Bawon Fortress (7)

"Retreat!"

The soldiers moved back to a safe position while watching Leyfon fighting the Rock Wolf alone. As soon as the soldiers retreated to the safe spot, Andreas immediately went to help Leyfon. With this tactic, the Rock Wolf could be defeated faster.

Alex observed that battle. Leyfon and Andreas seemed used to fighting together. Their teamwork was perfect. Their movement when they switched to their offensive attack, or how they attacked the spot they targeted, all of them were perfect.

After fighting for about thirty minutes, the Rock Wolf's movement started to noticeably slow down. Its movement became slower and slower. Andreas once again shouted, "Charge!"

Now the soldiers were circling around them. It only took ten minutes before the Rock Wolf collapsed to the ground and died.

Alex was relieved after confirming that the Rock Wolf had died. Then he went to Alicia, Firia, and Sherry, "Are you guys alright?" He asked.

"Of course, we didn't do much in the battle except bombard them with magic," Alicia said.

Firia nodded and sighed, "Well, the pills are useless."

"No, no. Why are you saying that? If I don't have the pills as my assurance, I can't fight with all my might knowing that my energy will plummet at any time," Alex comforted her hurriedly.

"Yes, yes. What are you saying, Firia?"

Firia then giggled. Alex and Alicia realized that she teased them.

"Cough. Sherry, how are you?"

"Wuu!"

"Well, Sherry didn't do anything after all," Alicia giggled.

"Wuu! Wuu! Wuu! Wuu!" Sherry felt wronged. It seemed to justify itself with something like its job or anything similar.

Alex and the rest laughed.

Not long after, Leyfon came back from the battlefield and walked toward Alex and the rest.

"Young Alex, thank you for your hard work in this battle."

"No, I have said I would help. I'm glad that I helped you enough," Alex smiled.

Leyfon nodded, "Without your help. We don't know how many more people will die on our side. With you killing most of rank 5 and rank 6 monsters, we can greatly reduce the casualty. Thank you very much."

"It's fine, Sir Leyfon. Since we have won the battle, please excuse us. I will go back with the rest to our barracks."

"No. Why don't you guys come with me to my mansion? I want to express my gratitude to you all."

Alex shook his head, "It's alright, Sir Leyfon. I'm not the only one that participated in this battle. So I can't accept such special treatment."

Alex rejected his offer. The reason was that he didn't want to get into an awkward situation again with his grandchildren, especially Franky and Sila. He wanted to stay as far away from them, he didn't want any trouble.

Leyfon wasn't that stupid to not catch Alex's reason. Seeing that he couldn't persuade Alex, he sighed, "Alright then."

Alex nodded, "Let's go back."

"Sure."

"Okay."

"Wuu!"

They went back to the barrack. There was another reason why he didn't want to go to the mansion. He couldn't shake the feeling that he was being watched. He felt his every movement was observed by someone. He couldn't shake off the weird feeling, like something bad would happen.

He shook his head, Alex got stronger to reassure himself for something like that. At least there was Sherry and himself who were currently at rank 6. So even if they got into a fight with a rank 7 warrior, he could still fight back while retreating.

Not long after, they arrived at the barrack. After saying goodbye to Alicia and Firia, Alex also went back to his barrack. He checked his mission along with his status.

[Mission 1 #repeatable

Objective: Kill 1500 rank 5 monsters (120/1500)

Reward: Premium Ticket x1]

[Mission 2 #repeatable

Objective: Kill 400 rank 6 monsters (9/400)

Reward: Premium Ticket x1]

[Mission 3 #repeatable

Objective: Kill 30 rank 7 monsters (0/30)

Reward: Premium Ticket x2]

[Mission 4 #repeatable

Objective: Kill 1 rank 8 monsters (0/1)

Reward: Premium Ticket x3]

There was not much difference in his status and mission updates since there were not many monsters attacking them. So he was fine with the results since at least there was progress even if just a little. And then his status…

Name: Alexander Sirius (Peak Phase Qi Gathering Stage)

Job: Alchemist (Primary), Adventurer(Secondary), Sword Saint (Secondary), Hunter (Secondary), Flame Ruler (Secondary), Forger (Secondary)

Rank: 6

Level: 601

STR: 652

AGI: 632

VIT: 676

DEX: 627

INT: 635

He finally reached rank 6. After killing many monsters, his level increased from 587 to 601, and he was officially a rank 6 warrior.

The next day, they met up again at the previous place. They went to the forest together. He looked at the big trees around them. It was a bit unusual, he thought. Even the shortest tree he spotted was around ten meters high. But there was something special in this forest. He felt some connection in the forest and the connection came from inside of him. He didn't know what kind of connection was this so he didn't bother with it that much.

They met their first monster after entering the forest.

Alex's eyes widened as he spoke bitterly, "What kind of luck is this to meet a rank 4 monster first thing? Does the academy want to kill us all?"

"This is just a coincidence, I think. I received information that the outer zone of this forest is only filled with rank 3 monsters or lower. Maybe that changed because of yesterday's battle," Alicia explained.

"Maybe," Alex nodded. "Alright, why don't you two try to fight the monster. I will help you guys if you two cannot handle it."

The monster that appeared in front of them was a rank 4 monkey. He thought Alicia and Firia were enough for this type of monster. After all, Alicia alone was equal to rank 4 mage and she also polished her melee range combat. Meanwhile, it might be a little tricky for Firia. Using her fire might be difficult in a dense forest. If she randomly threw her fire, it might burn the forest down. 

However, now that he thought about it, this event was held by the academy every year and the participant was always the second-year student. That meant the participants were at least rank 3 and there must be many fire mages between those students. The forest never got burned so far, so he thought it would be fine even if Firia threw her fire magic. After all, she was experienced, like when she hunted in the Night Forest. Alex shook his head and apologized to her in his mind.

"Firia, you first."

Firia nodded. "Fire Spear!"

Four spears made of fire appeared beside her. The spears immediately flew toward the monkey. The monkey was startled but that was all. The monkey dodged Firia's fire spear effortlessly. As expected of a rank 4 monster.

"Frozen World. Ice Prison!"

"Kikii!" The monkey felt danger when Alicia used her 'Frozen World' magic. It immediately jumped to the side. Sure, soon enough, a cage made of ice appeared from thin air. If the monkey didn't immediately jump away, surely it would be trapped in the ice cage.

"Kikii!" The monkey was enraged. He felt he was being played by these two girls. It charged toward Alicia.

Alicia already prepared herself. She clashed with the monkey, this was also why she polished her melee combat skill. If a mage was engaged in close-range combat like this, he/she wouldn't hold out for long. Well, they were fine if there were some warriors in their rank but that couldn't happen every time.

"Fire Blaze!"

Two fire pillars rose beside Firia. They moved like snakes and went toward the monkey. The monkey who was busy enough fighting Alicia couldn't dodge Firia's magic.

'Boom!'

Not letting this chance go, Alicia immediately followed up with her magic.

"Frozen World! Frozen!"

Just like its name suggested, it froze anything around her. Even the smoke from Firia's fire magic was frozen and turned to ice particles. But…

"Won't it be bad if you hit someone else with that magic?" Alex asked.

"I can freeze anything with this magic. But I don't have enough control to choose which one I might freeze."

"…Well, you will get better with more training."

He looked at the frozen monkey and felt pity. Not only did he get burned, but he also got frozen. It must have hurt when you suddenly got burned when you were freezing.

After successfully killing the monster, they continued their journey. Along the way, they didn't meet with other rank 4 monsters. So Alex concluded that the meeting previously was different. Alicia and Firia killed all those monsters easily.

"Alex, can we go to the inner zone?" Alicia asked.

Alex frowned, he looked at Firia who seemed like she also wanted to go to the inner zone. He was worried about letting them go to the inner zone. After all, many intermediate-rank monsters lived in that zone. But he also couldn't shake the feeling of connection he felt inside this forest. Especially when the feeling got stronger and stronger when he got closer. He pondered for a moment.

"Alright. But if there is something we can't handle. We will immediately leave the area."

Alicia and Firia nodded happily. They finally entered the inner zone. The atmosphere didn't change very much. But the monster type itself changed greatly. For example…

"As expected from the inner zone. We got a rank 5 monster first thing as we entered the inner zone," Firia was astonished.

"Sherry will be the vanguard. Alicia and Firia will support it with magic."

Alex decided for Sherry to enter the battle. They might be fine for a rank 4 monster, but for a rank 5 monster… he couldn't be so sure. With Sherry as their vanguard, the fight would be easier. Even Alicia and Firia couldn't complain about his decision.

"Wuu!"

Sherry immediately went in front of Alicia and Firia. Their opponent was a rank 5 ogre. As usual, Alicia and Firia used their magic first.

"Fire Blaze!"

Firia used her fire blaze as bait to force it to move. But the ogre took Firia's fire magic lightly. It brushed off her magic like it was nothing.

"Frozen World! Ice Prison!"

Alicia followed up after seeing Firia's failure. Originally, they wanted to move the ogre to a spot and sealed him off with her 'Ice Prison' but after her magic failed, their plan also crumbled.

The ogre completely dodged Alicia's Ice Prison. Then, it charged toward them. Thankfully, Sherry immediately moved to intercept its attack.

"Wuu!"

Sherry released its flame. The flame that rose from its body turned into four concentrated fireballs and immediately flew toward the ogre. The ogre couldn't dodge them all. Two fireballs hit the ogre's body. "Wuu!"

Alicia understood what happened. She nodded, "Frozen World. Ice Prison!"

A cage made of ice appeared and locked the ogre inside. Because of Sherry's fire, the ogre couldn't dodge Alicia's technique fast enough and trapped it inside. It tried to destroy the ice cage but sadly it couldn't.

"Firia! Finish it off!"

Firia nodded. The frustration pent up on her when the ogre didn't even take her seriously. She released it at this moment, "Fire Spear!"

"Fire Blaze!"

"Fire Arrow!"

"Fire Bolt!"

She released her magic continuously. Alex and the rest could see her frustration. Alex shook his head.

The ogre was scorched to death by Firia's magic. But for some reason, he felt nothing for this ogre. Maybe because of Firia?

Whatever… after killing the ogre, they continued their journey a bit more. They met a few rank 5 monsters but hadn't found any rank 6 monsters. But that was good since it was easier and safer that way.

The sun was about to set anyway and it was the best time to go back. He already confirmed there was some kind of connection in that forest anyway. He could visit it again later, of course only by himself. He couldn't bring Alicia and Firia along with him in this dangerous forest.

"Let's go back."

Alicia and Firia nodded, "Sure."

They started going back to the fortress. But on the way, four people were standing in front of them, blocking their way. They couldn't see who they were since they wore hoods to mask themselves.

Alex frowned.