Blood Elf Monarch

Chapter 123 - Elven Magic

Vanyar Magic Shrine.

This place was one of the important shrines of the Vanyar elves. Its origin was so ancient that it could be traced up to the creation of the Vanyar Kingdom itself.

In all honesty, Tristan was expecting a place like a library, or even an academy when he thought about a place where one could learn magic. Let's take Arcadia for example, they had a school located next to the palace where youngsters all over the Arcadian Kingdom came and learnt magic.

Therefore, he was a bit taken back as the place they went to was more like a temple. Not only did the place look like a temple, the vibe of it also, in Tristan's opinion, was not exactly the kind that a mage would choose. 

It was surrounded by the inside of a huge tree and its walls were overgrown by glowing vines with similar glowing leaves. Even though the sight looked eerie at first glance, the place was unexpectedly exuding a warm and soothing ambience.

With the pretext of 'learning the way of the Elf' and with Serene, the Vanyar Princess, stood beside him, the elf elder who was in charge of the place was very supportive of Tristan's endeavor. He was enthusiastically explaining everything that he knew regarding the shrine.

Apparently, there were only three rooms inside the shrine.

The first was the one that they saw the moment they passed the shrine's entrance. It was evident that this was where the elves did their business as Tristan could see several elves in attendant-like clothes and attitude in waiting.

Then, Tristan's attention was caught by something. In this room, there were also similar emblems like the one he saw at Erantell's magic academy. As he was curious about anything that smelled magic, Tristan proceeded to count the emblems stuck on the wall.

"1..3..4..7...9?"

'Eh?' 

Tristan was confused because he could only see 9 emblems. He counted once more, only to receive the same result. He was sure there were 10 emblems back at the magic academy. Then, why were there only 9 in the elven shrine?

When asked about this, the elf elder was more than happy to explain about the matter. Apparently, there were differences between humans and elves when it came to magic.

First, there was only one in a thousand humans who had the aptitude for magic. Furthermore, out of the thousand who had the aptitude, only one was lucky enough to be bestowed with either A or B aptitude. In addition, while humans did possess the aptitude for magic, most of them only had one elemental affinity - with those who had more than one being the rarity.

As for the elves, nine out of ten elves would be born with magic aptitude. And as if it wasn't enough, the elves were born with multiple affinities to the elements. They were truly different from the humans.

The elven people were divided into three main subraces; the High Elves, the Wood Elves, and the Dark Elves.

"We, the Vanyar, are the kingdom of Wood Elves. The Wood Elves were born with an affinity towards Earth, Water, and Plant elements. While you, Sir, with your long white hair, I assume you came from the High Elves. Therefore, you should have the affinity of Wind, Ice, and Lightning by default."

The elder's words certainly made Tristan confused.

"Hmm? Is that so?" Seeing that the elder nodded his head vigorously, Tristan continued his words, "Actually, I only have one affinity, and that is fire."

It was the elder's turn to show a confused look the moment he heard Tristan's words. Not just him, but also Serene as this was the first time she heard about this.

"Eh? Fire?! Are you sure, sir? Fire, together with Metal and Darkness are the elements of the Dark Elves. And you.." The elf elder scanned Tristan from top to bottom. "Don't look like them at all, sir."

Seeing the glaring disbelief on the elf's face, Tristan proceeded to tell the former about his experiences at the mages guild. In fact, he was said to have no affinity to any elements, but the strange thing was, he could cast fire spells. Thus, it made him believe that his result was an error and he actually had an affinity towards Fire element.

The story only made the elder even more confused. The seriousness on Tristan's face told him that what he said was all true, but the elder was sure he never read anything like this. Therefore, the elder said to Tristan that he would look through the ancient text and tell him about the result later.

"Yes please, elder. Thank you for your help. Oh, and also, please check about the blood elf as well."

Tristan hated the fact that he didn't even know himself, and it annoyed him more that the queen knew something about him but decided not to share it.

Tristan then returned his attention to the emblems and eventually realized the one element that was missing.

"Light! How come there are no light spells like the humans?"

The next information the elder said made Tristan even more confused.

Apparently, the elf's body was different when compared to the human's. Every elf was born with what they called a divine body, and in the center of all was Katra.

It could be said that elves had no Light affinity, which automatically made them unable to cast light magic. But on the other hand, it also could be said that all elves had the innate capability of a light element mage thanks to the existence of Katra.

Yeah, that's right. The damn Katra that was really hard to master.

All the information that Tristan had received was too confusing for him at the moment. Maybe he would understand what they meant when he actually mastered the Katra. Until then, he would wisely choose to avoid this topic.

Now that the explanation was over, it was time to check out the other room.