Chapter 40 : : Xander
After chatting with Instructor Fina for a while, he left the class early and headed outside.
Now that he knew about ‹Magic Star Constellations›, he slightly changed his plans. He first contacted Layla and exchanged one of his Origin Crystal for CP, he then headed to Grand Library and used that CP to get another wood spell… Wood Hammer.
He memorized the content and structure of the magic circle by noon and headed out of the Academy in the afternoon.
During this time, Layla registered her leave at Beast Peak mountain so that the caretakers could check up on her battle beasts and inform her if something unexpected happens.
In the afternoon, he took a taxi with Layla to underground railways and headed back to the western-north part of the Imperial City and eventually his home in K-District.
***
K-District…
Riyan's Mansion…
A yellow taxi stopped in front of the main door and two figures came out of it.
Layla looked at the mansion, it was a good house but different from her expectations "Isn't it a little plain for you?"
Kale turned to her "So what did you expect? A military camp?"
Layla shrugged her shoulders.
After they walked in, Kale stopped near the main door "There are some security measure I need to check here, you go inside, I will come after a moment,"
Layla nodded then headed in, she entered the main hall as soon as she walked in, there were stairs on both sides and a sofa set in the middle.
She put her bag aside, picked up the remote from the table, and leaped at the sofa while switching on the main TV with it.
While she was at it, Kale headed to the backside of the mansion where he had previously made his rabbit farmers cultivate the three plots.
When he arrived at the site, he saw all four rabbits having the best time of their life, two were rolling on the grass without a care in the world as they chewed a few mouthfuls from it and the other two peacefully sleeping under the sunlight.
One of the sleeping rabbit's ears twitched, the rabbit raised its head and looked at Kale who was staring at the, its eyes got wide and it almost had a heart attack.
The rabbit raised its paw and slapped the other one sleeping beside it, the other rabbit woke up and snarled before freaking out at the sight of Kale.
The other two rabbits rolling around also noticed him and hugged each other as they trembled in fear. It was like they were seeing their worst nightmare unfolding in front of them.
Kale looked at the weird rabbits and thought 'The contract can have a better effect on the slaves depending on the strength of the master, looks like forming a contract with my high-end soul had resulted in increasing their intellect quite a bit,'
He then ignored the rabbits on the ground and focused his attention on the three square plots, the first plot had lush green grass while the second and third plot now had small plants growing in them.
The plants being cultivated in the three plots were Three-Clover Grass, Yellow Spring Flower, and Moon Ginseng respectively.
All three of them were Mortal-Rank plants that's why Kale was able to buy them easily, the soil used in cultivating them was highly fertile Black Swamp Soil, he had also used good quality Organic Fertilizer to nurture them.
And lastly, the automatic water sprinklers on the four corners of the plots, the rabbits didn't have anything to do except protecting them from squirrels, birds, and worms.
He walked closer to the second plot and extended his hand above it.
'Fast Growth'
A magic circle appeared before his hand, tiny specks of green light similar to glittering green dust came out of it and fell on the plot like weightless snowflakes.
He had learned ‹Fast Growth› yesterday and was only able to raise its mastery to Master level, even that was because he practiced while hiding in the toilet to escape from Arlo's sight who had also developed the habit of class bunking all thanks to his roommate.
No change happened immediately but after continuing for a few minutes, he noticed the infant plants getting greener and their bowed head getting straightened up.
'It is slower than I thought, with this speed, I will deplete all my mana in ten minutes, I should increase the mastery of the spell first,' He thought and stopped using the spell when he turned around, he saw the four rabbits staring at the slowly falling green light specks with shining eyes, they seemed like they wanted to jump right now and caught them but whenever they looked at Kale, that thought disappeared without a trace.
Kale touched his chin seemly thinking of something.
A few minutes later…
Kale walked in the main hall with a fat brown rabbit in his hands, the rabbit had its long ears falling down its head, its legs were soft, and for some reason, its expression seemed like it can start crying anytime.
Three rabbits slowly followed behind him walking in a row.
He just entered the room and was about to speak to Layla when he noticed her focusing on the news on the TV. He also curiously looked at the screen, a shoulder-length hair woman dressing in a black coat was tacking the interview of a yellow-haired boy sitting in front of her.
"Mr. Xander, you are now appointed as the Hero candidate and will go through Hero Advancement Ceremony soon, what are your thoughts about it? Let the audience know what our future Hero is feeling at the moment," The woman said with a smile.
The blonde boy smiled, the way he sat folding his right leg above his left and his expression showed immense confidence in himself, his black eyes were brimming with vitality, by the looks alone, he was around 20 years old but his body looked slightly bigger and firmer than the people of his age like he was born with the perfect physique to be a fighter.
He was Xander, he first took his time to organize his thoughts then spoke "I believe becoming a Hero is just the start, we shouldn't see it as the ending, being a Hero comes with responsibility. As the Hero from the Blazing Sun Kingdom, I will be sure to live up to the expectations of my people,"
The woman nodded and said "As expected of someone who met the qualification to become a Hero, the audience here all have a common question in their mind when Mr. Xander becomes the Hero who will you choose as your party members? The audience wants to know if you already have some talented people in your mind to join your party?"
"Hahaha… Due to safety reasons, I can't answer that question…" Xander declined with a smile.
Kale raised his eyebrow "Who is this joker?"
Layla's lips twitched, she looked at kale and sighed "I remembered, you have amnesia... Eh... Where did you get these cuties," Her eyes sparkled when she looked at the overly domesticated rabbit in his hands.
"They are pets, normally our maid was taking care of them when I wasn't here, she left them here this morning after I told her that I will be returning today, now explain that Hero stuff," He said.
Layla came to him and took the rabbit in his embrace "It's nothing we need to worry about, many kingdoms choose Heroes as their future guardians to fight against the monsters or Demon Lords when the need arrives. Depending on the kingdom, the process of choosing a Hero candidate is different, you see that yellow-haired monkey on the TV, he was born with a golden spoon, he was born with three blessings, related to God Of War, God Of Light, and God Of Fire.
So after some drama he easily became the Hero candidate, if the Hero advancement ceremony succeeds then his body will get purified and go through the baptism of heavenly powers directly upgrading his race from Human to High-Human, his talent will be enhanced and he can earn twice the benefits for half the efforts. At that time, he would be regarded as a Hero,"
She explained, from her tone Kale guessed that she didn't like the Hero system. Unlike her, he remained unbothered.
One cannot expect fairness from Life. In Kazeer, some people are born with a special constitution that gives them many benefits at the start. Such people also appeared in his era, they were strong compared to their peers at the start but how many of them reached the Martial Venerable stage? Not even one in hundred succeeded.
When people have a golden finger at first, they become completely dependent on it, in later stages when the advantage of such specialties decreases, they are not able to keep up with others who forged their way with hard work.
In his eyes, knowledge is the unstoppable weapon and hard work is the impregnable shield. As long as someone learns to use these two pieces of equipment they are bound to leave behind their names as Legends, that is... If they don't die early.
"The main Black Market opens at night, so let's just order something to eat, for now, we will head out at night," Layla said.
Kale nodded and said "Except for the two rooms at the end of the stairs on the third floor, you can use any room you want, they are all unoccupied. I will be cultivating till then, tell me if you need something,"
"Hmm…" Layla replied while playing with the rabbit.
***
After coming back to his room, Kale locked the door from inside and started practicing the spells.
He set a simple goal, which was to increase his spell mastery of ‹Fast Growth› and ‹Wood Hammer› to Grand Master level before tomorrow morning, in simple words, he wanted to advance to Tier 1 Expert Wood Mage by tomorrow morning.
By the evening, He succeeded in increasing the mastery of ‹Fast Growth› from Master to Grand Master level successfully.
He was intending to go further when he heard the knocking sound from the door, he collected his stuff and opened the door for Layla to get it.
"It's time to get ready," She said after he opened the door.
From the way she was drying her wet hairs, it was obvious that she has just taken a bath, this reminded him how he was practicing without even washing his face till now.
Kale nodded and went in, took a quick shower then came downstairs after getting ready. He hastily picked up a burger from the table and stuffed it in his mouth, then started packing his bag.
"You called the cab?" He asked while putting the mask in his bag.
"Cab? Why do we need that when you have a Lamborghini parked in your garage," Layla said with a smirk.
Her smile gave him a bad feeling, he shook his head "We don't have a license,"
"The Academy's ID can work as one," Layla said.
"It's my dad's favourite car, he didn't allow me to drive it until I'm 18, "Kale refuted again.
"Common, how would he know it, and when did you start to care about rules?" Layla said she saw that he was about to refute again and interrupted him "By any chance, you don't know how to drive a car?" She asked in a doubtful tone.
Kale froze, she hit the nail, the last time he drove a car was more than a hundred years ago, moreover, even that was a normal cheap car and not a supercar.
Layla saw him being silent and laughed "Don't worry, I know how to drive,"
"You misunderstood, I probably know it but because of amnesia I may have forgotten a few things," He said with a straight face.
Layla giggled "Yeah, I believe you, come on, let's go," She said as she lifted her bag and headed out.
Kale shook his head, the cat was already out of the bag so it was better to take advantage of it and properly learn how to drive a car, he thought.
He already knew where the keys of the car were hidden, the GPS made up for their lack of knowledge on the routes and the rest of the things were left in Layla's hands.
On that day, Kale learned two things.
First, it feels relaxing to go on a long drive at night time.
Second, we should never give the steering wheel of our car in the hands of someone with unknown driving skills.