I could see that Samuel guy impressed for a split second before his face contorted into an angry expression. His little group had a similar reaction, their hostility was very clear as their aura became heavy and tried to intimidate me. I thought of releasing my own aura to scare them off. However, I felt like letting them at least try before doing so.

“You! How disrespectful do you plan to be towards a noble you damned commoner!”

One of Samuel’s henchmen shouted at me to which I smirked. So these guys are nobles too. I had already guessed so but getting confirmation was also good. Looks like even though this academy is meant to be a place where commoners and nobles are treated as equals, nobles still can’t let go of their pride. Not that I care.

“And what will you do about it? We are all just students here. If you like, why don’t you try and attack me, it would be interesting”

I could easily dispatch this bunch in less than ten seconds. However, I wanted them to attack first so I could claim self-defence. That way I wouldn’t be breaking the rules. The bullys looked at me as if I was completely out of my mind. For them, I am just a normal commoner, someone they could crush easily. Or at least that is what I think they think.

“Tch, fine if you can talk so big how about a duel! I will show you your place! so, do you accept? or will you eat your own words”

“Oh a duel, sure I will participate. I would love to kick your ass in front of a large audience”

I already knew what this duelling thing was about. Since I know that my temper may be just a tiny bit volatile I took my time to read the academy’s rule booklet so I could avoid breaking the rules. This duel thing is a way for students to fight each other in a controlled environment. The reason for this is to bring a resolution to a discussion. In other words, whoever wins is the one that is right.

The duels take place in the academy’s coliseum during the weekends. It is open and free for any student to head there and watch the duels. Best of all is that if a student shows talent during a duel their rank for classes may be increased. However, the contrary is also possible.

Going back to what is happening right now, well, what can I say? That Samuel guy and his henchmen were about to blow up in anger. If I pushed them a little bit more they might attack me right here and right now. But I don’t feel like doing that right now. I will let them go and then humiliate that Samuel guy during the duel. After all, what is more, important than prestige and pride to a noble?

After a few insults which I ignored from the bunch they left. I turned around to see the girl I was covering for on the ground with cold sweat on her back. It seems like she couldn’t handle the bullys bloodlust and so her legs had failed her.

“Hey, are you alright?”

“Y-yes!”

I held my hand out to help her stand. Her legs were shaking like crazy and If I let go of her she would probably fall again. Her hair is light brown and a bit curly, her eyes are brown as well and due to her glasses the look big. She looks somewhat cute like that, like a puppy that you would want to protect. Her uniform was a bit of a mess from the bullying she had just received.

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“Erm thank you, but you shouldn’t have helped me. Now you will have to fight Samuel. He is really strong and-”

“It’s fine. Don’t think about it. If he wins then he wins and that is it. If I win then I win and that is it”

She looked worried but understood I wasn’t going to back down. I helped her walk to the cafeteria while we chatted for a bit. She hadn’t eaten lunch yet either. She is the daughter of a maid that duke Rasey had taken a liking to. He acknowledges her as his daughter, however, she was still treated like a commoner by the family. Moreover, the wife of the duck hated her mother to the core and that hate was also translated to her. Because of this, she has suffered the bullying of the duke’s wife and her son, the current hair to the duck’s house, Samuel Rasey.

“Well, he is an idiot so I will make sure to properly kick his ass”

“T-thank you but, please be careful, my brother can be quite, cruel”

After that, I didn’t feel like continuing talking about this subject and from the looks of it Milly didn’t feel like it either. Her actual name is Millena but I call her Milly because it’s cuter and fits her puppy-like appearance better. She protested, saying it was embarrassing to be called like that but I didn’t care.

Like that lunchtime went by and we exchanged schedules and room numbers so that we could meet again. Milly is quite a nice person, she is a bit shy but that only adds to her cuteness. I have never had a younger sibling but if I could choose I would have liked someone like her. While thinking like that I got to one of the courtyards where my applied magic class was going to take place.

It was somewhat empty since I was quite early. Only a few students are doing some kind of meditation. If I had to guess they already knew the basics on how to connect with their mana even though they weren’t skilled on it. Since class would take a bit longer to start I decided to do something similar.

I sat in the soft grass cross-legged with my hand’s fingertips touching each other. Since I already had quite a good control over my mana I decided to improve and experiment while I waited. First I made a thin film of mana on top of my skin. I remember Dan’s soul ability did something similar and as such he had a pretty much permanent mana barrier on him. I was trying to replicate it. Since mana isn’t solid then a solid barrier was impossible. I mean, it is possible but the required amount of mana to solidify it is absurd and overall it would be a waste.

After thinking of solutions to this problem I tried a few ideas. First was to move the mana in such a way that it would work as a repulsive barrier. In other words, when I receive an attack I would move the mana to push said attack back. The downside to this is that I will need to know where the attack is coming from. Not to mention I would have to concentrate on moving the mana in the appropriate way. It’s simply more trouble than its worth.

My second idea was to make the mana flow around me constantly. This way I wouldn’t need to concentrate nor know where the attack is coming from. The downside is that this way it consumes more mana and is a constant drain. So I decided that instead of a film to have smaller mana structures leaving a lot of gaps. Since these structures will be constantly moving they will work like blades of a blender. Anything that gets in the gaps will collide with the shields and hopefully get shredded.

All of these forms have their pros and cons. The manually controlled film has the highest defence but I need to see the attack and concentrate on it. The moving film is a little bit worse than the manual film in upfront defence but I don’t have to concentrate as much on it. However, it consumes a lot of mana. Finally, the one with moving shields is the one with the worst defence but its mana consumption and concentration demand is low. I guess I can just adapt at the moment to what I need the most.

I just realized that I had once again increased my defence options. For starters, I already learn body reinforcement. Then my mana blast, and now this mana shield. I don’t have any sort of mana related attacks. If I were to compare myself to an RPG game I would be a hyper tank type. Even though my attack might seem high it’s only because I have Naru and Pyrka with me. Not to mention that is compared with people below me in terms of strength.

Let’s say this was like an RPG game. If someone of my same level were to put all their points into attack or magic they would be stupidly dangerous. I, on the other hand, am a hyper survival class with a large health pool and regeneration. Now add to that an increase in defence. I really need to learn some magic and proper swordsmanship or I will end up becoming someone’s punching bag at some point.

Thinking like that I made a few more experiments. This time my focus was to try and develop a pure mana attack. However, I failed miserably. When mana gets a little away from me it becomes hard to control and dissipates. If I were to compare how fast my control over it dissipates it would be something similar to the formula for magnetic wave decay.

In the end, I had no results and so time went by until the teacher came. He is a tall, skinny man. With black hair and soft yellow eyes. A scruffy beard adorned his face yet it looked somewhat good on him. He is wearing a red robe with blue lining. His eyes are currently half closed with huge eye bags below.

“I will be your teacher today. those that believe they can start learning run formation please stand over there. The rest stand over there”

He pointed to two different sides of the courtyard. His voice was monotone and boring. It was more than obvious he was either a person with bad communication skills or he just hated his job.