The Ascension Age

Zule then began to explain, "Deviant Elements are like what the name suggests. They're Elemental Affinities that aren't mainstream."

He then pointed at the rings floating around the small tower, except for the topmost one, continuing, "Each of these rings represents a common affinity. The main four are Water, Fire, Earth, and Wind. The majority of the living beings in our Baulmu Alliance are born with one of those."

Aire understood as he said, "However, I'm different."

"Exactly!" Zule exclaimed with an excited expression. "That's what we call a deviant element. There are many types of deviant elemental affinities like metal, dark, light, lightning, void, and so on. The problem is that those are way too rare. You just so happen to have one of those."

Aire couldn't help but ask, "Which one do I have?"

Zule shrugged his shoulders as he replied, "Well, I believe you can control what we call the Mirage Element."

"Mi-Mirage?" Zule's answer went in a completely different direction than Aire previously thought. After all, what about his healing ability? He thought that he would control the Light Element instead. 'Well, I only thought that I had Light Element Affinity because that's what healers in the games I played did...'

Zule then pointed at the topmost ring in the small tower as he continued, "Can you see the white light in this ring? Pay close attention. It's not completely white."

Aire looked at it closely, and sure enough, it had a slightly yellow hue to it. It wasn't completely white as he initially thought. With that, he asked, "So, this is the color of Mirage, right? What can it do? Create illusions?"

Zule nodded, responding, "Pretty much. The good thing is that these illusions are very hard to discern from the real thing. You can also use it to disguise real things, making them even harder to see through. Simply put, this element is a huge boon in team battles. I'm sure Altina will love it when you guys go and do a battle test."

Aire looked away, not finding the idea as exciting as Zule made it seem. "Ahem...is there any other use for a Mirage Element user?"

"Another use?" Zule went silent for a moment before responding, "Well, it's quite a good ability for jobs that need conceptualization. For example, your roommate, Sera, is a Stellar Suit Designer, right? You can use it to bring her ideas to life before trying to create the thing itself. It wouldn't be as good as building the real thing, but it'll help out quite a lot."

Aire sighed in response after hearing that. From the looks of it, his healing abilities weren't part of the set of skills the Mirage Element offered. 'Then, what affinity could it be? Could it be that I have two different Elemental Affinities?'

"What about Light Element? What are its abilities?" Aire asked, still thinking that it had something to do with his Healing abilities.

Zule thought he understood why Aire asked that, responding, "Oh, you're saying that because you think Mirage and Light are correlated, right?" Aire nodded and waited for Zule to continue. "Well, you aren't wrong to think that way. Mirage Affinity Risers do manipulate light to create their illusions. However, it isn't the same as having Light Element Affinity. For example, the Light Element can be used to enhance one's body activity, but a Mirage Element Riser can't do that."

"Enhance? I thought Light Element Risers are like in the games, healers." Aire immediately used that excuse to try and extract that information.

"Hahaha! Healers?" Zule couldn't help but find that funny. "You've played way too many games. Well, there aren't many Light Element Risers out there, so I can't be sure that one of them can't do that. Though, at the very least, I haven't heard of a Light Element Riser able to heal others. They can improve their allies' body strength for a short time, though. As for themselves, they can keep it going as long as they have enough Light Enement and Stellar Energy gathered."

Aire couldn't help but narrow his eyes. In the end, the Light Element Risers he thought of can't heal others. However, he hadn't given up yet, so he came up with an idea to keep asking. "Oh, is that so? Now you've made me curious. Since that's how it is, which type of Elemental Affinity can heal others?"

Zule stopped to ponder for a moment before shaking his head, saying, "Now that I think about it, I don't think there is any."

Aire then shook his head, disappointed as he muttered, "It seems like I won't find an elf to heal my injuries in the future, then."

Zule's eyes lit up as he said, "Oh! So you also have the same dreams as me! That's right! That's how a man should fantasize! Come, come! I'll give you a few of my collections. Just make sure to not let Altina find out." At this point, he began to pull Aire away.

Aire felt like crying, though. He didn't have this kind of interest... well, he was young, so he did think of similar things once or twice. Nevertheless, he was only using those words to deceive Zule. After all, he couldn't let the secret about his healing abilities spread. "Wait, Zule. Aren't you forgetting something else? The Riser Technique! Am I going to get one?"

"Oh, that's right!" Zule put a hand on his head as he recalled this topic. "I will have to access the database of the Baulmu Alliance to see if I can find any. After all, deviant elemental affinities aren't something you see every day. Just so you know, our Earth only has seven deviant element risers."

Zule then headed to another terminal and used his credentials to access the Baulmu Alliance Network. Aire didn't know, but the access Zule just used wasn't available for just anyone. "Errr...let's see...oh, here we are. Mirage Riser Techniques. There are five of them. Which one do you want?" Zule asked as he pointed at the names on the screen.

However, before Aire even said anything, Stella's voice echoed in his mind, telling him, 'Just take all of them. I'll fuse them together and make something appropriate for you.'

Aire sighed and nodded as he asked Zule, "Can I look into all five first?"

Zule didn't seem to mind, saying, "Sure, take your time and let me know when you select one." Following that, he passed the techniques to Aire before warning him, "Be aware that these techniques are quite rare, so I don't know how they will behave. Also, don't tell anyone I let you take them."

Aire nodded before closing his communicator, saying in gratitude, "Thank you, Teacher Zule."