His push against the window was met with the gentle resistance of the wind surging through the opening he had created. Immediately, his nose was filled with the fresh smell of the trees. Looking out, the height made him feel nauseous. He was about eight meters above ground level. By looking around, he noticed that he was inside a nondescript building with 25 windows looking towards the forest. If he were to assume that each room had one window on this side of the building, this would indicate 25 other rooms around him.

‘I wonder what those rooms are for? This building seems pretty uniform, maybe they are also sick rooms?’ Alec thought before shaking his head. ‘No no... Why would they need that many sick beds in an academy? They’re probably something else.’

Scouring the walls of the building with his eyes, Alec failed to find anything that he could hold onto while climbing down. He didn’t have enough sheets to create a makeshift rope. He also didn’t know how to do so, which was another thorn in that plan.

The only remaining option he had was to jump and latch onto one of the maple trees 5 meters away from him. The distance was pretty manageable with his current physical capabilities. His only worry was not being able to hold onto the tree in time and missing it.

He would most likely break a lot of bones if that happened. He could still probably save himself using The Author’s Pen by writing some potions into existence, however, this still relied on him being able to move at all.

‘And I don’t want to suffer through that pain.’

When he started actually thinking about what to do, an idea quickly came to his mind, making Alec facepalm in shame.

‘I’ve only been using the pen to create potions. So much so that I forgot its actual function.’

Why would he need to make a makeshift rope when he could just write one into existence?

His pen weaving words into reality, Alec conjured himself a rope with a clamp on one of its tips. He attached the clamp to the heaviest furniture he could find in the room, which was a medicine closet thrice his width, before checking its stability.

‘Seems good enough, it should be able to hold on until I climb down,’ he thought before throwing the rope out the window. Still not feeling satisfied, he wrote a few iron weights and put them inside the closet one by one.

When he was done, he walked back to the window and readied himself to climb down.

‘This should be easy... I’m not scared of heights, like, at all. I’m the person that is the least scared of heights actually...’

As Alec was about to hold onto the rope, the door of the infirmary was kicked open.

‘Fuck! The guards must have heard the noises!’ Alec shouted in his head. His head momentarily snapped to the side to check who had come in, before quickly jumping to the other side of the window while holding onto the rope. His worries were thrown aside, and he started scaling down the wall of the building quickly.

“He is escaping! Quick!” Alec heard shouts pouring out from the infirmary. As he was about two meters away from the ground, the rope was cut off, causing him to fall onto his feet. Feeling a slight tension in his knees, Alec kneeled for a brief moment before dashing off into the woods as fast as he could. According to what he had scouted from his window so far, there wouldn’t be anyone patrolling around the building at this time.

Alec’s first few steps were rather clumsy from all the anxiety that had built up inside him. However, those steps quickly turned into strides as he started running at an almost inhuman speed. With each step of his carrying him two meters further, he could feel the wind brushing past his face. If the forest was any thicker, it would have been almost impossible for him to run at this pace without colliding face-first with a tree.

‘Fortunately for now, nobody seems to be close enough to catch up to me,’ Alec thought. However, he knew that this was merely a method to calm himself down. After all, he was presumably inside a magic academy. He didn’t know what the guards were capable of, let alone people like the professors.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

As he kept running, Alec noticed a few light sources further ahead into the woods, seemingly scouring the surroundings. The light rays ripping through the lesser light of the moon seemed to be the messengers telling of divine punishment to his eyes.

‘Shit! Did they already contact the others? It must be some form of magical communication!’ Alec shouted in his head. His body twisted in between his strides as he planted his right foot onto the ground before launching in another direction.

The relentless cat-and-mouse chase between himself and the guards kept going for another ten minutes, leaving Alec almost completely breathless. Unfortunately, no matter which direction he went to, different guards were waiting to greet him.

‘Have I been encircled? What do I do now? Think! Think!’ Alec urged himself to action. However, he was thoroughly flustered now. His brain could barely muster up a thought before two guards entered his vision with batons in their hands.

‘Fuck me...’ Alec thought before taking out The Author’s Pen.

[Quarterstaff]

As his words quickly formed into existence, Alec held the well-polished wooden quarterstaff with both of his hands. Even though he had fumbled his decision-making process by choosing to face the guards head-on, he at least managed to think of a good weapon against the guards with batons.

What he needed was range, however, he didn’t know how to use a gun. He also had no experience with bladed weapons, making it impractical for him to pick something like a spear or sword.

He also didn’t want to kill anyone in case he was caught. Being caught after trying to escape and being caught after trying to escape and killing someone would probably be met with two, very different punishments.

Then what was the choice?

Obviously, the best choice in this situation was a long, blunt stick to beat his adversaries into a deep coma.

Sliding his hands into the most comfortable position on the staff, Alec took in the view. He had had a very mundane life back on Earth, even for the modern human. His days passed in front of the computer, typing away at his keyboard or reading web novels. For some reason, he remembered the award ceremony he had gone to on the last day of his previous life. He felt... Relaxed, compared to then.

“Young man! There’s no need to do this! You are a ??? student of Lation Academy! Calmly come back with us and you won’t be punished!” one of the guards shouted. However, even while shouting, they seemed to be ready to pounce on him at any moment.

When met with these words, Alec couldn’t say that he wasn’t swayed. He had expected something like this to happen. However, expecting something to happen is very different from it actually happening. His resolve seemed to weaken a lot when met with the premise of going unpunished, especially considering that he didn’t know what punishment meant in this context.

However, the next moment, his grip strengthened. The cause driving him wasn’t some unyielding need for freedom, nor was it some kind of survival instinct. He simply didn’t want to be someone that gave up this easily. He felt like his respect for himself, however low it was, would be reduced if he were to drop his weapon and go back with these guards.

“No. I won’t,” Alec answered. Before he could finish his sentence, the guards had already moved. Their steps were steady, each one kicking up a small amount of dirt from the forest floor. Even Alec could tell that they had spent long years training. Fortunately, however, they seemed to be slower than what Alec was capable of.

‘I have to somehow utilize the edge I have over them,’ Alec thought. Then the next moment, he noticed that he didn’t know how to do so. The last time he had fought was back in middle school.

Not knowing what to do, with all his might, Alec swung the quarterstaff horizontally. Unfortunately, he had miscalculated the distance between himself and the guards. In an attempt to salvage the situation, he slid his left hand which was supporting the middle of the staff down and thrusted the staff forward to extend his range as much as possible.

Funnily enough, instead of dodging, the guard tried to block the attack with his weapon, which was a huge mistake. A full-strength blow from Alec was too strong for a relatively normal human to block. In a split second, the baton flew from the guard's hand and hit the other guard on his temple, making him stumble to his left.

‘What the fuck?’ Alec thought as he watched the events transpire. He hadn’t expected his swing to hit at all, not to mention it doing this much damage.

Seeing his comrade get hit with his baton, the guard tried to regain his balance. Stepping firmly on the ground, he grabbed Alec’s quarterstaff and tried to yank it away. Unfortunately for him, Alec had noticed his action early and grasped the staff firmly with both hands.

As Alec didn’t seem like he was going to let go of the staff any time soon, the guard stepped to the side and let go. He then picked up the baton again and inspected Alec’s movements, this time much more carefully. He swirled the baton in his hand before taking a careful step forward.

Seeing the focused and almost angry look on the guard’s face, Alec felt anxious.

‘Shit... I angered him...’ he muttered mentally and gulped. His eyes involuntarily shifted toward the baton in the guard’s hand. Its metallic luster under the moonlight was serene, however, threatening.

‘How bad can it hurt..?’