The class exploded in uproar. A student had an External Element! The odds of this were unknown, but it was believed to be at least 1 in 100 million. For a planet with 13 billion people, excluding vampires, that meant that around 130 people had an Element that sat outside the main pool of 6. Again, vampires didn't count —Blood and all that— but that didn't discredit the rarity of an External Element.
Grey went back to his group of friends, where Var waited for him, jaw agape. Elijah seemed shocked, but not too confused. Grey suspected that he might also have an External Element. His reaction was kind of mild after all. Darren and Blake wore similar expressions to Var, all three of them unable to speak.
Turning to the group of girls, his gaze met Aurora's, for what felt like the fiftieth time that day. She looked impressed, but there was a spark of fire in her eyes. She seemed competitive.
'Good luck.' He thought.
The other girls were stunned. Penelope looked less stunned; similar to Elijah, but overall, they were more stunned than the boys.
Grey had a look at the class and chuckled. Every student stood rooted to the spot, varying levels of shock on their faces. About 94% had their jaws wide open, and the other 6% were the 3 that Grey had noted specifically.
Once Grey was fully integrated with the crowd, Drakell motioned for the blue-haired boy.
However, he couldn't forget the look in Grey's eyes. It wasn't fully aimed at him, but the blazing killing intent he had received almost made him piss himself. That gaze was terrifying!
Drakell had once been a soldier on the frontier. The vampires there could exude a bloodlust utilizing their Blood Magic that was so powerful, so crippling that even grown Hunters would struggle to deal with it. Yet, a boy of 17 had released one so powerful that a war veteran almost pissed himself?!
Drakell was honestly scared for the person who that rage was directed at. That man had a short lease on life, was all he could say.
Elijah, the blue-haired boy, stood in front of Drakell, so he recast his Darkness barrier.
Grey watched as Elijah raised his hand to face the barrier, and took a stance.
Elijah chanted the First Spell, "Lux Flore." Out of his hand appeared a golden bud, much like Grey's. Once the ball of Light was released, it moved to the target.
The professor was right. Elijah's ball of Light moved slower than Grey's, much slower. Grey was rather shocked at its slow pace, hell, he was shocked at how slow the Light Spell was in general; the light was the fastest thing in the universe, so how could Light Spells be so slow?
The professor analyzed Elijah's Spell, before giving a nod of approval. Elijah repositioned himself, placing his other hand forward.
"Fulgur Flore." A crackling sound was heard, and arcs of blue energy lit up Elijah's face. A bud of light blue that hummed and zapped appeared in his hand, shooting a ball of lightning that flew toward the barrier.
It, like the Poison ball, sizzled against the barrier but was inevitably swallowed.
Drakell fell on his ass for the second time in one lesson.
"Im... Impossible!" He screeched. "TWO EXTERNAL ELEMENTS!?"
This wasn't unheard of, but for 2 people with External Elements to be in the same class, that was.
Unfortunately for Drakell, Elijah wasn't the last.
It was Darren's turn next, and he breezed through with his Dark and Fire Spells.
When Aurora came up next, she cast an impassive gaze over the class, true to her Ice Queen image. But when her gaze crossed over Grey and her friend group —the girls, not the boys— her gaze softened. It was quick, but the class noted it.
The students had seen before that she was playful when with her friends, so they assumed that she was only an Ice Queen to boys —a weird thing, for an Ice Queen was cold to all. Still, this was good news for many girls, as they were hoping to be friends. The Novis family was very powerful, after all.
Taking note of the girl's looks, Aurora realized her mistake. Her Ice Queen image was meant to be for all, yet it crumbled when looking at her friends and that boy. How could she become popular by being both an Ice Queen and a Cheerful Girl — it was one or the other!
'Damn... Well, it's just one blunder, I'm sure it won't matter.'
She turned back to the professor.
"Professor Drakell, I'm going to begin."
He gave a nod in confirmation, so she started quickly. Casting a Wind Spell, the ball of Wind flew forth. Landing on the barrier, like all past spells, it dissipated.
Her next Spell, however, gave the class another shock.
"Glacies Flore." Like a crystal, a clear blue cracked into existence, creating a beautiful bud. The ball of ice it released shot toward the barrier.
Similarly to all the other External Elements, it clashed with the barrier for a few seconds, before dissipating.
Drakell's ass became extra sore; he fell on it a third time. He quickly stood up, shook it off, and moved on.
A fourth student couldn't have an External element, right?
Penelope Spring was the next up, and she had the Earth Element. Her second Element was another surprise for the class, Plant.
"Plant Flore."
The green energy that came from her palm created a soothing feeling like being in its vicinity healed you. Drakell was no longer surprised; the people in this class were all abnormal.
Hannah Raven was next, exhibiting both Water and Wind, a rare combination, considering it should have been Water and Fire, yet not as rare as an External Element.
The students went one after another, and Grey took note of the Elements of the people in his friend group.
The girl ranked 9th, called Natalie, had both Water and Fire, a normal combination. Var, Rank 10, had the opposite, with Fire and Water. Blake had Fire and Earth, another intriguing combination.
It took almost an hour, but eventually, they reached the end of the list, student Kim Jaehyun. He cast a Dark Spell, nothing special about it, and a Light Spell, so Grey dropped his suspicion. He still felt wary when near the boy, so he would keep an eye out.
---
"Well, I think we're going to win the war this generation!" Drakell cracked a joke, back in front of the class. The desks had been placed back in position, and the students sat in their chosen spots.
"That's all from me for today. Since you've had your Home Room, Theory, PT, and Magic classes, you're free to go and do what you wish for the rest of the day."
Grey left the class alongside the bustling mass of students and rejected an invitation to go hang out with friends. Since it was the first day of school, most students, including the boys on his floor, would be out of the dorms. This was the perfect chance to test out his other Manipulations.
---
Grey stood in his room and asked Fallen Star an important question. His training relied on the answer that he would receive.
"Are there any cameras here?"
Fallen Star, after merging with the piece of soul tech, had full access to the school's AI, so he could see all the cameras. After a quick skim over several thousand cameras, a positive response came back.
- No cameras in the room. Nor sensors. You can practice your other Elements here. -
"Well, then let's begin."
Grey pointed his hand to the wall, planning on using it as his target. He channeled his Mana, Manipulating it to be Space. The Manipulation went well but was more taxing than other Manipulations. It seemed that Rare Elements required more Mana than others.
The very fabric of space rippled as it compressed into a bud. Grey had chosen to test his Magic with the First Spell, for he knew it very well. The space around the Spell became pitch black, lacking space in that area, and the Space Magic itself was a swirling vortex of black, blue, and purple. It soon fixed itself, for space was a constant, it would always come back.
The bud opened, releasing a small ball of Space. It flew through the air, and Grey began to test his other capabilities. Spending more Mana, he commanded the Space to move to the left, then the right, and finally in a loop-the-loop, before letting it continue its course, crashing into the wall,
Or so it should have, but Grey had forgotten that he was dealing with Space, not Light or Poison. The Magic destroyed the wall, leaving a perfect circle where it had passed.
"Oops. That's not good." Grey rushed to the nearest drawer, retrieving some Spackle. He had bought it from the school's mall, just in case. It seemed the school had expected students to damage the walls.
He swiftly filled in the hole, before moving back to the middle of the room, planning to cast Null Magic.
A formless Magic filled the space in front of his hand, and Grey could sense that it took the form of a bud. Knowing full well that he was about to destroy the wall again —the only thing in the room he could freely destroy and fix— he released the ball of Null.
It slammed through the wall, dissipating shortly after, but the damage was done. This time, however, it seemed worse, for the Magic continued to disintegrate the wall.
By the time it had finished, there was a hole about double its original size. Picking up the Spackle, he re-refilled the hole.
There was only one Element left, Time, and it had a lot of utility. An idea came to Grey, and so he Manipulated his Magic in a different method than before.
He walked to the wall where the Spackle-filled hole lay and stretched his palm to it. Releasing a pulse of Time Magic, that he had commanded to reverse time, he watched as the Spackle magically dissipated, in the exact opposite order that Grey had filled the hole in. The hole shrunk back to its first size, filled with the first batch of Spackle that Grey had placed.
Grinning, he released a second pulse of Magic and watched as the hole's time reversed, the wall filling in the space it had once occupied.
Grey knew that Time Magic would be his most powerful Magic, but he hadn't anticipated this level of utility. What he had just achieved was a lot more complex than simply reversing time. He had commanded everything in that area to revert.
A comparative example would be a car riddled with bullets. Instead of commanding the time to revert, and hence the car doing every action it had done but backward, until before it was riddled with bullets, he made the car itself revert time to before it was riddled with bullets, but without making the car do its actions backward.
It was so much more complex than regular time reversal, so it had fully drained Grey of his Mana.
He staggered to his bed and lay down, falling asleep. Just before he slumbered, however, he heard Fallen Star comment.
- Extraordinary Grey, truly. -