The Sinful Saint

Before Si Sheng left the Conference Hall, Fenulis pulled him aside, out of earshot of Bythre and Marrie, who continued to bicker back and forth. He got straight to the point without any extra fluff.

"I'm sorry for my son's behavior towards you, earlier this week. Everything he was taught about Humans is that they are "devilish" and "evil beings". I failed to inform him before you met him, thus, I'm sorry. Can you forgive my son, on behalf of myself?"

"..."

To be honest, Si Sheng hadn't really taken offense to, or thought what Bralvi did was offensive, given the circ.u.mstances. To be honest, he didn't really care as long as he was alive and well. But, being the one who taught his son such prejudices and ideas, Fenulis thought he had to take responsibility for his son's actions, simply as a responsible father.

After a moment of silence, Si Sheng responded to Fenulis, "While I wasn't harmed due to having a peculiar set of Skills, anyone of similar strength as myself would've been instantly killed had they been put in the same situation. I know it wasn't truly his fault and I don't think it is something that needs to be pursued further. But, it would be beneficial to you and to Bralvi if you taught him that not all humans are evil, despite what has happened, but to remain vigilant against them, instead."

Despite spewing what felt like an elder scolding a younger person, Si Sheng felt that this would also be beneficial to himself. It would mean the prince would start to look at humans with a wary eye instead of one that held hostility, greatly improving potential, future interactions with humans. This would also help smooth things over at the academy since Bralvi was most likely a leading figure there. Those situations where arrogant and ignorant hooligans bothering him would certainly decrease significantly, on top of the decrease that would already happen thanks to the announcement. It would be a peaceful time where Si Sheng could study all he wanted and learn as much as he could, integrating his knowledge from Earth with that of this new world. Or, so he hoped.

***

After the announcement ended and Fenulis parted ways with them, Si Sheng and Bythre returned to the Institute.

While walking back, more people looked at Si Sheng and Bythre than usual, whispering and pointing fingers. They had obviously seen or heard the announcement and were very curious about the visitor. Si Sheng and Bythre ignored it as if they were unaware of the murmurs surrounding them.

By the time they got back, it was already evening. They had stopped to get dinner prior to their return and were quite content to stay in for the night.

Unlike usual, Si Sheng didn't have much on his mind. He had sorted out most of the issues that were currently plaguing him and filed them away somewhere in his mind.

Si Sheng plopped down on a couch when he and Bythre got back to her office, and as he did, Bythre said, "So, your uniform should be here tomorrow. Do you know what classes you want to attend? I have a list if you want to look over them again."

Earlier in the week, Bythre had given Si Sheng a list of classes that he could enroll in. There was a wide variety of classes, ranging from the liberal arts, to magical studies, to combat arts, etc. Virtually any subject they had a class for. It wasn't the number one school in the nation for nothing.

While Si Sheng was most interested in magic, he was relatively clueless when it came to hand-to-hand combat, despite how well he was able to move his body. In the future, if he found someone able to keep up with Blink, and they had the same level of skill, he would most likely lose the fight with them. Si Sheng's only real ability in close-combat was Blink, and he knew it. He used it often and it was the core of his skill set, currently.

So, Si Sheng thought it would be good to at least practice either Swordsmanship, for which he already had the martial skill for, or knife skills, for which he had been practicing for the past couple of months.

After deliberating the decision for some time, Si Sheng had come to the conclusion of taking a Swordsmanship class.

While he did think knife skill were important, the future wasn't certain. Si Sheng didn't know if his knife would always reach his opponent, or if he could even approach an enemy to strike with a knife. Additionally, he didn't particularly want to become an assassin-type fighter, or a thief-type either. He wanted to use magic as his main weapon, but he would need a secondary weapon to fight with and a knife wasn't sufficient enough to do so. Thus, he decided on the sword.

The reason as to why he wasn't interested in other weapons, like spears or maces, was because they were either not his style, like the spear, or too awkward and not versatile enough for his needs, like the mace. However, he wouldn't disregard them just because of that. A sword wasn't an omnipotent weapon; in certain cases, a spear would be better than a sword, or a mace would be better as well. But, for general purpose fighting, the sword suited Si Sheng more than any other weapon.

As for the other classes, Si Sheng knew what he wanted, but he was skeptical as to their worth to him.

For one, he had only heard and read about "gifted" skills, ones that he could only gain through killing and eating someone. As for the magic classes on the list he had obtained, he didn't understand how or if he would be able to learn them since he didn't have a "gift" for them. However, his doubts were cleared up as soon as he asked Bythre about it.

"Not being able to learn it? That's idiotic, all it is, is memorization and practice. You can learn any spell, even if it isn't a gift. The gifts just make it easier for people to use that type of magic and also gift them with chants and procedures on how to cast certain magics within their gift. It isn't like it is a requirement for you to have said gift. Is that how you seriously thought of magic~ Pfft—hahah~"

Looking at it now, that made sense. It would be idiotic if one couldn't learn any magic besides the ones gifted. If that were the case, then magic technology and magic in general wouldn't have advanced and only a select few would ever hold power based on their innate gifts. It would be a world where only the lucky would ever rule. What a horrible world that would be.

"So, other than gifting innate magic to people, do gifts give other advantages over the learned counterpart?" Si Sheng asked another question that immediately popped into his mind after what Bythre had told him.

"Yea, if you're gifted with an innate magic, the strength of and ability to learn related magic skills are increased. You can think of it as being talented in that type of magic. In the case of unique gifts, they are most times new ways to use said branch of magic that a person innately knows, which many have used to further the understanding of each branch of magic."

That was quite interesting. To Si Sheng, who was someone that could see a "status board", he thought that it was a boost given thanks to the Magic Skill on one's Status. Otherwise, there was no other explanation he could come up with that fit the given information. This would allow him to quickly analyze a person's magical strengths and preferences in combat, within a margin of error. He wondered if this would apply to other skills, like Martial Skills, as well. Whatever the case was, it was a good snippet of information.

For the unique gifted magic Bythre mentioned, Si Sheng found it quite interesting as well. From what he could interpret, people with unique magic would usually become either test subjects or researchers driving forth the understanding of their particular branch of magic. If one owned a unique magic, they'd either have a great future ahead or the possible horrible fate of being a lab rat. It made Si Sheng wary of unique skills. They were the most mysterious thing about the skill system that he had found. They were completely random and possibly horrendously strong. If controlled, they could be a great force, but if left unchecked, they could end up being the target of various forces that saw them as a threat. While this was interesting, it didn't have anything to do with Si Sheng for the time being. For him, who had no contact with someone who had a unique skill, to his knowledge, it wouldn't matter if they ended up a lab rat or a great general. It was not his problem.

"The last classes I'll sign up for are Space-time Magic, Magical Theory 1, and Magical Engineering 1."

"Hmm~ interesting choices. I'm guessing you chose Space-time Magic because you are gifted in that magic, right?"

"Something like that."

The reality was quite different, while it was true that that was a part of why he chose Space-time magic, it wasn't the main factor. The main reason was dimensional storage. If he could have a personal dimension in which he could store his various items, it would be a heaven-sent skill. Not only would he not have to worry about carrying light, he could store all the various texts and whatnot that were useful to him and take them wherever he went. He could even be in the middle of a blizzard and pull out a warm meal if he wanted to; it was a very useful, if not a necessary skill to learn.

As for the other two classes, Magic Theory 1 was one thing he could not skip out on. The lecture Si Sheng had attended earlier in the week was a lecture from this class series. The information he gained in that short amount of time had significantly increased his understanding of magic and the nature of mana, although indirectly. If he could get that much out of one lecture, Si Sheng could only imagine what he could get out of a full course.

A similar reason was applied to Magical Engineering 1. He thought it would be able to help him fill the gaps in his knowledge that would be missing from Magic Theory 1; essentially a complimentary course. This class also served as a way for him to compare and contrast Engineering from Earth with Magical Engineering. If he could use his knowledge of engineering and apply it to magical engineering, Si Sheng couldn't even begin to imagine what he could create with such a combination.

In total, the classes Si Sheng would be taking were: Swordsmanship 1, Space-Time Magic 1, Magic Theory 1, and Magical Engineering 1.

***

After the Fenulus' announcement was made, many undercurrents started to move around Alfheim. The news about Humans came as a shock to many elves. The oldest elves of the general populace were in their 300s, the typical lifespan of a pureblood elf.

With the acknowledgement of the existence of Humans, a change had quickly taken place in the First Institute.

The change was the creation of a new class, one that would teach students about Humans, their biology, history, abilities, etc. It was a class only offered in the First Institute since the materials used as the basis for the class were all gifted to the institution by the King himself. There was a limited amount of information and Fenulus had no reason to send any to other places.

The world they lived in was not in the Information Age like the original world Si Sheng came from. Books and papers were harder to mass produce, even though they had the means of supply. It was obvious to see that the Elven Nation didn't have a technology like the printing press.

One of the main reasons for this disparity was the presence of magic. It was such a useful tool that many disregarded mechanical innovation and instead chose to pursue magic. While magical engineering was a step in the right direction, this world would need many centuries to catch up with Si Sheng's original world, given what Si Sheng had already discovered.

That aside, the creation of a class teaching about the specificities of Humans was widely popular. It was like people seeing an exotic animal for the first time, wanting to see how weird and different the animal was. Despite the wow factor, it was created in the middle of a semester, which meant most people were already halfway through their other classes, while this one would just be starting. Many wouldn't want to attend. But many people still joined the class. As an incentive, the class would fulfill a number of graduation requirements for those who took it, and it would also end on time with the other classes, so it was more like a quarter, rather than a semester class.

This class served as a gateway into a new future for the elves. At least, this was one of the thoughts of King Fenulus. He wanted to educate the young elves about humans instead of hiding their existence away. If he wanted to hide humans from his people, he would have driven Si Sheng away at first sight. He was different from his predecessor, he wanted to eventually break free from the chains the Fujin Empire bound to them. He was tired of living like ants in a model anthill, just scurrying around and surviving in an isolated environment all for the amus.e.m.e.nt of their captors. His people deserved better, and he wanted what was the best for his people.

When Si Sheng showed up, it gave him the impetus to put his plan into action. For a long time he had wanted to break the encirclement of the Fujin Empire, but no one was in agreement about whether they should attack or not. Some abstained from input while others disagreed and chose to remain isolationists. However, with Si Sheng's presence, he could proceed and open up the path towards his end goal, war and freedom.

***

"Dammit, that Fenulus! I thought I handled it perfectly. I had enough dirt on the various instructors at the First Institute that they shouldn't have approved of this course, so how?? How did they let this slip through?!"

He was greatly enraged when he learned that the class had actually passed the review board at the First Institute, and became an actual class. He had gathered various amounts of information about each member on the review board for this exact inevitability, ever since Si Sheng had shown up, and had used it to blackmail the members into obeying his wish. But, even then, the class still passed!

He immediately realized what had happened.

With a class like this, Fenulus wouldn't have trusted the review board to pass the class since Fenulus was aware of the people lurking in the shadows. The man easily understood the sequence of events that allowed the class to be ratified. The simplest explanation was that Fenulus went directly to Bythre and had her confirm the class. That was the only way the class would be passed without going through his corrupt review board. Thus, the man was immediately enraged by Fenulus' actions!

"If that's how you are gonna play, just you wait, there's a real surprise in store! HAHAHAHA!"

As the man laughed like a crazed loon, the beginnings for various events were starting to be put into place as conflict in ideals strained relations.

***

At the same time, in a location far away from any city in the Elven Forest, one could see movement coming from the floor of the forest as numerous beings moved toward a particular mountain.

The mountain in question had a reddish tint to it and stood out among the green roof of the forest. However, the base of the mountain at this time didn't look so red. If one were looking from above, it looked as if a swarm of ants had cl.u.s.tered together, blotting out the land beneath them. However, the beings that had littered the ground around the base of the mountain were no ants. If one looked close enough from a distance, one might be struck with horror and helplessness in front of the massive front.

The beings were monsters. They were the various species that inhabited the elven forest and were the main danger of the forest as well. They had all gathered in this one location. For what reason, no one knew. Whatever it was, it was nothing good. Only peril stood to happen in the wake of this massive horde of wild, ravenous beasts.

GRAAAAAAH!!!

A loud shout came from the monster, which quieted down those who had collected across the mountainside.

When it had the attention of the other monsters, it started waving its arms and hands around making gestures along with grunts and noises as if trying to convey some sort of message. If an intelligent species were to see this, they would have no idea what the monster was trying to convey since the level of language it was using was so low that it would be hard to comprehend. However, the monsters understood the large monster and started howling, roaring, hollering, and making various sounds in response to the large monster's speech. If one were to try to interpret the meaning of these actions, one would most likely conclude this as a rallying call to action. Said action was obvious: war.