The Hidden World

The rest of homeroom proceeded and Yuki, hearing nothing important or interesting, tuned out the rest of the class and meditated. Mabel used the period to introduce herself and talk about her interests while trying to learn more about the students. All of the things she talked about, Yuki knew because of his support magic classes with her.

The bell rang and Yuki was the first to walk out of the class. He went to his General Magic class where nothing of interest happened as well. Mabel was teaching the students how to manifest their raw mana out in the real world, something that Yuki was able to do on the first day.

Classe ended and he headed toward the Combat Hall where it, like always, was already filled with students by the time he got there. He took his normal place at the corner of the pack and waited.

Deral had them practice forms and techniques by themselves for the day. He didn’t teach anything new.

“Today is your last day until you are on vacation,” he said. “There is no point in teaching you all new techniques that you will all forget.”

During one of the short breaks in between each session of practice, a student asked Deral a question that caught Yuki’s attention.

“If you fought the dude that stole the gem, do you think you’d win?”

Deral laughed and gave the student a small grin.

“Of course I would,” he said. “That thief would be nothing to me. I am your combat instructor for a reason.”

“But Nataru died.”

“Maybe it’s because you’re a first year and that’s why you didn’t know this but Nataru is one of the weakest at the Academy,” Deral explained, shaking his head. “Even though he died fighting the thief, that wouldn’t mean I would. Nataru was high rank C, last time I checked. That’s worse than some of the students here.”

“So you would win easily?”

“Of course. Nataru wasn’t even that good at combat,” he said, laughing again. “He was more suited for magical fights and even then wasn’t that good. I, on the other hand, am excellent in physical combat. And if a mage lost a fight, then that just means that physical combat would have a better chance of winning. But enough of this, break time is over.”

There were two things that Yuki got from this conversation. One was that the identity of the thief was not released to the public and that Nataru was instead reported as dying from trying to stop the thief.

‘The headmaster probably did this. Maybe it was to prevent panic or mistrust in the Academy. You can’t run a school if your authority is being questioned.’

The second thing was that Nataru was seen as weak or at least weak compared to Deral. If what Deral said was true, then Nataru was indeed quite weak. Yuki, himself, was almost rank B and so would outrank Nataru. But Yuki doubted this. When Yuki had fought Nataru, he saw that Nataru’s movements were quite polished and his movements were clean. Nataru also was able to send out waves of mana that were fairly sharp, able to cleanly cut through branches and bushes.

‘His rank should be around low to mid rank B,’ Yuki estimated. ‘Because I was able to defeat him, he shouldn’t be any higher than that.’

The fact that Deral had false or outdated information Nataru’s strength meant one of two things. Nataru was either hiding his strength or had recently gone under major growth and wasn’t able to report his new power yet.

‘Of the two, I think the second is the most plausible. The Shikaku may have taught him a lot about combat and helped him in his training.’

Combat training ended, and Yuki went to the dining hall to grab his lunch for the day. Then he walked to his usual eating spot under the tree in front of the Magic Hall and ate his chicken sandwich. Yuna came by and ate with him, sometimes offering up some idle chatter to which Yuki replied with sentences of varying length. The bell rang again and he went to his last class of the day.

When he walked into his Support Magic and saw Mabel walking around inside of the room. This was a rare sight for Yuki as Mabel was normally sitting on the ground meditating everything he walked into class.

“Oh, hello Yuki,” she said as she put away some scrolls in the compartment that she always took them out from. “I’m just tidying up before the day ends. I can’t have my classroom be a mess when we all leave for break. It’ll make me look bad.”

“I see,” he replied. “I was wondering what we’re going to do for today. Is it cleaning?”

“No, of course not. I wouldn’t make you clean, this is a task for me,’ Mabel said with a smile. “My classroom, my responsibility. What we are going to be doing for today is going to be relatively simple. Well, simple for you.”

Yuki nodded and kneeled down in the middle of the room, facing directly toward Mabel’s floor mat.

“And what’s that?” he asked.

“Since you have managed to learn the basics of support magic, I will be explaining to you how elements can affect these spells and how to use elemental magic in your spells.”

She sat on her mat, her grey tail raised in the air as she did so. Then she smoothed her dress and cleared her throat.

“First I will start with how the elements can affect spells. Do you remember during the test I gave you in the beginning of the year when I said that your affinity was well suited for support magic?”

Yuki nodded. He remembered that and also had briefly wondered what she meant by that before he was distracted by other things.

“Well this is where I will start to elaborate on that. Most support spells rely on the mana capacity, imagination, and strength of the caster when they are used. The better the caster, the better the spell. However, there is another way to affect these spells and that is to infuse them with elemental magic. To put it simple, elemental magic affect support spells. How they affect them depend on what element is used which, as you know, depends on the affinities of the caster.”

“So earth magic affects support spells in a positive fashion,” Yuki said.

“Yes, but so do every other element. What’s different is the amount at which a spell is affected and what is affected. The two affinities that are best suited for support magic are naturae and earth. And I will know explain why.”

She shifted her position of her seat and continued.

“Two of the main categories of support magic are healing magic and enchanting. Naturae affects the first one the most. Someone with this affinity would be able to infuse their healing spells with the power and the attributes of nature. Nature is an unstoppable force in the world, always reclaiming lands that we steal away from it. Always regrowing when we destroy it. Always expanding when we ignore it. All of these aspects of nature only help in amplifying the powers of healing magic.”

“So does that mean that you, as a priest, are of that affinity?” Yuki asked.

“Yes, as are most priest and medics. We have the highest capacity for healing; so high in fact that it’s not uncommon for a medic to be able to regrow small limbs,” Mabel answered. “However, this comes with a small drawback. Because of how nature is in general, it’s mainly oriented toward healing. That means that naturae magic has little effect on enhancing magic. Your affinity, on the other hand, is quite the different story. When we look into what makes the earth what it is, what do we see?”

“A unfaltering constant that never breaks. It protects those that it sees fit and destroys others that it deems unworthy. It may crack and bend but it will always fix itself,” Yuki answered.

“Exactly. This translates to the idea that the earth protects, attacks, and heals,” she summarized. “And because of this, earth magic can be used to amplify both healing magic and enchanting. It can greatly increase one’s defense, making people be able to handle more punishment. It can bolster one’s offense, increasing their bodies power. It can even improve speed enhancements and healing though to a lesser extent than the first two.”

“How about the other elements?” Yuki asked. “How do they affect support magic?”

“I’ll just tell you. I don’t think it is important for me to explain why these elements affect spells the way they do. Wind magic enhances speed and strength enhancements. Fire does the same. Water improves defense and can improve healing though only slightly. Lightning improves speed and ice improves attack and defense.”

“They seem fairly good as well. Why aren’t they recommended for support magic?” Yuki said.

“Two reasons. One is that they amount that they improve those enhancements is considerably less than earth magic. A second thing is that some of these elements come with negative side effects.”

“Side effects?”

“Yes. For instance, wind enhances speed and strength but it will dramatically decrease one’s defense. Lighting improves speed but will lower the effectiveness of strength enhancements. Ice lowers one’s speed.”

“I see.”

“And as you can see, none of these affect healing magic to the extent naturae does. That is why naturae and earth are the most sought after affinities in support mages.”

“And what does that mean?”

Mabel gave Yuki a warm smile, her eyes dancing with excitement.

“That means, Yuki, that you can become quite the powerful support mage.”