After the dean left the courtyard, he looked at Sherry intently. Now that she was a rank 6 already, he couldn't lose to her.
"Sherry, let's exchange spots. I'm going to eat the pill now," he said as he walked to Sherry.
"Wuu!" Sherry left her spot and went toward Alex's previous spot.
Alex sat down as he prepared himself. After a moment, he ate the Quenching Fire Pill and it quickly melted in his mouth. As soon as the pill melted, dense energies burst out from within and started to flow all over his body. Soon enough, the energy tried to fuse with Alex's flame.
The fusing process took a few seconds, but what shocked the most was when the energy fused completely, it burst out with his flame outside.
'Boom!'
Alex's flame gushed out from his body. The red-colored flame kept rising and reaching almost ten meters high. After the flame couldn't rise any higher, it started to spread to its surroundings. 1 meter... 3 meters... 5 meters... the fire stopped when it reached the length of 15 meters, three times wider from Sherry's fire.
The red-colored tyrannical fire rose ten meters high and 15 meters wide. Although people couldn't see the bright flame from outside because of the wall, the bright red light brought by the flame made this courtyard very noticeable from the surrounding area. Many people looked at the bright red light that suddenly brightened up the academy.
People in the city were very astonished by the sudden reddish glow from the academy. They were whispering and shouting upon seeing such an amazing sight.
"What is that?"
"Is the academy planning something? Is there going to be an event?"
"I don't remember there was something like this last year?"
"So, are they preparing to hold a new event?"
"I don't know, after all the academy is still on holiday, right?"
"Yes. Maybe, there are going to be some events in the next enrollment? It is going to be held in a few days after all. There are already so many people gathered in this city. They want to enroll in this academy."
"Yes, my daughter is also registered for enrollment."
"Eh... wait, the light starts to shrink!"
***
Upon watching this scene, the dean facepalmed. He knew what kind of commotion this phenomenon would cause. He also couldn't stop Alex from this process. After all, Sherry was experiencing the same thing too. He started to think of an excuse for this phenomenon in case people asked him.
Alex felt his flame that was gushing out from his body was very free. The flame was like eating a stimulant after fusing with the pill energy. They jumped out from one spot to another within 15 meters radius.
Soon, the pill's energy compressed the flame.
"Ugh!" Alex started to clench his teeth in pain.
When the flame started shrinking, he felt pain all over his body. The flame was a part of his body so when they were compressed, it felt like his organ was pressed by an invisible force. The process was very painful. This was also the reason why Sherry screamed in pain when she reached this process.
"Agh!" Alex refused to let out a scream, he continued to clench his teeth in pain.
The shrinking speed was slower than Sherry. After all, their flame attribute was not on the same level. Not only that, his flame was spread three times longer than Sherry.
An hour later...
The flame kept shrinking, while Alex kept his silence. After one hour, Alex started to get used to the pain. Although the pain caused by the process did not become any lesser, Alex could easily withstand the pain.
After another hour, Alex's flame almost disappeared, only the flame that covered his body remained. Sure enough, after a couple of minutes, all of the flames were nowhere to be seen.
Reaching this stage, Alex started to feel comfortable. The pain was finally stopped and the warm feeling started to fill him. He checked the flame inside of his body. The dense red-colored flame became a translucent red flame. Although the color was less vivid than before, Alex felt that this new translucent flame was even more tyrannical than his previous flame.
The newly compressed flame wanted to release all of its power to show the world its prowess. It started to run through every inch of his body and gushed out at the same time.
'Boom!'
It then exploded. Alex's flame gushed out from his body. A lot more tyrannical flame brightened the academy once again. This time people could see the form of the bright red glow because the flame rose to one and a half times its previous height. In this stage, it rose to fifteen meters with a radius of 20 meters.
The citizens could see this translucent red flame. They were captivated by its appearance, the flame beautifully blazed in the middle of the academy like an immortal flame. It shone the academy with its translucent red color.
Contrary to the citizens, the mage, especially those who had a fire element, felt like they were forced to kneel in front of this flame. This was an element suppression. All of them were shocked by this, especially the new students who had a fire element and wanted to register in the academy. This feeling of suppression made them look at the academy with a fiery feeling.
'This is the Acacia Kingdom Royal Academy'
Because of this incident, the Acacia Kingdom Royal Academy's reputation went through the roof and reached a new height.
***
Alex, who was still sitting on the ground, was completely unaware of what kind of scene he made. After all of the flames exited his body, his mind felt refreshed. He enjoyed this new feeling for a while before finally opening his eyes slowly.
Surprised with his flame, he immediately tried to retract the flame. The flame gradually dimmed down and Alex then sighed with relief.
He looked at his surroundings, he burned half of his teacher's courtyard. The previous beautiful courtyard ground became pitch black. He felt guilty for what he had done, so he asked Sherry to follow him.
Both of them went to the dean's office, "Teacher."
"Sigh... you love to make a commotion, aren't you?"
"Ugh," he wanted to deny it but the word stuck in his throat. Not because he loved to make a commotion, he just somehow always caused a commotion even though he didn't like to be the center of attention.
"Don't worry, I will just release some announcement to cover all of this incident."
"Announcement?" Alex was surprised.
The dean nodded, "Yep, announcement. I will just say that we do some research on fire magic. Although it shows impressive power, unfortunately, it was a failure because there are many setbacks, and it is not possible to use it practically. This announcement will clear any suspicion. However, I'm sure, other kingdoms will send some spies to confirm it. But don't worry, as long as you do not use that power for a while, they will give up soon enough."
Alex thought for a bit, although the reason that the dean came up with was a bit rough, he agreed that it was pretty useful. He nodded, "Thank you, Teacher."
"Well if you are done, get the other two to eat the pill as soon as possible so I can repair my courtyard as soon as possible," the dean said.
"Yes, I will get them now," with that, Alex left the room.
"System, how strong am I now?"
Name: Alexander Sirius (Peak Phase Qi Gathering Stage)
Job: Alchemist (Primary), Adventurer (Secondary), Sword Saint (Secondary), Hunter (Secondary), Flame Ruler (Secondary), Forger (Secondary)
Rank: 5
Level: 587
STR: 632
AGI: 617
VIT: 674
DEX: 604
INT: 610
Alex was shocked by his new status. It had been a long time since he checked his status. He noticed a very drastic change since the last time he checked. The last time he checked, he was still at the Early Qi Gathering Stage. This time, he already passed two-stage. But what shocked him the most was his job. He got two new jobs, one was Flame Ruler and the other was a forger. He knew what forger meant, after all, he learned it from his teacher. But for this Flame Ruler...
"System, what is this Flame Ruler?"
[The same with your 'Sword Saint' job, the requirement is your pure element, Host. After you use the pill just now, you got the job]
"The same with my 'Sword Saint' job? You mean, it gives me a boost to comprehend about flame?"
[Yes]
"Hmm... I'm curious. Last time, I asked the teacher what is the function of the 'Sword Saint' job. He just said that it gives me a boost to comprehend the way of the sword. But is that it? I mean, if that is the only effect? Isn't the gap between normal jobs and high-level jobs pretty insignificant?"
[Ask your teacher, not me]
"..."
"System, are you in a bad mood at the moment? What happened?"
The system ignored him.
"Oi... system!" Alex tried to call the system again and again but to no avail. He then sighed and continued walking.
He went to Rizertia's house, after all, the academy was still on holiday. It seemed that Firia was visiting the house.
Alicia invited him in when she saw Alex.
"Alex, do you know what happened just now?" Alicia asked.
"Just now? What do you mean?" Alex was confused.
"A big flame appeared and when the second flame appeared, I felt my flame become submissive," Firia said.
Alex then facepalmed, this was his doing. "Ugh..."
"Alex, you know what happened, right?" Alicia asked worriedly.
"Sigh... it was the pill. The pill makes my fire stronger, but... for the detail, you can observe it later," Alex answered. He then took out a pill and gave it to Firia. "This is Quenching Fire Pill. It will make your fire stronger, but the process is painful. So I'm asking you whether you want to..."
Before Alex finished his concern, Firia already took the pill from Alex's hand and answered him determinedly, "I will."
Seeing the determination in Firia's eyes, Alex nodded and turned to Alicia. "This last pill is for Elder Sister Mia. I want to ask you to call her to the Teacher's courtyard because I don't know where she is..."
He hesitated, "I will search for her and give it to her myself."
He somehow felt guilty to Alicia because he didn't give anything to her and even wanted to ask her to find someone...
Noticing his hesitation, Alicia smiled gently as she took the pill from Alex's hand. "It's alright. I will go get her and give this to her now since she is in the garden right now."
Alicia took the pill and left.
"Alicia."
Alicia halted her step. Alex then continued, "Umm... I am still gathering the ingredients, when they are ready I will give you a pill for an ice element user since this pill is only for a fire element user."
Alicia smiled, "Don't worry about that, I'm not the old me. As long as I'm with you, I don't care about any of that."
As she said that, she left.
Alex was somehow dumbfounded hearing what Alicia said. Firia's expression somehow became complex, she was perplexed.
***
After Alicia gave the pill to Mia, four of them went to the dean's courtyard. The girls were very shocked when they looked at the pitch-black ground. Alex could only scratch his cheek embarrassedly.
The first who took the pill was Firia. The process went the same way as Sherry and Alex. But the flame gushed out from Firia was not comparable to Alex or Sherry. The flame was spread around two meters from her body. Alex also noticed that the pain was various for each person. That might be because of the flame ferocity. The process didn't take too long, only about fifteen minutes.
After Firia finished, Mia's turn came up. Her process was similar to Firia. After they were done, Alex told the dean and they went back to Rizertia's house.