The Second Page

With the approval of Isabella, Wang Jin now had a surefire way of leaving the Academy. Given a bit of time, he'd be out of here soon enough.

"So, I was saying…"

"Whoops."

Unaware of the foot his assailant had stretched out in front of him, Wang Jin unknowingly tripped.

He caught a subtle glance of a wall of electric sparks enclosing in on him as he fell to the ground. With a loud thump, he landed on the hard concrete floor and was instantly assaulted by countless electric shocks.

Unable to even react, Wang Jin was left alone to endure the full force of three thousand volts as the electric cage his assailant created mercilessly struck him.

"W-Wang Jin! Ar..e you okay?!"

Isabella stretched her hand out the door, attempting to pull Wang Jin out of the cage.

However, the moment she got close, the excess electricity shot out towards her, forcing the alchemist to retreat.

Thinking quickly, Isabella shot a momentary glance at the small mud-colored ball she stored in her lab gown's pocket.

"Please brace yourself!" She shouted, before chucking one of the balls at the cage.

The moment the ball made contact with the floor in the cage, it released its contents, a mud pool, all around the area it landed. From there, the pool of mud began bubbling, and the earth beneath it shook.

No less than two seconds later, a massive arm of mud emerged from the pool and wrapped its fingers around Wang Jin's convulsing body.

Then, it threw his almost-unresponsive body through Class 1-AL's door. That wasn't all, though.

Once Isabella had confirmed the safety of Wang Jin, she released her mental hold on the mud ball, and allowed it to do as it wished.

Then, from the once tiny ball that barely covered half of Isabella's palm, it expanded into a hulking mass of mud. It had no set form, choosing to switch between multiple different appearances when it could.

But most of the time, it stayed in a golem-like form, using its terrifying size to intimidate the one it recognized as the perpetrator of this "prank."

"Liam… of course it was you, goddamn simp."

Despite his worn out image accompanied by his deteriorating health, Wang Jin still found the time to utter insults at the person responsible for his current state.

"My bad, Wang Jin. Didn't expect you to walk into my foot. You must be blind, hm?"

Not having the energy to reply and almost at the brink of passing out, Wang Jin was about to give in to sleep's increasingly growing control over him when he noticed Isabella get up from her place and walk towards him.

The way she moved was almost… inspiring. It was like she had no fear of Liam attacking her. Rather, she was challenging him to do so!

The slow, rhythmic steps Isabella took echoed throughout the hallway. The moment she reached Liam, who, by the way, stood there watching with a condescending smirk on his face, she raised her hand.

With a loud smack, her hand ran across his face in a slap.

"Don't ever come here again."

"Relax! I was just playing with him. See ya later, Wang Jin."

***

"That hurt like a bitch… gah, my foot."

A few hours later, a injured Wang Jin woke up in the infirmary.

"Good morning."

Beside him, Wang Jin could see Isabella. By the looks of it, she had been with him the whole time he was asleep.

Still, that didn't do much to change her kind attitude. With a smile, he thanked the girl.

"Thanks for helping me back there. I can't ever seem to get that idiot and his girlfriend off my back."

"What happened, anyway? Did something occur between the three of you?"

"On my first day here, I got accused by Lilian of attempted assault. It was an accident that I wish didn't happen, hah."

"That's horrible! Won't you do something about it?"

"Heh, nothing works. Lilian is the younger sister of Cendria Macador. She's got a whole gang of goons right behind her, working to gain her praise."

"But there's gotta be something you can do! Have you tried going to the professors?"

While it seemed like a perfectly reasonable solution to the problem, that wouldn't fly in this school. For one, most professors will simply tell the bullied to find a way to fix it themselves, the optimal way to do so usually through the proposing of duels.

That is, if they even bothered to listen or believe the problem was real.

"Nah, they'd probably just laugh at me and tell me to deal with it. Anyway, speaking of professors, I gotta ask. Has Professor replied yet? My phone probably broke from Liam's prank on me, so I don't think I'll be able to hit her up."

"Ah, yes, about that! She agreed! Here. I btook the liberty to text her myself." Reaching into her pockets, Isabella pulled out her phone and showed her text conversation with Professor Calliope.

Taking the phone and swiping through it to read her reply, Wang Jin sighed in relief.

"Sure, Isabella. Tell Wang Jin that I heard about what happened to him. I hope he gets better. And about the special permission trip, I think I can pull some strings in order to arrange for you a way out. Take as much time it is with whatever you're doing, but make sure to come back before the second semester."

"P.S, the only reason I'm doing this is because my cute little sister Isabella asked."

With an expression of gratitude, Wang Jin shook Isabella's hands and thanked her again.

"No, it's okay, really! Good luck on your trip."

***

After bidding farewell to Isabella and receiving the green light from the doctor, Wang Jin was released.

It was still quite early, being no less than three hours past the first half of the day. Wang Jin still had time to prepare his belongings. Not that he had much to bring with him.

After stuffing whatever clean clothes he could find into a rather large duffel bag, Wang Jin made his way to the nearest bus stop, hoping to hitch a ride to the outer district.

"Hah… it's pretty cold today. Should've brought a jacket, brrr…"

But, as Fate would have it, he was never going to rest easy. At least, not until he was still alive.

No less than two seconds later, Wang Jin heard footsteps coming up from behind him. Thinking it belonged to one of the night owls, he decided to ignore it.

That is, until he felt a strong amount of killing intent being directed toward him.

"There you are, Wang Jin. Do you have any idea how long I've been looking for you, bastard child?"

"Back off, Kiemon."

"It's Kaemon! Kaemon Jin. You guys kept mispronouncing my name, even back when we were kids! Have the times done nothing to change your crude behaviour?"

"That's what I said, Kaimon."

"It's Kaemon, you hear me? K-ai-mo-n."

"Whatever it is, you picked a bad time to disturb me, buddy. I've got a bit of pent up anger inside me, and I've wanted to let it rip for a while now. How'd you find me, anyway?"

Kaemon then went on to explain the effects of his killing of Kruos did to the Jin clan. While Kruos wasn't necessarily an important family member, the fact that Wang was able to defeat him was already surprising.

After all, he was once known as the weakest amongst the members of the clan.

"Once the clan received news of Kruos' passing, they diverted a good portion of their attention to work towards hunting you down. The once powerless Wang… now a student at the esteemed Hero Academy. Imagine how surprised the elders were when they heard that."

"But anyway, that's not what I'm here for. Sure, killing you will please the elders and net me a good position within the clan, but that's not what I want. You have it, don't you? The first page of Body Techniques."

"What makes you think that?" Wang Jin asked.

"Just a hunch. But now I've confirmed it. I'l propose you a deal, Wang Jin. If you defeat me, you can take this."

Kaemon pulled out the second book beside him. Indeed, there it was. The second page of Body Techniques.

If Wang Jin had that, he felt his strength would grow exponentially, perhaps even enough to push him closer to the next rank.

"But if I win… I'm going to bring you back to the Sky Continent, and let the elders decide what to do with you."