Gunnar nodded towards the woman and then put forward his question. "My next question is how does one learn their affinity? Is there a device that test it or do you have to just guess?"
The woman smirked a little before she answered him. "There are multiple ways of testing your affinity, one of which involves putting your blood through a machine that will test what elements your blood responds the best too. Another, much simpler way is to have someone of dark steel rank or above pass their mana through you. If they are good enough they can tell in what mana your talent lies."
She turned to the black haired older man and nodded her head towards him. "I'm betting that one already knows. With the injuries I feel fading on you already, I know he ran a scan on you to check the severity."
Narrick nodded and began to speak but was again intterupted as the door banged open, as they had forgotten to lock it back. Sheila and Risa flashed into the room and began to check over Gunnar before sensing his body and blood and freezing.
As they stood beside Gunnar and checked over his body they both stole glances at the other two in the room. Before they could ask any questions Gunnar felt a pulse of mana from Narrick flash to the two of them, before their eyes went vacant. Gunnar was alarmed briefly before noticing that the other woman in the room wasn't showing any alarm or confusion.
Upin seeing the questioning and worried look on Gunnar's face, the woman smiled a little and told him. "The old man used a skill to give the two a summary of what happened and what we are talking about."
As Risa's eyes cleared she took a seat on one arm of Gunnar's padded chair, holding onto one of Gunnar's hands with her own slightly shaking, and waited for Narrick to continue. Sheila on the other hand began a slow pacing at the front of the room, while typing away on a wrist version of the disk that was still on the table showing the diagram.
Narrick ignored the woman's pacing and focused back on Gunnar and his mother.
"Back to the matter at hand. For the basic elements, Gunnar has the highest affinity for earth and metal, followed closely by fire. In that way he was extremely lucky for how he awakened. I believe his blood influenced those initial affinities as most of his grandfather's clan have those affinities I believe. Right, Athelina?"
The woman gave him a dirty look but answered. "Just Lina, decrepit old man. But yes, we all inherit some amount of metal, earth and sometimes fire."
Narrick and Risa both nodded before Narrick continued. He looked at Gunnar with a thoughtful look. "We have talked about the basic elements, but there are more than just the basic and secondary elements. The higher elements are: dark, light, life, death, time and space. Then you get higher secondary elements which are subset or mixtures of the higher elements. Blood, for an example, is a subset of both life and death. One can use it for healing or for destruction depending on how you mix the two."
He pointed at Gunnar's chest. "You have a almost unnaturally high talent for both dark and space. One of the secondary elements you can get from that is called void, which I think you might be very good at using."
When Lina heard the old man talk of the spacial and darkness affinities, the smirk she almost always had one her face, deepened into a chuckle that became almost maniacal laughter. Risa looked down at Gunnar and brushed her hand across his forehead with a smile.
"He inherited the spacial affinity from me. The only one of his siblings to do so though. I have no clue where he got the dark affinity from."
Lina's laughter subsided a little and she spoke while gasping a little for breath. "His grandfather's dad has it. My uncle is one scary mofo, always just materializes from the shadows when you least expect him."
Sheila looked up from her typing and nodded in agreement. "My husband often spoke of his father and his talent and enjoyment for making people nearly wet themselves." She then walked over and took Gunnar's other hand and rested it between her own.
"Now," Narrick drew the attention of the room back to himself and focused his eyes back on Gunnar. "There are a few rules to using higher elements when you begin your refinement or if you one day venture into mage works like your great grandfather. Only integrate the element at or after rank three, copper. Your body can almost never handle it before then. Most have to wait for dark steel or titanium. But our bloodline will probably give you a chance to use it earlier."
"Mage works?" Gunnar was confused.
"That's not important to you for now. That's something that you can learn later. For now there are two paths in front of you. The first is that you immediately begin to practice refinement. It is early but the hardest part for you is already done by the initial refinement you've undergone."
Gunnar looked down at his hands thoughtfully, it did sound good to him to get a head start on his body refinement journey. But something in him felt like it wasn't the time yet like it was trying to tell him to wait.
"What is the second option. Something feels like it's not time to go down that road."
Risa and Sheila's eyes met above Gunnar's head and a small smile played across their faces. They felt they had taught him well, he had the patience to hold back at this moment.
Narrick had a small grin crack his face as he nodded in appreciation. "The second path is that you first learn all you can about body refinement and all else you can. The more knowledge you have and the more experience, the easier it will be to both plan and execute your path forward."