15. Solo Journey

After making that resolve, Alex decides that he will get actively involved in the plot. He'll change what he wants or just simply observe what he doesn't want to change.

The reason is to make use of his knowledge about the plots. If he doesn't get involved with the plots or the characters, then his knowledge from the story will be useless.

At first, he thought it would be safer to stay away from the story. But both Shukaku and Matatabi strongly disagree with his thinking.

This is the world where power matters and the future calamities involve the whole continent and even the world.

However, he knows what will happen, the ones involved, the locations, and more things in the future. So it's better to utilize that knowledge for his advantage as best as he can.

That's why the first thing he decides to do is go to Fiore. To get involved in the future important events easily, the best thing to do is obviously by joining the Main Characters' Guild, Fairy Tail.

"Gray should be the one joining around this time, but it becomes me."

Joining a Magic Guild will also help him do many things. He can take jobs to get money and find information about strong magical creatures he can hunt to help the Tailed Beast break the seals.

Ur actually offered him to join the Guild in the town near her house. She is also registered there, but Alex refused.

Even though Ur is strong enough to be a 10 Wizard Saint candidate, the same thing can't be said about her Guild.

That Guild is not a big Guild and they don't have many strong Mages. Even Ur actually joined that Guild because she moved there to relax when she was pregnant so that she could focus on raising her child.

Alex doesn't look down on them though. He just simply knows that an average Guild like that can't give him what he needs.

Big Guilds like Fairy Tail have much better resources, job ranges, information, knowledge, and other things that will help him as a Mage.

Of course, there are many other Big Guilds all over Ishgar. But he has more knowledge of Fairy Tail and the future events he knows revolve around that Guild, so it's better if he joins them.

Alex goes to Ishgar by foot. He doesn't use transportation modes like carriages or magic vehicles even though walking is obviously taking more time and energy.

It's just that he wants to enjoy his time because he isn't in a rush. Also, he can only enter wilderness by foot as carriages won't enter the dangerous forests or climb the mountains.

As he said, this is a journey. He wants to see the world instead of just going to Magnolia as fast as he can. There's nothing urgent around this time anyway, so he can take his time.

While walking in the forest, Alex encounters a lot of creatures that are very different from Earth. There are many strange creatures even if they aren't magical creatures.

But the magical creatures are surely much more interesting than normal animals. It's obviously because they can use magic, unlike normal animals.

Alex meets some weak magical creatures that run away after seeing him. But some are brave enough to attack him.

Though maybe because he hasn't gone too deep into the forest, those that attack him are being defeated so easily by him just by using partial transformations.

He has learned a lot about his Take Over magic and now can transform only a part or some parts of his body like an arm, feet, or even just a finger to use the beast power there.

Alex only needs to transform an arm to use Shukaku's or Matatabi's abilities to defeat the magical creatures that attack him so far.

"Hey, kid. Why don't you try fighting on your own? That woman has taught you combat skills, right? Then try fighting without our abilities. That way you can test your own power and skills."

"I agree with Shukaku. If you become better at fighting without using our abilities, then you can save your magic power when fighting weak enemies and keep your power to fight the stronger ones, Alex-san."

"Hmm, makes sense. I also felt that my movements when transforming got better after Ur started teaching me combat skills."

When training combat skills with Ur, she forbade Alex from transforming. She said it's to hone his basic abilities while also saying that having strong basics is very important.

He understands it a bit more now, so he starts fighting the magical creatures without transforming, only using his bare hands. It's a good chance while the enemies are still weak.

The fights feel very different from when he transforms into Shukaku or Matatabi. Even if it's just partial transformations, the Tailed Beasts' abilities still increases his base power, senses, and reflex.

He's basically being buffed when transforming, so now he feels weaker when fighting because he doesn't transform. But he needs to get used to this to understand his power even more.

The fights obviously become more difficult now that he doesn't transform. The creatures that he could crush to death with sand if he transforms into Shukaku are actually giving him a hard time now.

"Huft, huft! Fighting without magic is more tiring than I thought."

Alex is now resting under a tree after defeating some 4-eyed weasels with brown fur. They have really sharp claws that can shoot small wind blades.

The wind blade ranges are short and not really powerful. But they are fast and will still kill him if they cut his throat, so he needs to be careful.

If he transforms into Shukaku, then these wind blades won't pose a threat. That's why it's really difficult to defeat these weasels because he needs to be very careful of their attacks without Shukaku's defense.

"Hmm? It's almost dark already. I don't realize that. Then let's set up a camp here."

As usual, Alex makes a shelter using hardened soil after transforming his right arm into Shukaku's arm.

Shukaku has Earth Nature Transformation, so his abilities aren't limited to sand manipulations. It's just that he prefers using sand because it's easier to shape.

But if Alex makes the shelter with sand, then it will crumble when he deactivates his Shukaku transformation, so he uses hardened soil that's almost as sturdy as a rock.

He even adds Shukaku's seal to strengthen it even further, so he will be safe even if strong creatures attack the shelter when he sleeps.

Luckily, there's no attack at night, so he can sleep comfortably and feel fully refreshed when he wakes up. Now he can start his day nicely with full energy.

"Hey kid, hurry up and hunt stronger creatures."

Shukaku suddenly complains while Alex is eating breakfast.

"What's the rush?"

"These little things are too weak. They can't provide enough power to even weaken the seal."

Shukaku and Matatabi have dragged the magical creatures that Alex killed into his body to have their magic power absorbed by the 3rd Tailed Beast to break the seal on him.

But they don't have that much magic power, so it's like they don't help at all and just waste time.

"I told you they are for training my skills. We are alone now, so we can't be careless. That's why I need to keep improving myself. We'll eventually find strong magical creatures for you to absorb, so don't worry too much."

"Hmph! Fine, let's do as you say."

Alex sighs because this fat sand raccoon is very moody like a high-school girl.

After that, Alex keeps hunting quite weak creatures for his training. He only targets weak creatures because he still needs to get used to fighting without magic.

Because he doesn't rely on magic, his physical power increases faster and so are his reflex, senses, and instincts.

He increases the difficulty slowly by targeting stronger creatures after he gets better. But he doesn't forget his main objective, so he also keeps moving to Fiore.

Then after walking in the forest for days while training, he finally finds a rather troublesome creature, a Vulcan.

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Ch. 65: 4 Tail