After walking for a bit, they finally found the shops they were looking for, but something else distracted their attention.
It was a giant screen that displayed two mages fighting each other, with hundreds and thousands of people standing there and watching.
On one side was a fire mage wearing a red uniform, casting hundreds of fire spells at their opponent.
Meanwhile, on the other side was an ice mage wearing a mix of blue and white, standing still as if they were just watching their opponent.
The seven were shocked by the ice barrier's thinness—it was only as thick as a fingernail.
Yet, not a single fire spell could be made past the wall. Not even a small dent was formed.
"He's constantly repairing the ice barrier."
Luna pointed out as her eyes caught on the thin layer disappeared, then reappeared within a fraction of a second.
"Is he going to fight back? How's he going to win?" Camille curiously asked as the ice mage made zero attempts to attack.
"He's probably just waiting for the enemy to run out of mana——"
Before Chloe could finish, a middle-aged man in the crowd interrupted her.
"Running out of mana? That's a level-five mage right there. He's had enough mana to cast these basic spells for days.
Just watch and learn. They know the ins and outs of each other over hundreds of times now."
"Can I ask who they are?" Alex curiously asked.
"Just some level five mage that had been going to that fighting arena for days to beat each other for Rank 1."
"Rank 1?"
"Yeah, Rank 1 in the school tournament for mage level five."
As the fight continued, the ice barrier suddenly shattered into pieces. But rather than being hit by the fire spell, the ice mage teleported.
The fire mage stopped as a wall of fire surrounded him, just as snow started falling from the sky.
"Ice Aura... They definitely are mage level five." Alex murmured as he remembered seeing it in the textbook.
With the temperature rapidly decreasing for the two mages in the fighting arena, the fire mage was rapidly being cornered.
More and more Ice was forming around him, threatening to trap him underneath all the weights.
But with a blinding flash, the snow and ice suddenly all melted and evaporated into steam as the fire mage finally released his fire aura.
"Finally, they are taking this seriously." Another stranger in the crowd cheered in excitement.
As the two elemental auras tried to push each other away, it quickly became a stalemate.
Every magic spell that the two mages tried to throw at each other just instantly vanished as soon as it arrived in each other's aura.
"How are they all gone just like that?" Mary asked in confusion.
"It's their zone of control," Alex explained, but Mary still looked just as confused.
"The other person's aura destroys the element composition, and the mana controls it. So it just vanishes when it reaches it."
Sophia's explanation made it much easier for Mary to understand as the fight devolved into who had more mana to pour into their aura.
It was one of the shops they saw that everyone went to, with only a small price for beginners that they could afford.
When the three told Katherine about it, she was a little surprised, as it wasn't a thing when she was in classes.
Even though it was repeated every single day, none of the kids were bored of it.
They could feel progress being made, with their initial mana being enough for three fireballs max, all the way to almost twenty fireballs.
Sophia and Mary felt they were reaching the early stage of mage level one peek based on the textbook descriptions.
Half of the class even reached the early peek and just needed a breakthrough to reach mid-stage.
Alex, however, was a completely different story.
He was slowly falling behind everyone in the class, just as he expected.
Still, there was progress being made, from casting two fireballs to ten fireballs without needing to meditate to recover.
Day and night, he meditated any time he could, just for the smallest increase.
It even made Katherine and both of his siblings a little worried as they packed up for the upcoming three-day weekend camp.
---
"Alex, you aren't going to pack?" Sophia curiously asked as she packed the clothes she was going to wear into her backpack.
"Later, I can feel I'm just slightly off."
Seeing Alex returning to meditation, Sophia and Mary both started picking clothes to pack inside his backpack.
"You three ready?" Katherine asked as she walked into the room.
"Yeah, we're ready... Alex, get out of your meditation."
Seeing Alex not responding, both of the girls looked over to Katherine on what to do.
"Just wait five minutes. If he doesn't wake up, then I'll wake him up."
As all three of them sat down in front of Alex, they stared, staring at his face out of boredom.
"Mom, what elemental affinity is Alex?" Sophia quietly asked as she couldn't feel any particular element near him.
She could think back to the meditation room with all seven of them together to save cost.
Both Evelyn and Luna always had a slight water element near them, with Chloe's wind element and Camille's earth element.
Mary had an even more noticeable hint of dark energy, matching her dark affinity, which was backed up by her dark stars in the past.
"That's a secret. I can't tell you that."
"Why not? He already knows both of our affinities, and it's impossible to hide anyway when we reach mage level three."
Sophia's argument made Katherine fall into silence as she still didn't want to tell the two the truth.
"Mom, it's okay if you don't want to say it... Sophia, we shouldn't ask for someone's privacy like this."
Mary pushed back against Sophia's point, feeling it to be a little inappropriate.
After a short silence in the room, Katherine finally made up her mind as she revealed her decision.
"He has no affinity."