Unknown Element

Before checking how much time passed, Beta decided to rest a bit. He couldn't just walk around like a zombie anyway. When he looked through the window, he saw that it was already dark outside.

"No matter how much time has passed, I will have to find it out tomorrow. For now, I will just sleep a bit and try to get a good feel for my soulpower.", he muttered.

Beta then laid down on his bed and fell asleep right away. When he woke up, he felt the sun shining on his face, warming it up.

"Ugh… Looks like it's morning already... I'll take a shower first. I don't want anyone to smell this stench..."

While training, he sweated a lot and the smell still lingered in the air even now. It was nauseating. He opened the window to air it out and took a shower. After a few minutes, he then got back on his bed and sat cross legged. He calmed his mind and tried to feel his soulpower. It didn't take long for him to find the thread inside his veins, as everywhere it passed by was continuously strengthened. But, he quickly noticed something strange about it.

"I'm absolutely certain that my element is the element of death. But why do I feel something else?"

Beta tried to lead the thread out of his body, just like his teacher did. When it left his body, he felt it slowly dissipating, but he was also able to take a closer look. His soulpower was grey. It looked as if an ash grey hair was flying above his hand. Coupled with the wondrous, happy look that Beta had on his face right now, people would wonder what's wrong with him. But Beta was too absorbed observing his soulpower that he didn't care at all if he looked strange or funny to others. He studied it a little more before he let it enter his body again.

"This.... I've always thought that the color of death would be black... But now it looks like it's actually grey! But I don't know if what I felt is interfering with it. So, just to make sure, I should make a little experiment!", he thought with glowing eyes. His parent's doctrine revealed itself again.

Death's Soul cultivation technique. That was what Beta had in mind right now. It didn't just have a guide on how to cultivate after all. It also had instructions on how to manipulate his soulpower. He had already used this method to lead it outside his body, which was the simplest practice of the whole technique. Beta didn't find it difficult since he already felt a similar feeling in Death's Physique before.

He started to feel it, manipulated it, and tried to understand it. As time passed, Beta was able to move the soulpower inside him as if it had been there since he was born. Only at that point did he dare to follow what he planned - he split it. Beta wanted to know more about the strange energy. He imagined a scalpel inside his body, slicing at the thread. Over the years, he had acquired a precision that only his own father could best him at. If not for that, he would have never been able to attach limbs to himself. After all, it wasn't as easy as simply gluing it to a stump. He had to connect every single vessel, the muscles, flesh and tendons, seamlessly to his body. That is a feat a normal human would never be able to accomplish, even much more since Beta was only a kid back then. But of course, it was also due to a fortunate encounter he had in the past when he fought and won himself a pair of nice eyes, which made the whole process of operating much easier.

When the thread came into contact with the scalpel, it separated without any problems, delighting Beta greatly.

"Success!"

Beta then guided his two, now even thinner strands, out of his body again.

"I... I didn't expect that...", Beta said with his mouth wide open.

Above his hand was a thin, grey thread floating.

"There's only one thread... Although, I have now confirmed that the grey really belongs to the death element, but I have another problem. Where did the other thread go?"

It truly stupefied him. Having proved that the color of the death element is grey is one thing. But, what happened to the other one? Beta looked even closer to check if he wasn't mistaken.

"Now I get it... It's colorless! Even if I can't see the second thread, I can still clearly feel it!", just when Beta's thoughts came to that point, he heard a knocking noise coming from his door.

He frowned deeply, displeased by the interruption. He instantly recalled the soulpower back into his body and slowly stood up. When he opened the door, he was greeted by Brian, who seemed to have a different air about him.

"Why are you interrupting me? If I had still been cultivating, something bad might have happened!", Beta said with an angry face.

"If you still had not been able to get soulpower at this point, you would've been thrown out of the academy! If even I was able to get soulpower within a week, there's no doubt that you would be able to as well.", Brian said with a righteous face.

Beta was shocked speechless. His dear friend has become more brazen lately and even placing him at a high pedestal. So, he can't help himself but scratch his head for Brian's straightforwardness.

"How much time do we have left?", he said with a frown.

"Class starts in five minutes! Just what have you been doing all this time that you actually forgot something as important as that?"

Beta didn't know how to answer that, so he simply signaled Brian to follow him. They hurried to their classroom with wide steps, attracting weird looks from other students. As soon as they entered, they were met with eight gazes. Their classmates were looking at them as if they almost missed New Year's eve. Beta and Brian ignored them as usual and sat down on their seats, letting out a relieved sigh. Seconds later, Lores entered as well. He was wearing his usual green robe and slid behind his desk flawlessly, making the girls' hearts skip a beat.

"Hello, my students! Since you are all here, I will assume that everyone managed to get soulpower? I'm very glad with this news, as expected of me, Lores, to have wonderful seedlings to cultivate. But of course, before we continue on, let me tell you more about what you have right now - Soulpower!", Lores said and continued after pushing up his glasses, tilting his head high and proud.

"As you already know, the main elements are fire, water, earth, wind and wood. But what you don't know is that, they each have different levels according to its density. Fire for example, starts out as red, but as you continue cultivating and get more familiar with your soulpower, it will slowly change and became blue. That blue fire is much stronger than the red one and signifies a great leap in strength! Besides raising your cultivation level, this is one of the means to gain strength that surpasses your peers. The same rules apply to every other element as well. Earth would start with sand, and the next level would be clay. Water turns into ice, air would start with a small vortex and turn into a small tornado. Wood is a bit different, because you won't have any visible changes, but rather it strengthens your control over it and enables you to release spores or control more plants.", Lores said in one breath. He then waited a moment to see if they're paying attention before continuing.

"Now that you know about that, it's time to tell you about the cultivation levels. The one you are currently in is called "Beginner Elementalist". Within that realm, you are on the first of three levels. After that comes Intermediate and then Advanced Elementalist. As for anything that comes after that... you will see once you get that far. Of course, martial artists have their own ranking too. It starts with Beginner Martial Artist, then Intermediate, and Advanced Martial Artist, just like the elementalists."

Lores then pushed up his glasses again while holding his nose up to the sky and said, "So, I don't think any of you can't read, just look for more information in the library. And finally, let me see which element you got. I will need that information for future lessons!"

Everyone tensed up. They already knew which elements they acquired, but it was still an exciting moment. First to go up was Harald. He was a muscular kid, that always had a blank face. He released a tiny, but very steadfast brown thread from his index finger.

"Looks like we've got ourselves an earth element!", Lores said while clapping his hands in an elegant manner.

At first, hushed murmurs went around the class, but when another one was told to show his element, they all shut up again.

Domian released a copper colored thread, which stunned everyone. He actually had an element that wasn't one of the main elements!

"Ohoo! So, you are a metal element, huh? You start at copper and then go on to bronze! In the later stages you will become a truly magnificent swordsman!", Lores commented while nodding his head.

Next, Brian was up. He had a big smile on his face, pointed at the ceiling with his index finger and released a small fire snake. Its slithery movements attracted lots of attention.

"A fire elementalist! Even though it's one of the main elements, it's by no means weak! As long as you train enough, you will be able to burn your enemies to ashes!"

Brian couldn't help but have an even bigger smile. Everyone knew that the fire element is one of the most domineering elements. Coupled with his saber, it would make him an opponent no one would be willing to face!

As Lores continued checking his students soulpower, a commotion started outside. Many students gathered in a class not too far from them. When they listened to what the students said, their mouths flew wide open. In another class, a student gained the lightning element. Was it rare? Just by thinking back to the method of how to get soulpower, they knew the answer. How many people could there be that liked being exposed to lightning? Without a doubt, it must be one of the rarest elements.

"I bet the kid is from the Blitz Clan... They seem to have an artifact which puts their whole castle under lightning surges. Because of that, the kids from that family usually have the lightning element.", Lores said with an all-knowing look.

Some thought he cheated, others thought that it's a part of his strength too. Beta, as usual, didn't care about any of this. "If that student didn't even manage to be admitted to this class, he can't be that outstanding.", was what went through his head.

Soon, when everything calmed down again, it was Beta's turn to show his element. Brian was staring at him with glowing eyes, as if he already knew that there would definitely be something better to see than lightning element. Beta had made up his mind beforehand. He has the element of death and something he couldn't recognize. Of those two, he chose to show the unknown one. Firstly, death was something that was usually only associated with evil people, and that would be a problem for Beta. The unknown one on the other hand, would hopefully be explained by his teacher. Although, that too, held a certain risk, he just wanted to give it a shot for future reference.

Beta mimicked the motion like the others and pointed his finger up. He then released the colorless soulpower. As soon as he finished, he noticed his classmates strange looks on him. Beta didn't know what to say to that.

"Are you actually trying to trick our teacher? Even if you're not the brightest of light bulbs out there, you should still know that someone as incredible as our teacher, would definitely test our soulpower and therefore see through your schemes!", Sophie, one of the girls in his class, burst out.

Everyone nodded, thinking that it made perfect sense. Beta just ignored her though, which only pissed her off more. "Shouldn't girls with the water element have a calm nature? She sure is annoying...", Beta thought. The girl who had just berated him was identified as a much-desired water element. At the beginning, it definitely isn't the strongest and actually more suited to heal. But in the later stages, she would gain the ability to freeze her opponents to death.

However, once they looked at their teacher, who had been quiet for a while, they were shocked. Their teacher had his mouth agape, staring at Beta like he was the most wondrous out of all these little creatures in front of him.

"You… You're a void element!"