159 Richards Past 3 (1/2)
”...”
”...”
”Is that it?” Richard said as he slowly opened his eyes. He was expecting some sort of light or something. At least the Professor should have said something to him. He was nervous since Professor kept his silence. Maybe something had gone wrong. Maybe his elemental root was flawed.
”*Ahem* Yes, that was all. Now we should start with building your altar” said Professor Serpentine after coming to his sense. Richard found that wrong but as long as his elemental root was okay it didn't really matter to him.
”Okay, Professor!” Richard said. Then he followed him to another room. For building altars, each element had its own room. In those rooms, there was a magic circle installed in them to gather that particular element's prana. The professor led him to the darkness element's room.
”Darkness? Do I have the Darkness elemental root?” Richard asked the Professor.
”Hm? Oh yes, you have a Darkness elemental root” said the Professor absentmindedly.
Richard was kind of disappointed with that. Honestly, he would have preferred a different element if possible. Those who studied darkness were always creepy. They liked living in dark and doing shady stuff. The element itself wasn't useful either. In the beginner spells you only had the ability to take your opponent's sight. Richard thought the more advanced magic should also be the same. Also, the element itself was looked down upon by other mages. Darkness element's strength mostly relied upon the fact that they had an affinity with devils and they could make deals with them borrowing their power but that was forbidden to do so. Since the Darkness Mage's had one of their arms tied behind them all the time it was no wonder that they were looked down upon. Even the most renowned Darkness Magus Family, the Alcatraz, slowly lost its standing among the mage circle because of that.
”What about the quality of my root? Is it good?” Richard asked hopefully.
”Eh, that's not important right now. We don't want you to get distracted while building your altar so we usually tell students after they are finished with that process” said Professor awkwardly.
Richard immediately became disappointed. This was the first time he heard something of the sort. That must mean his root must be pretty low quality and Professor didn't want to discourage him. Richard took a deep breath before stepping through the door. From this point onward he was alone and Professor Serpentine could not follow him inside.
The room was lit with torches burning with an eerie purple flame. So even though the room was lit Richard still felt like it was veiled in darkness. Strangely he didn't feel scared but instead it was like walking into his mother's embrace. The Darkness inside the room was welcoming. So this was how a mage felt when they were in the presence of their element. It was a surprise to him since none of the books he read mentioned this.
Richard slowly walked towards the magic circle in the middle of the room. As he walked his nervousness slowly left his body. He wasn't scared anymore. He was going to build his altar and meet with his friends his head lifted up high.
He sat in the middle of the circle and felt the darkness prana surrounding him. It felt like the prana itself had consciousness and wanted to please him. Then Richard slowly focused on his soul and found his elemental root. It had no shape or form. It was just a big ball of darkness located in his soul. This was the first time he saw his root and he was disappointed. Normally the roots were supposed to have some sort of vague shape and for each person, it differed. Some roots might be in the form of an animal while others might be in the form of objects. His, however, had no shape or form. No wonder the Professor did not say his quality. It must have been pretty low to quality to not even possess a shape.