Chapter 31: 32-Attributes and affinity

Over the next few days, Rowan focused on learning to channel his mana. After the first exchange with the Mother Tree, there was a change in the movement of his arms. With a concentrated effort, he could lift his arms and move them about.. 

It was a great improvement compared to before. 

His arms no longer just twitched at his command, they followed them. Not fully, but it was a start. The arms would follow a command briefly before falling helplessly back down. His fingers and hands still refused to obey him, but it was only a matter of time. Following the way mana flowed through Almar had helped Rowan greatly. He knew what he had to do and how to achieve his goal, now he only had to actually go through with it.

That was why Rowan threw all his attention on meditation in front of the buried Mother tree seed. 

Mana manipulation was not an easy technique for someone just starting off. Rowan was able to succeed in urging his mana to flow faster in his body, but he was still far from releasing it outwards.

Now that he spent most of the time outside, there a change in his routine. Time to time, the Almar would instruct him.

“People are born with different magic attributes. If there's a element, then there is a person with that attribute. The main elements humans follow are the ones after their gods. Fire, water, earth, wind, light and darkness. Attributes may be influenced and developed by their environments, personality, or other reasons. However there are magic attributes that are a combination or just different from the main elements. Nature magic is one of them as it is a combination of earth and water, but people who can use nature magic may not be able to use water or earth magic.  Elves generally lean towards nature magic because we largely lived in forests. Dwarfs tend to lean towards earth or fire elements due to their tendencies to hide underground and forges. Humans are the most versatile since they can adapt to any environment.”

“How about me? How can a person learn about their own attributes?” Rowan asked curiously.

“There’s no need to do anything to find out. If a person has a specific attribute, they tend to do well in any area related to it due to their natural affinity for the element. For example, if a magician has the fire attribute, then they will be able to learn fire spells very easily. Likewise, the same person may have a harder time learning water magic since it's a conflicting attribute. Another thing is that a person is not constrained to one attribute. There are people out there who are skilled in multiple elements. Those are the prodigies and monsters. Pray you never meet one as an opponent.”

“So you’re saying that if someone is good at multiple elements, they have those natural affinities?”

“Yes and no. They could be naturally attuned to those elements, but that does not mean they do have the attribute. Mages for example, know multiple spells, but that does not mean they have a naturally affinity to each element they used. Those who have natural affinities can take the power of those elements to the extreme. Those kinds of people can use their element to destroy cities if they choose to do so. Humans are one of the races that tend to have more than one attribute.”

“Then that means there's a chance I can have more than one attribute right?” Rowan asked hopefully.

“Yes, but there’s also a chance when you don't have any element affinity which also isn't uncommon for humans” Almar said, bursting Rowan’s bubble. “Nonetheless I have a suspicion that you have at least one element that you are inclined to.”

“What is it?” Rowan asked, eyes wide.How come he didn’t know what his elemental attribute was?

“You said your blessing is related to plants, so you should have an elemental affinity for nature. There's also the fact that your arms are currently made from Mother Tree should show a correlation with your affinity. If you didn’t have a nature attribute before, I’m sure you do now. There is really only one way to find out what your attribute is and that is to learn spells and techniques that have to do with your natural affinity.”

Rowan groaned. That seemed so far away. He only just began to learn how to manipulate his mana.

Besides occasional lessons, Almar would also leave the encampment. The first time Rowan saw it done, the boy was amazed. Almar had simply walked up to the barrier and it opened up for the elf. Once Almar had passed through, the wall of thorns and vines closed up as if nothing had ever happened. 

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When he asked Almar, the elf replied that it was still too early for the boy to learn how to leave the camp.

Almar would always return with something in hand. The first time was a dead deer he hunted. It was a large specimen and he quickly noticed that something was off about it when the elf bought it in. 

 What stood out was the dead deer had sharp teeth that bore resemblance to the likes of a carnivore. 

If killer deer roam the inner depths of the Forest, then whatever else lurks outside the barrier must be more terrifying.

The second time Almar bought back the trunk of a tree. The trunk was several feet long while the top seemed to have burned off. 

The next thing Rowan learned was how to take apart the deer and use the materials to make arrows.

While Rowan couldn’t use a bow in his current state, Almar only demonstrated  Rowan how to shoot one. The elf had said “I don't know what weapon you used before, but forget it. There is only one weapon that I am proficient in and able to teach you. That is the bow and arrow. We have no forge here for your metal weapons, but the forest provides for our weapons.”

It cut deep into Rowan when Almar said those words. The elf words meant giving up all his effort in learning the sword. Unfortunately he knew the elf was right as Rowan’s current state made him unable to even hold a weapon. Even if his arms were usable, he didn’t think he could grasp a sword like he used to. His arm no longer had the muscles nor the grip that human hands could perform.

Speaking of arms, Rowan had made a new discovery. Almar had talked about elemental affinity and how Rowan’s blessing could work together to achieve possibly some miraculous results. Rowan would have liked to test it on something different, but there was nothing else that could be considered a plant. He assumed that his blessings would only work on plants due to its name. 

There were no other good options to experiment on besides his own arms. The dragon fire had razed the village to the ground, leaving nothing alive. The Mother Seed was a plant, but he was sure Almar would kill him if something went wrong. Not that he wanted to mess with the seed after the first terrifying experience. The second was the barrier. Seeing the wall of vines and thorns, the boy decided not to mess with the only protection against the outside of the camp. That left only his wooden arms.

After the exchange, Rowan had felt something else in the wood of his arms besides mana. It pulsed with life and something that resembled thought. Curiously Rowan felt a connection and he decided to give it a push.

The boy felt his mana being drained instantly. What came next in exchange far surpassed what he thought was possible. 

His right elongated, growing long enough to touch his feet while he was standing tall. Not only did it almost double in length, the outer layer toughened like the bark of a tree. A few leaves even sprouted on the bark. His hand also changed with the fingers growing longer and sharper. 

HIs transformed arm gave him a fright at first, but it looked handy in a fight.  However after a few minutes of trying to move it, a new question emerged in his mind.

How do you turn the arm back to normal?

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