Weekend Plans

"Haaahhaahh" Alex panted, having completed his morning routine. His jersey was drenched in sweat, and he glistened from the effort.

"Wow, Alex! That was a new record. You managed to run for more than 20 minutes longer than before." Aurora exclaimed, clearly amazed at Alex's steady progress.

After the long non-stop running for almost 2 hours, he was in no shape to reply to Aurora. He had increased his stamina and strength significantly, as indicated in his status.

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[Status]

[Host: Alex Blanc]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 16]

[Rank: F+ → E]

[Magic Affinity: Dark(SS)]

[MP: 500/500]

[HP: 247/250]

[Experience: 50/10000]

[System Points: 10]

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Alex had reached E rank, but he wasn't particularly thrilled with the achievement.

'Ahh! I haven't used magic for almost a week now. And this quest time is also ticking.'

It was Saturday morning, and Alex had the weekend off, but he already had made plans.

The time limit on his quest was ticking away, with 5 days passing, leaving him with only 25 days left for quest completion. The urgency of the situation lingered.

He also needed to increase his spell mastery for the side quest, which he planned on achieving this weekend.

Alex had a brilliant idea in mind for completing both of his quests, but that was only according to him. Aurora, however, was still skeptical of his so-called brilliant idea.

"I don't think you'll have any problems hunting E-rank monsters with your current strength, with or without magic. But increasing your mastery over spells while hunting outside might be a brilliant idea, though it's still not something you should try now."

Aurora raised her concerns about Alex's current plan. His idea wasn't bad, and she herself would have approved of it, but it felt too early for Alex to take such risks outside where danger lurked everywhere.

Alex's brilliant idea was to increase the spell mastery of his spells while he killed monsters using magic. This way, he could earn points and simultaneously enhance the mastery of spells.

"Don't worry too much; I can manage myself. I haven't used magic for a few days now, and I already feel rusty. And you only said I can handle E-rank monsters now."

Alex tried to act cool, but he was still worrying about how to go about killing E-rank monsters. His last encounter was not so great with that Monster Wolf.

Aurora also noticed this, but she was confident in his strength.

'He was already able to kill around a dozen F-rank monsters and even managed to kill an E-rank monster for the first time. The progress he has made so far makes me confident in his strength, but the thing is that he still doesn't understand how dangerous the outside world is, other than having monsters.'

Alex did pretty amazing for his first time outside and performed better than what many others could achieve on their first time out, all alone.

This time was a bit different than before, as Alex was going to be out for two whole days. Well, he wouldn't camp outside; instead, he planned to return to the city, stay in a hotel, and leave early the next morning.

This was also the reason Aurora was getting anxious, as she wouldn't be seeing him for the whole weekend outside the academy grounds.

"Do you really have to stay in a hotel, and can't you return back for the night and leave early the next day?"

Alex, hearing her, could feel her desire for him to come back for the night. However, he responded, "Well, I can try, but it will be easier for me that way too. You see, the academy is really far away from the city walls, and coming back might be a bit of a hassle."

Aurora then put forth a reasonable argument to convince him, "How would I know that you are safe and not dead out there? I don't know what you have seen and heard, but as far as I know, it is very dangerous out there, and deaths are very common. It is also common for many academy students to die out there in the wilderness."

'I knew the outside place was no joke, but knowing this still doesn't make it easier.'

Alex was instantly horrified by the fact. He had already died once and was not in the mood for a second time.

Aurora also noticed the grim expression on his face and thought, 'I guess I am getting too selfish here, but I don't want him to die and leave me all alone like before. Well, there will be a way soon, but for that, he needs to get stronger, and seeing his recent progress, it is not far ahead.'

"Ahem, I didn't want to scare you too much but just wanted to remind you. I also haven't left this place since who knows when, so I also don't know about the specific current scenario, but as far as I have heard, the danger is still there."

"Could you not scare me like this now when I am about to leave?"

"I didn't mean to do that, but if you don't go too far away from the city and especially don't interact with anyone, you will be pretty much safe."

He still didn't understand why Aurora repeatedly asked him not to meet with anyone out there, and she specifically instructed him to immediately run away from there and reach a safe place if he could.

Well, on his first time outside, he didn't meet or see anyone out there. It still puzzled him why he was not supposed to meet or interact with them, and why he had to run away too.

The answer he received from asking her the reason was even more puzzling, at least for him: "You cannot trust anyone out there in the outside world."

Anyways, he was soon destined to find out the reason for it.

Alex then changed the topic, asking, "Where is she? Is she nearby?"

"Who? Your stalker?" Aurora said in a joking manner, teasing him about Sherry.

Well, she exactly wasn't a stalker; she would just occasionally come to where Alex was, stare at him from a certain distance, and then leave after a few minutes of fiddling around, which was easily noticed by Aurora who informed him of it.

It may appear as if she was stalking him, but in reality, she was just shy and timid to come forward, talk to him, and persuade him.

Alex gave Aurora a blank, flat stare upon hearing this, to which she chuckled.

"Ooh, I just checked, and that girl has already left the academy earlier today."