Basic Elements

"Basic elements!" Vinc exclaimed.

"Watch carefully, Hubert! This will be the first time you see the real deal! First, Ignem Arcesso!" he chanted, Hubert stood on the sideline.

The palm of Vinc's hand pointed toward a dummy far away from the meditating students. From his palm was painted a magic circle, its color red, a drawing of flame could be seen, the words chanted on the outskirt of the circle.

It was indeed the first time Hubert saw something like that. It felt like an imagination, a hallucination, surreal and unrealistic. 

From that magic circle floating on his palm, came a fireball.

A fireball, fiery and hot, red and blazing, sped through the air, its size small and miniature, like that of a ball village kids used to play with. Its aim shot the dummy.

Boom

The fireball exploded, accompanied by a small explosion, pushing the straw dummy backward but not enough for toppling it.

"Whoa…" Hubert stood watching, his mouth gapped slightly open as his eyes gleamed by the shine produced by the fireball.

He reacted not from being amazed from Vinc's spell, quite frankly, he had seen bigger ones. But he wasn't going to disappoint the prideful and elongated nose of instructor Vinc.

"You see Hubert? I just used 10% of my power there, imagine what kind of fireball would I be able to produce from 100%? Exciting, right?" Vinc said, an elongated nose as he stood upright, arms on his waist.

"Wow, you're so strong, instructor," Hubert said, a slight sarcasm and amazement mixed in his tone.

"Ah… it's nice to move my muscles and circulate mana after researching for a while," Hubert groaned.

Then he extended his hand to the dummy again.

"Alright, this is the slightly more advanced version of the basic fire spell!" he exclaimed. The dummy stood there. Its eyes, made of buttons sewn into it, stared emotionally.

Ignem Arcesso - Fire ball, came a ball of fire, swift and exploding.

Ignem Ruptis - Fire burst, came a burst of fire, continuous and burning.

Aqua Pila - Water ball, came a ball of water, wetting and cooling.

Aqua Eruptit - Water burst, came a burst of water, continuing and extinguishing.

Flante Vento - Wind blow, came a breeze of wind, calming and blowing.

Terra Pila - Earth ball, came a ball of earth, impacting and rough.

"You see, Hubert? The beautiful things that mana could achieve, wonderful isn't it? And this is just the basic elements! But I won't show you more advanced elements, it'll be too complicated," Vinc explained.

Drops of sweat trickled down his forehead and arms, exhausted after chanting continuously.

"Whoa…" Hubert mouth agape, once underestimating turned astonished.

He looked at the dummy.

Its supporting wooden pole broke, the dummy fell to the ground from the last attack of an earth ball. It stayed there, staring at the relentless sun, its mouthless face seeming to smile.

His eyes wet, remnants of the water spell, resembled tears.

Hubert had seen the fire spells, but he didn't know of the other basic elements nor its variations.

The world of mana, magic, and spell, had only congratulated him as a newcomer recently. Yet he was introduced to a numerous count of things that filled his mind and clouded it.

"By the way, instructor," Hubert called out.

"Yes? Do you want to praise me more?" Vinc said narcissistically and jokingly.

"Yes… but I do have a question for you," Hubert said.

Vinc looked at him, his green eyes brightened under the sun.

"Just ask away," he said leisurely.

"Why are there two basic magic spells for the elements of fire and water, but only one basic magic spell for the elements of wind or earth?" Hubert asked curiously.

Vinc's eyes lightened up, gleaming enthusiastically. Then his face became nerdy and quirky, his eyes swollen and his index finger pointed upward.

"Oh! You have come to the right place, Hubert! Ah… how fun are you, I couldn't let my passion, my heart out when I was teaching the boring class! But you hit me at every sweet spot, I suggest you join the third learning hall. You are very well suited for research, there, we can converse as much as our passion desires! Ah, where was I? Answering your question, right? Well, simply put, fire and water is much more simple. But I know you won't be satisfied with that question and coincidentally, lucky for you, I was just researching the advanced reason for this, continuing the research of my predecessor, the current third learning hallmaster, the great researcher, June! Oh yeah, the advanced reason? Well so you know about mana right? The great energy of life, harmonizer of elements yada yada yada. Anyway, so in every element, there are essences attached to each other. And mana is the thing that pulled this together, right? So for example, for mana to attach itself to the essence of the air, white and invisible, it would be hard for our mind to comprehend, right? Or for another example, for mana to attach itself to the essence of the earth, solid and compact, then you would need a great amount of mana for it! But fire's different, it's not solid, not invisible, so it's something imaginable, but of course you still need to understand it, anyway, then the mana used for using fire would be much lesser than the other elements! I'm sick of writing this but this actually contains a lot of principles, at least my principles and understanding of magic! And wait, before you ask for water, I already got that explanation for you! Water is harder than fire, easier than wind and earth, but still, humans, us, had basically evolved and lived near water our whole life, right? That's the reason we are able to understand the principle of water spell and its elements! Anyway, as I was saying, you should really join the third learning hall! I'm sure that the hall master would very much like you! Oh, do you want to join me on my research on this? I also got another research of the different types of advanced magic and based on its affinity and how to predict it! Do you want to join in? Oh, and also another about bla bla bla bla bla! The magic circle bla bla bla," Vinc blabbered.

"Instructor Vinc, I must go read these magic circles you give me, thank you for your explanation," Hubert said, clenching the scrolls given to him.

Then he hurriedly ran away. Even from a distance of 10 steps, Vinc's voice flew in the air and reached his reddening ears.

Vinc then became quiet as Hubert disappeared around the corner.

"Ha… it's sad that he wasn't as excited as I was… that's a shame. I do hope that he'll really consider the third learning hall, especially such a rare specimen such as him, I wonder how much research I could do using him… Ha… Ha, ha ha," Vinc dropped his glasses down.

As it rested on his nose, a wide grin, almost frightening, appeared.

Meanwhile, in the distance, Hubert found himself a place under a tree, seeking cover from the sun straight up above him. Around him were countless mediating students from not only his class, but other classes as well.

"Ah… it's so comfortable here," he muttered. His muscles aching from continuous torture of training, screaming for respite.

Looking at the students, then at the scenery of the bright blue sky. The gentle breeze of wind, providing a cooling and relaxed sensation as he leaned against a tree, whispering as if telling him to go asleep.

"N… no, you can't Hubert. Remember your mission," Hubert said to himself as he struggled to stay awake.

There were still 12 days before the end of the mediation period for all students. As the first student that gained enlightenment, he was ahead of everyone in his cohort.

He was free to do as he wished in his time, continuing on his meditation or start learning the basic elements under the instructor's guidance.

"Well… I guess a little sleep won't matt-er…" he muttered, his voice grew weak and incoherent.

As his vision turned blurry, he closed his eyes. Where then an image was shown briefly.

Cough!

The cough echoed against the wooden plank walls of the house. An elderly woman, her hair graying, sat on her bed.

"Mother!" Hubert's eyelids sprung open in shock.

He looked around him, realizing that he was still on the academy's ground, under the tree.

"No, for my mother, at least, I will need to learn," he said, spirited, the sleepiness seemingly expelled from his mind.

His hand clenched the first scroll, tied with a red ribbon.

Then he unraveled the knot and began observing the magic circle. As soon as his eyes were set and fixed onto the drawing, his vision became blurry again.

"Eh… what's that? A…" his hand dropped to the ground, limpingly.

Snore

A light snore came from him as he delved deeper into the world. The wind and the rubbing of leaves playing a symphony of lullabies.

Punch!

The sound of a dull impact disturbed his sleep.

"Wh-what…?" Hubert asked, opening his refreshed eyes. The orangery sunlight greeted him, slightly blinding.

He looked around, the unraveled and unrolled scroll in his hand. The rest sat neatly beside him as he originally placed them. The meditating students that crowded the place had disappeared.

Punch!

Another dull impact stole his attention. His eyes searched the surroundings.

Coming from the nearby tree line on his right, behind dormitory building A.

He had found the source.