Ed felt a wisp of fiery mana enter his body through the array. Given that skeletons can't feel anything nor had flesh, this was the first time that Ed could feel an element inside of his body. Surprisingly enough, it didn't feel like the mana was burning him.
The dazzling largely red room then turned purple as a blue crystal began to shine brightly. Ed then felt the cool wisp of water mana enter from the same place as the fire mana. It floated about in the vicinity of the fire element but neither of the wisps interacted with one another, they each went about their own business.
Ed then heard Vorgarag's voice as the purple light started to fade.
"It looks like you have an affinity for both the fire and water elements, next up is wind and earth." Just as he finished saying those words, a green crystal fiercely lit up. The green wisp of mana entered Ed's body just like before and went about its business.
"Looks like you might have them all..." muttered vorgarag to himself. If the introduction failed the formation would have immediately sent out the counteracting element. It instead continued at a regular pace.
Although this method to determine affinity seemed perfectly fine, it was actually quite risky. Even if the counteracting element was inserted in a timely manner the foreign mana might have already caused some minor internal injuries. Vorgarag omitted the mention of this since he had no other method. therefore he felt there was no point in saying anything.
The brown crystal also became brighter soon after, giving the room a brown hue. All of the four elements remained fairly still as they floated about making it clear that Ed could keep them under control. Ed then felt the small wisps leaving his body and going back into the formation, the green and brown crystals lowered their brilliance and the room's light was once more equal. The writing also returned to its normal state.
"That's it?" Ed felt doubtful. The array only tested the four elements even though more elements obviously existed.
"I can't do anything about that. We have never found a crystallized version of other elements." Vorgarag shrugged expressing his helplessness.
The other elements were also much harder to counter than the four primary ones requiring a much more complex formation than the one the first shaman made leading to the incomplete test.
"What now?" Ed didn't know if he should leave the formation now or if there was something else he needed to do.
"Since we know your affinity you can step out of the array now." Ed walked outside of the array puzzled.
"Do you know how to manipulate elemental mana?" Vorgarag asked Ed who now stood next to him. Ed nodded in response.
"Good, then I will leave you to that. I will be upstairs in the meantime." Vorgarag nodded, clearly pleased by the news. Ed was caught off-guard by Vorgarag's sudden negligence. Why did all of his teachers want to get rid of him? Was there something wrong with him?!?
'I am not that annoying right...?' Ed chose to ignore his many previous plans that involved annoying someone to death or to compliance and instead concluded that he was at the very least much more bearable than Vorgarag himself.
"I guess I should get to it..." Ed looked around the room to find a comfortable place to sit. Unfortunately, most of the room was made of hard rock.
'Ups and downs' He thought as he uncomfortably sat down near the door.
Ed then closed his eyes and focused on his surroundings. He started moving the earth elements first as he had previous experience with them. He didn't need to exhaust his current mana supply as he only hoped to get the earth manipulation skill before moving on.
The earth elements in the area started to disappear as they were all manipulated towards Ed. The brown crystal shone more brightly as it started to release more mana into the surroundings to maintain the room's equilibrium. With his previous experience and the never-ending supply of earthen mana, It didn't take him very long to successfully master earth manipulation.
[<Earth Manipulation lvl. 0> Acquired]
'Nice' After acquiring the earth manipulation skill, Ed didn't continue to manipulate the earth elements and instead moved on to the water element.
The brown crystal finally began to dim as the blue crystal shone more brightly. The mana in the surroundings was once more disappearing into Ed's body. Although the earth and water elements were different, they were all ultimately mana. that meant that his Earth Manipulation skill allowed him to learn water manipulation quicker than most. Still, it did take him a good hour or so before finally seeing the notification.
[<Water Manipulation lvl. 0> Acquired]
Ed then moved on to the other two elements; Fire and wind. It took him two more hours to acquire them which was actually pretty quick.
[??? perk activated]
[<Mana Manipulation lvl. 1> Acquired]
'Hm?' Just after he acquired the wind manipulation skill he received an interesting system alert. He didn't bother to think too hard about it just yet.
'Status!' He yelled out inside his mind.
[Name: Edw#&!]
Type: Orc
Health: 599/600
Vitality: 2
Strength: 3
Agility: 2
Constitution: 2
Dexterity: 1
Mana: 43
~Skills~
[Transmission lvl. 1] -Show info-
[Mental Fortitude lvl. 3] -Show info-
[Deduction lvl. 7] -Show info-
[Assimilation lvl. 3] -Show info-
[Thought Manifestation lvl. 0] -Show info-
[Language lvl. 1] -Show info-
[???] -Show info-
[Instinct lvl. 2] -Show info-
[Adept Throwing lvl. 0] -Show info-
[Mana Manipulation lvl. 1]
The basis of all spells.
"My agility increased after assimilating that knife..." Ed mumbled to himself as he made his way towards his new mana manipulation skill.
'The System link skill is a bunch of question marks again...' Ed couldn't really think of a reason why but it seemed like the skill still worked while concealed. Or at least some of the perks of having a greater connection to the system still did.
'And this skill...' He was quite curious as to why the manipulation of element-less mana didn't result in a skill. It would seem as though the element-less mana manipulation was simply a part of a greater whole and therefore undeserving of its own skill.
'The skill looks like it could come in handy later' If the description was to be trusted it meant he could skip the tedious process of relearning the manipulation skill for each individual element. Although he was limited to four elements right now, it wouldn't always be the case and the skill might prove useful then.
'I should go inform Vorgarag' Although the manipulation skills themselves could be used to replicate spells that would only work if the substance he could manipulate was readily available. He would need to learn some spells if he wanted to use a fireball, its either that or carry around a torch. Needless to say, he wasn't too keen on the idea.
That was also another reason as to why he had chosen the earth element before. The earth could be found all over the ground and giving that he couldn't fly that was more than enough.
Ed got up and dusted himself as usual before heading back upstairs. Once out of the hatch he saw Vorgarag messing around with some things.
"I am done" Said Ed while closing the hatch.
"What? With which element?" Vorgarag felt Ed had finished pretty quickly. Although that meant his disciple was talented it also meant he would need to find more time to help him. There were no books in the settlement and the things he used to write were hardly good enough.
"Which element?" Ed was a bit confused by Vorgarag's question before finally understanding what had happened, "All of them." It seems he had finished too quickly. Naturally, there was nothing wrong with that but it must be unexpected for him to have such fearsome capabilities.
"All of them!?! You learned to manipulate all four elements?!?" For the first time since Ed entered the room, Vorgarag stopped fiddling with his tools and looked at Ed as if he was looking at some sort of monster. Ed was simply standing there as if nothing was out of the ordinary all the while.
Vorgarag's expression then changed into a bitter one. He felt like his achievements and hard work amounted to nothing when compared to Ed and his freakish learning speed.
"Ha... I guess I should teach you some spells then." Vorgarag sighed in resignation and told Ed exactly what he wanted to hear.
"That's great" A smile formed naturally on Ed's face after hearing that he would learn some spells. He could still try to perform the earthen spells but he wanted something much more explosive.
"You will have to wait however." Vorgarag then poured cold water on Ed's happy mood.
"Why?" He sent Vorgarag a questioning gaze.
"We are not all freaks. Look outside every once in a while, it's already night time." And with those words, Vorgarag started to furiously shoo Ed away.
"What? Come on! I know how to walk stop pushing me." He even took personal action and started to push out the startled Ed.
Ed then proceeded to walk himself out and heard the door slam behind him once he finally left.
"Too unfair...." Whispered Vorgarag to himself from inside the cottage before resolutely continuing his research.