Alex sighed, as he explained why he agreed to the final result. He never wanted to participate in the ranking, but since his teacher compelled him to win, he reluctantly accepted it.
"...." They were speechless by his reasoning. Every student wanted to become a winner because they would not only get the academic points to be exchanged with warrior skill or magic skill but they could also get the victory.
But Alex's answer was only, "Victory? I don't need it at the moment. If I become famous, it will become troublesome for me. As for skills... Can't I just get it from Teacher?"
When thinking about Alex's answer, what he said was true. Alex can get his skill from his teacher, the dean. As for victory, Firia didn't understand why Alex said it would become trouble for him. After all, she was currently pursuing him. If Alex became famous, it can be a good reason for her to pursue Alex if her family question her decision. Though Alicia knew about Alex's relationship with the hero and friends from Zircodina kingdom.
Alex harbored a hatred for them and the same with the opposite party. If Alex became too famous, Zircodina kingdom would hear about him too. If the news reached the hero's ears, he might push Alex to the corner with his prestige in Zircodina kingdom. Though it was clear that Acacia Kingdom would protect him at all cost. Even when the dean and royal family can shelter him, what if the opposite party hired an assassin again like the other night? Thinking about this made Alicia shudder.
"Yeah, why do we need a victory, anyway? Your safety is my happiness, Alex," Alicia said.
"Princess, aren't you going to compete for the final?"
"Ah! is it my time already?" Alicia forgot that she was one of the finalists.
"Yes."
"Then, I will go first," when she was about to leave.
"Princess," Alex shouted.
Hearing her name called by Alex, she turned back and looked at him.
"Please be careful, even if you lose it's alright."
"What do you mean you are okay if I lose? Of course, It's not alright!" Alicia became infuriated by Alex's words. But before she scolded him, Alex continued, "Your safety is my happiness."
"Yes!" joy suddenly filled her heart as she went to the arena while smiling happily. On the contrary, Firia was jealous of seeing their cute interaction.
But the match finished without a fight and Alex was relieved after the referee announced Joshua couldn't participate because of his injury. And just like that, Alicia became the top student from S-class.
"Tomorrow will be the last day. For tomorrow, number one to number ten from each class can challenge each other."
Alicia came back to where she sat before. After chatting a bit, Alicia and Firia went back to their room while Alex made his way to his teacher's room.
"I just looked at the participant's name for tomorrow and I want to ask you something. Why is your name not on the list?" the dean was mad about this.
"I thought the Teacher saw the incident in the arena?" Alex was confused by the sudden question since his teacher didn't do anything when the referee disqualified him, he thought he agreed to the decision.
"I was busy dealing with something earlier, I needed to keep Taiga in check."
Alex then told him what happened in the arena.
"What? How dare he disqualify you? I will go to him now," the dean now became even angrier.
"Teacher, how about today's training?"
"You can go back now, just practice your Mana control by yourself."
Just before Alex went back to his room, he suddenly recalled, "I still have the Spiritual Liquid, since I have improved my control. I think this is the best time to give the liquid to her."
"System, how can I remove the impurities from this liquid?"
[Host just needs to burn the liquid directly at low temperatures to make sure the liquid doesn't evaporate for a period of time. Your flame will burn the impurities bit by bit.]
"I see."
Alex then tried purifying the first liquid according to the System's words. After half an hour of burning the liquid, he succeeded.
"System, is this the pure liquid?"
[Yes, Host]
"Can you scan them?"
[Analyzing]
[Spiritual Liquid
A Liquid from a Mixed Monster Blood and Herbs
Use: Increase Mana Supply (High)]
"Oh... it's really not polluted any more," he noticed something different, "System, wasn't the effect last time 'Increase Mana Supply (Low)'? Why does it become '(High)' now?"
[Just like pills, the impurities inside the Spiritual Liquid do not only give a side effect, but it can also lower the effect]
"Oh, I understand."
He then purified the other one and when he was purifying the second bottle, a question popped into his mind.
"Should I give all of them to Princess, or should I give one bottle to Princess and the other to Miss Firia?"
After thinking a bit, he made his decision, "I will just give all of them to Princess, I only know Miss Firia for a week, she may think I have an ulterior motive by giving this to her. Since Princess won the match today, maybe I should give her a present."
He came back to his room and Alicia was surprised to see him get back so quickly. She was wondering why Alex came back so early.
"Did something happen? Is it because of the tournament?" Alicia suddenly became worried.
Alex nodded, he told her what happened with his teacher.
Alicia laughed, "That referee b*stard must regret his decision."
"Princess, you need to be careful with your choice of words," Alex reprimanded her.
"Umm, sorry," she looked down. Although she was happy that the referee would get what he deserved for disqualifying Alex, being told off by Alex was a bit saddening for her and the atmosphere became awkward after that.
"Princess, since you have become the winner of our S-class. I want to give you a present."
"Present? The best present for me now is for you to call me 'Alicia' again like in the past," Alicia teased.
She was frustrated this whole time by this, Alex never called her with her name again after the incident at the school's restaurant. For her, it was a small incident. But for Alex, it was a big incident, big enough it woken up his consciousness.
"Ugh..." Alex looked down. He didn't know what to do or what was the best answer to give.
"Fine, I will wait for you to call me by my name again. But don't make me wait for too long," she pouted.
"Yes," Alex sighed.
He did feel bad about it, after all, their four months traveling together weren't just fake experiences. But some parts deep inside him prevented Alex from doing so. That was why he decided to let it be for now. He hoped he could call her by name again without feeling uneasy.
"So, what is this present all about?"
Alex presented two bottles of Spiritual Liquid to her.
"Are...aren't this teacher Taiga's Spiritual Liquid?" Alicia was surprised by Alex's present. "Where did you get this?"
"Teacher got this after betting with him. Then he gave these to me."
"This...you are the one who needs these liquids, they are too valuable for me," Alicia rejected. Although she was tempted, she won't let her greed get the best of her. Alex was more important in her heart than her desire.
Alex only shook his head, "These liquids won't bring me benefit. Especially because of my pure element. So, Princess should be the one who uses it."
"Woah, thank you, Alex," Alicia didn't know much about Alex's pure element. So when Alex mentioned his element, she thought that must be the case. But, she still hesitated to take it since she didn't feel like she deserved it.
"I will give it to Miss Firia if Princess doesn't want it," with those words, Alex sealed her fate. She immediately took the bottles from his hands.
"Who said I don't want it? Even if I don't want it, it wouldn't be any use if you give these bottles to Firia."
Alex only smiled a little, "How about you use it right now?"
"Okay."
Alicia sat on the sofa, then she drank one of the bottles. She felt her magic increase, but the effect surprised her.
"This liquid... Its effect is even higher than a top-grade Spiritual Liquid," Alicia looked at Alex as she became hesitant to drink the second bottle, "Alex...This bottle is too precious."
"Princess has drunk Spiritual Liquid before?"
"When I was 12 years old, Father bought us Spiritual Liquid. Each of us got a bottle of top-grade Spiritual Liquid back then. But yours…Your liquid's effect is even higher than the top grade Spiritual Liquid," Alicia became suspicious.
"This..." Alex made a wry smile.
Alicia kept staring at Alex and he was thinking about some excuses to fix the situation. Unfortunately, nothing came to his mind and he could only tell her the truth.
Alex then began his explanation, "I purified this liquid from the impurities. The impurities can hinder the liquid's effect and also give a side effect."
"Side effect? I remember people usually don't drink too much of this liquid because they have a chance to be struck with magic deficiency disease. Are you saying that...?"
"Princess's guest is correct, when I purified this liquid, I removed the impurities inside the liquid resulting in erasing the side effect."
"Then, even when I drink many of this liquid, I won't have a chance to get magic deficiency disease?"
"Yes, Princess."
"But how did you purify this?"
"Did Princess forget my element?"
"Pure Fire Element, right?" her eyes brightened.
Alex nodded.
"This… becomes even more precious. Alex... you are the one who is supposed to use this liquid"
"As I said, Princess, this is my present for you for winning the match, I don't need it at the moment,"
"But...Well, you are right, sister Mia is also at school. I will give this one bottle to her, then."
"But Princess, this is my present for you?" Alex looked down, feeling a bit disappointed over her decision. It seemed that Alicia wanted to reject this bottle very much.
"I...I will drink it then," Alicia thought she was being impolite since he gave this to her with great effort, she shouldn't waste it.
She drank the second bottle and her Mana now became comparable to a mid-rank 3 mage even though she was only a rank 1 mage.
Of course, she was super excited about this and she unconsciously hugged the guy who had presented her with Spiritual Liquid, "Alex, Thank you."
This action made Alex freeze for a moment.
After Alicia calmed down a bit and she finally realized what she had done just now. Like him, she too became a frozen statue and she embarrassedly released her hug.
"Alex...I…" her face was red like a tomato. She wanted to explain but no words came to her mind.
"I…I will go to cook now," Alex awkwardly escaped and he ran away like a robot. Even Alicia, who was in the midst of her embarrassment, chuckled when looking at Alex while forgetting her own embarrassment a bit.
After dinner, Alex started practicing again.
'Mana control, Princess can increase her Mana with external help. A liquid that contains Mana got inside her body and then she absorbed the Mana. Can I manipulate the Mana around my body to be absorbed by my body?'
Alex tried to manipulate the Mana around him to his body. The effect surprised him since he was not aware if it was possible or not. After a few hours, he realized something.
'This method can make my progress three times faster. With this, I will be able to break through to rank 4 prowess as well as a breakthrough to the Qi Gathering Stage within this month,' he thought suddenly.
Alex was overjoyed by this newfound method. After feeling so excited, he recalled that it was time for him to sleep. He calmed down his heart and rested.
In the morning,
"Princess, please wake up," as per usual, Alex needed to wake up early to cook.
"Mmmm," she started to wake up as she fuzzily rubbed her eyes.
"Alex.. you seem very happy? Did something happen last night?"
"I can break through to rank 4 within this month," Alex said confidently.
"What? Breakthrough to rank 4? This month? But where will you get the experience from?"
"I...I..." Alex knew he was doomed, "I'm leveling not with experience but from taking the Mana from the air...you can also say I'm cultivating the Mana."
"This..." she was surprised by Alex's statement, "Can everyone do it like you?"
"Unfortunately, no. When you get energy from the monster that is called experience. The energy contains impurities within it. The energy has assimilated with your body and what I'm taking now is the energy from Heaven and Earth, which means the purest form of energy. If you start taking this energy, the energy will clash with the energy from your body and you will become a cripple."
She sighed, she thought if she can get stronger with this method, she can help Alex and she would be able to train together with Alex too.
"I'm sorry," Alex apologized even though it was not his fault.
Alicia only shook her head as she said, "It's not even your fault, why did you even apologize? That's Right, how about a baby?"
Alex shook his head, "The baby will be contaminated by the energy from their parent's body, especially their mother. Even if you try to dilute it with a level 1 mother, I don't know how many generations it will take to make their body pure."
"But…you," Alicia wanted to ask Alex but her eyes brightened, she thought of something.
"Yes. As Princess already knew, I am from another world. That means my body is still not contaminated from the energy of this world."
Alicia could only sigh, she was a bit disappointed that she couldn't get stronger to help Alex.
Noticing this, Alex tried to change the topic
"Princess, today is a big day. You may get challenged by others, especially from A-Class. So, rather than thinking about this, let's eat first and get ready."
Of course, she agreed to it. After finishing their breakfast, they finally made their way to the arena.