A Deeper Understanding

"I witnessed your successful, but boring life."

"Every principle of any element can be shown with your imagination."

"I will give you part of what makes me, me."

"You are the opposite of corrupted."

"Save me! Save me!"

…

"Welcome back to the land of the living youngster"

Elijah was slowly waking up as he heard a familiar voice ring through his ears. However, the first thing he thought to check was his shoulder and leg, which was pierced by the pincer at the last second before his escape. A groan and bones cracking from stretching his arms echoed through the dimly lit cavern. The familiar red and teal glowing flowers lined the walls as they were hanging to the vines. "It-It's you again. The hooded man!"

The hooded man stood up from his criss cross position, and slowly walked toward Elijah. "Yes, it is me again. I was surprised to see your gravely injured and poisoned body this time. I thought you were smarter than that. What exactly happened to you?"

After fully standing up, Elijah contemplates ignoring the man and escaping through the whirlpool to return to the Weltor's. Novius and Alexia were most definitely worried about him as it had been way past a couple of hours. However, with his back turning towards the hooded man, he spoke again.

"I just saved your life, and this is how you treat me?"

Elijah turned back around and apologized. "I am sorry, but I have to get back or else my friends will be worried about me. I mean no ill will, and thank you for healing me."

"Oh, it seems like you are just as bright as you were the first time I saw you. Your demeanor and calmness are evident. Where exactly were you that caused you to be poisoned and broken like you were?"

Elijah contemplated his answer, and decided to tell the truth. This man not only saved his life, but never had any malice towards him in both confrontations. "I entered a massive cave by going through the whirlpool. There were tons of mana crystals, and a huge green and black spider in a nearby cavern."

"Haha, how incredible. Even with this Kingdom's age of over 6000 years, there are still many unexplored places with extremely dangerous beasts. I'm surprised you weren't killed! Did you by chance collect any of those mana crystals?" The man asked."

Elijah smiled at his question as he opened his small spatial storage and took out two large blue and white mana crystals.

"Wow, you have come a long way! And I can tell you are on the brink of breaking through to the bright red stage."

"How are you able to tell that? I can't feel anything coming from you."

"I am at the bright cyan core stage, and have a deeper understanding of mana compared to the basic understanding everyone seems to drool over…"

Elijah thought for a second about his words. The only way he knew people used magic in this world was by excreting it from their own core. However, he is able to manipulate the environmental mana by sending a little mana out of his body, and embodying the principles of the specific affinity. Could this be the greater understanding?

"What deeper understanding of mana do you mean?"

"I know you know what I mean kid. You just manipulated the environment to create that fancy storage spell. Also, since you have that special affinity, do you want to try absorbing another affinity?"

Elijah walked around in circles while thinking. "I was already planning on doing that. But first, I want to know your name, and see your face…" The fact that this man has never revealed anything about himself to me. There has got to be some reason for it.

The hooded man backed up from Elijah. "Okay, understandable. Firstly, my name is Abel, and I have been corrupted by something in this kingdom. I say this because when you see my face, you need not be afraid…"

Abel, grabbed his black hood with his long fingers, and pulled back to the hood. A distorted face was seen with its eyes, nose, mouth, and ears in seemingly awkward positions.Even his skull was misshapen. His mouth and nose were slightly twisted, and his eyes and ears were at different heights. While it was extremely minor, it was easy to notice. However, there was not a single hair on his head or face.

"What happened to you?"

"I unfortunately fell into "It" underneath the whirlpool. I wish I could explain more, but for unknown reasons I cannot…"

This man is referring to what Elijah saw just before he blacked out. Although, what puzzled Elijah, was that he remembers seeing literally nothing. Maybe the nothingness is the "It" he is talking about. The corruption.

"I see. Well, why don't we move on to the absorption of this water affinity. Is it even possible to have two affinities?"

"Yes, in fact it is very possible. The only determining factor is if the affinity you want to absorb is compatible with your current affinity. Fire and ice cannot be together, as they would continuously destroy each other, resulting in the destruction of the mana core where they reside. However, it is much deeper than that. A special affinity like space, cannot be paired with fire, as the core principles are too far apart from each other."

Elijah was taking in this knowledge like a sponge. Just like he assumed, this world of magic is not so black and white, but also gray.

"Space and water would go well together, correct?"

"Absolutely, the same spatial spells you cast can be made with water spells. But with a different effect. Of course it will take some time to absorb the affinity, which you probably don't have enough time for today. But at least you know it's possible."

Elijah slowly walked up to Abel with his hand out. After staring at the man for no more than ten seconds, Abel shook his hand. "Thank you for the help, I hope I see you again."

"Likewise. Maybe next time you can tell me a little bit about that ability of yours."

Elijah didn't fully understand what he said until he was about to fly into the whirlpool. "Ah. Yes, I will tell you about it next time."

Like wind within water, Elijah flew through the whirlpool after taking a long and deep breath. The cold water was lessened with his mask and suit on, and the moment Elijah made it to the underside of Centerpool. He activated the invisibility.

"Well, it looks like I am invisible as I cannot see my entire body."

Elijah had no idea how long it had been since he had passed out. However, the only option was to act like everything was normal as he knocked on the balcony door. Just to be safe, he inched his way above the ledge of the grand park, and noticed a large amount of people gathering in the area, as well as the King standing on the South bridge with his family that connects to the castle.

Well shit. It looks like it has almost been an entire day.

Elijah quickly flew through the gap and headed straight towards the Weltor estate. And as he was looking back, he saw a cold looking man that was following him on an ice path. 

The invisibility deactivated the moment he touched the balcony of Novius' room. "How could you see me, and why are you following me Amaris?!"