While Alexander was feeling that a lot of time had passed, the process only took 1 minute.
When he sat down cross-legged, Rose turned to Lillian and started talking:
"Is his potential as good as he said?"
Lillian gave a cold snort, not even bothering looking at the old woman and said:
"It's much more than what you think, hag."
Rose didn't care how the little bird called her, she had seen much in life. Some petty insults wouldn't faze her. Instead, she asked another question:
"So what do you think about his affinities? Any guesses?"
Lillian gave a side-glance at the old woman, a bit amazed at how calm she's acting even though she's offending her. She answered with a milder tone this time:
"Hmm, I've seen him use fire spells, Fire affinity is a given. I wouldn't be surprised if he has two more. Wind and earth maybe? His personality fits them."
The old woman was a bit surprised when she heard the answer. Its common knowledge in this world that for a person to have two elemental affinities is already considered extremely rare. There is less than five registered people who have three.
The old woman thought that while his potential seemed strong, that was highly unlikely.
It was at this moment that a powerful crimson ember appeared over Alexander, seeing it the old woman spoke:
"Hoho! There's the fire affinity it seems that he-"
Before she completed her sentence, the gentle blue light appeared, making her blurt:
"Fire and Water! 2 opposing affinities, how rare!"
Then, came the brown mote, signifying the affinity in the earth, making her even more surprised, she exclaimed inwardly:
'The bird was right! 3 elemental affinities, how talented!'
Lillian had expected this and was about to brag when suddenly, a green mote that looked like a mini tornado appeared next to him, making Lillian bite what she was about to say.
The old woman stood up from her seat and shouted in a amazed voice:
"The element of the wind! All four elemental affinities! That's only appeared in myths!"
Lillian was also astonished witnessing that he had all four elemental affinities, the myth the old lady was referring to was a widely known one. It talked about the great hero Albion; People claimed that Albion was gifted by the world's consciousness. The world called him, giving him a quest to end the tyranny of the olden demon race. Albion was considerably talented as both a Magus and Warrior. The people gave him many names; One of them was because of his affinities; <Tempest of the elements>.
Both of them just stared dumbfounded at the consequences of what it means for another person like Albion to appear; if he could grow into a respectable power level, who would be able to stop him?
Before both managed to even think about calming down; the gentle, embracing white light descended from above him, illuminating his head, giving it a pure feeling.
At the same time, a dark orb of light that wanted to consume everything in its wake ascended from the floor. It made a weird contrast with the white light, giving Alexander both a holy and destructive image, combined with the rest of the elements surrounding him, he looked very imposing and formidable.
The old woman, Rose, broke out her reverie and shouted with a crazed tone:
"Hahaha! Light and Darkness together is it? It makes sense now. The potion is defective! Hahahahaha!"
Lillian broke out of her reverie as well and gave the old woman a side glance, barking at her:
"Shut up and watch you useless bag of bones!"
The old woman stopped laughing and looked back to Alexander with a crazed look on her eyes.
The two elements started to revolve like a yin-yang symbol, achieving some sort of equilibrium when a transparent mass of energy arrived in front of him, causing distortions in the surrounding elements while twisting them around the place.
The cherry on the cake was when after all that, smoke appeared in the cube with the smell of ozone. Alongside the smell, sparks of electricity that danced around inside popped in existence.
When all of that is done, Alexander opened up his eyes and to say that he was amazed, is an understatement.
He could see a weird pyramid that reminded him of a diagram he once saw about the four elements. Over that diagram, there was a yin-yang symbol that gave him the oddest sense of tranquility. Pulling his eyes from the symbol, odd distortions were on the outer layer of the constructs with sparks of electricity jumping around.
He slowly stood up and the mysterious sightings slowly vanished. He looked towards the old woman and bird and noticed that Lillian had a blank look in her eyes, he looked over the old woman and got a slight shiver from how maniacal her face looked like.
He tilted his head a bit sideways and asked Lillian slightly concerned:
"Was something wrong with the process? Didn't I do well?"
The old woman broke into a maniacal stunning the both of them. Lillian just gave her a weird look and Alexander frowned. The old woman stopped laughing and looked at him while saying:
"He asks if he didn't do well! Do you believe it? Hahahaha! Oh, this is so funny. I haven't made a potion this defective since I started the art! Hahahaha!"
Seeing that she had gone mad, Alexander looked at Lillian, and Lillian at the old lady, seeing as how she wouldn't stop, she shouted:
"Old Hag! Stop crowing about with that laughter of yours! Bring some basic elemental scroll matrices over for us to test."
The old lady wiped some stray tears from the corner of her eyes and replied with laughter:
"Bring some scrolls over? So that we can test him? Sure, sure! I'll entertain this joke, hahaha!"
And with that, she turned around and went towards a storage room at the side of the store in search of the scrolls.
Alexander turned towards Lillian and asked her with annoyance in his voice:
"What happened? Were the results that bad? Didn't I do well? Why is she laughing at me?"
Lillian just shook her head and answered him with a tired voice:
"It's not that you didn't do well, the results are incredible, so incredible that they're impossible. You have an affinity for all known elements."
Alexander frowned and said with complaint coating his voice:
"So? Isn't that supposed to be good? Why is that funny?"
Lillian just sighed, knowing that he wouldn't understand. She explained:
"Your average person has an affinity for one of the basic elements; Fire, Water, Earth, and Wind."
She saw him assume a weird expression and went on:
"There are some rare cases of geniuses that have two of them and some extreme once in a generation geniuses that have 3 of them. That's regarding only the basic four."
Alexander got even more confused at that but listened patiently.
"When the other four; Light, Darkness, Space, and lightning come into the picture, Things change."
"These elements are exclusive, someone that has an affinity for one of them, can't have for any other. That is how things have always been."
She looked him in the eyes and said:
"So tell me. What happens when someone has all the basic elemental affinities plus all the exclusive ones combined? How would you react?"
Alexander understood the consequences of his earlier display now. He gulped and eyed Lillian a bit weirdly, asking:
"You are taking this calmly, are you okay?
Lillian moved her wings in what he assumed was a shrug and answered him:
"I expected something odd to come out of you, I'm just feeling a bit numb right now. The problem right now is the old lady, we'll try the basic spells she provides and if there are no problems, do what it takes to silence her."
Alexander was startled, he understood the implications of 'silencing' the old lady and didn't feel good with it. He had never hurt a human before so he was about to refute Lillian but at that moment the old lady returned, holding a box in her hands.
She put that box in a chair in front of them and opened it. She pulled a couple of scrolls from inside and said:
"Here are beginner level spells for all of the elements besides space. I don't know what you will do with them, My potion was obviously dysfunctional."
The old lady looked at Lillian and said with a laughing tone:
"So, little bird? What are you going to do with them? Is he going to learn them on the spot?"
The old lady was stunned when Lillian actually nodded instead of refuting. Lillian turned to Alexander and pointing towards the pile with her wing, she said:
"Go ahead, use your ability freely."
Alexander nodded his head and grabbed one of the scrolls, he didn't even have to channel mana into his eyes; They activated on their own and matrices started intertwining within them, he understood how the spell worked immediately. It was a spell called 'water stream'.
Under the amazed look he received from Rose, he extended his finger, forming a small blue magic circle. A small stream of water like a weak tap came out, barely enough to fill a glass of water.
Rose was tongue-tied upon seeing how he actually learned it instantly, she wondered if he had learned it before but Alexander didn't care; He grabbed the next scroll and scanned it as well, getting an earth element spell called "Pebble throw".
He extended his finger and gathering his mana like how the scroll explained, a brown magic circle formed, a pebble made from dirt was the result. it shot towards the wall, getting destroyed in various dirt pieces upon contact
Carrying on, not caring about the stunned Rose, he picked another scroll and with a quick scan, the spell called "gust" appeared in his mind. He extended his open palm forward making a really small magic circle appear, a small gust of wind came out, blowing some papers on a nearby table.
He picked up another scroll and scanned it, the name 'candlight' appeared in his mind. With even more familiarity this time, extending his palm upwards, a white magic circle appeared above it and out of the circle appeared a small white ball of light that looked like an LED light.
When Rose witnessed that from the sidelines, she trembled slightly. Alexander was off-course unaware as he focused on the next spell. It was named 'Shadow tentacle'. He pointed his arm forward and a pitch black circle appeared, out of the circle came a small shadow tentacle that thrashed around like it was alive.
Rose trembled even more on the sight. Alexander stopped chanelling his mana and picked up another scroll, this time the name was simple; 'Sparkles', a lightning spell. He extended his hand and a golden magic circle appeared, instantly, a golden sparkle of electricity came out and hit the wall with a cackling sound, leaving behind a small trace of smoke.
There were no more scrolls so Alexander faced Lillian, She gave a small defeated sigh while turning her head towards the old lady.
Rose was trembling wildly, her hair dishiveled, covering her face. She suddenly lifted her head up high and gave a huge laugh, saying:
"Hahahahahaha, Thank you! I needed this excitement! I will show those old fogies, who will dare brag in front of me now?!"
With that, she turned towards Alexander, giving him a greedy look that sent a shiver down his spine. She pointed towards him and said:
"You boy! Become my apprentice!"