Alex, who didn't notice what kind of scene he created, was still looking at the ape. He was not thinking about the ape or looking at the gruesome scene in front of him. He was in the process of comprehending what he just did. The new power he created by fusing power and speed.
After an hour, he slowly opened his eyes. He let out a long sigh and finished it quickly. When he looked at the gruesome scene in front of him, he pulled out a shovel and buried the ape. After all, he was thankful to this 6 rank monster. Killing it had helped him comprehend the Seventh Slash.
After burying the monster, Alex continued killing monsters in the perimeter. He mainly focused on the rank 5 monsters, but because the rank 5 monsters were a bit scarce, they were wiped out by Alex in a week. Then, he continued by killing rank 4 monsters. Even though he couldn't get any mission points from that, he did it for gacha tickets. He didn't care about the ranking competition, after all, it didn't give him any benefit.
Two weeks had passed, and the ranking competition ended. The students started to leave the forest. The scoring teacher started to announce each score that the students got and ranked them.
A female student came to the teacher and said her name.
"Mili Ficta."
The teacher nodded, "23 of rank 0 monsters and 7 of rank 1 monsters, your points are 37."
The points system was the same as the previous year. Rank 0 was 1 point, rank 1 was 2 points, rank 2 was 4 points, rank 3 was 8 points, rank 4 was 20 points, and rank 5 was 100 points.
Mili was satisfied with her performance so she smiled smugly. The next students came forward and shattered her smug.
"Mira."
"40 of rank 0 monsters and 12 of rank 1 monsters, your points are 64."
***
The scoring continued for a while. Then, Alex finally arrived. When Alex just got out of the forest, he was very shocked when he saw Joshua, someone he had defeated in the past, standing in front of him. What a coincidence.
Joshua looked at Alex with a complex expression, and the situation became awkward.
"Alexander."
Alex was surprised when Joshua called him, "Joshua."
"I don't know why but somehow I need to tell you this. When I lost to you that day, the 'Me' inside my heart was broken. Sigh... the real me in the past was too proud. Everyone looked up to me and praised me. I don't know when it started. My reason was clouded by my pride, I became arrogant and prideful. That day when I lost to you, I was very desperate. I became ruthless and cruel. This one year, I learned a lot. I apologized to the students that I hurt back then. Sigh... I messed up too much."
Alex was very surprised when he found out Joshua became a humble person like this. He didn't know what to say so he just patted Joshua's shoulder.
"I want to say this, I'm glad I lost to you that day. I will keep striving and I will take your throne, right... Fire Prince."
"Cough... cough!" Alex's eyes widened when he heard that. Joshua's serious expression turned to a teasing one.
"Haha... I got you one for that. So... since you lost, can I make a request?"
Alex looked at him, Joshua seemed already changed, so he said, "What is it?"
"Can... can we become friends?"
Alex's eyes widened, but soon he recovered. He smiled, "We have been classmates for a year. Why do you need to ask that? We are already friends!"
Joshua listened to that and smiled, "Then, can I call you Alex?"
"Sure. I will also call you Joshua."
"There is no change to the previous one. I mean I called you Alex from Alexander, but you..."
"Haha... your name was just like that, what do you expect me to call you with?" Alex grinned.
They both laughed.
Alicia and Firia who were just out from the forest, they immediately saw Alex and Joshua laughing together. Alicia looked at Firia with a confused expression, while Firia also looked at Alicia with a weird look. They thought of the same thing.
'Since when those two become friendly to each other like that?'
Alicia nodded at Firia and she nodded back. They approached them, "Alex."
"Alicia, Firia. Welcome back!"
Before they said anything, Joshua bowed to Alicia and Firia, "I'm sorry Princess Alicia, I was rude to you back then. You can punish me as you see fit."
Alicia was bewildered, she looked at Alex weirdly.
Alex knew why she was confused like that, after all, he was just as confused as her upon seeing the change in Joshua just a few minutes ago. He then nodded confirming her.
Seeing Alex nodded, she then looked at Joshua and said, "Don't worry about it, I don't really like royalty's formalities anyway. Even though I am a princess, I don't want to exert my status that much. I rather go hand to hand with my subjects. You have changed Joshua and I never held a grudge back then. So please rise, I'm waiting for you to make this kingdom better in the future."
Joshua was surprised by what he heard. He clenched his fist and put it in his chest and looked at her with determination, "Yes, definitely! I will give my best!"
This was the reason why Alicia seemed to never exert her status when someone disrespected her. All of them were her precious subjects.
Alex and Firia smiled from the side, but it was stopped when they suddenly heard a commotion.
A male student was walking toward the teacher. While he was walking, Alex heard many praises addressed to this person.
"Edward Maelstorm."
Alex was confused, so he then asked the other three beside him, "Who is he?"
Alicia and Firia facepalmed, while Joshua was confused. Alicia sighed and answered, "He is Edward Maelstorm, I heard he is a son of Marquis. He is a first-year and a rank 3 warrior. He is placed in class A and defeated the number one student in class S but the problem is his age. He is almost 20, which means, he is in his last acceptable year."
"Oh... but I didn't see him in last year's enrollment," Alex said confusedly.
"Yes, he must have waited for this moment. He must be planning to enroll in his last year so he can grab all the attention away. Though his potential was so-so, his 'current' power is real."
"Oh... he's like that guy huh... who was it again? Ga... gebu... gatu..." Alex tried to recall the name.
"It's Garu, Garu Tekuis. He is unlucky because he is in the same year with the three abnormalities," Joshua corrected him.
"Three abnormalities?" Alex's eyes widened, he didn't understand what Joshua meant by that.
"Me, Alicia, and Joshua," Firia said.
"Oh..." Alex nodded.
"You are not classified as abnormal, you are a freak," Joshua added.
Alex stumbled when he heard that. "What?"
They laughed.
Meanwhile, the scoring location was still bustling with people.
"Wooo!"
"Rank 0 thirty, rank 1 one hundred one, rank 2 two hundred twenty-four, rank 3 seventy, and rank 4 four. Total points are 1768 points."
"Wooo!"
"That's right. Edward is our pride, our first years' pride!"
"Heh! He is too old for that."
Some of them praised him and some of them sneered at him. After all, it's true that Edward was already too old for the class. Considering his age and his achievement, they were only mediocre.
Alex and the rest walked toward the scoring place. The crowd noticed the four of them.
"Look, they have come."
"The first ranker of second-year, Joshua Fergusa."
"The twin beauty of the academy, Princess Alicia and Firia Merona."
But when they noticed Alex's presence, the cheers erupted. Especially from the female students.
"Kya...!"
"Male God!"
"Fire Prince! Please look this way!"
Edward, who was looking at this scene, was getting angry. When those four arrived, his previous glory was quickly forgotten. Even the female students that cheered for him before immediately turned at Alex and forgot about him. His stomach felt sick. He then walked closer to the group and glared at Alex with hatred.
"Senior Alexander, I heard you are the pride of the academy, I want to compare the score with you. But... would Senior Alexander grace his time for this lowly me?"
Firia and Alicia were tired of this kind of scene. They just facepalmed and prayed for this foolish man. Joshua suddenly came beside Alex and patted his shoulder. Alex looked at him.
"Let me go first to check my scores. It looks like he didn't know that your score last year was above two thousand."
"Sure," Alex nodded.
Joshua walked to the teacher, and as he walked, he said this to Edward, "Don't be too cocky, I was just like you last year. Those pride of yours might crush you and lead you to your death."
"You! You are just a loser, you can't be the first rank in the second year if he participated in the ranking event!" Edward shouted.
Joshua sighed and shook his head, "Well, that's true. But, I'm still not giving up on that. I'm just trying to give you some advice."
Joshua then looked at the teacher, "Joshua."
"Rank 0 forty-three, rank 1 one hundred seventy, rank 2 two hundred, rank 3 ninety, and rank 4 twelve. Total points are 2143 points."
"Hiss!"
Joshua's score was far above Edward's score. Edward felt like his cheek was slapped hard. He then sneered, "You... you are a second year, so it's normal. I can beat you in my second year."
Joshua who heard this shook his head bitterly, this Edward was dense... he looked at Alex and the rest. "Princess Alicia, Miss Firia. Why don't you two come first? This guy might bring trouble if he goes first, we might not even be able to report it if he goes first before us."
Alex was dumbfounded. Alicia and Firia giggled, "Sure!"
"Who wants to go first?" Alicia asked.
"Let me go first," Firia said.
"Firia."
The teacher nodded, "Rank 0 sixty, rank 1 one hundred fifty, rank 2 two hundred twenty, rank 3 eighty-five, and rank 4 twenty. Total points are 2320 points."
"You are next, Alicia."
Alicia nodded and walked to the teacher, "Alicia."
"Greeting Princess," the teacher greeted her and announced her score. "Rank 0 sixty-one, rank 1 one hundred forty-nine, rank 2 two hundred twenty, rank 3 eighty-six, and rank 4 twenty. Total points are 2327 points."
Since she hunted together with Firia, they split the monster equally. Therefore, their points didn't have a lot of difference.
Alicia and Firia smiled and went to Alex. "You promised us if our scores are above you, you need to take a break for a week."
Alex giggled then gently smiled, "You can talk after you win."
"Kyaa!"
"Male God!"
"My Fire Prince!"
Alex walked to the teacher and smiled, "Alexander."
The teacher pulled out a memo and said without showing any expression. "Your points are Zero."
"..."