When they had gotten out of Alex's room. Alicia called out her friend, "Firia..." Alicia looked at Firia solemnly.
Firia just gulped down.
"How exactly do we think about Alex....?" Alicia asked with a sad face.
"I… I… think..." Firia couldn't think of better words to describe who Alex was to her now.
"The first time I met Alex, my group was attacked with a great number of orcs, Alex saved me and my group. At that time, he was only a rank 1 warrior. When I think about it, I already know Alex for 1 year.
For 1 year, he struggled to improve himself from rank 1 warrior to rank 5. I didn't notice his progress until now. Alex went through a lot and he had to put in such tremendous effort this year."
Firia was tongue-tied, she was also shocked by Alex's power. He was able to get through where he was now in just one year. What… what his experience was like this entire year?
"To… to ranking up... we need to level up… and to level up we need to kill many monsters," Firia said bitterly
"Yes... I didn't realize how many times Alex has to go through every life and death battle with those monsters hehehe…." tears started to stream down on Alicia's face.
Firia hugged her and she also shed some tears.
"I never thought like this at all. It feels like I only use him. What exactly did I do for him? Now I know I barely give anything to him after seeing his current state. He was the one who did everything for me. He protects me… he gives me many pills… he..." Alicia's tears kept flooding even more. She sobbed so hard.
Firia bit her lips, "Same with me. I had my motive when I approached him. I never try to look at him as a whole person. Even with our shallow friendship he still gives me many precious pills, but I… I…" Firia's tears also started coming down.
They started to think that Alex was not a machine, robot, or God that can give them everything they needed. He was only human being just like them. He also could get tired, exhausted, and even get sick. But he bore all of these things without complaining at all.
But… what were they to Alex? Were they helping him? The answer was no, they didn't have enough power to protect him, they had no skills to make pills like him, they also knew their cooking skills were horrible. But Alex didn't even complain and ate them like they were delicious.
Alex sacrificed a lot for them, but… what can they do for him?
After crying for a while, they looked at each other.
"Firia."
"Alicia."
Both of them called each other names at the same time.
"You can go first, Alicia."
"I want to be useful for Alex, I don't want to be the one who needs constant protection from him. I don't want to be his burden all the time. I don't want to always walk behind him as he protects me. I also want to walk beside him, share his burden and endure the pain with him," said Alicia with determination in her eyes.
Firia nodded, "I agree with you, I also want to do it too."
"How about we...." they continued with their plan to help Alex.
***
The next day Alex woke up. His mind already felt very refreshed, he was truly tired yesterday.
Clack!
The door to Alex's room was opened, then Alicia and Firia came in. Alex was surprised to see both of them early in the morning.
"Good morning," Alex greeted them.
"Good morning Alex," both of them replied.
"Let's go back home," Alicia urged him.
"What is this all about? I was thinking of relaxing with both of you today."
Alicia and Firia were tempted to do Alex's initial plan, but they shook their heads.
"Let's go back home first," Alicia urged him again.
Alex was surprised with their determination to go home, Alicia and Firia usually would accept this offer right away. He looked at them curiously, he wanted to find out if they were possessed by demons or something.
"I agree with Alicia, let's go home now," Firia also urged him.
Alex sighed, then he smiled while answered, "Sure, let's go home if that's what you guys want."
Alicia and Firia already packed their stuff and Alex didn't have much luggage, so they were ready to go back anytime. He wanted to say goodbye to guild master Bernard first, but Alicia and Firia kept saying he didn't need to do that now. Alex could only sigh and followed them.
Then, they searched for a caravan heading to the capital city and found it easily. They set off right away.
The journey only took two days. Firia went to Merona's house, while Alex and Alicia went back to Rizertia House.
"Father, Mother," Alicia happily hugged her parents once she arrived home.
"Welcome back Alicia!" they hugged her back and then turned to Alex.
"Un… Uncle… Auntie..." Alex greeted them awkwardly.
They smiled, it seemed there were many improvements with Alex this time. Before this, Alex still called them 'Grand Duke' or 'Madam'. But now he called them more intimately.
"Welcome back Alex," said Alicia's mother.
"Haha..." Grand duke laughed.
"How is your examination, Dear?" Madam asked Alicia.
"I got 2907 points," Alicia said.
"What??? You managed to receive that much?" both of them were shocked.
"I remembered that in the academy's history, the previous score was around eight thousand. But back then, the points were doubled from now. It means you almost get six thousand points??" said the grand duke with astonishment on his face.
"Our Alicia did well. Even your eldest sister Lea who hailed as a genius among genius from the academy only got 3200 points, that means she has around six thousand," said Alicia's mother.
"But Mother, I stayed in the town for the last week," Alicia smiled.
"..." Alicia's parents were shocked with this. If she stayed in the town for a week, that meant she could get a few hundred more points and surpassed Lea's points?
If they knew Alicia cheated by accepting the cores Alex gave to her, she would be punished right away.
"But… my points are way smaller if you compare it with Alex's score."
"Too small?" they wanted to make sure they heard it right since Alicia said her score was "Too Small" not "Smaller". That meant the points difference was great. They looked at Alex with curiosity.
"I… I… got 43,480 points," Alex said embarrassedly.
Their jaws dropped to the ground. Even Alicia's jaw also dropped. She knew Alex's previous score was around thirty-six thousand. But in just a few days, his score had increased that much?
"43,480… if we doubled it that means he got… 86,960… that was more than ten times from the previous highest score!" grand duke stuttered.
The madam still had not recovered from her shock. Alicia recovered soon and more determination filled in her eyes.
"Let us… come in first, let's talk inside… no… since it's already late, I think both of you must be tired from your trip. We can talk about this tomorrow," the grand duke said. He wanted to hear their experience in the dungeon. But he hesitated and decided to prepare his heart first before hearing any shocking stories.
They then went to their respective room.
"System I have 49 tickets, right?"
[Yes, Host]
"Please put all of them in techniques!"
[Processing]
[Fencing x1]
[Basic Sword Art x3]
...
[Spear Throwing Art x1]
...
[Electronic Fan Making Manual x1]
He didn't get any different manual from 49 tickets. He only got Spear-Throwing Art and Electronic Fan-Making manuals. But as soon as he saw this manual he snapped.
"What is this Electronic Fan-Making manual! I don't even know how to generate electricity and this world also doesn't have any resources for it. Are you going to make lightning attribute Mage to become an electricity source?! If not, it'll be useless even if I make them. Oi… System! Answer me!"
[Host, System can only generate the gacha randomly]
Even though he often got this kind of useless thing, he still couldn't get used to it. Alex tried to remain calm every time but the System always shocked him. In the end, it was a very useless manual and he still snapped.
He took a deep breath a few times to calm his heart. He shook his head.
"Let's see the new Spear-Throwing Art first."
[This is an intermediate spear art, Host]
"I see," Alex took out the Spear-Throwing Art and he was surprised. This time the art was in the scroll. He made a few attempts to open the scroll since he was unfamiliar with this kind of scroll. After a while, he managed to open the scroll.
The first sentence of the scroll was "As long as the speed was enough, even a tiny pebble can make a crater."
Alex was astonished by this sentence, he immediately thought about meteorites that come down to earth. Even a small meteorite could make a tsunami if it fell on the sea or crater on the surface.
He looked at the rest. The Spear-Throwing Art consisted of two types of movement. They were power throwing and spin throwing. The power throwing was to emphasize the power of the thrower to give speed for the spear. It included the stance, hand positioning, etc.
For spin throwing, just like its name, it emphasized the power of spin when throwing to give a piercing power to the spear. He looked at the stance and finger positioning. He needed to spin his hand a bit and his finger needed to be agile when he threw. If not, the spin wouldn't be great and it wouldn't bring much effect.
Alex wanted to study them first, but he still had his Sanguin Sword Art. He wanted to reach the fifth slash first before studying this art.
Alex made a plan on what he wanted to do, then he continued to cultivate until tomorrow.
The next morning, he was in the back garden and he was practicing his Sanguin Sword Art.
"Fifth Slash!"
'Swoosh'
The Sword Wave became a weak wind once again which meant Alex had failed.
He was trying to figure out why he couldn't succeed in the fifth slash.
Alex kept training and exercising this slash.
Meanwhile, the grand duke was watching Alex's training, he was looking at Alex's peculiar Sword Art. But he felt something wrong with it.
"Alex!"
"Un...cle."
"I've been watching your training for a while from there," he pointed at the place he stood earlier. "I was watching your Sword Art and this is a peculiar Sword Art. But I sense something wrong with it when you train using it."
"I also felt something was wrong, but I can't figure that out," Alex said confusedly.
"Well, this is my observation earlier. I watched this Sword Art was giving a powerful Sword Wave, but somehow this power didn't come from your strength, but from your...." the grand duke was pondering.
"..." Alex also thought about something.
"Speed?" both of them said at the same time. They looked at each other happily.
"That's right, the speed!" the grand duke said.
Alex nodded, "Power comes from speed!"
"The power comes from the speed and your movement was also a bit rough, I think you need to smoothen your movement too."
Alex was pondering for a moment, "I will try again."
'If the power comes from speed, then I must be wrong this whole time. I use my strength up to the fourth slash… but what if I use all my speed from the first slash?' Alex thought for a while.
He relaxed his body and started to move again.
"First Slash!" this time, he made a slash that came from his speed. He didn't forcefully use his strength to make a Sword Wave.
"Second Slash!"
"Third Slash!" he used his peak rank 4 speed and the reaction speed to each slash.
"Fourth Slash!"
He stopped at the fourth slash. A powerful Sword Wave came after the movement. Alex looked at the Sword Wave and was surprised with the power contained within. The power was at peak rank 4, but he was very surprised with his movement.
"I… did I just do the slash easily?"
The grand duke nodded, "It seems our speculation was right."
"Thank you, Uncle!" Alex thanked the grand duke. If not for the grand duke, he won't notice this problem sooner.
"Haha… it's alright, you will overcome this problem soon enough even without me."