"...""..."
"Is that it?" Richard said as he slowly opened his eyes. He was expecting some sort of light or something. At least the Professor should have said something to him. He was nervous since Professor kept his silence. Maybe something had gone wrong. Maybe his elemental root was flawed.
"*Ahem* Yes, that was all. Now we should start with building your altar" said Professor Serpentine after coming to his sense. Richard found that wrong but as long as his elemental root was okay it didn"t really matter to him.
"Okay, Professor!" Richard said. Then he followed him to another room. For building altars, each element had its own room. In those rooms, there was a magic circle installed in them to gather that particular element"s prana. The professor led him to the darkness element"s room.
"Darkness? Do I have the Darkness elemental root?" Richard asked the Professor.
"Hm? Oh yes, you have a Darkness elemental root" said the Professor absentmindedly.
Richard was kind of disappointed with that. Honestly, he would have preferred a different element if possible. Those who studied darkness were always creepy. They liked living in dark and doing shady stuff. The element itself wasn"t useful either. In the beginner spells you only had the ability to take your opponent"s sight. Richard thought the more advanced magic should also be the same. Also, the element itself was looked down upon by other mages. Darkness element"s strength mostly relied upon the fact that they had an affinity with devils and they could make deals with them borrowing their power but that was forbidden to do so. Since the Darkness Mage"s had one of their arms tied behind them all the time it was no wonder that they were looked down upon. Even the most renowned Darkness Magus Family, the Alcatraz, slowly lost its standing among the mage circle because of that.
"What about the quality of my root? Is it good?" Richard asked hopefully.
"Eh, that"s not important right now. We don"t want you to get distracted while building your altar so we usually tell students after they are finished with that process" said Professor awkwardly.
Richard immediately became disappointed. This was the first time he heard something of the sort. That must mean his root must be pretty low quality and Professor didn"t want to discourage him. Richard took a deep breath before stepping through the door. From this point onward he was alone and Professor Serpentine could not follow him inside.
The room was lit with torches burning with an eerie purple flame. So even though the room was lit Richard still felt like it was veiled in darkness. Strangely he didn"t feel scared but instead it was like walking into his mother"s embrace. The Darkness inside the room was welcoming. So this was how a mage felt when they were in the presence of their element. It was a surprise to him since none of the books he read mentioned this.
Richard slowly walked towards the magic circle in the middle of the room. As he walked his nervousness slowly left his body. He wasn"t scared anymore. He was going to build his altar and meet with his friends his head lifted up high.
He sat in the middle of the circle and felt the darkness prana surrounding him. It felt like the prana itself had consciousness and wanted to please him. Then Richard slowly focused on his soul and found his elemental root. It had no shape or form. It was just a big ball of darkness located in his soul. This was the first time he saw his root and he was disappointed. Normally the roots were supposed to have some sort of vague shape and for each person, it differed. Some roots might be in the form of an animal while others might be in the form of objects. His, however, had no shape or form. No wonder the Professor did not say his quality. It must have been pretty low to quality to not even possess a shape.
Then how was he supposed to build an altar? If it did not possess a shape he could not mould it. There was nothing about this in the books he read before. Richard started to perspire. He did not know that to do and he was panicking. Then he felt the prana around him move on its own and they started to gather in his soul. Richard had no control over this.
Eventually, the big ball of darkness started to get bigger and bigger. It still didn"t possess any shape or form but it was covering his own soul.
Richard did not know how long had pa.s.sed but ultimately, the process stopped. When he checked his soul again he could not find it. Everything was covered in darkness. No, wait! He could feel that his soul was still there. His soul had transformed into darkness itself. Did that count as building his own altar? He did not know the answer to that question. Every mage only had a single chance at building their own altar and Richard had already started to process so if he got up and leave now he wouldn"t be able to do it again in the future. Richard then tried to shape the darkness that was his soul but he wasn"t able to move it. This was it. If the darkness covering his soul was not his altar that meant he would never be able to become an official mage. There was no point in staying here anymore.
He opened his eyes and looked at the room with empty eyes. His root was already a pretty low quality and now he even had a s.h.i.+tty excuse of an altar. His future was over. He would never be able to see his friends ever again. He was going to become a farmer and live the rest of his life in that small town. For the first time in his life, Richard found that idea appalling. He got up and left the room finding a nervous-looking Professor waiting for him outside the room.
"How was it? Did you manage to build your altar? Does it have any imperfections?" Professor bombarded the depressed Richard with questions.
"I am sorry, professor. I don"t think I managed to build an altar. My root must have been so bad that it didn"t have a shape. I wasn"t even able to mould it. That defected root just kept growing bigger and bigger till it covered my soul and I wasn"t even able to stop it" Richard held back the tears that were gathering in his eyes. The Professor, on the other hand, kept getting excited.
"We have to go see the Princ.i.p.al now. We can"t waste a single second" said the Professor while dragging the Richard along with him.
When they have arrived into the room they saw Dumbledoor speaking to Leon who looked pretty upset.
"I am sorry but I can"t allow that. You have a defective root so the process might be hurtful instead of beneficial. I guess too much talent might be your own downfall this time. Because of the amount of natural prana you possess your root wasn"t able to handle the pressure from all that mismatched prana and that impeded its growing process leaving you with a defective one. Still, you don"t have to worry. With your talent, I am sure that you will become an unrivalled enchanter or alchemist. They don"t have a requirement of needing an altar so you can still do great things in that field as long as you still have your root and have the ability to manipulate prana but if you try to build an altar you might even lose that chance" said Dumbledoor to the Leon who looked as pale as a ghost.
"Princ.i.p.al I have great news! We have a Sovereign! Our school managed to produce Sovereign! Hahahaha!" said Professor Serpentine totally ignoring the mood in the room. The princ.i.p.al was about to berate him for his behaviour but he then noticed what he just said.
"Did you say Sovereign? Are you sure? You didn"t make a mistake in your a.s.sessment right? Which student was it? Was it Edith? What about her altar? Does it have any imperfections?" Dumbledoor said as he got up from his desk also ignoring Leon.
"No, It was Richard and his altar should be perfect!" Dumbledoor then noticed the surprised boy standing next to Serpentine. He walked to Richard and grabbed him by the shoulders.
"Hahahaha, I knew that I didn"t make a mistake that day picking you up. I had always thought Leon was the genius between you two. Who would have thought you were the true genius?" he said in an excited manner.
Richard, on the other hand, was still having trouble understanding the situation. Wasn"t his root defective? Didn"t he build a s.h.i.+tty altar? What were these old fogeys talking about? Also what in the name of G.o.d is a Sovereign?