Chapter 155 Specialization
Ellie shyly raised her hand, her eyes flitting as she received the sudden attention of the rest of the class.
"Yes?" Iannaril smiled at her encouragingly.
"I, I've heard of the five Arcana, but I'm an o..." The blonde woman's voice became more and more inaudible as she justified herself, until only a select few with keen hearing like Ikaris and the other Werewolves and Vamps could hear her.
"So if I summarize, you say that you are an Otherworlder who arrived in this world only recently and that you only received your textbooks yesterday. You haven't had time to read them and therefore don't know much about these 5 Arcana, is that right?" The teacher calmly recapped in a clear voice audible to the entire class.
A few snickers rang out from the back of the classroom, leaving Ellie mortified with embarrassment, but Iannaril dispelled her awkwardness with a few words,
"You don't have to be ashamed. Some people don't dare say it, but you're not the only student in this room who doesn't know what such a choice entails."
As if to confirm her words, someone knocked on the classroom door and 5 panicked individuals burst into the room: 4 black people with very different body types and a conspicuous goblin with blue-purple skin.
They were none other than their 5 roomates. They had finally realized that Miss Kiwi had given them the wrong schedule. Their only consolation was that they were wearing their uniforms.
"Hmm, Miss Kiwi's remaining victims I presume?" Iannaril smiled as he pointed to the vacant chairs. "Sit down."
The five latecomers also sat in the front row to Taguchi's left and the Japanese man who had been taking notes gave them a quick recap of what had been said. The teacher waited patiently until they were up to date, much to the chagrin of the other students.
The goblin's increasingly mystified expression proved the Sacred Magus' point. There was at least one other person who knew nothing about the 5 Arcana.
Looking quietly over his shoulder, Ikaris noticed that a few other students looked very focused, their eyes hanging on the teacher's lips. The brunette sitting just to his right was also very attentive.
'Most have heard of it, but that doesn't mean they know much about it. The insight of a Sacred Magus on basic concepts can challenge all their past understandings.' Ikaris suddenly realized. 'Like just now with the origin of Elemental Mana.'
When he was positive everyone was up to speed, Iannaril cleared his throat and embarked on a new lecture,
"When a Sorcerer uses magic, there is always an intention behind it as well as, but not always, an emotional charge. A fire can be created for heat, for cooking, for lighting, for decoration, for cauterizing a wound, or for killing. As you can see, the intentions and emotions attached to these different purposes can differ greatly. If it is to kill or hurt, there is a good chance that one will feel anger, or at least some form of negative emotion. It may be fear, jealousy or just a little bit of enmity, but there is a will to destroy, even if subconscious. Sometimes it can hide a more noble intention, like when you want to protect someone.
"The Principle of Optimization tells us that our Sparks develop to make the use of future spells easier and more intuitive. From level 2 on, passive and therefore permanent effects appear. Regularly using spells motivated by anger eventually makes our personality permanently more hotheaded. At level 3, you awaken some related elemental affinity.
"Your Divine Spark will reflect this tendency by accentuating these effects when it awakens its Specialization, usually at level 3, but it can happen before or much later depending on your Sorcerer profile. This Specialization is both a blessing and a sentence. Once you have received your Specialization, it is very difficult to change it for a number of reasons that we won't get into today.
"A Wizard relying on his anger, using offensive spells regularly will awaken the Arcana of Destruction as his Specialization in the vast majority of cases. It won't look like that black aura I just showed you at first, but the effect will be felt immediately. All your offensive spells will be more destructive and less tiring. The catch is that it will make all the spells in the other categories less effective and more difficult to cast, sometimes with unwanted side effects. Typically, a healing spell might heal a patient, but reduce the life expectancy of the person being healed in return. Over time, you will learn to control your Arcanum to avoid these unfortunate consequences, but for years your Arcanum will determine what kind of magic you are able to perform. In order not to waste your potential, you will then have no choice but to continue on this path, which inevitably leads to hyperspecialization.
"Thus, based on these 5 Specializations of your Divine Spark, the 5 main archetypes of Sorcerers were born and the Confederation even based its entire hierarchical structure on these 5 Arcana, which became the norm throughout the Forsaken Lands millions of years earlier."
The scions of the six Ruling Houses and their retinue showed no surprise. This speech was consistent with what they had been taught. Their interest waned just as soon, and some of them even began to chat with each other in low voices.
Ellie was about to raise her hand, but the goblin beat her to it, saving her another awkward moment.
"Can we have multiple Specializations?" He asked openly. "When I fight, I need offensive spells, so the Arcanum of Destruction sounds good, but I also train my body and mind. I want to be a complete Sorcerer, not just a grunt good at trashing enemies."
Urali, the woman he had injured the day before, muttered under her breath, "That's the most sensible thing I've heard him say since his arrival."
"Hiss!!! I can hear you!" Edward snarled as he glared at her.
Iannaril sighed, then waved his hand casually. The goblin and the woman from Dul were immediately silenced as if the sound of their voices had been muted.
"You will settle your accounts after my class." The professor scolded them in a kindly tone without disabling the muting spell. "To answer your query, Edward, I exaggerated a bit earlier. Although there is such a thing, no one is 100% specialized in one Arcanum. People are complex. When you awaken your Specialization, you could be 80% Destruction, 10% Creation, 5% Body, 4% Psychism and 1% Knowledge for example. As you can see with the 5 auras I showed you, my Specialization is pretty balanced with a slight predisposition for Creation and Knowledge. In other words, combat is not my specialty, although I'm doing okay."
The teacher let out a small laugh and the students laughed sonorously with him. Who was he kidding? Maybe it was true compared to other Sacred Magi, but faced with students like these the old Fae could probably face a legion of them and still finish on time without running out of breath for his lunch break.
Elena suddenly raised her hand, her face livid with anguish over some dreadful realization.
"Yes?"
"If, if the Specialization reflects how I practice magic before my Divine Spark reaches level three, does that mean... it's too late for me?"
Ikaris could feel the desperation in the tremor of her voice. He didn't know what she was hoping for by coming here to study, but something about Iannaril's lesson had ruined her hopes.
The professor stared at her for a long time, stroking his beardless chin, then uttered, "I've read your file. Given your appearance and physical condition, I'm guessing your parents didn't intend for you to have a tough life. You just had to stay young and beautiful. It may sound laughable, but any magic can be categorized in one of the five Arcana. In your case, a harmonious mix of Creation and Body, with maybe a touch of Psychism and Knowledge if you've worked on your charm and a certain skill set. The only Specialization you're not currently predisposed to is Destruction, but it's not too late to remedy that if what you want is a more balanced Sorcerer profile."
Elena's face immediately brightened and she slumped in her seat with a greatly relieved expression. She had been so afraid that her past might have ruined her future!
When Iannaril thought he could move on to the next step, Ikaris suddenly raised his hand.
"I have a question. According to what you said, this Specialization is like a pie that is divided into 5 parts corresponding to the 5 Arcana. If I'm 80% Destruction and 20% Psychic, should I assume that my Psychic spells are 20% stronger than my pre-specialization magic or that they are 5 times weaker than my Destruction magic? You said we wouldn't be able to decouple the auras from our Arcana for a long time."
Iannaril beamed, "Very good question. Although Specialization doesn't have such strong effects at first, both of your statements are true. At my level, a balanced Sacred Magus like me doesn't stand a chance against a Destruction Sacred Magus in a direct clash. Whatever offensive spell I can think of, its identical retaliation would be dozens of times more devastating while exhausting it ten times less."