There were no walls as far as Brennan could see, but there was a single slot hole on a podium, just like in the old shack. The podium was colored a rich, reflective red, giving the same visual properties as a piece of metal that had been colored red. 

Brennan placed his left hand on the podium, fitting the ring into the hole. Surprisingly, when he lifted his hand, the ring warped around his hand, and came off. The ring would not come off no matter how hard Brennan pulled.

But before he could react, 9 podiums, similar to the red one that had been there originally, appeared. Along with the red podium, the 10 different colored podiums formed a circle. 

At the center of the circle, a singular book appeared with a pop.

Brennan, who was still recovering from the surprise, walked up to the center of the podiums, and picked up the book. 

The dusty red book was named "Secrets of the Fire Element."

Brennan sat down, making himself comfortable and preparing to read for a long time. But when he opened the book, and flipped through the old and crumpled pages, he found that there were only 5 pages with words in them. The rest of the pages were blank.

And looking at the 5 pages with words, Brennan found that he could only read 1 page. With nothing else to do, he started reading.

'This is the first book in the "Secrets of" Series. It is the introduction to the many secrets of this world that no one but God knows. We will cover everything known to man or beast, from the beginning of the world to the specifics of each element.

This book is the first because the fire element is where everything starts. At the beginning of time, God had 10 children. We do not know for what reason, but legend says that they were banished from heaven, and sent out into lower realms. There, they created their own worlds, of which they populated with their own people. The most magically talented child, Xathos,-'

Brennan finished reading the page, but when he turned it he could not read the rest. He would need to learn another language to be able to understand anymore. And by the looks of things, each page was written in a different language.

For now, he put the book down and went to the red podium to take his ring back. But when he tried to pull the ring off, it was stuck. He pulled as hard as he could, but all that happened was that he fell over after he let go. He sat up, wincing as he rubbed the arm that scrapped the floor.

Unsure of what to do, Brennan walked back to the center of the circle, where he picked up the book. To keep things neat, he put the red book next to the red podium. Then, he sat down. 

Brennan's eyes lit up as he stood up and walked to the red podium. Matching his left hand with the ring, he moved fire element mana into the ring. As he suspected, the side of the ring opened around his hand. 

When he lifted his hand, he found himself back in his room, covered in his blanket. The moon still showed outside the window, and a white mist remained in the air, which slowly dissipated. 

Brennan covered his eyes with his blanket, still adjusting to the dark after being surrounded by white for such a long time. 

After his eyes adjusted, he looked at the clock on his desk and found that no time had passed. As he turned back into a comfortable spot, he yelped in pain as he hit his elbow on the bed frame. Turning his right arm over, he found that the scrape on his arm was still there. 

When he tried to take his ring off, it didn't come off, so nothing had changed. 

Brennan lied down in a comfortable position, both nervous and excited about the stampede tomorrow. He wasn't sure if they would be able to defend the city or not, nor did he know how many lives would be lost, but for now there was nothing he could do. Of course he was still nervous, but there wasn't anything he could change with his current power. 

He knew a lot about spells and beast dissection, but he didn't have a strong and fit body like Horone, honed battle sense like Lawrence, fighting expertise like Angela, high IQ like Jackson, family techniques like Levi, or elemental magic mastery like Oliver.

He finally understood why Principal Leonardo had put him with this group. It wasn't just about keeping the team together and creating a strong fighting force, but about increasing everybodies communication. He wasn't supposed to make everyone stronger, he was supposed to make himself a better leader.