Chapter 558: The Loser Pays for All the Damages~
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 558: The Loser Pays for All the Damages~
After enjoying that dinner, I was ready to indulge in some leisure and relaxation. The hotel’s supporting services were quite extensive, and it would be a waste not to try them.
While it’s common knowledge for ordinary people not to exercise immediately after a meal, that didn't really apply to me. Besides, I knew they offered a gym and even spa services, though I didn't plan on trying the latter just yet.
According to Jiao Xiaoshuang, the suite provided by my Number 01 card offered many wonderful experiences, including amenities like a private sauna.
So, after a bit of light activity, I prepared to head back and enjoy those services before taking a bath to put a perfect finishing touch on the day.
However, as Jiao Xiaoshuang led me toward my suite, I spotted a figure standing there from a distance.
The person seemed to sense our approach and turned slightly. Upon seeing us, her eyes narrowed, emitting a chilling gaze—the kind of aggressive stare naturally formed by someone constantly in a state of combat. It was enough to give anyone goosebumps.
I could feel the ill intent radiating from her. The girl had long golden hair and deep, dark blue eyes that vented her displeasure, looking at me as if I personally owed her a fortune.
"You're Yang Yuehan, right?" the girl said coolly. It was phrased as a question, but her tone was certain.
"I didn't expect you to recognize me. Hello... Liliana." I was a bit surprised she knew my name, but I returned the greeting nonetheless.
The information provided by my Identification Art displayed her name and identity, even including a log of what she had been doing just moments ago. In the time it took to say hello, I already understood why she was here—and the deeper motives behind her "test."
I hadn't expected to run into trouble at my suite during this hotel stay. Well, it wasn't exactly "trouble." After all, I was terrifyingly strong now.
"Since you can call out my name, you should have a clear understanding of the gap in strength between us..."
Liliana wasn't at all surprised that I knew who she was. She believed her fame at the Witch Academy was universal; it was only natural for a little girl who had just become a Teaching Assistant to know about a senior like her.
Unfortunately, she was mistaken. If someone didn't appear directly in my field of vision, I wouldn't even bother to learn about them, let alone care about the "Teaching Assistant circle."
"If you're blocking my door just to say that, it's meaningless. It’s just like how you were arguing with someone at the hotel entrance earlier over a stupid number."
"You were there?!"
She hadn't expected me to cut her off so bluntly, much less bring up her earlier behavior.
Didn't that mean that while she was venting her impotent rage earlier, I had been standing right there watching the show?
"I was eating in the dining area. No one cares what you do; do you think I’d bother staring at you?" As I spoke, I pulled out my bidding number plate. This plate was custom-made; Jiao Xiaoshuang had told me it doubled as my room card for the suite and a shopping card for expenses.
But the moment I pulled it out, the "001" on it triggered her immediately.
"So you really are the one who took Number 01!"
"You mean this? What if I am? If you think it's unfair, go talk to the hotel management. This is the first time I've seen someone so dim-witted that they’d harass another guest over it," I mocked her without hesitation.
After all, I knew exactly what kind of person she was.
There was no need to mince words. Besides... she had clearly come here specifically to pick a fight. The room number was just a convenient excuse, and it seemed the people from the Jack-of-all-trades Club were happy to let it happen.
Perhaps I had spent too much time getting along harmoniously with the Great Witches and had forgotten that Prospective Witches aren't Witches yet. They don't necessarily feel a sense of kinship or tolerance toward their own kind. Humans... they are among the creatures most prone to envy, jealousy, and hatred toward their peers.
It seemed someone at the Witch Academy was dissatisfied with my status, or perhaps they felt I was unworthy of my position.
Regardless of what they thought, they were unhappy, and that was their problem. To them, I was an outlier—an anomaly that didn't fit into their social circles.
It made sense, though. Becoming a Teaching Assistant after only six months of enrollment? How would those who had prepared for years and still failed to pass feel about that?
As for this Liliana, she was already a Teaching Assistant. With her brain, she probably couldn't fathom how I was qualified to stand on the same level as her.
"Say that again! Who are you calling brainless!" Liliana was about to explode with rage. She never imagined the person in front of her would dare to provoke her so brazenly!
Originally, she had come here at the behest of others to test my strength. If I had been tactful, she would have just intimidated me and called it a day, reporting back that the little girl was nothing to fear and that all the "genius" talk was nonsense.
But my words had been aggressive from the start, showing her absolutely no respect. Every sentence poked at her emotions and nerves.
She was going to make me realize the price of offending her.
"By the way, does your hotel just let people like this cause trouble here? If the Jack-of-all-trades Club is this incompetent, you might as well stop running this auction house," I said, glancing sideways at Jiao Xiaoshuang.
Although she might not have known about or participated in the planning of this trouble, as a member of the Jack-of-all-trades Club, her stance was wrong. I decided to shift the heat onto them to make them sweat a little.
Jiao Xiaoshuang was clearly caught in the middle by my words and looked like she wanted to mediate.
But with both of us being Teaching Assistants, she didn't dare interfere. Furthermore, she knew Liliana and had a more direct understanding of her, which meant her fear of Liliana was quite significant.
"Go find the manager. If this lunatic trashes your hotel, don't blame me," I reminded her, seeing her looking dazed with fear.
I knew she was likely faking it, but I didn't care.
Playing dumb and acting paralyzed by fear was the best way for her to distance herself from the fallout. By not siding with anyone and claiming her mind went blank, she could avoid unnecessary trouble later.
Hearing my words, she seemed to "snap out of it." She immediately followed my lead to escape the danger zone, shouting apologies and promises to handle it as she hurried away.
As for how long it would take her to actually bring someone, she’d probably wait until the fight was over before showing up to play the peacemaker.
"Fine... Very well! You've been disrespectful from the very beginning. Do you really think becoming a Teaching Assistant means you can act like you're above everyone? Today, I'll teach you a lesson and show you what it means to respect your seniors!"
Liliana’s voice was suppressed, simmering with a rage that could erupt at any moment. As she spat out her self-righteous justifications, a crackling sound erupted around her. Lightning elements were manifesting, fueled by her surging emotions.
Meanwhile, I used the Ley Line Identification Art to finalize the integration of her data.
Liliana Elvira. That was her full name. Surprisingly, she was a member of the Witch Secret Realm Club.
She was a senior student who had been at the academy for nine years before becoming a Teaching Assistant. Her subject was the common Great Subject "Spellbook." Of course, she hadn't chosen the Great Subject itself—no one at the academy was capable of researching a Great Subject directly. Instead, she specialized in the Lightning Element within the Element Evocation field, a branch of the Evocative Magic sub-category.
It was a very specialized topic. The more specialized a subject, the easier it was to delve deep into it. Once mastery was achieved, one could move from the simple to the complex to elevate the research.
In her mind, Evocative Magic was the most violent form of magic, and lightning was the most terrifying power.
As she finished speaking, terrifying spheres of condensed plasma formed around her. The deep blue electricity emitted a blinding light, and countless arcs of lightning tore through the air, striking the floor and walls. Under this immense power, the various fixtures in the hotel corridor began to break down within the electric field.
Being the closest to her, I could feel the constant crackling in the air. Sparks began to dance across my skin and face where they met the air.
"Hmph!" Liliana snorted. With a wave of her hand, the terrifying plasma spheres reshaped themselves into sword blades. The translucent lightning condensed into edges, and the nodes formed by runes completed the spell's structure.
Being able to manipulate a spellbook’s output so freely wasn't surprising. Even without deep research into spellbooks, once a senior student's mental power evolved to the point of being able to interfere with mana, the spells released by a spellbook could be manipulated at will.
I had known this for a long time. I had even said back then... that once my mental power could interfere with mana, I could use that as a foundation to pull off some truly incredible tricks with spellbooks.
Senior students weren't fools; everyone wanted their spells to be under their total control.
She flicked her hand, and the lightning blades shot toward me. Despite her nonchalant claim of just giving me a "warning," the power of this spell was anything but simple.
The attack tore through the air with terrifying arcs, even ionizing the atmosphere and leaving a blinding trail behind.
Lightning is incredibly fast; its attack speed constantly challenges the reaction limits of the target.
Faced with this strike, I reacted instantly.
The incoming lightning seemed slow in my eyes. Everything around me appeared to decelerate. I could clearly see the flickering arcs piercing the air and ionizing their path. Every strand of electricity carried a lethal aura as it surged toward me.
There were three flying blades of condensed lightning in total. Just before they could strike my body, they were blocked by three deep-colored crystals. The moment the crystals made contact, they precipitated countless crystalline threads that spread to either side of my body. The terrifying lightning exploded violently, scattering dense arcs of electricity everywhere, but every single one was caught by the crystals and channeled into the floor, walls, and air. For a moment, the air was filled with the ear-splitting roar of thunder, but no serious damage was done to the surroundings.
These crystals came from the spellbook Dean Bev Alanna had given me—the one I called the Crystallization Art.
I hadn't researched this spell much, but that didn't mean I couldn't use it. On the contrary, with the information retrieval and processing of the Tree of Great Knowledge, I had derived many different applications for it.
For instance, this was a defensive application derived from combining the crystals with an Energy Shield spellbook. By simply substituting the material for metallic crystals, I gained high electrical and thermal conductivity. Even so, after taking the hit, the crystals had turned into high-temperature molten slag. It was clear how terrifying the power behind that strike was. If I hadn't been able to block it, I would have likely died on the spot, or at best, survived with heavy injuries.
But now... protected as I was, I remained completely unscathed.
"Hey, hey, hey~ We're off-campus. Do you really dare to use transcendent power so recklessly?" I spoke as if nothing had happened, even offering a "helpful" reminder. Her attempt at a "warning" strike looked like a complete joke.
Looking at the molten crystals dripping onto the corridor floor, Liliana frowned.
While there are many spellbooks in the Witch Academy, the types that consume between ten and a hundred points of mana are well-documented.
For someone skilled in combat, they had channels to learn about the limited number of spellbooks in the academy and how to counter them.
High-level combat usually required very little thought. One look at the opponent's hand as they prepared a spell was enough to know how to counter it. They carved these reactions into their instincts, forming their own combat styles that made them invincible in the academy's practical battles!
But at this moment, she realized she didn't recognize the defensive spell I had used.
A defensive spell that could so easily block her strike couldn't possibly be a low-level spellbook consuming only a few points of mana. Yet, she didn't recognize it! Not only that, but this defensive spell seemed specifically designed to counter her lightning magic system.
I hadn't blocked it with brute force; I had used a more sophisticated method, leveraging the properties of the lightning element to guide the attack away!
Shocked as she was, she wasn't afraid. It was just a minor surprise.
"Those with strength naturally have privileges!" Liliana spat, expressing her disdain for someone like me who followed the rules.
An even more terrifying power erupted from her. The roaring lightning instantly fried all the circuits on this floor. A massive amount of electronic equipment was destroyed in an instant. The originally bright suite corridor plunged into darkness, illuminated only by the flickering flashes of electricity.
Clearly, she was casting aside all restraint and intended to go all out!
"Fine then. The one who loses miserably... remember to pay for all the damages to the hotel."
I didn't hold back either. Since she was being so unreasonable, there was no need for me to be polite.
The Book in the Box quietly appeared in my hand.
Her weapon was a chain that resembled a whip. Amidst the flashing lightning, the Chain of Thunder coiled around her body with terrifying momentum. The spacious corridor felt too small for her display; the entire hallway was filled with lightning, dealing indiscriminate damage to everything nearby.
Fortunately, no one else was staying on this floor for the moment. After all, the suites on the same level as Room 01 were reserved for the most distinguished guests.
"Yang Yuehan... right? Let me teach you exactly how... to show some respect to your seniors! You're just a brat who’s been here for six months and became a Teaching Assistant through the back door... You have no right to be a TA like m—"
Liliana’s presence had just reached its peak. To create this "home field" advantage, she had poured most of her power into this moment!
The opponent was just a freshman who had been here for half a year. Half a year! When she had been here for half a year, she was still being bullied in class...
Yet this person had achieved in six months what had taken her until nearly graduation to accomplish. The sheer unfairness of it made her want to go mad with envy.
The world was too unfair, even in the Witch Academy!
But before she could finish her sentence, she saw me pull out a book box. She was about to mock me, thinking a spellbook couldn't bridge the gap between them.
In her eyes, the gap between a senior and a junior was wider than the gap between a human and a beast!
But before the words could leave her mouth, she realized my figure had vanished from where I stood.
By the time her eyes caught my silhouette, it was too late!
I appeared in front of her at a speed she couldn't comprehend.
But... the lightning around her! Her lightning domain, her weapon, all the measures she had deployed—none of it could stop me.
Teleportation!
That was the only possibility she could think of. But how could I have cast such a spell without any warning?
She didn't understand!
But her lack of understanding didn't change the outcome. She only felt a massive force strike her abdomen. In that instant, she didn't even have time to register the pain; she only knew that a colossal force was sending her flying backward...
When she finally did react, a piercing pain radiated from her stomach... and a single sentence lingered in her mind like a demon's whisper.
"So, your body is actually this frail~"
How long had it been since she developed her undying nature that someone had dared to mock her like this?
She struggled to open her eyes. Her blurred vision fell resentfully upon the object that had struck her abdomen. It was the corner of the very spellbook she had been about to mock...