"What did you do?!" the senior came running in shock to see what had happened.
"Nothing. He slapped me in the middle of my training and I guess he got his just deserves. You can ask anyone around who saw what happened and even check camera footages.
I didn't even touch him," Damien replied calmly.
If anyone was going to be punished, it wasn't going to be him. Already, Damien had gone through the school rules and knew that under the rules, he would be seen as the victim here.
After all, the boy just slapped him in the middle of his training and fell to the ground soon after. Damien didn't even lift a finger.
There was nothing they could do, after all, according to the woman who taught the mind needle techniques, mental attacks were nigh impossible to sense!
Still panicking, the senior knelt by the boy who was still squealing like a pig being murdered as he frantically tried to check on him.
Tears and snot run down the face of the boy and the unmistakable scent of shit and piss wafted around the surroundings.
By the time this boy recovered, he would forever live with the trauma of being at the receiving end of a stacked mental attack!
It was certain that even before the day ended, he was going to have the privilege of the first new student to go viral in the Imperial Institute.
Already, his misfortune was being captured by bystanders with their school comms.
This boy was really unlucky.
Unfortunately, he was his own devil.
His idiocy was the cause of his woes and now he was suffering for it.
"How powerful was the attack?" Damien asked himself as he calmly watched the boy and the senior.
He could see the mental attack was very powerful and its effects were very pronounced.
Unfortunately, the boy was a weakling so Damien couldn't accurately gauge the extent of the damage.
Judging by how weak the boy's slap was to Damien, he would probably someone who awakened on the Spirit path.
If it turned out to be false and the boy was having a body based power, then it meant that the boy was incredibly weak.
It was then that one of the instructors walked over; a stern looking man with a moustache and slicked back hair.
"What is the problem here?" he asked.
"This guy attacked James mercilessly and has injured him!" the senior accused, pointing at Damien.
Oh, so this dude is called James, Damien thought inwardly.
Whatever his name was, Damien didn't care though.
The instructor turned to look at Damien. "Is this true?" he asked.
"He slapped me in the middle of my training, besides, you can ask anyone here. I didn't even touch him," Damien replied confidently.
He knew he was in the right.
The brows of the instructor furrowed. He looked at the tablet he was holding intently and tapped something into it.
Everyone quietly watched the instructor as he viewed the footage on his tablet while twisting one end of his moustache.
Hmm… what caused the guy to scream like that? The instructor kept watching the footage again and again.
What the boy had said was right. He didn't even touch the other guy!
But how?!
The instructor wondered in shock.
"It must be his power or something," he muttered.
Only something like a soul power could do this kind of weird attack which had let poor James crap his pants and piss on himself.
Now that he had seen what had happened for himself, the instructor was in a dilemma.
The James kid was the sole aggressor based on the footage he had seen. Surprisingly, he was the one who ended up lying on the floor of the training center.
The other boy he had attacked didn't even do anything. Even if he did something, it wasn't visible in the footage so it didn't happen.
The instructor raised his head to look at Damien.
"What's your name, kid?"
"Damien."
"Well even though the footage says you didn't do nothing to James I know that you are the cause of the current state of James.
I got my eyes on you from now on.
Don't pull any stunt like this again even if you're attacked by another person or you won't be allowed here.
Next time, follow the rules of the training center.
If you want to retaliate, take the matter outside.
Is that clear?" said the instructor sternly.
"Yes instructor," Damien replied.
The instructor nodded and turned to look at the sniveling mess of James who was now moaning feebly on the floor. "And as for you, you're suspended from entering any of the training centers for one month.
This isn't a place to slap people," said the instructor.
"But instructor that's too harsh! You'll stagnate his training! Don't forget that it was Damien who was the cause of all this!
He didn't absorb mana like everyone but he came to make trouble," the senior complained.
There were mutters of agreement.
"Silence! This is a training center and what Damien did was training. You people are new to the world of awakening so let me make this clear to you.
Training in the training center isn't only to absorb the mana here.
If you come here to solely do that, you're wasting your time!
This an excellent spot to train and comprehend new techniques and that's what Damien was doing; he was learning a technique!" the instructor explained.
"What?! All those strange poses are part of learning techniques?" one student asked in shock.
"Fuck! No way! We would have to act like mad people just to learn a technique?!"
"What sort of weird training is that!?"
"We have to do stuff like this to learn a technique?!"
The whole floor was thrown into turmoil as everyone couldn't imagine doing strange poses like Damien had done.
It would be borderline embarrassing!
Many students inwardly cringed as they imagined doing what Damien had done in public. They would rather bear the cost of paying for a room than to this outside!
The instructor frowned. "Wait a minute. Has any of you here even bought a technique?" he asked.
Silence filled the training room and the instructor's eyes went wide with shock.
"Are you all dumb?! Do you not know the importance of learning techniques? How can you all be so naïve!
You think awakening is all about absorbing mana huh?
Let me make this clear to you.
You can absorb all the mana in the world but if you don't even learn and master one technique you will amount to nothing!" the instructor berated angrily.
How could these students be so stupid?
Why didn't they even know something basic like techniques?
That was when he took a glance at the auras of those around.
Excluding the kid called Damien who had a very stable aura which gave off signs that it was almost ready to reach the peak level of the Enlightenment realm, all the others had weak auras!
They were incredibly weak!
"How the fuck are you all still at the very bottom of the basic level of the Enlightenment realm?! What the fuck did you do when you were at home? You came to a prestigious school like the Imperial Institute with the same aura level you had right after awakening!?
PREPOSTEROUS!!
Are you not ashamed of yourselves?
Kids these days are too unfocused and lazy! You don't have what it takes to be here!
Lazy brats like you will be the cause of Earth's doom!" the moustache of the instructor bristled in fury as he scolded everyone in the training room.
He snorted in disgust, taking a look at the boy called James who had now partially recovered from what Damien had done to him.
"Get this lazy idiot out of my training center. He can't even tell when someone is training and when someone is not," he growled at the senior who was now helping the embarrassed boy to stand.
"I'm very disappointed in you too. As a senior, you couldn't even explain to your juniors that this was also a form of training. Get out of my sight!" he yelled at the senior furiously.
James lost control of his bladder again due to the shout of the instructor.
The instructor turned to look at him with a sneer. "And you, now that you've finally regained your senses let me make this clear to you. You are banned from entering any training center in the Imperial Institute for one full month.
Make yourself scarce here before I increase the punishment from one month to three," he said coldly.
James' knees buckled in shock.
He felt as if all life had left his body and his gaze became unfocused.
Banned from entering any training center for one month!
How and where would he get mana to absorb so he could make the cut?
He was finished!
He wouldn't be able to reach the mid-level enlightenment realm. He would be expelled at the end of the month!
It was over for him!
"No no no no this can't be happening!" he muttered to himself.
How he wished that this was a mere bad dream!
His nightmare had now become a reality!
He could see the imposing figure of the Vice Chancellor already giving him dismissal.
James couldn't take it anymore and fainted in shock.
The instructor watched on coldly as the senior dragged the limp body of James out the training center. The instructor walked away with a scowl on his face and all the students gave him a wide berth.
"Well that was unexpected," Damien muttered.
He knew the punishment for attacking someone in the training center was very heavy but he didn't know it was this heavy!
He had truly been lucky to get off with a simple warning.
He wouldn't attack anyone in the training room ever again.
With a straight face, Damien walked out the training center.
All the students made way for him to pass, avoiding him like a plague.
They were afraid that by even being in close contact with Damien, they would end up in the sorry state of James!
Everyone watched him leave before focusing on their training in full force.
They couldn't allow themselves to be distracted!
When Damien finally arrived to his room after eating and showering, he turned on his school comm to check his messages.
There was one message from Zane and a couple of other messages from Austin and Brianna.
Damien opened Zane's message.
[Damien, check out the student platform on the school network. You're trending!]
"Hmm?" Damien's brows furrowed and he checked the platform.
Many people had shared the video of what happened between Damien and James!
While some were trolling James, Damien was the main focus of the attention. Even though the video had no proof that Damien attacked James, everyone knew that Damien did it and they were eagerly discussing it!
One guy with the username @Information_minister had even edited the video and added sound effects!
[@Information_minister: Even before the ranking battles begin, first blood has already been drawn by strong first year student Damien!
A genius from our very own Western sector who caused another student who slapped him to shit and piss himself without even lifting a finger!
What sort of godly power is this?!
What does this mean for the ranking battle which is just three weeks away?
Will Damien's strange power allow him to become the strongest first year student?
Drop your comments below and stay tuned for more info from the minister of Information!
More updates pending.]
This was ridiculous!
Damien smiled wryly.
His plans of keeping a low profile to train had gone to moot.
Everyone knew his face now and with this information minister guy publicly lauding Damien for having the ability to become the strongest first year, many eyes would be following Damien now.
Everyone's focus was going to be on him including the various faction leaders like Ronnie and Vishnu and Diego and Vance and Silas.
Damien wouldn't be surprised if they showed up tomorrow to pester him to join them.
The next few days or weeks were going to be very interesting…