3 Chapter 2
Magic on this Earth is based on mainly two aspects. Affinity and mana pool. There are many ways to increase both of these aspects, but for someone with Sam's background, such treatments were out of the equation.
Affinity is the ability for one magic user to use a certain type of magic. People usually blessed with a strong affinity can learn and use that particular element with ease. On the other hand, people without affinity can hardly progress in it. This is why blessed ones only choose to learn magic in the same element they are blessed with.
To check for affinity, people use elemental orbs. The orbs are just basic crystal orbs that Hero would see back in his other world, inside of some sketchy fortune-teller tents. These crystal orbs after being held for a while will soon change color and start to shine. The colors would represent the affinity to a certain element, and the intensity of them would be the strength of said affinity.
The Hero obviously has a total affinity with the highest level possible. He actually broke the elemental orb while doing the test.
Fire, water, wind, earth, light, and void. He has everything.
A genius, that is what he is. Never has the Nohin seen such incredible talents throughout history. Instantly, he went on the news.
Total affinity is already rare, not to mention the highest potential in every single element. Only the truly blessed child of the Goddess can be awarded such a thing.
With such blessings, Hero can learn whatever he wants at a pace no one can match up with. Records were broken when he actually started practicing magic.
As for Sam, he also has a total affinity. Coincidentally, he caused quite a stir where he came from. Since before him there has been no one possessing total affinity.
But sadly, his potential in every single element is very low.
It was similar to as if someone wanted to split up Sam's power in one element into many parts, the elemental orb test showed equal intensity down to the decimals. Sam was a peculiar case. A very peculiar one at that.
Still, everything went like how it should be. With low affinity, Sam took longer studying and practicing magic. His total affinity earned him a good scholarship to every school he went to. Yet his low affinity meant he would take a dreadful amount mastering just even one of them.
In reality, people would just focus on one element. Since they would have good talents in either one or two, their time would be much less. For Sam, it was difficult throughout the whole spectrum. And in order to prove that he was worth something more than his natural-born potentials, he worked himself to the bone.
Yet there was another obstacle.
To practice magic, you need mana. Mana is basically a type of energy in this universe which exists almost everywhere.
A magic-user needs mana inside their body to use magic efficiently, creating a mana reservoir, or mana pool
Sam's mana pool is not very big. It is less than average. The time for him to recharge was much larger than his peers.
Low mana pool, weak affinity, Sam's talents were truly bad. Still, he managed to stay in one of the best schools in the area.
It was the last year of high school that Sam felt completely out of breath.
Up until that point, he was able to stay together with Marie thanks to his grades. However, the academy examination was getting closer, and the materials kept getting harder. Marie told him already that she wanted to be in the magic academy located in the capital of Nohin, where only the most gifted students of the country could attend.
Sam knew from the start that between him and Marie, there was a tremendous difference in talents and power. Yet he kept on pushing, clutching onto a weird belief that hard work would somehow pay off in the end.
What took Marie 1 hour to master, it would take Sam at least twice that amount, or even three times as much. His low affinity caused him to take longer than a normal student to feel the elements in the environment, and his low mana pool caused him to take longer to recover from practicing.
Usually, Sam would accompany Marie on their way back from school. He would never miss a day to walk her home because he loved being with her. To him, being able to spend time with his childhood friend meant more than the world, and he would never miss a second of being next to her.
It was strange how devoted he was just to stand next to Marie.
Although they are childhood friends, they did not exactly share a really strong memory of each other. No accidents, no saving Marie from wild dogs, no nothing.
Sam's feelings started out small. However, due to some kind of abnormal influence, his feelings grew parabolically. From just wanting to be more than a friend, to be willing to devote his entire being to his love.
Because Marie wanted to study in the academy, Sam put his life on the line for that purpose. Because Marie wanted to have a new book, Sam would go in the middle of the night to find a place to buy the thing for her.
His room was full of her pictures. Every corner of his walls was decorated by the one picture of the two together but when they were young. He even wore on his head a headband which read: Marie *heart*.
He was an idiot. He did not confess his love or anything while giving her his all like a total simp. Ironically, Sam felt like it was worth, everything that he did.
The idiot slept at 1 AM and woke up at 4 AM. Each night, he would indulge in the materials given by the school to study, and every morning he would do his basic magic training in the school's gym.
To Sam, not having talents was nothing. He just had to work harder. As long as Marie was there. As long as he could see her every day.
From the moment of his love's sentence of going to the capital to study, Sam turned on extreme turbo mode. Even to the point of quitting meeting up with Marie every day. It pained Sam to the point of feeling nauseous, but he still kept going. He must be in the same place, he must see her every day. If he could be with her in the magic academy, he would finally confess, and they would really be a couple after all these years.
However, it was probably at that point Maire's feelings towards Sam, if they ever did exist, started to reduce.
