Tomorrow comes once again and Alex decides that in the end, staying in the mansion would be counterproductive as he wants to gather enough Exp to grow when he gets the ability to level up once again as he breaks into Rank 3.
Alex wakes up like usual, in his bed. He sees that Lily is still sleeping and decides not to bother her. He just walks towards his bed and picks up the dragon horn, he ties it in a cloth to his back.
He also takes a hidden knife and puts it under his cloak, hiding it from view. At this time Lily wakes up and looks at Alex.
"You are going out again?" Asks Lily in a sleepy voice.
Alex nods at that. "Yes, I must do some things before the time to go to the Magic Academy comes."
Lily frowns slightly at this. In her eyes, this isn't a logical action. "But shouldn't you keep a low profile, especially now that we k-"
She was about to continue but she saw the look on Alex's eyes. That look told her enough, so she stopped speaking.
'He is right… someone might be listening in. I shouldn't be speaking out loud.' Ponders Lily, she is a little inexperienced at this. Always staying on guard and such.
"I suggest that you learn how to manipulate Ki first before attempting to breakthrough to Rank 2. Try imbuing a weapon with Ki, or concentrating 100% of your Ki in a body part, like your fist or something like that." Explains Alex, he might not be too knowledgeable on the Warrior Classes, but in comparison to most people, he has a very big abundance of knowledge on the subject.
Lily nods in gratefulness at that, she has been having a little difficulty breaking through lately. As someone who was born with heavenly talent, she has never had to train Ki too hard or anything like that. So the first bottleneck to her feels difficult, still by Alex's calculation she will breakthrough within the week. Other people spent years on this, some even fail and can never again go beyond Rank 1.
….
He goes outside of the mansion just like the day before. He also goes the same route, he arrives at shops selling different magic items. But this time, he doesn't go to clean. Yesterday he memorized enough blueprints of different magic items, but even if he memorized that. He doesn't have the materials to create any of them. Even the simplest of Magic Items require many things to be specifically made for it.
So Alex just goes towards one of the Magic Item shops and enters through the back door casually as if he belongs here. He knows how shops like this operate. These back doors are almost always open, except at night, as apprentices enter through this way. It is a hole in the system that hasn't been fixed yet, after all, no man would dare enter a Magic Item shop like this, and so casually too.
Alex points his hand toward his face and whispers an incantation.
{Blood Hardening}
Though usually, this is a spell for defense, he knows that if used on one's face, it will make his facial features rougher. That is all the difference needed, as his face will hardly be recognizable anymore. His nose looks longer and his jaw bone looks squarer. He then just walks forward towards the door.
As Alex enters on the inside he sees many mechanical looking parts laying around, and many spell seals carved all around. He sees that there is no one else in here, except one muscular teen boy.
The boy turns around and looks at Alex, he frowns as he doesn't recognize him as another one of the apprentices.
"Who are you?" Asks the muscular teen.
Alex looks at the apprentice and smiles. "Oh! Sorry, my name is James and I am from the shop next door."
"Bobby's?" Questions the teen.
"Nah, it's old man Viper's." Answers Alex as he goes towards the supply box. "I will be taking some grapples and mana stones if you don't mind…"
The teen shrugs at that and stops his work, instead of looking at Alex. "You can take them, teacher doesn't mind giving anything to the old man, Viper used to be his teacher back in the day after all. So Viper is still using those old methods to build Magic Items?"
"Yep." Nods Alex. "Kinda ruining it for me as an apprentice, but I will get what I can and after that, I will probably move to another shop to learn the modernized method to making Magic Items."
"Damn, that old man needs to learn that older doesn't mean better." Complains the teen. "I mean sure, the technique has been passed through the family for generations. But it is already outdated, as the speed and quality of items are lower if he uses those methods."
"You don't have to tell me about it." Says Alex as he looks through the mana crystals, trying to find the purest one.
"So which new shop are you planning to join then, after the whole ordeal with old man Viper finishes?" Questions the teen as he goes back to do his own work.
"Well, I am not exactly sure. I don't have the money at the time to enter an apprenticeship, but maybe I can get the contract that I will work for my teacher for some years after the apprenticeship." Shrugs Alex, as after finding the mana crystals he takes a couple of tools that will help him create Magic Items. "You don't mind if I borrow these tools right?"
The teen looks over and smiles. "So you wanna learn some modern Magic Item Making by yourself?"
"Yeah." Confirms Alex with a smile on his face. "I mean the old man will rip me a new one if he finds me working with these tools. But as they say, fate favors the bold, my friend."
"Oh? Are we friends now?" Questions the teen with an amused smile on his face.
Alex has that childish smile on his face. "Just because I take your items and such, doesn't mean that we are not friends."
"Heh." Chuckles the teen. "I didn't know that old man Viper even has an apprentice…"
As soon as the teen said that, Alex understood that he was suspicious about something.
'Hmmm… he is smarter than he looks.' Ponders Alex, but he wasn't panicked about any of this. "Well, you can ask old man Viper if you want?"
As Alex says that, he only does so to reassure the apprentice. He knows that since he is the only apprentice in here so he is not allowed to leave the workshop unmanned.
"No, I won't do that… but would you mind staying for a little longer? My teacher would love to meet the current Viper apprentice. He might even offer you a free apprenticeship as he might sympathize with you." Offers the teen, Alex notices that the teen also has a hammer now tightly held in his hand.
"Nah sorry, but maybe another time. Viper would kill me if he found out I was messing around." Says Alex as he goes to walk towards the door.
Pow!
But the door forcibly closes and he turns around, the teen now has a dangerous look on his eyes. "I insist…"
….
AUTHOR NOTE:
Some people aren't dumb just because they are young. They have high enough Wisdom and street smarts to know better.