Outside of the forest, the dean was the one in charge of supervising him. When Alex managed to kill many rank-2 to rank-3 monsters, he smiled satisfied. He dismissed other teachers watching Alex. He managed to make Alex's so-called 'space element' not be seen by others.
He suddenly worried when Alex was surrounded by twenty wolves, and one of them is a rank 4 wolf. Though Alex has a rank 4 prowess, he was still new to rank 4. He restrained himself while watching Alex was bitten and blown away by the wolf. He was relieved when Alex managed to kill all of them.
When he saw a rank 5 bear coming to him, he wanted to charge at that bear and kill it right away. But he managed to restrain himself again because if he came to rescue Alex, he would be out of this grade ranking immediately. He didn't want to ruin Alex's chance.
He saw Alex's hand was incapacitated, he wanted to whack that bear to death.
"Alex...Run!" he muttered.
When the bear broke Alex's rib, his heart felt broken because he already treated Alex like his son. He didn't have any family in this world, so he was so happy when Alex was sent to be his student. After knowing Alex for a month, he felt gratified and he kept being amazed by what Alex could do. From then, he treated Alex like his own family. That was why he couldn't bear to watch Alex being attacked by the bear continuously.
"Alex...Just run away for now!" a few tears formed in the corner of his eyes. Just as he wanted to rush over there to interfere, he was surprised to see Alex stand up and manage to dodge the bear's charge completely.
He was even more amazed when Alex fused his sword with magic. He looked at that tyrannical flame sword wave, he felt the element in his body got suppressed a little.
"This must be the power of Pure Fire Element...No! It's an Absolute Flame."
He now understood why the legend said the other name of the Pure Fire Element was Absolute Flame.
Seeing Alex manage to do this in his current condition. This must be the so-called 'turning misfortune to blessing' he thought.
He gave a relieved sigh.
--
In the forest, Alex managed to get a safe spot for himself. This limestone cave wasn't big but it was enough for him since the most priority to him was a safe place.
He immediately took out the restoration pills and ate one pill. After a few hours, his body managed to recover a little, so he took another pill. He did this again and again. When the dean refined the restoration pills, he managed to make 120 peak-grade pills. He gave a third to Alex and Alex gave 15 pills to Alicia and 5 pills to Firia.
He just managed to recover after a week because rank 1 restoration pills don't have many effects on his condition. That was why he needed a longer time to fully recover from the wounds and internal injuries.
"There are still two days before this end."
He used one day to adjust and familiarize himself with his new stage.
The next day arrived and this was the last day for grade ranking. He got out of the cave and started looking at the previous bear. After a few hours, he didn't manage to see the bear but he kept trying his luck. Lurking for a while inside the core forest, he finally found the bear after a few more hours.
"I found it."
He went in front of the bear, "Hehe... a week ago you gave me so much pain and injuries. Today, I will have my revenge."
"Roar..!" the bear now only had one hand, as Alex managed to cut its other hand a week ago.
Alex tried to recreate what he did a week ago. He channeled his Mana to his sword and he slashed them.
A flame sword wave flew to the bear and it raised its hand to guard it.
'Boom' the flame sword wave exploded when it reached the bear. After the fog cleared away, Alex saw the bear didn't have any wound.
Though Alex didn't put the whole of his Qi in that attack, he thought that it would be enough to injure that bear. However, he didn't know that the bear managed to break through its strength after being attacked by Alex.
The bear charged at him and Alex dodged it completely. But the bear didn't stop there, it immediately changed its direction to Alex and charged him again. Alex didn't manage to dodge this time. The bear paw almost reached him, so he put his hand to guard the bear's attack.
Alex was blown away, destroying a few trees in his path. He crashed on the big tree and he even spurted some blood.
He immediately examined his body, "The hand is still usable, I only have an internal injury."
He wiped the blood in his mouth and he started channeling the Mana to his sword again. This time he channeled more Qi.
'Flame Sword Wave'
This time, the wave managed to wound the bear, but it was only a shallow wound.
"Tch...Too shallow," he underestimated this bear. After fighting for an hour, he almost ran out of stamina. He looked at the bear that was also exhausted.
The bear released another attack and Alex had blown once again because of this attack. Now, his left hand was incapacitated.
"I...Will I lose again this time?" Alex muttered. "No!" he raised his sword, the bear charged at him once again. He closed his eyes.
"With my sword in my hand. If I don't want to cut, even the most fragile leaf won't be cut. If I want to cut something, even Heaven and Earth won't be spared."
He swings down his sword, "Die!"
This time the bear was cut to two. He managed to kill the bear and he leaned to the tree because he was bone-tired. He let out a long sigh. This time, he almost died because he underestimated his opponent. This experience was a very important lesson for him. He tried to comprehend what just he did.
The dean outside the forest was too shocked to see the scene. He was surprised when he saw Alex manage to kill that bear, but what astonished him the most was the method Alex used. He was familiar with that.
'Sword Intent'
There were many people who were very proficient in using a sword. Among the elite of the elites, they always have something in common. That was their job to become Sword Saint. And the minimum requirement for this job is 'Sword Intent'. He decided to inform the king, he wanted to make the king go another few days without good sleep after hearing this shocking news about Alex.
One thing the dean missed, if he looked at the sky he would notice a small cut appeared in the sky. This never happened from the previous sword saint. Only a rank 7 or above can notice this small cut. But no one noticed this, even the dean. Not to mention that the dean was the only one who monitored Alex.
A few more hours after this scene, the grade ranking ended exactly one hour before the sunset.
"The grade ranking was over!" the dean announced, with his power as a rank 8 channeling his Mana to his voice, every student could hear his voice even when they were deep inside the core forest. Many students started to go out of the forest after they received the announcement that the grade ranking was finished.
Alex heard it too and he went out of the forest right away.
Outside the forest, there was space to list the participants. Around 50 percent of the students didn't even manage to kill the monster but they were already rescued by the teachers. With this result, the students not making the list would be expelled.
"Name?" the administrative teacher asked the student's name one by one.
"Muga."
The teacher nodded, "Twenty for rank 0 monsters and one for rank 1 monster, total 22 points."
This student result was a bit low from the average last year.
"Joshua," this time Joshua from first grade S-class was reporting. As usual, he carried things arrogantly.
"Fifty for rank 0, one hundred fifty-three for rank 1 and forty for rank 2, and three for rank 3 monsters, total 540 points."
"Woah..." the crowd was astonished.
"Hmph," he looked more and more annoying especially after receiving such high points.
The score for rank 0 monsters is 1 point, 2 points for rank 1, 4 points for rank 2, 8 points for rank 3, 20 points for rank 4, and 100 points for rank 5. Even for grade 3 students, killing a rank 5 monster would be considered as the most genius student in the academy like Princess Mea who had managed to kill a rank 5 monster.
The scoring was continued and Alex was getting out of the forest, he tried to search for Alicia. Suddenly, he heard a sound from the back.
"Alex!"
He turned back and he found Alicia was coming toward him, "Princess!"
"How do you do?" she worriedly asked him right when she was close to Alex. He looked like a worn-out beggar and his appearance was in an indescribable state.
"I'm fine, Princess, just a bit exhausted. I will get better soon after I get some rest," he assured her while not telling the entire story while he was inside the Night Forest.
"That's good then," she was relieved, she wasn't suspicious at all since Alex had pills that could help him recover soon as well.
Suddenly, a young man came at both Alicia and Alex, he had a somewhat handsome face but Alex could see this young man had a pretty bad attitude just like most nobles in the academy.
"So, are you, Alex? The one in Princess Alicia keeps talking about? You are not extraordinary in any way so you better just scram from here."
Alex was confused, he never offended him but this stranger came to him and scrammed him away. He could only frown, unable to say anything else.
This young man's name was Cornel Jiavika, a son of Marquis. He formed a group with Alicia and Mia in the forest and they made a group of five in the end. Originally, he was pursuing Princess Mia, but every time he got close to her, he only got a cold glaze from her. When he saw Alicia, he was astonished by her beauty. And after he saw her performance, he was mesmerized by her skills and power. That was why he gave up on pursuing Princess Mia and he planned to pursue Alicia right now. He was known as the only genius who could be compared to Princess Mia. He was now a rank 3, but he could advance to rank 4 within this year and even for the last year, he had the potential to become a rank 5.
This was what made him act arrogantly, and seeing Alicia was paying too much attention to Alex had made Cornel feel both jealous and hatred toward Alex. When he tried to approach Alicia in the forest, Alicia only gave him a cold shoulder.
Alex suspected this because he realized Cornel mentioned Alicia since the beginning. That meant Cornel was captivated by her.
"Who do you think you are?" Alicia shouted and she glared at Cornel hatefully.
"Princess, you need to maintain your image. A noble like Princess shouldn't hang out with a commoner like him. But I am Marquis Jiavika's first son, soon enough I will become a Marquis after succeeding my father position."
"Scram!" she shouted.
"Princ..." Cornel was shocked after Alicia asked him to leave rudely.
"Scram!" she shouted again.
"I..." Cornel turned to Alex, "A commoner like you will never have a good result. I will beat you in the ranking. That way, Princess Alicia will know you are just cannon fodder and she would start putting interest in me."
"..." Alex was only silent after seeing this repeated scene. He was just too tired to deal with such childishness.
"Alex..."
The atmosphere around them became awkward once again. The incident was repeated where Alex had to be belittled because he was only a commoner.
Alex sighed and he looked at Alicia while shaking his head, "Let's go to register our name, Princess."
Hearing Alex's response, she was relieved and she followed Alex.
They waited for a while and the time for Cornel's turn had arrived while both of them were waiting to be called. Before he went, he glared hatefully at Alex, "Just look at my result and you will know who you are dealing with. You are not qualified to stand beside Princess Alicia."
"Cornel Jiavika!"
"Thirty for rank 0, one hundred one for rank 1, two hundred twenty-four for rank 2, forty for rank 3, and two for rank 4. Total points are 1488 points."
"Woah..."
The crowds were astonished by these points. Even the teacher who announced it was surprised too.
"Hmph," he turned to Alex and he smirked in triumph, "Look at that, you are nothing compared to me!"
Alex only shook his head and he wasn't even bothered with Cornel's points, "Princess, it's your turn!"
Alicia nodded and she went on, "Alicia!"
"Fifty-three for rank 0, one hundred twenty for rank 1, two hundred twenty for rank 2, and seventeen for rank 3. Total points are 1309 points."
"Woah..."
The crowd was shocked since they knew that Alicia was a princess, they were also more amazed by the fact that Alicia was still a first-grade student.
Something no one knew about was that Alicia had received help from Alex. If she didn't consume Alex's pills and Spiritual Liquids, she won't be able to receive this kind of result. She was thankful to Alex.
"Congratulations to you Princess Alicia!" the teacher said politely.
"Thank you," she smiled and left to go back to where Alex was.
This time, Alex was being called by the Teacher. Alicia looked at him worriedly while Cornel looked at him with contempt, he snorted.
"Alexander!"
"Thirty for rank 0, fifty for rank 1, two hundred eleven for rank 2, one hundred thirty-three for rank 3, one for rank 4, for rank.." before he finished announcing Alex's point, his jaw dropped to the floor. He immediately stood up to confirm that the result was true. But then, the dean came in.
"That is true, I'm the one who personally saw him kill it," the dean confirmed everything and left.
"One for…Rank 5."
"What?" the crowd was stunned. Even Alicia was shocked, she knew Alex's ability well but she never thought Alex managed to kill the rank 5 monster. No wonder he looked so worn out when they went out of the forest. Only Cornel who looked so pale after hearing Alex's result, Cornel didn't want to believe this kind of result.
"To...tal points...are...2158 points!"
There was only silence when they heard Alex's score. They were speechless with this score which marked the highest score to be announced so far. Since Alex was the last student to be called, that meant he was the one who obtained the highest score in this grade ranking.