With his head hanging and tears running down his face, Deamon returned to his seat and sat down burying his head in his arms. Even as a five-year-old he was quite smart. His mother had read and given him books she got from the merchants so he could learn as much as he wanted. The only thing on his mind is the book she got him on the three powers and more specifically, the mysticism's element section. It listed the elements and what they were good for. The rareness of light and dark, the strength of fire, the versatility of water, the defense of earth, the maneuverability of wind..... and the uselessness of lightning.
"Wow, Scarlet you have an extremely high potential for brawler but nearly non-existent mysticism. Since you have even this tiny amount you'll have to have your element checked out alright?"
Deamon stole a glance at his parents fearing what he would see. Savage had a disappointed and dejected look on his face, while Autumn just looked worried for her child.
"Amazing! Even with nearly no mysticism, you have the same strength and brightness of fire as a dragonewt would."
Deamon thought of the words describing the lightning element. "...While strong in theory it is nearly unusable. Only extremely close range attacks are able to be used but when increasing the power may also kill the user from backfire..." He needed help with some of the words and with what they meant but he knew one thing. Using lightning was a death sentence.
Hawks finished with the rest of the students while Deamon's mind raced. Some of the kids got what they wanted while some didn't.
"Ok, now I will be giving you the basic rundown of common knowledge and facts that you may or may not know about. First ferals mature faster than most races mentally. Depending on the type it could be up to three or even four times faster but with most, it's about two to two and a half. And yes I understand many of you don't know math so this will be hard to follow. That being said secondly is your feral amount. I'm a sixty-forty Feral meaning I have more animal features than humanoid. You can have someone like Scarlet who's a fifteen-eighty five meaning she has a few features or one like Zeko a ninety-ten being nearly a pure feral which is no different from an animal." Hawks explained to the class. "Any questions?"
A tiger feral raised her hand and asked. "I heard my parents talk about shifters. What are those?"
"That's a good question, Freya. A shifter is a feral who can change how much they resemble a human or animal. A good example is how dragonewt leader Ignus can turn from his normal form of a sixty-forty to a fifteen-eighty five or into a pure feral. Even though he's a mythic type feral, he is no match for a real dragon while being a pure feral but that only pertains to mythic type, anyone else would be just like any other of their type." Hawks answered informatively. "Anything else?"
A girl over a head taller than the others raised her hand. "Ah yes, Sheeya right?"
"Yeah, I'm Sheeya. I wanted to know why when that boy had his element checked everyone looked sorry for him and he was crying." Sheeya pointed at Deamon while asking unapologetically.
"Well um... Since you're a divergent feral that never has mysticism so you wouldn't know. The lightning element is unusable, it drains nearly ten times the mana at the power of a tenth of most other attacks of the same rank. Imagine using a fire throw takes a finger but destroys a house, a lightning attack would take all of your fingers but only destroy the door. That's one of the biggest drawbacks of it but the other is that it has no range. You have to be at punching range or maybe a knife to even use it but at that point, you might as well use something else." Hawks said trying to be objective.
"So should he even be here? We're going to learn to use our abilities to help the village here right? What would be the purpose of him even staying?"
"W....well the main part of the teachings is to teach you about daily life three days and skills two days, so he should be here for those."
"And the other two days? He seems really weak and won't be very helpful to an.."
"Miss Hawks?" Scarlet interrupted. "You called her a divergent feral what's that?"
"Oh, Scarlet that's a good question. A divergent feral is when instead of being like a cross of a human and an animal or mythical beast they are like intelligent monsters. Take Sheeya for example, her mother was a cattle feral and her father was a minotaur divergent. And before anyone says anything, divergent ferals and monsters are two very different things just like how we are different from animals. Now any other questions...?
"Thanks for that Scarlet..." Deamon muttered.
"Don't thank me. I just can't stand people picking on others like that. Even though she didn't mean anything by it I could see Freya and Fang laughing at you." Scarlet said angrily.
"Maybe she's right though.... maybe I should just stay home and not come to the teachings. I can already do math and write."
"No! Then we will both be alone and I don't want that! I got it, you can help me with this part of the teachings and ill try to help you with the other."
"We don't know if you will even be good at the fighting part or if I can learn anything."
"Hey I'm stronger and faster than Fang and you're really smart so you can figure something out."
"Thank you Scar... you're really making me feel better," Deamon said with a light smile.
"Now class these will be your instructors. First, we have the mysticism teacher Ravi." Hawks said gesturing towards someone at the back of the room. A baboon feral stood up and lightly bowed his head. "Second we have Val the brawler teacher." The tiger feral near Freya standing proudly raised her nose indicating who she was. "And finally Griff our weaponization teacher." A raccoon feral barely half the size of hawks stood up and gave a wave with a kind smile.
"Rafi and Griff will be my teachers. I'm glad it's not Miss Val." Deamon reassured himself. "Maybe it won't be so bad after all."