Chapter 22 The Basics Of Mana

"You done?" Issac asked as he saw Astryn heading for the door.

Jason's grandmother had taken it upon herself to get rid of the bodies and Issac had to admit that she did so brilliantly.

No one would ever be able to tell that a battle was just fought in the garden.

"What does it look like?" Astryn asked back. "Do you see any drops of blood or a dead body anywhere?"

"Yeah yeah, good job," Issac replied without paying any attention as he took off for the forest alongside Jason.

Astryn gave them one last look before sighing and entering the manor.

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"Let's start with the basics. Most living beings have some amount of mana inside them which develops an element when they turn five and find their affinity.

Issac explained as he and Jason stood in a random clearing in the forest.

"As in the element they can use with the mana?" Jason asked back as his grandpa shook his head.

"Yes and no. The mist you manifested earlier told us what element you had an affinity with and how far you could go using that element.

However, you don't necessarily need an affinity to use basic magic.

For example, almost any person with mana can light a fire using fire magic or clean dust using wind magic, even if they don't have an affinity with it.

The only difference between them and those with an affinity is the time they will take to learn the simple thing."

"Then what are the grades and advances for them?"

"The grading begins from F, which means no magic talent or affinity, and goes up to Z, which means perfect talent or affinity. Every letter grades how far a person can go in the field of magic with their element."

"Ah…" Jason muttered before looking at Issac with an interested face. "Then what is my grade?"

"You have an A-grade affinity with the dark element which is considered good with only the S and Z grades being above it. As for your other element…" Issac's voice trailed off as he had no way of telling Jason his grade.

Thunder mages were extremely rare with only a few of them appearing in every generation. They would usually be hunted down to prevent them from rising to power or being taken by others.

In the past, they were also taken as slaves or forced to bind their loyalty to a particular family.

But that was until Issac grew up and showed the world who he was. After that, Michael inherited his thunder element and now his grandson had it too.

'I should not tell him that he can consider it as Z grade lest he gets careless and bratty like those talented noble kids.' Issac thought before saying out loud. "I have no idea what that is."

"I see…" Jason sounded almost disappointed but he decided to believe in Issac's words.

[ He could be lying. ]

'And we have no way of knowing it. Even if we knew what it was, what would we do? Boast in front of kids our age and call them bumpkins?' Jason replied while mentally snorting as he waited for Issac to continue.

"Let's move on to the elements themselves."

(AN: The info dump is coming... *sighs at the number of people skipping.)

Issac immediately noticed the spark of curiosity sparking in Jason's eyes. "The most common are obviously the four basic elements, Wind, Water, Earth, and Fire."

"Let's start with Water which is calm as well as ferocious. Its opposite is fire which can burn through things with sheer force. Both of them can counter each other depending on the situation and the talent of the person using them."

To demonstrate his point, Issac raised his right hand and two tiny spheres the size of playing marble balls appeared on his index and middle fingers.

One of them was made from water while the other was made from fire. He brought both of them closer to each other as they suddenly evaporated and vanished.

"Moving on, we have the Wind element which can be sharp or gentle in a matter of seconds. As for the last basic element, it's the good old solid Earth which is mostly used for building things."

Issac then pointed his index finger towards the ground and manipulated the Earth to create a small castle.

He then flicked his finger forward and cut through the top of the mud castle.

"Such kinds of basic magic is known as tier Zero magic or tier Zero spells or skills, to be specific. You will learn more about them in the future. Till then, focus on the physical part."

Issac then dispersed all of his magic before continuing.

"After that, we have the four advanced elements. They are called Lightning, Dark, Light, and Life. I don't think you need an explanation on the first one, do you?"

Jason shook his head in response as he was too focused on Issac's words.

"Good. Let's start with Dark magic which includes many things but mostly focuses on Curses, Seals, and Necromancy.

Life magic is the opposite and focuses solely on healing. As for Light magic, it can be used to create illusions as well as boost yourself and allies."

"Your grandmother is an expert in using light and life magic while I know thunder and wind magic. After the advanced elements, we have the compound elements. One of them is Ice. Ice is a mixture of wind and water.

The second upgraded element is Magma, a mixture of Fire and Earth. The last one is the Shadow element. Long story short, they're all simply a mixture of two different elements that merge into one.

Those with Wind and Water elements have a 50% chance of being able to wield Ice and the same is true for Magma."

Issac finished up as he could feel that Jason was about to ask a question. He just sighed and nodded for the child to go on.

"What about the Shadow element? Why didn't you describe it?"

"No one on the southern continent, at least no human being, has an affinity for the Shadow element. All we know is that it's a mixture of Light and Dark." Issac replied honestly as Jason suddenly seemed lost in thought.

'Perhaps that's the reason Aiden asked me to keep my Light and Dark elements a secret.'

Neither Jason nor the System knew what would happen if he revealed his two elements so for the time being, he decided to hide it.

"Now, Thunder is supposedly a compound element too but doesn't have a pair. Nobody knows how you can have the thunder element but its clear that it belong to the compound element category since its an upgraded version of lightning.

Many think it's just the purest or raw form of lightning magic which makes it one of the strongest elements."

Issac then raised both of his hands and summoned two lightning bolts. Both were purple yet the one in his right hand was glowing brighter compared to the other one.

Furthermore, the lightning seemed to attract Jason towards it. Issac could only smile at this as the lightning bolts vanished.

"A Thunder magic user will always recognize another Thunder magic user due to the pull their magic has towards each other.

But the chances of there being more than one thunder mage every generation is almost zero percent. Anyways, the last elements are the supreme elements of Time, Space, and Void.

The only thing you should know is that these element users can destroy cities or perhaps even kingdoms on their own. Nothing else is known about them."

Issac then fell quiet as he let his grandson get the entire thing inside his head.

He knew that it might have been boring since he himself had almost fallen asleep while reading about the basics.

Issac hoped that Jason didn't feel the same about him verbally telling him everything.

'Even if he does find it boring, he will realize what kind of place the world is and how important this knowledge is. Though that will happen only after a few years. Till then, I will make sure nothing happens to him.'

Issac thought while looking over his grandchild. Together, they walked back to the manor after being done for the day but Jason had no idea that Issac was carefully thinking about his future.

After all, it was something that he had promised his son a few days ago before Jason was born.