outskirts of town, there were two people. one was sitting down on the floor explaining things carefully, while the other was experiencing many conflicting emotions at once. They continued their conversation for a while until the old man burst into outrage.

“You’re saying you’d be able to shoot projectiles repeatedly without magic or effort!? That’s outrageous! I must see how that would work! How does one make one?” Seeing such crazy and passionate eyes Derb knew he made a huge mistake introducing 'guns' to his new teacher. Gerald, being a scholarly man, instantly became obsessed with the idea of instant power.

“I told you, it’s a secret method only available to certain people. I wouldn’t even be able to tell you if I knew the information.” A big fat lie, Derb just didn’t want to introduce this world to a weapon capable of causing multiple genocides since the time it was created. A little also had to do with the fact he had absolutely no idea how one was made. luckily, Hannah wasn't here to catch his little fib. “Let’s stop talking about my ‘primitive’ society for now. Could you please teach me what I’m supposed to do to become as powerful as the girls?” The teacher remembered his earlier statement and covered his embarrassment with a cough.

"Don't be like that, I was merely curious at your magicless creations. Are you sure fire stones weren't used in the process?" All this got was a blank look from Derb, making sure to reveal nothing. It had been the next day and the two had started early morning, both eager to begin the training process. That was quickly halted when Derb's teacher started asking questions about where he lived. Instead of answering, he told him about earth's creations. This was the first mistake he made. Nothing he explained was too advanced, and yet they amazed the teacher to no end. the conversation lasted until night and had reignited when they both woke up in the morning. It had gotten to the point where Derb knew to keep his mouth shut. There was no use feeding the endless fire the old man seemed to have for knowledge.

Gerald kept poking and prodding for answers to the questions, receiving a poker face for them all. With a sigh, the old man finally conceded. He set apart space in the living room, making sure to make it as clean as possible. “First, get into a meditative position, we need to check your specializations.” All that earned was confusion from Derb. With a tired sigh, Gerald explained. “What you’re good at, boy. Many people only have one or two attributes worth using, while some even have the potential to use up to 8 attributes." The old man took a book out of a drawer, big, old and dusty. He opened it and flipped to a specific part of the page. "There are downsides to either one, however. While someone with one attribute usually has strong potential, they can easily be defeated by those prepared for them. A one-trick pony, if you will. The opposite can be said for those with variety, they’re usually quite a bit weaker than those who main an attribute, but their larger variety makes one quite tricky to deal with. Let’s say you were gifted with wind and ice attributes, you would be both fast and deadly on the battlefield.”

Derb, eyes sparkling, finally decided to ask questions. “Is being born with many attributes rarer? What if you get conflicting attributes?” The teacher smiled warmly, he was glad to see his student be so attentive, even if he was asking things most ten-year-old mages would know by now. “It’s definitely much rarer, though it’s perceived that the way you act is responsive to your attribute. So the more eccentric you are the more likely you are to have more than one. It also has a heavy reliance on family, most royal families seek single attribute children since variety means little to a person with means. About the conflicting attributes, you can reach almost the same power as a single attributed magician if you gave up on all your other attributes, though that’s usually considered a waste. Variety is often looked upon in these times of turmoil. If you're lucky you could even get abilities that synergize well with each other.”

Once Derb was placated Gerald began the actual attribute process. He went out of the room for a bit, only to come back with what seemed like a giant ball of glass. It wasn’t smooth but it seemed almost purposeful, like ice cubes made by fancy bartenders. It was quite impressive looking, to say the least. What was even more impressive was that his teacher was hauling it about as easily as a beachball.

Gerald put the glass ball behind Derb’s back, rolling it forward until it was touching him. “Rest on it, focus inwards and try opening yourself up to the ambient energy in the air.” His teacher held a grim look on his face as if he was expecting the worst. Not wanting to screw up, Derb pulled himself together and put himself in the fanciest position he knew of. He shaped his hands into the mudra handsign of power, hoping it'd do something.

He closed his eyes and cleared his head of thought… and then what? “How do I pull in the mana in the air?” This caused his teacher to almost spit blood, it was akin to asking how one breathes or how one uses their hands to hold an object. “You… oh divines… just feel the air around you, imagine breathing in but with your mind… I guess?” He never had to explain this before, even babies started taking in ambient energy at the age of 2, years before they could even be taught.

Derb nodded closed his eyes once more, breathing in… And nothing happened. He wondered what the teacher meant by feeling the air. He didn’t know if that was supposed to be taken literally or not. He tried to expand his surroundings, picturing the room around him in his head. Eventually, he started to notice something, details that he couldn’t imagine remembering started being outlined in a hazy blue. No, it was more like there were empty silhouettes of objects where the "air" hit objects. He guessed this was mana and started to gain an understanding of his teacher’s words.

It seemed his body was sucking in energy like a sponge. It was intense and completely different from the old man's subtle aura. He focused on the old man's mana, trying to enter the inside the body to the core. He wanted to see how another person looked like... and was met with the sun. “AUGH! what the heck?!” Derb jumped out of his sitting position, shocking the old man terribly. After the realization that Derb wasn't hurt in any way, Gerald regained his composure.

“Boy, you better have a reason for shaking this poor old man’s heart.” the ethereal voice coming from the old man gave derb another mental blow. Why was he mad? Derb was still reeling from the blast of light. He wasn’t the one blinde- er… mentally hurt by the blast! He knew the old man was mad, however, and decided to give in. “I’m sorry about that, but when I focused on your mana it was so bright it shocked me out of my meditation.” He winced as his teacher reeled back in shock, did he do something he wasn't supposed to? If his teacher kept yelling like that he wasn’t sure if the house would be able to hold up. Instead, he was met with pure silence. Eventually his teacher, grabbing both of Derb’s shoulders, spoke up. “Boy… are you talking about what I think you are?” his face was holding a mix of both apprehension and hope, which Derb didn’t like very much. He didn’t actually know if this was good or not so he just nodded, not mentioning the finer details of what had happened.

Eventually, Gerald let go, moving back while putting his hands on his head. “Haha… this idiot has mana sense... Ahahah...” Oh yeah, this definitely wasn’t good for Derb. “Boy, speak to no one else about this, unless you seek death from those much more powerful than you. People much more powerful than me. Got that?” Derb nodded furiously, already scared to death of this man, who could probably lift as much as a bodybuilder could back on earth. if people stronger than him came with malicious intent he'd have no chance. The old man rubbed his temples, still chuckling. “Mana sense at 19… that’s 6 years younger than the divine emperor... haha...” He couldn’t help but hear something unbelievably ominous coming from the man’s mouth.

“You definitely seem to have fine control of your mana… I guess that’s a benefit from such pitifully low mana reserves, quite sad actually...” what was with that? How harsh! What was all that talk about being a holy emperor or whatever!? “Just focus on drawing mana into yourself, a lake with you at the center should be a good imagery for your situation...”

Derb closed his eyes once more, only this time he could still “see” in his head. The old man was rubbing his temples in what could only be a show of stress. It was sad to see his teacher in this state Derb decided to hurry up. He still remembered that dream he had right before he came to this world… He pictured a whirlwind circling around him, picking up the blue fog that surrounded him, He carefully pulled it in closer and closer until he felt the air around him become charged. He breathed in the air, and then he felt it.

The air tasted like copper as it touched his tongue, numbing the tip of his tongue like an electric shock. It honestly didn’t feel bad at all. It filled him with energy on every breath, making him feel stronger and faster. It was only for a second before it faded, until he breathed in again. The feeling was intoxicating and he felt like he could do it forever. He remembered what his teacher told him, however, and decided to continue. He gathered all the energy he felt inside him together and tried to picture it in his mind. Slowly the darkness in his head was filled with a smoldering blue, twisting and careening in a spiral of light blue waves. It was absolutely gorgeous, and it wasn’t until his teacher patted his arm did he stop trying to help it grow. “You’ve done enough boy, you must be feeling exhausted right about now.” Derb looked down at his sweating body. He didn't feel weak, he felt strong and ready, like his body was set to burst if he didn’t let out some steam.

“Amazing, I was expecting darkness, but for that attribute to be so powerful as to affect my healing and still have three others is baffling...” the old man muttered under his breath while looking at the crystal. Derb turned back to see what his teacher was looking at, only to see something outright ominous. The glass orb had changed completely. A green fire was sitting in the middle of the ball, swaying back and forth violently as if something were trying to put it out. The rest of the crystal was shrouded in darkness, not a single thing lit up by the flame. What was most shocking was the surface of the ball, as it was covered in strange runes and shapes, encasing the ball in a beautiful yet oppressive red embellishment.

The whole thing made it look almost sad. It was like the fire was trapped and being beat down by everything around it. “Fire, wind, darkness, and most importantly, ritual magic. You’ve hit the jackpot boy, ritual magic synchronizes with almost anything and is very versatile. It also seems to be the strongest attribute you have, quite impressive. It’s the only one you have in common with me as well.” the old man puffed out his chest as he said that, no doubt bragging about his talent as whatever a 'ritual mage' was.

The old man started searching in one of the bookcases for something. “Fortunately for you, I’ve kept some spare books lying around, I’ll show them to you later when you can actually afford the mana cost. Derb was very confused, he finally found out his attributes but had no idea what they meant. “What do you do with ritual magic?” The old man rubbed his chin, finally pulling out a book. it was large and old looking with a crude demon drawing, seemingly climbing up a tree. "Well, I’m able to put barriers that keep magic beasts and deformed out of the area, I can also set up enhancements on my body to make me stronger and faster.” The old man broke into a grin all of a sudden, cracking open the book. “For you, however, the only thing I can think of suited is summoning.”