Free Web NovelChapter 25: Plant Magic
Cedric crouched in front of Adrian and studied him for a long moment with the focused attention he usually reserved for much bigger problems. After a drawn-out "hmm" that had everyone leaning slightly forward, he clapped his hands once.
"Just as I thought. This boy has already awakened a special magic — plant affinity."
"I knew it!" Valea’s eyes lit up. "I knew the moment I saw that plant on his head!"
Nico, who had been completely still since the sprout appeared, turned slowly, walked to the nearest wall, and pressed his forehead against it.
"Ughhh." A dull thud as he lightly punched the plaster. "Why him. Why does the small brat get plant magic. I am jealous of a child right now and I don’t know how to process that."
"You’ll survive, Nico," Eren said, not looking up. frёewebηovel.cѳm
Cedric turned back to Adrian, who was still blinking at the small sprout on his own head like he was hoping it would go away on its own. "Now — Adrian. You’ve awakened your arcane without any training at all. That’s not common at your age." He crouched to the boy’s level. "But do you know what your mastery level is?"
Adrian tilted his head like he’d been asked something in a different language. "M-mastery of... what?"
Cedric pressed two fingers to his temple. "Right. Of course." He kept it simple. "Think of mastery as how refined your control over mana is. The stage you’re at tells you how far you’ve come — and how far you can still go."
"I don’t know what mine is," Adrian said quietly.
"Then we’ll find out." Cedric held both hands up, palms facing each other with half a foot between them, fingers arched, thumbs aligned. "Watch this. Hold your hands like this — focus your mana into the space between your palms, don’t force it, just let it flow until it condenses. The color tells you everything."
Nico, Valea, and Eren all positioned their hands.
Three blooms of blue light filled the room at the same time.
"Level 3," Valea said with the confidence of someone already knowing the answer. "Resonant. All three of us."
"The three of us, technically yes," Nico said. "Though I should point out — I’m Stage II Resonant. Not Stage I like you both."
"Nobody asked, Nico," Eren said.
Aries frowned at his own hands. He’d read about this in the Arcane Codex back at the inn — the levels, the colors, what everything meant. He could picture the exact page. He just couldn’t quite recall what was actually printed on it.
’Conductor. Harmonist. Blue means something. Green means something. What did the book say?’
Cedric gestured to Adrian. "Your turn, kid. Same as I showed."
Adrian nodded carefully, pressed his small hands together, and focused. His whole body went tense with the effort, trembling slightly — and then, between his palms, a pure white light bloomed soft.
Everyone looked at Cedric.
"He’s a Conductor," Cedric said. "Stage I — the foundation of everything that comes after." He glanced at Adrian’s head where the sprout had retreated. "The level is the beginning, but plant affinity is what matters here. This boy has something worth developing."
"Heh." Nico examined his nails. "Still just a Conductor though. With a unique element."
"Nico." Valea looked at him slowly. "You are sitting here being jealous of a child."
"I’m jealous of the plant magic, not the child—"
"That is genuinely worse."
Cedric cut both of them off by raising his own hands.
Deep green light radiated from between his palms — steady and dense in a way that made every other light in the room look like a candle next to a fire.
"This," Cedric said, "is Virtuoso."
Aries’s jaw dropped. "What level is that, gramps?"
"Level 4. Stage I."
’Level. Four.’
"What a show-off," Valea muttered.
"Blatant flexing in front of children," Nico agreed.
"HEY." Cedric straightened indignantly. "I am demonstrating. There is a difference!"
He turned to Aries with something expectant sitting in his expression. "Well then. You’re the last one. Let’s see what you’ve got."
"Me?" Aries blinked.
Eren settled back against the wall with his arms folded, smirking. "We’ve been curious about this since you blew up an entire boulder the first time you ever cast fire. Go on."
’Alright then.’
Aries positioned his hands and focused inward. The warmth was there immediately — familiar now, something he recognized from the forest and the cave and every moment since. He let it gather without pushing it, pulling it forward slowly into the space between his palms.
Nico glanced over, confident. "He’ll probably end up a Conductor. The fireball was most likely a one-time fluke from—" He stopped.
"From what?" Eren said.
"Nothing. I just meant — probably a Conductor." frёeωebɳovel.com
"Hey, don’t just assu—" Valea started.
Pale yellow light bloomed between Aries’s palms.
The room went quiet.
Nico’s mouth closed.
"That’s—" Eren uncrossed his arms.
"Level 2," Cedric said, studying it carefully, something satisfied settling into the lines of his face. "Harmonist. Stage II, unless I’m mistaken." The corner of his mouth moved. "You’re further along than you look."
’Harmonist.’ Aries stared at his own hands. ’I thought I’d come out a Conductor. I’ve done barely anything intentional with this.’
"I told you!" Valea pointed at Nico with deep personal satisfaction. "I told you not to assume!"
"I said no offense," Nico said.
"That doesn’t count and you know it."
"The level is only the start," Cedric said, pulling both their attention back. "None of you are finished. Adrian can grow from Conductor upward. Aries can push well past Stage II. Mastery climbs through training, consistency and focus." He looked around at all five of them. "Which brings me to what comes next."
He raised one hand, palm facing upward.
A flame appeared on his fingertips.
Nothing like Aries’s fire. This didn’t spread or flare or reach for anything — it sat completely still, burning without smoke or excess heat, as though it was a separate object resting on his skin rather than something he was producing.
The aura that arrived with it pressed across the room like a change in weather — a physical weight settling over every chest, making the air thicker, harder to pull in properly.
Aries felt it in his lungs and had to actively resist the urge to step backward.
"I have business in Ashton while we’re here," Cedric said, and his voice felt more present with the aura up, like it was coming from everywhere at once. "But I will train every one of you, every day, without exception. And let me be completely clear — don’t mistake your age for leniency. I won’t be going easy on any of you."
The flame on his fingertips flared once.
Every person in the room either flinched or leaned backward simultaneously. Even Kivi, who had been watching peacefully from the doorway, sat down.
"OKAY, THAT’S ENOUGH!" Valea’s hands flew up. "You’re literally suffocating us right now, stop it—!"
"Yeah, point to be noted!" Eren pressed a hand flat against his chest like he was checking whether his heart was still where he’d left it. "You’re overdoing it!"
Cedric let the flame die and the pressure lifted immediately. He scratched the back of his head with an expression that was almost sheepish. "Ah. Got a little carried away."
"A little?!" Valea slid down the wall she’d been leaning against until she was sitting on the floor, completely flat. "I genuinely thought I was about to die in this room just now. Tonight. Before we even started training."
"Dramatic," Nico said. Though his own shoulders were visibly lower than they’d been a minute ago.
Aries let out a long, slow breath and looked down at his palm.
The yellow glow had faded. But the black lines of the mark were still there. Except that when Cedric’s flame had flared at its brightest, something had moved inside his chest from that direction.
He closed his hand slowly.
Aries looked at Cedric — standing there with his hands folded behind his back, fire still flickering faintly at the edge of his fingertips, watching all of them with the patient expression of someone who has already decided what the next several months are going to look like.
’I have a feeling training is going to be a lot more than I’m imagining right now.’
