“I’m an elf, specifically a half-elf,” Said Serena.

“Pffffft” John started laughing.

“Wha-! What’s so funny!?” Asked Serena with an embarrassed expression.

Ariel didn’t look surprised but had a smile on her face as if she already knew.

“I’m sorry, it’s just you actually thought we didn’t know,” John said.

“You knew!?! All this time, I’ve been wondering when I should tell you guys, and those whole time you both knew!?! Ariel, why didn’t you tell me about this?!” She said as she looked at Ariel.

“I didn’t know John knew, he never talked about it, and I never said anything because I thought there was a reason why you didn’t tell anyone.” Said Ariel.

“I was thinking the same. What’s so bad about being an elf?” John asked.

“There’s nothing bad about it. It’s just I thought you’d treat me differently if you knew…” Muttered Serena.

“Hm? Why? I’ll still treat you like a precious comrade regardless of your background.” John said.

“I-It’s because elves aren’t fully human… We’re part fairy…” She said.

“What’s so bad about that?” John asked as he got tired of laughing.

“Well, there’s nothing bad about being an elf. But half-elves are… Treated badly in the tribe… Even mum and dad were…” Serena said as tears began to flow down her face.

‘So she’s just like Ariel and me.’ John realised.

“I’m sorry for laughing at it, I didn’t realise it was something that serious,” He said with a saddened expression.

“It’s fine… Thanks to their treatment, I ran away from the tribe and met Master.” she said.

“He must’ve been a nice guy…” John said.

“Yeah… But, I thought that you guys might come to hate me if you found out I was a half-elf.” She said.

“Why? Just because your tribe treated you badly, doesn’t mean me or Ariel will do the same. No rather, if anyone treats you badly from now on, tell us. We’ll beat them up for you.” John said with a smile.

“Yeah, you can count on us.” Said, Ariel.

“Hmm… Aren’t you always treating me badly?” She asked.

“T-This and that is different!” John said while flustered.

“Is it, though? I felt really hurt .” She said with a smile.

“Argh… You’re so annoying!” He said.

“You say that as if you’re the only one who feels annoyed!” She said.

Seeing as they argued, Ariel let out a giggle.

“What’s so funny?” John asked.

“It’s just, you guys look like really close friends.” She said.

“Huh!? How are we close!?” me and Serena asked simultaneously.

“See?” Said Ariel as she chuckled.

John let out a sigh before saying “Truce?”

“Truce.” Replied Serena.

“I was right,” muttered Ariel with a smile on her face.

“Hey, John…” Said, Serena.

“What?” John asked.

“Thank you.” She said with a bright smile.

Without saying anything, John quietly stared at her smile before averting his eyes in haste. He seemed embarrassed for some reason.

——————————————————-

“We’ll begin the training of fire magic, you two, pay attention,” John said.

“Yes!” They replied.

“First of all, we need to understand the concept behind fire. Serena, what do you know about fire?” John asked.

“Fire… Fire is a force that burns you?” Serena replied.

“Close Enough, Ariel?” He asked.

“Fire is the burning of a material?” Ariel Replied.

“Good, Fire is the process of the rapid oxidation of material. Oxidation is when something is combined chemically with oxygen. Oxygen is one of the gasses which can be found within the atmosphere, the atmosphere is-” 

Before John could finish, he was interrupted by Serena saying “S-Stop!”

“What’s wrong?” John asked.

“Don’t ‘What’s wrong’ me! I have no idea what you’re talking about! Can’t you explain things slower?” She asked.

“You’re right… Sorry, Uhm… Think of it like this. Fire is indeed the burning of a material. What do you think happens when a material is burning? It is gaining a gas called oxygen and releasing another gas called carbon dioxide.” John said.

“Oxygen… Carbon dioxide? Gas?” Serena asked.

“That’s right. I haven’t explained what gas is.” John said.

He then explained to Serena what gas was using the same method he taught Ariel. The states of matter, what happens when a liquid evaporates.

“I sort of understand…” She said.

“Good… You don’t need to know all of this, but it’s necessary to grasp an understanding. What we need is to do is to be able to create a flame. In other words, the gaseous part of the fire.” John said.

“The flame…” Ariel repeated.

“That’s right, the flame. To create the flame, imagine. Imagine different gases which you can’t see, being gathered above your hand. Think of the gases called oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide and think of water vapour being formed in that area.” He said.

The two stretched out their arms and began to concentrate.

“Think of small particles, with the initials O, N, CO and water vapour being gathered above your hand. Remember the initials.” John said.

Honestly, John didn’t know if knowing the initials will help much, but it was worth a try.

As John thought that, he could feel the gasses gathering in front of Ariel’s stretched out hand. She was probably able to get it right this fast since she already uses concept wind magic.

Shortly After that, A small amount of gasses half the size of Ariel’s was being gathered on the end of Serena’s hand..

“Good! You two are doing it! Now imagine, the gas igniting! Imagine a spark, a flame being formed.” John said with an excited expression.

Without saying anything, the two quietly began to imagine a fire being formed. For the first 30 seconds, nothing happened, Even Ariel, who could use wind magic, was having trouble. The amount of magic both Serena and Ariel Had was being spent while trying to form the flame.

Serena wasn’t allowed to use her wand since it would make it harder for her to learn, so she had less mana than usual, but her magic power was still considerably high so she holding up fine.

With their eyes closed, they continued to concentrate. After another 30 seconds, a flame was formed at the end of Ariel’s hand, It was red and orange, not blue like John’s, but that was probably due to her lack of imagery.

John was filled with an unexpected feeling of excitement and joy when she created it, but he didn’t say anything as to not disturb Serena’s concentration.

After another minute, Serena’s flame was formed. It was half the size of Ariel’s but it was a flame.

“Alright! You two can open your eyes now.” John said as he clapped his hands.

“D-Did it works?!” They simultaneously asked.

“Check for yourselves,” John said as he pointed at the fire they had created.

Their eyes lit up as they stared at the deep red fire that stood at the end of their hands.

“W-We did it!” they shouted out.

“Yeah, you did well. Now you two will practice controlling that fire for as long as you can for the rest of the day.” John spoke.

“That’s all?” They asked.

“Yeah, that’s all. The real training starts tomorrow.” John said as he left them together inside of the ‘quiesces’ field to practice their magic.

“Now… What sort of spell should I make… At this rate, they’re going to beat me… I don’t know why, but I feel that it’ll be dangerous if I do…” he muttered.

‘A spell I need… I have defence and offence… That’s right! I’m missing on a mobility spell.’ John realised.

“But how… Ice skating? Hmm, too much magic power required… That’s right! I can use Wind as a catapult!” John said out loud.

After reaching that conclusion he stretched back his hands and applied created a wind pressure under his hands which would shoot out and boost him forward.

After it was ready, John propelled the wind towards him and pushed him 5 meters forward.

“I-I It worked!!!” He shouted out in excitement.

The reason why it didn’t push him too far, was because his legs were on the ground.

‘So if I apply more pressure and do it while jumping…’ John pondered.

He jumped as high as he could and reached 3 meters in the air. Before he fell back down, John imagined the wind pressure being built up on his legs and made it propel him forward.

This time, John was sent around 20 meters forward at high speeds.

“YES! Now I won’t get hit mid-air anymore!” John shouted out.

John could notice Serena Staring at him with a slight bit of envy and amazement in her eyes but he ignored it.

“Alright, I have a boost spell… Now I need a spell which can increase my speed… I’ve been thinking of how I’ll be able to but I can’t think of any ideas… How about teleportation? Even harder…” John muttered to himself.

‘What is the theory behind teleportation again? I read it once… I think it was… where teleportation is a process in which quantum information can be transmitted from one location to another.’ John pondered.

‘Can I do that with magic? Probably. Do I know how to? Nope. I doubt there are any teleportation spells too… Damn it.’ He thought.

John guessed that the only thing he could do now is practice his control over the 3 elements. 

‘Alright, for the rest of the day, I’ll practice simultaneously casting all 3 at once. After that, maybe I’ll do some body strengthening training.’ John decided.

‘Wait, aren’t I forgetting something? That’s right! Flying! I never tried, but I wonder if I would be able to… It would draw too much attention though… Hmm… Screw it’ John thought.

“For flying… I would need to remove the gravity and find a way to propel myself… Not to mention without gravity I’d be able to propel myself much faster.” He muttered.

‘That’s it! I think I know how to fly! Gravity is a force of attraction that exists between any two masses. The human mass is pulled to the earth’s core, this is why humans are affected by gravity and aren’t flying around…’ John thought.

So that meant theoretically, John should be able to fly with magic, as long as he created a field around him where gravity won’t affect him. 

‘No, I don’t need to create a field, It would be easier if I just made myself an object which is free from the force of gravity…’ John pondered.

He had read these before in Sci-Fi novels, however, none of them had to do with magic. It was mainly other methods, such as mechanical fields and stuff. John wondered if it would work with magic. No, this was all just a theory, but John was able to create a field where there weren’t any sound waves.

“Enough thinking, let’s try it,” John said.

‘Imagine… Imagine cloaking myself in an anti-gravity magic cloak which makes me free of the force of gravity… Imagine separating myself from the invisible force which pulls me to the earth… Imagine…’ John thought.

As he continued to imagine, he could feel a heavy, constant amount of mana being sucked out of him.

“Nothing is hap-“

Before John could finish, he noticed that his body was levitating off the ground.

“Eh?” John said as he began to float around higher and higher into the sky.

John looked over at Serena and Ariel and they didn’t notice since they were focused on controlling Ignis.

He used the mobility wind spell he recently learnt to boost himself up higher into the sky.

“Haha… I’m flying… Haha! I’m flying!!!” John said as he got closer and closer to the clouds.

The higher John got, the more the louder his heartbeat got and the more excited he got.

The scenery was amazing. John was able to see the whole kingdom after boosting himself up. The scenery was breathtaking, The blue sky, the silky clouds, the smooth and relaxing feeling. 

‘I wonder what Ariel and Serena would think about this?’ He thought.

From an outsider’s perspective, it looked like a kid was being pulled into the sky, but most likely no one saw him.

“I’ll name this spell Levite and the movement spell Velox,” John said as he continued to ascend.

Since he had used Velox, he had been slowly but constantly ascending.

“For the rest of the day, I’ll focus on getting a hang of this. Thank god I loved physics, I’ll be sure to practice this for the rest of the day, but I better get back down, before they get worried.” John said as he began using Velox to descend.

Before reaching the ground he activated furtim so that they wouldn’t notice, and after arriving he deactivated it. Ariel and Serena were still concentrated on their flames.

“What the hell! I had no idea flying would feel so amazing… My heart is still beating super fast thanks to the excitement… Somehow, flying barely took any mana at all, it took as much as Body reinforcement or furtim. I’m guessing because it’s a cloak-type spell? I don’t know.” He inwardly muttered.

Either way, that felt amazing to John and he couldn’t wait to show it to Ariel and Serena in their match.

—————————————————

And so, their training began.