Chapter 17：What Is A Half-Elf?

In short, any Humans who were willing to learn magic could head to the central square of Stromgarde Keep to achieve their goals.

However, the situation was contrary to what the Elven Mages had expected. 

In the beginning, highly curious about learning how to wield mysterious magic, many flocked towards these lessons to try out. Even King Thoradin himself had scheduled to attend for a few hours, but it was not long before his interest dwindled. 

He simply could not understand anything.

Arcane Magic touched upon knowledge that was profound and in-depth. If the Elves had systemized their training regiment, coupled with if King Thoradin had much time to spare, with his extraordinary intellect, King Thoradin could have probably still understand the basics. 

However, defeating the Trolls was the reason why the Elves were teaching Humans how to become Mages. As a result, their training scope was extremely narrow and only knowledge for the purposes of defeating the Trolls was imparted. Also included in the syllabus was an excessive study of Trolls. 

Besides, King Thoradin was a busy person. The fact that he had spent a fraction of an hour attending the lessons was a decent endeavor. How could he afford to spend more time? 

As soon as King Thoradin left, more than half of the crowd dispersed as well. 

In truth, they understood even less and only felt compelled to stay because King Thoradin was still present in the hall. Now that King Thoradin had left, what else were they there for? Their curiosity had been quenched, and they all returned to their families. 

Soon enough, there were only less than 300 people remaining in the central square. 

Within the remaining crowd, most were only there because they refused to give up. Very few could understand parts of it, and even fewer had found the course interesting. 

Sean was part of this minority. 

"Protection, Conjuration, Divination, Animation, Leash, Enhancement, Illusion, Psychic and Transmutation. Of the nine schools of Arcane Magic, the Elven Mages emphasized Animation, whereas when it came to Protection and Conjuration, they've only briefly discussed it. The remaining schools were left unmentioned. Indeed, everything served the purpose of winning the war!" 

Sean was emotional. 

The Animation school of Arcane Magic was one that focused on the methods of transforming Arcane energy into material explosive energy. The same Arcane Magic that could be used to pull off harmless pranks could be utilized as an attack against enemies, creating tonnes of explosive force on the battlefield." 

The most commonly seen of these spells were such as Arcane Explosion, Arcane Missiles, Frostbolt and Fireball. 

The former two belonged to pure Animation magic techniques. However, the latter two required the usage of Conjuration techniques to summon Ice and Fire and then shaping them using Animation techniques in order to cast. 

It was the reason why the study of Conjuration was compulsory. 

After attending the lessons for an entire day, Sean was pleased. 

Indeed, the studies of Arcane Magic done by the Elven Mages was in-depth. Although it was no match for the future Dalaran, a place that had studied Arcane Magic to the point that they could even conjure flowers, the Elven Mages discussed the nature of Arcane Magic in detail. It was the purest and most authentic of magic knowledge.

Sean decided to cherish this opportunity. 

Hence, as soon as dawn arrived, Sean dragged Meryl Winterstorm along to meet the group of Elven Mages. 

The High Elves of Quel'Thalas were scarce in number. Although there had not been anyone who had conducted an in-depth population survey in the World of Warcraft, it was clear from certain details that the High Elves were not a populous race. 

After 2800 years, Dalaran, the city that had the highest population of Mages in Azeroth, had less than 3000 Mages. 

2800 years before that, the High Elves would defeat the Zul'Aman Trolls with the help of Thoradin's empire, especially the 100 human Mages.

How much higher could the all-Mage population of the Quel'Thalas High Elves be? 

Already suffering from a limited Mage population and coupled with the ever-worsening situation on the battlefield, Quel'Thalas had managed to send over only five Elven Mages and none of them were high leveled.

In fact, only one of the five Mages was a High Magus, the remainder were still Mid Ranked. 

Being sent on a mission to impart Arcane knowledge to Humans, the five Elven Mages held high hopes for the Humans. They hoped they could find a group of individuals who displayed extraordinary magical talents. However, within a day of their arrival, the Elven Mages were disappointed. 

The truth was that even for the High Elves, who were naturally inclined towards arcane energy, it still required prolonged hours of practice and training before they could exhibit strong magical talents and become a Mage. 

However, time was not on their side. How was it possible to nurture a sufficient number of Human Mage Capable of participating in the war within such a timeframe? 

"It was all just a pipe dream!" The only High Magus in the group sighed deeply. 

The rest were also equally disappointed. 

They even felt a strong urge. 

'To remain in Stromgarde Keep would be a waste of time. Instead of rotting away here, why not rush to the frontlines, killmore Trolls and fight bloodily for our kingdom and people!' they thought. 

Just as they were prepared to give up on their endeavor, a Half-Elf and a Human teenager called out for them. 

"Wise Master Mage, my companion and I are both very interested in Arcane Magic. Do you mind spending a little time lighting up the smaller stove?" 

Although they did not understand what "lighting up the smaller stove" meant, hearing Sean's compliment and that the pair showed a keen interest in Arcane Magic, the Elven Mages' eyes brightened and they stopped planning to leave. 

Even though they were disappointed that no Humans had shown any extraordinary magical talents, they were still delighted. They had lived long enough to understand that interest was the best educator. 

It did not matter how strong one's magical talent could be, if there were not enough interest, one could never go far. On the other hand, with enough effort, a person who showed strong interest in Arcane Magic would definitely excel, even if he was not initially gifted with much talent.

The Elven Mages were happy to meet people who were genuinely interested in Arcane Magic. 

However, this was not what made them the happiest nor what surprised them the most. 

In the next moment, the Elven Mages turned their backs around and saw Sean. They all were shocked. 

It was only seconds later that the High Magus recovered his thoughts. Putting in no effort to conceal his surprise, he looked at Sean and asked, "Are you… a Half-Elf?" 

It was still 2800 years ago. Even though interactions had existed between the Elves and the Humans, it was still rare. What more, it was even rarer for a Human and an Elf to fall in love and bear a child together. As a result, a Half-Elf was more uncommon than a giant panda on Earth. 

This created another situation - very few people knew about the existence of Half-Elf and could immediately recognize one. 

This was simply observed from a common phenomenon - there was no one in the entire Stromgarde Keep that had questioned Sean's species. At most, they had assumed that Sean's appearance was due to a genetic mutation, though, they probably understood the concept of genetics even less. 

Meryl Winterstorm was one of them. 

Upon hearing the High Magus' question, he scratched his head and he asked embarrassedly, "What, what's this Half-Elf thing?"

In Chinese idioms, lighting up the smaller stove originally means to provide better food than the average standard. It is a metaphor of giving special favo