18 Misconceptions

After a fantastic day with his friends, Teo awoke in his comfortable goose-feather bed, fresh and rested. The sun had already brightly illuminated his room, as he had intentionally slept late today to completely digest the disturbing quantities of food which he had consumed yesterday.

Even though it was well past breakfast time, Teo showed no signs of hurry; instead, he took his sweet time to stretch and roll around on the bed for a few times. It was the first day of the weekend, and the weather was gorgeous.

His schedule for the day had already been set, and apart from the extra-long Enchantment session in the afternoon, he was mostly free. His plans, however, left little room for dilly-dallying. It was time to practice some Magic; maybe Goliath even had some tricks to teach him.

Teo leisurely went to wash up and put on a loose-fitting, white shirt and baggy, brown pants. He would need to be able to move freely while practicing, so his usual tight and proper attire did not quite fit the bill.

After locking the door, he made some space in the middle of the room, prepared his notebook, and took out Goliath from the pouch that was already hanging around his neck. It was time to start.

"Morning, Goliath. I am about to practice Magic now; maybe you could give me a few tips. At the very least, you should know more about Magic than I do," he said in an unusually energetic tone.

"Good morning! Sure, I can take a look, but as you know, my magical knowledge is severely limited," replied Goliath, his voice as sonorous as always, as he materialized in a small tornado of energy.

Teo had learned to control his Mana with much finesse by now, and he could cast the Mana threads into all the basic geometric shapes as well as any combinations of them. He could even build simple three-dimensional structures.

Not only did he showcase his control over Mana to form simple patterns, he even performed an array of foundational Magic skills that he had learned or invented himself. Within a few minutes, a sturdy Mana Shield, a whip, and even a Mana Bolt had appeared in the room. Of course, the Mana Bolt was expertly intercepted by another shield that he had cast so as not to blow up his own room.

Teo had made a lot of progress when it came to weaving the Mana into a usable form.

"That's it?" a disappointed voice questioned after he had finished his last trick.

"What do you mean? Wasn't that plenty already?" Teo retorted while wiping the fresh sweat from his face, quite upset with the rude remark.

"What spells? Also, Basic Runes is a 4th-year class; I only know the few I need for Enchantments." Teo looked at the small Golem, like if he had seen a ghost, not able to organize his thoughts accurately. After a short pause, he continued his protest,

"What Elements am I supposed to learn? I only have an intermediate grade Mana Affinity, I never heard of anyone having two!"

Now it was Goliath's turn to look at Teo speechlessly. He stood still for a few seconds, then began operating again.

"Oooh boy. It seems like they didn't teach you anything so far. Maybe I can help you after all," the small Golem finally answered after rotating his brick-head for a few turns, sounding both incredibly skeptical and slightly pleased with himself.

Teo was not suspecting good news, from the way his companion had put it, but he still sat down on the chair near his desk and listened attentively. If there was a problem with his Magic, it was better to clarify it as soon as possible; it could give him an edge over his classmates.

"Okay, since we are not on the same page about this, how about we start with the basics?" said Goliath, only continuing after Teo gave a short nod.

"Affinity has absolutely nothing to do, with what Elements one can learn! At least not on a fundamental level. It only makes comprehending an Element easier, or harder, depending on the synergy between your Affinity and the Element you are studying," Goliath said very slowly, as if talking to a caveman, not sure if he would understand.

"What?!" Teo exclaimed, jumping up from his chair; apparently, he did not understand.

"I'm saying, that one's Affinity is only a shortcut to understanding the Element closest to oneself. It is much harder to grasp the other ones, but far from impossible and not even that rare. Since you are lucky enough to have an Affinity for Mana itself, you should be able to learn basic control over the other Elements quite easily. This is common knowledge; I can't imagine any Magician not knowing about it."

The implicitness, Goliath had said it with, was hard to accept for Teo. Did every Magician know about this, or had it been lost in the vortex of time? At the very least, he had never heard anything about this! But, if it was true, then it was unlikely for it to go unnoticed through the last hundreds of years, some people are bound to have tried, right?

"So, a real Magician can use all of the Elements he likes?" Teo asked weakly.

"Of course not! It's hard work to understand an Element and it only gets harder with every additional one. Only real geniuses can master several Elements with equal proficiency. Normally, everyone has a main Element to focus on and a few sub-Elements that he has some basic control over," Goliath denied, in an agitated voice.

This seemed a lot more reasonable to Teo. It explained thoroughly the existence of the system he knew of, where Magicians were classified as 'Water Mages', 'Fire Mages', and so forth, according to their Element, so he nodded a few times. It wasn't bad news at all; it seemed like he still had another shot at Fire Magic!

"Don't worry too much; you're still young and have plenty of time to learn. You should primarily focus on improving your Mana Affinity. It is still a bit low for spells, and your spiritual power probably won't meet the mark either," the small Golem said softly, trying to comfort Teo while giving him a direction to work towards.

Apparently, Teo had already used up all of the shocks he could express in one day, as not even the fact that one's natural Affinity could be improved, surprised him anymore.

"Alright. I have no idea, what you are talking about, but what would I need to do exactly to become a Magician?" Teo decided to save himself the effort of suffering a mental breakdown after every second sentence and directly asked what was most concerning to him. His mind was young and flexible after all, so he had an easy time accepting these revelations.

"That is a hard question, but whatever. Since you have only awakened your Mana Sense and practiced your Mana Control so far, you will have to start all the way from the bottom," Goliath answered truthfully. He continued after a few seconds when he saw the hopeful look in Teo's eyes. He did not want to crush the boy, telling him that he had barely scratched the surface of Magic yet, but Teo was eager to learn.Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click www.webnovel.com for visiting.