CHAPTER 395: CHAPTER 395: CELEBRATION

In the end, Rezen was forced to celebrate his breakthrough. Today, Treen does not have a plan of taking ’no’ as an answer.

After all, it was indeed a long time since the two of them bonded and even more so along with Porenz and Theon.

No matter how much Rezen tries to resist and convince Treen that they could celebrate at a later time, the latter has no intention of accepting any refusal.

As such, Rezen was forced to come to a rather famous restaurant inside the core walls. When he and Treen arrived, their other two friends were already waiting.

It seems like they really have no intention of letting Rezen not come, considering that they were already here.

"Wow, finally, the hero of humanity showed himself! Thank you for gracing us with your presence!" Porenz joked with booming laughter. She was still as loud and carefree as usual.

"Long time no see, Rezen. You finally had time to see us" Theon said with a smile.

Compared to Porenz, this wild woman, Theon, was more composed and calm.

"Tsk, you don’t know how much convincing I had to do to force this guy. I almost resorted to the use of force!" Treen said while shaking his head, and Rezen felt sour internally.

Since Treen became a Senior Mage faster than Rezen, when it comes to the cultivation realm, even now, he is stronger than the latter.

While Rezen just reached the Senior Rank, Treen, on the other hand, already reached the third cycle. It’s like the more time that passes, the faster his cultivation speed becomes.

It was simply an out-of-this-world transformation.

"You know how busy I am"

Rezen sighed bitterly. His natural, or more like his previous personality, was immature and lazy. He complains about a lot of things despite having a lot more than other people.

However, experiences and time matured him. Despite still being innately lazy and preferring to just enjoy life, this trait of Rezen was buried as he has a lot of goals to be achieved.

In the past three years, he was always farming, cultivating, and also training his alchemy skills. There was simply no time to rest.

If he were naturally talented, he might take some time to cool off, but sadly, despite having a miraculous farm, his talent still did not reach even just the level of a normal genius.

"Bah! You are always busy. If you’re not my friend and I am already the person you meet more than the servants serving you, I would have thought that you hate me and you don’t like to see me."

Treen’s tone was filled with bitterness. It seems like he was taking the chance to vent his dissatisfaction on Rezen.

As the people closest to each other, to suddenly not see his ’best friend’ for a long time makes Treen really disappointed.

At that, Rezen can only smile apologetically. Although Treen was acting immature, Rezen was not displeased.

In fact, Rezen can see his former self on Treen, and he was just glad that, at the very least, his friend could continue to be immature, unlike him.

"As punishment, you have to drink the first shot!"

With a heart filled with ’resentment’, Treen has the waiter immediately serve a strong wine.

Since the room was actually already booked beforehand, the restaurant was ready, and it didn’t take that long before the wine was served along with the first batch of food.

With a snort, Treen took a large glass that was not even meant for wine. He purposely chose the glass due to its size and poured alcohol into it.

"Drink! I will be angry if you don’t drink all of this in one go. For always ditching us, you are to be punished with the first drink!"

Rezen can only accept the glass of wine that Treen almost shoved into him helplessly. If that wasn’t enough, Porenz even laughed at the situation before grabbing an identical glass and also filling it to the brim with alcohol.

"Make that two for me!" She laughed merrily while pushing the glass into Rezen, who rolled his eyes at him.

"Hmm, since that is the case, let us make it three."

Even Theon joined in the fun, and he did the same thing as the other two.

Rezen found himself facing three large glasses of wine, and he could already see himself suffering from a hangover.

"You guys know that your ordered wine and not beer, right?" Rezen questioned.

Who would drink such a quantity of wine in one go? Isn’t wine supposed to be taken in sips and not be treated as a low alcohol wine?

"It’s a punishment for a reason!" Treen retorted, somewhat proud of himself.

"Isn’t your punishment too excessive? You ordered wine that even Senior Mages cannot fully resist."

Normal wine naturally could not make a Senior Mage drunk. After all, his body and soul were baptized by mana a lot of times. Starting from the first cycle, Junior Mage to his current rank as a first-cycle Senior Mage.

If it were normal wine, he could literally drink a full bathtub of wine without getting drunk. Not to mention, he also has his Unsullied Body, which can take wine as poison and prevent him from getting affected.

However, the wine that Treen bought is not normal wine. Even Senior Mages will get drunk and such wine was definitely excessively expensive.

Still, Treen has more pocket money than he could spend. Spending some money to have fun with friends is no problem for him.

"Will you drink it or not?" Treen askes in dissatisfaction and Rezen had no choice but to chug all three large glasses of wine.

If he was not using his mana to expel the alcohol’s effect immediately, he might have passed out already.

Still, despite doing that, the wine really was potent and Rezen’s cheeks flushed. He became a bit lightheaded and although he was not yet drunk, he was already tipsy.

The four of them didn’t even eat first before they had him drink such a strong wine!

"Alright, alright, that’s enough. Let’s eat first"

Breaking through the Senior Rank took quite a lot of time, and with his busy schedule, to save some time, Rezen opt in to drinking nutrient liquid to satiate his hunger.

He seldom had the chance to eat real food, and seeing a table filled with various delicacies aroused his appetite.

Since he was already forced to come here, why not enjoy himself with some good food?

Perhaps, also knowing how busy he was, his friends let him start eating, and Rezen almost wolfed down the food, most of which was meat dishes.

With the ongoing war between humans and the magic beasts, meat has become common, and their prices have plummeted due to the endless supply of magic beasts’ meat.

It was to the point that meat is now priced lower than vegetables and fruits. Of course, that is only when they are on the same level.

No matter how much meat’s price goes down, a magic beast’s meat will always be higher compared to a normal vegetable or fruit.

The meat of magic beasts is also very nourishing,a nd it seems like all the meat that was served came from the meat of Senior Beasts.

Treen really spared no expense in tonight’s celebration!

Rezen can even sense his foundation stabilizing a bit and his mana growing, thanks to eating.

Of course, the effects are not exaggerated. It was possible to gain substantial benefits from beast meat, but that requires constant consumption.

Besides, for the past three years, Rezen’s treatment has been getting better and better. In the rare times that he decided to eat real food, he was given high-quality meal.

As such, while eating the meat of Senior Beast was extravagant in the eyes of the common people, to Rezen, it has become normal and nothing special.

"Come! Come! Drink more! Let’s get drunk tonight! Hahahaha!"

As usual, Porenz was the loudest as she poured wine into the glass of her friends.

Perhaps, the ongoing war has given everyone stress and it was not everyday that they can destress like this.

Unlike Treen and Rezen, both Theon and Porenz can feel the effects of the war more.

While they do get benefits for being friends with Rezen and Treen, at the end of the day, their identities are only somewhat special inside the outer walls.

Compared to the two with connections inside the core walls, they are less fortunate.

Still, with their own effort as well as benefiting from nepotism, both Theon and Porenz have already become peak Junior Mages.

Of course, to reach the Senior Rank, aside from the requirement of enough talent, they also need more time.

While they might not be as bad as Rezen, that would initially take decades just to barely reach the Senior Rank if not for the Guardian’s help, at the very least, they still need a few more years.

In this world, even early-cycle Senior Mages can barely survive. What more for mere peak Junior Mages?