The next day, Firia came with her newly fresh skin. When she came in class, many students noticed her change. They were mesmerized by her.
"Thank you very much, Alex," she ignored all the attention coming from other students and went to thank Alex right away.
"Don't mind it, Miss Firia since we are....friend," Alex smiled awkwardly. He was a bit confused about their current relationship and classified it as a friend for now.
Hearing this, Firia smiled joyfully and she went to her seat since the class was going to start soon.
Then, the class ended and as usual he trained together with Firia and Alicia.
Today the dean said he didn't need to see him. So, after saying goodbye to Firia, he went back with Alicia. After arriving in their room, Alicia asked Alex to train again, and Alex accepted.
After a few hours, Alicia laid down on the floor and covered with bruises like yesterday. Alex gave her a peak-grade restoration pill, which Alicia thanked him again for.
The next day, the ingredients for rank 1 pills had arrived and Alex could start practicing at the dean's office again.
"Alex, you've refined the body tempering pill, half of the muscle refining pill, and all skin-refining pills. Since your refining speed is faster than mine, I will only refine the restoration pill and half of the muscle refining pill, what do you think?" the dean said.
The dean didn't choose to refine the body tempering pill because Alex wanted to give away many peak-grade body tempering pills. That was why he didn't want to ruin the ingredients since Alex's probability in making the peak-grade pill was much higher than him. He just secretly cursed that Pure Fire Element that made this huge difference.
--
Three weeks went by like usual and Alex had managed to make 121 peak-grade body tempering pills, 40 peak-grade muscle refining pills, and 15 peak-grade refining pills from all the ingredients the dean bought for him. But for a skin refining pills, he only had refined half of the ingredients.
As for low-grade, mid-grade, and top-grade pills, he just gave it to the dean.
"Alex, next will be the grade ranking. You will be sent to the Night Forest to gain experience. The teachers will supervise everyone so that this event won't be too dangerous for the students. Just give your best, and kill the monsters as much as possible."
"Yes, Princess has informed me about it."
"Well, that's good. And also for all the pills you gave me, I managed to make a good connection with the military with your body tempering pill, even generals and war ministers show a high interest in these pills. They also thank you for it.
As for the restoration pill, I sold half of them to the military, and half of them to the adventurer guild to raise funds. After all, the adventurers needed it more than the military since we are not in war. As for muscle refining, I haven't found the buyers, but I think the military would have an interest in it. For skin refining pills, many noble ladies will go crazy for this, we can sell them pretty easily."
"I will leave it to Teacher," he didn't listen when his teacher said, 'We are not in war'. If he heard it, he might ask something like, 'Aren't we currently fighting the demon?'
"And many people will notice that I'm becoming an Alchemist because of this, the same thing would happen to you as my student. Though you are a greater Alchemist than I am, only a few higher up know that, so you won't be targeted. Haiz...Too great of a talent might become a source of calamity."
"Thank you, Teacher."
"Five days from now, you will get two days off to prepare for grade ranking. You can use this chance to visit your home. Well, you can go back now since it's already late."
"Yes," Alex then went back to his room.
Alicia, as usual, was reading a book about ice magic.
"Princess, I want to give you something."
"What is it?"
Alex took out seven body tempering pills.
"This is..."
"These are peak-grade body tempering pills. After you ate this, you will get ten points STR for each pill. And the limit using this is seven pills."
"Ah..." she was surprised that Alex gave these precious pills away because she knew if she ate all of them, she would get seventy points of STR, which equals more than half the points needed to rank upgrade.
"This was too precious, Alex," she wanted to reject it.
Alex shook his head, "I have made many of them, and I am still planning to give them to the Grand Duke, madam, Princess Lea, Princess Mia, Firia, the king, and crown prince when we have days off later. I want to thank them for taking care of me."
She was surprised to see Alex wanted to give many of these precious pills so easily. Alex had said this to her last time, she thought he would just give one pill for each of them which should be enough to repay them. She was moved with Alex's sincerity, even the people that were indirectly involved in Alex's life like her sister or crown prince will get them.
"Once again, I thank you on behalf of them," she bowed to him.
"No need, Princess. I should be the one to thank you for taking care of me," Alex helped her up.
The two smiled at each other.
"And also..." Alex hesitated a bit.
Noticing Alex's hesitation, she said, "It's okay. Just said it."
"I'm planning to give these pills as well," he said, taking out muscle refining pills and skin refining pills. "As Princess already knows, this is a skin-refining pill and for this pill...This pill is a muscle refining pill. As the name said, it's to refine the muscle. Because of this pill, I managed to become rank 4 faster. But for this pill, it will give you much pain when this pill refines your muscle. So..."
"I want to take them," Alicia said with determination.
"But the pain is..." before Alex replied, he was cut off by her.
"I want to take it, I want to get stronger. Seeing you getting too far ahead from me pains me. I can't help you If I am weak, so I want to become stronger."
"I..." her determination moved him and he finally got rid of his hesitation. He gave a muscle refining pill to her, "How about Princess take the body tempering pills first, and take the muscle refining pills later? I will try to guard you."
"Alright," she nodded, she ate body tempering pills one by one. She felt her strength had significantly increased. Now, her strength alone was like a rank 2 warrior even though she was only a rank 1 mage. The Alchemist in the legend was this overpowered, she thought.
After eating body tempering pills, she grabbed the muscle refining pill and before consuming it she looked at Alex. He nodded his head to give assurance. She prepared herself for the pain and swallowed the pill.
"Ah...." as soon as she ate the pill, she screamed painfully. Even though she had prepared for the pain, she didn't know the pain it gave would be beyond her imagination.
"Ah... Alex," she screamed in pain.
Alex worried, he came closer to her and Alicia unconsciously hugged him.
"Ah..." she was screaming more, withstanding the pain as she hugged Alex. She unconsciously scratched Alex's back when she hugged him. Alex's back started bleeding. Even when it was bleeding, Alex didn't let out any sound, fearing that she would get distracted. He withstood the pain he felt as well.
After half an hour, the pain started subsiding. Alicia laid down on the floor, she couldn't even move an inch of her finger. Her body was sore all over.
"A...lex," she tiredly called Alex. She recalled she scratched Alex's back with her nail.
"Princess should just take some rest, I'm alright," Alex assured her.
After a while, Alex carried her in a bridal style and Alicia was blushing to be treated that way by Alex.
"A...lex," even though Alex often carried her like this, but he often did it when she was asleep. So, this was her first-time experiencing it when she was awake.
He carried her to bed, "Please, take some rest, Princess. Your body will feel so much better by tomorrow."
"Umm..." she muttered like a mosquito and her face was red like a tomato.
After putting her down, Alex was pondering in his mind, 'Am I ready to get into another relationship?' He didn't know his action just now made Alicia couldn't sleep at all and she could only manage to close her eyes after a few more hours. Sometimes she smiled, sometimes she blushed. That continued for a few hours and she wouldn't have a good sleep tonight. When Alex looked at her in the morning, he was shocked. There were dark circles under her eyes.
---
He continued the refinement of the remaining skin-refining pills for four days.
"Tomorrow and the day after are your days off, and now with all the ingredients have been used up, I will re-supply them after the event. You can go back early to prepare for tomorrow."
"Yes, Teacher," Alex brought 49 peak-grade body tempering pills, ten peak-grade muscle refining pills, and ten peak-grade skin-refining pills with him. As for the rest, he gave them to the dean.
For the last day, Alex and Alicia said goodbye to Firia. Alex gave Firia seven body tempering pills and one muscle refining pill, also two skin-refining pills for her younger sister and her mother.
Firia was shocked that Alex gave her so many pills, she thanked him with a hug but immediately separated by Alicia.
After class, they didn't do any practice anymore and soon went out of the academy.
In front of the academy, the grand duke and his butler had been waiting for them.
"Father," Alicia hugged her father once she saw his figure.
"Haha...How is the academy? I miss you so much my daughter," he hugged back.
"I miss you too."
Then the grand duke turned to Alex, "How is the academy, Alex?"
Alex nodded, "The academy is good, Teacher is also very nice to me."
Grand duke nodded in response, he knew that the 'Teacher' in Alex's sentence was the dean. He then said, "Let's go back home first."
Four of them went back home. Alicia didn't forget to tell his father about what happened in the academy. She also said to her father that she had a big surprise for the rest of her family and she would reveal it later in the house.
After they came back to the house, they were welcomed by Lea and Mia. Alica's mother also joined in welcoming them. After Alicia came out from the carriage, they noticed the big change in Alicia's skin. Grand duke didn't notice this, maybe he just didn't care about this kind of thing.
Alex greeted all of them politely like he used to do. When they came in, they had dinner. After eating, the grand duke was curious about the big surprise that Alicia hinted before.
"I have the same strength as rank 2 warrior now," Alicia said.
Everyone was astonished and asked back, "Aren't you a mage?"
Alicia continued, "And I have Mana equal to rank 3 mage." She thought to herself, 'This is because the body tempering pill and Spiritual Liquid that Alex gave me.'
She dropped another bomb and everyone was dumbfounded.
"Is that true?" the grand duke stuttered.
"Yes," Alicia smiled at her father.
"Hahaha... this is such good news. This is really a big surprise, Alicia," the grand duke laughed. Everyone was happy with this development. But then, she suddenly said, "But...this is only an opening, I have another big surprise."
Everyone gasped and they waited impatiently since they were so curious over the big surprise she kept talking about.
Alicia looked at Alex and everyone followed her gaze that landed on Alex.
"I..." Alex took out the pills he had, "These are body tempering pills, muscle refining pills, and skin refining pills."
"You..." the grand duke was once again shocked, the three other ladies were surprised as well by what Alex just said. They heard the dean made a connection with the military with this body refining pill. The skin refining pill was very famous in noble circles, especially noble ladies. They had received the news about the dean who had become the legendary Alchemist.
But only the grand duke knew that Alex was even more formidable than the dean.
The king once visited him out of nowhere and he told the grand duke that the dean had become an Alchemist. The king also told him about these two pills. He was too happy with this news. But when he heard Alex was a more formidable Alchemist than the dean, he couldn't get a good sleep for days.
The king also didn't get a good night's sleep for a few days after he received the news. At that time, the dean suddenly informed him that he had become an Alchemist, he had made some great pills with Alex and how Alex had managed to master things. The king didn't want to suffer alone, so he visited the grand duke to tell him these things and make the grand duke suffer just like him.
"Yes, this body tempering pill can give 10 points of STR and the limit is seven pills. As for skin refining pills, everyone might already know what they do to you. You can see the example by looking at Princess Alicia and me. And for this muscle refining pill, as the name suggests, it will refine your muscle. For the specific effect, Princess Alicia will explain that."
"10 points?" the grand duke couldn't hold back his shock, "I think even the commander only gets 7 points each pill?"
"Those are top-grade body tempering pills. As for these, they are peak-grade pills," Alex explained more.
"Top-grade? Peak-grade?" everyone was confused over the terms Alex had thrown at them.
"There are four grades for a pill. They are low-grade, mid-grade, top-grade, and peak-grade. The low-grade body tempering pill can give 1 point of STR. For a low-grade pill, it is basically a junk pill. Mid-grade pill gives 5 points of STR and a top-grade pill gives 7 points of STR. While peak-grade is the highest grade and it gives 10 points," this time, Alicia was the one who explained. Alex had explained this to her, so she wanted to brag her new knowledge in front of her family.
"Then, what my brother told me is true? You are indeed a better Alchemist than your teacher?" the grand duke was too shocked about this.
"That's only because of my element," he modestly said. Since all of them had known his element, there was no point in concealing it.
"These skin-refining pills and muscle refining pills are also peak-grade," Alicia continued, "And yeah, I have eaten these pills."
Now, it was the turn for the three ladies to get shocked. The skin-refining pill will make your skin much better and smoother. After listening to Alicia's explanation, they knew the higher the grade of this pill, the higher its effect. So this skin-refining skill must be much better. At first, they were confused by the situation. Seeing the grand duke warning them not to buy the pill for the time being, they were bewildered. Even madam put a fight with the grand duke because of it. After that, they reluctantly agreed to it. And now they knew the reason why the grand duke stopped them from purchasing the pill. It was because Alex would be the one who made it for them.
"For these skin-refining pills and muscle refining pills, people can only take one each. Taking more than that won't give you any effect. And also take precaution for this muscle refining pill, though the effect is great, the pain you need to endure is just as great. After eating this pill, I managed to get 40 points of DEX and AGI. I also received 20 points in VIT," Alicia explained further.
The three ladies sweatdropped after hearing this, they were relieved they listened to the grand duke that day.
Alicia gave seven body tempering pills, one muscle refining pill, one skin-refining pill to her family members.
Alicia now looked like a wife who couldn't stop bragging about her husband's possession. But when the grand duke looked at her, he could only smile. He was happy with this development and it seemed that Alicia had fully accepted her position as Alex's fiancee. He looked at Alex with a feeling of pride. He never thought the guy would go this far only in a short period of time.
Even madam whispered something to the grand duke. Though many can't hear it, Alex could actually hear what they were talking about.
"I'm sorry for what happened before, I should trust you, not fight you. So I will reward you tonight."
Alex was speechless, he pretended that he didn't hear anything. But for the grand duke, he looked at Alex who looked like a hero for him.
Alicia explained to them how to use each pill, and they then ended the day with so much satisfaction. That night, many screams came from every corner of the mansion and it even bewildered the guards.