“Child of prophecy???! What??”

“Jinx, I cannot say for sure, but in Xector, there is a clairvoyant named Claire who is extremely accurate. All her predictions have came true. She doesn’t make them often but when she does, it is always a big event because it is 100% accurate. Two years ago, Claire made a particular prophecy and announced it to the world. I have a copy here with me. Take a look.” Athena waved her hand again and a piece of parchment appeared on her hand.

‘The Child of Prophecy will arrive in the coming years,

A hero who stands a chance to break the curse.

The hope for humanity to wipe out monsters,

A young lad who will be able to conquer.

The legendary dungeon of King Lucifer,

And bring to an end his literal moniker.

He will arrive with many sevens,

To embark on his journey to ascend the heavens.

But the greatest seven of all,

Lies in his elemental awes’

This was written on the piece of parchment that with a signature of a ‘Claire’ at the bottom of the parchment. I could somewhat sense a deep, glowing power from within the parchment as I covered it with mana.

“This….” I read it and tried to objectively think if it was me.

“Tell me the creatures in your elemental room now.” Athena looked at me with unblinking, serious eyes.

“A red phoenix, blue dragon, black tortoise, white tiger, silver roc, golden pegasus and black devil.” I said immediately.

Athena’s face instantly became ashen.

“YOU HAVE THE SHISHIN?!” She shouted at my face.

“What in the world is a she-sheen?” I tried hard to pronounce the word.

“It’s a name for the four sacred beasts that rule over the cardinal directions of the constellations. The red phoenix, blue gragon, black tortoise and white tiger. Everyone knows that they are extremely famous, legendary tier creatures. Elemental creatures are not unique. Many people may have fire lizard as an elemental creature. However, these four are extremely special and can only exist in one person at any given time. As for your Roc, pegasus and devil, they are all legendary tier monsters that rank at the top of their respective elements.” She explained.

“The four sacred beasts are extremely precious and everyone who owned any one of them were blessed with immense luck and power. For you to have all four of them exist within one body, this is undoubtedly a sign from the heavens that you are the child of prophecy. Look at you. “A young lad” is mentioned in the parchment and you fit that description. “End his literal moniker.” Your moniker is Jinx no? Your nickname means unlucky but if you were to quell all monsters in the world, who would call you unlucky?! “Many sevens” I think that part is obvious. You literally only have sevens for you examination report and the most defining factor “Greatest seven, elemental awe” refers to your elemental room. No one, no one has 7 elemental affinities before and that alone would make me think the child of prophecy is you. But for you to have 7 of the most powerful elemental spirits within you… How is it they are all not fighting inside your elemental room?! You mean they can co-exist within you in peace?!” She asked.

“Erm.. I don’t know how an elemental room looks like but mine is pretty cozy so they usually just lie around and sleep? I only talked to the Roc and Pegasus before.” I sheepishly answered.

“Cozy? Explain????” Athena asked, puzzled.

“I have many sofas around in them and even a TV, fooseball table, a kitchen and even a bar??” I said.

“You… are a weird kid. An elemental room is just a term we use. Usually there is nothing inside the room at all. It is just an empty space where your spirits co-exist. Usually, the dominant spirit which is the strongest will be the boss of the room. However, for yours… All your creatures are legendary-tier so I’m surprised they are not fighting. I guess the heavens must have gave you this literal comfortable elemental room to help keep your spirits comfortable and in a better mood. Oh well not important. Come here! Quick! Eat this mana pill to recover some mana and channel your white tiger and cast a mana arrow at the orb again!!” She said.

“White tiger? Why him?” I asked, wanting to wake up the fire phoenix instead because it seemed like a more approachable creature and because I thought fire was the strongest element for offensive power.

“Fire is strong offensively yes, but the fire phoenix has unique properties. It’s most powerful ability is the strong life force that a phoenix possesses. This means that the flames are extremely hard to put out and are extremely strong but it also has healing, regenerative powers. It is undoubtedly strong for offense with healing properties as a bonus. However, the white tiger is famed for its white tiger claw. A skill that possesses unparalleled offensive power among the four legendary beasts. It has no other purpose other than sole destruction so I want to see what happens when you use its offensive power. The lightning element is comparable to fire element for offensive power anyway.” She explained.

“Alright. I’ll go wake him up now then..”

Please don’t bite. Please don’t bite.

“White tiger. Please lend me your strength.” I channelled my thoughts to my elemental room.

The white tiger, who was lazing about on a huge round beanbag stirred. His fur was as white as snow and he was majestic. He slowly opened his huge, yellow eyes and let out a yawn. White, razor sharp teeth which looked like gleaming daggers could immediately be seen.

“So… Human. You decided to wake me up and want to borrow my powers? Why should I give it to you?” He said with a voice full of confidence, power and contempt.

“Because… I gave you a comfortable room to sleep in the first place and I really want to be able to be friends with you?” I meekly asked.

“FRIENDS?! WITH A HUMAN?! DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?!” He roared.

HOLY SHEEEET HE’S PISSED

“SORRY SORRY WHITE TIGER. I KNOW WHO YOU ARE. YOU CAN GO BACK TO SLEEP!” I quickly shouted back and retracted my consciousness.

“HAHAHAHA Relax master. I was just kidding with you.” The white tiger suddenly smiled and got up from the sofa, an aura of grandeur seeping out from it continuously, giving the tiger a sort of white glow as he talked to me.

“I just wanted to see what sort of person my new master is. I have no right to go against you when I’m in your elemental room. You can even force me to give you my powers. However, I assume you didn’t know this because you clearly are too young. At least you know who I am though. That’s good. I just wanted to make sure that you were someone worth serving. I don’t bite. Okay I do but I don’t plan on biting you. Yet.” He said as he raised his eyebrow at me, showing that he indeed possessed no ill intentions and was actually capable of joking as well.

“Call me Byakko. It’s my name since I existed and I prefer hearing my god-given name than some nickname that the whole world calls me because of my power. What do you want me to call you? Master?” He asked.

“Since you want to be called by name, I want you to call me by my name as well. Jinx. I like having someone I can talk to so even when I’m alone I can just talk to all of you in my room.” I said.

“Alright Jinx. Let me tell you something first. Although I am extremely powerful and so are all the other spirits in your room, you are currently unable to use us to the best of our abilities. This is because your understanding and knowledge of the elements are lacking. We are profound creatures with a deep understanding of our own element. However, you who are controlling us, borrowing our power, will not be able to draw out the best of our abilities unless you can understand more about our elements. Let me give you a tip. For my lightning element, the emphasis is not on power. The emphasis is on speed. Rough, ferocious speed. We are different from the wind. The wind is gentle, soothing, graceful. We are rough, jagged and ferocious. When you channel elemental power, you have to understand what you are channelling and visualise the elemental powers in their truest form. This is how you make elemental attacks even stronger. You can try now.” Byakko said.

I took Byakko’s words very seriously. I thought about what I knew about lightning. I did not know much about it at all except for electric shocks. He was right. It would take a long time to understand something as abstract and powerful as the element of lightning. However, I still tried my best. I conjoured a mana arrow using all the mana I recovered from the pill and borrowed Byakko’s power. Instead of just putting him into the arrow as I did the past few times with Pegasus, I imagined channelling Byakko not as a normal entity, but something that was like an electric shock. An electric shock of power that was the white tiger. Intermittent, rough, jagged.

Suddenly, the arrow was no longer just a mana arrow that glowed with the yellow aura of electricity. It was like I was holding an electric shock in my hand that took the form of an arrow instead. The arrow was crackling, with not a fixed shape but many electric shocks that was controlled to take form of an arrow.

“Elemental recomposition level 2!” Athena gasped to herself.

I flung the arrow at the orb.

270!

My jaw dropped.

Did my power just increase two times just by using Byakko’s power?!

“Atta boy. That was a good first attempt at trying to use my power. Let me tell you first. You are far, far away from comprehending the true essence of lightning but you need to keep trying. Only when you are able to utilise me properly will my true power show. Just now, I can’t even give you a percentage of power you drew out of me. Maybe 0.0000000001% or something. But you must understand. You are your worst enemy. The limit to your maximum power is yourself. Continue improving yourself Jinx.” Byakko telepathically said to me as he retreated from my mana pool back into the elemental room and went to watch TV. Game of Thrones was currently showing and he didn’t want to miss it.

“Jinx! How did you learn to elementally recompose your arrow to the next level?!” Athena asked me.

“What? What do you mean?” I asked.

“I planned to teach this to the class only somewhere in the second half of the year because this is an advanced level magic already. Elemental recomposition has 5 different levels. The first level is to channel your spirit beast to embed your mana with the power of a certain element. That was what you did first in class just now. However, level 2 is when you manage to embed the properties of the element directly into your spell. For example, you saw your first ever light mana arrow right? It was just a mana arrow that gleamed with golden light. However, if you reach level 2 and cast mana arrow, it would no longer be a light blue mana arrow that gleamed with golden light surrounding it. Rather, it would be a mana arrow that was made entirely of golden light. You would not be able to see any traces of original mana within it. To reach level 2 requires you to understand somewhat the properties of the element you are using and channel it into your mana using that property. Let me show you an example.”

Athena conjoured a mana arrow in her hand that was gleaming with red light. “This is level 1.”

Suddenly, the arrow changed entirely. It was like there was fire in her hand that took the shape of an arrow. “This is level 2.”

Suddenly, the flaming arrow that seemed to burn chaotically changed colour, from red to orange. A very light orange. The change was extremely noticeable. “This is level 3.”

Finally, the orange flaming arrow suddenly emitted a horrible aura. An aura that felt like I was going to be burnt to a crisp immediately by just standing near it. I leaped away and literally ran as fast as possible and as far as possible from Athena as I could. “This is level 4.”

“I have not reached level 5. It is an insane level to reach. They say that once you reach complete mastery of an element, you will be able to summon not just the elements itself but draw strength from that particular element from nature and use forbidden-techniques.” She said as she finally withdrew her arrow.

I gasped for air as she withdrew her arrow. It was still the same mana arrow, about 15cm in length but the strength of the arrow obviously differed like crazy depending on the level of elemental recomposition she used.

“This, is how powerful elemental recomposition is. Without a doubt, it is the method that can increase the efficacy of your magic the most. However, in exchange, it is also the hardest one to level up. Spatial recomposition only has 3 levels and they are relatively simpler to level up. Most mages will eventually reach the last level. However, it will still usually take about anywhere between 5-10 years to reach that level. Quality and quantity of mana is the easiest to train. However, there will eventually be a bottleneck on each individual depending on talent so one cannot really train in specific levels of quality and quantity of mana. But elemental recomposition… Reaching level 4 will guarantee you to be one of the most famous mages around. Famous assasins and archers also have this same degree of elemental recomposition. Reaching level 5… The legendary mage Redwood managed to burn down an entire island. The island itself was fully combusted, leaving behind nothing. Just an empty space which is now part of the ocean. This is what mages who have reached level 5 will be able to achieve.” She explained.

I imagined the scene. One mage bringing an entire island to complete and utter destruction alone. How can an individual who is this powerful still be unable to bring an end to the monster bosses? Just how powerful are these monsters?

“You already reached level 2 from the lightning arrow you just made. However, every level from 2 to 5 is insanely difficult to reach. Most mages will be stuck at level 2 or 3. Level 3 means you are able to understand and incorporate your feelings and will into the element itself, thus the change in colour of the default elemental colours because your personal shade of mana is now completely part of the element itself. Level 4 means that you have understood the element enough to allow the element to manifest itself in the purest way possible. As such, the consciousness of the element itself will be able to manifest itself in your spell. You felt it right when I reached level 4, the insane desire for the arrow to burn and consume anything it touches. Level 5 is the utmost peak of elemental recomposition where you fully comprehend the entire element itself. Thus, you are able to execute 100% of the power of that element. This means that forbidden techniques such as eternal combustion which Redwood used to incinerate an entirely island will now be at your disposal.”

“Let me conclude. In short:

Level 1 – Ability to incorporate elemental affinity into your mana.

Level 2 – Ample understanding to channel elemental power in a desired form for the element to manifest itself into your mana, changing your mana into the element itself.

Level 3 – Deep understanding to combine both your personal mana and elemental power itself into one entity, combining the powers of both to make your mana carry both your will and the power of the element.

Level 4 – Almost perfect understanding which allows the will of the element to be incorporated into your mana. Turns your mana into something that possesses unimpeded will of nature and your own will.

Level 5 – Complete understanding that allows you to become one with the very element.” Athena ended off.

“It takes an immense amount of talent in order to reach even level 3 because understanding both yourself and the element to a large degree is needed. If you know enough about the element but not about yourself and the true nature of your own mana, you will be unable to reach level 3. This is why it is so hard. An element itself is already very complex to grasp. But yourself? Someone that is ever changing with a conscience of your own? When can someone say you truly understand who you are?? This is why it is so hard.”

I nodded and agreed. Even though I know what I like, what I want to do in future. I definitely did not understand myself enough to the degree where I can say I truly understand myself. Everyone does things some times which they think they would never do after all right???

Athena told me to keep this a secret because if this gets loose, it might entice a commotion which is extremely inconvenient for me. All the top geniuses of this school will try to bring him down in order to establish themselves even more. I was just someone who just attended the first day of school. I couldn’t even cast any defensive spells and just one mana arrow. The worst case scenario is if the monsters heard about the “Child of Prophecy” that existed here. Athena said that the monsters already knew of the prophecy of Claire. They knew that there would be a “child of prophecy” arriving on the side of the humans soon so I can be sure that if they found out that it was me, they would stop at nothing and might even send their entire demon force to raze this school to the ground and kill me. She praised me for having the foresight to lie and say that I only had one elemental affinity because it was very believable. She then instructed me to go to the library and borrow books on elemental affinity of every element and try to reach level 2 in every element because it was very useful.

I thanked her and left the class. I proceeded immediately to the library to borrow some books on the remaining elements other than lightning in order to deepen my level of insights on the different elements. It was a long day so I did not read the books just yet but went to find Chippy for dinner. We shared about our day and it seemed like where I made a scene by conjouring a light mana arrow which was now known by about half the mage cohort, Chippy made an even bigger scene because he beat his entire class in one of the assassin class initiations.

Every year, the freshman who enrolled in the assassin class had to go through a trial. That was to fight one against your entire class in a hand-to-hand close combat fight with no weapons. The teacher each year would demonstrate how to do it but obviously one against twenty was unrealistic for everyone who had no background. However, Chippy managed to beat everyone in his class, one against nineteen. Everyone usually gets beaten up by the class for about 10 seconds before the teacher stops the initiation but this time, Chippy actually managed to pass it.

“Why did you do that?! Everyone will be unhappy that only you didn’t get beat up!” I said to him during dinner.

“Erm.. Because I did not want to get beaten up??” He replied while munching down on his bacon bits, obviously not giving half a shit about what he’s just done.

I could only shake my head and smile. Well, Chippy’s a genius I guess so let’s just let him show off his antics and talent.

After dinner, I felt extremely tired because I exhausted my entire mana pool not once but twice today. I went to lie on my bed because I wanted to take a rest but I ended up sleeping for the whole day.

The next day, the Kirin alarm clock rang loudly again and I went to the West spine this time for my first ever warrior class. I strolled into the classroom and saw that there were obvious differences. The warrior classroom was not like the magicians where there were organised tables and chairs. It was just a huge empty space with a small podium at the front of the class. There were a lot more males than females in this class of 20. They were also generally of a much bigger build. No surprises there.

Suddenly, the door opened and a huge, burly man walked into the room.

“Good Morning class. My name is Whitebeard. I hope all of you here are passionate and determined warriors to be. I have no room for leniency in class and what I hate most are cowards. Welcome to your first ever warrior lesson.”