"And... what are elental affinities?" Hera asked letting go of the hug.
With a laugh, Helena replied "Once again I'm giving you an advanced lesson. Elental affinities are what we call the types of magic that work well with your mana. As you may have guessed I have shadow mana."
Hera's face was that of a deer in the headlights.
"Ok, maybe that was a bit too far. When you go inside the maze you are going to feel that energy you felt when you ate the oranges but to a smaller degree. With ti you will be able to learn magic."
Helena made a small light appear in her hand. It kept shifting in different colors as if Hera was looking at a diamond.
"This is raw magic, with ti you can focus the type of mana in your body to a specific elent or attribute. Mine is darkness, but so people have fire, water, earth, and even more complex things like gravity, technology or healing."
The light shifted again now turning into darkness as if Helena was holding a ball of shadows.
"Now, if you are a mage you should have better control of this and can you make your whole mana turn into the elent you want. But that cos with a price, you lose the ability to use so elents, for instance, I can't use light."
Hera looked at her confused.
"But, you just made a light."
Helena nodded "Yes, I made a light, but it wasn't a light elent skill. Raw magic still allows us to do so basic stuff that looks like a specific elent. Now, not only you lose so elents when you focus your mana, but it becos really hard to do so advanced spells with other elents. For instance, I have a short-range teleport skill. It's called Shadow Chase, I used it to get between you and Ashe the other day."
Helena paused, worried Hera would be uncomfortable with the ntion of that na. But to her surprise, the girl seed too enthralled by the explanation to be bothered by that.
"If I were to use a fire type teleport it would be much more taxing, and much weaker than if I used the Shadow Chase. What I was researching was a way to diminish that problem. I wanted to find out if other elents could benefit from one type of mana. For instance, if my dark mana could be used to fuel a different spell, could it change the spell and make it more powerful? That is my whole research. The main problem was to find out what elents and attributes could work well with it."
Realizing how much she could have helped Hera gave a big smile.
"That is amazing Helena! You are doing such a big thing I'm glad I helped even if it was just a little."
"A little? Hera this is a major breakthrough. You have no idea how much that helped. What you described is what mages know as fire mana for the cot, water mana for the blue one, since it's a body of water. Probably particle or gravity attribute or the purple one, and the white I have to check. It's not light since it's opposite of my mana but it can be either an elent or an attribute."
Hera smiled at the mage, Helena's face made her look like she was a kid on Christmas day.
"You know, usually a mage wouldn't talk about their research. Not to anyone at least." Helena looked in Hera's eyes.
"Then... why are you telling ?" Hera had a puzzled look in her face.
"Simple, I want you as my apprentice. You clearly have a way of identifying the elents that one spell uses. It would be stupid of not to try to get you to help ."
Hera blushed a bit, she knew so explorers would look for apprentices, but that was a rare thing.
"Shouldn't you look for a mage to help you? I an, I'm still level 2 and I barely know anything about magic." Hera felt she would drag Helena down. After all, how could a brand new recruit help an experienced mage in any way?
"True, but at the sa ti, we mages are a prideful bunch. Not only it is really hard to hear a mage asking for help we all get suspicious of anyone who knows about our research. So, even if another mage is looking for the sa thing I am we wouldn't trade notes. Honestly, I even get a bit paranoid in telling you about this. But if you can see the mana like that when you beco a mage it will be a great help for my research. It's a decision that seems to have more pros than cons"
Hera listened to her explanation without interrupting. But at the sa ti, a lot of what she said didn't add up. That made Hera cautious, even if it was about the woman who changed her life.
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"I don't an to be rude.. but why Helena? You could get another explorer, a mage or look for anyone else who ate the oranges and saw those lights. Why would you trust with information about your research?"
Helena stared at Hera for a few seconds before letting out a long sigh.
"You know, being that smart is not always a good thing. You want to know why I'm asking you? Fine. Every group of recruits is scouted by different organizations, so are within the guild and so are private. I am a part of one of those organizations, and no I'm not telling you anything more than that for now. We look for talent, recruits that have potential and can help us explore the maze and the system. You can consider this my elevator pitch if you will. " Helena leaned back on the couch grabbing her cup of coffee from the table at the side.
"Yes, I could look for a stronger mage to help. And yes there may be so other explorers that can see the affinities in magic. Even if they usually need skills or items to do so. Don't get wrong, you would still be a valuable asset, just not a unique one. But honestly, I'm just trusting so much in you because I saw sothing in you. The salute you made was so intense. I don't know when was the last ti I saw one of those. I picked you because my intuition is saying to bet on you, and I'm hardly ever wrong about these things." Helena gave a warm smile and was about to take a skip from her coffee when she said. "Also, I put a spell on you that will make you lose the ability to talk if you try to share my research without my permission."
Hera's eyes went wide. She wasn't thinking about sharing Helena's research but what if she said sothing by accident.
Seeing her reaction Helena giggled.
"Relax, that last part was just a joke. Or was it?"
Hera wasn't able to get a read on the dark-skinned woman but at the sa ti, she believed Helena wouldn't hurt her. The two of them talked for a few more minutes, mostly about how Hera was faring in the training and before they realized it was ti for Hera's class.
"Thanks again Helena, I don't know what would have happened without you," Hera said when she got up.
"It wouldn't be that bad dear, you would just get really hungover after a few hours. Oh and I forgot to ntion, but being my apprentice only works if you beco a mage. If not I still can scout you for my group. Who will remain naless until the end of the training."
Hera nodded, she wanted to ask about the na of the group but was shut down as soon as she opened her mouth. With a smile, she left the breakroom and went straight to her class.
Going to the second floor was quick enough, but Hera realized that she never went to the classroom by herself, the second floor of the guild was made of several hallways with doors on the sides. It looked like a school without lockers. Getting out the elevator Hera looked to the sides, both hallways here empty and had no distinction from each other. She picked her phone and looked at the ti.
6:55
The guild had a really big area if she wanted to go through every hallway it would take at least twenty minutes. Hera tried to hear any noise coming from one of the rooms but everything was quiet. She was starting to get worried about being late when an idea popped in her head. She picked the tablet and opened the map icon. Unlike on her cellphone, this map was the one her skill made. She looked around and found that only one of the rooms on that floor was completely mapped.
I hope I'm right. Hera thought before walking towards the room that showed up on her tablet.
2 minutes before 7 Hera arrived at the room and saw the whole class, including Mr. Greyson there.
"Sorry, I'm late," She said while walking towards her usual seat. While the recruits stared at her.
"Sha, we were looking forward to seeing soone running the Drill for being late." A dark-haired woman with very defined eyebrows, chestnut skin, and a red bindi between her eyes said with a mocking tone. The other three around her giggled with her remark.
"Maybe ye should be the first one to try it Anaya." Mr. Greyson said without missing a beat. His reply made the girl shrink in her chair.
Hera quickly sat down and said hi to her friends. She also noticed a large saucer on the teacher's desk. Not only it was large it was also very tall, making it almost seem like an altar of sorts.
"Settle down ye lot." Mr. Greyson closed the door now that everyone was inside. Then he used his tablet to activate sothing and the light of the room dimd.
"Now, today ye are going to learn a very important skill. It's a skill ye will use every day, be it in the MAZE or outside of it. Yer life will never be the sa after learning this skill. Yer friends, yer family, even yer clothes will be different after ye learn this."
He pressed sothing in his tablet and above the saucer, an empty glass of wine appeared. For a mont Hera thought the altar was a teleportation device. However, looking closely she realized the object was more seethrough than it should.
"The skill is called Observe, it helps you be sure of what yer seeing. For instance, this glass is not here. But is it a hologram or an illusion?"
Hera stared at the glass, trying to see if there was a way to be sure what the glass was. She looked for lines moving, small jagged lines on the edge of the glass, even the affinities she had seen around Helena. But even with all her effort, nothing seed to work. A little part of her wondered if the oranges could help her now. But she brushed off that thought as quickly as it ca. She didn't want to depend on sothing to pass the training.
"Mr. Greyson, is there sothing that shows us if this is an illusion or not?" Bonnie asked as she had a frustrated look on her face. The sa one Hera had.
"As far as Ah know, there are two ways. One if touching it, if ye know how mana feels ye can tell when ye touch it. The other one is with the skill I'm teaching ye. Now, everybody grab yer tablet. To get the skill all ye need to do is write down the na of the object and if it's an illusion or a hologram. Now any questions? Good, let's begin"
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