Kat and Minor could see from their position outside of the pagoda that Master Resho, did not in fact coat the entire manor in smoke, only the pagoda itself. Kat took a quick glance at Minor to ensure that she hadn't missed a nightmare, but Minor just smiled and went back to watching the scene play out.
When the smoke retracted everyone was much in the same place but Shizuka was giggling, so much that she dropped the ice cube. As soon as it slipped from her hands she stopped and tried desperately to catch it, but it fell to the floor.
Shizuka was looking down at the ice cube sadly when Master Resho spoke up "Do not worry child, you have passed the test. It seems you have the ice affinity. This will mean we need to be a little careful when we are doing the wind affinity test, but it is no matter"
Shizuka frowned "But I failed… I couldn't hold onto the ice cube"
Master Resho smiled "Please calm yourself child. The test was to keep the ice from melting. It is an easy task for an ice magician as your mana does it naturally. You'd more than proven yourself when you dropped it"
Shizuka frowned but nodded "So I have ice magic?"
Master Resho let out a small chuckle "You have the potential for ice magic. You will need to learn many runes before you really learn it. Would you like to test your base elements now?"
Shizuka nodded. "Ok" said Master Resho as he put away the large chest "We will need to go down to the basement for each test. Sadly the base four elements are harder to test for despite their widespread use"
Standing up, Master Resho pulled up the two tatami mats next to Shizuka revealing a staircase and heading down himself. Shizuka followed carefully and the scene started to shift. Kat and Minor found themselves pulled down the staircase after her.
The basement was extremely well lit, with several strips of crystal on the ceiling keeping it from seeming dark or creepy. There was another staircase next to the first, presumably for even lower levels, and to the right, or front, was an extremely large number of sigils carved into the walls, and floor.
"This is the test of wind. Because you have ice potential, I'll need you to wear this" said Master Resho, pulling out a small but very thick coat that clearly wasn't designed for people with tails.
Nonetheless Shizuka put it on without complaint, though the back was supported by her two tails, leaving most of her legs exposed. Master Resho frowned "You know. Considering where I live, I'd have thought when I requested such a coat, a tail slot would have been a given"
Shizuka looked back at the coat then over at Master Resho "What do I do?" she asked worried.
"Hmm" Master Resho let out a short grunt as he considered it. "Well, we can skip the wind testing… because you have ice affinity, if you don't also have wind you'll create a small blizzard and I'm not sure your mother would be happy with me"
Shizuka pouted "I'm strong, I'll be fine"
Master Resho took a long puff "I don't doubt it when you already have two tails" Shizuka flinched slightly "But that doesn't mean I'm willing to do something irresponsible. One moment"
Master Resho blew out a significant amount of smoke and summoned a four-circle sigil. The smoke then flew quickly out and up the stairs staying attached to Master Resho's mouth "Wait just a moment"
"What are you doing?" asked Shizuka curious
"I'm sending my smoke to search the house for some blankets. If the enchanted coat won't fit you properly. A few moments later a hand of smoke returned carrying three large blankets. The hand then grabbed Shizuka and placed her in the centre of the room, in the middle of the sigils before piling blankets on top of her.
Kat stole a quick glance at Minor, but she had no negative reaction "Ok" said Master Resho "Just let your mana flow"
Master Resho channelled his mana into the sigils in the floor, which lit up in a faint green light. Wind then started to howl, encircling Shizuka in a nearly visible gust storm. As this happened flecks of white started to appear. Building and building until the room started to turn into a veritable blizzard.
At that point Master Resho stomped on one of the runes running his foot through it. As that happened the wind instantly cut off. Shizuka was now buried in snow, with just her eyes poking out from within the blankets.
"One moment" said Master Resho. Carefully shovelling away the snow with his smoke arm that had yet to disappear, he carefully used his realm arms to unfold the blankets around Shizuka.
"How did you do that Master Resho. I thought you said it was really hard to do other elements" asked Shizuka
Master Resho nodded "That is true. The runes in this room have been painstakingly studied and refined to be the perfect set for testing for wind affinity. They have numerous redundancies and contain a number of things even I don't understand.
"However exactly they work, it makes it easy for anyone to cast that one specific spell for testing purposes. The runes aren't too hard to memorise but the placement is quite specific" said Master Resho as he led downstairs.
"They are also tuned to spill unattuned mana into the area so that it will mix with whoever is undergoing the testing. Nobody has enough mana or control at such a young age to cause the things you see in the test, so we have to cheat a little" Master Resho continued.
Shizuka pouted at this, seemingly taking offence at the idea that she couldn't have managed a blizzard on her own. *I wonder how true that is… Having a second tail is a big deal, and so she's perhaps twice as capable as she should be. Is that enough though? I don't really want to ask Minor.*
The next room, was mostly covered in sand, with only the area around the staircase not covered. Kat couldn't see any sigils or even singular runes, at all. *Well this is a bit sparse. How does this test even work then?*
"Where is the magic?" asked Shizuka *She knows that she's talking about.*
Master Resho let out a barking laugh, letting some smoke leak out "Earth Magic is actually the easiest of the lot to test for. Simply try walking across this sand pit"
Shizuka looked at Resho strangely before following his request. Exactly two steps into the sand she fell down up to her neck. Craning her neck, she tried to look back angrily at Master Resho but failed to turn far enough.
"Don't give me that look girl. Clearly you don't have any earth magic" said Master Resho.
Moments passed as Shizuka struggled to try and get out, made much harder by the fact her hands were pinned to her sides when she slid into the sand.
"Can you get me out?" asked Shizuka after a minute
Master Resho's face split into a grin. "You only had to ask"
Reaching down he let his hands sink into the sand and placed them under Shizuka's arms and pulled. There was a quiet popping sound as Shizuka came free. Master Resho stumbled a bit but managed to stabilise himself without falling.
Shizuka was practically coated in sand. Her attire was hard to make out in her ice form, but sand seemed to be clinging everywhere especially her tail. Shizuka did seek to rectify this, pawing at her tail, trying, and failing, to remove the sand. "Don't worry" said Master Resho "Next test will clean you up"
Shizuka looked at Master Resho uncertainly but nodded. Following him downstairs was a bit harder this time. They had to travel down three flights of stairs, instead of the one. *Must be because the sand pit sinks so far into the floor.*
Once they reached the next landing, Kat was surprised. The room was easily twice the size of the others. There was a large pool of water about the size of an Olympic swimming pool. The walls here were a strange ceramic looking surface instead of the wood of the first to levels.
Shizuka took one look at the pool and frowned. "I can't swim… and I um… sort of hate water"
Master Resho shrugged "With your ice affinity it is almost certain that if you have a secondary element that element will be water. As much as I might be willing to let you skip the earth test, or even the air, this one you'll have to do"
Shizuka's frown intensified. "Can I choose to skip it anyway?"
Master Resho thought for a moment "Hmm… Nope"
Master Resho picked Shizuka up by her shoulders again and threw her into the pool.