Mana Cube affinity

A few hours had passed after the professor had arrived. After his introductions, professor Alexander began his 3 hour lecture on the structure of spells.

He described how Mana Cubes had different affinities and that as future Arcanists, you should make sure to select spells that suited you.

He explained that learning spells are extremely time consuming, expensive and that one should master their spell before learning a new one. In addition to this, he reccomended that students should stick to learning elements that they have an affinity to.

When perfectly learning a spell, you can decide to store the information within your Mana cube.

Spells that are released from your Mana Cube are more efficient, precise and deadlier. However, your Mana Cube can only store a few spells before you have to ascend your Cube to increase your spell slots.

The professor did a small demonstration. He extended his right hand in front of him, his palm facing the sky as he began weaving the Mana around him onto his palm.

Fire started materialising on his palm as the spell finished after 3 seconds. "This is a basic tier 1 fireball spell that was created by weaving the Mana that surrounds us."

After extinguishing the fire on his palm he did the same thing again, however this time the fire erupted almost instantaneously whilst looking more refined then his previous one. "This is through the use of my Mana Cube, showing immediate results."

The classroom looked at the professor's demonstration with longing as if they couldn't wait to try what he just did.

Another hour had passed before the lecture ended. Professor Alexander is now leading all the students to the testing grounds where the students would connect to their Mana Cube and find out their affinity.

Arriving at our destination, Sorin estimated around 200 people seem to be here to do their connection. The majority of the people seemed anxious, some seemed excited and the rest didn't really care.

It was then he heard a loud voice infused with Mana.

"Before we begin connecting to your Cubes, I must tell you how you would be examined. As you know, there are only 6 possible Cubes that you can have an affinity to. The Cubes being Crimson(fire), Azure(water), Verdant(earth), Aurora(wind), Umbral(shadow), Luminous(Light). These affinities will highly influence the path you would take. What kind of Arcanist you would be is solely up to you. As Arcanists, we defy logic and explore the mysteries and wonders of magic."

"Now before we start, the affinities that you get will also reveal your talent in them. There are four levels of talent. Those being, Low, Medium, High and Blessed. Those that can get high or blessed affinities are natural leaders, conquerors that would lead the next generation of Arcanists! Now let us begin."

Cheers erupted from the 200 students.

Names started being shouted out using Mana, allowing all the students to hear as the people that were selected started their first connection. This could be a turning point towards someone's life.

They would either have enough talent to become an Arcanist, living life filled with glory or remain mediocre and live a life where people can decide your fate on a whim.

So it was expected that the people doing their test seemed extremely nervous. 

As students slowly began their connection, many emotions were shown. Some showed excitement and joy whilst others felt despair and hopelessness.

"Low affinity, Verdant"

"Low-medium affinity, Aurora"

"Low affinity, Crimson"

"Medium affinity, Crimson"

This went on for 20 minutes before a familiar name popped up

"Nevery Andrus"

"High affinity, Umbral"

The Arcanists that watched gave a nod of approval as the affinity test went on.

Looking around, there seems to be around 40 students left. After looking for a bit, Sorin noticed that the protagonist seemed to be talking to the 'Princess of Millith.'

Her nickname given by the students of this academy as she not only had beauty that many said to be hand crafted by God himself, but also because she had a blessed affinity.

Her long golden-yellow hair was very eye catching, it flowed down her back like sunbeams, her appearance gave off a sense of gracefullness that was hard to describe. Her eyes, the shade of purest gold, sparkled with an inner radiance that seemed to capture the very essence of sunlight. Her body had curves at all the right places giving off a natural charm.

Sorin once again admired another beauty before he thought about what would be happening soon.

He noticed that the protagonist seemed to be getting along very well with the girl, which could be seen at how much the two were giggling and laughing together.

It was then, a guy that had a natural aura of arrogance born from 'nobility' approached the two.

"Lady Freya, please come with me to prepare for your Mana Cube connection. I wouldn't want you to catch some strange illness by interacting with this filthy commoner." He shot a patronising glance at the protagonist who seemed a little flustered as he didn't expect to be insulted the very moment he met this person.

Before the protagonist could reply, Freya had already formulated her sentence to this rude person, she looked visibly annoyed.

"Your concern for my well-being is touching, kind sir, but rest assured, I have a knack for discerning genuine character beneath appearances. It is often the unassuming souls that hold the most extraordinary qualities. As for our newfound friend here, I find his company rather pleasant. So please be on your way so I may resume our conversation." Freya spoke in a dismissive yet elegant way.

Anger surfaced his face. He wanted to continue attacking the protagonist verbally however he was interrupted.

"Louis Drakewind"

After hearing his name being called out for the test, Louis took one last glance at the protagonist before walking to the Arcanist who is holding the test.

"I'm sorry about that person." Freya tried diffusing the tense atmosphere.

"N-no worries, haha." The protagonist laughed rubbing the back of his head with his right hand.

Looking at the drama that is playing out, Sorin lightly laughed. He also found it funny how Freya spoke about an, "unassuming soul holding the most extraordinary qualities." After all, she was spot on!

'Though, I doubt she meant in terms of strength and his cheats but more about his character. Well anyways, I already took the test, I had an Aurora Cube which was what I expected with medium-high affinity, leaving the Arcanist who connected me to my Mana Cube satisfied.'

"Freya Von Helio."

Hearing her name being called out, she made her way to the Arcanist where he looked into her soul and used his Mana to create a connection between Freya and her Mana Cube.

The face of the Arcanist seemed bewildered.

"B-blessed affinity, Luminous"

 All the Arcanists seemed shocked and full of excitement.

"Finally! After a year, our school has produced another blessed child!"

"Today is a good day!"

Many Arcanists gave her a nod of approval as well as trying to teach her some of their 'wisdom' and experiences as an Arcanist.

The 20 students and the 180 that were waiting for the test to be over, shot her looks of worship and envy.

Then after all the praises died down, they resumed the test again.

After a while, the protagonist's name finally popped up.

"Leo Lanhart"

"Good luck Leo!" Freya whispered with enthusiasm.

"Thanks." Leo nodded before he arrived before the Arcanist.

The Arcanist looked into Leo's soul before also having a bewildered expression. Everyone present watching had their hopes up before the next sentence ruthlessly destroyed it.

"No affinity"

Leo stared at the Arcanist with pure confusion.

"No affinity? Did something go wrong with the connection?" Leo looked at him expectantly.

"Unfortunately no. Although it is rare, situations like these where people don't have any affinity do happen."

Leo looked a little lifeless as if his very existence is tearing apart.

Many people looked at Leo with schadenfreude, whilst some seemed to empathise with him.

"Pfft Freya, you call that 'extraordinary qualities?' The commoner doesn't even have an affinity!" Louis snickered at the protagonist's misfortune, rubbing salt on his wounds.

Freya didn't seem to pay attention to his comment as he stared at Leo with worry.

Sorin was in the backround trying to keep his face straight as he found this situation too funny. It reminded him of the cliche plots of some novels he had read.

The protagonist being deemed talentless at the start of his journey just to find out later on, that the necklace he is currently wearing is some divine treasure or a spirit of some kind is residing in his body, ready to teach him the strongest techniques.

'Well he does have an affinity, one of the stronger ones as well. I'm pretty sure the strongest person in this part of the world is around a Tier 5 Arcanist. So I doubt many people would know that there were two other Mana Cube affinities, being Ethereal(space) and Cerulean(Time). They are such abstract elements that can't exactly be observed or felt.'

The protagonist would later find out that he had a high affinity towards space which makes his talent extremely good: being on equal footing with people with blessed affinities.

But before that happends, he had to endure quite a bit of hardships.

After the affinity testing, Sorin made his way back to his room