Chapter 8 – Mgic ability test

I get up from bed and stretch. My head get a little dizzy from this sudden movement but that’s to be expected. Three weeks of lying on the bed can makes you stiff. Ok, let’s check out this little new friend of mine again.

I bring the tip of my tail to the front of my face and try to touch my nose with it. I succeed on my first try. That’s better than expected. Next I try to pick up my folded pants from the table and also succeed. Wow. It’s not a tail, it’s a friggin tentacle.

I give a rest to my tail research for now and dress up. I want to go downstairs to the kitchen but I don’t really know how to move with this tail. If I leave it be then it will drag on the floor, if I try to lift it then I have to lean forward to keep balance and it looks really awkward. In the end I decided to coil it up around my right leg.

As I move downstairs I try to reach out with my mana to check if I can see auras this way. I don’t know about my control range but if I use my mana only to sense things then I’m sure I could cover more than one hundred meters around me. For now I focus on our house and immediately can see mother earthen yellow aura with little red flames here and there. There’s also Cril dark blue water aura. When I’m in the kitchen I greet them.

“Hi mom, hi little Cril.”

“Oh hi Kris. I see your tail finally grew.”

“Yeah, thanks for taking care of me mom.”

“Haha. That’s what mothers are there for Kris.”

I take a seat at the table because I can see that mother is almost done preparing dinner, or supper. I can’t really tell the time because it’s quite cloudy outside. I play a bit with my mana while waiting for food. I try to check how big is my control reach by converting small amounts of mana. It takes me about one minute to convert a ball of mana the size of ping pong ball into fire mana. I guess fire really isn’t my thing. It turns out that my maximum range where I can still precisely control my mana is about two meters. According to the books I read its better than average. About the time I finished my experiment we start eating.

After I helped mother to wash the dishes I ask her about the magic ability test.

“Mom, when I can undergo magic ability test?”

“Magic ability test? If I’m not wrong, Reiran Academy do it every month, but I’m not sure which day exactly it is. Father should know, we will ask him when he returns.”

“And when will that be?”

“He was supposed to be here for dinner so he should be here soon.”

We wait for father and in the meantime I play with Cril. Ten minutes later father finally returns.

“Hi dad.”

“Hi Kris. If you are here then it means you finally grew that tail.”

“Yeah.”

“What are you waiting for? Show it to us.”

I roll my eyes and show them my tail. Father is just grinning stupidly and makes mother a melancholic face and say.

“It’s just like mother tail.”

It’s the first time mother mentioned her parents. I was a bit curious about them to tell the truth but don’t wanted to ask her directly about them. They could be dead or something and I didn’t wanted to make mother sad. Here’s a chance to ask about them.

“Grandma is a demon?”

“Yes, she was”

Ugh. A heavy atmosphere. Better to change the topic.

“Dad, do you know when I can have my magic ability test?”

“Test? You can have one tomorrow if you want.”

“Ehh? Wasn’t it supposed to be once a month?”

“It’s once a month for children from villages surrounding Reiran. For children from the city itself it’s possible to have it anytime.”

“Really!? Then can we go now?”

“Now? I still have few things to take care of today, so it’s a bit …”

“Please dad.”

“Even if you beg me …”

“Pleaseee.”

“…..”

“ *puppy eyes* ”

“Oh damn it. I can’t win against you Kris. Let’s go but remember we have to hurry back afterwards.”

“Alright dad.”

Thankfully my combination of stubbornness and puppy eyes worked as usual. I thought that this magic ability test is some kind of grand ceremony but it turns out to be just some everyday process. Anyway since dad doesn’t have much time we set off immediately. Reiran Academy is in the south-east part of the city so it’s quite far away from our house. It takes us about half an hour to get there. We stop before the main entrance. The Academy is quite big, located east of the docks, close to the outer walls because most of training fields are outside the city. I probably never mentioned it but Reiran city lies by the sea or more precisely gulf of Reiran that’s a part of Cold Sea. When I said entrance I mean it literally since the main building of the Reiran Academy face the street directly.

Inside there’s a big hall branching into many corridors. I follow father as he confidently strode through this maze as if he was here countless times already. We went up a few floors and finally father knock on a certain doors and enter.

“Hello principal.”

“Hello Rirar, you could wait for an answer before you enter, you know.”

“It’s not like you even heard me knocking.”

“It doesn’t matter if I heard you or not. It’s a matter of being polite.”

I look around the room while father and principal bicker. Shelves of books and strange devices on the sides, a wooden desk with a ton of documents in the middle, a long bearded old man on a leather chair and a big window behind him. Yep, a standard fantasy principal office alright.

“So, what do you want today?”

“Test my son for magic abilities.”

“Sigh. I won’t even ask why you came directly to me for that. Your son hmmm.”

He stare at me for the first time since we entered here.

“Alright boy, just wait a moment.”

He walk to one of the shelves and take a white orb from there. Then he walk up to me and reach his hand with the orb to me.

“Put your hand on the orb boy, and don’t worry if it hurt a bit, it will just cut your hand a little.”

I do as he say and the orb make a small cut on my thumb, after that I feel as if something is touching my mana. Principal close his eyes and stay silent for a few seconds. Suddenly he open his eyes wide and stare at me.

“Wow, boy you have a lot of power in this small body of yours.”

“What do you mean?”

“You have more mana than an average mage already boy. In this test we usually assign children ranks from one to ten, where ten is the mana amount of an average mage. Skin is your natural barrier protecting your mana from outside interference and this orb help me to control your mana. I can’t measure your mana amount directly but can measure difference in your mana before and after casting a spell. The spell used is special, it always cost the same amount of mana for everyone and don’t depend on affinities. After doing all of it your mana barely decreased which means you have at least twice the amount of mana then an average mage.”

Fuck yeah! It’s better than I expected. I can already picture myself as the most powerful mage of this world.

“Now I will test your affinities. The process is almost identical but will take a bit longer so be patient.”

I place my hand on the orb again but this time I don’t get cut since I still have wound from the previous test. I wait like this for five minutes. Finally he open his eyes and say with a worried expression.

“Sorry, but you can’t become a mage.”

Well, there’s go that plan.

“Why?”

“Your affinities are insufficient, or to be more precise, you have no affinities.”

Damn it. Will I truly be just a normal person in a world full of magic? I think I’m gonna cry.

Father notice my state and hurriedly ask principal.

“What’s wrong? Why can’t he become a mage?”

“I think it will be better if I explain everything to you.

First the test. This time I took a part of your mana and did a basic elemental conversion but without specifying the element. This way, your mana should naturally convert the nature mana into the one that you have the most affinity with. Amount of converted mana would tell me how good your affinity is. But in your case the nature mana didn’t change at all which means you have very weak affinities or none at all.

Now why affinities are so important for the mage. When you want to create a spell you have to convert nature mana into a specific element and then use that mana to create a spell. Personal mana don’t have a specific element and can be labeled as neutral mana. When you convert nature mana into elemental mana, in fact you are just forcefully turning your own mana you released outside of your body into desired element. Nature mana has a tendency of transforming into the element it comes in contact with so when you turn your personal mana into specific element it will also transform together with it. So when you finish conversion and suck your mana back into your body, all you are left with is elemental mana you wanted. Affinity means that a part of your personal mana is an elemental mana from the beginning so even without doing anything, nature mana will start to turn into that element when you release it beyond your body.

You may think that having a neutral mana is advantageous because you’re not restricted to one element but in fact it’s not. When you have even weak affinity with, let’s say fire, you will convert nature mana into fire mana hundred time faster than into earth mana. It’s true that you will have problems creating water mana with fire affinity but most mages won’t even use spells outside of their affinity. That’s why mages have titles like ‘fire mage’ or ‘water mage’. Let’s take me for an example. I probably have the greatest fire affinity in our country so when I release my mana I don’t even have to do elemental conversion because nature mana immediately turns into fire mana around me.

It’s true that you have a lot of mana but it won’t help you much. Converting our mana into elemental mana is almost instant when you do it inside of your body, but this way you lose all of the mana used to create the spell. When converting nature mana, even it takes a lot more time but you lose only a fraction of it. Using your personal mana as it is now you could create two or three powerful spells but an ordinary mage using nature mana can create two hundred equally powerful spells.

Even if you tried to become a mage you will never be able to defeat even a very weak mage with magic alone.”

I listen silently as he speak and realize he’s right. I guess my mana has no color because I don’t have any affinity.

Father look at me silently and put his hand on my shoulder consoling me. Then principal speak again.

“You may not have a talent as a mage but you could become a powerful warrior.”

“What?”

“You know, as the result of this test you can be admitted to the Reiran Academy or Warriors School. Requirements to become a warrior are different than for mages. In fact the only thing you need to become a warrior is a big amount of personal mana. The more you have the more you can strengthen your body. You don’t need affinities because strengthening doesn’t require elemental mana. Someone like you who have massive amounts of mana, that will surely grow even more in the future, can become as powerful as the strongest of mages.”

I stare at him considering what he just said. Become a warrior? No fucking way. In my previous world when it turned out that I have a talent as a sportsman my mother forced me to train every day. After few years of hellish training my only acquaintances were crazy muscle freaks, although I shouldn’t talk about them like that because I was no better. Screw it. If I can’t be a mage then I will become father successor and live my life as a book merchant.

“No. I don’t want to be a warrior.”

“Really Kris? If you don’t want to then I won’t force you but you should give it some thought.”

“No. If I can’t be a mage then that’s it. Let’s go home dad.”

Like this we return home. All the way back father stay silent. I guess he’s a bit conflicted now. I bet he want his son to become an amazing warrior but on the other hand he want to honor my decision. I also don’t say anything because I’m thinking what to do from now on. All this time I was assuming I will become a mage but now I know I never will. In front of the inner gates we split. Father go to the bookstore and I go home. Mother ask me about the result so I tell her what happened. I play with Cril until evening when father returns. After supper it’s the time for the talk about my future I guess since father brings the topic.

“So Kris, if you don’t want to go to the Warriors School then what school would you like to attend?”

It seems that every child have to go to school once he turns five in the end. Doesn’t matter mage or not.

“A normal one I guess? I don’t really have a preference. As long as it’s not school for nobles then any will do.”

“Ordinary school hmmm. I think there is one close to our main bookstore. They teach basics of almost everything there. You can choose your classes beside mandatory ones if I’m not wrong. I know the principal there since they purchase a lot of books from us.”

That sounds quite good.

“I like it. When I can start studying there?”

“Next term start at the beginning of the spring about four months from now.”

“Then it’s decided.”

I’m still depressed about my magic so I decide on my future school as fast as possible and run to my room to cry. Oh god, why are you so unfair?