Mr. Stirling [1]

"From what I've heard, you are already quite proficient at using your element. However, there is always more to learn, and therefore I will try my best to guide you down the path of water magic."

After having lunch with everyone, the second block of lessons had now started. For me, this meant that I would attend my first water manipulation class, as well as get to meet Mr. Stirling for the first time.

Though he looked to be about the same age as Mr. Black, the mana manipulation teacher with a receding hairline, Mr. Stirling's appearance was a bit more hard-hitting. His skin was a lot clearer, and with a full set of black hair, it made the contrast quite stark.

The only weird part about this class so far was that instead of being in a classroom, he had opted to book one of the smaller training rooms, something none of my other teachers had done no matter how few students were attending.

In this case, it was only me attending this class, as no other freshmen had the water element, except for Gomerick who was a very unique case. Back to the lesson, I was now sitting in a chair in front of the teacher who was standing next to a whiteboard, pen in hand.

"I will do my best!"

Smiling a bit at my reaction, he continued on, "That's good. The water element is the rarest of the five basic elements, so it's good that I get to teach a student that's willing to learn."

'Water is the rarest? Shouldn't that be darkness?'

Letting my thoughts stay untold, I just continued listening intently to Mr. Stirling, "Now, as I know that you already have some knowledge in the practical part of elemental manipulation, I am going to start with a bit of theory."

Raising his hand, he conjured a large orb of water and let it hover as he spoke, "As I said before, the water element is the most uncommon element of the basic elements. To this, it's a fact that elements seem to be hereditary, but one could say that the individual carrying the more developed affinity to their element would have the 'dominant gene' when creating offspring."

Carefully, he lobbed the orb of water to me, making sure to make it move slowly enough for me to 'catch it' as soon as he let go of his connection to it. With my strong connection to the element, it was no problem to establish a connection to the little body of water, which in turn danced around my body in joy.

"Mm, nicely done. Now, with this knowledge, why do you think the water element is so rare?"

Turning my attention away from my newfound friend, I pondered for a bit before coming up with a well-educated guess.

"First of all, it would suggest that the water element is something that, even when they have an affinity for it, isn't mastered by a lot of people. That leaves only two possibilities; either it is because people regard it as a bad or weak element, or it's because it's difficult to master."

Nodding, my new teacher looked like he approved of my answer, "Yes, those are truly the only possibilities, and the answer would be a mix of both. Because the water element generally has lower firepower than fire, less defensive capabilities than earth, and less utility than the wind, a lot of people look down on it."

"You didn't mention the darkness element?"

"Good question. Darkness is a special case. The darkness element takes on very different forms depending on the user, therefore there is no point in making general assumptions about it."

'That makes sense, I think?'

"Back to my earlier answer, there is also the fact that the water element is, indeed, harder to master than the rest of the basic elements. Why do you think that is?"

I had to say that I really enjoyed how Mr. Stirling went about teaching. Right from the start, he didn't seem like one to give me a textbook and say 'read this until tomorrow'. Instead, he opted to try and lead me to conclusions by giving me bits and pieces of information.

Then again, because I was quite used to making conjectures and conclusions based on flawed information, it wasn't too hard to realize what he wanted me to understand. "Does it have something to do with the fluidity of the element? Unlike the earth, its form is more dynamic, unlike the fire, its meant to be sustained and changed, and unlike the wind, its tangible while still being impossible to grab onto."

'I can't really go and say that I think it's an emotional element, right? Though I doubt he would mind, I don't think I can make as big of an impact if I say something that silly.'

This time, he looked downright impressed with my answer, "That's a very good answer! There's more to it than that, but your thinking is in the right direction. The one thing is that your thoughts are too factual, and if there's one thing water isn't then it's that. The water element is the most emotional element of them all."

Resisting the urge to facepalm, I just smiled and nodded as if I was learning something incredible.

"All elements react to one's emotions, but the water element is the one that has the strongest connection to them, and that's while also taking all the derivates we know of into account."

He allowed silence to fill the small room for a bit, as I pretended to collect my thoughts about the matter, even though my original thesis had been absolutely correct. "I think I understand... That does make sense. A lot of the times, it has felt as if the water moves by itself, so I guess it's reacting to my emotions then?"

"That is most likely the case. Anyway, enough chit-chat, let's see how far you have come on your journey. If it's not too much to ask, would you kindly display the different spells you know, and then we can talk about what specialization you want to strive for."

"Yes!"

It was finally time to get what I came here for, directions on how I should approach my element.

"Dummy, rank D, up."

Standing up, I walked out a bit to the center of the room, quickly followed by my teacher bringing a dummy out from the floor. It was amazing as always, these practice rooms, how user-friendly they were, and how many tools one had at their disposal.

Taking out a small notepad and another pen, he gave me the instructions for how we were going to go about it, "Let's start with your weakest spell, and then work your way up. If you don't think you have the mana pool for this, you may start with your strongest and then we will wait a bit until you have enough mana to continue."

Scratching my head, I felt like I was about to heavily disappoint the enthusiastic teacher when telling him the truth about the matter.

"I'll start with the weakest. The mana shouldn't be a problem as I only know two active water spells, haha..."

"Hmm? That's a bit surprising. From what I heard, you used a multitude of spells during your duel, but was that not the case?"

I wasn't sure how much I should tell him, as I had no idea of how much he already knew, but in the end, I decided to be honest while leaving out the specifics about [Bottomless Vessel].

"Well, that's... That was actually pure elemental manipulation, I didn't actually cast any spells. I think it has to do with what you said about water being emotional because normally I can't do that, but that time I was so angry that the water kind of just... moved?"

His eyes grew large when he heard the absurdity of what I was saying, yet he managed to stay professional about it, "Is that so? I would love to see it one day, but as I heard from Ms. Turner about your complications, I guess I'll just have to wait and see. It's a tragedy, but it can't be helped. Now enough wasting time, please show me the two spells you know then."

"Un!"

Setting my sight on the dummy, I quickly moved my mana to activate the most basic spell I knew, "[Orb of Water]!"

In the corner of my eyes, I could see his polite smile flinch a bit seeing the lame little body of water I shot out at the dummy. However...

*BOM!*

Pieces of the dummy flew through the air when my spell made an impact, showing the hidden power of my strike.

Even without using [Detonation] my cute little attack packed quite a punch, and a [D]-rank dummy wasn't going to come out unscathed when meeting it head-on. With a huge smile on my face, I looked at the man that I knew I had finally managed to surprise for real this time.

"W-what... Zero, you? YOU ARE [C]-RANK?!"