CHAPTER 60: ELEMENTAL POWER TRAINING

Alex woke up early morning, and went to train at his usual spot.

Starting movements of last step of Serpent’s Fang Ghost Step, retreating or evading and going for another attack.

He kept doing motions. With every failure, he learned a little bit more. He kept going until sun came up and class’s time began.

Alex went back to the room and saw that Hati was still sleeping. After getting freshened up, he woke up Hati, who yawned lazily, stretching.

"Let’s go you lazy ass, we won’t get credits if we don’t attend class and we don’t have money for breakfast."

As Alex told Hati, his stomach growled, with Hati’s chiming in too.

After class, Alex and Hati finished lunch fast and went to the monster hunter section. They entered a separate building near the academy castle, made like a tower near a small mountain, with a large steel door.

They entered the tower. They saw a big hall with pillars decorated in white and golden. The high ceiling hall was filled with students lining up. At the end of the hall was a counter, wooden with brown color contrasting with the white and golden hall.

Alex went toward an empty counter. A man wearing the academy emerald uniform with golden letters on his left chest came.

He said with a smile, "What can I do for you today?"

Alex replied, "Ah, I want to sell monster body parts?"

The man said politely with a smile, "Certainly Sir, please put it here, I’ll evaluate it."

Alex put all the Hydra monster’s bones—except for one big horn he kept for himself. He also took out Hydra’s scales.

The man looked at the bones on his counter with open mouth and shocked face and said, stammering,

"Si-Sir, I think I have to call my superior. I can’t evaluate these."

Alex nodded and waited. After a little while, an old man with a little grey hair, well-suited, came to the counter and started checking. In an instant, his eyes widened and he said in a loud voice,

"Where did you get these?"

All the people looked toward the old man and Alex.

The old man said with an awkward smile,

"Sorry about that. If you don’t mind me asking, where did you get the Hydra’s bones?"

Alex replied,

"I got it from the dimension where the test was held. Is there a problem?"

The old man composed himself and said,

"No, there isn’t, student. But these are B-rank monsters. Its bones and fangs each value 100 credits, and its scales are 500 credits per one scale. If we calculate the total amount, it would be 8100 credits total."

Alex and Hati’s mouth opened wide. Then Hati jumped with a bark,

"Woof!"

Alex smiled, controlling his urge to jump too.

The old man smiled seeing that. He had seen many reactions like that here.

He transferred the credits into Alex’s bracelet, and as Alex checked, the bracelet showed:

CREDIT: 8103

Alex’s smile stretched wide.

He felt light, the weight of earning credits decreased.

They both went to a mountain door near the monster hunter section and knocked the simple iron knocker on the door.

Knock. Knock.

A dwarf with a brown beard and bald face came out of it, with a hammer in his hand and sweat dropping from his face.

He looked up toward Alex and said in a thick and loud voice,

"What d’ya want, lad?"

Alex said, looking at the dwarf politely,

"I want to make a spear, can you help me sir?"

"What d’ya have, lad?" he replied in a gruff voice.

Alex took out Hydra’s biggest horn, still giving off a little pulse of power, and a staff, its patterns shimmering.

The dwarf’s eyes widened. He immediately snatched them with his rough hands from Alex and said while running in,

"Come in, lad."

He closed the door immediately. After Alex came in, he felt the heat of the forge, and hot air with the smell of iron and burning.

The dwarf said, raising his three stubby fingers,

"3000 credits."

Alex was shocked and blurted,

"WHAT?!"

Then he remembered he recently got rich, but he said looking at the dwarf,

"Sir, can you give me a little bit discount?"

The dwarf put his hand on his rough brown beard and said after thinking and nodding,

"2999 credits. No less."

Alex sighed, defeated, and said,

"Okay... when should I come to get it?"

The dwarf said, thinking,

"It’ll take 3 months."

Pointing toward a silver-colored spear made of steel, he said,

"You can use that."

Alex said,

"Okay."

After Alex came back out of the forge all sweaty, his remaining credits were 5002.

Alex muttered,

"That stingy dwarf... even sold this stupid spear."

Alex went to class. After attending class, he went to the elemental training room. He entered the black door after paying for only 2 hours, leaving Hati home.

Alex felt the same feeling he felt when he was giving his first test at the academy.

A blue screen appeared in front of him where difficulty of the test was written:

Difficulty Level

Easy

Medium

Hard

Dangerous

Alex selected the easy one.

Ring!

An announcement came from a mechanical female voice:

"Easy Level: Dodge the arrows made from dark element using only dark elemental power."

Arrows started slow, in patterns: first two from the back, then two from the front, two from the left, and then two from the right.

Alex parried with shadow daggers and made a shield using environmental elemental power.

After a little time, speed increased slightly but pattern remained the same.

Then it changed. Numbers increased from 2–4 from one direction and then the pattern changed.

Alex kept dodging and parrying with shadow daggers and dark element shield.

After 2 hours, he clearly felt it—the change in his dark element use. He could control it a little better and more efficiently.

Alex thought,

This is quite useful training. If I do it daily, I would be able to improve a lot.

He left the elemental training room and came to his dorm room.

Hati jumped, welcoming Alex.

Alex laughed and patted Hati’s head, said,

"Wait here, we’ll go for dinner after I get freshened up."

Alex came back, changing into another pair of black clothes gifted by Emilia.

Hati and Alex went to the cafeteria and ordered expensive dinner of 4 credits and ate ravenously.

A man looking like a giant with brown hair and brown eyes with a calm face came and sat on Alex’s table.

He said with a smile,

"Hello, my name is Dorian Terravyrn."

Alex sat across from Dorian Terravyrn, who greeted him with a warm smile."Hello, Mr. Alexander," Dorian said politely.

Alex, confused and a bit intimidated by the charming man, stammered, "H-Hello, sir."

Dorian’s smile widened. "Mr. Alexander, my name is Dorian Terravyrn. I’m the president of the Rebel Club."

Leaning forward slightly, he lowered his voice. "I’ve heard about the Hydra monster incident and Teacher Emilia recommended you. That’s why I’m here. Would you consider joining us?"

Alex fell into thought, then asked, "Your club is called the Rebel Club, right?"

Dorian nodded, leaning back casually. "You don’t have to give me your answer right away. Just think about it—we still have plenty of time."

He stood up, gave a slight nod, and said, "Goodbye, Mr. Alexander. And you too, Hati." He smiled at the wolf.

After finishing his meal, Alex quietly left with Hati and returned to his dorm.

The Next Morning

The cafeteria buzzed with clattering and talking sounds, on one of the table Alex sat in the cafeteria, lost deep in thought. He didn’t even notice when two girls sat across from him.

"ALEX!" Rina called out sharply.

Snapping out of his daze, Alex blinked and looked at her with a distant gaze.

She waved her hand in front of his face. "Are you even here?"

Alex blinked again and said, "Yes? Oh—when did you two get here?"

"We’ve been here for a while, calling you," Rina replied, half annoyed, half amused.

Selene, sitting beside her, looked at him with concern. "Are you okay?"

Hati ignored everyone and kept eating without a care.

Alex replied, "Yeah, I’m fine. I was just thinking about something." He paused, then added, "By the way, do you two know where I can find Teacher Emilia?"

Rina’s eyes widened. "You didn’t know? Her office is just along the same corridor as our classroom!"

"Oh... thanks," Alex said. "I’ll look for her during lunch break then."

Selene poked at her food and asked casually, "Did Dorian offer you a place in his club?"

Alex blinked in surprise. "Yes... but how did you know?"

Selene smiled. "Almost everyone knows. It’s not every day that Dorian personally recruits someone."

Alex’s eyes widened. "Everyone knows already?!"

Then he shook his head and muttered, "It doesn’t matter... I guess."

Selene tilted her head and asked, "Do you even know what the WW game is?"