Chapter 4

Chapter 4 Zephirine’s pov: The time was something past 4 in the morning, everywhere was still dark but that was a normal thing here. I knew the time as we had already spent roughly 6 months in the academy. I couldn't muster the focus to check the system for the time. But Frey’s training grunts were enough to know the day had started. After our first day here Frey, Axel and I became really close friends, which was scary as they were both incredible forces. It became a routine for us after our first week here to meet up with Frey to carry out warm-ups and team bonding exercises before classes began. At first Frey was against it but he came around eventually. Through team bonding exercise I found out Frey’s life wasn’t far from the way I lived. He was out casted from his kingdom because of something he wasn’t responsible for, he had developed anxiety which he hid a lot, he could only rest or actually sleep when he was totally worn out, which got harder as time went on cuz of his incredible stamina. I had no problem remembering the rankings and things like that, but the same couldn’t be said for Frey and Axel. So here’s the basic info… The world is split into 4 continents, 3 of which are accessible. Some inhabitants of the 3 continents have a connection to the world pool [not the best name in my opinion]. The world pool grants them the power to use abilities, these abilities are called the affinity. They are 5 known affinities, WATER, FIRE, EARTH, NATURE and LIGHT. Affinities can intertwine and be modified, that is where things get complicated. The mixing doesn’t depend on anything usual, they just happen. But the modifications only occur during certain conditions. They can be transferred, some during birth, others from artificial mediums. The demon emperor is the most notable modification, history states he was gifted the light affinity, but something happened before he was fully realized and his inner light began to dim, until it became something unholy, Darkness. He then went on a rampage causing death to his people. Those who fell that day had their souls reshaped into the horde, because of his insane amount of aura, he corrupted everything within the borders of his land. Legend says a large number of them were strong enough to avoid corruption, 8 of those people became generals in his army. He then gifted each one a piece of his soul to link them to the force that guides him. As of recent history, only 7 of those generals have been identified, they go by the sins of man. Each is capable of rivaling 5 grandlords. The last one is said to be his right hand, and has never been seen outside the fortress. Back to us, we found out a small percentage of us were variants of the original affinities, like Axel and Selene. But Frey and I were different, normally the mage class had light as its backbone but mine was nature, which was whack cuz I suck at plant type magic, and Frey he was special, anytime he checked the system for his affinity, it would show “------“even though he was a fire type, only a small number of people know. This was strange though as he could use different types of fire in his attacks, something he said was never on purpose. On to the class system and rankings, at the very top was any one with light as their main affinity, almost all mages, the queen of Terravorn[who in my opinion was a perv], Lord Valerion [who was my favorite combat instructor], the queen of Necrosia [snobby b```h] the current Lord Starlight [Frey’s dad, the best of all the royals] and some other high tier warriors. The only person on the list that’s surprising is Tharion, his powers were rumored to be similar to the queen but he never partook in sparring matches. Next was fire users, the battle ready element. They were mostly in the martial class, mostly knights, berserkers, and the weaker ones were marksmen or AOE specialists. Only a few fire users were notably different because of their techniques. The likes of lord Raphael [bossy and short], Lady Seraphina Asheville, the scarlet death, with a total kill streak of 6000 hell horde and she is my personal favorite warrior[she is so kind and sweet and she overreacts a lot]. Some actually become healers, which is very strange in my opinion. We have 2 of them in our class. Now the heavy hitters, earth. Literally an entire class for tanks, some like Axel’s father become Dreadnoughts. But they also consist of beast hunters, knights and blacksmiths. Some really skilled black smiths become rune masters or on even rarer occasions rune smiths. A lot of them actually don’t get to be warriors [meat head requirements] so they go into politics and finance of some states. I think we have other tanks here, aside from Axel of course. Nature [ uggggh]. This is a whole class dedicated to life, unlike light which is like the purest form of the soul, nature deals with physical parts of life, some actually having access to souls. So a lot of healers, shamans and seers. But those who become warriors are super weird, like what is a familiarist, also they are beast tamers, we don’t like to talk about them. Some nature users are very dangerous though, druids for starters, many assassins are all nature based, geomancers are on the list [you’d be surprise how many they actually are], blood mages [literal cheat codes], hex weavers, also a resident here [he creeps me out `shivers`] and the most rare class ever necromancers [no comment]. Finally water, not going into their dynamic. Mostly healers, some can manipulate ice [the only battle perk of these guys] and some hybrids are mist related meaning more assassins. Those who don’t want to be healers end up mastering alchemy, but just a few can use its full potential. That sums up the affinities [only took me 20 minutes of getting lost to say] and yes I got lost and started talking to myself. Frey is going to kill me. The rankings aren’t as complicated, you have fledgling, weak, newbies at everything, could actually kill themselves from over training. Adept, 60% of the military, trained in most things, considerably stronger than a horde, could survive a few days with no food. Elite, us at the start, remarkable skills, undeniably powerful, on par with some creatures. Master, lords of the art, the beginning of true power, most end their power journey here. Grandmaster, peak of human evolution, makes up 10% of the power scales, real beasts. Apex, a plain of pure evolution, attaining this rank means becoming a living calamity, 2% of the population, all the sins are Apex rank. Mythic, world breakers, beings with enough pressure to end nations, flee on sight. [Frey at his current full power he is on par with 3 grandmasters, and could possibly fend off a fully realized grandmaster]. Just 9 beings have been identified in the mythic rank within the past 10 centuries. That’s how rare it is, Frey’s rank isn’t public though, to maintain peace. “Where have you been, we’ve got just 20 minutes before classes begin” Frey yelled as I finally made my way to our spot, the gymnasium. “I got lost, sorry” I replied, bowing my head to avoid his glare. But as I looked at him I saw he was wearing a torn up outfit, and some of his fresh wounds were healing, rapidly. As I turned to Axel he looked away as he was injured as well, but without Frey’s insane healing factor the wounds were visible and deep. As I immediately started healing Axel, I turned to Frey who looked annoyed but not at me. “What happened here” as I started looking around to see damages to a lot of equipment. “Tharion happened”