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While Ash ignored the protagonist, only giving him a brief glance, the same could not be said for Lith.
As Lith sat among the middle rows, Solus warned him from within his mind.
Lith frowned slightly.
"Is he Awakened?" he asked mentally.
"It appears so," Solus replied.
Lith's eyes narrowed.
"Then it would be better to stay alert around him. He is clearly stronger than us right now. I don't want to find out what might happen if he learns about you or discovers that I am Awakened as well."
Solus agreed.
"That would be the safest approach."
Meanwhile, Ash found himself dealing with a completely different problem.
"Bastard, how dare you sit there? Only nobles like us are allowed to use the front row."
The speaker was a well-dressed young man accompanied by four followers.
Ash looked at them calmly.
For a moment, he almost laughed.
'This guy really can't tell how much stronger I am than him.'
Then he remembered that, unlike Awakened individuals, normal mages couldn't accurately judge another person's true strength.
Suddenly, the behavior made much more sense.
Ash simply looked at the noble mockingly.
The expression immediately enraged him.
"Are you looking down on me?"
The noble stepped forward and attempted to slap Ash across the face.
Before his hand could reach its target, Ash casually pointed a finger downward.
Instantly, all five boys were slammed onto the floor.
Bang!
The entire classroom turned silent.
Ash had simply increased the density of the air around them while using Spirit Magic to push them downward.
The result was overwhelming.
The five students found themselves pinned against the floor, unable to move.
"W-What is this?!"
"I can't move!"
The noble struggled desperately.
Ash stood up from his seat and walked toward them.
His expression remained calm.
"Now listen carefully."
The pressure increased slightly.
Several of them groaned in pain.
"I don't care which noble family you come from."
"This is the academy. Nobody here cares about your title."
Ash crouched down until he was looking directly into the noble's eyes.
"So if I hear you bothering me again, I will personally break every bone in your body before helping a healer put them back together."
The classroom became even quieter.
No one doubted he was serious.
The pressure increased once more.
Several joints began producing uncomfortable cracking sounds.
However, Ash knew exactly where the academy's safety enchantments would activate, so he stopped well before causing any permanent injuries.
After a few more seconds, he released the spell.
The five boys immediately gasped for breath.
Before they could stand up, Ash healed their minor injuries.
That way, there would be no visible evidence left behind.
"You..." the dandy noble began angrily.
Unfortunately for him, he still hadn't learned his lesson.
Ash simply pointed a finger at him.
The next moment, the noble's body was lifted into the air.
Using Spirit Magic and gravity manipulation, Ash repeatedly slammed him toward the floor and ceiling.
However, he always healed the noble just before next impact.
As a result, the academy's protective enchantments never activated, since the student was never actually injured seriously enough to trigger them.
Even so, the experience was terrifying.
After several rounds, Ash held him suspended in the air once more.
Then he forced a nutrient solution down the boy's throat to compensate for the strain caused by the constant healing.
Finally, Ash grabbed him by the neck and looked directly into his eyes.
"Do you need another lesson, brat?" Ash asked calmly.
The noble was so frightened that he wet his pants.
"Tch."
Ash clicked his tongue in annoyance and tossed him toward the back row.
The boy landed awkwardly among his friends, who quickly rushed over to help him.
This time, nobody laughed.
The commoners remained silent.
The noble students either looked at Ash with anger or contempt.
Yet beneath every expression was the same thing.
Fear.
For the first time since entering the classroom, everyone understood that the quiet boy sitting in the front row was not someone they could casually provoke.
Meanwhile, Lith sat in the middle row, completely dumbfounded by what he had just witnessed.
Inside his mind, Solus spoke first.
"Wow. Someone has guts."
Lith frowned.
"He only increased his troubles."
Solus was confused.
"Then why were you so surprised?"
Lith kept his eyes on Ash as he answered.
"Because that wasn't the important part."
"What do you mean?"
"He used gravity magic."
Solus paused for a moment.
Then realization appeared on her face.
"Now that you mention it, you're right."
They didn't even know Gravity magic existed
Lith narrowed his eyes.
"The noble idiots are irrelevant. What interests me is how he did it."
Solus nodded in agreement.
The two of them continued observing Ash from afar.
Both were wondering the same thing.
How could a commoner like him possess such a rare form of magic?
Not only did he have a Deep Blue Mana Core at a young age, but he also seemed to know spells and techniques that neither of them had encountered before.
The more they learned about him, the more mysterious he became.
Meanwhile, Ash remained completely unaware of their discussion.
He simply sat waited for the professor to come and teach them.
Soon, a man entered the classroom.
He was Professor Trasque.
The professor looked fairly young, appearing to be around thirty years old.
He was handsome, standing approximately one meter and eighty-two centimeters tall, with the build of a trained athlete.
His dark brown hair was cut short in a military style, while a light stubble covered his jaw.
Unlike most mages, he wore no robes.
Instead, he was dressed in simple clothes, with the sleeves of his shirt rolled up to his elbows, revealing well-defined muscular arms.
'He looks more like a fighter than a mage,' Ash thought.
The observation wasn't entirely wrong.
Compared to the scholarly appearance Ash had expected from a professor, Trasque looked more like a veteran soldier.
The professor calmly walked to the front of the classroom before taking his place on the teaching platform.
The conversations throughout the room quickly died down as everyone's attention shifted toward him.
The first lesson was about to begin.