The next day, several of Damion's classmates were excitedly explaining their affinities and magical talent to the rest of the class. James Gewing, a redheaded boy, had learned he had a Fire affinity, while Luke Darnold, a short blonde boy, was revealed to have a Wind affinity. Both boys had B Grade talent which led to the two of them arguing over which affinity was stronger.
Of course, everyone except Damion already saw their test the day before so the rest of the class had already had quite enough of their posturing. Luckily, everyone was still focused on the two boys that had confirmed magic powers and not on Damion or how he had not been tested.
Once attendance was done, Damion headed to the library to meet Ms. Teft, who led Damion to an empty classroom. Ms. Teft explained that the library was not a place to be taking lessons and that it was best to have their lessons away from prying eyes.
"Now this," Ms. Teft began as she took out a wooden plate from seemingly nowhere, "is a training plate."
After a brief double take, Damion realized she was wearing a spatial storage artifact. Damion had read about them, but he had never actually seen one, or at least not knowingly seen one. To his knowledge they were supposed to be extremely expensive, with only top mages being able to afford them.
"What you do, is channel your magic into it and it will make the surface light up," Ms. Teft continued. "Your first goal is to make it light up. From there we will start working on control."
Ms. Teft then set the wood plate in front of Damion and looked at him expectingly. Damion of course had no idea how to channel his magic, so he just looked at Ms. Teft waiting for further instructions.
"Ah, right. You've never used or probably even felt magic. First, place one hand on the plate. In the future you will be expected to affect the plate without touching, but we'll start slow."
Damion did as she instructed, but did not feel anything. He briefly considered if he should activate his Mana Absorption spell, but he decided against it. The goal was to push magic into the plate, not take it away. Plus, he had no idea if Ms. Teft would be able to tell if he was using the spell or not.
"Now, feel your magic core inside you. And from there push the magic out of your core and into the plate."
This instruction proved a bit easier for Damion to understand. Having used Mana Absorption, he knew roughly where his magic core was as that was where the mana ended up after he pulled it into his body. Focusing on that area, Damion mentally pushed his magic through his arm and onto the plate.
Almost instantly, Damion was rewarded for his effort by seeing a growing blue glow on the plate expanding outward from where his hand held it.
"Marvelous!" Ms. Teft clapped happily. "I haven't seen someone able to learn channeling that quickly in years."
Ms. Teft's praise was enough to break Damion's concentration, and the plate quickly returned to its normal dull brown color.
"Alright, we will continue this channeling exercise every morning until you can write out your name on the plate using your mana. After lunch every day we will work on your physical training. Once you are up to snuff, I'll start training you with a magic weapon. The strength of Knights has always been the ability to channel magic into enchanted artifacts."
"And what will we do after that?" Damion asked.
"If I think you are ready, then maybe I'll take you out of the city and let you fight a Ferocious Beast."
"Why not a Demonic Beast?" Damion quickly asked.
"Demonic Beasts are magic creatures, and it is unlikely to find one in a Green Zone. Besides, Demonic Beasts are going to be too strong for you to fight to start with. You'd need to be able to handle a Ferocious Beast first if you want to fight a Demonic Beast, they are usually several times stronger than a Ferocious Beast of the same Rank."
Damion was startled by that assessment of a Demonic Beast's strength. He had read quite a few stories about them and thought they were merely tougher Ferocious Beasts, but clearly that was not the case if Ms. Teft's assessment was to be taken to heart.
This quickly became their routine. Magic control practice in the morning, with physical training in the afternoon. Time seemed to pass by quite quickly for Damion now that he was able to pursue a magical education.
There were times that things slowed down, like when James and Luke began to try and tease Damion for not having a magic affinity. Damion was able to shut them up by controlling his magic to become a glowing ball of energy in his hand. This of course was not a spell and would not harm anyone, but it had the effect of getting the two boys to think twice before they thought they were better than everyone else because of their magic.
As the weeks and months went by, they quickly turned to years. Damion continued to excel in his academic studies, which Ms. Teft had completely taken over after he finished his first year of schooling. Before either of them had realized, Damion had gone from being a young boy to being ready to graduate. Since Damion had started school early, he was graduating early as well, shortly after his fifteenth birthday, his final year in school ended.
The students that tests had shown had a magic affinity had been transferred to the various magic academies the year they were turning fifteen. Aside from the students tested in the years after Damion's first year, all the others had all headed off to one of the magic academies.
Over the years, Ms. Teft had provided an array of Tier 1 magic seals for Damion to study to see if they could uncover his magic affinity. To Ms. Teft's surprise, none of the magic seals resonated with Damion. After Damion had turned fourteen, Ms. Teft was prepared to get a testing crystal so she could test Damion's affinity in his preparation to go to a magic school the next year, but Damion stopped her. He decided it was better to let her know it would be pointless.
"There is some kind of seal on my magic core, that is why I can't learn any of the magic seals and why the testing crystals fails even though I have a magic core." Damion had explained.
"How do you know this?" Ms. Teft questioned skeptically.
"It's hard to explain, but I know I'm right. And I know when I turn eighteen, the seal will be lifted and we will be able to test my affinity and talent."
"Does this have anything to do with how you were able to accumulate mana just after birth and how your mana pathways that should have been crippled slowly healed?"
This was not the first time Ms. Teft had probed Damion for information on this subject. Usually, he played it off as, he was an infant, how could he possibly remember. This time he decided to give a little more.
"Yes. There was a voice I heard and still hear from time to time that tells me the seal will lift when I turn eighteen."
Everything Damion said was true. The system did sometimes speak to him and the Magic System would lift its seal on his magic when Damion turned eighteen. Damion knew Ms. Teft could tell when he was lying and when he was truthful and even though it sounded crazy, he was telling her the truth this time.
"In that case, we will just have to prepare you even more and your debut will have to be even more glorious. You've already mastered mana control. We'll work on mastering the sword this year and get you an adventurer license. This way after you graduate you can start making a name for yourself. Then once you turn eighteen, we can reveal your magic and make Dean Thorn regret his rashness."