Blood continued to spill making Xael's face and hands a bloody mess. He kept rubbing his face causing for it to smear on half of his face. With a large amount of blood on his lips dripping to his chin along with his hand entirely covered with blood. He looked like someone straight out of Sunday the thirteenth movie.
Coincidentally the panicked girl who was slowly calming down due to her classmates and professor's placation, turned her head and gazed at Xael's direction. During which Xael accidentally licked the blood on his lips. He looks like a vampire who had his feast. She didn't have time to scream or anything at all. Her eyes rolled up as her body fell. She fainted due to intense shock.
The classmates nearest to her immediately caught her heavy body as they also panicked too. The young professor widened her eyes before quickly instructing the boys who were carrying the fainted girl. "Send her to the clinic! Nothing should happen to her, or I'll be held accountable!"
"Pass your papers on the podium in front and don't forget to mark your works for your names. If I don't see your names, I'll automatically mark you zero for this activity." She hastily instructed as she went along with fainted girl towards the clinic.
Because of what happened to the girl, it all of the other's attention so they missed Xael's predicament. It took him a lot of time before finding a clean handkerchief on his pocket. He wiped his face clean along with his hands before pressing the handkerchief on his nose fir it to absorb the blood.
"Now where was it, I swear I brought the mark with me." Xael muttered as he rummaged under the desk with only one hand. A mark is similar to a custom signature press wherein the name and signature is carved to be a stamp. However, in this world you can only have one mark that is issued by the royal family to each registered citizen of the empire. And they will record the corresponding mark with the specific magic inscribed on the stamp. The inscribed magic is so that teachers, officials, or any others could verify that you are really that person.
It is also a part of the royal family's secret of what the inscribed magic is that the stamp could be made useless if another person used it instead of the owner. It's a very counter effective measure against impersonators or robbers. There were rumors that it was binding magic however it was soon denied by the royal family. Binding magic were soon banned all over the world du e to the implementation of the agreed law of all major kingdoms.
"Found it!" Xael exclaimed as he grabbed the mark. He stamped it on each of the paper inscribed with his mana circles. With his handkerchief still pressed on his nose, he stood up and walked towards the podium. Calmly he placed his papers neatly and walked back towards his seat.
His other classmates saw this and started murmuring to what he passed on the podium. Some curious people walked towards the podium and checked his papers. "What the hell hahahaha! This mana circle looks like it's drawn by a blind chicken."
Xael's lips twitched when he heard the comment. The student showed Xael's work to everyone to which they all laughed loudly in unison. For a few moments the whole classroom was filled with ridiculing laughter. Xael finally couldn't help but turn his head and stared towards the person who was holding his activity sheet.
"What's going on guys?" The students who lifted their classmate who fainted towards the clinic has now just come back.
"Oh Denis, how was Laura?" The student holding Xael's paper asked.
"It was nothing serious, the clerics said it was due to shock. By the way what's that on your hand Larry?" Denis asked curiously before taking the paper on Larry's hand. There he saw the first magic circle inscribed by Xael.
"Oh it's-" Larry was interrupted when he heard his classmate exclaim.
"What the fuck! This is even terrible than my grandma's doodles! Hahaha Did you draw this, Larry? Ahahahaha I didn't know you were worse than my grandma." Denis laughed until tears came out of his eyes. He was laughing so hard he bent down and hugged his stomach as he felt pain due to his muscle's cramping. "In fact, I didn't know someone could be much terrible at mana circles than Granny. She'll be happy when she knew she has finally found a comrade in arm when it comes to this."
Larry's face turned dark with Denis booming laugh. He finally couldn't help but shout and point towards Xael. "It's not mine! It's his okay!"
Denis's laughter stopped as he turned towards Xael. There he met Xael's piercing sky-blue eyes. Right, he almost forgot. He saw it too. He was Laura's groupmate, and he also heard their discussion about Xael's mental illness. Coincidentally, he also saw Xael's bloody face earlier. The one which Laura saw.
Denis couldn't help but gulp. Now Xael looked clean except a black handkerchief covering his nose and mouth. As if what he saw earlier was just his illusion.
"H-Hey, can you slap me?" Denis couldn't help but ask Larry.
"With pleasure." Larry, who was still fuming with rage, slapped Denis on his left cheeks hard.
"Ow! Why'd you slap me that hard?!" He clutched his aching cheek as he turned towards Larry who just grinned and shrugged his shoulders. "Piece of advice, you better not mess with him. He... Has connections with ghosts I think."
Larry's eyebrows twitched with what Denis said. He couldn't help but think that he's friend's asking for another slap on his face with the crazy things he's spouting. "Ha! Ghosts? He couldn't even absorb mana because he's an essenceless failure. How could he even commune with ghosts!"
"You! What are you looking at former prodigy?!" Larry grew irritated due to the intense stare of Xael. His sky-blue eyes as if piercing into their soul.
However, what they didn't know was that Xael was cursing in his mind too. Your mother! First, he was compared to a blind chicken and now to a grandma. Does he look like a joke to them? Although he's really not talented but hey they're taking it way too far. Xael finally stood up. Immediately all the focus was on him. Their classmate stared at what was happening like an audience.
Larry upon seeing him stood up, took it as Xael being riled up. "What? Can't accept what I just said? It's the truth though. And everyone knows that."
"Okay you've proven your point. I'm a magicless waste etcetera. Now return my activity sheets back to the podium before it gets damaged." Xael calmly replied as he pocketed one of his hands. His other hand was still occupied with pressing his handkerchief on his nose.
"So, what if it gets damaged? This is just a scribble. A terrible scribble at that. I bet a hundred percent this doesn't even have any magic. Don't believe me? Do you still want to see with your own eyes how magicless you are?" Larry grabbed the paper back from Denis and showcased it in front of the class. "Here I'll activate your so-called inscribed mana circles to break your delusion."
Xael immediately noticed what the mana circle was on Larry's hands. It was the first mana circle he inscribed. Good news and bad news are, he's an amateur. Either the inscribing he worked on could malfunction, and it doesn't work, or he succeeded perfectly by some luck. The first mana circle he inscribed was an explosion type mana circle. Although it was stated to be a novice level in the book, but he doesn't know the exact firepower of it.
Hey, you can't blame him for choosing a mana circle like that. He doesn't know the directions and he's sure they wouldn't be willing to even talk to him and give him information. So, he chose randomly. Plus creating an explosive mana circle seems cool to him.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you. Now put it back down." Xael tried persuading him again.
"What? afraid to face the reality that you're a waste? Too late I've 'activated' it." A faint light emanated from Larry's palm and the light traced the mana circle. However, even after the light finally completely dimmed, there still wasn't any reaction coming from the paper.
'Did it not work?' Xael thought to himself as he somehow breathed a sigh of relief.
"Ha! See I told you ---"
Boom!
A bright light started emitting from the mana circle on Larry's hand and what comes after that was a deafening loud noise of explosion. Fire could be seen erupting at high speed as the soundwave from the sudden explosion pushed the others away.
Xael closed his eyes and reflexively covered his face with his hands; he was pushed back by the strong force of the explosion causing his back to hit the wall near the window. The glasses shattered causing debris of shards of glass flying everywhere. The building trembled and the other students and professors in the building were alarmed.
With labored breaths Xael opened his blurry eyes and stared at the surroundings, The desks were burnt black, and the fire were already extinguished. He could hear vague noises of people shouting in the background before finally fainting.
On the other side of the campus stood ten students who wore different uniforms. Each one of them strikingly different from each other yet one distinguishing feature is the similarities they have the most. They prodigies. Geniuses who were fostered and cultured. They were currently being assisted inside the gate when they heard a loud boom go off in the distance.
The Vice principal grew flustered as a professor ran to him and informed him about what took place. His face grew ashen before turning towards the ten students in front of him. "I'm sorry but I'd have to attend to something urgent. An instructor will be here quickly to guide inside the school and help you settle in the dormitories."
After that, the vice principal quickly dashed heading towards the source of the explosion. Leaving them all along at the front gate.
"Hey hey, did you hear that? That was quite a loud explosion yah?" A blond-haired guy chuckled as he turned towards the others.
"We're not deaf Xylem, we heard." A blond-haired girl replied with her poker face. You can see the similarities of them at first sight; the only difference would probably their eyes to which Xylem having golden eyes and the girl an ocean colored one.
"Aw c'mon cous. Don't you find it interesting?" The man named Xylem hugged his cousin's arm as his eyes sparkled while staring towards the direction of the explosion.
"It really is interesting. I thought the visit at Grehan Academy would be boring but looks like they have a surprise waiting for us." Another male student took a step forward and gazed towards the sky where a smoke was rising. His purple hair swaying in the wind as his teal-colored eyes brightened.
"True, the news about their waste of a prodigy was a bummer. But hey there might be someone much more amusing than him here. Don't you think so Captain?" A navy-blue haired male turned towards one of his companions.
"Hmph no one's more amusing than me in Captains eyes right Captain?" A silver haired girl crossed her arms as she glared at the navy-blue haired male who let out a chuckle.
"Yea you're amusing because you look like a clown." He commented causing the girl to grow angry. Xylem laughed along with the joke of the Navy-blue haired guy causing him to earn a palm print on his cheeks.
"Brutal clown..." Xylem muttered under his breath as he rubbed his stinging cheeks. earning another threatening glare from the girl.
Meanwhile the man they called captain just stood there unresponsive. His solemn gaze staring silently towards a certain direction. He was quite tall among his peers of prodigy and the aura around him simply makes him more noticeable than the others. As if it would be a sin if you don't acknowledge his mere presence.
It wasn't long before an old man came running towards them. He was out of breath as if he ran a thousand miles. "H-hello, please let me guide you this way."
They were then directed to enter the gates and proceed towards the administrative building for their enrolling procedure. They were supposed to study here for one semester before going back to their respective Academies.
On the other hand, Xael was still disoriented when he felt someone grabbing his arm and dragging him outside the room and towards the hallway. He could vaguely see that most of them didn't sustain any serious injuries and just lost consciousness due to the shock. Unfortunately, Larry who was originally holding and activated the mana circle sustained a massive burn on his right arm.
Xael could see him being placed on a stretcher groaning in pain as he clutched his arm. Denise also sustained burns, but it was only minor burns since he was a few distance away from him. In his peripheral vision, he saw how the young professor who just returned from the clinic dropped her jaw to the floor and almost fainted too due to the shock.
She was just assisting a student who lost consciousness earlier and now the next thing she knew was that she came back to a burnt classroom with all her students losing consciousness too. The other responders noticed her and helped her stabilize.
As the Principal and Vice Principal came, they hurriedly organized the whole class to be transported inside a restoring facility to which they laid them each on the floor. Three clerics from the medical building arrived and started casting healing spells. After almost twenty minutes of continuous casting, all of them started regaining their consciousness.
"Now I want an explanation Ms. Grevanta!" The principal questioned as the situation started to calm down. The young professor Ms. Grevanta stuttered to explain that she wasn't at the scene when it happened to which earned a reprimand from the principal.
"You tasked them the activity of inscribing mana circles which needs the provision of instructors! And you carelessly left them there!" The principal's face turned red in anger. "Don't you know that we're losing face to the other Ten Major Academies! Their exchange students arrived just in time for the explosion!"
While Larry's hands were being covered with gauze His eyes fluttered open as he regained consciousness. He heard what they were talking about and immediately he remembered what happened. 'It was him! That waste! Because of him both my hands are burned!'
Seething with rage he turned to the principal and started putting the blame. "It was Xael Mr. Principal! He was the cause of the explosion!"
Immediately everyone turned their head towards Xael who just regained his consciousness. What welcomed his blurry gaze was the familiar panel of light.
[Urgent Task: Clear Up Your Name]
[Task Reward: 75 VXP, Random Low Level Skill Pack.]