47 Ascension Process (2)

"So, we now know the basic trees of magic. We know about the correct method of finding your own magic. We know how magic is linked to ascension, but what we need to do now is figure out your own specialties and work on your foundation."

The hologram disappears and the teacher walks over to the whiteboard and begins writing down the names of each student. After finishing, he pulls out a box of metallic looking sand and puts it on a scale on his desk.

"Okay, now come up here and put your hand in this box. The sand in here is made up of the recently discovered material 'magicite'. You will need to hover your hand slightly above the sand and hold it there. You do not need to channel your magic as it will sense it for you."

Some of the students who already knew of magicites existence walk up first and nonchalantly take turns to get evaluated. The scale on the bottom of the box was reading a weight of exactly 5.00 pounds.

After the first student put his hand close enough to the sand without touching it, the magicite sand began faintly moving. After waiting for one full minute, the teacher looks at the number on the scale and sees the number at 3.46 pounds.

The teacher marks this number before putting his hand underneath the table, causing the magicite sand to plummet back down into the box.

"Alright thank you, next student please."

"3.20, next please"

"3.01, next please"

"3.87, next please"

...

The students take turns and are given a number evaluation to go with their magical power. The tall boy who was fighting Alistair earlier with his friend takes his turn and causes a small wave of shock to proceed through the class.

"2.75, nice job Thomas! Next student please"

Some murmurs sprout up from this shock,

"Wow, he's the first student to lift more than two pounds of sand."

"He must be very talented and strong."

"Wow, he's so cool."

The murmurs die down a little though as the next students take their turn. Alistair tries his best to hold his curiosity back. He knows that his encounters with magic have been nothing but dangerous since the beginning.

Many thoughts run through his mind of blacking out and turning into a blood thirsty creature, or his body spontaneously trying to expel the magic. After much deliberation though, he comes to the conclusion that learning in class would be the best way to find out exactly what his condition is.

He remembers his teacher talking about all the unknowns of magic and how well they blaze trails for others. Maybe someone else has a similar experience to his.

He walks up to the box of magic and nervously hovers his hand over the sand. the mild chatter in the back of the room continues as no one is really paying to much attention to what is happening with Alistair.

There is however, one person paying attention. The teachers eyes go wide at the scene in front of him. He had heard of really special cases where someone will attract no magicite sand, he had even heard of rarer cases where young students would pull the entire box of sand into the air.

What he has not heard of and is experiencing right now, is the magicite sand being repelled by his hand. In the box of sand, a clear hand print is displayed without Alistair ever touching it.

The teacher goads Alistair into pressing his hand further in. When Alistair listens though, the hand print goes deeper into the sand until the bottom of the box is clearly visible. Unsure of the unique situation given to him, the teacher looks at Alistairs face in disbelief.

When Alistair first saw the print of his hand in the sand, his mind reeled in shock.

"I know my body doesn't like magic, but now magic doesn't even like me?!"

He nervously looks up to see his teacher staring at him and gulps down dry spit in his throat. He could tell by the look on the teachers face that something wasn't right. This thought was confirmed by the teachers next statement.

"Alright class, we will end class early. Please study further into the respective trees of magic and be prepared to delve deeper into your specialties tomorrow."

Though abrupt, not many students gave it much thought. They packed their supplies and went off to do other activities while leaving the professor alone. Alistair waited by the side of the teacher for everyone to leave.

Not by choice, but because he felt an incredible pressure weighing down on him from the teacher that no other student could even tell was happening.

After everyone left, the teacher locked the door behind them and turned to Alistair.

"Okay, speak."

The pressure disappeared the moment the teacher finished his statement. Alistair gasps for a quick breath and then replies,

"Speak about what? I don't know why the sand doesn't like me."

He looks around the room, trying to think of ways to get out of this situation. The teacher sees this though and cuts off any hope Alistair has.

"If you are thinking of getting out of this, you should make it a lot less noticeable. Not that it would have made a difference, even most of the faculty can't get away from me when I get serious."

"What do you want with me?"

"Alistair, you are an unknown. You have a unique magic all your own."

The teacher says this while looking at Alistair with a expectant gleam in his eye. Alistair cocks an eyebrow in confusion,

"Magic all my own? I don't even have magic, how can I have developed my own specialty?"

The teacher chuckles,

"Alistair, it's not that you don't have magic. It's that your body completely rejects magic. You are a rarity among rarities. Even people have never study magic has some form of magic reservoir inside of them. Think of it as magic residue that sticks to us as we live in this world.

You however, have no reservoir at all. Your body is untainted with magic, a clean slate."

"Okay, but doesn't that mean that I'm virtually useless? I will never be able to gather magic and grow stronger."

"That's not true Alistair, all unknowns have unique cases with them developing their own magic. Magic turning into another material all together, it being drained at a rapid pace and more. Humans can only use the amount of magic that we can store in our body for whatever purposes we desire.

But you... You can control magic outside of your own body. If you are able to harness it, you could potentially always have an unlimited amount of magic available to you."

This bombshell leaves Alistair speechless. He figured that the only way for him to grow would be to consume and evolve, could he really master his own form of magic? He asks his teacher with hopeful eyes.

"Teacher, can I really learn to use unlimited amounts of magic? Do I truly have such great powers?"

His teacher replies with a magnanimous look in an attempt to enlighten Alistair to his own brilliance.

"Of course! It's just like building muscles in your body. You just need to train your body to properly make use of and strengthen your gifts."

....

"Train my gift? You mean figuratively right? Like training my mind."

"Nope, your body will need to remember the ways you use your magic. To do so will require a lot of restructuring to your current body that can only be done with constant practice of your gift. It is painful and hard work but the results are well worth it."

...

Contrary to the look of joy he expected on the students face though, he sees Alistair fall to his knees and start banging his fist against the ground while mumbling to himself.

"B...B..but...my body can't....change..."