Induction (1)

"So, what am I supposed to do here?"

"First off, a test for judging whether the recommended inductees, which is you, have magical inclinations, so to speak." Wistari hummed as he brought Sev along towards a pedestal with a glowing, blue orb indented in the middle, various runes engraved the surfaces of the marble pedestal. "I can understand the look on your face. Not to worry, it won't hurt during the entire procedure."

Sev nearly face-palmed at the fact that his thoughts were read on his facial expressions.

'Note to self, practice my poker face.' Sev chuckled sheepishly as he scratched the back of his head. "Okay, well, thanks for letting me know. But I still don't know what to do."

"Just hover your hand, any hand will do, over the crystal." The elf smiled slightly as his eyes narrowed at the pedestal while he waited for Sev to proceed. "While doing so, I will be recording the results here in my notes."

"Quick question, is that information confidential to the guild?" Sev rubbed his wrists, a bit nervous with putting his hand anywhere near glowing rocks.

"Oh yes, unless we have explicit permission from the Wayfarer, or in other legal cases such as when said Wayfarer has committed a crime, the Wayfarer's guild is privy to any information submitted by the Wayfarer to the Guild." Wistari explained with a serious nod. "We take privacy and security concerns strictly within the Guild due to various incidents that has happened in the past that have put the both the Wayfarers and the Guild in increasingly delicate situations."

"That is… Relieving." Sev sighed as he hesitantly hovered his right hand over the glowing crystal. As he did so, the crystal dimmed for a moment, then changed color, swapping every now and then to a different one across all spectra.

Sev's eyes failed to adjust to the veritable light show in front of him, prompting him to shut his eyes close, all the while the elf beside him continued on jotting down notes with his feathered pen.

"Fascinating." Wistari's words caused Sev to slightly open his eyes, both of them widening when he saw a deep red crystal beneath his hand.

"What? What does that mean?" Sev asked, confused.

"What it means, Sev, is that you are capable of magic." Wistari's words placed a budding feeling of excitement within Sev's chest. "However, there is a tiny caveat."

Sev remained silent as Wistari hummed, the sound of his feathered pen stroking his book silently fading. The elf then closed it shut as he regarded Sev with serious eyes.

"You see, with the Magic-Type Seeker artifact here, the color of the orb explains what kind of magic the person it has scanned is capable of." Wistari explained while he regarded Sev, then placed his eyes back on the glowing crystal. "And this crystal tells me that you, Sev, have extremely strong inclinations to offensive fire magic."

"… So, is the red color supposed to be fire? And I'm guessing the… brightness determines what kind of aspect it is… I am supposed to have?" Sev reached his own conclusion at the results shown by the glowing crystal.

"Close, but not quite. The color doesn't determine your element, but the runes and their patterns during the entire process, to which I think you may have missed due to you closing your eyes at the start." Wistari chuckled as Sev groaned at the fact that he missed out on even more information. "As for your deduction on the brightness of the orb, you are half-right. Care to guess?"

"Uhh… Hmmm… I think…" Sev placed a hand under his chin as he thought deeply, a habit formed even back in his past life. "I think the color is for what kind of aspect the magic is, and the brightness is for how the magic aspect is shifted into it? Am I guessing right?"

"Very good." Wistari smiled as he clapped his hands. "Depending on the brightness of the crystal, the element wielded by the user can be different in many ways. Tell me, have you ever seen a mage heal a person with fire?"

"… What?" Sev sputtered, a bit lost at the thought of imagining being healed with fire. As he did so, he noticed Wistari light-heartedly laughing at him.

"Don't worry, you aren't the first one to do that." Wistari chuckles died down as he continued with his explanation. "Since the crystal here has low brightness, it means that your magic is stronger when it comes to harming others."

"… So, the brighter it is, the more the magic is inclined to help others?" Sev raised an eyebrow, very confused at the entire fact that the magic here is that complicated than other magic in other fictions.

"Fascinating, isn't it?" Wistari chuckled once more. "Magic is ever-changing. Once you think you have it down with theories and sufficient evidence to have it as fact, it throws a curveball at you, and you have to start all over again. I'm speaking from experience, by the way."

"… My condolences." Sev didn't have any other sufficient response other than that, which prompted Wistari to laugh out loud this time.

"Anyway." Wistari's laughter died down as time passed, the orc Grun sitting on the bench nearby spectating the entire event with a slight smile that looked like a menacing grin with his face. "Let us continue. Now that we have your magical element as well as aspect, I still need to tell you your magical aptitude."

"… I missed it during the process, didn't I?" Sev groaned as Wistari consoled the zombie.

"No need to worry, I have it all here in my notes." Wistari shook the book in his hand, which he then frowned. "Which then brings me to a particular point. You, Sev, currently have a tiny pool of magic, however, you have great efficiency with your main element, but horrible efficiency with other elements."

"… I'm gonna guess here that if I use any other element other than fire, I won't even be able to cast them." Sev concluded with a frown.

"Worse, it will explode within you if you are not able to supply enough mana during the casting stage." At the elf's words, Sev paled. "This has happened before, which is why you won't see mages using any other element other than their main one during fights if they value their life."

"… Why though?"

"It is an unsolved mystery up to this day, I'm afraid. However, there was a slight breakthrough a few years back." Wistari hummed as he checked his notes. "The Academy of Lostrea pushed forth a theory that mages somehow harmlessly dissipate magic of their element within their body which is then dispersed into the air, while using elements not their own gets the magic trapped within the body of the mage due to not being compatible with the user."

"Huh… That is scary." Sev shuddered at the thought of exploding because he wanted to clean himself using water magic.

"Pushing those thoughts aside, let us continue, shall we?"