The training hall was silent, save for Alex’s slow, steady breathing.

He had dismissed everyone, asking for some quiet as he needed to think about what Vanessa had told him.

His body ached, and his mind was clouded with frustration, but his determination burned hotter than ever.

Vanessa’s words echoed in his mind.

“You rely on your abilities, but you don’t understand them. You treat them as separate tools instead of an extension of yourself.”

He clenched his fists, his gaze falling on his open palm. ‘An extension of myself…’

He had never thought about his abilities in that way before.

To him, they were skills he could wield—separate forces that he activated at will.

After all, magic was supposed to be a weapon to protect oneself.

Magic was created to fight. To grow stronger and to defeat enemies.

Or was it not?

Alex didn’t have the answer to that.

From the moment he had awakened mana—also the time he recovered his memories—he had thought of mana and magic as a way to grow stronger.

He kept living, thinking like that.

On the way, he realized something about his thinking wasn’t right, but he always won, so he never thought about it.

Before, he defeated his enemies using his superior strength and a huge arsenal of abilities. He used to defeat people by surprising them—exploiting their weaknesses.

But now, as he moved forward and met stronger opponents, things were changing.

The enemies he met now were not beings he knew everything about. He couldn’t think about their actions beforehand and plan for it. He had to make use of everything to come out on top.

‘I’m a genius?’ He asked himself while Sophie, who realized Alex was close to discovering something, stayed silent.

‘A once-in-a-million-year genius?’

If one looked at his status window, they would definitely say the same.

Having thirteen elemental affinities—all with 100% affinity—was unprecedented.

In history, not once was someone having two affinities with their aggregated percentage exceeding 100 mentioned, much less 1300.

Yet Alex had it.

If that wasn’t enough, he even had a black-grade physique and bloodline.

If someone heard it, they might think Alex was born from some broken experiment.

Despite all that, Alex had never been able to defeat someone stronger than him without exerting his full powers.

His physical powers and swordsmanship had always been his plus point, but he slowly realized that his magic wasn’t what a genius should have.

The only magic that made it possible for him to win his fights—the ones that made him struggle—was destruction magic.

Alex felt like he understood that magic, only to realize now that he didn’t understand it.

He was simply treating every magic as a weapon, and destruction magic, which was supposed to be treated as a weapon, just sat right with him.

Alex knew that just destruction magic was strong enough to make him win any fight. Even Anos—with his level suppressed, of course—wouldn’t stand a chance if he used this.

But just using the destruction element was dangerous.

He didn’t even know how many people would try to eliminate him if they discovered he had an affinity for destruction.

‘I need to understand other elements.’ Alex concluded.

He was sure if he were to fight Anos as he was, he would lose.

That, however, was something he couldn’t accept. He needed to grow before the fight, and for that, he needed to feel the elements.

Alex had already found the problem.

He knew what he did wrong.

‘My past life memories are the problem.’

Unlike the people on this planet, Alex’s thinking was similar to that of planet Earth. To him, magic seemed like a foreign thing that could be used to make himself powerful and kill his enemies efficiently.

What he needed to do right now was discard that thinking and dive into the memories of his childhood.

Alex sat cross-legged in the middle of the hall and closed his eyes, sinking into the feeling he used to have whenever he heard about magic.

It was a distant memory of his childhood when he used to read a lot about magic, but as he dived into them, they became crystal clear.

He started with Fireball—the most basic.

He conjured a small orb of flames in his palm, feeling its heat.

‘What are you?’ He thought, staring at the flickering ember.

It was fire. It burned. It consumed.

His mind shifted to Water Cannon.

He let the fire disperse and instead formed a floating water droplet, sharpening it into a ray that shot forward.

‘Fire burned. Water flowed. It adapted.’

He picked up Verathian, switching to Wind Slash.

A sharp gust cut through the air. ‘The wind is swift and unpredictable.’

Then Mana Discharge—his sword hummed as energy pulsed through it, raw and unstable.

It was a small mana discharge caused by the remnant of mana left in Verathian after his fight with Vanessa, but it was enough for him.

‘Mana is the foundation… it fuels everything.’

One by one, he cycled through his abilities, not just activating them but feeling them—connecting with them.

They weren’t separate forces. They were elements of existence and extensions of himself.

‘Fire is passion. Water is adaptable. The wind is freedom. Lightning is speed. Ice is stillness. Gravity is control. Darkness is concealment.’

He understood his other elements as well, feeling something within him stir.

His mind was alight with realization.

If all these elements were part of existence, then they should not be treated as individual weapons but as a single, cohesive force.

Like a symphony, not scattered notes.

He understood why Vanessa’s control of ice was so good. It was because she had lived her whole life like ice.

No matter how heartbreaking it was, it had made it possible for her to manipulate ice however she wanted.

It was said that people with fire affinity were mostly hot-headed or warm, for example, Zahara. Those with shadow affinity were quiet, for example, James.

Alex, however, never felt anything like that when using his element.

He never felt the intensity of his fire, nor did he feel the calmness of his water, but he was slowly realizing them, and without him knowing, he was progressing toward the right path.

A path that he should’ve followed from the beginning.

Suddenly, a thought struck him.

‘What happens when I combine them?’

His heart pounded. He lifted his hand, summoning a small fireball and a water arrow simultaneously. The two elements resisted each other, crackling in protest.

But he gritted his teeth, focusing on balancing them.

The fire dimmed. The water heated. ‘Steam.’

A thin mist coiled around his fingers. His eyes widened in fascination.

Excitement surged through him.

He tried again, this time forming Wind Slash and Thunderbolt together. The wind wrapped around the lightning, crackling as it spiraled into a vibrating edge.

‘This… this is it.’

He stood, his exhaustion forgotten.

The fight with Vanessa had proven his weaknesses, but now, he could see the path forward. He would not just wield his abilities—he would become them.

He hadn’t even realized that the thing he did a second ago wasn’t possible without having the ability to subtly control the elements.

The only one who knew he did it was Sophie, but she couldn’t tell him that yet. She needed him to realize that himself, and she knew he would.

She knew that Alex was capable of doing it.

Alex, on the other hand, exhaled, a grin spread across his face.

He didn’t know much about what he had achieved, but he knew one thing: his training had just begun.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep