Journey to Maka Town

Seeing what Cornel's teacher named Patrick did to Alex, the dean was angry.

"Patrick, you bastard!" a tyrannical heat came from his body, and many fires shaped like spear, ball, and others formed and charged at Patrick.

"Ah...." Patrick screamed and he was pinned down with so many fires.

The dean burned Patrick's hand because he was so angry at him. How could a senior like him make a move to a junior like his student, especially since he already treated Alex like his own son.

"Argh..." Patrick screamed in pain, "You...You burned my hand!"

Hand for a swordsman was like their second life, if Patrick's main hand got burned, he would never become a swordsman anymore.

"I won't let you off," Patrick glared hatefully.

"Hmph, since you won't let me off, then I will just kill you here to avoid future problems," after saying that, the dean decided to burn Patrick right away.

"Ahh...No! Please, don't kill me. Forgive me," he pleaded but the dean ignored him. Patrick was burned to ash.

'Overbearing!'

The dean was overbearing, if he wanted to kill someone he wouldn't hesitate to kill him. Even though Patrick was a rank 7 swordsman as well as a teacher in the academy. There was no one who dared to give a voice of discontent, not even the teacher. If not, they would trigger the dean's anger to themselves. They just practically asked him to kill them too.

"Alex, are you okay?" he came to Alex right away.

"Yes, Teacher. I only got a few internal injuries."

"Let's go to my office. I will try to refine the restoration pills for you," the dean took Alex, Alicia, and Firia away from the arena.

Before the dean managed to refine the restoration pills, Alicia said, "I still have 4 restoration pills with me."

"I also still have 1 restoration pill," Firia followed up.

"Since they still have some left you better take them first," the dean then decided.

"Thank you!" Alex took the pills and after a few hours of recuperation, he fully recovered his health.

"Teacher, I want to make a request."

"Oh...Please, say it. What is it?"

"I want to dive into the dungeon."

"..." the dean was not too shocked with this request from Alex. He knew that after Alex received that sword wave from Patrick, Alex would have a sudden drive to get even stronger. That was why he understood if Alex wanted to go to the dungeon.

However, the dean only managed to speculate half the truth. It was true that Alex wanted to get stronger, but in order to do that, he had to upgrade the gacha system which required him to search for gacha tickets. The dungeon was the best place to get them and he thought he could also get stronger with leveling up. He realized that the only way to protect others was to become stronger every day. That way, he could protect his family and friends.

"Up to you then, since you all have two months of holiday. However, I suggest you do it only for one month."

Alex was confused about why he could only dive for one month. After all, they got a two months holiday and...

"Look at this pile of ingredients! Are you going to work me to death by asking me to refine these many ingredients?" the dean continued.

"Ah..." he just remembered that he originally wanted to refine rank 2 pills. But this desire to get stronger had made him forget about this matter.

"Yes, I will only dive for one month and use the other month to help you refine the pills," he was ashamed that he forgot such an important matter.

"Alright, you can go back and get some rest for today," the dean dismissed them.

The trio left the office right away.

"Alex, I want to follow you to the dungeon," Alicia said.

"Me too," Firia was willing to put herself at risk as well.

Alex shook his head, "I will go to the dungeon alone."

"But..." the two were reluctant and refused to follow what Alex said.

Sadly, Alex was determined to go alone, "Just let me go alone this time. I will refine a pill for you two after I'm done."

The two pouted but this pill was a big temptation for them. All the pills Alex gave to them was a top-notch pill. Considering this, they reluctantly agreed.

"Be careful then," Alicia said.

"Yes. You two should enjoy your holiday."

Even though Alex said 'holiday', the two already decided in their hearts that they would use this time to get stronger, as they didn't want to be below Alex's skills.

The next day, Alex searched for a caravan to Maka Town because the dungeon he intended to dive into was in that town. After looking for a while, he found one caravan to go there.

The leader was a middle-aged fat merchant and Alex paid for him in exchange to take Alex to Maka Town.

The merchant already made a request for protection from the adventurer guild.

The protectors were a five-person group and they were a group called Black Spiders. They had an average rank 2 strength with a rank 3 leader. The journey wasn't that long, it probably took the group two days trip and the road wasn't that dangerous. So the merchant didn't request a powerful protector to guard them.

The first day went well and they didn't encounter any monster or bandit.

On the second day, Alex chatted with the merchant, but he suddenly frowned because he saw a pack of wolves. The merchant saw Alex's sudden change in expression and he was confused.

"Wolf pack!" he pointed at the merchant's back. The merchant looked in the direction he pointed. His face immediately became pale.

"Wolves," he screamed. He was scared because the wolf pack contained around a hundred wolves. A small group like him would be defeated right away if the wolves started attacking them.

Alex scanned the power of these wolves and he found out that the wolves were mainly a rank 0 monster. Only a few were rank 1 and he was relieved to know that.

The five adventurers were turning pale as well, even though they have killed a pack of wolves before. But it was only twenty wolves and they fought a hard battle with them. With this amount of wolves coming at them at the same time which was more than five times than the previous wolves they fought, it was natural they got scared.

They wanted to run away but Alex immediately said, "Stop! Look carefully, the wolf pack looks like they are migrating. And if you observe them carefully, they are thin and exhausted."

The group of protectors then canceled their intention after hearing Alex's explanation. They carefully observed the wolf pack and they knew what Alex said was true.

"That's right, the wolves are exhausted. They should be easy to kill," the party leader said.

They went to the battle position and Alex observed them more.

"Two vanguards, one archer, one mage, and one scout. A balanced team," he muttered.

The wolf pack noticed their group and the leader sent a few wolves. Within a few minutes, the wolves were killed. This time, all the pack charges at them.

The adventurers were more scared than before. It looked like they underestimated the wolves. Though the wolves were exhausted, they forgot these wolves were also hungry. Because of this hunger inside of them, their ferocity was multiple times more.

'Brak!'

One of the vanguards dropped his shield, "No. This is impossible. We will die here."

Alex frowned seeing this and he went to the top of the carriage.

"Mr. Alex?" the merchant was confused with what Alex did. 'Is he going to escape?' he thought.

Alex drew his sword and he infused it with Mana. He swung his sword horizontally.

'Flame Sword Wave'

A beautiful horizontal flame sword wave was flying at the pack. Before it managed to land on the ground, the sword wave managed to pass a few ten wolves. The wolves that were passed by the sword wave were split into two instantly.

'Boom!'

When the sword wave landed on the ground, it exploded. After the fog was cleared away, the wolves were scared of him.

The adventurers and the merchant were shocked to see such a scene. Because this attack alone managed to wipe half of the pack.

"Scram!" Alex shouted. The Mana from his body was out. This was a difference of one big realm between the Body Tempering Stage and the Qi Gathering Stage.

"Aoooo!" the leader roared. The pack then retreated. The leader told its pack to leave since it knew Alex won't hesitate to kill them all if they were still charging at Alex's group. Alex would easily wipe them out in seconds.

To be honest, Alex didn't want to wipe them out. After all, even though they were monsters, they were still living creatures. Alex also knew that their condition wasn't good considering how thin they were. They might have not eaten for a few days. That was why he decided to spare them.

"Sir Alex, thank you very much for saving us," the fat merchant said. Even his tone became more polite. Before this sudden attack, he only called him with mister but now he called him with Sir!

Alex shook his head, "I am also a member of this caravan. If the group is attacked, it's natural to help each other."

"Thank...thank you, Sir Alex. Without you, we will be killed by those wolves," the party leader said politely.

"As I said, it's also my responsibility to help each other. Let's go, if not we might not arrive before night."

"Ye...Yes," the group then started to continue their journey.

The group started picking up the pace. They managed to arrive at Maka Town just before the sunset.

Alex said goodbye to the group and the merchant wanted to give the fee back to Alex as his gratitude for Alex's help but the young man rejected it.

Alex went to the inn a bit far away from the dungeon because all the inn near the dungeon was full.

"Hello, do you want to stay at our inn?" a 15 years old young woman said. 

Though this young woman was nothing extraordinary, her body still looked great. She had just the perfect curves on her body, many men would instantly claim that this woman has a sexy body.

"Yes, I want to stay for a month."

"A cost for a one-day stay is thirty copper coins. That means you need to pay nine hundred copper or nine silver for a one-month stay."

Alex was astonished, the price was three times than the inn in the capital city with the same quality.

"This price is reasonable. If you go to the inn near the dungeon the price will be much higher," she often said this to the upcoming guests since she knew most of them would find the price a bit too high. When she looked at Alex's astonished face, she knew right away that Alex never went to the dungeon in the town and he might not know the range of price for an inn in the area.

"Ah... I will still rent a room," Alex snapped from his daze. He still had a few gold coins left from Zircodina's king. He never spent so much when living in the Acacia Kingdom. Especially for a weapon since he got all of them from the System. He was secretly thankful for the system.

--

[Your welcome Host]

'.....How can you know, System?'

[I'm part of you, Host. It's only normal if I know what you are thinking]

'Then, do you also observe me like 24/7?'

[Of course, nothing escapes from me] 

The System bragged to Alex.

'..... No! You can't do that, give me my privacy back!'

[Can't do Host. After I linked with you, this bound to happen]

'&*%*&%' he cursed to himself.

[Love you too Host]

Back to the room somewhere far away, the woman still continued typing something.

She sighed and said, "Hurry up, get stronger and come to meet me, Darling. I really miss you."

--

Back to the real world.

"You are staying for one month, right? That's nine silver coins. How about your meals? It's five coins a day."

"No need. I will rarely come back to the inn as I will stay mainly in the dungeon."

"Oh...Have you registered in the hunter guild?"

"No, I haven't," Alex answered shortly.

"Then, you should register there first before going inside the dungeon. There is a special service for the one who wants to go inside," she advised. She often met this kind of person who mostly knew nothing about the dungeon. Many of these newbies were also ignorant of the danger inside the dungeon. They were arrogantly confident with their strength.

"Thank you for your advice," he thanked her.

"This is your room key, the room is on the second floor. The number was written in your key," she was surprised to see Alex didn't show any arrogance or ignorance.

"Thank you," Alex went up to his room.

"Hope you can safely come back," she muttered but Alex couldn't hear it well. She thought that Alex was a rare newbie.

Alex went to his room and as he expected the room was simple with only one bed, wardrobe, table, and chair. Alex didn't care though, he would rarely come back here after all. He would only use this place for sleeping after a tiring day.