"But don’t get too excited. Your journey as a mage has just officially started. Now you must discover which elent you resonate with."
Elent affinity...I forgot about that.
Noah turned to the succubus with genuine curiosity replacing his earlier breakthrough excitent.
"How can I know what my affinity is?"
Instead of responding imdiately, Lola smiled with the satisfaction of soone who’d knew they held valuable leverage.
"That wasn’t part of our agreent. I only agreed to help you breakthrough. As for your elent, you’ll need to figure that out yourself..."
She paused midsentence.
"Or maybe you can sell triple the usual. Then I can help you."
Triple order, she wants three loaves and three glasses of iced-tea. The automakers will replenish everything within hours anyway. I suppose I can do that.
Noah nodded without hesitation. "Okay, no problem. Three loaves and three glasses of iced tea."
So knowledge is worth bending policies for.
"But first, teach . How can I learn which elents I resonate with?"
"Elents?" Lola’s eyebrow arched with amusent.
"What makes you think it’s more than one?"
"Oh." Noah’s assumption crumbled as reality reasserted itself.
"Right."
One elent. I’m not a magical prodigy like Kip, who probably has multiple affinities.
"Most people only have one basic elent they resonate with," Lola explained, settling into teaching mode.
"Fire, earth, wind, wood, and water. These are the most common affinities you’ll encounter."
The five basic elents, that ans there is elents higher in ranking, perhaps lightening, or ice.
"To discover which one you resonate with, there are three ways. They all differ in effectiveness and convenience."
Three thods. That’s quite the range of options.
"The first way would be through an academy or a rich family. We will focus on the academy example."
"The academy has orbs containing high concentrations of each elent. This has the advantage of being the fastest thod since you’re having direct contact with pure elental energy."
Noah’s mind imdiately jumped to Princess Elara’s repeated invitations.
"That sounds efficient."
"It’s indeed efficient. However," Lola continued.
"There’s a significant downside to this thod. If your elent isn’t abundant and very few people possess it, you might not find an orb available for testing. This thod mostly helps those with classical talents."
Classical talents. So people with rare elents might not find their talent orbs.
"What’s the second way?" Noah asked.
"The second thod involves traveling to areas with elental abundance. This approach is problematic because you don’t know your affinity beforehand, so you’d need to head to various locations to test every elent until you find the one that resonates."
Lola gestured toward the shop’s window, indicating the world beyond.
"For example, heading to a river or sea for water elent testing, forests for wood affinity, volcanic regions for fire, mountain caves for earth, high plateaus for wind."
That sounds ti-consuming.
Noah nodded with understanding. "Lots of travel involved."
"Exactly. Plus, so elental regions are dangerous for novice mages. Volcanic areas don’t discriminate between experienced fire mages and beginners who might accidentally immolate themselves."
"Third option?"
"The third thod is the hardest," Lola’s expression grew serious.
"You’ll need to try imagining every elent you can think of and attempt to resonate with it through pure visualisation. No physical contact, no environntal assistance. Just imagination and willpower."
Pure ntal exercise. That sounds... difficult.
"Has anyone actually succeeded with that thod?"
"A few," Lola admitted.
"Usually, people with exceptional ntal discipline or those who already have strong intuitive connections to their elent. Most give up after a few attempts."
"Which thod do you recomnd?"
Lola’s smile returned, carrying mischief that suggested her answer wouldn’t be straightforward.
"For soone in your unique situation? I’d suggest starting with the third thod."
"The hardest one? Why?"
"Because you have advantages most people lack. Furthermore, the areas with abunance of basic elents are outside the safe zone, so you might hurt yourself."
She gestured toward Moon and Star, whose gentle pulsing continued to enhance the shop’s mana density.
"Enhanced mana sensitivity from your cultivation plants, plus whatever other secrets you’re hiding."
She suspects there’s more to my situation than normal developnt. Well, she’s not wrong.
"If the visualisation thod fails," Lola continued, "you can always visit the academy or travel to elental regions. But attempting pure ntal resonance first costs nothing except ti."
That’s a logical progression. Start with free thods, escalate to expensive or dangerous ones if necessary.
"How exactly does the visualisation thod work?"
"Close your eyes," Lola instructed. "Imagine fire in perfect detail. Not just visual, temperature, sll, the way it moves, the energy it contains. Then reach out with your mana and see if anything responds."
Noah closed his eyes, picturing flas dancing in his mind. Campfires, candle flas, raging infernos. He extended his newly accessible mana toward the ntal images.
Nothing.
"Feel anything?"
"No response."
"Try water next."
Noah shifted his visualisation to flowing streams, ocean waves, and falling rain. Again, he reached out with magical senses seeking connection.
Still nothing.
"Earth?"
Mountains, caves, fertile soil, solid stone. His mana probed for resonance with geological imagery.
No reaction.
"Wind?"
Gentle breezes, hurricane forces, air currents carrying birds. Noah’s magical awareness searched for affinity with atmospheric elents.
Empty.
"Wood?"
Ancient forests, growing saplings, living trees swaying in sumr winds. His mana sought connection with botanical life forces.
Empty once again.
Noah closed his eyes, concentrating intensely on wooden imagery. Living trees, growing branches, leaves rustling with life energy. His mana reached toward the visualisation with careful attention.
Despite his second attempt at connecting with wood, it didn’t yield anything.
Lola nodded her head with understanding rather than disappointnt.
"Okay, so that ans you don’t have a particularly strong affinity to any of those elents. You just need to keep practising."
No imdiate magical specialisation. Of course, it wouldn’t be that simple.
"I’ve already taught you what you need to do. For now, all you need is practice."
Noah nodded with a sigh that carried more frustration than he’d intended to reveal. He’d been imagining himself creating small fireballs or wind spheres, but reality wasn’t so simple.
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