"Interesting!" Master Elian said in a loud, clear voice, his hands still firmly gripping my shoulders. He observed with a piercing gaze, as if he could see beyond my flesh and bones, straight into the essence of my energy.
"A small barrier clouding the senses, preventing from verifying your energy. Well-constructed, but clearly not made by a high-level mage. Perhaps Selene," he muttered to himself, as if deciphering a riddle.
"Anomalous energy pathways, prana and mana flowing through the channels, two innate cores, and a high aptitude for..." he continued, analyzing ticulously, as if I were a living X-ray.
"Electricity?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yes, sir!" I replied respectfully, still motionless under his hands.
"Sir is your late father. Just call Master Elian," he corrected in a firm but not harsh tone.
"Yes, Master Elian," I responded, maintaining the respectful tone Lesley had advised to use.
"Good... good... Affinity with gravity, interesting. But there's sothing more, sothing I can't quite discern," he murmured, lost in his thoughts. "What is this feeding your inner world?... Hmm... perhaps a gift?" he wondered aloud. "No, impossible. Too early and too low in the ranks for that."
"Perhaps, with so much chaos happening inside you, a third affinity?" he raised his head, staring directly at .
"Yes, an affinity with space as well," I replied, trying to stay calm.
"Hm..." he murmured, his expression becoming enigmatic, as if he didn't like my answer. "Problematic, but acceptable."
My eyebrows furrowed. It wasn't the first ti I'd heard sothing like this. On the day of my awakening, Lesley had said sothing similar.
"Master Elian, why do you say that?" I asked, unable to contain my curiosity.
"Well..." he replied, releasing my shoulders and bringing a hand to his chin in a thoughtful gesture. "It's a complicated affinity. Progress in understanding affinities is related to your understanding of their natural laws. And, well, it's extrely difficult to interpret the laws of spatial affinity."
He paused, as if choosing his words carefully. "Moreover, we have few cultivation sites rich in spatial energies in Atlas."
I didn't fully understand, but I decided to leave future problems for the future. After all, I was still trying to survive the present.
Suddenly, the room began to change. Mountains rose around , the sky darkened with heavy clouds, and lightning painted the sky in yellow and blue. The air grew heavy, charged with energy.
"We won't waste any ti!" Master Elian announced, his voice echoing like thunder.
Before I could react, a bolt of lightning shot toward , hitting with brutal force. My body was hurled down the mountain, pain burning every inch of my skin. My hair stood on end, and blood gushed from my mouth. The fall seed endless, and I could barely think.
In the air, floating casually beside in a reclined position, Master Elian began to teach how to use magic.
"Magic manifests by using your inner energy and expelling it outside your body. In this process, you need to visualize your energy transforming into elents. First, think of one of your affinities."
"What the hell!!!" I shouted, exasperated, remnants of lightning still paralyzing my body.
I was falling from the peak of a high mountain at a terrifying speed. In a few seconds, I would hit the ground. I tried to organize my thoughts, trying to understand what Master Elian was saying.
"Visualize, visualize, visualize," I repeated to myself like a mantra.
I opened the pores in my energy pathways and released prana and mana uncontrollably. My idea was to try to replicate the effect Master Elian had used on earlier, sothing akin to a pull.
The result: nothing happened.
I felt my energy transforming into gravity with my intent, but the mont the magic was constructed, it was destroyed.
"What the hell!!!" I scread, just seconds away from being crushed on the ground.
"It works... it works... it works..." I repeated, as my internal energy leaked uncontrollably. Almost ten percent of my reserve had been spent in a few monts.
"Hoo... there's sothing wrong with the activation," Master Elian comnted curiously. He was still floating beside , as if this were the most normal scene in the world.
"I see!!" he suddenly exclaid. "Prana and mana are canceling each other out when you try to visualize the construction of the magic."
"What? What the hell!! What do I do!!!" I scread in desperation.
There was no ti. I was ten ters from the ground.
"Again!" Master Elian announced.
The entire space changed. Another ten kiloters were added to the distance to the ground. Now, I was falling from a frozen mountain. Ahead of , a fierce avalanche with massive chunks of ice was hurled in my direction.
'Think, think, think... Mana and prana... mana and prana... mana and prana...'
I did the only thing that ca to mind. If the two energies were canceling each other out, I tried to use one for each of my affinities.
As soon as I visualized the effect in my mind, my body began to be covered in yellow lightning, and the gravity around began to shift.
And then, I did the worst thing I could have done. Feeling the gravitational effect around my body being altered, I replicated the pulling sensation I had felt earlier.
And I have to say: what a terrible choice.
I don't need to explain why; my body was sucked toward the mountain. As soon as I felt the icy snow on my skin, I was buried under an avalanche of ice and passed out.
**
Report on the first day of class with my new magic teacher: Many broken bones, a series of catastrophic near-death events, energy collapse, and a lot of trauma with a certain buff mage.
The extre situations continued until I passed out from energy collapse. I was thrown into a volcano, then drowned in a tsunami on a paradisiacal beach, bombarded by a lightning storm at sea, attacked by giant birds in free fall, and finally passed out.
Fourteen broken bones and a brief lesson on how magic works in this world.
There are no runes, magic words, incantations, demonic language, magic circles appearing out of nowhere, quick hand symbols, or anything of the sort. Magic in Atlas can be defined as: visual and intuitive.
Visualization is the first prerequisite for transforming prana or mana into magic. Followed by intuition. One can manipulate elents available in nature or transform internal energy into elents. And the faster the visualization—that is, the creation of a concept to be applied in the real world—the quicker the conjuration.
Perhaps because I'm from Earth and have read countless superhero stories, novels, comics, and graphic novels, my conjuration speed is acceptably fast. My own teacher's words. I also possess more than double the internal energy of any awakened person of the sa level, another advantage.
The critical problem lies in controlling the two energies running through . Throughout the day's practice, I had to use two affinities simultaneously, even in situations where it was unnecessary. This resulted in the rapid depletion of my internal energy.
Mana and prana canceled each other out when I focused on a single elent. I lacked much in energy control to open the pores of my energy pathways only on the side of mana or prana.
**
After dinner, I headed to my room, asking Dália to bring a calming tea to recover my energy.
A clear lie.
She entered the room, and I was waiting for her, seated in one of the chairs. She calmly placed the tea in my cup and sat down in front of .
"Dália, we need to talk!" I said imposingly.
"Yes, young master."
"I know that what has been happening between us is part of your duties."
It was the reality. In the demon world, sexual training was widely practiced by noble families. This was to ensure their heirs wouldn't be corrupted by any sumr fling.
How many great nas had been destroyed by the charms of a beautiful maiden? How many talented heiresses had been dishonored and lost their prestige and fa due to the enchanting words of a man?
Thus, all prestigious families implented strict sexual training to combat the disillusionnts of life.
I wasn't naive. Whatever the goal of making the royal consort candidate, it had sothing to do with granting what the queen wanted. And it was clear that satisfying her would likely be one of my duties soday.
'Leave future problems for the future!'
"We can't continue like this. At this rate, I'll end up dead," I said, pointing to all my fractured bones that she had just healed.
Dalia's eyes flickered with a strange light, but no words ca out of her mouth. It seed like disappointnt, but perhaps I was misreading the situation.
"But I also know it's impossible to stop your advances. I believe it's an assignnt that won't be easily revoked."
Dália stared at silently, waiting for to complete my reasoning.
"Therefore, my proposal is as follows... Four tis a week, from 03:00 to 05:00," I offered.
Dália's face darkened, clearly rejecting the proposal.
"Phew... okay, five tis a week, from 03:00 to 05:00."
"No," Dália refused again.
"Alright... alright... six tis a week, but the ti won't change. Anything longer than that will send straight to the grave," I grumbled.
Dália didn't respond for a while, until she finally nodded in approval. She stood up, walked toward , leaned into my ear, and whispered:
"I'll be eagerly waiting for the young master's hard service."
I felt a light bite on my ear, and my cock hardened, pressing against the linen clothes I was wearing at the mont.
Dália walked toward the exit, leaving alone. The daily schedule was set.
I would train from 05:00 in the morning until 21:00. I would have my last al and sleep until 03:00 in the morning, when I would resu my training with my maid.
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