The Clear Crystal

Althea wakes up just before dawn. She drags the still sleeping Bryce out of bed.

"Let me sleep! It's so early!"

"Bryce, I can't wait. Let's go check out what these crystals can do!"

"Fine…" Stomping his feet as he stumbles across the room to find a shirt and a jacket. He was not a morning person. If any of the other kids in the orphanage woke him up this early, he would have sent a dark bolt their way. Through the years, he has been known to destroy a door or two this way. The other kids knew to avoid him this early in the morning, especially before breakfast, even safer to talk to him after lunch.

Minutes later they enter the massive Building of Grants. This building is open 24/7 catering to every possible need of a grant. There is an information center, a hospital for all sorts of mana and crystal related issues, an R and D wing, and the practice rooms. This was their reason for being here. They by a facilities coordinator into a huge white room that can simulate every kind of environment. This was the best place to practice your grant while getting a feel for its higher output. The walls are designed to withstand Rank A level elemental magic.

Althea set the environmental settings to some generic meadow and turned off the session recording functions. She has not forgotten the warning that Wentlas has given her. Plus, she trusts Bryce with her life. Coming here is the best scenario she could think of to figure out how the ritual has changed her while being careful.

She opens the crystals functions through her mind. A translucent screen appears in front of her.

Althea Haze

Rank: E

Magic: Light (Element Variant)

Health: 50

Mana: #####

Storage: 0/1000

She could barely keep a straight face. "Hey Bryce, what does your screen interface say?"

Bryce activates his screen but, of course, only he could see it. So, he had to read the contents aloud.

Bryce Thurmond

Rank: E

Magic: Darkness (Element)

Health: 35

Mana: 40

Storage: 0/100

"Thea, what's wrong? You have been like this since last night. Does this have something to do with the weird thing that happened during your granting?" Bryce could read her like a book. He could anticipate her needs and be that for her.

Althea has never lied to him and was not about to start now. She told him everything that happened and what Wentlas said, including the fact that her Mana indicator is a bunch of hashtag signs.

Bryce listened intently and said that there is nothing they can do about it for now. They will have to wait until they can meet with Wentlas to see if the head druid has found out anything about it. In the meantime, they might as well practice and get acquainted with their power up. They are going to hold off on sparring for now to avoid accidentally hurting the other.

Bryce started by creating Dark lightning around his body. This was his go-to move. Anything that touches the Dark lightning gets disintegrated. It was a power that people feared. Others who had sparred with Bryce would hesitate to go near him because of this. It forced them to resort to long-range attacks. This significantly lowered your chances to win against him, assuming you had long-range attacks to begin with. To make it worse, Bryce can also create shields that seem to absorb the attacks that are hurled towards him. The combination of offensive and defensive Darkness element skills has gained him the reputation of being unbeatable in element training school.

The only person who could ever keep up with him was Althea. This was part of the reason the two had been best friends since they can remember. Althea's Light shield can counter his Dark projectiles, while her Light sword is the only thing that can cut through his Dark shield without disintegrating. This would probably be a dead even match except that Bryce is a prodigy at both magic and sword fighting. His mentor was hand selected by the elders to develop these talents.

He noticed that as he concentrated more dark energy he was opening up to a new skill. This was how skills form. It inherently comes to your awareness, like a nudge to do something you have never done before. He focuses the energy in his hands into a point in front of him and it opens up. He takes a step and all of a sudden, he was clear across the room!

*Congratulations, you have learned a transfer skill! *

While he was freaking out about this newly discovered skill, he hears a sound and looks up to find a floating Althea.

"What the heck?! How are you flying?! Is that even in the Light element skill repertoire?!"

"I don't know! I was just thinking about the most basic Wind element skill I know and this happened!"

*Moments ago*

Althea was still wondering what the ##### meant. Wentlas told her that she absorbed a mana pool of immense power. But the mana pool at the Ritual of Granting consist of different elements, wasn't it?! Does this mean that I have absorbed other elements into my crystal? I would love to be able to use Wind magic. Can you imagine how useful it is to have a flight skill?! Come to think about it, aren't Light element crystals supposed to be white? It may not be obvious at a passing glance but I am definitely embedded with a Clear crystal.

*Congratulations! You have acquired Wind Element Magic!"