When Fang heard that, his eyes opened as wide as carriage wheels. “Space?” As he asked that, Meng could no longer hide his excitement and said, “Yes, Space! We have the Seven Main Elements: Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, Light, Darkness and Lightning.”

  He then took a deep breath as he continued, “Besides those, there are some Special Affinities that are a fusion of the Seven Main Elements or independent ones that are extremely rare.” He then brought a few examples, “For example, Ice is a fusion of Wind and Water, Lava is Earth and Fire, Holy Flame is a fusion of Light and Fire and so on.”

  As he explained the Fusion Elements, he moved on to the independent ones, “Independent ones are not counted in the Seven Main Elements because they are far too rare. These Elements can only be acquired only through ones Bloodline or by some extreme fortuitous encounters.”

  His eyes blazed as he continued, “Since they are extremely rare, they are also extremely strong and for example there is Time, Life, Death, and yours: Space.” Meng seemed to have forgotten that the person he was talking to was only ten years old as he continued blabbering, “Space and Time are pure independent on their own but Life and Death for example can be could also be counted as Fusion Elements.”

  Fang’s mind was already blank from the information overload but Meng didn’t seem to notice as he kept talking and explaining, “Life can be counted as a Fusion Element because it is an Element that requires one to have affinity with Light and Earth. But not anyone who has an affinity with these Elements can comprehend it. The same goes for Death. There are countless Fusion Elements out there that can be traced back to two or three of the Seven Main Elements.”

  His eyes then turned serious as he said, “However, The two Elements of Space and Time are the only Elements that do not trace back to any of the Seven Main Elements. They are completely reliant on ones Bloodline.”

  Fang could only blankly nod now as all of these deep and technical explanations already didn’t make any sense to him. The only thing he could make sense of was that outside the Seven Main Elements were some other Elements that could either be fused from the Seven Main Elements or the two Completely Independent Elements.

  However, all the technical things of what Element is a Fusion of which completely escaped his understanding. Only now did Meng turn his attention to Fang and noticed that he looked as if he had been hit with a plank on his head. Seeing that he had talked a bit too much, Meng let out an embarrassed laugh as he coughed and said, “In short, the Space Element that you possess is extremely rare but because you haven’t yet awakened the Element, your Awakening as a Magus is incomplete as of yet.”

  Fang understood what Meng said now and asked, “How do you know?” Meng then pointed towards the Stele and said patiently, “The Stele says, ‘Special Affinity: Space 0’. The zero means that you have the affinity with an element but the affinity is way too weak at the moment for you to use.” Fang was a bit confused as he asked, “But how come it doesn’t say the same for the other elements?”

  Meng let out a chuckle as he explained, “This Stele doesn’t take these numbers and things randomly. This Stele has been perfected over tens of thousands of years and millions if not billions of different people.” He walked closer to it as he continued explaining, “Through the trial and error of thousands of years, we have slowly perfected this Stele by comparing and making adjustments to the numbers and the achievements of the people that used it at the time.”

  He then looked at Fang again and said, “If a person doesn’t have the Affinity to a certain Element, it isn’t displayed at all. However, if it is, like ‘Space 0’ it means that the person has the Affinity to the Element however, some certain conditions need to be fulfilled before the person can use the Element.” Fang fell into thought again as he went over all the information again. He couldn’t understand much of it, at most about half of it.

  But one thing he understood clearly was that the Stele didn’t put out information that was completely irrelevant. If there was a 0 behind some Affinity, it meant that there was a possibility of awakening that Affinity but certain conditions need to be met before that could happen.

  Just as Meng was about to open his mouth to keep talking, the space next to him warped as a woman dressed in black appeared. She wore long black robes with the Soul Academy Emblem but sadly, Fang couldn’t make out any of her features as her face was covered with a veil, her head covered with a hood.

  Fang was a bit taken a back when she suddenly appeared but more importantly he felt a strange familiarity with the person, as if she was someone he had known for his entire life. Meng’s eyes opened wide as he cupped his hands and said respectfully, “Greetings Guardian Ancestor.” She merely nodded towards him and then focused her gaze on Fang, seeming to peer through every little detail. Only now did Fang notice her eyes, they were azure blue. As she focused her gaze on Fang, he felt a sudden urge to drop to his knees and bow down to her.

  However, that feeling soon disappeared as the woman moved her line of sight to the Giant Stele. She seemed to ponder over something as her gaze was stuck on the Giant Stele. Meng didn’t dare disturb her and stood at the side in complete silence. Fang had no idea how to act or what to say, so he did the same as he just stood at the side.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Finally, after a few minutes of total silence, where you could even hear a pin drop, the woman finally turned towards Fang and flicked her sleeve. As she did, an old book, that seemed to be as old as time itself flew towards him and Fang caught the book. Since he couldn’t read, he looked at the book in puzzlement and when he raised his gaze from the book, he saw the woman looked at him again. However, this time, in her eyes, there wasn’t endless coldness but rather a tinge of warmth and gentleness. She then turned towards Meng and said in a melodious voice, “Take good care of him Meng.”

  Meng solemnly nodded his head towards the woman and a second later, the woman disappeared the same way she had appeared. Meng’s gaze lingered on the spot she had disappeared from with a complicated look but in the end, he didn’t say anything. A few moments passed before he looked a Fang and said, “Hold that book close.” Fang then asked with confusion, “What is it?”

  Meng turned around as he gestured for him to follow. Fang was puzzled by the lack of answer but he didn’t ask again. Meng then brought him to register as his Disciple and they collected the things that were given to every Disciple. The one in charge of the distribution also explained to Fang about the contribution system, tasks and all the benefits each of the tiers of the people had. The higher ranked you were, the more benefits you enjoyed. Some of the things could only be bought or enjoyed with contribution points.

  Fang also got a brief explanation of the rules and where to exchange what. For example, there were specific tables for different types of missions. Collecting, Forging/Concocting, Battle, Support. These were the four Main Types and amongst them were myriad of different missions. There were different tables for different types to make it easier to accept specific tasks or turn them in.

  Meng walked next to Fang and sometimes added a few details to the explanations given or clarified some things that seemed to confuse Fang. When Fang had picked up all his allocated things, Meng brought them back to the World they had come from.

  ***

  High in the sky, in a concealed space, a woman in black robes was standing, looking over every action Meng and Fang took. She was the person that had given Fang the book, the Guardian Ancestor. Her gaze was extremely complex as she watched Meng take the young boy around and collect his robes, Elixirs and simple Magic Diagrams and all the other stuff that were given to new disciples on their admittance.

  When Fang and Meng went through the portal, she let out a deep sigh. Her gaze was filled with melancholy as she seemed to be lost in her memories of old. Suddenly, a pitch black skeleton with green flames in his eyes appeared next to her.

  The skeleton also looked at the portal and then sighed, “He looks just like him doesn’t he.” The woman nodded her head as she looked at the skeleton and asked, “You are finished with your experiments?” The skeletons shrugged his shoulders as he sighed, “There are some still left but when I heard that Meng had brought a weird young man to be tested, even my interest was piqued and I sent a Skeleton Puppet here. However….”

  The Skeleton Puppet let out a deep sigh as he finished the sentence in his head, “I had no idea he would carry this Bloodline and he would look so much like him.” The flames in the skeletons eyes flickered the more he thought about it.

  The woman also sighed and the man asked, “How are your preparations? We have only a century left until the War. You should know that this one is different from the rest and the entire future of our Plane rests upon this fight.”

  The woman sighed even more deeply as she nodded her head, “I have already completed all that I can…. Only the talks and strategy meetings with between the Seven Alliances remain. This time we don’t have the luxury to pursue our own benefits.” The skeleton nodded his head and sighed.

  The Inter Planar War this time was far more important than the previous times. Every top expert in the Plane was painfully aware of the fact that if they don’t band together and truly fight as one this time…. Only extermination awaits them.

  He gave one last glance towards the Portal and disappeared leaving the black robed woman there on her own.

  ***

  Back in Meng’s quarters, Meng talked with Fang a bit about his future. After explaining to Fang that the first things, and most important, were to nurse his health back to normal and also take the time to learn to read, write and arithmetic’s. After making a simple schedule, eating a good meal, Meng showed Fang to his new little cottage.

  This cottage now belonged to Fang and after explaining the different rooms and their uses to Fang, Meng left. Fang familiarized himself with the cottage a bit before he dropped on his bed. As soon as his head touched the pillow, he was knocked out. He had learned a lot of new things today and his mind was utterly exhausted from the overload of new information.

  The next day, they started with a hearty meal, a few lessons on reading, numbers and writing. Following that came simple exercises, history of Magi, the relationships of Elements and so on.

  ***

  In a swift pace, five years passed. In a study room, Meng was sitting behind a desk and in front of him stood a young man with a slender build. His hair was snow white and his eyes azure blue. That young man was Fang. Meng looked at him with a smile and said, “In these five years, you have completely exceeded my expectations, I have nothing more left to teach you.”

  Fang was startled by Meng words but before he could say anything, Meng gently shook his head with a smile and said, “It is time you left my protection and established your own little domain and carried out your own research, suffered hardships and took care of loose ends.”

  With the final part, his eyes narrowed a bit and Fang could clearly understand what he meant by that.

  A cold smile appeared on Fang’s lips as he thought to himself, “Time to fulfil the promise I made those years ago.”