"Eh? Dream?"
"No, you just heard it wrong," she immediately retorted.
Alex's brain went to high speed and came to one conclusion. 'They were not on the same page.'
He wanted to confirm it first, "What dream?"
"No-Nothing!" Alicia was too embarrassed. She tried to push away Alex with her hand instinctively. But...
"Ouch!"
Her hand met with Alex's body instead. With Alex's strong body, she felt like she was pushing a wall with her hand but with too much momentum, and the result was her hand got hurt.
Alex looked at her, dumbfounded. She held her hand in pain and Alex suddenly felt worried about her, "Alicia, let me take a look at your hand."
"Yo-you, idiot!" She ran away to the bathroom.
Alex was amused. She was pretty unreasonable. First, she tried to push him away, then now she was the one who ran away.
After a while, Alicia got out of the bathroom and they left the room and went to the dean's courtyard as usual. On the way, Alicia's face was very red all the time, and refused to talk to him. Alex only shook his head in silence.
When they arrived just like any other day, Alex checked Firia's progress in Alchemy. Alicia tried to practice the 'Frozen World' that Alex gave her yesterday.
***
Two months passed by just like that. Alicia was practicing her 'Frozen World' and 'Sky Movement'. Firia was practicing her 'Alchemy' and 'Sky Movement' while Alex was practicing his 'Sanguin Sword Art', 'Luminous Spear Technique' and 'Sky Movement'.
Alex reached the second stage of the Sky Movement. He mastered all the steps up to the second stage and with the Luminous Spear Technique, his handle of the spear wasn't that rough anymore, it had become more refined. Before this, when he used a sword in his right hand and a spear in his left hand, his handle on the spear was still a bit rough on the edge.
Now, with this 'Luminous Spear Technique', his dual-wielding style became balanced. Unfortunately, with all of this rapid progress, there was still no result in his 'Sanguin Sword Art'. His Seventh Slash already stabilized and mastered perfectly, but he was still nowhere to reach the Eight Slash.
In these two months, Firia reached the first stage of 'Flash Step' and 'Fleeting Step' of the 'Sky Movement'. But the most satisfying result was that Firia already started to try making rank 2 pills. Though her success was still very low, it was only a matter of time. After all, she was only a rank 3 mage, and usually only a mage of rank 4 or above could make a rank 2 pill.
She was already familiar with the rank 1 pills and could make them with ease. The dean even praised her for her efforts. He secretly thanked her because she helped him supply the demand for the pills from the military or the market. With her taking over the rank 1 pills making, he could focus on making rank 2 pills instead.
Not only Firia, but Alicia's progress was also very steady and fast. She already mastered all of the first stages of the 'Sky Movement' except the 'Sky Step'. But the remarkable result was her 'Frozen World'. After these two months, she could fight with rank 4 monsters with ease, which made Alex feel relieved.
And the last one was Sherry that was always lazing around. Once in a day Alex had to fulfill her 'nourishment', of course, he didn't mind about it and gave his flame straight away and left Sherry satisfied. But, the problem was that she always wasted her energy by doing nothing.
So, he asked Sherry to be his sparring partner. He thought that Sherry was only lying around all day, but after making her as his sparring partner, Alex changed his mind. He found out that Sherry also had practiced in its own way. So, after that sparring, he didn't bother Sherry anymore and let her do whatever she wanted.
Fortunately, in those two months, Zircodina Princess, Rieze, still hadn't arrived at the academy. She was estimated to arrive about half a month later. But, Alex and the rest were already gone away for the 'Event'.
The two months of normal days had passed and the second academy's event for the second-year students finally had come. The competition was held in the Death Forest. They needed to march out to the Bawon Fortress and kill monsters in the Death Forest. The dean summoned the four of them. Alex and the rest arrived at his office when the dean was busy with documents as he looked at them.
"Sigh, the time has come. Tomorrow you all will go to the Bawon Fortress," the dean said.
"The Bawon Fortress? You mean..." Alicia and the rest were surprised. These two months passed so quickly, maybe because they had so much to do, they didn't realize that time flew away just like that.
"Yes, the second academy's event for you, the second-year students. Tomorrow, you will set off to the Bawon Fortress and kill those monsters in the Death Forest for two months. You don't need to worry about how many monsters you have to kill, because there are no points for that. There will be no scores, so you can do whatever you want, whether to kill monsters in that forest or just lazing around the fortress."
"Eh? Do what we want?" Alex was surprised. "What do you mean by that, Teacher?"
"Literally. You can do what you want. Whether you want to kill monsters in that forest or just wander around the fortress."
"But, if that's the case, shouldn't other students do the same?"
"Hehe, they can if they want. But Alex, have you forgotten about the requirements to advance to the third year?"
"Yes, you need to reach rank 3. You don't mean..."
"Yes, almost all of the second-year students now are in rank 2 if you exclude the abnormal you. Though you three can rest if you want to. If they want to reach rank 3, they will need to rank up in this event. After all, there is no event for the second year anymore. The rest of the year was only self-study in the Academy. That's why, those who fail to reach rank 3 in this event will be expelled!"
Alex and the rest were astonished. Though Alicia and Firia already knew about the event, they didn't know about the reason behind it. Now that they thought about it, it was true that there was no more academy event after this one.
"There is another reason for this too," the dean continued. "You know that we only graduate an elite right?"
Alex and the rest nodded.
"The graduation requirement is only rank 4. But that alone will not make you an elite. You also need great techniques and skills. That's why, after this event, there are no more events for the students. Now, those who pass this event must at least have rank 3. We want all students to master their techniques.
And for the third year, we let them experience missions in various places to train their extra skill to handle people and boost their connection. With that, when they arrive at the graduation as a rank 4, they have all of the requirements to be called an elite. They have power, techniques, connections, and experiences,"
Alex and the rest were very shocked. "So, that is the reason behind the academy's schedule."
"Yep, we taught the ability to adapt in the first year, then techniques for the second year, and lastly connections and experiences for the third year."
Alex nodded in astonishment, "But, we will keep hunting monsters for these two months. After all, it is a good experience for us. But, I can only decide for myself," he glanced at Firia and Alicia.
"Of course, we shouldn't just do nothing like that. If we slack off, this guy will throw us in the dust," Alicia said, Firia also nodded in agreement.
The dean nodded satisfied. "Good luck to you four then."
"Thank you Teacher," they said. But Alex noticed something, he looked at the dean with a surprised look, "Four of us?"
"Yes. Since there will be no point system, you can bring Sherry with you."
Alex's eyes widened, then he turned to Sherry and put on a huge smile as he stroked its head, "Isn't it good, Sherry?"
"Wuu! Wuu! (I will protect Master)!" Sherry puffed its chest proudly.
Looking at these two, Alicia and Firia looked at each other and smiled.
"Oh right, Teacher. Can you give us information about this Bawon Fortress and Death Forest?"
"Hmm, actually, you already met the current owner of the Bawon Fortress."
"Eh? I already met him?"
"He is our current war minister, Leyfon Rimbawon. You already met him at the castle, right? The duke already informed me about it. He is really happy that you are now a second-year student and will be visiting his place soon."
"Ugh!" He recalled Leyfon's old figure, where his eyes glistened when he talked about pills or ideas. But, he caught something off, "Rimbawon?"
"Oh, you figure it out? The Fortress' name is 'Bawon'. It was named after their family surname, 'Rimbawon'. Because the Death Forest is the place where the legend ascended, many monsters reside in that forest. Rimbawon's family is given the task to keep the forest from generation to generation. The fortress was built for the sake of keeping the forest in check."
"I see."
"Most of our pills have been sent there. After all, more than one rank 8 monster is living there. Though they won't easily leave their nest."
Alex nodded.
"All right, that's all. Oh right, I almost forgot about it, for this event, the four of you better team up together. Though I'm not worried about Alex, I'm worried about the other two," he glanced at Firia and Alicia.
Alex was surprised by what he heard and he just frowned. His teacher never told him something like that. That meant the danger level for this event was even higher than the previous one.
"We can protect ourselves!"
"We won't hold him down!"
Alicia and Firia immediately said.
"No, I think it is better that we group up together this time," on the contrary, Alex had decided otherwise after looking at his teacher's serious expression and advice.
Alicia and Firia were dumbfounded. Usually, Alex would prefer to go alone than with them. Seeing Alex decided to team up with them, they were happy about it. However, the thought of holding him down weighed on their mind. "We can protect ourselves, we don't want to be your burden, Alex."
"No, Alex is right. It's better if the three of you go together," the dean interrupted them.
"Yes. Since there is no point system for this. I will follow you two. You guys will be the ones to lead. Sherry and I will follow," Alex said his decision firmly.
"What?"
"So you don't want me to accompany you?" Alex said with a sad tone.
"No… no, how can we reject you?" Alicia hurriedly denied.
"Yes, how can we do that?" Firia also followed her.
"All right, then everything is settled. You guys will go together," the dean said with a stern tone.
Alex and the rest could only nod hearing what the dean said.
"You better get some rest first and prepare for tomorrow."