The mystery of the mind element

For the remainder of the time, we just read our own books silently. And before my class started I left the library. The girl is definitely more trouble than the information is worth, that's for sure. I honestly don't know how to deal with this.

But I guess, I didn't exactly found that a horrible waste of time. I guess it was because I read a good amount of a book and the girl's demeanor was somewhat soothing. Well, I guess that's that.

I should focus now on my next class. Though, my mind element affinity is pretty low compared to my other elements so I don't know whether I want to go to my next class. But it might be good to learn this if I have someone teaching me.

I arrive at the building, surprisingly I arrived early this time around. I look around the arena, it's only me and....who would've guessed Lilly, huh. The stands had a faint glow from the evening sun.

The light brown arena could be seen and she is sitting down in the middle of the arena with her eyes closed. Her silver hair was shining as the evening sun hit against it. She looks kind of mesmerizing, but I guess anybody can look pretty in the right conditions.

"I don't want you thinking of me like that!!"

That is if she keeps her mouth shut.

"Too bad, but I have to talk to you, unfortunately since I'm your instructor"

"Not really, the mind element is one of my weakest elements you could've easily ignored me."

"...You really don't hold back, do you?

"Well, sometimes I do but it's kind of hard to when the person right in front of you knows exactly what you're thinking."

"I guess, but the same applies to you right, so we're

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"....You can't read my mind right now?"

"No, not really. Should I be able to?"

"....Well, you should be able to do it unconsciously from at least within your area of control."

"It probably has to do with how bad my affinity with the mind. That's all there is to it."

"I guess you can tell you are useless."

"It appears so, not that I care."

"You are more talkative now than before"

"Not really, but it doesn't really make a difference whether I say out loud or not since you should be able to just read my mind."

"Are you not afraid of revealing your innermost thoughts and secrets?"

"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't but I can't really do anything about it, can't I? It's not really your fault but rather your elemental affinity so that's all there is to it. Rather, you've probably lived with that for an extremely long time, meaning that you already know more than enough things. Therefore I can just conclude that you don't go left and right revealing it and I'm sure that you need more specific procedures in order to do that."

"So... you believe me?"

"Not really, but what else can I do? Anyways, is anybody else coming?"

"...No, you're the only student."

Only student? Is there no one else with mind element affinity?

"Correct."

"Alright, then, what exactly do I do? In my other classes I was told to manifest my element but I'm sure it isn't going to cut it for this one."

"Correct, rather than focusing on the magic side, the mind element special in a way that it mostly focused on theory."

"As in?"

"If you get good enough with the mind element you may be able to look into someone's mind, warp someone's perception of someone or something, I'm not sure what exactly it does in it's entirety. But basically, you're able to control one consciousness and subconscious actions and perceptions"

"I kind of understand what you mean by conscious actions, but what do you mean by subconscious?"

"Mmmmmm. Think of it like this, it is a known fact that your nose remains in your field of vision whenver you see. But you don't see it in your field of vision all the time right?"

I nod

"The reason for that is because of the subconscious part of your brain you ignore that your nose is there, you could do exactly the same with the Mind element. You can control both, your own, and another person's subconscious state of being so that a person may see, or may not see what you want them to."

"Sort of like illusions then?"

"Yes, but not quite."

"...Looks like this element is more useful than I thought it would be."

"There are also big downsides to it though."

"And they are?"

"Firstly, let's say, for example, you were to make a person unconsciously think you are someone else. The range of your spell varies depending on how big your own understanding of the space around you is.

Secondly, mind magic consumes a good amount of magic for spells. The only time you won't find this much of an issue is when you are reading someone's thoughts on the surface and within that space of understanding. Since you are constantly emitting a faint amount of magic within a portion of the space of your own understanding then any people will be affected within this small space."

I think she means sensing area by "space of understanding" but I'm not quite sure.

"Sensing area?" She stares at me for a while, is she figuring out what I think sensing area is? "Yes, it's sensing area,' anyways, depending on how big this is and how well you have a grasp on your mind element then this area od effectiveness will expand without you having to do anything. The only thing that would consume magic is the activation of the spell itself. Thirdly-"

"What the fuck, there's more?"

"Yes, there's more. Thirdly, whenever you are using mind magic and someone is fighting you directly, the magic they emit while fighting will block you from reading their mind. The only way to actually read someone's mind mid-battle is by constantly activating mind-reading magic.

Just like every other magic spell you have to activate it from within your area of control and throw it at someone. The magic itself won't manifest itself, it will mostly come out as invisible. However, there's a big downside to this, mind magic is extremely slow. You'd have to either be able to predict exactly where they'll go, know generally where they'll go or just throw mind magic in every direction, whatever works.

An fourthly, if someone is made aware that they are subconsciously being shown something they shouldn't then the spell will quickly vanish. That's due to them taking some control of that subconscious part of their brain. However, it is only partly, it isn't exactly completely. The illusion will stay if you have way better magic control than them. Way better magical control,"

"Thanks for the emphasis."

"You're welcome, and with that. Class is dismissed."