Back in the classroom.
'Wow, a thousand points.' Blake was shocked by what had happened.
'Guess I will soon make a trip to the exchange point.' Blake thought after realizing how many points he had.
A student's points had two uses; one was for his/her position at the end of the trimester and the other was used to exchange for items at the exchange store (AN: Let's call the exchange points EP.).
They were both the same value but when the EP was used at the exchange store to purchase an item, the cost of the item will be deducted, but the value of the total points gotten in the trimester would remain the same unless deducted by a professor.
When he got to the exchange store, he went straight to one of the transparent orbs in the store. When he injected mana into the orb, he saw a list of items form in his mind. It was the same as when he chooses a destination when using a warp array.
The mind link with the orb prevented those around from knowing what the user purchased. There were bullies in the school, especially when there was a possibility of those in the elite class bullying the normal students, and to prevent being robbed after the purchase, the items bought would be sent to his/her room by staff.
Blake took his time and scanned through the list and saw hundreds of items on the list. On the list were items like potions, swords, amours, materials, and so on. The list was so huge that he used the filter function to filter out materials for the different specializations.
"With my points, I can buy materials to practice my specializations and become more proficient." Blake thought as he scanned through the list.
"What if I forge a sword on my own and then enchant it?" Blake sought the system's opinion.
[It is a great idea to practice forging without much of my guidance, but for the enchantment part, I don't think so. The thing is that to enchant a forged item, one must have knowledge of different arrays and their functions in order to combine them, giving the item different abilities.
A perfect example is Reaper, which possesses multiple arrays like the weight lightening array, mana projection array, mana gathering array, and many more, but you barely know the basics of arrays so it will be a waste of points to buy materials for it.] Blake had a dejected look on his face after hearing the system's words.
[But since you still have to study arrays, I would say you should buy a lot of array plates because won't want to dent surfaces in the name of practicing arrays.]
To draw an array, one needed to indent the different symbols that form a pathway for the mana to flow, but to do this the array master has to condense mana at his/her fingertips to make the indent perfect.
The problem was that Blake wasn't yet able to manipulate mana in such a way, that was why the system had recommended array plates. The array plate is a work of forge mastery, which helps any novice array master just like Blake, to practice how to draw the arrays without mana manipulation.
All the user needed to do was draw on the plates and the indents would be formed just like a normal array, but the only downside was that it was a one-time use item.
'So how many are we looking at?' Blake asked.
[A hundred array plates should be enough.] The system replied.
'An array plate is 5 EP, if I am to get a hundred that would be equal to a week's worth of work.!' Blake couldn't help but complain when he thought of parting with 500 points in not less than 10 minutes.
[Stop being cheap and buy them. Not only can you use it for practice, but you can also use it to prevent mistakes when you are working on a project.] The system harrumphed at how cheap Blake was.
'Can't we make it 50? 70? 80? Curse you!' Blake cursed at the unflinching system.
Immediately he decided to make the purchase, his badge glowed and 500 points were deducted. Blake's heart bled as he saw 500 points vanish just like that, but he consoled himself because he knew that for him to get stronger, he had to pay some prices.
'Let's just pray that the amount needed for the materials needed to forge a sword isn't that costly.' Blake crossed his fingers and searched for the required metals and alloys.
'Wow, it's way cheaper than the array plates!' Blake said in surprise.
[I told you magical items and materials are way costlier than normal resources and you can't compare a finished product made by a forger to metals. If it were materials for a mid-grade weapon it would be a different story, but these are for a common grade sword.]
Seeing how cheap they were, Bake decided to buy 5 sets of materials which cost him 200 EP. After confirming the purchase his badge glowed once again and the transaction was complete and his goods will be delivered to his room later that evening.
Once he was done, he left the exchange store and went to the canteen for lunch. After that, he hurried to a hall where the elemental mastery class was to be held.
The elemental mastery class was meant for both those from the normal class and those from the elite class, so he had to be early for the class in order to get a nice spot.
After everyone had settled down, eight professors stepped out of different warp gates in front of the classroom.
'I wonder how they know everyone is settled before they entered the classroom and why is there more than one professor' Blake thought.
[It's most likely a mirror spell since this is a controlled area and they are able to open warp gates, they should be able to use a mirror spell and for the second part you have to listen.] The system answered.
(AN: See the chapter about the beginning of the competition for details on the mirror spell.)
Professor Gibson came up and spoke to the students. "Good day kids, as you all know this is the elemental mastery class and from your confused faces, I know you may be wondering why there are so many professors for a single class?"
"The answer is that this course is a vast one and needs special attention for each element. That is why you all would be divided based on your main elements and before that happens, I would explain what I mean by one's main element." His words brought about murmurs in the hall, but they soon quietened down and he continued.
"When we talk about a person's main element, we mean the element which the person has a greater affinity to and that is determined by the first element one has awoken." Professor Gibson explained.
[That is true but the reason why the first element is the main element is because that is the element the soul reacts to the most.
When you absorbed nature's energy which is made up of the mana of all elements and filled up the first star, the reason you began sensing the lightning mana was that your soul had a greater affinity with it when compared to the other elements.] the system gave a more detailed explanation.
'They what will you say about the space inheritance?'
[Because you have a greater affinity to two elements, doesn't mean you don't have at all with the others. Your body didn't reject the inheritance because of the little affinity you had, but it caused an imbalance in the system.
The little affinity you had was not able to use the power of the inheritance and for you to be able to use it, your body's affinity had to increase, breaking the balance of the system and you know, for every action, there is a reaction.]
'That explains why I felt so much pain... I have suffered a lot.' Blake sighed helplessly.
"Each of the professors, including myself will be handling an element. I will be handling the wind element, professor Anderson will be in charge of the earth element, professor Pamela for the water element, Professor Zirrack for the fire element, Kaarina for the light element, professor Vadik for the darkness element, professor Sachi for the plant element and finally professor Langston for the lightning element."
'Too bad for the fire class.' Blake sincerely pitied them, especially those from the normal class that didn't know of him nor the fact that the professor title was used to mask the demon he was.
When the students started gathering Blake noticed that the element with the highest number of students was the fire element, while the on with the least was the darkness element which had only one student and that was Damon.