proofread by Daylius

"What the hell dude?" Iud shouted out loud in my ear. "What are those values? Not to mention a level 8?"

"Calm down Iud. Don't shout"

"Okay, I am sorry. I freaked out. But seriously dude. A mana value of 25 and essence value of 23? Why the hell are you even here? With those value you are strong enough to rival the elites of Aduxria if not the kings. Not to forget the level 8 guardian compatibility."

"Iud. Just calm down will you? Just tell me something. What does the level eight mean?"

"Sigh! Fine. A guardian's power I describes by its level. A level one is basically powerless. As the level increases the stronger the guardian. The highest level guardian is of level 11. The level 8 which you got means you are compatible with guardians of any level from 1 to 8. It also means that if you were to come in contact with a guardian of level 9 or higher you would not be able to control or subdue them."

"Where can I find these guardians?"

"You don't find them. They find you. As to when and where only the guardian knows. The level 8 you got also means only guardians of that level or below will appear before you "

"I see. So how was your test?"

"Normal. Mana value and essence value of 15. Luckily my affinity is good. Thunderstorm, combination of air and water. I am able to use air, water, lightning and ice magic spells. And as for guardian a level 4. See, pretty much normal."

"And Davy? Why is he not with us?"

Iud and I were inside a classroom which was occupied by thirty or so students. There were twelve boys and the rest were all girls. The class room was huge for thirty students. There was no black board or any table for the teacher. The strange thing was that the class was split into two halves. We were now in the first half and separated from the second by a transparent medium. When I asked Iud about he said that every class was designed similarly. The half we were in right now was theoretical classes while the other half was practical uses.

"Davy got a mana value of 14 but his essence value is a little higher than mine, 17. Wood affinity, so he is able to use earth, water and life affinity too. We both have air affinity classes now, he doesn't. So i guess he will be busy sleeping in the room. Speaking about affinity, what's yours?"

"It says matter. I guess all the affinities?"

"Matter? Never heard of it. Try asking the teacher. Oh! Here she comes."

I looked toward the direction of the entrance of the class and saw a young girl apparently in her early twenties walk in. With a white a rob covering her small yet cute body and a smile as beautiful as the white moon she stood before the class.

"Good morning all. I am Natalia and I will be teaching you air magic. I believe that every one here either has air as a basic affinity or as a combo affinity right? Let me ask you a question? What is the most basic air spell?"

Many hands shot out into the air. Out of which a blonde girl was asked to answer.

"Its air slice and air block"

"Correct Aira. No wonder you have air in you name. Air slice and air block are the two basic air affinity spells as well as the most useful too. You might think that what I told now was because I am an Air affinity teacher. But not exactly. Unlike the other affinities, Air is more friendly. Our body takes in air to survive, every second. And so the body's interior and exterior has a strong bind with air. This makes it easier to grasp and manipulate air. In fact controlling air is so easy that every one of you here can master air strike and air block in less than a week whereas mastering the basic spells of other affinities will take at least two weeks of which earth basic spells takes a month or so to master. So when comparing to the other affinities air magic spells can be considered the best friend of a novice. That is also the reason why air spells are much popular among students even though one has easy access to earth. Any questions?"

I hesitantly lifted my arm.

"Ah. Zephard, I believe. How may I help you?"

"For a person who has a complex affinity, is it necessary master all his basic affinities for one to be able to control his true affinity?"

"Not always. Some can use the complex affinity without mastering the basic affinities while some has to master their basic affinities and then slowly try using their complex affinity. I guess yours is a complex one?"

"Yes, mine is called matter it seems." I said looking confused. But when I looked at Natalia her face looked even more confused.

"That's great. I hope it would bloom into a spectacular affinity. Now back to the topic. Let us begin with air strike. Air strike is a simple offensive spell with a medium range and damage. The damage increases as your proficiency increases and also is easy to cast. The best way to activate air strike is to first to produce an air sword. Imagine that you are holding a sword, preferably not too long. For that you need to first learn how to gather and mold air in your hand. Let me show you how it is done." Natalia then held her pale and slender beautiful hand above her chest level. Slowly the air above her hand began to ripple and turn into a spiral ball. The ball then began to stretch and gently mold into a double edged sword. She then waved a sword couple of times and then made the sword levitate and slowly the sword began to disperse. Once the show was over some clapped while others watched in ecstasy, I on the other hand had questions raging my mind and so I raised my hand once again.

"Yes little Zeph, ask!"

"How many such swords can one control at the same time? Is it necessary to maintain contact with the sword for it to remain intact or control or it?

"Hm! Those are a little advanced things. Nevermind, I will tell you. The maximum number of swords depends on your essence level. The highest level of swords that has so far been created is twenty one. But that does not mean twenty one is the limit. In the end it all comes down to one's potential. But I would estimate as the maximum to be thirty or so. Now about your second question, it is not necessary to maintain contact with the swords. But it requires great amount of concentration and control. The more swords you produce the more harder it gets to control them without contact. I can produce ten but only control three without physical contact. This requires years of practice and normally impossible for a student, not even those of Aduxria. I heard that even the student who is called number one among the kings can control only five swords at the most."

"I see. So should I have to produce the sword every time I have to use air strike?"

"Not at all. Once you are used to air strikes with sword, slowly try using it with bare hands. That can be done by imagining your hand itself to be a sword. So with a swish of your hand an air strike can be done just like this." Saying so Natalia stretched her upwards and brought down her hand fast. The path her hands traced began to distort and a gush of air hit my face startling me.

"That just now was a small demonstration without no power behind it. When you truly master the strike, even a single finger is enough to produce a strong attack."

I nodded. My head was already working on the new information I got. But before I could formulate anything I was called up on by Natalia.

"Zeph, if you don't mind can i know your essence and mana values."

The question came like an arrow that intended to behead me. Iud looked at me with a worried gaze. I gulped and was beginning to sweat. To reveal my values right now would lead into the whole world knowing it and thus would surely cause me to divert from my cause. Clenching my fists I walked towards her drawing gazes from all over the class. Natalia was taken back a little but regained her composure. I stood before her and hesitantly stretched my hands which was holding my test result. She took the paper from me and began reading it. Her blue eyes widened and her long and slender eyebrows twitched. With gaping mouth she stared at the result for a while and then at me. I took back the paper from her hands and went back to my seat, tensed. Iud was laughing seeing Natalia's face which was even now gazing at me. A good ten minutes passed before Natalia spoke once again.

"I am sorry, I was lost in some thoughts. Any way let us continue with our class. Everybody to the practical room. Today we will try gathering air in our hands."

The entirety of the class shifted to the practical room and were allotted spaces to stand which had a fair amount of distance from each others. All of us then tried to imitate what Natalia had did.

With the palm of my hand facing up I imagined the air around me condensing on my palm. A clear mental image was in my mind, a globe of swirling air. I could feel the air around me beginning to get a little heavy. The air directly above my palm began to swirl a little. I could feel something inside me oozing out little by little, it was like a part of me leaking away. I guessed it to be mana, and so decided to try releasing more mana. I wondered if I could improve my powers if I let out more mana.

Taking a deep breath I closed my eyes and tried relaxing. My hands were now resting on my thighs and my breathing was returning to normal. With my eyes still closed I tried to feel the mana flow which I felt a while ago. But unlike the previous time, the flow was much harder to detect.

I sat down on the floor and then once again tried concentrating. I could hear the whispers of the students and as well as Natalia calling my name. Ignoring their voices I tried to feel the mana in me. Slowly I could feel a warmth spreading throughout my body and also the flow of power through me. My body could grasp the mana coursing through it, through my veins along with the blood, I could also feel a lot stronger than I was just before. The flow inside me had become much greater. Being an archer, concentration was a must and so I had always practised meditation. Meditation had allowed me to feel the presence and energy in me and years of practise had made it possible to feel and control my internal energy. And just like in the past meditating had helped me now too.

Opening my eyes I stood up. Natalia wasalready in front of me with cold eyes gazing directly into me. None of us spoke as we looked into each others eyes. I slowly lifted my right arm and then like before tried to shape the air around my palm.

Mana began to ooze out in much larger quantity and slowly the air above my palm began to swirl. The speed increased little by little as the air ball began to form. In seconds, my right hand was holding a clear but violently rotating air sphere which reminded me of an anime super hero move which I shall refrain from mentioning.

Natalia and the others froze around me. When I looked around most were not even able to even collect even a speck of air let alone make it swirl and here I was holding a swirling raseng*n, I mean air sphere in my hand.

I sighed with all the attention I was getting but still decided to continue my mission. The next thing I had to do was clear for me, change the sphere into a sword. But I decided against it. A dagger was what was enough for now for making a bigger thing like sword was a little next to impossible.

A dagger was what I should make for now. And so my air sphere began to stretch, slowly. I did not want to rush it as it was my first time. The sphere was now becoming more and more elliptical. When the length was good enough, I tried to shape it into a dagger, by adding a hilt and blade. When the blade was done it seemed rough and blunt. The hilt too was uneven and not at all hilt like. I tried shaping it into a better dagger but when I tried to the dagger began to dissolve. Understanding that I had hit my limit I stopped with the shaping and then decided to try using air strike. Looking at Natalia who was still looking at me with open jaws I asked,

"What should I do next?"

"Eh?"

"I asked what is the next step?"

"Ah! Swing it aiming at some empty space, the sword will let out the air strike."

Complying to her word I aimed at the roof and swung my dagger with full force. Just like how Natalia's sword had emitted an gush of wind, my little sword too let let out one which hit the roof and then dispersed.

"Did I do it right?"

"Yes! That was great Zeph. Keep practising. Next Monday we will learn about the blocking spell." She replied absent minded and walked away still gazing at me with widened eyes.

---***---

Lunch was hectic. The academy canteen was located in a separate building. A three storied building and as usual the highest floor being for the new students. Big enough to occupy a little less than five hundred and now almost three hundred were seated having a really hefty lunches with dishes I have never seen and so I sat and stared at them while Iud was explaining to Davy the things that had transcribed in the morning class as well as about the test results.

Davy stared at me. Lately I have been getting too many stares. I shrugged my shoulder and gestured him to keep quiet. But even after I had made the two shut up, my other classmates did not. I was soon flocked by a large number of students asking me to teach them how to make air strike. Girls and boys began introducing themselves but even among all of those ruckus I could feel a cold gaze on me. A chill ran down through my spine.

My eyes scanned throughout the area even though the others were obstructing. While I was searching around my eyes caught another pair of eyes intently staring at me. Those majestic blue coloured globes were looking towards me and in those eyes i could see anger. The slender eyebrows twitched when our eyes met but they did not look away, instead the intensity of the gaze increased. Her blond hair bangs covered some of her forehead and her beautiful lips were being bitten by herself.

Not knowing what to do, I looked away. Her gaze was too strong for me to handle but I did recognise the girl. Aira, the girl who was named after air. I peeked at her a couple of times, she was still glaring at me. Cold sweat drizzled down my face as I could not stand her gaze. I gestured Iud and Davy to look towards her. When the three of us looked at the same time she got startled and turned her head away. She stood up quietly shot me a quick glance and strode away elegantly. The three of us watched as her beautiful figure faded away.

The three of us quite surprised by the strange occurrence but did not pay it any head as we did not have time to waste. The afternoon classes was sword mastery and all three of us were attending.

---***---

"Welcome everybody! I am Andreas Wolfgan, you can call me Mr. Wolf. I will be teaching you everything about swords. Before we start with swords we will be doing some muscle training. Are you guys ready?

The sword training hall was being done in a separate and enclosed place. We were told that the room was specially designed and the students would not get any wounds or cuts during the classes due to the protective charms installed in it.

Wolf then made us run for almost twenty minutes and do other exercises for another twenty. By the time the drill was over, out of the fifty or so present only a handful were standing. To my surprise I was hardly out of breath. In the entirety of my life this was the first time I felt so. I was never athletic, the way I grew was such that I had never worked out. My body was weak and even the lightest work left me breathless. But now even after all those hard exercises I was standing on my feet practically 'untired'. The suite was doing its job better than I had anticipated, I had even forgot that I was wearing one. The daily bath I took was the only time the suites were shed and so it had really become like a secondary skin to me.

With all that running finished Wolf had us give our attention to him.

"Each one of you here may or may not know about swords. Some might have mastered a particular style while it might be the first time some is going to hold a sword. It does not matter for from the time you entered this hall, you are all novices with no prior knowledge. My only condition and request to you guys is never mix your style of swords with what I am going to teach. Is it clear?" The man in black clothes asked us. His rugged and bearded face and the jet black eyes had lots of power in it. The muscular middle aged man was holding a wooden sword in his strong and muscular arms. His body was full of cuts which had healed over time, his strong arms seemed as if it were hugging the sword rather than holding it.

"What I will teach you is one of the strongest yet almost extinct sword technique, Darclyt hidden technique. Of all the sword techniques so far, five are considered as sacred while five are considered as black arts. These then techniques are collectively called Divine Death Swords. The ten techniques are believed to originate thousands of years ago and are thought to be the very first sword techniques. Nobody knows which among the ten originated first and which is the strongest and so they are considered to be equal in age and power. Five thousand years ago, a group of ten people, each a master of one of these ten techniques taught a single disciple. The disciple had to undergo vigorous training. It is said that he took thirty years to learn all ten and another twenty to integrate all ten of the techniques to create a new style. He later named it as Darclyt, which loosely can be translated to dark and light. Five sacred sword arts and five dark sword arts combined to one flawless technique, Darclyt. Here I will teach you this technique. As my master who taught only those who were considered weak and unwanted by the society, I Andreas Wolfgan will teach you lot who are considered students of a garbage academy the strongest technique that exists. But remember, strength is not to be used to bully the weak, it must be used to bring down the arrogant strong."

---***---

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