Chương 87: Affinities

"That was fun," Ethan said as he wiped the goblin's blood off his blades. Everyone turned and looked at Ethan. The young knight had been smacked across the goblin village and healed by Theodore, but seemed to think it was all a bit of sport.

"Glad you enjoyed yourself," Travis said shaking his head at Ethan's weird enthusiasm.

"Shall we get collecting?" Damion asked as he looked at the various goblin corpses around the burning village. Before anyone could answer him, Arica began collecting the corpses. Arica moved quickly around the village collecting goblin bodies and their dropped weapons. Damion and the rest set about exploring the village in search of valuable loot. Damion and Matthew headed into the stone house. The roof had burned away, but when the roof collapsed it did not destroy anything in the house.

Damion could only guess that the goblin mage had protected the contents when the roof collapsed. Inside the stone house Damion found various plants and fruits that appeared to have been picked recently. Damion thought back to along the trail from the cave to the village and remembered all the places where it looked like plants had been uprooted. The goblins appeared to have been doing their own harvesting and Damion was not sure what to make of it.

"This is quite the find," Matthew said as he picked up a small fruit that looked like a peach.

"What is it?" Damion asked, not recognizing it.

"An Enhancing Fruit."

"Sorry, still have no idea what that fruit is," Damion said.

"It's a Heavenly Wind Enhancing Fruit, it can increase the Wind affinity of the person that eats it," Matthew explained.

"This fruit can give someone the Wind affinity?" Damion asked hopeful. If this fruit could in fact give someone the Wind affinity for magic, then perhaps he would not have to wait for the Magic System to unlock to gain access to magic.

"No, it or any other Enhancing Fruit, can't give you a magic affinity. It ranks up an existing magic affinity."

"So, it can make a person with C Rank Wind affinity rise to B Rank affinity?"

"Precisely. It can increase someone's affinity by one Rank. But it can only increase a person's affinity up to A Rank."

"It can't raise someone's magic affinity to S Rank?"

"No," Matthew confirmed.

"S Rank is the pinnacle, to have S Rank talent you have to be born with it, no external thing can grant it to you."

"Theodore has S Rank Holy affinity, or so I'm told," Damion tossed out.

"Yes, I know. His pure white hair is an indication of having an S Rank affinity." The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"What do you mean?"

"People with S Rank affinities tend to have physical manifestations of their magic. The most common of which is for their hair to be a different color."

"I've never heard that before," Damion said. Mentally he was trying to think back to everyone he had ever met to figure out if he had met anyone with an odd color hair.

"Does that mean people with a Fire affinity would have red hair?"

"Yes, though most people with red hair won't have an S Rank Fire affinity. Ordinary hair colors can make it hard to distinguish those with a peak affinity from a normal person."

"Would an S Rank Water affinity have blue hair?"

"Now you are getting it."

"What are some other affinities that get confused with regular hair colors?" Damion could only hope his brown hair meant that he had a common looking S Rank affinity and not that he just had plain brown hair.

"Brown hair is usually an Earth affinity, black hair Dark affinity. I guess you could say those are the most common. Others are harder to guess at."

"How come I can't recall seeing anyone with strange hair colors?"

"You mean other than Theodore?" Matthew joked before going on.

"You have to remember how many people have an S Rank magic Affinity. Such people are few and far between and don't forget that some people might not want to advertise their affinity before they have the power to back it up."

"Are you saying people with S Rank affinity are in danger?"

"Theodore's affinity is Holy. An affinity that doesn't have strong offensive abilities. Lightning and Fire affinities tend to be more offensively focused and some people in power fear the young overtaking them. So, it is common in noble families for someone with an S Rank affinity to dye their hair to avoid the attention or expectations of others, especially, rival families."

"Sounds like a tough gig."

"Yes, well I do kind of wish this Heavenly Wind Enhancing Fruit was a Heavenly Lightning Enhancing Fruit. If I could push my Lightning affinity to A Rank then I could… well that isn't something you need to worry about. Did you find anything else interesting?" Damion was not sure what Matthew had been about to say, but he was only half listening. While Matthew was explaining, Damion was asking the Magic System the difference between magic talent Rank and magic affinity Rank.

Magic talent rank affected a person's natural mana capacity, how quickly they could learn magic seals and their natural magic regeneration. While a person's magic affinity affected the power of a person's magic attacks and the how quickly they could increase their magic power. If two mages with the same affinity and the same magic power launched the same attack at each other the mage with the higher Rank affinity would overcome the attack of the other.

"I said, did you find anything else?" Matthew asked Damion who was spaced out while talking with the Magic System in his mind.

"Hmm.. no. I was just thinking. Wondering what Ms. Teft's magic affinity Rank is."

"She has an A Rank Water affinity."

"Did you two find anything good?" Arica said as everyone regrouped outside the stone house.

"Quite a few common alchemy ingredients, but the crown jewel is a Heavenly Wind Enhancing Fruit," Matthew answered.

"Really?" Arica questioned in disbelief.

"Yes, but too bad it isn't of any use to one of us."

"Isn't it a bit of a blessing that it isn't," Ethan said.

"If it was of use to one of us, how would that one provide compensation to the rest of us?" Matthew and Arica both looked at Ethan as if he had spoken an alien language. Either the thought of how everyone else would be compensated for the Heavenly Enhancement Fruit had not occurred to them, or there was something Ethan was missing.

"It is common practice that if a person can use such an item, the others let them have it, and it is never mentioned to the dungeon overseer."

"I didn't know that," Damion said.

"Aren't we supposed to turn over everything we find?"

"We could still report we found it, but no one can pass up such a great find. If one of us could use it, it would be perfectly acceptable to do so."

"Really?"

"Yes really, Damion." Arica reassured him.

"You have to understand. Items that can increase someone's affinity rank or magic talent are incredibly rare. This is a once in a lifetime find and even if this dungeon is run a million more times I doubt another one will appear."

"If they are that rare, what do we get from Adventurer Association for turning it over?"

"Nothing."