We came out in a clearing, where unlit torches were stuck in the ground. He lit a fire, then told me, “Try to use your magical power on this fire, then carry it over to the torches and ignite them.”

The 10 torches sat in a circle as if taunting me. I took a deep breath and attempted to ignite each torch without damaging it. In total, I tried 30 times, being successful 12 times. “Was that good?” I asked.

“Yes, you did better than me on my first try. Let’s see if you can keep it up.” Tyronius informed me.

I kept trying to do it, but somehow, each time, at least one torch was damaged. “Why is this so hard? I could just cast Firestorm and burn all of them. What’s the point of doing this?” I yelled in frustration.

“Mensal, if you do not learn control, you will never truly master fire. You must control the fire within you.” Thiro explained to me.

I grumbled, then continued trying. Working tirelessly for months and months, feeling tired, but determined, I kept on trying. After a year of trying hard, I finally lit every single torch without damaging them. “Yes! Success!” I cheered.

“Congratulations, Mensal, you have mastered basic fire Elementalism, now, you move on to intermediate fire Elementalism,” Tyronius told me.

“Wait, that was basic?!” I asked surprised

“Of course it was basic. You could focus on just 1 task. The later ones have more.” Tyronius informed. I moaned in despair.

“Alright, what do I need to do?” I asked, a little depressed.

Tyronius beckoned for the mages with ice and water Elementalism to come over, and then announced, “Mensal, you have to use fire Elementalism to completely negate balls of ice and water.”

The two mages threw balls of water and ice at me, and I quickly melted the ice. However, the ice then became water. I summoned the hottest flame I could… and the balls of water broke through it with ease, buffeting my face. I grunted in frustration. I trained for two more years. Every single time I kept getting hit by the balls of water. “Argh! Why! Is! This! So! Hard?!” I panted.

“Kiddo, I gotta admit, you don’t have much raw firepower, but you do have persistence.” The guy with ice Elementalism smirked.

They both sent their balls of Elementalism at me. The situation was the same as usual, yet it was different. I yelled and sent out the hottest flame that I ever produced. It melted the ice and sent it straight into the form of gas, and then fire also instantaneously evaporated the water into harmless steam. “All right!” I cheered.

“Congratulations, you may now say you have mastered intermediate fire Elementalism. There is one more step, but to accomplish that, you have to be full of power and a dragon must teach it to you, and I don’t see that happening soon. So we’re just going to say you’ve mastered fire Elementalism.” Tyronius explained.

“Okay! What’s next?” I asked Tyronius.