Crests And Classes - Part 3

It was now a little past noon, and despite the fact, the blistering rays of the sun covering the estate didn't bother me at all for some reason. I don't know if it was because of the unusual appreciation I held for the sun's rays, or if it was simply because I was too focused on the girl now walking in front of me. 

Her posture was flawlessly maintained and complimented her subtle strides perfectly, with every step she took the grass being trampled didn't even have time to rustle, in fact it was more like it was embracing the fate in store for it. As her silver hair rustled in the gentle breeze that passed by, she simply straightened its silky strands and continued onwards. Our destination wasn't even that far away, but somewhere along the line I got lost in my train of thought and that only seemed to lengthen the brief journey. 

"Alright we're here." Chelse announced with a hint of joy now present in her voice. 

Now before us was the pond housed inside the Vesper estate, her figure was now in the reflective sheen of its glittery surface, and the occasional ripple would distort her image slightly as the lily pads drifted across the water. 

"I'm going to show you what using a crest actually looks like, so watch closely." 

As she glanced at me, I saw her lips slowly curl up to form a smug smile, I could tell she was just as excited to do this as I was to watch. 

"Alright Chelsea, I won't miss a thing." I filled both my expression and response with resolve. 

She stared at me with widened eyes, but soon enough, her expression had turned to one that matched mine. "That's my student!" 

She held her palm out towards the water, and her crest, in the form of a five-point star promptly began to emit a blue glow the moment she'd done so. 

"Listen Arlen, when using your crest, the main thing you need to focus on is channeling the mana in your body. There needs to be an even distribution of it passing through your mana circuits before you try to use any skills, otherwise the technique will fail and could very well end up backfiring on you." 

As she spoke, blue particles of light began to emit from her body, contrasting with the light of the noontime sky and creating an even more pristine image in the sparkling waters at her feet. 

 To my surprise her words lined up perfectly with her current actions, as I watched the spectacle, I could clearly feel the mana in Chelsea's body begin to thin out. At first it felt like the majority of it was concentrated near her tanden, but it soon began to disperse through her mana circuits in perfect synchrony, none of it ever felt too concentrated and instead her mana was perfectly distributed throughout her entire body. And in the next instant, she displayed her perfect control over that dispersed power. 

With a single flick of her index finger, a jet steam of water shot across the pond, splitting the tranquil body of water in two from end to end and disrupting the strange ecosystem. 

"Chelsea....you're..." 

"That's right, I'm an elemancer." 

Before I could even finish my curious remark, she had done so in my stead. 

"We're not done yet Arlen! – Aqua Guardian" 

At her word, the jet stream disappeared, giving way for the bisected waters to recombine and return the pond to its natural state, but the moment it did, a swirl appeared in the middle of the unsteady waters, and before long something had popped out of the swirling vortex. 

It was a large fish, one that held the same transparent sheen as that of the pond and dwarfed us both in size, the creature was of course constructed from Chelsea's magic. It was a perfect one-to-one representation of the gilled creatures, except this one was floating and perfectly followed Chelsea's every command. 

*SNAP *

With that single gesture from Chelsea, a torrent of splashes and ripples assaulted the surface of the pond and before long, dozens of transparent aquatic creatures had emerged from the pond's depths, she had created these perfect copies with only a slight gesture from her hand. 

Soon after emerging, the floating creatures began swirling around us, forming an aquatic vortex that pristinely refracted the sunlight into scattering blue rays. As I stood there at the center of the vortex, watching the creature's swirling overhead, she casually walked towards me and stopped just about a finger's reach away. Looking down on my captivated expression, she tilted her head cutely, and adding her smug grin, she asked a single question - 

"Pretty cool right?" 

"Yea you really are a prodigy." 

"Of course I am, that much was nothing for me." Her face had once again gone red with color and despite how hard she was trying to hide it, the smile on her face was only growing wider. I was slowly starting to think this girl was weak to praise. 

"Will I be able to do things like that with my crest?" 

My question had apparently brought her back to reality. 

"Eh? Oh um....well that would depend on the type of crest you end up getting and even then, crests are ranked from levels one to five, so at level one you'll need to use chants in order to properly initiate your skills." 

"What level is your crest at now Chelsea?" 

"My crest is at level three right now, so I can only use skills on the same level." 

"So that must mean your skills level up with your crest then?" 

"Thats right, your crest will probably start out at level one, so you'll only be able to use the level one skills, but don't worry once your crest levels up you'll gain access to all the level two skills." 

" I guess I won't be able to use skills like you until I grow older...." Hearing my somber tone, she chimed in to dispel the dull mood. 

"I started at level one too, but I just practiced hard enough to catch up to everyone else with high level crests, so you can do it too if you just practice hard enough." 

I could feel her aura of compassion permeating from where I stood, and her eyes only added to the strong effect it was already radiating. I had no choice but to respond in turn - 

"Alright Chelsea, I'll catch up to you in no time..." 

"Mmhm, that's my student!" 

Although the concern she showed just now was a human reaction I was well accustomed to seeing at this point, she had gotten one thing wrong. I genuinely found the idea of starting out fresh quite exciting.