A blessing of a curse?

-No, it's even worse than that… You have the Universe element.

As she heard those words, Lucia's heart raced. Magic was one the thing she looked forward to the most, so she was naturally excited and filled with hope at the possibility of being able to use it. She asked:

-How can it be worse than not having magic at all? Will I able to use magic?

"I have magic! I knew it, I wonder why they seem so low-spirited, tough. They look as if I was going to die… They should be happy that I can use magic, no? I can't wait to use magic. Also, it sounds interesting, it was not in the elements that mom told me about, so that must mean it's a rare element."

-You don't know Universe magic? The mage behind the desk answered. She straightened her body and raised her gaze, finally seeming a bit interested and serious.

-Isn't Universe magic a good thing? It must be a rare type of magic, no? How can it be worse than having no magic?

Seeing Lucia's confused face, the woman understood that Lucia did not know anything about Universe magic and started explaining:

-The Universe element is the most dangerous, and the rarest type of magic. Only one Awakened out of 10 000 has it and only 1 dimensional mage out of 10 survives past the first tribulation…

"Yikes… I understand now, but it isn't a tribulation that's going to stop me! Whatever a tribulation is, I'm going to live through it and become a magician. Better be sure tough…"

-Wait, tribulation? What is a tribulation? Lucia asked.

The wizard shot a reproachful glance at Lucia's mother, who said, a bit embarrassed:

-I haven't told her a lot about magic… Only the basics…

-Well, I can I'll explain everything while I'm at it, the mage replied after a moment of hesitation.

While the two were talking, Lilia started crying, tears ran down her chin, the shock was too much for her to endure. Just when she thought magic was too dangerous, Lucia, her precious daughter, had received the most dangerous element. There was a 90% chance she would die, 90%!

For the next hour or so, the wizard explained and answered every question that Lucia had about magic and explained it detail how it works.

First, Presty, the mage, explained in detail each of the 12 elements.

There were five common elements: Fire, Water, Earth, Air and Lightning. 90% of awakened possessed one those elements. Awakened were children that had an element. Fire element controlled Fire, Lava and heat, Water element controlled water, cold and ice. Earth controlled rock, earth and metal, Air element controlled air, wind and sound and Lightning element controlled electricity, thunder and lightning.

Next were the 4 rare elements: Nature, Light/Shadow, Summoning and Metamorphosis. 9.9% of Awakened possessed are a rare element. Nature element could control plants and the flora, Light/Shadow element obviously controlled lights and shadows, but it could not heal. Summoning element could summon and control creatures from other dimensions as well as tame magical beasts and Metamorphosis element, nicknamed "Monster Element" could change parts of the body or even the whole body into a magical beast body.

Lastly, there were the three ultra-rare elements, Life element, Death element and Universe element. Only 0,1% of children gifted with magic possessed an ultra-rare element and affinity with Universe magic being the rarest, only 0,01% of them possessing it, even less surviving.

Life element could heal, even regrow limbs, and grant life to objects. Death element could wither, rot and destroy life, as well as create undeads. It was also the only element that did not need the magician to be present, undeads would wreak havoc even if their controller wasn't present, but due to the influence of the Church of the 7 gods, all Death element mages were immediately detained and kept prisonners of the Church. "It is justified, the mages and the Church said, undeads attacks on small villages are pretty frequent and we wouldn't want more casualties."

Honestly, no one bothered saving Death element Awakened, because of you were rich and powerful enough, you could use your influence to "save" your child from the Church and if you were poor, no one cared about what you thought.

Finally, there was the Universe element. This element was the most mysterious of all of them and it had control over gravity, space and time. Although it seems awesome at first, this magic had the lowest pure attack power out of all the elements and was the hardest to learn, many Universe mages would just give and or be stuck for several years without progress. Additionally, it was the element with the highest mortality rate, its tribulations being extremely brutal and fatal.

So this is the Universe element. Gravity, space and time? Time, that seems strong. Well, I guess that it isn't too surprising since I have the Mark that can slow down time, it must be connected somehow. This element is way better than fire, I would've never expected it to be a type of magic. I wonder what it would look like combined with my swordsmanship. I bet it'd be incredibly strong.

After having discussed each element a bit, the female mage, Presty, talked about how mages were classified and ranked. Mages were separated into tiers and each time a mage got into a better tier, they got exponentially more powerful.

The tiers were like this: Novice-tier, Mid-tier 1 to 5, High-tier 1 to 4 and Sage-tier 1 to 3. Between each "major tier" (Novice-tier to Mid-tier for example) there was a tribulation where one's element would "test" them to see if they were worthy. One thing to note about tribulations was that during the tribulation, if a third party interfered in any way to help the mage, the element would simply abandon them, making them unable to use magic ever again.

All children that were gifted with magic were called Awakened until they reached Mid-tier 1. From Mid-tier 1 to 5, one would be called a wizard, from High-tier 1 to 4 a magus and from Sage-tier 1 to 3 a sage.

Sages were extremely scarce, there were only 11 of them in the entire empire and the most powerful of them was a Sage-tier 2 with nature affinity .

Magi were more common, there were about 10 000 in the Empire and they had a very high social standing, better than most nobles.

The reason why Universe magic was seen as a curse was that 9 out of 10 users died during the tribulations and their bodies would be afterward discovered in horrible conditions, the internal organs crushed, all the bones broken and the body severed in multiple pieces.

As soon as they turned five, all Awakened were in Novice-tier and a few years after, one or two most of the time, they would undergo the first tribulation. If they survived, they would reach Mid-tier 1 and could be called wizards. Generally speaking, the rarer the element, the more dangerous the tribulation was and that was why there were very few High-tier mages with ultra-rare elements, there was only 1 High-tier Universe element mage in the entire Gondolua Empire.

Also, to breakthrough to the next stage, one usually needed to have a good mastery of spells of their element and good comprehension of the element, but the most important par was a powerful soul. Souls were an abstract concept that science or magic did not really understand, but to get a powerful soul, experience and hardships were required. This was why Universe magic was very hard, it was an element that was awfully hard to comprehend and the fact that they were very few books explaining it and spell didn't help.

Another way to breakthrough was to go through intense near-death experiences or high-stress situations. Those situations could improve the soul by a lot and force the body's hidden potential to cause a breakthrough.

After she explained all of this, Presty added one last thing:

-If you survive your first tribulation, return here and I'll explain everything you need to go to the Academy, if you wish to go there, that is. It is a ruthless, dog-eat-dog type of place and many students die every year, but don't worry about it. For now, I recommend that you just relax and enjoy your last years.

As she processed this new knowledge, Lucia pondered about what she would do in her future and her current situation, but she was very confident in surviving her first tribulation, her body was sturdier than most children her age because she trained for the past half a year and she had good pain resistance, she would not die or give up easily.

"Well, my soul should be powerful, more than a child my age. This is my second life after all and I've gone though plenty of hardship or near-death experiences. Although I was never good at academic studies, the learning capabilities and the memory of this new body is phenomenal. After I survive my first tribulation, I think I'll go to the Academy to become more powerful. I hope Mom won't worry too much, though, she broke down as soon learned my element and has been crying for the past hour. It really breaks my heart, I should try to comfort her on the way back home. It really pains me to see her like this."

After she got the information she wanted, Lucia gently took the hand of her mother and left, not paying any attention to the marvellous interior of the building.

As they were walking in the street, Lucia finally broke the awkward silence that had installed itself when neither of the two people dared to speak first:

-Mom…

-What, she replied, her eyes watery and hand shaking. Lucia knew that she was forcing herself to not break into tears right now.

As she responded, her hand tightened on Lucia's hand.

-I'm going to be fine. No matter how difficult or deadly this tribulation is and matter what my odds are, I'll survive, so don't worry, Lucia said gently, her eyes also filled with tears.

-I know, I believe in you darling. Everything is going to be just fine, she replied while hugging Lucia tightly, a lonely tear rolling down her cheek.