A not so conventional training montage.

"All things considered, that went pretty good" Damian said as he practically flew down the hallway.

"Hey genius" interrupted Roy. "Are you actually this dumb or are you just pretending?"

Damian stopped in annoyance. "What are you on about now?"

Roy wasted no time in barreling into Damian with an informative tone. "A bet requires stakes. Both parties put something on the line and the winner walks out with both. You following?"

Damian nodded before realizing just how stupid that is.

"Good." Roy continued. "So you realize that the headmaster has nothing to gain from your bet?"

Damian's eyes grew wide as the realization hit him. "So why did he agree?" Damian asked.

Roy continued. "He must have a reason to want to keep you here. My guess is that he owed somebody that wanted to keep an eye on you. maybe to keep you safe."

However, Roy's reply only confused Damian more.

"Then why does he want to run me out in the first place?"

Damian couldn't see it but he knew that Roy was looking down on him.

"Just because he's the headmaster, doesn't mean he has all the power. If the nobles and shareholders backing him decide that he's not up to the job, they can just replace him."

"What's a shareholder?" Damian asked, eager to shift the topic.

"Just... go find a quiet place where we won't be disturbed." Roy sighed.

Ten minutes later, Damian found himself in the storeroom in the basement of the academy.

The storeroom used to be a classroom until the academy was raided by bandits. afterwards, for reasons unknown, the storeroom was closed to the students and thus, was gradually forgotten.

"This'll do" Roy said. "Now, show me your mana."

"You've said that before, what is this... 'mana' you keep talking about?"

Roy was surprised. "You mean you really don't know about mana?"

Damian nodded.

"The only force that I can compare it to is Qi."

This time it was Roy's turn to be the student.

"So what is this...Qi anyway?"

Damian began. "Qi is the life force of heaven and earth. It flows through everything, be it dead or alive. fifty thousand years ago, humans first discovered that Qi could be harnessed. Since then, humanity has used Qi to become mighty cultivators that can crack mountains in half and dry up seas with a thought."

Damian concluded with passion brimming in his voice. "So? Cultivation is pretty cool, right?"

"..."

"SUNOFAB*TCH" Damian's mind became a mess due to Roy's roar.

"I reincarnated in a f*cking Wuxia novel!"

"And i'm the mentor! At least give me a Xiao Yan! Not some brat like this!"

Damian had no clue what Roy was harping on about but knew it wasn't nice.

However, Damian could only sigh. After all, in a world like this, Damian was considered trash.

After a while, Roy calmed down and began to speak.

"Alright kid, I got a deal for you. You help me get back to my home and I'll make you the strongest magician this world has ever seen."

Damian stopped moping and looked up. Then he stated with rising anger. "You still haven't told me what the hell mana is! Now you want me to be a magician?! Shall I grab a hat so you can teach me to pull a f*cking bunny out of it?!"

"Not that type of magician" Roy said in a calming tone. "The type that can not only crack a mountain, but turn it into pebbles!"

Damian thought for a bit. then, his face lit up.

"This...mana, can I really use it?"

"Look kid. I honestly have no idea. Usually, kids would have their mana cores formed by the time they were 5 but, from the looks of it, people here don't even know what a mana core is."

Roy said after a moments hesitation.

However Damian was blinded by the hope that he could get stronger.

"so?! How do I get a mana core?!"

Roy sighed.

"First, we need to make sure you have the aptitude as well as determining which element you correspond to. Afterwards, we'll subject you to the chosen element but under extreme conditions. If you don't have a mana core by the end, you'll be too dead to care. sound good?"

"..."

"That sounds like a yes to me!"

As the sun disappeared from the horizon, some students reported hearing the sound of a wailing banshee from the academy's basement. begging to live.

And as the sun rose in said basement, Damian was sitting in the middle of a chalk draw circle with strange inscriptions surrounding it. Those that wanted looked at these 'words' would feel light headed and force themselves to look away. In them middle of the circle, Damian sat with his hands on each side of his head and legs crossed tightly.

"You didn't tell me it would hurt!" Damian said in annoyance.

"Oh, we haven't even started yet." Roy said in a merry tone.

"Then why does my brain feel like mush!" Damian shouted, clearly enraged.

"ohh... that. Well, I was pretty bored and you were taking your sweet time drawing the circle so... I... sped up the process." Roy looked away, or at least tried to.

Damian was on the verge of exploding! He jumped to his feet and...!

He calmed himself. "Forget it" he said. "If you can help me become as strong as you promised, then I'll endure as much pain as it takes!"

Roy was shocked. Then, he laughed.

"I didn't expect a brat like you to actually have some back bone!"

"Maybe we can make a protagonist out of you after all!"

Damian shook his head in an attempt to shut Roy up.

"I don't care about being the protagonist" he said. "I just don't want to be an extra that dies in the first act."

Just as soon as Damian finished, the circle light up in a dazzling display of colors.

After a few moments, the colors merged to form a singular color. Blue.

Then the circle dimmed before flaring up again with a new color. Red.

The circle dimmed again before flaring up with another color. Yellow.

The three colors danced around Damian's face, each containing what seemed to be limitless power.

Then with an unceremonious "bzzt", the colors vanished and the room was plunged into darkness.

After lighting a nearby candle, Damian got up and began to inspect his body.

"I don't feel any differe-" Damian began.

"Hmm" Roy's voice echoed in Damian's surroundings.

"Three colors? not bad... but certianly not a top tier talent. *sigh* oh well, you get what you're given, I guess."

Damian spoke aloud. "Hey Roy! How come I can hear you outside of my head now?"

Just as Damian finished, the light from the candle seemed to get sucked into one spot in the room before becoming a hazy blob. Roy, the hazy blob, began to speak. "It's nothing really, I just hijacked the left over magic residue from the ritual to form a corporeal body. But more importantly, we need to talk about your elemental alignments."

Damian turned serious as he asked. "what now?"

"hmm" Roy pondered for a bit before speaking with urgency. "We need a pot! No, a cauldron! Fill it with oil, all the way to the brim. then bring it back here! Hurry!"

Damian, caught up in the urgency, rushed upstairs and straight into the kitchen before picking the biggest cauldron he could find he then grabbed all the bottles of oil, unscrewed their lids and poured the contents into the pot. Once it threatened to spill out, Damian ran into a problem.

"How the f*ck am I supposed to get this back down into the basement?!"

Just then, Roy appeared at the entrance and said. "I guess we have no choice, light the fire under the pot!"

Damian lit the fire and threw some wood in to make sure it stayed burning for as long as they'd need.

"Next" Roy stated, a slight tremor in his voice, "Light the oil on fire!"

Damian was thoroughly confused at this point but still complied.

At the end of this, Damian and Roy stood/floated in from of a pot full of oil, the oil fueling a raging fire that threatened to burn its surroundings.

Damian turned to Roy. "Alright Roy, now what?"

With a voice that oozed happiness, Roy spoke.

"Strip naked and jump in!"