I will strive beyond this cursed bloodline!

She finally was back in the classroom.

Most had stopped their [Shift] while walking back to class, she hadn't since her blue screen sounded ominous about that.

So she wanted to have more mana before stopping it for sure. At least Rossie was back to a more normal-ish state now.

And she also didn't stop her [Shift] either, well, those that had good [Security Nodes] hadn't stopped their [Shift] either...

Including the blue-haired smartass.

"So what did we learn today?" Asked the teacher when they were all again in their seats, no one made a mention about how some students were missing and some people in the middle of their [Shift] were in those spots.

It was a fun thing to see how the magic made them not connect the dots. And how some [Security Nodes] were stronger than others.

She could feel some fog trying to worm her way into her mind, but it was dispelled by a single [Identify] to the person in question. That skill was broken.

"That some have an easier time casting magic than others?" Came the voice of a purple-haired girl that had spent copious amounts of time trying to cast a [Earth Spike] to no avail in the class.

"That there are monsters among us." Said the girl next to her, a variation of a red-haired girl with some pink strokes in her.

"The importance of having the right information in battle." Said the blue-haired smartass, still in his [Sage] persona.

"That some people don't know the meaning of the correct amount of firepower." Said Rossie to her left.

Bringing almost all the eyes in the room to bear on her.

Ugh... Now she needed to add something, didn't she?

"That is important to know about our limits?" Was all she could think.

She knew the true lesson the teacher wanted to bring. But she couldn't be the one to say it.

"All important lessons, but not the one I wanted to make. "Said the teacher while writing on the whiteboard something.

"Magic. The thing that makes us [Spellcasters], or how many of you will call yourselves [Magic girls], [Magical Guardians], [Mages], [Wizards], [Warlocks], [Priestss/Priestess], [Monks]... Or even [Sages] like one of your cohorts. " Said while writing all the possible denominations one could think of.

It was an impressively long list.

"How does it work?" Asked the teacher while for the first time in class pointing to someone in class for an answer.

"We build the knowledge in our [Soulscape], embed the spell in our conscience then in the real world access that spell, imbue the mana, materialize the effect. If we don't have a good enough knowledge of the spell we use catalysts, chants, or magic circles." Said the smart-ass, a good description of how spellcasting works in a nutshell overall.

"Correct. As expected of someone that uses the moniker of [Sage]." Said the teacher while smiling.

Then pointed to the blonde girl while still smiling.

"Why if you both cast the same [Spell] yours was weaker than his? He cast the same spell and invoked 12 [Earth Spikes] while you only managed to bring one." Said bringing salt into the wound.

Of course, this woman would bring this to light.

"Because his [Or...] I mean, his [Affinity] is closer to the spell casted." Said the blonde girl with a shrug.

Of course, she could say that the [Origin] of the smart-ass was closer to general spellcasting, of course, he would have an easier time using that type of spell.

"That!" Said the teacher while circling all the names of spellcasters and writing under them [Affinity].

"That is the reason why some of you had a harder time casting spell, if not failing altogether." And so several students suddenly understood why their spells failed.

"Usually, a new student like yourselves will fail to cast any spell that isn't close to your [Affinity]. Since you need a full understanding of the spell if your [Affinity] isn't close to that school of magic." And so she added to the whiteboard the word 'Knowledge'.

"Unless you are stupidly talented that you can brute force the spellcasting that is." And so she pointed shamelessly to the blonde girl. "Like [Elemental Weaver] here, we don't know her [Affinity] but since she needed supplemental spells to make her spells viable for combat... We can be sure it isn't of any of the elements she wielded in combat."

Then moved on to write [Power] and [Versatility].

"But make no mistakes, she still wields enough power to defeat most of you. Besides the [Sage] that is, since he is probably wielding the right spells for his [Affinity]. " And so she pointed again at the blonde girl.

"Now...How do we know the right spells for our [Affinity]." Asked the teacher again at her.

"We cast spells of every type till we find the ones we can cast more easily?" Said the blonde girl in a questioning tone.

She could see already where this was going.

"No!" Said the teacher. "Well not really, you could do that, and waste like a month in the worst-case scenario." And so she moved to write something again on the whiteboard.

"[Grimories] are one way to check. They react strongly to our [Affinities], the downside is that you will get stuck with the spells in them, on the bright side they tend to be quite useful. " Said the teacher while moving to the next thing on her syllabus.

"Another way to check is to ask a more experienced [Spellcaster] to check your [Soulscape]. Most [Archmage] class [Spellcaster]s can check the [Affinity] of your [Soulscape]." And so she wrote mentor on the whiteboard.

"The downside to this is that someone will have a grasp over your spellcasting career. So you better check with someone you trust beyond doubt. AKA don't regret the choice you make if you go this way. We advise you to either ask a trusted family member or a mentor. " And she also wrote [Beware] on the whiteboard.

"So if we don't have any of those we are screwd to go the long way?" Asked the [Sage] bringing something almost half the class was wondering about.

"Some [Magical Girls] selected by [The Twelve] will come in the weekend to check anyone that wants to test their [Affinity]. The school as a whole suggests that you don't go this way if possible. But it will save you some time." And so the teacher shrugged.

"If they were chosen by [The Twelve] shouldn't they be safe to check in with?" Asked Rossie. Probably half the class also wondered about this.

"[The Twelve] aren't heroes." Said in a bitter tone the teacher. "Even if the public perceives them as such. Their work is to keep the stability of the world at large. So if they deem your [Affinity] useful to that end... Well, they will use it as needed." Ended the teacher with a shrug.

Talk about bringing down the mood of a room.

Most of the students here admired [The Twelve] on some level after all. Even if some members had weird rumors going around them.

Or had some dubious past. [The Twelve] still were at the apex of power in the world.

"But we can still experiment and find our [Affinity] the slow way if we wish." Said the blonde girl with a smile on her face.

"Of course, the school only grades you for your ability to cast magic. No matter how complex or simple the method you use. So long you can cast it... It doesn't matter if you innovate the spellcasting school or not." Said the teacher.

And that was all that mattered to the blonde, if her plans were to be achieved then she would not use her [Origin] to cast magic. Not in school, and not yet.

She had bigger places to use her [Shadow Magic] after all and needed more private places to practice it.

"Now onto the [Affinities]." Said the teacher while cleaning the whiteboard and starting to write the normal elements of nature.

"There are grades to theses." And so she pointed to them one by one.

Affinities
Basic Elemental	Fire > Water > Wind > Earth > Wood > Metal >
Advanced Elemental	Spirit > Lighting > Ice > Sound >
Exotic	Healing Light Shadow Travel/Teleport Gravity Space Time

"Your [Affinities] will be mostly like this. Either Basic, advanced, or Exotics." Said while pointing one by one.

"Now these are the ones you will probably start with, but not all the possible ones." And so she went ahead and wrote bellow them something else.

'High Grade', 'Low Grade', 'Defective'.

"The probability of any of you having the first one is low but not impossible. Having the second would be bad but not the end of the world...Having the third...If you suspect you have it, search for a teacher. Don't sign a deal with a demon or god... But search for help." Said the teacher with finality.

You could almost feel some desperation in her tone.

"A [Defective] afinity.... Means either the gods hate you or that your [Soul] got tampered with. No one [Awakes] a [Defective Affinity]. You only get with one because you made a mistake or tried to force your [Affinity] to rise to a high grade without enough foundations or knowledge. " And so she moved as if nothing happened to the next theme on her syllabus.

"Now, why does it matter where is your [Affinity]?" Asked the teacher to the whole class.

Of course, she also answered her own question.

"If you have [Fire] Affinity, you will have an easier time casting a [Fire Bolt] but a harder time casting [Wind Bolt]. And you even might find it impossible to cast [Water Bolt]." Said the teacher showcasing the three types of [Bolts].

"So one way to find if you have an elemental [Affinity] is to try to cast the easiest type of elemental spells." And so she wrote the name of a spellbook with those spells.

"Now if you don't find any of them easier, we move to [Advanced]. There are more types of course. But these four are the most common... So if you have an advanced affinity... Good luck finding it." And so she wrote the name of another spellbook with common spells for the advanced type.

"Finally the [Exotics]... If you have one of these you might need more luck to find it. Usually, you have a calling for that type of magic." And so she pointed at Rossie. "Like [Sylphie Starheart] and her healing magic."

"Didn't you tell us to not share our [Affinities]?" Asked the blonde girl raising her hand.

"And here is the [Magic] of the thing...Just because we know she can use [Healing Magic] doesn't mean we know the particular [Taste] of her [Affinity]." And so she started writing more words on the whiteboard.

 

"Her particular [Affinity] could be any of these ones, could be even just [Healing]... Or if she was lucky it could even be a 'High Grade' [Affinity]. Which brings us to the thing we all aspire to." Said the [Witch] moving on to more important things.

"High-Grade Affinities." And so she wiped clean the whiteboard for a third time.

"They are...Special." And so she ended her phrase on that.

"How so?" Asked the blue-haired smartass.

"They are...More... We don't know exactly how they work or what triggers an [Affinity] to [Evolve] into them. Usually, the wielders of these are at the apex of power already. They have more knowledge about their type of magic or signed a contract with gods or demons." Said the teacher writing the names of the most popular or powerful [Spellcasters].

Of course, Mother was among those names.

"They are the type of person that can give the exact phrasing of the [Affinity] of someone. So if you want to know for sure your [Affinity] and have access to one of them...That is the easier way to do it." And at least the teacher didn't look at the blonde girl on that.

Finally some privacy!

But that brings some things into consideration...

"What we know is that these [Affinities] is that they have more complex phrasing." Said the teacher writing a few examples.

"These are the [Affinities] of some confirmed [Spellcasters]. Some of them declared them after either evolving their [Affinities] to something else or declared them on their will after death." She said and then let the students read them.

And that brought a few things to mind, was her [Identify] something that came from her [Origin] instead of her [Trigger]?

She could see the [Origins] of everyone after all.

What the teacher and everyone else referred to as [Affinity].

And she understood why they thought of it that way. After all... Wasn't an[Origin] something that brought them closer or gave them an[Affinity] for a school of magic?

"They as you can see, have interesting phrasing." Said the teacher while pointing to one.

"[Zephyr Skyweaver] was the [Affinity] of Magic Girl - [Storm Guardian]. She specialized in summoning wind sprites and mostly dealt with wind, water & lighting attuned magic." And so the teacher wrote those three normal affinities on the side of her high-grade one.

"As you can see, her high-grade affinity not only granted her three different schools of elemental magic. But also gave her summoning magic, an exotic one. And there were rumors that she was withholding some special aspect of her affinity." Smiled the teacher while writing that.

You could see how most of the students were already thinking of what their affinities could look like in the future. Even if almost no one could see what theirs was.

"Then we have [Lunar Shadowcaster] or how many of you would remember her as [Nyxandra, The Moon Empress]." Said the teacher while pointing to another one on the list.

"We know she had at least [Shadow], [Soul], [Death], [Mind], and [Moon] among the several schools of magic available to her. As a [Villain Witch] she didn't bring forth her [Affinity] nor the specifics. We know of that particular one because [The Twelve] got the information from her soul after her death. And only to make sure no one would follow her steps if they got access to an [Afinity] similar to her." Said the teacher while writing 'Dangerous one' beside it.

"We don't know if the [Affinity] taints the user, or the user is the reason the [Affinity] ends like that. Perhaps her [Affinity] didn't have anything to do with her, and she was talented enough to cast those types of spells." Said the teacher looking at the blonde girl.

Yeah...Isn't that a nice foreshadowing?

"Maybe she was like [Elemental Weaver] and just had enough talent to cast stuff outside her [Affinity] and just built the power for those other spells?" Asked the teacher to no one in particular.

"And maybe she wasn't strong enough to prevent being corrupted by her own magic ★," Said the blonde bringing forth the thing she probably wanted to say.

"Exactly. We don't know how our [Affinities] affect us. Some of those with fire-aligned affinities ended with rage problems. The healers ended up being more noble and peaceful even if they were warmongers before... We just don't know. " Said the teacher on while wiping clear the whiteboard again.

"But that's the thing, we don't really know how the magic on a deeper level works. Since the magic doesn't answer to us. So beware in your magic dealings... Class dismissed, you will have some free time again to study and find your affinities or what is easier to cast. I advise you to stick to spells closers to your affinity." Said the woman before ending the class.

Finally!

Now she could see what other stuff her skill wanted to inform her.

Since she had a few blue screens waiting for her.

She didn't want to look too deeply before her mana was positive, and it just got into the positive numbers again!

Maybe she got an extra level or something?

This worked by milestones, right?

That fight had to be a milestone!

It had to be...