Chapter 102: Elemental Mastery

Valerian was walking through the hallways of the academy building leading back to their classroom. Arthur was by his side and looked around with a disinterested gaze.

After they left the training hall, they didn’t speak; neither had anything in particular they wanted to say, so they stayed quiet.

The students they passed by made way for them, as they could clearly remember the show of power both displayed during the ranking tournament.

After a few minutes of walking, they reached their classroom and entered it.

Together, they walked to the last row and sat in the same seats as before. Valerian left the seat to his right, where Seraphine was sitting before, empty, as she was still not in here.

After a few more minutes of waiting, the door to the classroom opened, and the other students came in and took their seats.

Seraphine walked in with Lilith by her side; they had stayed together during their walk between classes and talked.

As they walked to the back of the class, a predicament came to Seraphine.

’What do we do about the seats?’

The back row had four seats, so there was enough room for Lilith to sit, but the placement of the seats was the problem, as Valerian and Arthur occupied the two middle ones, and Seraphine didn’t want to force her new friend to sit next to someone she didn’t know.

Valerian looked up and saw the panicking look in Seraphine’s eyes. After looking in the direction she was looking at and at the white-haired girl next to her, the problem clicked in his head.

With a light smile, Valerian snapped his fingers as the space around him and Arthur folded, teleporting both a bit to the side, leaving the two seats closest to the window empty.

Arthur’s head snapped up at the sudden spatial shift, but as he saw that he was still in class, he plopped his head back on the table.

Valerian’s and Seraphine’s eyes met for a moment, and she mouthed the words "Thank you" to him before walking to the seats and sitting beside him.

Lilith followed behind her and sat on the window seat. She observed the whole interaction with great interest. And the situation of her new friend became clearer to her by the second.

When it was finally time for the lesson to begin, the bell rang, and the doors shut on their own.

A figure appeared down in the lecture hall, and his presence washed over the room.

It only took a single glance to silence the whole room, and everyone turned to face him.

He was a tall, lean man with short, pitch-black hair styled in a military cut. His eyes were as dark as the void and didn’t let any light through.

He wore a mostly black robe that had silver accents here and there. He snapped his fingers, and text was written on the board behind him.

"Elemental Mastery."

"Today we will learn about the various elements that govern the world of Eldoria. My name is Nolan Graves, and I will be your teacher on the subject of Elemental Mastery."

’He is strong; he should be around SSS+. Maybe it will work this time.’

Valerian’s eyes lit up in a subtle light as [Dragon Eyes] activated.

│─────── STATUS ─────── │

│ Name : Nolan Graves

│ Age : 241

│ Race : High Human

│ ─────── ORIGIN ─────── │

│ Bloodline : Elemental Arcanist

│ Physique : -

│ Core : SSS+

│ ────── ATTRIBUTES ────── │

│ Vitality : SSS

│ Strength : SS+

│ Agility : SSS-

│ Dexterity : SSS

│ Intelligence : SSS+

│ Mana : SSS+

│ Charm : S-

│ ─────── AFFINITIES ─────── │

│ Wind

│ Lightning

│ Water

│ Fire

│ Void

│ Space

│ ─────── TITLES ─────── │

│ [Grand Elemental Scholar]

│ [Senior Professor of the Starlight Academy]

│ ─────── SKILLS ─────── │

│ [Racial Skills]

│ [-]

│ [Unique Skill]

│ [-]

│ ─────── BOND ─────── │

│ Bound Entity : -

’So it works on someone at SSS+. Maybe those outside the mortal ranks are beyond my [Dragon Eyes].’

’But seriously, this guy has quite a lot of affinities, and even space and void.’

"Valerian von Astrea."

The sharp voice of the professor cut through the class, and his black eyes locked onto Valerian with a frown.

’Of course he would notice.’

It was a blunder on his side to use [Dragon Eyes] so carelessly on someone this powerful; of course an SSS+ ranker would know if someone was checking their status out.

Valerian met the professor’s eyes and spoke with a calm voice.

"Yes, Professor Graves?"

His black, void-like eyes didn’t budge.

"If I catch you doing that again during my class, the principal won’t be able to save you, got it?"

It wasn’t just an empty threat, as the void in his eyes swirled around menacingly.

There was no question: if he wanted to take Valerian away and torture him as long as he wanted to, there was nothing Valerian could do against it. He couldn’t even try to run, as Nolan also had a space affinity and had centuries of experience over Valerian.

"Understood, Professor Graves. It won’t happen again."

Valerian apologized quickly, and Nolan seemed to be satisfied with the apology and continued his class.

Next to Valerian, Seraphine nudged him with her elbow and whispered.

"Idiot."

A soft chuckle escaped Valerian as he leaned his head on his palm and looked to the front, where the professor was explaining elemental theory.

"Everyone was born with an affinity for something. And it doesn’t have to be an element that is found in the world."

Nolan raised his hand as a gust of wind, a water stream, rocks, and orange embers swirled around his hand without canceling each other out.

"There are, of course, the four basic elements. They are called the basic elements because they are the most common, not because they are the weakest or the ones with the least use cases."

The fire turned into crackling arcs of blue lightning, the wind became a soft humming, the water floating ice shards, and the rocks turned into one purple energy ball that held the other elements in a gravitational pull.

"The base elements also have their evolved versions: fire has lightning, water has ice, wind has sound, and earth has gravity. If someone has an affinity for one of the base elements, they have an easier time learning the respective evolved version than any other element."

"The concept of affinities itself is way looser than some of you might suspect. Affinities can be gained, evolved, enhanced, or lost during the life of a person."

At the mention of losing an affinity, a wave of worry passed through some of the students. They were the elite class, and almost all of them were nobles or at least had a high amount of formal training.

So they were aware of the mechanics surrounding an affinity and how someone can gain a new one, but their teachers had failed to mention that an affinity could also be lost. And the thought of losing one of their key strengths made some nervous.

Nolan noticed the state the students were in and took away some of the worry.

"But losing an affinity is extremely rare and takes very specific circumstances to happen. There has never been a recorded case of something like that happening randomly. So as long as you are not fighting against one of these incredibly rare beings that can take them away, you have nothing to worry about."

While it was a nice attempt to comfort the students, it unfortunately failed due to the creepy void eyes Nolan had and the fact that his face hadn’t changed one bit during the explanation.

Nevertheless, he continued his lesson on elements.

In the back row, Seraphine looked at the front with a lazy gaze. She had already studied the topic of elements to death, and there was practically nothing she didn’t know about it.

She would even go as far as saying that she was more informed about the topic than Nolan himself. So she was more than bored in the class.

Her new friend Lilith, on the other hand, was vigorously taking notes of everything Nolan said.

To the other side, Valerian was similar to her. While he hadn’t studied the topic nearly as much as Seraphine or Nolan, he could make most of the knowledge up with his mana control gifted to him by being the [Child of Mana].

Everything mana-related came incredibly easily to him, and that also included the elements. His control and general affinity with the other elements was so high that he was confident he could beat most of the other elite students while only using an element he didn’t technically have an affinity for.

So, as informative as this class was, it was of little use for both of them.

Professor Graves continued to explain the different ways elements would interact with each other if used by the same caster and followed every explanation with an example. His mana control was impressive. He could effortlessly control other elements while lacking the proper affinity for them.

But the lesson ended, and the bell rang.

"It seems that was the end of today. We will see each other in two days during our next lesson."

With that, his form disappeared from the classroom the same way he had entered.

Valerian stood up from his seat and stretched his back. He looked down at Seraphine and Lilith.

"Want to join us for lunch?"

After their elemental mastery class, it was finally time for lunch, and Valerian would like to use this chance to better get to know this new vampire.

Seraphine looked at Lilith for a second, who just shrugged.

"Okay, let’s eat together."

After that, the four made their way out of the class and to the cafeteria.