The next morning, four of them were walking like a robot. This scene was too funny, but the servants didn't dare to laugh. Alicia was the only one who laughed non-stop.
Mia along with the grand duke and madam thanked Alex for the pills. Though Alex kept saying he just wanted to repay everyone for taking care of him. But what shocked them the most was when Lea, the eldest daughter, hugged him as a thank you gesture. Everyone froze upon this scene and Alicia didn't know why her heart felt hurt after watching this scene. 'She is my sister, she is my sister...' she said this over and over inside her head.
Lea did something like this because she was the one who managed to get the most benefit. She managed to break through to rank 6 prowess, so when she reached rank 6 or level 600, her prowess will be much higher.
Initially, Lea had been stuck at rank 5 for two years because rank 5 monster or above was hard to kill. As for below rank 5 monster, they didn't give much exp. With this new power, she can easily challenge rank 5 or even rank 6 monsters to level up.
Lea graduated from the academy two years ago. She was a rank 5 warrior at that time and she was acknowledged as the genius of geniuses. She was proud and aloof. After graduating from the academy, she wanted to enlist in the military. But then her progress stagnated in rank 5.
Because of this breakthrough, the entire house made a celebration for her.
After dinner, the grand duke accompanied Alex, Alicia, and Mia to the academy. Mia was a second-grade student in the academy. For second grade students, they had a more relaxed schedule, so she already went back to the house a few days earlier.
"Be careful when you are going to the Night Forest," he warned them.
"Yes father, we are going now," Alicia and Mia said goodbye to their father.
Alex took out a few more pills and gave them to the grand duke, "These are the pills for His Majesty and...Your Highness, crown prince."
When the grand duke received it, Alex had become more pleasing to his eyes. He needed to make sure that no one snatched the pills from him.
After arriving at the academy, all of them went back to their own room right away. Mia invited Alex and Alicia to make a group for the grade ranking, but Alex said he wanted to explore the Night Forest alone. Only Alicia joined her team, she should be fine since Alicia had enough ability to follow her.
Alex went back to cultivate. Even though his strength was equal to rank 4, he still didn't manage to break through to the Qi Gathering Stage. Alex speculated that the Mana in him was not enough to advance. And of course, he knew that it was related to his 'INT' status. It didn't relate to his 'intelligence' but it was related to his Mana instead.
The next day, every student from the academy gathered in the arena. Then, the dean gave his speech to all of the students presenting there.
"Today will be the start for grade ranking, the event will be held for two weeks, you need to kill monsters in the Night Forest, the number of monsters you can kill will determine your ranking. The teachers will supervise you to make sure nothing goes wrong."
After I end my speech, we will go to the Night Forest. Do your best, my students! and remember today is the first day for grade ranking."
The dean got off the podium and a few students managed to catch the hidden message in the dean's speech. Alex managed to get the hidden message too. The dean always made a different system every year.
"Princess, we might need to pick up a pace later," Alex said.
True enough, he immediately saw Mia come to them.
"Alicia!"
"Sister Mia."
"Let's go," Mia grabbed Alicia's hand.
"Sister, what happened?" Alicia worried.
"I will explain it later. Now we need to move faster, he has noticed it too," Mia said while looking at Alex and the guy just nodded to her.
"Please proceed, Princess," Alex said to Alicia.
Alicia then left with Mia, while Alex also started his own journey to the Night Forest. It is a forest close to the capital city so that the students could reach it with only a day of walking.
Academy had thirty third-grade students, two hundred second grade students, and one thousand first grade students. All of these people set off toward the Night Forest.
With so many people marching toward the Night Forest. This event was well known by the citizens in the capital city. Many came out from their house, to watch them and cheer for them.
But Alex didn't pay attention to something like this. He escaped from the mass and rushed toward the Night Forest. After a few hours of running, true enough, there were a few ten students who reached this forest first. They managed to get the hidden message from the dean's speech. Of course, there were already a few rank 6 teachers or above, standing by outside the forest. They smiled at the students because they knew about the dean's arrangement.
The students who managed to get the hidden message were mainly third-grade students and a few second-grade students. Only Alex and Alicia, who was brought along with Mia, were the first-year students.
Alex went inside the forest and it was similar to a rain-forest in his hometown on Earth. He didn't care much about this and he kept rushing to the inner forest.
While he was rushing to the inner forest, he had slain many rank-0 to rank-1 monsters. With Alex's capability, those monsters could be killed in an instant. He ran for another two hours, and he finally managed to reach the inner forest. He raised his guard when he arrived.
He noticed a big red snake, with 12-meter length and 1 meter wide. This monster was a rank 3 snake. He praised his luck. The first monster he found in the inner forest was only a rank 3 snake.
The snake moved fast despite having a big body. But after all this snake was only a rank 3 snake, Alex killed it quickly. He killed monsters in his surroundings for a few hours. He managed to kill ten rank 2 monsters and four rank 3 monsters. He decided to end the day early.
He didn't make a campfire and he just climbed a tree and slept there. Since he had awakened his element, he won't be bothered with a cold.
On the second day, he managed to kill a few times more than yesterday.
On the third day, when he searched around, he got surrounded by twenty rank 3 wolves, but what shocked him the most was that their leader was a rank 4 wolf. He recalled Alicia told him that there should be only rank 2 or rank 3 monsters in the inner zone.
He frowned and this time he took out his spears from the system. Both of his hands were holding a spear. Before the wolf leader ordered the attack, Alex had thrown both of his spears at them. He killed two wolves in his first move.
"Auuuu," the leader immediately ordered them to attack. Seventeen wolves immediately charged at Alex.
Alex still had a few meters distance from them. He took out another two spears and threw them.
He killed another two wolves. But this time, the wolves managed to get close to him, so he took out his sword. This was the first time for Alex to kill many rank 3 wolves in a single fight. These wolves were fast and strong.
One wolf charged at him from the front and he swung his sword instantly. His sword managed to kill the wolf. But, "Ah...." he screamed.
His left arm was bitten from the back. Noticing this, All of the wolves charged at him together. Alex immediately kicked the wolf that bit him. Fortunately, his left hand was still usable.
He called another sword to his left hand. He charged in the direction where the wolves were fewer to make a breakthrough.
In this direction, there were only two wolves, he effortlessly slashed them apart. With that, he finally managed to break through.
The wolf that Alex kicked couldn't get up. Alex's strength was equal to rank 4, so that kick managed to immobilize the wolf.
Now, only thirteen wolves left that were still charging at him. He used this chance to throw his sword from his left hand, which managed to kill another wolf. After that, he took out his spear from his left hand.
He ran around them by holding a sword in the right hand and a spear in the left hand. The wolves didn't charge at him in one direction. There were seven wolves in his back, three wolves at his side, and two wolves in his front. The wolves were smart, but unfortunately, their opponent was Alex.
Others might find it hard to kill a wolf in this kind of situation, but Alex killed the wolves in his front instantly. He then charged at the wolves on his side. He managed to kill two wolves on his side, but when he was about to kill the third one, there was a shadow from his other side. He instinctively used his sword to guard it.
He was blown away and he was shocked to see the wolf leader join the battle. His right hand was numb. But fortunately, he managed to distance himself a bit from the wolves when he got blown away.
He managed to throw three spears before the wolves closed their distance. Now, there were only 5 wolves left, excluding the leader.
The battle would become harder from now on, especially since his right hand was injured. He used his left hand to use a spear so he could make a distance from them.
The leader charged at him, but now Alex had prepared himself for it. Just when the leader was about to bite him, Alex kicked him. Maybe because he was pissed, Alex used his full strength to kick the leader.
The wolves saw what Alex did and luckily they weren't angered. Instead, they started to fear Alex. But, he didn't let this chance pass and he threw his spear with his left hand.
Alex decided to use his magic and a fireball appeared in front of him. He pinched the ball like an arrow and released it. The ball flew to the wolves while splitting into four targeting each wolf. Since the wolves were scared, they didn't have the chance to dodge it. The balls managed to pierce them and kill them.
The leader finally recovered from that kick as he looked at Alex hatefully. All of his subordinates had been killed by Alex. It was enraged and madly attacked him.
Alex formed a fire spear in his front and the spear flew to the leader. The wolf leader was shocked, it managed to retain a bit of its rationality. He barely dodged Alex's flame spear. But Alex didn't let this go, he charged at the wolf and slashed him.
After the wolf leader died, Alex leaned to a tree. He was tired and he took out a restoration pill. The numbness on his right hand disappeared, the bitten wound started closing with a speed visible with naked eyes.
He decided to stop his hunt after this. He furrowed his eyebrows when he thought about the oddity.
"Why does a rank 4 wolf come to the inner forest?" he kept pondering about this, but no answer came to his mind.
The next day, he killed a few rank 3 monsters. He didn't see any rank 4 monsters for now.
But, what happened next shocked him. This time, he encountered a rank 5 monster instead of a rank 4 monster. Alex tried to make sure again and it was indeed a RANK 5 monster. The difference was too big. Fear started growing in his heart as he watched a rank 5 bear come closer to him.
He raised his guard to the limit. He wanted to run away, but it was not possible to do so. All he could do was just face it with everything he had left. This bear was fast enough to catch up with him and it tried to headbutt him. When Alex noticed this, he immediately threw himself to the side.
'Too fast,' he was shocked by the bear's speed. He dodged the bear, albeit barely.
He took out his spear and threw it to the bear. The spear didn't even manage to scratch the bear, but the spear was capable of making the bear get angry.
The bear angrily charged at him, but this time, he did not charge blindly. When Alex managed to dodge its charge, it immediately threw a paw at him. Alex parried this paw with his sword.
'Strong!' that paw blew Alex away. He crashed into a big tree and spat some blood. He checked his wounds and he was aware that aside from his internal injury, his left hand also got injured.
He made a fireball and pinched it like usual. He aimed at the bear and the ball flew to the bear. When the bear saw this, it raised its hands to block it. When the ball touched the bear, it exploded.
"Did I manage to kill it?"
After the fog was cleared. He saw the bear wasn't even wounded. This time, he got scared for real. With that attack, many rank 3 will be killed easily, even rank 4 monsters won't escape unscathed if they took it head-on. But this attack didn't even wound the bear in his front.
"Is this a rank 5 power?"
The bear charged at him again, the bear paw managed to land a hit on Alex and he was blown away again.
He crashed to a nearby rock. This time a few of his ribs were broken. He fuzzily looked at the bear.
"Is this my end?" he predicted that he would be killed by this bear. But suddenly, a warm feeling gushed out from his body.
"This is..." he was surprised by this sudden warmth. He tried to absorb this warm feeling in his body.
"What is this? Is this Qi?"
He tried to absorb as many as possible in these few seconds.
'Qi Gathering Stage'
"So this is Qi? System, show me my stat!"
Name: Alexander Sirius (Early Phase Qi Gathering Stage)
Job: Adventurer (Primary), Alchemist (Secondary)
Rank : 3
Level: 361
STR: 440
AGI: 410
VIT: 421
DEX: 430
INT: 401
"I break through!"
The bear charged at him once again. After he reached the Qi Gathering Stage, he managed to control the Qi/Mana in his body easily. He infused the Qi to his foot and he was able to dodge the bear completely this time.
"Ah..." he screamed in pain. It was the pain from a broken hand and a few broken ribs. Enduring this pain, he distanced himself from the bear.
He raised his sword and tried to infuse his sword with his fire. The sword now was on fire. Seeing it was a success, he tried to infuse it as much as possible. After he felt he couldn't infuse it anymore, he swung his sword down.
The fire that was dancing on Alex's sword flew as it turned to a sword wave. After using that move, Alex's sword broke. The bear suddenly felt the dread of this sword wave. The bear raised both of its hands to guard this. Alex used this chance to run away.
"I will be back to kill you," Alex said with determination.
If Alex looked back, he could see his sword wave cut one of the bear's hands.