After the lecture ended, Taro stuck around to ask questions about Mr. Ryth's lecture as usual. Magic was such an amazing thing, and learning about it was just as amazing.
"Ms. Turlun, what can I do you for?"
Taro asked him about his theories on mana traces and mana zones as they really intrigued her. Magic was one of her few indulgences in this world, so learning everything she could was pleasurable.
As they were lost in conversation, Taro felt a familiar stare coming from behind her. Familiar might be the wrong word, it was more like a feeling she'd felt before when she first encountered a monster. It was sharp and piercing; it made her slightly gasp for air. It was bloodlust. But this was the middle of the school grounds. How or why would someone be letting off that dangerous aura?
As she looked in the direction the bloodlust originated from, she captured the familiar yet dissimilar figure of a tall man with ashy hair and rounded ears being confronted by a few elves. It was obviously a dangerous situation from the look she could see coming from the tall man's eyes.
"What are you doing?! This is a place of learning, not fighting! Stop what you're doing this instance!"
Cutting her conversation short with Mr. Ryth, she tried calling out to them in an attempt to prevent any further trouble, but things didn't go as she hoped.
***
After the lecture ended, Si Sheng wanted to wait for everyone to leave before he went and talked to the lecturer about mana theory. Since coming to this world, the most enjoyable thing for him was pondering on all the unknown things around him and all the possibilities they could bring. Magic was one of those new things and was close to being his favorite thing after his arrival.
When he found out that magic was more malleable and present than the interface he was used to interacting with implied, he grew hungry for information on the topic. However, before Si Sheng could go and gluttonize the information, some rather not so intelligent people came sauntering over.
A group of haughty male elves walked up to the sitting Si Sheng with arrogant smirks and demeaning eyes.
"What is a lowly creature such as this doing in our noble institution?"
"..."
Si Sheng stayed silent as he didn't want to feed their fire of arrogance. But these elves seemed dead set on goading Si Sheng.
"What? Are you so dumb that you can't even speak? Is this creature that someone randomly found in the forest even capable of intelligent thought? How dumb can this thing get?"
The one who said this appeared to be the leader of the group and after he said this, the rest of the group cackled in response, further filling up the leader's ego.
Si Sheng didn't expect to hear this sort of language when he was literally minding his own business. To be fair, he was the only non-elf these people had seen their entire life, and they were most likely taught elven supremacy, that is, elves as being superior to other beings.
'I guess there's this trope in this world as well,' thought Si Sheng, looking on at the cackling idiots with visible exhaustion.
With a soft and calm departure from his seat, Si Sheng stood up from his seat and looked over at the leader of the group with inspecting eyes.
"Oh? Is this beast trying to go somewhere? I should have you chained up before you hurt someone."
"Hahahahahahhah....."
Cackles echoed around Si Sheng and throughout the auditorium. At this point, the people remaining in the auditorium noticed something was off and started to stare in the direction of the currently unfolding situation.
With a soft sigh, as if to say that he was wasting his energy even conversing with these people, Si Sheng spoke back to the people who had repeatedly disparaged him.
"You may think of me as a mere beast, but from my perspective, all I see is a swarm of gnats."
"Wha- What did you just call us?!"
"Gnats, you lowly creatures," said Si Sheng while looking down on the elf from above, narrowing his sharp, hawk-like eyes.
The elf's face and ears, reddened from rage and embarrassment, tensed up and then turned to form an ugly appearance akin to an oni from Japanese folklore.
"Do you know who I am?!? I won't tolerate this arrogance! Surround him!"
'Who was the one being arrogant in the first place....' Si Sheng inwardly sighed seeing how absurdly egotistic this elf was. While he knew he egged them on, he still marveled at their lack of self awareness.
The gang of elves quickly surrounded Si Sheng and started snickering as if they had already defeated him with them surrounding him.
With the encirclement complete, Si Sheng sharpened his senses, honed from thousands of "battles" with creatures on the mountain and in the forest. If possible, he wanted to end this without fighting, so he let out his bloodlust to scare off the would-be attackers, but that just made the lead elf even more enraged, shouting things like "how dare you!" and "do you know who I am?!" and such.
When the tension was at its highest, a loud shout rang throughout the auditorium.
"What are you doing?! This is a place of learning, not fighting! Stop what you're doing this instance!"
It was Taro near the stage of the auditorium yelling at the group of elves encircling Si Sheng who clearly sensed the growing tension.
"Just because you are the daughter of a Duke that doesn't mean you can boss us around!! Get him!"
The foolish leader disregarded Taro's words and chose to engage Si Sheng, instead of heeding Taro's words.
Si Sheng could only sigh and unwillingly fight the incoming attackers.
***
To the contrary of what the situation looked like, the elves that attended the institution were the cream of the crop among their age group. Due to this, the elves surrounding Si Sheng were actually coordinated and "good" fighters.
They quickly got into a formation to block Si Sheng's movements like they had practiced many times before, while the rangers got ready from afar.
Si Sheng was unarmed and unable to properly fight back with his usual style of knives and spear. He only had his casual clothes and shoes on, no armor. It would've been pretty weird for him to go across campus carrying around stone knives or a stone spear, so he decided to leave them in the room. As it turned out, he actually needed them, but that might cause an even bigger issue if he were to kill these elves.
Despite the lack of weapons, he still had options. Si Sheng had various magics and skills to aid him, plus he had experienced thousands of "battles" against creatures that were, although weak, skilled enough to make him fight for survival.
The first three elves closed in, in one lunge. Si Sheng didn't know what they were using at the time, but he could tell their fists were glowing with mana. If he'd have guessed it'd be some kind of reinforcement or enhancement skill.
Due to the sudden three-pronged attack, Si Sheng was forced to use Blink to escape the incoming assailants.
Si Sheng teleported in front of a guy chanting a fire magic spell on the back line and simply used his water magic to put out the elf's magic, which caused both the mage and the three assailants to form a shocked expression, due to Si Sheng's ability to teleport. Space-time magic was a rare form of magic that only a few were naturally gifted at and seeing someone like that made the elves shocked. Although, the truth was different. Blink was the only space-time aligned skill or magic that Si Sheng could use, but the elves didn't know that and didn't need to know; it was beneficial to keep them in a state of anxiety over his "space-time magic."
By this time, Taro had raced up half the length from the stage to the back of the auditorium. To be honest, she was fast, given the time she started running to the top had been only a couple of seconds.
Well, Si Sheng had no intention of letting these guys off easy, so he concentrated on the fight at hand.
The fire mage was quickly dealt with, with a strong punch to the gut, causing him to collapse and curl up into a ball. It appeared people who specialized in long-range combat were weaker physically as a general rule of thumb.
Next were the momentarily confused vanguards. Si Sheng quickly blinked back to them and punched two of them in the back of their heads, right behind their ears, knocking them unconscious. Thankfully, they sustained no external injuries, otherwise, it'd be a pain to clean up.
At this point, only the leader, a couple rangers, and the one vanguard remained.
The rangers had finished their chants and were ready to fire their spells whenever, causing the squabble to enter a momentary lull of Si Sheng looking at the elves and them back at him, while Taro violently dashed up the stairs full throttle.
The vanguard was the first to break the stalemate and made the first move. He rushed in again as the leader followed up with an attempt to flank Si Sheng, to which Si Sheng simply shot a fireball at the leader's feet, stopping his movements.
"Don't get cocky, you son of a bitch!!"
'Uwah....' Si Sheng really didn't care what this guy had to say, but of all the things to say, he said the most arrogant thing he could say in this situation.
With a sigh, Si Sheng quickly bobbed his head to the right to evade the incoming punch and returned it with a punch to the elf's jaw, causing the elf to collapse, unconscious. Every one of Si Sheng's strikes were primed and loaded on the areas that quickly incapacitated humanoid beings, putting the assailants out of commission. Furthermore, thanks to his enhanced senses and Sixth Sense, he was able to visualize the world around him without directly looking at it, to a degree of clarity that was a bit lower than his actual vision, which allowed him to dodge the attack from the last vanguard and simultaneously shoot a fireball at the approaching leader.
"What are you doing, fire already!!!"
The leader, although being useless, berated the mages and egged them to fire on Si Sheng. But, before they could do that, a blitzing Taro blocked off their line of fire with a light wall and slid to a stop in front of the mages.
"Are you not ashamed of yourselves?!? This is the First Institution! Not some backwaters makeshift school where you can do whatever you please! Learn some manners!"
"..."
Under Taro's noble and charismatic visage, all the mages could do after hearing Taro's scolding was lower their heads in shame for their uncouth actions not befitting of the prestigious First Institution.
"What the hell are you all doing?! Are you going to listen to her over me?!? HAH?!?!?"
The obviously power-drunk elf continued to yell at the mages in his condescending tone as if he were looking down on the world like some heavenly king.
The mages found it hard to decide between who to follow and who not to follow. They were friends with their leader, but at the same time, they knew what they were doing wasn't right, and having Taro point that out to their faces hurt their pride.
However, one of the mages clicked his tongue and quickly fired the on-standby spell over the light wall, causing part of the ceiling to crumble, prompting the other mages to cast as well.
"Hahahahahahah, you see that?!?! You ain't shit, Ms. Turlun! Hahahahahahhaa!"
The leader cackled maniacally over the mages' decision and directed his cursing to Taro now.
"Even though you're a Duke's daughter, you're still shit! Hahaha, you can't compare to me even if you were to die and be reborn again!"
"Tch..."
Taro clicked her tongue at the leader's demeaning words but then formed a smirk as she looked over at the arrogant prick.
"I'll leave him to you."
"Mm."
It was Si Sheng. He hadn't stopped moving, even though the others were locked in an argument. With a quick exchange, Taro left the leader to Si Sheng, who he had already approached.
"Wha- You coward!"
'Sigh~ Why is this guy literally a cliché incarnate?'
From the arrogance to the hypocrisy, this elf was a walking bag of clichés and Si Sheng found these kinds of "energetic" people exhausting.
"Don't underestimate me!!!" roared the leader with a fierce frown on his face as if saying "this is the deciding blow and the winner will be me!"
"Sigh..."
The two were now in swinging distance from one another and the leader enhanced his fists and arms to attack Si Sheng.
With an exhausted look on his face, Si Sheng went in for a swing as well.
With fist flying past fist, the two stared into each other's eyes, one languid and one brimming with narcissism. The former of which could only inwardly sigh as the outcome had already been determined.
Using Blink once again, Si Sheng teleported behind the leader and continued his punch into the back of the guy's head, causing the o' so arrogant leader to fall over unconscious, with only the whites of his eyes exposed. You would think, with the mighty image he portrayed himself as, the leader would've expected Si Sheng to teleport behind him, but he was so caught up in his delusion that he could think straight.
When Si Sheng was done with this buffoon, he turned to look in Taro's direction, to which he saw the three mages pitifully kneeling on the ground, kowtowing in front of Taro while weeping.
'Just what did she do to them when I wasn't looking?'
Si Sheng's thought went up to there as he soon lost interest.
"Good job handling those guys, but what do I do with them now? Tie them up?"
"We'll hand them over to the Disciplinary Committee for punishment after sending them to the infirmary, and they'll possibly be charged with a crime. But, given the leader's status, I don't think they'll get into trouble, really."
"By the way, who is this leading elf?"
"Ohh... You probably wouldn't know. This guy's name is Reen Hamen, he is the heir to the Hamen Noble Lineage. You met the leader of the Hamen lineage back at the Council Hall; he was the one who yelled at Jara when she heard the news. But he isn't anything special. He only got into the First Institution through nepotism; his family leader being a noble lineage and all. If he were to go through legitimate means, he probably couldn't even get into the worst of the National Magic Institutes, not to mention the First."
'That's why he acted so arrogantly. Also, could this be a coincidence?' thought Si Sheng as he looked down at the now foaming-at-the-mouth, unconscious elf. If this wasn't a coincidence, then that meant one of, or multiple, noble lineages were out to get him. He wasn't too keen on the prospect of having to deal with such annoyances. Plus, this elf, Reen Hamen, seemed like he was too weak to be at such a place, as well as his lackeys.
"Thank you. Can I leave the disposal of these people to the authorities to you?"
"Sure. I had to talk with someone there anyway, so it shouldn't be too bad to carry these guys there."
"Mm."
***
After this conversation, the professor finally finished running up the stairs after he belatedly noticed the fight. He was panting as he stopped to speak.
"Ms. Turlun, what is the meaning of this?"
"As you can see, we've incapacitated the would-be troublemakers and are currently taking them to the infirmary to make sure they're alright."
To this, the professor peeked over Taro's shoulder and saw multiple students laying the unconscious attackers on stretchers, as well as Si Sheng standing off to the side with disinterested eyes.
"Are you sure they were the perpetrators? It wasn't that... being that started all this?"
"Professor, are you saying that one man willingly started a fight with around ten people just because he could? Does that make any sense to you?"
"Tsk."
The professor just clicked his tongue in response to Taro. It was blatantly obvious that he held Si Sheng as the culprit, but couldn't say anything more due to Taro's presence. All the professor could do was glare at Si Sheng as if he were looking at a rabid animal.
To this Si Sheng couldn't care less about. While Si Sheng was interested in the information and theories the professor knew, he wouldn't stoop so low to ask such a person for help. So what if one random professor hated him? The Dean of the school was his backer, as well as the Elven King. Additionally, Taro, a Duke's child, was on his side. To be honest, there weren't many with this much backing in all the nation, let alone the Institution. So, why would Si Sheng care if one random person discriminated against him? That's right, he wouldn't.
With a sigh, Si Sheng moved over to Taro to talk to her before she headed off after her conversation with the professor ended.
"Taro, can you point me in the direction of the practice fields? Preferably one with fewer people around."
"Oh, yes, just walk to the East for about five minutes and then to the North for about three minutes, then there will be a large training area that not many use since it's on the outskirts of the Institution. If you would like I could have someone accompany you."
"No thanks. I can find it for myself."
With that, Si Sheng set out for the training field before Taro left. Taro just stared at his back as he left the large auditorium after causing such a scene as if nothing had happened. She wore a wry smile on her face and a furrowed brow.
"Just what did he go through to make him able to shake something like that off?"
To be honest, it was Si Sheng's original attitude to not care, as well as experiencing death and thousands of fights against rabid animals, making him fairly numb to these kinds of situations. It felt like he just fought a group of rabid animals, that was all.
Whatever the case, Si Sheng had received a great gift of knowledge from that, well, seemingly friendly professor and wanted to apply this knowledge and see what he could do with it.