5 years laterRichard and Leon eventually got used to life at Hogwash. As expected, just like Dumbledoor, all the mages were interested in Leon while Richard was mostly left to his own devices. At least he wasn"t sold to slavery and that still counted as a win in his book. He was joking obviously. He now knew that mages weren"t all that bad. Actually, they even carried a certain charm to them with their eccentric behaviour. It was like having a crazy uncle.
There was one thing Richard didn"t like about them though and that was how they treated the non-mages. It was like those who don"t have prana was like a sub-race in their eyes. In other words, they didn"t consider them to be real humans. Obviously, as someone coming from the countryside, Richard found that notion idiotic. They were all human, weren"t they? So what if they didn"t have prana? They lived their life the same way. They fall in love, get married and have kids just like any other mage. What was so important about having prana anyway? People could perfectly live without casting a single spell in their lives. So what if you have prana? You still live the same amount of time and die eventually.
"So you use the Alkinson"s matrix in this part otherwise the altar won"t be stable... Are you even listening to what I am saying?" a girl with blond hair and blue eyes said angrily.
"Of course he is not. Otherwise, he wouldn"t be our Richard now would he?" Leon said jokingly. After the 5 years he spent in Hogwash, his childishness had left his face and he looked like a das.h.i.+ng young man now.
"Haha, funny. Unlike you two, I am just average so you can"t expect me to get everything in a single session" Richard said as he focused back on the notes in front of him. The girl then kept on explaining the parts that Richard was having trouble understanding.
Her name was Edith and she was the most talented student in the school, well, except for Leon that is. That guy was just a freak. Anyway, she came from a long line of mages so she was trained to be the best from the moment she was born. They had met her after she found out someone had finally taken her first place in the monthly exams.
She wanted to see the boy who surpa.s.sed her and what was so special about him. One event led to another and their duo finally became a trio. Actually, Richard was feeling pressured by that. Both of his friends were so amazing but everything he did was no better than the average. It didn"t matter if he didn"t sleep for three days just to study for an exam. His results never came close the two so he just gave up.
He stopped paying attention to Edith"s lesson and instead focused on her beautiful nape. It was so mesmerizing how she pushed back the locks of her hair behind her ear whenever they fell down. There was a certain charm to it. Richard didn"t know much about the worldly matters, he knew that men and women were supposed to fall in love with each other. At first, he didn"t think much about that. Edith was his friend and he never thought there was anything wrong with his feelings towards her but that changed when he noticed his feelings towards her were much more than just friendly.
That actually made things complicated for him. After all, they were worlds apart from each other when it came to their social standings. She was a genius and from a long line of n.o.ble mages while he was only average and his family didn"t amount to anything. Leon, on the other hand.
Richard looked towards him. He was handsome. Even as a man himself he couldn"t deny that. His raven black hair and hazel eyes were das.h.i.+ng. He had high cheekbones and a defined chin. All the things a girl would look for in a man. To top it off, he was a genius in magic and all the established mage families would want to have him as a groom. Richard"s inferiority became even worse when Leon told him that he liked Edith. How could he compete with that?
He was feeling conflicted about that matter. He knew that if they got together he should be happy for his friends but he couldn"t help disliking that idea. Anyway, he just needed to stay silent and not embarra.s.s himself. Since Leon liked her, Richard was sure that Edith"s feelings were the same. But he couldn"t help hoping for more. What if Edith actually likes him instead of Leon? What if he could get her family"s blessing? No... There was no need to get his hopes up. If he didn"t get his hopes up, then it wouldn"t hurt much when he finally hear the "good news"
"So with this over we should finally be ready for our final examination," said Edith as she closed down her book.
"I don"t think we needed to study anyway. We have already memorised this stuff years ago" Leon said as he did the same.
"But it wouldn"t hurt to make sure, right?" said Edith while looking towards Richard.
"I guess..." Richard said downtrodden. It was obvious that she was doing this for him. She must have been worried that he would fail in this last step. Yeah, if there was anyone among them it was him that could fail the examination. Only he was not good enough to be a mage. Maybe he was looking down on himself too much but it was hard to find any good qualities about himself when his friends were as bright as a pair of stars.
"Anyway, let"s go to our individual examination rooms. The next time we meet we will all be official mages" Leon said as he got up from the chair as the other two followed. The three of them looked at each other and then smiled before leaving.
Richard was feeling nervous as he slowly made his way to Professor Serpentine"s room. If he failed today all his hopes of becoming a mage would be ruined. You see, when a mage is born they are all given an elemental root. That root determines your success in the path of magic. Before you are 16 years old your root develops slowly so it"s impossible to tell what kind of element you have an affinity with. You can still cast some basic spells from each element but that was about it. In order to cast more advance magic, you needed to have the corresponding elemental root and the more developed that root was the further you could go in that particular elemental path.
If it was just learning his elemental root Richard would not be this nervous. Even if he did not have a good root he wouldn"t care much and just focus on other paths like alchemy or enchanting. What he was afraid of was building an altar. Just because you have a good root doesn"t mean that you can cast high-level magic. First, you needed to transform that root into an altar inside your soul. Even if you had the best root in all of the existence it didn"t matter if you couldn"t transform it into an altar. The quality of the altar was an issue in itself too. Let"s a.s.sume that you have a high-grade elemental root, if you made a mistake during the process of building your altar, you might end up with a lower grade altar and you wouldn"t be able to access your full potential. So even if you could cast advanced magic you might only end up being able to cast intermediate in all your life. Also, if you couldn"t build an altar at all during this process you would lose your root and ability to cast magic completely! That was the reason why he was so nervous. He was afraid of s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g it up somehow and lose his ability to cast magic. Even if he lost it he wouldn"t care that much but he wouldn"t be able to see Edith anymore. They would literally be living in different worlds from that day onward.
"Richard, are you ready?" the Professor asked. Richard nervously nodded his head.
"Don"t forget. You only have a one shot at this. So take a deep breath and calm yourself first. While you do that, let"s check your elemental affinity" said Professor while opening a little box in front of him. The box was engraved with delicate runes that made it seem like a precious jewel box.
Inside the box was a crystal clear orb. The moment he put his hand on top of it, the orb would suck his prana and determine the quality of his root. Richard took a deep breath before closing his eyes and putting his hand above the orb.