Serum

"Dirk, this is Akassa. She will be doing your appraisal."

"Hello Dirk."

A woman walked over and kneeled down in front of Dirk after the Duke backed away. She was a short lady who didn't look older than 20. She had on a red embroidered robe and carried a book in her hands. 

"Hello, miss."

Calming the mental turbulence caused by the Duke's stare, Dirk slowed his breathing and greeted the lady. She smiled sweetly at him. 

"The process is simple. Grab my hands, and then I'm going to stream some mana through you. It might be a bit uncomfortable, but don't resist and it'll be over soon."

"Okay."

"Good. Then let's start."

Letting go of the book, the woman used magic to make it float in between them. It then started flipping pages until it landed on a blank one. She put out her two palms, which Dirk put his own hands on top of. 

After feeling her smooth palms and fingers, she sent through some white mana. Dirk felt the energy flow into his left arm, and as she said, it was indeed uncomfortable, like someone was violating you. Something about someone else's mana entering your body made you vulnerable. 

Dirk didn't really care much about it though and just let it be. However, there was another part of him that had a different reaction. 

[Warning! Foreign power entering host's body!]

[Blocking mana channels.]

Suddenly, Dirk's body seemed to close itself off to Akassa's mana and attempted to eject it. Akassa noticed this, but didn't think much of it. 

"Just relax yourself. I know it feels weird, but I promise it won't do anything to you."

"...Right. Sorry."

Nodding, Dirk turned his attention to the AI.

'Hey! Deactivate defenses! Open up the channel!'

[Are you sure you wish to-]

'Yes! Let her mana through!'

[Opening mana channels.]

With that, the mana was no longer blocked and proceeded to flow up his arm. Once it reached his shoulder, it flowed across his chest and down his other arm, creating a loop of mana.

With this loop, some of his power seemed to be sucked in and flowed along with her own mana. It was then sent out of his body and out between them into the book where runes started to write themselves on the blank page. 

After a few minutes, a few lines of runes were on the page, and Akassa cut her mana stream. Their hands separated, and Akassa took a look at the book before translating the runes and taking out the page, handing it to Ryker. 

Ryker walked over and grabbed the page from Akassa, who stood up and walked to the side. After reading it, he smiled. 

"Hillshire, looks like your judgment wasn't wrong."

"Oh? I'm glad my intuition is still sharp."

"Indeed. Come here, Dirk. Take a look."

Ryker waved his son over. Dirk eagerly moved, interested in what it said. 

Looking at the page, he found his three attributes. The first was the fire attribute, then the earth, then there was darkness. However, each one now had another word next to it. Beside fire, it said lightning, and beside earth, it said metal. Darkness had no additional word. 

"There's some things you should know about your attributes. First, your fire attribute. It has the lightning tag on there. That means that you have a specialized version of the attribute, one that allows you to control lightning on top of flames. Second, your earth attribute which has the metal tag. It's also a specialized version, and you'll have much greater control over metals. As for your dark attribute, it's normal. 

Now, take a look at the affinities for each one. Your affinity is how well you'll be able to tap into your elemental attribute, but since you have specialized attributes, each attribute has two affinities. Look."

Ryker pointed at the numbers on the page, and as Dirk concentrated on them, the AI automatically recorded the document he was looking at. 

[Attributes:
Fire - 71% (Lightning - 89%)
Earth - 88% (Metal - 93%)
Dark - 92%
Anima - True]

Seeing the numbers, Dirk was surprised. While none of them were perfect, they were all very high. And guessing from the wide smile on his father's face, it was very impressive. However, there was one outlier. Anima. He didn't recognize that word.

"Father, what's this Anima?"

"Oh, that's the energy used for body refinement. We have much to teach you, but putting it simply, you either have the attribute or you don't. There's not really an affinity for it."

"Oh..."

"Can I see? What's his dark affinity at?"

"Hold on. Let your mother see first."

As Rita eagerly came over to get a look, Ryker stopped her and handed the sheet to his wife. Taking it, she took a quick look and smiled. 

"Very nice. We'll have to discuss whether or not he comes under my tutelage in the future."

"Indeed. Alright Rita, you can take a look. Well, as long as Dirk is okay with it."

"It's fine, father."

"Yay! Let me see!"

After getting his consent, Rita excitedly ran over to her mother and looked at the paper in her hands. Viola and Ethan also went over to take a look. 

"Hah! My fire attribute is higher!"

"Of course it's higher, you tard. You have a 90% affinity. Unless his was near perfect, it wouldn't top yours. Plus, he's got lightning. Don't get cocky."

Viola reprimanded Ethan who started getting competitive. He just snorted and turned his head away. 

"Yay! Your affinity is high! Hey Dirk, we should practice dark magic together!"

Rita came over and grabbed Dirk's hand, waving it up and down excitedly. Dirk smiled and agreed to her arrangement while chuckling inwardly about how enthusiastic she was. It was nice having a good sister. 

"Hey Dirk, do you mind if the Duke sees your affinities?"

"That's fine."

"You sure? If you don't want people seeing it, it's okay to say so."

"It's fine."

"Haha, thanks little one. Now, let me see how spot on my guess was."

Smiling at his trust, Duke Hillshire went and received the paper from Cecilia. He took a second to read it before breaking out in roaring laughter.

"Hahaha!! That's what I thought! A three attribute mage! And you can train body refinement! Hey kid, a little advice for you. Don't skimp out on body refinement. Mages should be both tough and smart! When you're ready, I'll let you come pick out a training manual like your older brother and sister. You can start training it early like them too. You're four years old now, so come back when you're ten. That's the time people usually begin their journey on the path of strength."

"Understood. Thank you, sir."

"Of course! Now, why don't you all stick around for lunch? I've got a nice feast planned! Me and Strider also have some catching up to do."

"That would be lovely, Duke Hillshire. Thank you."

Cecilia answered, thanking the duke in advance. 

"It's no problem at all. Now, the garden is in the back. Why don't you kids go and play for a couple hours?"

"Garden! Come on, Dirk! Let's go play!"

Hearing there was a garden, Rita beamed and grabbed Dirk, heading to where the duke pointed. He just followed along, as did the other siblings. 

Smiling at the kids, the parents watched as they ran off before turning back toward each other. The duke led Ryker into another room while the two wives went off to talk about their own matters. 

...........

.......

....

"Hey Dirk! You up?"

"..."

Dirk's eyes fluttered open when he heard the voice outside his bedroom door. Looking at the window on one of the walls, he found that the sun was rising.

"...I'm up."

"Hehe, good morning!"

Hearing his words, the door flew open. Rita came skipping in dressed in a gown. She obviously hadn't changed before coming to wake him up, something she enjoyed doing for some reason unbeknownst to Dirk. 

"Hey! Are you ready for today?"

"Yes, I am."

"Good! It's going to be exciting! School entrances are so fun!"

Rita clapped excitedly as she thought about the events that were planned later today. 

Today was the day that school officially opened for young children between the ages of 6 and 10. Every year, the school would host an entrance event allowing kids and their parents to tour the place, enjoying various festivities and preparing the new kids for their new life at school. 

Rita had entered the school when she was 6. Now, not only was she starting her fourth year, but Dirk was also going to be joining. 

2 years had passed since the appraisal, and Dirk was now 6 years old. This was the age one could join elementary school, so he was preparing himself for a new routine of education. 

Rita was very excited about not only starting a new year, but being able to go to school with Dirk. However, he wasn't nearly as thrilled as her. 

'I can't believe I have to go to a kindergarten...'

Dirk sighed in his mind. He knew he was technically young, but this whole school thing was going to push him to the limit in terms of what he wanted to deal with mentally. The thought of being among droves of children was not thrilling in the slightest. Plus, it would be so different from what he knew.

'When I was 6, I was taken from the slums to the facility to start training. Every day we did drills, ate, slept, and repeated. Although they did educate us, it sure as hell wasn't like a normal school.'

Dirk remembered his old life. His education was strict and to the point, focusing on the most efficient insertion of information into each child's mind. After a while, it became one of the standard drills they did every day, except instead of a physical workout, it was mental. 

Now though, he would be going to an ordinary school. This school didn't even teach magic, although they taught about the concept of magic. There, he would be learning about basic knowledge and life skills. Things like reading, writing, geography, history, and math. 

With Dirk's mental age though, he obviously didn't need to learn all that stuff. While he did want to know the history and geography of the world, that was something he could just pick up a book and read about. His father didn't give any of that to him though, so he was stuck having to go to the school to learn all that. 

Worst part was, school lasted 4 years until you were 10. This fact was not appealing to Dirk at all.

'Oh well. I've gotten past 6 years of boredom so far. I can last 4 more. Besides, at least I won't be completely idle.'

Dirk smiled a bit as he thought about the plans he had in store for himself. Now that he was 6 years old, he could start training his body like his previous life. This would finally provide him with something productive to do every day. 

"Hey! What're you thinking about?"

Rita poked him as he drifted off in thought. He glanced at her before stretching his still waking body.

"I was just thinking about how boring school is going to be."

"Hmm, well it can get boring. The work is no fun. But now we'll both be there! Hey, maybe we could practice with the dark element when we're there. I recently learned a cool new trick. Look!"

Excitedly, Rita brought up her palm in between them. After a few moments, a small black wisp appeared. It looked like a small ball of black smoke. Rita then expertly controlled it to fly around her hand.

"Hehe, see? I've been working on this for almost two weeks! It's hard to do at first because it takes concentration. But once you get that down, it's super easy."

Saying that, Rita dispersed the wisp of dark energy and smiled proudly. Dirk just looked at her and smiled a bit. Rita was sort of a genius when it came to the dark element, and she attempted to teach him all the little tricks she came up with. It was cute, and he enjoyed her coming to him with these fun little things to do. It was a nice way to pass time and bond. 

"I'll make sure to work hard."

"Good! With me teaching you, I think you can learn this in two weeks too."

"Dirk! Rita! Breakfast!"

Suddenly, a shout was heard throughout the house. It was their mother, Cecilia. 

"Oh! I need to change."

Remembering she was in her gown, Rita hopped off Dirk's bed and rushed out back to her room. Dirk also got up and changed, making himself presentable for breakfast.

...........

.......

"We're going to stop by the academy before heading to the elementary school, okay?"

Cecilia spoke as she, Dirk, Rita, and Ethan finished eating breakfast. Dirk's father, Ryker, was already out at his job as he usually was in the morning. Viola was also gone. 

Rita spoke up confusedly. 

"Why are we going to the academy?"

"Because I'm going to be joining today!"

Suddenly, Ethan answered her question with a loud and proud voice. 

"All of you join the academy when you're 12, and that time has come for Ethan. Today is also the day that he enters. We're going to be meeting with your father and sister there, and once that's settled we'll go to the elementary school."

"Okay."

"Now go get changed. Semi-formal."

Waving off her kids, Cecilia had them go get dressed. 

30 minutes later, everyone was back down in the manor hall, dressed in semi-formal clothing. It wasn't so fancy as to make them look like royalty, but it did have a certain quality to it that made it more outstanding than the ordinary clothes they would wear day to day.

"Alright. Everyone into the carriage."

"Are we flying?!"

"No."

"Aww..."

Rita pouted hearing her mother. Dirk was also a little disappointed. It really was fun riding in a flying carriage, but it wasn't something their parents let them do all the time. 

Walking out of the house, the 4 quickly jumped into the spacious carriage and set off. The carriage was controlled by a man who sat in the front driver seat and drove it with magic, not unlike a limousine. The carriage was quickly going decently high speeds down the road and out of the Marquess neighborhood. Then, they entered the main city.

Although Dirk had been outside before, it was only to go to the duke's house and he still hadn't gotten a large grasp on the development level of this empire. In their house, he was able to get some idea. The stoves used for cooking had some kind of magic device inside of it that could generate heat, albeit the maids liked to ignite their own flames to kickstart the stove. For baths, each child had their own and water would be created with another magic device. Then, there was the carriage, which could fly using a magical wind device. 

While this place didn't have a high level of standard technology, it did have a high level of development, just in the form of magical items. The technology was built around magic, and this world seems to have gotten a good grasp on it. Of course, that was from his perspective as the son of an elite, but the general populous shouldn't be that far off. 

And upon entering the main city for the first time, Dirk saw that he was about spot on. The city had main roads for carriages and sidewalks for people. There were many carriages just like the one they were in going up and down designated lanes. If each carriage was replaced with the standard car that Dirk knew, he would think this was a modern city. 

Then there were the bustling sidewalks that hundreds of people walked on. All of their clothing was rather decent, and although they hadn't yet created elastic clothing, there was the clothing that Dirk had discovered when he was younger that could fasten itself with magic. It looked like people lived rather well. 

Restaurants, bars, butcher shops, clothing stores, alchemy shops, blacksmiths, libraries, even some areas that carriages would park themselves in and get their magic devices recharged or replaced. 

Looking around and absorbing the sights, Dirk came to the conclusion that while this city wasn't as modern as Earth in terms of development, it definitely wasn't poor or primitive. This city had its own type of magical modernity, and everyone here seemed to be doing very well. 

The carriage ride lasted a bit less than 20 minutes, after which they came upon a large plaza. 

"Alright, we're here. Let's find your father."

Dirk's mother stepped out, as did the other children. Upon leaving the carriage, Dirk looked around. 

The plaza they were in was exceptionally busy. There were thousands of people that hung around the area, mainly families with their excited children. There were also many people dressed in robes like wizards. 

Then, there was the building that this plaza was outside of. Dirk looked up and scanned the tall, extravagant structure that looked like a castle. There were giant gates that led inside, and Dirk likened this place to some kind of massive, gated college campus. The gates and the walls extended out for hundreds of meters, meaning this place took up a lot of space. That was a given though considering the huge building that was bigger than a university building.

"Cecilia!"

Suddenly, Dirk's mother was called out from within the bustling crowd. Looking to the voice, Dirk, Rita, and Ethan saw their father along with their oldest sister, Viola.