As fast as Damion was learning about his new world, he was growing even faster. When Damion hit six years old his parents decided it was time to send him to school. He had already read all the books in their house and the two of them were at their wits end trying to keep up with him and his endless questions about how everything worked.
The school year for Nerotath started at the beginning of the year and ran to the end, with a break of two weeks at the end of each quarter of the year. Ordinarily, children on Nerotath started school the year they would turn eight. Given the level of intelligence Damion displayed, his parents insisted to the teacher that he was ready to start at the beginning of the new term and she relented. Damion was happy with the decision, after reading all the books his parents owned, he had been getting bored.
Nerotath was similar to Earth in so many ways, that Damion came close to forgetting he was in a different world. What always snapped him back to his new reality was magic. Here everything ran on magic. From phones to computers and even the cars that people drove around, were all powered by magic, making Damion want to be able to use magic even more.
On his first day of school Damion's mother walked him to his classroom. Even though she wanted him to go to school, she was quite nervous now that the time had actually come. Damion looked at the students who were all a year or more older than him and chose a desk in the first row while his mother went and greeted the teacher.
Damion's mother left, wishing him a good day. As more students began filing in he saw some accompanied by a parent, some who were not. The other students in the class had whispered conversations to each other, indicating to Damion that many of these kids knew each other. Unfortunately for him, because not only was he physically younger, his older mental age made it more difficult for him to make friends.
One element of this world that intrigued Damion the most, was how most people tended to follow the rules without much question. Perhaps there was magic at work to help keep people in line, or maybe the threat of Ferocious Beasts and Demonic Beasts made people more aware of their actions and more willing to adhere to rules. Whatever it was, Damion was impressed with the behavior of his new class when at the top of the hour the teacher called the class to attention and each of the students instantly became quiet and focused on her.
"Good morning everyone. My name is Mrs. Colman."
The teacher introduced herself while Damion gave her an appraising look. She was a tall skinny woman, in her mid-thirties with long straight brown hair. Damion could not help but think she was a rather plain looking woman, but he did not care, as long as he was able to learn.
Since neither of his parents were mages, Damion's knowledge of magic and all its various uses was quite lacking. He knew most items in the world made use of magic to run, magic was essentially this world's electricity, but more. Lights, cars, communication, entertainment systems. It all ran on magic, but Damion had no idea how, and he wanted to find out.
"Today we are going to learn about the history of magic," Mrs. Colman said. "Now, can anyone tell me when magic was first discovered?"
"At the start of the Second Age," a girl in the back of the class said.
"That is right, Noel. When magic was discovered, it was such a world changing discovery that we changed our calendar system to commemorate it. Does anyone know how long an age lasts?"
"10,000 years," the boy next to Damion answered.
The answer caused Damion to stop and do math in his head. The books he read always talked about one age or another, though most referenced the current age, none had explained how long an age was. His birthday was the twelfth day of the twelfth month in the year 1592 of the Eighteenth Age. If each age was 10,000 years, that meant this world had over 180,000 years of recorded history. This made all of Earth's recorded history nothing more than a footnote to the people of Nerotath.
'Perhaps it isn't magic or fear that keeps people in line,' Damion thought. 'Perhaps people here have just learned enough over tens of thousands of years to be civil and instill it in their children from a young age..'
"That is right. Before the discovery of magic, we humans had very little territory and could not fight against the Ferocious Beasts let alone the Demonic Beasts. We were forced to eke out a living in caves nearly always on the brink of being wiped out. Is there anyone who would like to tell the class about the first magic users?"
Several people in the class raised their hands leaving Damion wondering if he was as smart as he thought he was, because he had never learned any of this from the books in his parents' house.
"Go ahead Michael," Mrs. Colman said pointing to someone behind Damion.
"The first magic users were the knights. They learned to channel magic into their weapons to enhance the damage they could deal."
'Knights!' Exclaimed Damion to himself. 'Perhaps if I can't heal my mana pathways I could be a knight instead of a mage.'
"Very good. In the early days of magic, no magic seals had been invented to cast spells, so there were no mages." Mrs. Colman elaborated. "The first magic seal for a spell was not created until the Fourth Age. For those tens of thousands of years knights pushed through and cut out from the wilds the first human kingdom. From the start of the Second Age to now, knights have been on the frontlines of humanity against the beasts."
"What was the first spell created?" Damion blurted out.
"Good question Damion. The first spell was Minor Heal," Mrs. Colman said. "If you all open your books to 223, you can see the magic seal for Minor Heal."
"Does this mean we can learn the spell?" a boy asked causing several snickers from other students.
"You can try Sean. To learn a spell, you have to fully memorize its magic seal, but you also have to have the right element. If you do manage to learn the spell, you will have quite the future ahead of you as a healer."
Damion quickly opened his book to page 223 and looked at the magic seal. The seal was a series of interconnected circles and lines with a number of runes written around the circles that Damion could not make sense of. However, just as Damion was about to close the book he heard a surprise chime.
*Ding*
{Magic seal recorded}
[Minor Heal - Active - (F Rank 15 Mana) Channels your mana to treat minor wounds.]
[Error. Unable to use spell. Host does not have required affinity.]
The Magic System giving him a notification surprised Damion, especially since he had not received any since he was a few months old. He had hoped he would be given a few random quests, but other than when he asked the system questions, he had not heard anything from the system. Not being able to use the spell was within Damion's expectations, but how the system was able to record the magic seal when he did not have the correct affinity was a mystery.
The biggest question Damion had at the moment was, what was his affinity? That was one of the parts of the Magic System that was locked. Damion was not sure if it was locked to keep it a secret from him, or if once the Magic System unlocked the system would give him one, or perhaps let him choose one. Either way, he would have to wait another twelve years before he would get his answer.
'System. Why could I learn the magic seal but not use the spell?'
{The Magic System records all magic seals the host comes in contact with}
'Does that mean I can use any spell?'
{Host can only use spells that align with host's affinity}
'How can I use Mana Absorption when I don't have an affinity?'
{Mana Absorption directly absorbs mana from the environment or objects. Magic seals alter the natural flow of mana to align with a mage's affinity.}
'Does that mean there are other unaligned spells?'
{Unable to answer due to system is not fully unlocked}
Damion spent so much time inside his own mind talking to the system that he missed Mrs. Colman calling on him. To her and the rest of the class he was staring at the magic seal with a vacant expression.
"Damion, were you able to memorize the magic seal?" Mrs. Colman asked, snapping him back to reality.
Of course he had memorized the seal, but if he said yes and then could not do the spell, everyone would think he was lying. This left Damion with no choice but to lie to his teacher.
"No ma'am," Damion answered sheepishly.
"Don't worry. I'm sure you'll find the right affinity of magic one day. Now, everyone, take out your workbook and start with page one."