Chapter 10
Whoosh.
The flame that bloomed on his hand burns the surrounding air. Heat spread in all directions, and books flying around Acel hastily move to other places. Only the fire magic book caught in his hand remained intact.
Ena frowned at this sight.
He got his core just yesterday. He's using magic without even going through stabilization.
It was unbelievable even to think about.
Is such a thing even possible?
Mages basically needed to go through core stabilization. Although Acel's core had just been formed, its stability was no different from that of an experienced mage. No, it even showed superior aspects. The conductivity, absorption rate, purity, and flow of magical power far surpassed those of ordinary mages.
But that didn't mean he didn't need to go through stabilization. Even if it looked fine on the outside, there were incomplete parts in the deep areas that only the mage himself knew. If magic was used in that state, not only the core but also the mage would explode like a bomb. In a physical sense.
And yet...
"Master?"
Ena let out a hollow laugh as she watched her disciple increasing the size of the flame.
Fire magic rooted in the Ignis Magic Tower. The magic Acel was using was, in a way, a different type of magic that had been modified into a unique magic from that fire magic. He was naturally producing flames that were tricky to use and, if not careful, could burn even the user using themselves as fuel.
A mage who had just built his core, without stabilization work.
...I'm getting tired of being surprised.
Ena thought this as she exhaled deeply.
She already knew long ago that Acel's talent was exceptional. Even if another talent suddenly popped up here, she wouldn't feel the same excitement as before. It was surprising, but that was all. She just felt joy as a master that her disciple was outstanding.
"Acel. Do you feel any resistance to manifesting magic?" clearing her thoughts, Ena asked that first.
Attribute change was very important for mages.
The number of magic types a mage could use was determined by which attribute they had high affinity with. High-ranking mages could use magic of different types regardless of affinity, but even then, it was only basic magic, and they felt resistance every time they manifested it.
Unique magic operated on a slightly different concept, but the magic Acel activated was still based on fire magic. If one didn't have an aptitude for the fire attribute, it was basically impossible to use. Acel might be able to manifest magic that didn't match his aptitude with his excellent magical power control. Ena had this in mind when she asked.
But Acel shook his head as if he felt no resistance at all.
"It feels completely fine."
"I see, that's good," Ena said, nodding her head.
"It seems your aptitude is towards fire magic. We might not even need to do an aptitude test anymore."
"Ah... is that so?"
Acel extinguished the flame in his hand, showing obvious disappointment.
The residual heat that spread out from the remnants of the extinguished spark all faded away just by clenching his fist. He brushed off the remaining embers on his fingertips and looked at Ena with a bitter smile.
"I was hoping it would be lightning."
"I was hoping for that, too. If it were lightning magic, I could teach you directly. But with fire... I guess it would be better for you to learn magic from someone else. I'll teach you the basic magic system, though."
"Is there no possibility that I have an aptitude for lightning as well?"
At Acel's question, Ena thought for a moment before speaking, "It's not impossible. If you're a dual attribute holder, it's possible."
"How can we know that?"
"Either by doing an aptitude test, or by trying to use magic like you just did. One of the two."
"Hmm..."
As soon as he heard Ena's words, Acel started eyeing the books that had begun gathering around again. He was looking to see if there were any books related to lightning magic. Ena chuckled at this sight.
"All books related to lightning magic are in my library. Since I'm the only lightning mage on the continent, I'm keeping them there."
"Ah..."
"Are you impatient?" Ena asked in a gentle voice.
Acel nodded with an embarrassed expression.
"A little bit."
"Don't worry. I'm planning to do the aptitude test today as scheduled. As you said, who knows if you might have talent in other types of magic too? We have to check."
Acel's expression relaxed as if relieved by Ena's words.
As they walked while talking, a huge hall appeared after a short while.
Dense magical power leaked out from the walls, ceiling, and floor, finished with clean wood material. The chandelier hanging from the ceiling operated with magic, and fragments of spell formulas could be felt directly due to the magic used by mages sitting here and there.
It felt like entering a den of mages. The reality probably wasn't much different.
Acel's eyes sparkled as he turned his head in all directions. Although he had seen many magics since entering Wyheim, it was his first time seeing various types of magic up close like this. Interest naturally welled up, and his magical core tingled.
Ena left Acel as he was and strode towards the edge of the hall. Acel slowly followed behind her.
There were more mages in the Witch Association hall than expected. From young mages summoning spirits to play with, to mages lighting cigarettes with flames from their hands, mages imbuing all sorts of spell formulas into crystal balls, and mages gathered to discuss magic. Mages with various unique characteristics each glance at them once and then look away.
Acel happened to make eye contact with a young girl and bowed his head slightly. Since Ena also looked like a girl on the outside, he thought this girl might also be a mature mage.
"Hmph!"
But instead of returning the greeting, she blushed fiercely, snorted, and turned her head away sharply. Acel narrowed his eyes at this ridiculous sight.
She wouldn't have lasted long in the slums.
An instant judgment. Acel lost interest in the girl and trotted over to Ena's side.
"Where do we get the membership certificate?"
"That one over there."
Ena pointed at someone.
It was a woman with a smoking pipe in her mouth. Her appearance seemed naive, as if she had just become an adult, but her aura was different. An undisguisable experience and the composure that only a high-ranking mage who had built up their rank could show flowed from her body.
Even at a glance, she was clearly strong. As soon as Acel saw her, he felt his magical core pulsing and nodded.
"Ena,” she called Ena's name with a smile.
Ena waved her hand and approached her.
"It's been a while, Irina."
"Indeed. How long has it been?"
"I'm not sure."
"To be honest, I'm not sure either."
Whew.
Irina said this while exhaling smoke from her pipe, then cast her gaze towards Acel. Acel looked into her crimson eyes and bowed his waist.
"Hello."
"Yes, hello. I can't remember how many years it's been since a man entered here."
There were male mages in the Witch Association, too. But they had long since gone outside, unable to endure the atmosphere filled with only women. Thanks to this, it had been a very long time since a man, let alone a young boy, had set foot in this place.
Perhaps because of this, Irina was quite interested in Acel. The fact that he was the protagonist of the content Bell had been noisily spreading around added to her interest. Acel was fully captured in her gaze.
"I'd like to receive a membership certificate."
But when Ena stepped forward as if to protect Acel, what was reflected in Irina's eyes changed to Ena's expressionless face. Irina looked into her blue eyes for a moment, then chuckled and nodded.
"Is it this child?"
"Yes. He's my disciple."
"I heard from Bell. She was going around shouting as if she had replaced her vocal cords with an orc's. Thanks to that, there's probably no one in the Witch Association who doesn't know you've taken on a disciple now." Irina said this while waving her hand in the air, then asked Acel. "Little one, what's your name?"
"My name is Acel."
"Gender is male, of course... How old are you?"
"I've been alive for 12 years."
"You're young. But it's too late an age to start learning magic. Well... I'm sure our Ena has her reasons for taking you in."
Irina shaped magical power into a rectangular form. She refined the lines with the end of her pipe and recorded Acel's personal information inside.
"Have you awakened to magical power?"
"Yes."
"Show me."
Acel immediately manifested magical power above his palm. Irina reached out her hand as if to tear off a part of that magical power mass and said, "It will hurt a little. Bear with it."
"Pardon?"
It was before he could even register it. Irina instantly reached out and tried to tear off a part of Acel's magical power.
No, more precisely, she tried to tear it off. Despite Irina's gesture, Acel's magical power remained unmoved.
"...?"
A question appeared on her face. She looked at Ena, who was standing quietly beside Acel, with an expression that seemed to ask what this was.
Ena smiled slightly and whispered in Acel's ear, "Give a small piece of your magical power to Irina."
"Ah, yes."
Acel nodded and detached a tiny amount of the manifested magical power and handed it to Irina.
It was an extreme level of manipulation ability. The separation and distribution of magical power that was absolutely impossible for a mage who had just entered the world of magic. Irina's face momentarily went blank, but she quickly cleared her throat and composed her expression.
"Ahem. Thank you."
"You're welcome."
Irina took the magical power Acel handed over and pushed it into her pipe. In that state, she inhaled and exhaled smoke, and Acel's magical power, contained in the smoke, slid into the rectangle. The remaining smoke adjusted the shape of the rectangle and filled its interior with an ashen color.
"It's done."
As the ashen color filled up, the rectangle floating in the air trembled and then fell to the floor with a thud. Irina picked it up and threw it to Acel. It was a card about the size of a palm. Acel skillfully caught the card and examined its contents.
There was nothing particularly special about what was written. Below the large text saying, "Witch Association Membership Certificate" at the top, small letters describing name, age, gender, and magical circuit were written. That was all. Acel tucked the membership certificate into his chest and bowed his head towards Irina.
"Thank you."
"You're a very polite friend. I like it," Irina said, then stood up and threw her pipe into the air.
At the same time, the pipe turned into smoke and disappeared. She roughly ruffled Acel's black hair and said, "The membership certificate issuance is done, now we need to add your name to the Witch Association registry. Ena, is it okay to do it right away?"
"Yes. We need to finish quickly and go for the aptitude test."
"Ah, right, that needs to be done too."
After a brief conversation.
Irina led Acel to a corner of the hall.
In the corner, there was a sheet of pure white paper and a cubic cube with a hole big enough for a finger to enter.
"Just put your finger in there and think about your name, that's all. Any questions?"
"No."
"Good."
Irina nodded and gestured towards the cube with her chin. Acel put his finger into the cube without hesitation.
With a crackling sound, a tingling pain was felt at the fingertip. His face wrinkled at the unexpected pain, but he didn't pull his finger out. It was just surprising, the pain wasn't really much. It wasn't enough to make a fuss about.
Along with the throbbing pain, blood flowed and dyed the transparent tube of the cube red. The blood moved as if flowing through pipes, then suddenly stopped and began to surge towards a small hole placed on the top of the cube.
All the blood, which wasn't even that much, came out of the cube. It drew a circle in the air and then was all sucked in as if being absorbed into the paper placed next to the cube.
In an instant, the paper was dyed with blood. But it wasn't just randomly splattered. Acel noticed that the blood written on the paper had drawn his name and let out an exclamation.
"Is this blood magic?"
"That's right. There's a vampire among the elders. They made this."
As soon as the blood dried, the paper with the name written on it flew off somewhere. Acel followed Irina's words and took his finger out of the cube. Surprisingly, there was no wound.
A method of extracting blood without causing wounds. Acel thought this must also be a type of blood magic.
"Alright. Ena, it's all done," Irina said and turned her head towards Ena.
Ena, who had been surrounded by other mages including Bell, instantly arrived in front of Acel as a streak of white lightning. She gently stroked Acel's head and nodded.
"Did it hurt?"
"It was bearable."
"That's good."
Ena smiled softly. Watching this scene, Irina's expression twisted as if slightly nauseated.
"You... are you really Ena? Usually, you only give short answers with an expressionless face, but you're smiling in front of your disciple."
"Don't slander me."
"This is driving me crazy."
Irina shook her head with a bitter smile. Then she looked at the gathered mages and continued speaking, "Everyone's probably very interested in you. You suddenly took on a disciple when you've been ignoring the elders telling you to nurture a successor."
"It's not my fault there was no one who caught my eye."
"Right, I guess so. So there will be a lot of interest in your disciple, too. They'll be curious about what kind of person caught your eye. They might even try to steal Acel from you."
"Tell them they can try if they want to die,” Ena said in a voice that had turned cold.
Irina responded as if dumbfounded, "...You know it's impossible to kill fellow Witch Association members, right? Unless they're in league with devils."
"I don't care."
"Let's not do that. I'm saying this because I think you might really do it."
Ena clicked her tongue and placed her hands on both of Acel's shoulders.
"Anyway. We're done here now, so we'll be going."
"Just do the aptitude test here, too. Leticia is here right now."
"Alright then."
"Your conversation is so boring. Act cute or something. How long are you going to stay a virgin?"
"I'll handle it myself," Ena said this and turned around, leading Acel.
Irina shook her head and shouted, "Leticia is on the opposite side!"
"..."
Ena promptly turned around.