The next day went as usual. Class, practice, then Alchemy. For today, Alex started refining the muscle refining pill.
"Alex," the dean nodded after he saw Alex entered his room.
"Yes, Teacher," Alex then greeted him.
"Are you going to refine the restoration pill today?"
Alex shook his head, "I want to refine my muscle refining pill first."
Alex was wondering, if his strength became too strong for the body to handle, he would get hurt from the inside, like his bone or muscle. Since he came from modern Earth, he learned this in biology class. So he decided to make a muscle refining pill first.
The dean didn't ask why Alex chose to refine that. But the king had told him, Alex came from another world. So he thought maybe he decided that because of his knowledge from another world.
Alex grabbed a set of muscle refining pill ingredients. He started refining them one by one according to the recipe.
First time...Failed.
The second time...Failed.
Fifth time...Failed.
Tenth time...Succeed.
Fifteenth time...Succeed.
He stopped after the fifteenth time. He only managed to make 3 out of 15 sets. The success was a bit low this time but he was satisfied with the result. The reason was that he managed to make a top-grade one.
[Low-Grade Muscle Refining Pill (53%)
Use: refine the muscle in the body (bronze)
Limit: 1]
[Mid-Grade Muscle Refining Pill (78%)
Use: refine the muscle in the body (silver)
Limit: 1]
[Top-Grade Muscle Refining Pill (96%)
Use: refine the muscle in the body (gold)
Limit: 1]
"According to the recipe, a low-grade muscle refining pill will make your muscle strength like bronze, while mid-grade becomes silver, top-grade becomes gold, and for peak grade, it will become diamond. The better the grade of this pill, the higher your muscle efficiency in channeling strength," Alex muttered.
"Hmm... I will refine the peak-grade one then."
He refined another fifteen set ingredients. This time, he managed to make 5 out of 15 sets. But he leaped out of joy because he managed to make one peak-grade pill.
[Peak-Grade Muscle Refining Pill (100%)
Use: refine the muscle in the body (diamond)
Limit: 1]
He immediately ate the pill and a certain pain came from all over his body instantly.
"Aahh.....!" he screamed.
The dean was shocked, he immediately came over to Alex.
"Alex...Alex... What happened to you?"
"Aahhh...Wait..a...bit...tea...cher" Alex tried to endure the pain from the inside of his body.
"Aahhh!" Alex endured the pain and kept screaming.
"I..." he wanted to help but didn't know how, after looking at Alex's determined eyes, he stopped. It pained him seeing Alex like this, though.
After a while, the pain subsided.
"Ha....ha..." Alex laid down tiredly, "I am fine now, Teacher." After he assured his teacher, he took a peek at his status
Name: Alexander Sirius (Peak Phase Body Tempering Stage)
Job: Adventurer(Primary), Alchemist(Secondary)
Rank: 2
Level: 271
STR: 435
AGI: 378
VIT: 401
DEX: 394
INT: 190
Alex understood the effect of muscle refining. Although his entire body was sore, he noticed that he could control his body better.
Muscle refining pill didn't increase his STR and INT but increased his DEX and AGI greatly, and even his VIT managed to break 400 points. That was the effect of the peak-grade muscle refining pill.
"Alex...are you okay?"
"I'm fine, Teacher. I just ate a peak-grade muscle refining pill. I have finally refined my muscle with the help of a pill."
"I see, as long as you are fine. What is the effect?" he asked.
"The effect increases your DEX and AGI greatly, and also VIT. But it didn't add any STR and INT."
The dean nodded, "AGI, VIT, and DEX are related to muscle. I remembered when I trained my muscles, and those three were the ones that had increased at that time."
"But, the pain is like what Teacher had just seen."
"Though the pain is tremendous. If you look from the greater view, your muscles will be refined greatly while you only need to endure the pain. You don't need to do any bothersome and time-consuming training. This is really good, though it is the effect of peak-grade one, the lesser grade still gives a big advantage," the dean nodded again.
"So, right now you have genuine rank 4 prowess?" he continued.
Alex nodded and he didn't forget to add, "According to the status."
"Ahaha.. a 17 years-old rank 4," the dean laughed. "Well, how about you rest for today?" he wanted Alex to take it easy and not get greedy.
Alex thought for a while, he nodded. His muscle was so sore that it made him unwilling to do anything at the moment. Accepting his teacher's advice, he went back to his room.
"Ah...Alex," Alicia, as usual, sat on the sofa reading a book while waiting for him. Noticing Alex had come back she greeted him right away.
"I'm back, Princess," Alex walked like a drunken man, he couldn't walk steadily because of his sore muscles.
"What happened to you? Why are you walking like this?" looking at Alex, she worried.
"I'm fine. I refined my muscles just now. So It's still sore. I will be fine after a bit of rest."
"That's good then," she relieved, then she jokingly said, "What now? Maybe you will have a rank 4 prowess as you said?"
"Yes," Alex said.
"That's impossible, right? I'm just joking wit..." her laughter stopped after she realized that it turned out to be true. "You have a rank 4 prowess now?"
She was astonished by this development and Alex nodded as a response.
She leaped with joy, just like she was the one who made the advancement, "Congratulations, Alex."
"Thank you, Princess."
"What did you do to refine your muscle? I remember when I was 14 years old, my father made me run a few kilometers with stones on my back. After that, I can't walk for a few days."
"I..." he hesitated a bit to tell her about Alchemy. But he decided to tell her, "Do Princess know about Alchemist?"
"Alchemist? Isn't that a legendary job?"
"I'm studying in Alchemy too."
"You...you study that too? That means you are an Alchemist?"
"Yes, as my second job."
"Woah Alex..." she was speechless because she was too shocked by the revelation just now.
She unconsciously hugged Alex, "That's great, congratulations once again, Alex."
Alex froze, he felt the soft two mountains pressing his chest against. Though it was smaller than Firia. But somehow, it made him happier. Alicia's hug was better than when Firia hugged him. He wondered why.
After a while, Alicia realized what she did. She blushed, "Al...Alex... This..."
"Umm..."
The atmosphere became awkward just like the last time.
Alicia tried to break the awkwardness, "Then, you were late for the past few days because you made the pills?"
"Yes... I'm planning to give Princess and the others too. I'm still waiting for the ingredients to come."
"Thank you, Alex," she didn't know what pill he would give to her but she knew that it must be a very good pill. But she noticed something else, "Others? To whom do you plan to give it?"
"Yes, I'm planning to give it to the Grand Duke, madam, Princess Lea, Princess Mia, Firia, the king and crown prince."
Alicia was surprised, the one Alex chose was the ones who were closest to him, whether it was directly or indirectly like the crown prince. She felt gratified, "On behalf of them, I thank you," she bowed.
"Ah...Princess, you don't need to..." he tried to help her up. "I just want to repay them for their care to me."
"Alex, since your muscle is sore, how about you sleep in the bed tonight?"
Alex froze, after a while, Alicia froze too and her cheeks were rosy. What she said surely can invite many misunderstandings. Fortunately, the grand duke was not here. If he was here, he would support them with all of his might, or he would even tie them up to make sure they were together the entire night in the bed.
"This...Since the bed is big, we can sleep together," she said but it gave more misunderstandings.
"Ah...I mean, we will just sleep, only 'sleep' there are no other meanings behind it," she tried so hard to explain.
"It's alright, Princess. Even if I'm sleeping on the sofa it won't affect me at all."
"Ah...Okay then," she didn't know why she felt a bit disappointed after hearing Alex's response.
For two days, he managed to make three more peak-grade muscle refining pills with the remaining ingredients.
This time, he wanted to make the skin-refining pill. As usual, he grabbed a set of ingredients for the skin-refining pill.
First time...Failed.
The second time...Failed.
Third time...Failed.
Fiftieth time... peak grade pill, succeed.
After his fiftieth time, he managed to make a peak-grade skin-refining pill. The skin-refining pill was even harder than the muscle refining pill.
[Peak-Grade Skin Refining Pill (100%)
Use: refine body skin
Limit: 1]
Even in the pill manual, the use of this pill was written with the same words like the one in the system. It was only 'Refine Body Skin'. There were no other explanations other than that.
He braced himself, the pain from the muscle refining pill still etched in his mind. He ate the pill and this time he didn't have any pain. He opened his status.
Name: Alexander Sirius (Peak Phase Body Tempering Stage)
Job: Adventurer (Primary), Alchemist (Secondary)
Rank: 2
Level: 271
STR: 435
AGI: 378
VIT: 413
DEX: 394
INT: 205
The effect only gave him a few points of VIT, and this confused him. This pill was hard to make, but the result was not significant.
After a while, he suddenly felt his skin become a bit itchy, he tried to scratch his skin a bit. When he scratched, he didn't notice his skin peeled off, and the new skin became so smooth instantly. Alex was astonished, but he immediately felt his entire body felt very itchy, he immediately stood up.
"Teacher, I will go back to my room," he ran away after he said that.
Even his teacher was startled, he was wondering why Alex was like that. He shrugged his shoulder and continued his job.