Kyle tried again, and he became angry at the stone again.
Yet, his Ether still remained white.
“The first times are always like this,” Mandrake said. “Just keep trying. Maybe it helps if you think about some of your past battles. I presume you killed stuff before?”
“Yes,” Kyle answered.
“Just think about the hardest fight you had and how you felt during that fight. Affinities are related to your mind,” Mandrake said.
Kyle nodded and thought about his battles.
He decided to use the battle against the Sparkly Bear.
This battle had been exhilarating.
He loved smashing the Sparkly Bear’s face in.
Spinning around with his hammer was great.
The sheer power!
There was so much power in his swings, and anything he hit cracked under his power.
He imagined himself swinging at the Sparkly Bear, watching its bones break and its body deforming.
“Ehm, friend?”
Kyle heard Mandrake’s confused voice and opened his eyes to look at him.
“Yeah?” Kyle asked.
Mandrake just pointed at Kyle’s stone.
Kyle looked down and blinked in surprise.
His stone shone with an orange and red light.
“Congratulations, I guess?” Mandrake said in confusion. “You transformed your Ether into Elemental Ether for the first time. It’s just that…”
“That’s Fire Ether.”
The shock of seeing Fire Ether reset Kyle’s mind, and the light around the stone turned white again.
“Can you do that again?” Mandrake asked.
Kyle looked at his stone and remembered how he had felt just now.
A couple of seconds later, he saw the white light turning red.
Mandrake scratched the side of his head in confusion. “You said you have a Metal Affinity, right?”
“Pretty sure I have a Metal Affinity, yes,” Kyle said.
“Oh boy,” Mandrake said. “I heard about such cases.”
“What cases?” Kyle asked.
“You remember how I said that Affinities are related to your personality, mind, and emotions?”
Kyle nodded.
“Well, that’s one aspect, but another aspect is the body. As you grow up, your personality shapes the Ether pathways in your body. Someone who was born with a Fire Affinity will almost always have a body that can easily produce Fire Ether.”
“But sometimes, there are cases where the body doesn’t align with the mind. This means your mind and your body have different Affinities.”
“That happens when you have a certain personality fitting to an Affinity but try to suppress it. Someone with a Fire Affinity is prone to anger and violence, but that can be a very bad trait in a village. People generally don’t like it when someone constantly shouts at them or easily becomes violent.”
“The person might share that viewpoint and try to suppress their anger and become calmer. Over the years, their pathways change, and they have a Split-Affinity.”
“Their mind has one Affinity, but their body has another.”
Kyle looked at the fiery stone.
He knew exactly where this had come from.
‘It’s this fucking ritual Theodor put me through,’ he thought. ‘He said the ritual would grant me a Metal Affinity. The ritual changed my body.’
‘But do I actually have a mind fitting for Metal Affinity?’
Kyle thought back to his life on Earth.
Mandrake said that metal was decisive.
Kyle remembered how he often changed his mind on things and how he let himself be suppressed by the world.
‘That does not sound decisive,’ he thought.
‘Most of the time, I just didn’t give a shit.’
The Ether on Kyle’s stone turned white again.
‘I mean, who the fuck cares? Yes, stuff sucks, but if you keep thinking about all the bad stuff, you will just be a miserable pile of shit. Just deal with it.’
‘What’s the point of anything if you feel like shit doing it?’
“What in the King’s name,” Kyle heard Mandrake say.
“Huh?” Kyle asked, looking at Mandrake.
Mandrake just wordlessly pointed at Kyle’s stone.
Which was now shining green.
“Congratulations again, I guess,” Mandrake said. “You just made Wind Ether.”
Kyle looked at his stone with surprise and annoyance.
The Wind Ether vanished.
“Seriously?” he asked. “Now, it’s wind?”
Mandrake laughed loudly. “Sorry for laughing, but this is too funny.”
“You have a Metal Affinity, which means Metal Ether should be the easiest for you to summon.”
“But instead, you summon Wind and Fire Ether first.”
“It’s like your mind and your body are complete opposites.”
“Fire is hot and destructive. It is uncontrolled destruction, while metal is controlled destruction.”
“Wind is free and uncaring. Meanwhile, metal adheres to rules and makes decisive actions.”
“Wind and Fire can be described with many words, but decisive is not one of them.”
Mandrake laughed some more while Kyle just looked at the stone in his hand with annoyance.
‘Yeah, metal is not for me,’ he thought. ‘When I swing my hammer, I just want to break and destroy stuff, but most of the time, I just don’t give a shit about most things.’
‘Fire and wind seem to fit me much better.’
“Are there dual Affinities?” Kyle asked.
“Yep,” Mandrake answered. “Around 5% of people have dual Affinities. Their individual Affinities are not as good as someone with only one Affinity, but they can comfortably learn techniques from both Affinities. Having dual Affinities is not better or worse than only having one.”
“It’s just a different way you have to train and grow.”
Then, Mandrake broke out into laughter again.
“But having dual Affinities and your body not fitting either of them is certainly unique. My guy, how have you lived your entire life so that your body developed like this?”
Kyle sighed in annoyance as he remembered Earth.
“Plenty of rules. Not allowed to do shit. Lots of dumb decisions,” he said.
“That sounds like a horrible life,” Mandrake said with a chuckle. “You probably felt suppressed and felt like you couldn’t be who you wanted to be, right?”
Kyle remembered what Magic Lady had told him.
She said that Kyle should follow his heart more.
When had Kyle followed his heart on Earth?
Rarely.
He did what was considered to be the right thing to do.
But that was not what he actually wanted to do.
“Yeah, more or less,” Kyle answered.