Five Elements

In November, the giant oaks at the Magic Academy had shed all their dead leaves, exposing their gnarled branches. The wind swept through the woods, scattering fallen leaves through the morning light. Autumn was at its peak.

Donald pulled his rough clothes tighter around himself. They were already the thickest clothes he owned. Back on Lant Island, the blacksmith shop had the warm glow of its furnace all year round. It took more than ten minutes to walk from Victor's villa to the Library, passing by the lakeshore along the way, where the wind blowing off the water was the coldest. Fortunately, the hot tea he drank after breakfast was just enough to ward off the chill for that stretch of road.

He hurried along with his head lowered, studying the Divine Element in his mind.

"Do you know where Wesley is hiding?"

A group of academy students blocked his path, boys and girls alike. Carl was at their head.

"I don't know."

Donald tried to go around them by the roadside, but an unfamiliar student blocked him.

"Carl, is this the pauper who hangs around Wesley?" The short student blocking the way looked Donald over with contempt.

A flamboyantly dressed girl answered for Carl. "That's him. I saw Wesley with him last night."

Donald tried once more to get around them, but the short boy grabbed him by the collar and yanked him back. "Where do you think you're going? Answer me!"

Donald shook off his hand and glared back coldly.

The short boy had never been looked at that way by a pauper. He flew into a rage and kicked at Donald. Donald could not dodge in time and was sent tumbling into the dead grass by the roadside.

"Dick!" Carl called out, stepping in front of Donald and blocking the short boy.

Donald rose to his feet, dusted himself off, and shot Dick another icy glance. Dick glared right back.

"Donald, right? I had an appointment with Wesley last night over something, but he didn't show up. That made me look bad. I know you're close to him, and... I know what you're after. Clinging to a noble is a good way to escape being poor. I've heard stories like that before, and you've done quite well. Wesley trusts you a great deal. Someone even saw him give you a little something yesterday..."

Donald was still standing in the grass below the raised road while Carl spoke down to him from above.

"Wesley disgusts me, but you... you disgust me even more. Didn't your pauper father ever teach you that you should strive to improve yourself and rely on yourself, instead of bootlicking for favors? So I'm going to make you pay a small price. You received benefits from Wesley, and now you'll receive some trouble from me. That's fair, isn't it?"

Carl was very pleased with his speech. His tone brimmed with the particular sense of righteousness possessed by nobles, and his lackeys were stirred by it as well. No one noticed Donald clenching his fists.

By then, quite a few students had gathered on the road to watch. Carl did not notice that Lucia was also observing from afar.

"You need to understand that I'm helping you—helping you become independent and become an upright person. Even a pauper should be an upright person. Don't you agree?"

Carl looked at Donald as though waiting for his approval. Donald merely stared at him coldly without speaking. There was neither the resentment of someone provoked nor the embarrassment of someone exposed in his eyes. That look made Carl uncomfortable.

After leaving behind a few threats, Carl and his group finally departed. Donald, dressed only in a thin shirt, trembled slightly. It was impossible to tell whether the wind had cut through his clothes or whether he was struggling to suppress the anger in his heart.

For a moment, when Carl mentioned his father, Donald had nearly rushed at him. But he was different from the children before him. He had already been an adult before crossing over, and after ten years on Lant Island, he was mature enough to know that, given the gap between his strength and Carl's, acting on impulse would only bring him greater humiliation. Besides, the other side had strength in numbers, while he was alone.

This was Donald's first time being late, but the administrator Virgil pretended not to notice. After finishing his morning work, Donald returned to his usual corner. The Library was unusually quiet that morning. Warm sunlight slanted in through the windows. At this very moment, the same sunlight must have been shining on the little blacksmith shop on Lant Island. His father should have already lit the furnace, and Richard's morning training was probably about to end. Donald imagined his younger brother swinging his sword while the brilliant red Spiritual Element drifted through his mind. Everything was getting better. As long as he was strong enough, as long as he endured, the little incident from before would eventually pass. That was what Donald thought. There were no books before him. He simply sat quietly. If anyone had seen him, they would have thought the boy was merely staring blankly into space. No one knew that he was intently observing the only Divine Element he possessed. What a perfect Spiritual Element it was—so vividly red, so utterly unique. One day, it would erupt with a dazzling radiance the world had never seen before.

And yet, even Donald himself, who was staring at it, had not realized its uniqueness.

Wesley had not disappeared. After lunch, he entered the Library as usual with his hands in his pockets, winked at Donald, and sat down in front of him with what he considered a dashing pose.

"That idiot Carl must have waited for me half the night. He's probably been searching the whole academy for me since this morning."

"Is Carl really that formidable?"

"He's already in his sixth year."

"Then it was right not to go."

"Of course. Fighting and killing is so boring."

That entire afternoon, Donald still did not read. Every so often, he asked Wesley about cultivating Spiritual Elements. From Wesley's answers, he learned that before becoming a Magic Apprentice, the only way to cultivate Spiritual Power was to draw Magic Glyphs. Meditation Methods had a minimum Spiritual Power requirement; even the simplest Meditation Method could only be cultivated by a Low-level Magic Apprentice. Ordinary people could not withstand the side effects of Magic Potions at all.

As for the number of Glyphs one could draw, Wesley told him that ordinary people could draw at most twelve Magic Glyphs a day for a single element. The Five Elements did not affect one another, so if they were drawn evenly, the daily limit was sixty in total. Once Spiritual Power had condensed, that number rose to thirty-six per element. At that stage, students no longer drew the Five Elements evenly, because the Glyphs could interfere with one another and instead restrict the growth of Spiritual Power.

Of course, there were always a few students who condensed Spiritual Power from all Five Elements. At first, the different types of Spiritual Power could coexist peacefully, but once cultivation reached a certain level, interference was inevitable. In such cases, they only had to abandon some of the types and stop using them, and the effects would gradually disappear. Still, that was ultimately a waste of effort.

That night, Donald borrowed more than a dozen Magic Arrays of different elements from Victor. After last night's experiment, he quickly identified another four perfect Glyphs that day—four slightly different function curves. Donald then drew each Glyph with Magic Metal. After losing consciousness four times, he successfully condensed Spiritual Power from all Five Elements.

Since condensing Spiritual Power was so simple, even if interference arose later and he had to abandon several types, it would not waste much time.

Now, a deep blue Water Element Divine Element, a bright red Fire Element Divine Element, an emerald green Wood Element Divine Element, a vivid yellow Earth Element Divine Element, and a sky-blue Wind Element Divine Element appeared together in his mind. There was a faint repulsive force between the Divine Elements of different colors, but there were no signs of interference for the moment.

Next, it was time to visit Merkel's factory.