Training Begins (1)

After the match, I did not make Markeil do anything suspicious so as to not attract the attention of his father, I would only make use of Markeil for small stuff. For now I wanted to find Anastasia and ask her for details about the Inter-Kingdom Tournament, and of course, to collect my earnings.

As soon as the match ended, Anastasia immediately met up with me with both hands carrying massive bags of money. She looked like she could cry from happiness.

"Hiyaap, here's your sack of gold," she lifted one bag into my hands. I took a peek into the bag and saw the gold inside easily amounted to several thousand.

"Pheeeeeeuw," I whistled in satisfaction.

"You sure kicked his ass in there, I literally couldn't even see anything during the match, but well done!" She gave a thumbs up.

"Hahahaha, it was nothing really, anyways, it's near dinner time soon, you wanna grab something to eat? I need to ask you a few questions."

"Sure! I'm gonna book the best restaurant in the city. It's high time we ate some good food, I'm getting sick of what they serve in school."

"I second that." I nodded my head in agreement.

--

After leaving Anastasia, I went to check up on Parzival, but he was not in the medbay. When asked, the nurse said that he was discharged not long ago. Deciding to visit him later on back in the dorm room, I changed to my casual wear and headed to the city.

The streets was filled with nobleman and ladies, there was not a single commoner was in sight. Feeling out of place with my current attire, I decided to visit a high end clothes shop.

"You don't look like you belong here boy." The store owner said the moment I entered the shop.

"Well you don't look like you will belong in this world soon if you keep talking shit, now let me take a look at the stuff" I said as I looked him straight in the eyes.

He immediately shut up and backed away.

After looking at the display of clothing, I decided on a long blue coat, crossed leather straps, shoulder guards and black boots. I asked them to apply physical and magical resistance to the clothing, so I can use them for both causal wear and hunting. The total price after the modifications amounted to 500 gold.

"Your sense of style is impeccable young master, please humble us with your presence again." He gave low bow as I exited the store.

Arriving at the restaurant, Anastasia was already seated, with 2 royal knights behind her. She was wearing a gorgeous red dress which fit snuggly on her hourglass body. I noticed that there was no one else in the restaurant apart from us.

"A princess sure has her perks huh, you look beautiful as always." I greeted her.

"Hehehe, thank you. You look amazing in that coat too. Waiter! Bring in the dishes." She called out. "So what do you wish to discuss?"

"The Inter-Kingdom Tournament that is coming in 6 months, are you are participating in it?"

"The royalty of the empire and kingdoms usually send their sons and daughters to compete. This is to gauge the strength and potential of each other, and I am no exception to it. My father sent my older brother last year, and it is my turn this year."

"I see, do you know the power levels of the opponents this year?"

"No, but looking at the last years tournament, the average is around the 7th circle."

"That means Erewhon is in a pretty bad situation right now, I don't see anyone above the 5th circle from our school, no wonder this kingdom always lose. So what methods do you guys use to get stronger?"

"We usually train and wait for the magic circles to form naturally, but there is a faster way to grow stronger. That is to drink the 'Draught of Power'. It is a potion reserved for the rich and powerful, sometimes not even a noble family can afford it. This potion is created by grinding multiple monster cores together into powder and then after an extensive process, turns them into a drinkable potion. It unlocks the potential of a person and helps them develop their magic circles at a faster rate."

"I'm assuming you aren't drinking it often is because it's really expensive?"

"One potion cost at least ten thousand gold, and that depends on the grade of the stones being grinded. If S-ranked stones are being used, one potion might cost up to a hundred thousand. Last year my father made my brother drink several of them and he became really powerful. But what is power without control? In the end he did not manage to utilize his power to it's fullest and lost to someone with higher skills. That made my father wary of giving me more of them."

"Alright, I'll make you stronger, I don't see any hope in any of the other contestants this year and also don't wanna see you lose badly."

"You have done more than enough for me, I don't know how to pay you back."

"Well teaching me healing magic is enough. Now I need you to get these plants and herbs," I wrote down a list and handed it to her.

"These are very exotic ingredients, I will try my best to bring them as fast as possible."

We soon finished our dinner and exchanged goodbyes.

--

After 2 days, a messenger arrived at my doorstep and informed me that Anastasia had collect all the ingredients I have asked for. I told the messenger to convey the message to her to meet up in the training room and bring a bottle.

I initially wanted to bring Parzival along to the training room, but see as how he just recovered from an injury, I decided to wait a few more days.

When I entered the training room, Anastasia quickly stood up and waved me over. Beside her was a table which had all my ingredients laid out.

"So are you going to tell me what you are going to do with all these, are you a potion master too?"

"I am going to make a beverage that I drank a long time ago, it is called Starburst. It might be too energetic and potent for you to drink, so you'll have to take it bit by bit." I explained.

Taking the ingredients, I expertly mix them together and boil it over a fire created by my hands. After I'm done, I handed the drink to her.

"Now you got to take it slowly alright, don't rush it, we have plenty of time."

"It looks good, let me taste it." She took a small sip and suddenly tensed up. "It feels... like every single part of my body is burning..." She groaned in pain.

I immediately grabbed the drink from her to prevent it from spilling. A dark mist could be seen rising from her body. After 5 minutes, the mist disappeared and she started flexing her muscles.

"What is this? I feel more alive than ever, my body feels so light!" She said in amazement.

"This drink eliminates all the impure elements from your body, it purifies your magicules and makes mana circulation much faster and more efficient. Now we are going to repeat this process at the start of every training."

"That is simply incredible, you can make millions from this!"

"Well that is another matter for another time, now let us focus on your training."