"Alright then," I sat down to start practising my element after my teacher left.

I began to meditate deeply and think, recalling everything Adam and Amber told me about mana.

'My element will be the strongest of all elements,' I recalled my teacher saying that the foundation of an element is essentially the thoughts you hold within yourself about the set element, your fire attack may be better in small-range situations and mine can be better in long range, it's all what you want.

After thinking for sometimes I remembered a thing.

'Mana is the base, how about instead of focusing on defeating the elements let's defeat the mana itself? An element that weakens mana defences when attacking and also weakens mana attacks when used in defence, it doesn't have to be fancy I only want to win.'

I started repeating this sentence while thinking about its meaning to find a way to create it. After some time of thinking, I came up with an idea.

'From what I understand, the skills used are a coherent weave of fine mana particles, so if I want to weaken them, I must disrupt this weave.'

Elements are the transformation of natural mana particles within a mana core into particles that have the properties of that element, the benefits are, and so I imagined the smallest parts of my energy as a sphere that devours any external energy it touches.

I took one of the portable teleportation gates and said, "Sorry Mr. James, I am about to ruin your invention."

I activated the portal and started focusing my mana to move in trying to destroy it slowly as my mana particles started eating the portal which was super hard this thing was crazy solid to break.

I continued to focus on this idea of energy absorption, but I didn’t want to create an absorption element, as I had some memories of characters in some shows exploding because they couldn’t handle the absorbed energy. I imagined the colour to be dark blue, my favourite.

I made my energy expel the absorbed mana into the air, causing it to disappear. I continued trying and trying before I felt something, some of my mana particles did disappear into the air. which means it worked.

Then immediately the portal disappeared.

I grin and tighten my fist. 

"I did it" The Deleting Element was made.

***

"I won, big sister."

The young boy said arrogantly while Amber and all the other spectators stood in confusion about what had happened, then Adam smiled excitedly.

'I didn’t believe him when he said it was the strongest element, but what is this? 3 first level and  second level warriors are standing here astonished.'

Here, Adam directed his gaze towards the rest of the spectators. Everyone was showing surprised looks, even his friend, the Ice Queen Carol, couldn’t hide her astonishment.

"What do you think now? I told you my student is talented, didn’t I?"

The others didn't pay attention to Adam's arrogant words; they seemed to be analysing what had just happened, but to no avail—it didn't make any sense to any of them.

"Hey, Ali," Adam called out to his student.

"Hmm? Yes?"

"Come here for a moment."

"Okay."

Both Ali and Amber approached the rest of the warriors. Ali had a look of great joy on his face, while Amber wore a look of disbelief and frustration, seemingly unable to grasp what had just happened.

"So, what...?"

"What was that?!" Alvin interrupted Adam, shouting, "What is this strange element, boy?!"

"Hehehe, I just created a new element," Ali said proudly.

"A new element?!" everyone exclaimed except Adam. It was shocking that a warrior in the seventh stage, who hadn't even spent a year in the True Realm, had created an entirely new element, and it's an element that is shocking some of the strongest warriors in the world.

"So, what's the name of this element you've created?" Adam asked.

Ali smiled and raised his head to the sky. "Well it Deletes attacks so I called it the Delete Element."

***

Everyone was stunned by what I said. It seemed there had never been an Element of Deletion before. Moments later, they appeared to grasp what had happened.

"This isn't fair. You knew about my element, but I didn't know about yours. I demand a rematch," Amber said angrily.

"Woah Woah relax, please, can I enjoy my one win? I won't even dream to win against you now that you know my element," I tried to calm her down, hoping to lessen the pain I would face next time.

"Don't even try," she said, smiling a mischievous smile.

"Dang it."

Carol, Alvin, and James looked at each other, nodded, and then looked at me with a frightening gaze.

Alvin and Carol turned to James and said, "Bring it."

I turned my gaze towards James to see him leaving the room quickly. I looked at my teacher in confusion while he smiled, and the same with Amber and Hans.

"W-Wait, what's going on here?"

No one answered me. James re-entered the room, this time carrying a strange-looking metal box.

The man approached us, placed the box on the ground, and opened it.

Inside were many small blue spheres whose purpose I didn't know, they were more like cyan glass marbles.

"Ali Saifeddine," Carol said in her cold voice as she approached me with Alvin, both stood beside James.

"W-What is it?" I said, with a hint of fear of what was to come.

"Do you want to make a deal?" Carol said, smiling. It was the first time I had seen her smile in my life, I mean, I only met her like three times by now but still.

"A deal?" I said, confused.

"We want your element," Alvin said. "An element that is new and doesn't exist anywhere else."

I placed my hand on my novel like protecting my mana core to protect it from them and said fearfully, "No, I won't do that. My element is mine."

Amber and Adam burst into laughter, but I ignored them and focused my gaze on the three in front of me.

"It seems you're misunderstanding something again," James said as he held one of the spheres from the box. "We won't take your element from you. All we want you to do is fill these crystals with it so we can benefit from it by crafting."

"Crafting?"

Amber stepped forward and picked up one of the crystals. "These are called mana crystals. When you inject your element into them, it gets stored inside." She ignited her fist with fire and then showed me the sphere, which now contained an orange glow inside it. "These crystals are used to make tools and other things."

"Amber!!!" James shouted. "Why did you do that? a verbal explanation is enough, even that one sphere is valuable."

"I'm sorry, Doctor. I just wanted to explain it to him quickly," Amber bowed to apologize to the angry James.

James took a breath calmed down and said, "Alright then, that's how it is. What do you think?"

I looked towards my teacher and Hans for some advice, but I found them smiling at me, I was like you are my teacher don't you have a word in this or something?

I sighed and said "Honestly, I don't know," I lowered my head. I knew these three wouldn't deceive me or anything like that, but for some reason, I felt like something was missing.

"Don't worry," Carol said, "You'll get seventy silver pieces every month."

"What?!" I said, surprised.

"Isn't that enough? How about a hundred?"

"Deal," I said firmly. It seemed like that was what was missing.

***

At night.

I jumped onto my bed out of exhaustion.

"I'm already starting to regret my acceptance."

Those three never let me rest. Since I signed the contract, I started charging the crystals with my element, but I could only finish four crystals for the whole day.

"Amber is really amazing; it only took her ten seconds to charge a crystal, while it took me several hours."

I couldn't take it anymore and succumbed to sleep.

The next day.

I went downstairs as usual to find Amber sitting at one of the tables near the cook.

"Good morning," I said to Amber and Hans.

"Good morning, Ali here drink this."

"Good morning. Didn't you sleep a bit late today?" Amber said with a grin.

"Shut up," I said irritably and sat down next to her. "I didn't know I'd be working like this."

"Hehe, yeah it took you a whole ten hours to fill 4 crystals," Amber said patting my hair before she said, "By the way, I didn't know you were so generous."

"What do you mean?"

"If it were anyone else, they would have charged at least three gold pieces a month."

"Wha...?!" I started coughing from the juice that got stuck in my throat from the shock.

"Of course, since this is a new element that no one has ever heard of, the minimum anyone would accept is three gold pieces a month."

"W-Why didn't you tell me yesterday?!" I said angrily, standing up to leave the restaurant.

"Where do you think you're going?" Amber said mischievously. "All parties signed the contract willingly."

I stopped in my tracks, then returned to sit and continue my breakfast.

"I'm the fool who thought his companions wouldn't deceive him," I said annoyed.

"Yes, you are the fool," she said, smiling.

"Why do you keep saying that? do you enjoy watching me suffer?"

"hey don't blame me little brother, I just agreed to what you said."

"And what about my teacher? Where is he? I want to talk to him about what happened yesterday."

"He left."

"Again? You mean he ran away, I seriously want to punch him now."

I finished my food, and we headed towards the lab. I entered James's personal lab to find him sitting at his desk, smiling at us, the bloody bastard never smiled before.

"Welcome today," it was the first time I saw James acting so kindly towards anyone. "Are you ready to work today?"

"No," I replied angrily.

"Hmm?" James feigned surprise and pulled out a piece of paper from his desk, throwing it towards me.

"But we agreed here," the man said.

"I don't care."

"But there's a penalty if one of the parties doesn't fulfil their part."

"Penalty?" I said, looking at the contract before I yell shocked "1000 GOLD PIECES?!"

The man looked at me, smiling maliciously, and said, "Of course, if you don't want to work, you have to pay the penalty. And since Carol is the president of the government, she loves enforcing the laws, especially punishments."

"Screw you all, isn't there a law against child labour?" I said angrily.

"Kid, we're called warriors, so every warrior is responsible for their actions, no matter their age."

"It was my mistake to trust you wouldn't deceive me. How did three gold pieces a month drop to a hundred silver pieces?"

"Hey, I wasn't the one who suggested that price. It was that girl. I was surprised too when she said that to you."

"Curse her."

"Now, get to work," James said, tossing four crystals my way.

"...Fine." I took the crystals and left angrily to start working.

"Oh, right, I almost forgot," James stopped me with his words. "Your debt has increased to thirty pieces."

"Huh?! What are you talking about?"

"Your teacher took some things from me this morning and said that since you're earning a salary now, you can pay for them."

"Are you kidding me?" I said angrily.

'He ran off on me, so you have to pay in his place.'

I knew arguing further was pointless, so I left the place and went to work.

***

A year after Ali obtained his element, he continued his work charging the crystals, which reduced his training time, he is currently 15 years old.

"Let's see if he's finished his work today," Amber said as she headed towards the room assigned to Ali for his work. His speed had improved, allowing him to finish twelve crystals a day.

She knocked on the door and entered the room. The boy was sitting on a chair floor, charging the crystals.

'It seems he didn't notice me,' she smiled and approached him, then placed her hands on his shoulders and said, "Hello."

"Ahh!!!" the boy screamed, startled. "A-Amber?!"

"Did you finish?" Amber asked.

"Yes," the boy said as he calmed down with a grin. "The contract ends today since I'm joining the academy next week."

The contract was for one year because Ali was set to enter the academy after two weeks now.

Amber looked at Ali before her eyes widened. "Have you already reached the middle of the seventh stage?"

"Yesterday," Ali said. "Every day I was emptying my energy, so of course I'd advance. By the way, any news about my teacher?"

"Nothing," Amber said, shaking her head.

"What is he doing? He hasn't returned in a year."

"Well, here," Amber tossed two gold pieces to him. "This is your pay."

"Thank you... but isn't this too much?"

"Don't worry about it," Amber winked at him, and he nodded back.

The boy stood up, leaving behind the metal box filled with dark blue glowing crystals.

"You have no idea how valuable this box is," Amber said.

"I don't care. I'm never doing this again."

The two left the room and closed the door behind them.