Chapter 102: Year-End

By the time Roland came out of the Cervantes Alchemy Shop, it was already afternoon. After he explained to Simoni how he intended to condense the Undead Space, the man was so overjoyed he almost went mad, insisting on dragging Roland to stay for lunch.

At the table, Simoni was utterly unlike the ruthless figure he had been during the final of the grade competition. He was like a friendly uncle from next door, coming up with every possible excuse to keep urging Roland to drink.

Simoni had an enormous capacity for liquor. After several large cups, he showed not the slightest sign of intoxication, whereas Roland was quite the opposite. After one cup, he was already dizzy; after a second, his tongue began to feel thick. By the end, Roland had no choice but to bring out his trump card, the Undead Space, and pour the wine into it. There was no helping it. Drinking was simply not his strong suit, and when he ran into a fellow like Simoni, who seemed able to drink a thousand cups without getting drunk, he might as well cheat outright.

Roland was grateful he had the Undead Space to rely on earlier, or else he definitely would not have walked out in such a steady state. After leaving the shop and saying farewell to Simoni, he hurried onto his donkey and made for Potter Academy, afraid that Simoni might drag him back for yet another drink.

Once back at the academy, he wasted no time. He immediately went to the back mountain, sent his undead and little Black to patrol the surrounding area, then took out his alchemy stone platform and materials from the Undead Space and began refining.

Roland’s success rate in refining three-star low-grade potions was roughly sixty percent. Only when he could raise that rate to ninety percent would it mean he had become capable of refining three-star mid-grade potions. So the road from three-star low-grade alchemy to seven-star advanced alchemy, the level required to brew the Activation Potion, was still very long.

There was no shortcut to improving alchemy. Only through the repeated refinement of vast quantities of potions could one’s alchemy skill gradually rise. So Roland did not delay for a moment and set to work refining three-star low-grade potions.

After his return to the academy, the news that he had entered the Maya Mountains as a third-level mage and come back safely spread quickly throughout the school. In an instant, Roland became the center of conversation at every meal and gathering, and his popularity among the academy’s Three Heroes surged as well, far surpassing that of Terris and Simoni.

Some even believed that after this training in the Maya Mountains, he might break through and become a fourth-level mage before the end of the year. Others said that his talent was even more monstrous than the academy’s two legendary prodigies of the past, Thomas and Kerson. Although Victoria had also just returned from training in the Maya Mountains, she was already a fifth-level mage, after all, so the stir she caused was still far less than that of Roland, a third-level mage who could almost be called a novice.

Yet as the object of everyone’s envy, Roland suffered greatly from it. Wherever he appeared in the academy, crowds of fans would gather in the shortest possible time. Even the weekly gathering in the dormitory had to be moved from the academy cafeteria to the dorm itself. Fortunately, the place where he trained was a very secluded spot in the back mountain, and since he left early and returned late every day, his cultivation was not affected in the slightest.

Although Marle and the others were also harassed quite a bit because of Roland, they received plenty of benefits as well. Many beautiful girls from the academy would often visit Dormitory 2015, and even the goddess-like Teacher Monroe had come more than once. In Roland’s frequent absences, Marle, Gabaz, and Bill naturally took it upon themselves to entertain these esteemed guests, who could not ordinarily be invited even if one tried.

What made Marle and Gabaz even happier was that Victoria, who had never previously attended the Dormitory 2015 dinners, had also begun to join them regularly. This left the two of them feeling blissfully content during that period.

Amid such an atmosphere, before anyone knew it, the year-end had arrived. Those with ability had long since begun preparing for the class tournament, ready to shine on that stage, while many others had begun looking forward to the once-a-year holiday.

Over those past six months, Roland had devoted nearly all his energy to potion refinement and mage cultivation. The most gratifying progress had been in his potion alchemy. Through unremitting effort and countless repetitions, his alchemy skill had finally risen from three-star low-grade to three-star high-grade.

For such rapid advancement to occur in less than a year was astonishing. Part of it came from Roland’s exceptional talent for potion refinement, but even more from the fact that he had practiced day and night without rest. Talent alone, without effort, can only lead to an ordinary life, no matter how extraordinary it may be.

In his mage cultivation as well, Roland’s tri-element magic power and spiritual force had grown significantly. Under their influence, the spatial energy gathered within that special meridian had been compressed a little further, yet there was still no sign of a spatial seed forming. That left Roland somewhat depressed.

Aside from this, Roland also managed to carve out some spare time to continually refine Tyrant Blood battle qi from his blood, storing it in his lower dantian. As this battle qi accumulated bit by bit, Roland could feel himself steadily approaching the threshold of a fourth-level martial master.

At Roland’s home in Posan Town:

Mother, the Martial God Festival is almost here. Do you think my brother will come back this year? Hawke, seated in his wheelchair, still stared out the window as he spoke, coughing again and again between words.

Looking at her youngest son, who was growing thinner by the day, and at the vacant eyes worn down by illness, Isa nearly broke into tears. Ever since Hawke first fell ill the year before last, the church had managed to stabilize his condition through treatment, but from that time on his body had only declined further and further. She had sensed that something was wrong, and after pressing her husband Gejil hard one day, she finally learned the truth from him: Hawke had only a few years left to live.

She did not know how many times she had cried in secret. Yet when facing Hawke, she still had to pretend she knew nothing, smiling and coaxing her child. In less than two years, several lines of weariness had already appeared on her once unlined face.

During this time, Hawke spoke of his brother most often. When Roland was at home, it had usually been him pushing his younger brother around Posan Town for fresh air and keeping him company with conversation. Now that two full years had passed without his brother returning, the little boy missed him terribly.

Do not worry. Your brother is likely to come back this year, Isa comforted him.

What if he still does not come back this year? Hawke asked, tilting his small head, a trace of inquiry in his dim eyes.

Looking at her pitiful youngest son, Isa hesitated for a moment before saying, If your brother still does not come home for the year-end holiday, then your father and I will take you to the academy to find him.

Because Roland had previously told Karina not to mention his trip to the Maya Mountains to his family, saying only that he was cultivating at the academy, Gejil and his wife had been quite surprised that he had not returned at the end of last year.

Amid the excitement and tension of the students at Potter Academy as they prepared for battle, time slipped quietly by. On this evening, the four of Dormitory 2015 and Karina were planning a dinner together, since tomorrow would be the day of the class tournament, and once it was over, the holiday would begin.

After the tournament ended, I can go home. Two years have flashed by... Hawke, Father, Mother, how are you all? Roland was already imagining the blissful moment of returning to the side of his family. Yet he had no way of knowing that an unexpected incident was about to throw all his plans into chaos.