Startled by the somewhat ominous title of Blood-drinker, Leon's fatigue is temporarily pushed aside as he goes over his status with a fine toothed comb.

Blood of Chaos! He is sure, that skill wasn't there yesterday. he would have noticed a skill with unknown effects, right?

Having not checked his list of titles before, or even knowing that it existed, he had no clue as to whether or not Blood Drinker had always been there. If so, then it was what probably caused him to gain that unknown skill. It most likely went active when Chaos forcefully shut down the 'Champion of Chaos' title.

If Blood drinker wasn't always there, then that means Chaos's bloody kiss gave him the title instead.

Not that it mattered. If he could find a way to use... no, abuse that title, he could make himself into a monster.

Staring at 'Blood of Chaos' Leon ponders the skill. Using his Godly Analyze on it return no new information. Out of sheer stubbornness, he triggers the skill, gaining nothing, but continues until sleep claims him.

-----------------------------

The next morning an exhausted Leon begins his magic training with the rest of the children, most of whom seem to have gotten far more sleep than him. While the guards and soldiers pack everything away and prepare to leave the forest, the students are gathered for a meeting.

Ohm Icura, addresses the students while the other instructors wait behind him.

"Magic," He begins, "is a complicated affair. Because it is so, we will only be teaching you in the broadest sense of the word."

"We will start with, Jharak Yoor!" The Fire practitioner steps forward, smiling broadly at the children.

"Magic power 8, Fire affinity 74%, and control 4!"

"5!" Jharak interrupts, his smile growing broader. The other instructors seem impressed, Moorzu and Bihai stomp their foot for him.

"Congratulations Jharak Yoor, truly you do your family name proud." Ohm Icura congratulates him as well, before turning back to the students. "As you can see, low magic power, but a high control of the element fire. This makes Jharak an exceptional Magic knight, or spell-sword, or blazing warrior. But some prefer the term Marshall adept."

"Not me." Jharak says. Ignoring the Marshall adept, Ohm Icura continues.

"Bihai Suncurio and An'ee Moorzu are from the other end of the magical spectrum. High magic power with intermediate to low affinities and element control makes them excellent battle mages, or magical adepts, or just magicians. The ability to project the powers within them is what generally distinguishes, Marshall from Magicians, and that is largely determined by magic power."

The last instructor steps forward. Without the hooded robe this morning, the children can see she is clearly an Elf, or at least she has the pointed ears and comparatively tall stature the students would associate with Elves. The green hair only adds to her mysterious aura.

"Navier Llarona. She has qualities that qualify her to be considered both a Knight and a mage. Scouts, rogues, assassins, rangers. These people are usually identified by their profession. Their high talent in certain areas like control belie their, oftentimes, low magic power and affinities."

The children listen with rapt attention, desperate to know about the world they were now a part of.

"Now myself, I am a true specialist." Ohm Icura holds up the staff in his hand, "With this, I am an Earth mage and a powerful one, without it, even Jharak Yoor can project magic power better than me."

That sounds interesting, Leon thinks

"My story would be a tragic one, without one redeeming and rare talent. Enchanting. The ability to get an inanimate object to hold a magic rune and constantly renew its power is something about 1,000 people of this continent can do, most of whom are nonhumans."

Leon doubt that staff is Ohm Icura's only weapon, it wouldn't make sense to expose your one weakness to strangers.

"For the most part Affinity is how well mana is drawn to you, Magic power is the amount you can wield, and Elemental control is control measured by a test at the academy."

Ohm Icura's gaze intensified towards the students. "Don't ever think you know everything about magic, children. There are always hidden talents and new spells to be discovered. Trying too hard to categorize everything you learn will prevent you from having the open mind necessary to truly grow as an adept."

-----------

Hours later the children find themselves struggling to keep up with the pace of the exodus. Sporadic attacks from Deadmen help spur their endurance.

Each child has been given a single round bead. The beads are enchanted and the students were instructed to make them glow, as that was their only function.

Assuming one had even the smallest of magical talent, then using an enchanted item was significantly easier than most other types of magic.

With water being his highest affinity, the bead Leon was given was designed to respond to that element. The beads were hesitantly made by Ohm Icura and so would not last very long. Even so, some of the students had already managed to accomplish the task. Leon was one of them but hadn't yet informed Bahai, his water magic instructor. He was hoping to get as much out of this practice session as possible.

Enchanted Pebble [water]

Durability 3/5

Crude

mana 6/6

small stone with no purpose

With the analyze skill, the student searched for the mana they were looking for then, willed it to enter the bead. No other instructions had been given. Some struggled, but most made steady, if slow progress.

---------------------

The instructors are amazed and perhaps a little frightened, although the children would never be able to tell. The task they have been told to do would take an average adept weeks, if not months, to accomplish. It could only be expected though, by the standards of this world each of the children had great potential.

The average human of Lacaos has natural affinities of about 2% and no magic power to speak of. About one in 100 had 'the gift', which was only the ability to be taught, not necessarily to be great.

Often with talent, nine have at least one affinities above the 20% and at least some magic power. The might become able Marshall adepts. Since few schools take those with less than 20% in an affinity, those below the mark may often become town guards, mercenaries, or criminals.

The last of the ten have magic power above 30 and normal affinities. With luck and training, they might one day become adequate Magicians. While it's possible, but difficult, to raise affinities, and many adepts will spend their entire lives trying to do so.

These children, however, defied believe. Gifted were those with two affinities above the 20% mark, genius were those with three, and 'once in century' prodigies were those with four teachable affinities above 20%.

Every single child brought by the gods had at least one affinity above 30% and most had two. Those who had already bonded with their item sometimes had an affinity above 50%. Few had any affinities lower than 10%. And there were the monsters with natural affinities higher than 50, 60, even 70%.

There was no doubting these children had been truly gifted by the gods themselves.

--------------------

After practicing until the pebble shattered, Leon had a chance to check his skills once again

Leon Wolfman

Level

2

Active Title

Lifelong Student

Health

352

Mana

352

Stamina

352

Strength

32

Intelligence

32

Dexterity

32

Agility

32

Wisdom

32

Constitution

32

Unused Skill points

60

Experience

66%

Skills and Abilities

Mana Manipulation

Bending natural affinities to your will

Water - 3% Fire - 0% Earth - 0% Wind - 0% Light - 0% Dark - 0%

Level 1

Not a bad start.

His experience had pushed him over to level two and so he had gained five bonus point to use. every stat had also gone up by one. But, still, the best had to be the surprise that greeted him when he awoke this morning.

Skills and Abilities

Blood of Chaos

You share the blood of a god.

1 % chance to tap the Aether to fuel spells.

Level 1

At some point, before he fell asleep, his analyze managed to break through and identify the skill Blood of Chaos. Since he didn't yet know any spells, he couldn't take advantage of this skill.

But wait until I get it to 100%!