Gale got up in the morning and had a vegetarian meal for breakfast, which consisted of different third-rank plants. Although they were tastier than normal plants and had more nutrients, they didn't really provide him any help in his magic practice.
*Knock knock*
"Who is there?"
He opened the door and found a young man, looking like he still wasn't in his twenties.
"Hello, are you Gale Stormborn?"
"Yes, who is asking?"
"I'm Zach, I was sent by Professor Alice to bring you to the magi's meeting. Please follow me."
Gale was already prepared since Alice warned him about it yesterday, thus he just left his apartment and followed Zach. They left the dorms and walked for 10 minutes until they arrived at a huge campus. Zach led him to one tall building and knocked on the door of one of the meeting rooms.
"Enter."
They entered and Gale saw 6 people sitting around a long table, seeming to be waiting for him.
"Sit down with us."
Alice smiled at him and the rest nodded with smiles on. One of them signed Zach to leave and close the door after him.
"Can you tell us again about your age and your first interaction with mana?"
One of them asked. Gale answered and everyone nodded in excitement.
"Let's check his affinities first."
One man brought a few orbs and explained.
"Each orb belongs to a different element. We can use those to assess your affinities with each element. We were told you're a fire and earth mage, do you have other affinities?"
Gale thought for a moment and decided to hide his other affinities for two reasons: the first was that they were weak and probably not worth mentioning in front of magi, and the second was that he could claim he just hid his affinities if in the future he improves the affinities with the other elements.
"Those are indeed my only elements worth mentioning."
The professor revealed a disappointed face but quickly hid it.
"I'm sure they are very high then. Please put your hand on the orbs and channel the relevant elements into the orbs in the purest form you can. You can tell the right element by the orbs' colors."
He forced a smile and gave Gale two orbs. Gale poured fire mana into the red one and earth mana into the brown one, and they started glowing.
"The affinities for mages are divided into 7 ranks, with D as the lowest and SSS as the highest. Each rank has a scale from 1 to 100, and the higher the number the closer the affinity to the next rank. Let's see yours."
Alice explained as he poured his mana.
"A-52 for earth and S-90 for fire."
Alice said, her voice having a mixture of surprise and disappointment in it. They didn't sense wrong in the arena; his affinities really weren't special.
"How is it possible that he advanced so early with those affinities? Although his fire affinity is high, it's just like the rest of us."
One man in the room said out loud everyone's thoughts.
"Well, let's see his casting speed. Alice said Lena's was on par with a genius advanced mage's speed."
Alice gestured towards a wall while facing Gale.
"Attack this wall with as many fourth-rank spells as you can."
Gale double-cast fire orbs against the wall as fast as he could, and everyone's expectant eyes turned cold.
"Weird, it's normal. Wait, did you strengthen yourself with two elements yet?"
"No, only with the earth element."
"That must be the reason. The reason everyone was excited is because of your young age. Do you know the names of the beasts' phases?"
"No. I only know they're ranked from 1 to 9 and are equal to mages of the same rank."
"That's true, but just like humans have 3 phases, the beasts have the same number of tiers. Those are the Magic Tier, the Elite Tier, and the Ruler Tier. A beast can get to the Elite Phase in two ways; through hard work or better genes."
"And how is it relevant?"
Gale didn't understand why they started talking about beasts when testing him.
"Bear with it until I get to the point. Beasts that entered the fourth rank through hard work are still considered Magic Beasts; they're inferior to those who got there by having better genes."
She continued her explanation after a few seconds.
pαndα,noνɐ1,сoМ "Those with better genes simply get to the same rank in their maturation process. They are blessed by the mana with higher intelligence and far higher powers. Only they are worthy of the name Elite Beasts."
Gale was starting to get the gist of the matter.
"And this is relevant because of the way the world recognizes beast's tier?"
"Exactly. When a magic beast gets to the fourth rank it's already quite old. However, when an elite beast gets there it's only between 6 to 10 years old. When the world feels it, the mana-strengthening process becomes much greater. Not only it makes their bodies much stronger, but it also strengthens their mind."
Gale now understood completely. The world wasn't exactly sentient but worked according to fixed rules. If a human could get to the mage phase within 10 years, the world would judge them as an elite beast and offer additional boosts. It also explained Lena's sick reaction time and her casting speed.
"This boosting only happens from the second element strengthening since all beasts have at least two elements."
"What about rulers' maturation time?"
"That's exactly why everyone has great hopes for you. Their gains are even better! Before explaining about them you need to understand that each tier is divided into three: lower, medium, and higher."
"A lower elite beast will become a fourth-rank beast when it's completely mature at 10 years old. A medium one will be in the fifth rank, and a higher elite beast will be in the sixth rank."
"And the same sub-ranking is also relevant in the Ruler Phase?"
"Indeed. However, we don't know of any higher ruler beasts existing in our continent. And most importantly, the world recognizes it by six checkpoints – the first one is entering the fourth rank before one year old, and the second is entering the fifth rank before two years old!"
She said with shining eyes as she looked at him. The world will consider him a higher ruler beast when strengthening himself with a second element, and if he could get to the fifth stage within 8 months, his strengthening process will be maxed in that level too!
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