In the dormitory, as the moon reigned high on this Monday night, Shii stood still with his dark and life-lacking eyes taking in the blue reflection. His thoughts were set, taking only what was necessarily before…

A black robe covered his body top-to-bottom, with casual clothes worn beneath. He took hold of the door handle of his room, slightly pushing it downwards as his ears listened for the night watch patrolling. When the footsteps had the furthest echo, his chance came, and he had left to the halls.

He stepped through the halls with his forefoot, minimizing sound while maintaining his balance. He had memorized a baseline of the halls which made moving around in the dark no big deal for him. He covertly made his way to the dorm entrance and left. 

Now on the outside, he was hit with a cool autumn breeze scented with greenery. The night watch patrolled the academy paths with torches in their hands—making a straight exit essentially impossible.

Shii took the inevitable detour and sneaked through the gardens towards the nearest academy fence. The flowers and plants of the garden had made navigation difficult in the dark but it was still nothing Shii couldn’t handle.

Facing the fence, Shii realized it was taller than what he could climb over—it was a bold and unforgiving, 9ft (convert 2 meters) tall fence.

“I guess that leaves no choice”, Shii commented before cracking his knuckles in preparation,

[ Air Compression ]

A barrier of wind manifested in the air with enough density to be solid. Shii jumped onto the barrier and utilized it as a stepping stone to jump over the fence with ease.

Having received his freedom, Shii dropped the covert stance and started running towards a certain district of this rich Elven town.

“Here I am…” Shii breathlessly remarked after minutes of running through various streets. The Entertainment District—an area with thriving nightlife, populated by the adults and ugly of the Elven Region. It still lived up to the rich and neat status of the Elven town, housing various kinds of commercial businesses. 

As Shii had taken various steps to escape, one was not too far behind. Being already aware of strangeness in one's behavior, this young boy had decided to follow. This young boy, no other than Rineri, had no issue with leaving the school perimeter, since his room had a window placed close enough to allow a quick hop on the fence, using his vest as a softening patch, he took a first dash forward to a certain tavern.

But having a certain reputation, he uses the hood of his vest to conceal his identity, together with a small skill he picked up on the way when he delivered letters to the ‘scary’ houses. With this, he entered and took place by a table next to the door, lurking to know what Shii was doing…

Shii looked around in search of a particular place, until his eyes landed on a tavern named “Alph Drink”

“Ah, this might work out”, he told himself and shifted paths to enter the tavern.

Upon pushing the door, he immediately took in the atmosphere—elves everywhere whether they be drinking, talking, dancing or what not. He received a few sights from them as his human features stood well out even from his robe.

Shii ignored the insecure feeling and arrived at the bartender’s counter.

“Hi you- human… What do you want?” The bartender asked Shii in shifting tones.

“Do you have commissions for Mercenus here?” He asked monotonically with unchanging seriousness

“Eh?! You’re just a kid, think things through before you pick up any random term and start saying it to others” The bartender replied stingingly—she was truly someone with complementary sides. A beautiful and fit elf on the outside, and an absolute hornet on the inside.

“I’m serious”, he responded in even greater gravity, “don’t take me for nothing”

“Oh, I suppose this is another impoverished kid. They’re coming up a lot these days”, The bartender thought after hearing Shii and approached the subject in a different way, “Okay then. Bring me the head of a bear all by yourself and I’ll believe you“, she stated to him before going to serve a client.

Shii accepted and turned away. He proceeded to walk out of the tavern as he picked up a nearby, concealed presence that wouldn’t fade.

“What a pain”, Shii sighed before looking forward, standing at the exit.

[Water Generation+Air Compression] he formed a thin barrier of water in mid air facing him as it allowed the lights of the tavern to reflect an image.

[Illusionary Light], immediately, a shard of light was shot into the water which repelled it as a reflection. The shard then proceeded to enter the sights of every member who was in Shii’s field of view—including a certain stalker.

The skill’s effect was simple—it was light magic that caused the target to become intensely dizzy and nauseous with a brief moment of blindness. Using this, Shii quickly dashed forward and left to the west of the tavern’s facing street in hopes to lose the stalker.

With the sudden nausea taking over his awareness, Rineri too rushed out of the tavern. Entering a side alley rather quickly, before falling to his knees—a rush of dizziness making his eyes fail to distinguish right from left. Eventually it calmed down, whereas his mind regained sight of his objective, having no clue where Shii went, he decided to go East.

As he did, he came to a rather crowded street, having various sounds that didn’t please the ears of Rineri, one of those came as likened to a scream, which yielded him into investigating this. His eyes judged over the shoulders of a gathering of people around the center of an path, his heart thudded as he glanced upon a rather grueling scene—

Shii quickly traversed the busy streets with a clear goal in mind—to enter the Elven Forest and slay a sleeping bear. He snatched an empty thin fabric bag from a resting bandwagon’s cargo and proceeded west towards the forest.

The crowds in his way slowly depleted until there were no more roads but tall arrays of trees standing forth. Shii made his entry into the forest and slowed down his pace. Knowing that the forest houses various beasts and critters alike, it was the best choice for him to avoid unnecessary trouble and to get the job cleanly done.

Shii swiftly made his way into the forest until he finally heard the sleeping snores of a heavy beast. He rushed through the bushes and entered a small cave where the snores sounded the loudest.

He took in the sight of the sleeping bear and raised his fist in preparation of launching an assault. Shii lunged forward and aimed straight for the head of the beast, he accelerated himself and prepared to deliver a heavy blow.

Immediately sensing intense bloodlust, the bear awakened in retaliation and swung its claws towards the approaching Shii.

—with his eyes wide open, Rineri pushed himself through the rows of people. The scene before his sight consisted of three to four people beating up a poor looking girl with just sloth lines covering herself. Where everyone else was either looking at them with a shocked expression or even cheering the guys up. But the main thing Rineri couldn’t stand was the fact no one did a single thing—everyone stood watching the guys kick, punch, drag the girl around—except Rineri, who was nearly getting through to the inner circle of this group.

[ Rune Bolting Strike ]

Rineri passively activated a skill, it was one the unique skills he bore, which allowed him to strike small metal bolts poking or nearly stabbing its target with a static sensation lingering after. It had the ability to temporarily disorient the affected target.

“Take someone your own len-”, but as Rineri had a tough act up, his ‘strike’ was halted; one of the four had grabbed hold of his arm and easily picked him up from the ground, wrapping his other hand around Rineri’s neck.