Then, a month had passed and the ranking competition came once again.
The students from all grades gathered in the arena. From the first year, second year, and third year with a total of 1498 students from all grades. The dean gave a speech to them. For this event, Alex couldn't bring Sherry along with him, so he asked her to watch the house. It came back to Rizertia House since the academy would be empty during the event. Although it went back reluctantly.
"Today will be the start of grade ranking, the event will be held for two weeks, you need to kill monsters in the Night Forest and the number of monsters you manage to kill will determine your ranking. The teachers will be the ones who supervised you."
"After this speech ends, we will go to the Night Forest together. Do your best, my student! We will start 'Tomorrow'!"
He seemed to emphasize the word 'Tomorrow' which made Alex's eyes brighten before suddenly frowned again. "This time, he wants us to hunt from midnight? After all, past midnight also means 'tomorrow.' Is that what he was talking about? Or maybe we can sneak in at midnight to set a camp. That way, we can immediately hunt the monster as soon as the sun rises? Yep, It seems the case for now."
"Oh right, I forgot to ask Teacher about the 'Job' function."
After the speech ended, they started to march toward the Night Forest. Of course, similar to the previous event last year, many citizens watched the students march in the town. Everyone cheered for them.
They soon left the city gate, and the cheering voice gradually sounded lower and lower as they were farther away from the city. The teacher maintained the pace since there were many first-year students who were still rank 0. The journey took a day, they arrived at the Night Forest after the sun had just set. Many formed a group to hunt together in this forest while some other students prefer to hunt alone just like Alex did. Of course, the ones who hunted alone were mostly second-year or above.
After they arrived, he then took the chance to visit his teacher.
"Alex, what's the matter?"
"So, I want to ask you about the 'Job' function. Last time, you explained that the 'Sword Saint' job can make me understand the sword better. But is that all of the function?"
The dean was surprised, he thought what kind of problem could possibly bother him. He never thought that the problem was this simple. "Sigh... the other function of the job is the increase in status at each level. I thought you would realize it yourself with your observation skills, so I didn't talk about it back then."
Alex sweatdropped, 'Of course I couldn't realize it, my status did not increase because of levels!'
However, he couldn't say any of it. He could only lie about it, "Oh... now since Teacher mentions it, I realized that!"
"The job normally functions as a boost for understanding the way of 'something' according to the job. The other function is the status points you will get from each level. For example, the hero will get around 1,5-2x normal status when he levels up. The archmage and sage are also the same, but their points are attributed to the 'INT' status."
"I see. Thank you, Teacher. So, let me excuse myself. I will prepare for the event tomorrow."
"Sure."
Alex left. When he returned from his teacher's office, Alicia and Firia came to him.
"Alex."
Alex smiled at the two of them, "What is it? What's the matter?"
"Well... we decided to pair up. Let's have a bet on who will have the bigger points for this event. You or the two of us. If we win, you can't practice for a week."
Alex looked at them, "And if I win?"
"There will be a surprise for you if you win, that's it," after they said that, they left Alex hanging.
Alex shook his head while looking at these two girls curiously, "What kind of surprise are they preparing huh...?"
"Wait, don't tell me something like a kiss?"
"..."
He was fine if it was Alicia who kissed him, but Firia...
He didn't know why, but the monogamous principles from the Earth were stuck tightly in his flesh and bone. He just couldn't muster a feeling for Firia. He already regarded Firia as a special person, but it was only as a friend. He just couldn't see her as a lover. He felt very guilty about this. He just hoped that someone would come and take Firia's hand soon. It might be unfair for her but he felt like he couldn't give the happiness that she deserved. At that time, in Maka Town, she also said something like 'Until she gives up on him,' didn't she?
Alex let out a long and heavy sigh.
***
The next day, as the sun started to rise, Alex immediately rushed in toward the forest. Last night, there were a few people that already went inside the forest, but it was not more than 10 people. Even Alex decided not to go to the forest at night.
When he went inside the forest, Alex said to the system, "Hehe... System, I will complete that repeatable mission."
But something unexpected happened when he said that.
[Host, System suggest you open the mission panel again]
"What do you mean?" Alex was confused, as he followed the system's suggestion.
[Mission 1 #repeatable
Objective: Kill 1500 rank 5 monsters (89/1500)
Reward: Premium Ticket x1]
[Mission 2 #repeatable
Objective: Kill 400 rank 6 monsters (1/400)
Reward: Premium Ticket x1]
[Mission 3 #repeatable
Objective: Kill 30 rank 7 monsters (0/30)
Reward: Premium Ticket x2]
[Mission 4 #repeatable
Objective: Kill 1 rank 8 monsters (0/1)
Reward: Premium Ticket x3]
Alex almost spurted blood when he saw this sudden update. "System, where is the mission to kill rank 4 monsters?"
[Since Host already has a rank 6, you should be ashamed to search for that kind of low-rank monster. So the system judged that a mission to kill rank 4 monsters won't be needed. When Host reaches rank 7, the mission for rank 5 monsters will also be deleted]
Alex stumbled and fell to the ground when he heard that. "System, just say it out loud if you hate me. If you don't want to give me the premium ticket from the repeatable mission just say so... no, why do you even bother to make those missions? You are the one who should be ashamed!"
[...] The system ignored him.
Alex wanted to cry but no tears came out. He started to hate this system, but then he remembered, this system was the one that gave him all the strength that he had now. Alex could only sigh.
"That means, I can hold out the rank for now. If I reach the rank 6 peaks, I will stop the progress and search for as many rank 5 or rank 6 monsters as possible. Since at that stage, killing those monsters would be easy for me."
Alex then moved forward with a heavy step. For a few days, the monsters in the forest would become the victim of Alex's anger. After all, he could only vent his anger to those monsters.
He walked at a very fast speed. He encountered monsters as he walked to the center of the forest. After all, this outer and inner zone didn't hold any importance to him. His only challenge was from the forest king, the rank 6 ape. These low-rank monsters were killed instantly when Alex passed them. The dean became his observer once again.
He arrived at the center zone within an hour. He then went searching for the forest king. After all, they both were ranked 6. Alex couldn't wait to challenge him. This would be the second ranked 6 monsters that he encountered... no, the third if he counted Sherry as well. Nah, he wouldn't do anything to that fox. Sherry was his partner, not some random monsters.
On the first day, he kept searching for the rank 6 ape but to no avail, he was confused. He seemed like he had already searched the entire forest but the rank 6 ape was nowhere to be seen.
"Did I miss some spots?" Alex frowned.
'Tick'
'Tick'
Water droplets hit him from above. He looked at the dark and gloomy sky. "The rain will fall soon."
Alex searched for a cave but he couldn't find one, and the rain started to fall harder. So he decided to stop at a big tree by the hill. The tree completely blocked the rain so he was satisfied enough with this tree. He rested for a while and waited for the rain to stop. But the rain seemed only going harder.
The rain finally stopped at night. He sat on a branch while seeing the bright moon behind the dark cloud that started to come up and brightened the world. He sighed, "Let's search for the ape tomorrow."
He decided to sleep for the day.
***
The next day, Alex slowly woke up. When he stood up he felt a little shake on his feet. He frowned and looked down. The branch was almost snapped. He immediately jumped up. "That was dangerous!"
The branch then broke and fell to the ground. Because of its size, it fell toward the cliff nearby.
'Bang!'
The branch crashed to the ground.
"..." Alex sweatdropped. He gulped and swore.
"Next time, I will just sleep on the ground."
But what he heard next was more shocking to him.
"Roar!"
A big roar seemed to be heard from the cave at the bottom of the valley.
"A roar? What type of monsters roar like that? Maybe the ape? I didn't notice there's a cave down there," he said to himself.
The cave was concealed by a dense number of trees. It was understandable that Alex didn't manage to find it.
"So how can I get down there?" Alex's eyes suddenly widened. "That's right, I have the Sky Step technique."
He then jumped down and then stepped on the air like he was going down the stairs. Soon enough he reached the bottom of the valley.
He looked at the big cave entrance. "The Sky Step technique sure was handy. Now, what should I do? Should I wait for the ape to come out or should I go inside instead?"
Suddenly, he recalled something. Seconds later, a few fire arrows appeared around him, "That's right, I have these fire arrows, I can just send them inside to see what kind of monster resides in this cave."
He pointed out into the dark cave, "Go!"
Those fire arrows immediately flew toward the cave. The fire arrows glowed brightly within the darkness of the cave.
The fire arrows flew for a few seconds until they reached the end...
'Boom!'
"Roar!"
A big roar was heard from inside the cave. Alex smiled bitterly, it seemed like his fire arrows didn't hit the cave wall, but the rank 6 ape's back instead.
Sure, soon enough. A big ape with a height of almost seven meters appeared from the cave. Alex then pulled out his sword.
"Come!"
"Roar!"