"Now, Mara Flamma. Show me how much this lesson gave you."
When Ray said those words, Mara didn't react instantly. The amount of information he had just shared was being rapidly processed by her. Normally, someone would need several hours to truly understand the benefits and the disadvantages of this new knowledge.
The greatest benefit was spell designing had become much easier. When making a magic circle, one used geometry to stabilize the relationship between different magecrafts. Magecraft was different from magic. While magic was simply the use of mana, mostly the innate use of it through affinities, magecraft was the use of external means to wield the elements your soul did not align with.
Knowing what she now knows, Mara has received great knowledge about spell making. Sometimes some runes had to be placed in certain manners or required special attention. In the past, she just looked at said situations as simple facts and rules of magecraft. Now, it was different, these runes had been so important due to their connection to the mana distribution through the concepts that belonged to the element of the spell. Knowing this allowed her to better understand magic circles and therefore improve her magical capabilities.
The disadvantage, however, was that this led to dozens of new possibilities. For her, this was a good thing and a bad thing. Good, because this meant that her versatility had increased. Bad, because she now knew that her opponent could hit her in ways that she couldn't imagine. His knowledge of fire magic was so astounding that Mara believed that he knew how to use every single concept inside the element of fire, while she only had some guesses.
Good news was that her affinity with the element of fire had increased, she could feel that it was easier to control it, and she could now use even less mana to generate the same amount of power. It was amazing, and it filled her with some amount of confidence.
Ray, on the other hand, was disappointed. Not because his teachings had been fruitless, but because they didn't meet his expectations. After hearing his explanation and deep insights about the elements, the sheer knowledge would be capable of improving her affinity with fire to another level, significantly boosting her power, and yet, she was still very far away from what he was expecting.
While he was thinking, his battle style shifted to a more defensive stance. He mostly jumped around, dodging Mara's attacks while thinking of what exactly went wrong, he did fire some fireballs back, though.
He still couldn't find an answer, though. Why were his teachings so ineffective on her? Was he just a bad teacher, perhaps?
No matter, he would find the reason and bring her to her full potential, allowing him to have some entertainment. No, it wasn't just that, now that he started teaching her, he would make sure that she would become strong enough to contend with his current strength.
But what more should he do?
As he was thinking that, he surprisingly stepped onto a trap that Mara had set up.
That broke him out of his thoughts and prompted him to look around. Under his feet was now a enormous magic circle, it was red and was slightly camouflaged by the raging flames that both Ray and Mara had conjured during the fight.
As soon as he began studying the intent used to forge the magic circle, the flames that were inside the limits of the magic circles started twisting and agglomerating.
Their light dimmed, and although they were still hot, they were no longer burning, not as much as before anyway. The flames started forming several chains that twisted and wrapped around his body in a strong hold, Ray studied them silently.
Mara had forged these flames by mostly giving up the concept of light and partially giving up the concept of destruction. The main concepts used on this spell were heat and form, because of this, the chains were surprisingly sturdy, and the heat they gave off twisted the air, making it hard to see. The heat along the remnants of the destruction burned into his body.
Ray was not wearing particularly strong clothes, they were casual clothes that Astra had arranged for him after a "shopping spree." Therefore, they melted without any resistance, clearing the way for the chains' smoldering surface to make contact with his skin.
And that's when Ray once again noticed the lack of power. As someone that had their body forged from their original body, which was of a demonic dragon and one with a particularly strong affinity with fire, he had quite a high resistance to fire.
Not immunity, but quite high resistance, although not as strong as the one he had during his prime. The point was that fire did not affect him in negative ways as strongly as other elements, but even then, considering the amount of power she had put behind the spell, her understanding of mana, and the insight he had shared with her.
'It should be more powerful.'
This was a thought that both were having right now. Both of them were confused. Ray because he truly believed in sharing his knowledge well enough and Mara because there was a wall in front of her that she could not surpass.
After a while of thinking and struggling against the chains as if testing them, Ray seemed to reach a conclusion.
"Like I said before, when evaluating a mage's capabilities, there are several factors to consider. Mana Reserves, you nailed it. Mana Control, besides myself, yours is the best in this whole batch of participants for what I can tell. Element Insight, although you were only exposed to it just now, you are pretty talented in it. And finally, Affinity."
Mara had grown a certain level of respect for her new opponent. Ray was someone that had taught her a great deal in the span of minutes, therefore she was willing to stop and listen to his words. She could tell that the power that she was showcasing was too weak for what she was supposed to be able to bring out after his last lesson.
So she knew that there was something wrong.
"At first, I thought that the problem lay in elemental insight as it is commonly ignored by the majority. But now, I am led to believe that the answer is Affinity."
Mara's body stiffened.
"Did you know? According to some theories, the more affinities one has, the probability of them being weaker increases, the numbers were never specified, but they were believed to be around, 'For each affinity above one, their true potential is halved.'. I believe that is your case, Mara."
Mara's eyes widened, not in surprise at the information but in surprise at Ray's capability to figure her out.
"So, Mara, just how many affinities do you have?"
"..."
Mara stayed silent for a moment before staring at Ray deeply.
This person in front of her, she had just met him for a few minutes, but perhaps it was his lessons, or perhaps it was the need to finally vent her frustrations to somebody that was not involved.
"I am an Allgemein. When my family made a few tests using magic tech to find out my affinity, they discovered that I was an Allgemein."
Allgemein.
In some languages up north in the Land of the Nords, it meant Universal.
It was a term for someone that had every single affinity possible, except unique affinities, although it was possible to emulate them. There were several cases of it across history, and it was normally seen as a sign of talent without strength.
Allgemein, because they had an affinity with every element, were the greatest proofs to the theories Ray had mentioned just now. Their affinities were so weak that it took months for one of them to finally find one where they were as good as everybody else. Using the other elements? They wouldn't even be qualified as mages.
In history there was only a single Allgemein Mage that had made it big, The Sage, or also known as Astra, the Witch.
Ray was silent for a moment.
Being an Allgemein did not translate to being weak at every element, it meant having great difficulty studying almost every element. The fact that Mara had reached this level of strength either meant fire was her best affinity or that she had worked her ass off to get here.
Unlike most, Ray believed Allgemein to be actual talents, and the reason was simple.
Elemental Fusion.
It was a process only capable of three types of mages.
Mages with Dominion Magic, like Ray.
Mages who possessed Demonic Power, like Ray.
And Allgemein, like Mara.
It was just a shame that society brought them down before they could realize such a wonderful skill.
Ray grinned.
He looked Mara in the eyes before speaking the words that would change her magical career and life forever.
"Say, Mara. Did you ever think of combining elements?"
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Author's Notes
Another term added to the lore of the novel, Allgemein, if I'm not wrong it means universal in german. The battle should end next chapter.
Check out my other Novel(Fanfic): Transmigrator Competition