Chapter 36- Fire Mastery

For the next few hours, Cipher continued Malice's usual lessons. Since the boy had already grasped most of them, the progress quickened and consequentially, they didn't have to use as much time as before to finish the normal schedule.

After that, however, Malice had to start learning a lot more about Physics and science, precisely natural elements. Even though these two subjects were one of the things Cipher had been teaching him for the past few days, they still didn't go deep into the natural elements as they should've.

What Malice learned that lesson was truly shocking. For instance, Cipher had told him that the elements in nature are too many to count. Especially in the World Beyond where the laws warp and change constantly.

The known ones were: Fire, Water, Earth, and wind. But, those weren't the only elements. Things like Lightning, Darkness, Gravity, Ice, and many more were also elements in nature that are in a sense, sub-elements that were derived from a mix of those four main elements.

That simple information expanded Malice's scope so much that he could only stop for a moment. 'This… This is ridiculous…'

Some of these elements he knew about, while some others were a complete mystery to him. However, it still hit him that his trait 'Elemental Arcane' was far from what he expected. Even when he was already having a high impression of it, it somehow far exceeded that.

'If I can truly learn all these elements… I…' Even trying to imagine how that would work was already making him react. 'I really came upon a treasure waiting for someone to open it.'

The excitement from this newfound knowledge made him focus on the rest of the lesson better. In the end, he came out with a lot of valuable information. However, there was still a problem.

'How long would it take me to actually learn all these elements well enough to use them?' He asked himself.

That was perhaps the biggest disadvantage Elemental Arcane gave him. He cannot simply use these elements, he had to study them deeply. So far, Cipher was only able to start with a few simple facts about the main four elements and even that wasn't deep enough for Malice to actually reach any level of mastery over them.

He already knew that without even trying. On top of that, Cipher had already told him that he wouldn't be able to really teach him every element down to the most intricate details. Instead, he said that he would help him study the main four and the rest are up for Malice to learn on his own.

'Sigh, well, I can at least learn the four main ones and the rest… I will figure it out along the way.' He thought to himself as he walked back to his room with a frown.

The day started good and ended with him worrying about what he should do. Still, to keep that rather fresh and positive mindset, he decided to focus on the better parts of it. The reason for that was simple. Before leaving, Cipher had given him a task that he had to do.

"Take that lighter and I want you to inspect it on your own. Since we are going to start with the element of fire, you need to take time and examine it on your own. Theoretical lessons are good, but without practical learning, they are pointless. Tomorrow, you will start practicing manipulating and creating fire."

The instructions were straightforward enough for him but he still didn't know what he had to discover on his own. 

After taking a shower and changing his clothes, Malice sat down on the bed with the lighter in his hand. Staring at it deeply for a while, he sighed.

"I guess I'm not going to the white chamber tonight if I want to have any progress." He muttered as he finally focused on the lighter before he clicked it, immediately, a fire ignited from the hole, illuminating the rather dim room.

"OK, what should I do about this?" He muttered thoughtfully. "Inspect… Examine… Inspect…"

As he spoke those words, his mind was trying to figure things out. He was aware that Cipher made him do this for a good reason so he didn't doubt that if he figured something out, he will be able to take a huge step.

"Nature… Effects, and Cause… That…" At that moment, Malice got an idea. His eyes moved away from the lighter and looked at the glass table. Walking there, he sat down and put the lighter on it before he tapped a button on the corner of the table.

It immediately lit up, showing a white surface. This high-tech table, as Cipher told him, had integrated sketchbook on it and other features similar to a computer. Malice hasn't used it much so far, but he knows how to activate it and he also learned how to write and read to a certain extent so he can use it now.

"Ok, let's start with the nature of fire…" Liting it up again, he stared at the flickering ember of flames for a while. "Its color is red with some blue at the bottom. It doesn't have a physical body."

As he muttered those details, he started writing them down and linking them to the lighter. Slowly, he listed down everything he could see about the fire, the way it moved, its shape, color, and every single other detail.

After that, he looked at what he had written with a satisfied nod. "Now, the effects." 

The first thing Malice did was to slowly inch his finger close to the fire. Immediately he felt a sharp, burning pain so he retracted his finger away.

"... Of course it's hot, why did I do this?!" Cursing his intrusive thoughts, he wrote down the first detail. "Uh, fire also burns everything into ash…."

With that, he tried to put down every single effect he could think of. Then, he went to the causes.

"What's the cause of a fire?..." Rubbing the back of his head, he thought about it for a moment. "Cipher said that today… What was it again? A source of ignition, a source of fuel, and a source of oxygen… It cannot exist without one of these three components." He muttered as he wrote that down.

Then, when he was done with that, he went back to what he wrote and started going in depth about each characteristic. He made sure to write every single insignificant idea he could come up with.

With that, time slowly moved as the sketch table was slowly filled to the brim with words, arrows, and all kinds of scribbles. In the middle of all of that was the fire itself, dancing silently.

"Fuuh…" Exhaling an exhausted breath, Malice looked at the time. It was well past 4 AM in the morning. "I guess this is the most I can do for now. I could not think of anything else."

'If there is anything else, that is. I have just analyzed the fire down to its measures in every possible form it can take. There is no more I can really do.' He mused as he stood up from the chair and walked tiredly to the bed. "Time to sleep… For two hours…"

Just saying that made him sigh. He felt extremely exhausted and yet he knew he won't have any time to rest for the foreseeable future. Work was piling up and he had to push himself further to keep up the pace.

As he rested his back on the bed to sleep, he closed his eyes. But, he slowly started tossing around as he struggled to fall asleep. A few minutes passed like that before he rose up and looked dazedly at the wall.

"... I need some water." He muttered as he slowly stood up and walked to the door. Malice had forgot to drink water the entire day and now the thirst came back to him, not letting him sleep.

Opening the door, he walked into the dark corridor of the condo, heading to the kitchen. The place was really quiet, except for the sound of vehicles outside and the faint light of the city from the panoramic glass windows.

Reaching the kitchen, he poured himself a cup of water and chugged it down.

"Ah, feels a lot better." With a satisfied nod, he was about to head back to his room, when he heard a noise. 'Hm?'

Stopping in his tracks, he listened. 

"Why are you annoying me this early in the morning?"

'Cipher?' Malice squinted his eyes as he put his ear next to the wall. 'Who is he talking to?'

"So cold as usual. An old friend calls you to check on you, and that's your response? Tsk tsk." 

'A woman?' The boy identified the faint voice as that of a female. However, he obviously had no idea who it was.

"I have things to do and stuff to attend to. Idle talk isn't my thing." Cipher replied with the usual tone, if not a little colder than usual.

'Oh well, this is none of my business. I should just go back to my room.'

As Malice shook his head and started to walk away, he heard the woman speak again.

"I heard you found an interesting thing that is taking your focus. A slum kid, was it?"