Chapter 11: Affinity Ritual

Julius didn’t know why he tried to copy Edwin. First off, he still didn’t know what his affinities were. Secondly, he didn’t understand the technique Edwin used in the first place. Julius had just wrapped his fist with mana, as he would if he were trying to levitate an object. Just this time, he was able to use far more mana than before, and so it visibly glowed. In all honesty, it would have been less humiliating if he had just missed his punch.

However, that reminded Julius that he still needed to do the ritual that determined his affinities. He had gotten so focused on testing his new abilities that he had forgotten that he needed to find out his affinities before he started to learn new techniques.

As such, the three of them were walking to the basement where Julius had done his baptism. Lukas was still smiling and teasing Julius along the way, while Edwin was trailing behind them, just shaking his head and averting his gaze every time he looked at Julius as if he were ashamed of him. Julius already knew that he wasn’t going to live this one down for a very long time.

Lukas had already coined a name for his technique. He was calling it Julius’s [Twinkle Strike], a very powerful skill that allowed its user to twinkle his fist before punching. Its primary function was to confuse the opponent into thinking it was actually going to do something, but in reality, it was just a glorified fist-shaped lantern.

Julius took the teasing in stride. He knew it would eventually blow over, and he had to admit it was funny.

Once they had reached the beautiful chamber, Lukas immediately went to a cabinet in the corner of the room. Lukas reached into it and pulled out a large handful of glowing mana stones alongside a cube-like object. He then placed them around where the pedestal for his baptism had been. The pedestal was no longer there, but he noticed complex lines intersecting each other into a runic pattern.

Julius wasn’t well-versed in runes. However, he knew they were considered one of the more difficult fields of study in academies, and any runemaster would have a bright future ahead of them, with plenty of opportunities. Julius was initially interested in learning runes, but it seems like runes were similar to language comprehension. That was something Julius wasn’t good at in his previous life, nor this one either.

It seemed like Julius understood things better by hitting them or being hit by them. It made him realize that he was sort of a meathead in a way. If he hit a wall in learning something, he was more likely to just find a way to go through it, instead of around it. Solving most of his problems by just being stubborn. Which, when he thought about it, was a talent in itself. Feeling self-assured again, he paid attention to what his uncle was doing with the ritual.

Lukas had placed the mana stones equally along the border of the circle. There seemed to be around a dozen marble-sized mana stones encircling the cube.

“Hey, Twinkles, come over here,” Lukas said to Julius.

Julius pretended to ignore his annoying uncle, looking away at the murals decorating the room.

His uncle snickered at Julius’s antic. Instead of waiting for him to come over voluntarily, he decided to bring Julius to him.

Julius was snatched from where he stood and carried to the center of the ritual. Julius barely felt any mana used to achieve this. He felt another force being used. He couldn’t quite determine what it was, but he suspected it was some aura ability that his uncle and Edwin had hinted at before. Levitating objects with mana was easy, but something that had a will was much more difficult. The only way to levitate someone was to override their will with their own will.

Julius didn’t quite get it, but it was impressive how easily his uncle managed it nonetheless. He guessed that was the power of a Tier 5.

Now that Julius was placed within the center of the circle, sitting right in front of the cube, Lukas focused some mana to activate the runes of the ritual.

“Place your hands around the cube,” his uncle instructed.

Julius complied and immediately felt himself getting bombarded with mana from all directions. He wasn’t absorbing the mana. It was flowing through him. There was a slight discomfort, but not too bad. It was comparable to getting rinsed down by a very powerful hose.

A couple of minutes passed before it ended. Julius had no idea what the purpose of that was, but Lukas plucked the cube from his grasp. Julius was curious about what had just happened.

“What was that and how does it determine my affinities?” He asked the two of them.

His uncle chose to answer him. “It takes a few days to prepare, but during this time, the runic circle absorbs mana from the atmosphere. The reason for this is that the ritual needs to have enough mana for each affinity to test. Most affinities are present in the natural world in ambient mana, so it only takes time to accumulate. It then distributes the mana throughout your body. Then that is where the cube comes in. The cube is a device designed to measure how well you naturally respond to mana. Thus revealing your affinities.”

“So if I am understanding it correctly, the ritual is meant to pump me full of various mana, like fire mana or water mana. Then the cube senses how I react to each one and then measures my affinity to it. Right?” Julius asked.

“It is much more complex, and there are thousands of interesting studies that describe it in a more detailed fashion, but yes,” Lukas said.

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“Wait, is that why controlling ambient mana is more difficult than your own?” Julius had another question.