Chapter 210: Gifts. Going to the capital.

After that evening, Alex didn’t go out to farm exp anymore and continued to stay in the city and live like an ordinary teenager.He helped out at the shop during the day and helped his sister and Alicia to study during the evening after returning.

He would sometimes go on missions with members of the Rising Wave group; they accepted missions within and outside Balon City. Since Alex had almost wiped out all of the magic beasts in a million-kilometre radius around Balon City, most of the raids the explorer groups went on were unfruitful; they usually returned empty-handed.

Alex understood that it would take time for new magic beasts to migrate over and occupy the space of the ones he had killed, so he stopped going out to farm exp.

He didn’t want to affect Balon City’s major market too much as that would affect his father’s shop as well.

Nothing eventful happened for the following months and Alex didn’t appear as Mr Chen even once. To Clint and the people of Balon City, it was as if Mr Chen had vanished or gone back to where he used to be.

In the blink of an eye, some months passed, and it was the New Year celebration in a week.

Alex wasn’t too surprised to see that people in this world also celebrated the new year, he felt it was something normal and should be celebrated everywhere.

After all, not everyone was lucky enough to live through the previous year so people who did should be thankful to see a new one.

The New Year celebration was a big thing in Balon City, and everyone in the city prepared for it.

A week later, it was hard to distinguish between day and night for a couple of days in Balon City.

Of course, this was only in regard to the festive celebrations that took place both during the day and night.

The sun still went down at night, so you get the idea.

Alex’s family also participated in the celebration. Zoran’s old friends came to visit their home with their families and Freda had prepared a variety of dishes that were served to everyone.

Since their new home was big enough, they had no problems hosting everyone.

Alex enjoyed this period but still remained vigilant, one could never tell if the Dark Union would suddenly pull one of their dirty moves while everyone was busy celebrating.

Luckily, such a thing did not happen.

The New Year celebration was a new thing for Alicia. As a magic beast, although she was hundreds of years old, she didn’t know much about human culture.

After all, to their species, she was still considered young.

She had fun along with Emily and the kids from other families.

Alex didn’t know where the windrend found alcohol but he did find out that her alcohol tolerance was incredibly weak to the point that she was spouting bullshit up and down, even exposing some of her beast features!

Luckily, Alex was there to quickly bring her away and not cause a scene.

From that day, Alex forbade her from ever taking even a sip of alcohol; it could cause a disaster if he wasn’t around.

Although Alicia felt resentful towards Alex, she had no other choice but to obey.

The pain from having her Core attacked by lightning was still very fresh in her memory.

The week passed slowly and it was soon time for people to return to their usual way of living.

As it was the first month of the new year, Alex didn’t forget that it was when the admission for the Brandvel Magic University would be taking place.

He reminded Zoran and they quickly made preparations to set off. The capital was very far from Balon City and Zoran wanted to take Alex there personally.

They even had thoughts of bringing the entire family but there wasn’t a need for that when it was just an admission and not something everyone could watch.

Some time after working life resumed in Balon City, Alex and Zoran got into the car while Freda and the two girls waved them off while standing in front of their mansion.

Alex’s clothes had been packed and placed in the back of the car, and Freda had also prepared some meals that they could eat on the way for.

Before they left, Alex had strictly instructed Alicia to look after his mother and sister. His mother wasn’t really in danger because of the trinity ring, it was Emily who needed protection the most.

Since they would be managing the shop in Zoran’s absence, Alex said that if anyone should find trouble with them while he was away, she should quickly ’take care’ of them without anyone noticing.

Alicia has no problems ’taking care’ of people, so accepted the order gladly.

Before they left, Mia and the members of the Rising Wave group also came to bid Alex farewell.

As someone who had been to a Magic university, Mia gave Alex some words of advice.

The magic university was a place where all sorts of talents and people gathered, competition was fierce and one could easily offend someone with a big background without knowing.

She advised Alex to focus on his studies and avoid interacting with others too much, it was best to be on his own and be noticed by instructors.

After her words of advice, she passed her last gift to Alex.

It was a grade two magic item, a bronze body armour.

Alex stared at the magic item that was only meant to protect one’s upper body up to one’s neck, it could block a bow from a mutated rank magic beast or a spell from an Expert mage as a grade two magic item.

He knew it must have cost Mia quite a sum; he really wished she hadn’t bothered.

This sort of item was of no use to him. But since it was a gesture of kindness, Alex couldn’t refuse it and had to accept it with thanks.

He would think of what to do with it later.

However, it appeared that Mia’s gift was not the end of it. Other members of the group had also gotten items for Alex to prepare him for the magic university.

Even Selena had gotten him something!

Alex "..."

He felt bad for them; they were wasting their hard-earned money on stuff that he didn’t really need. But he still accepted everything with a grateful look, he would make sure to repay them in the future.

There was one more person who came just before Alex and Zoran could leave.

It was the Dean of Alex’s magic academy!

The old man said a few words before also giving Alex some items, which included spell books and two magic items.

One for movements and another for defence.

They were both grade 3 magic items.

Alex accepted everything and said thanks to the old man, only then did he and Zoran drive off.

The journey to the capital finally started!

Sitting in the front seat with Zoran, Alex rested his cheek on his right knuckles as he stared outside through the window, in thought.

Recalling Mia’s words, he couldn’t help but wonder what the woman’s experience in the magic university had been to make her say such a thing and why she was expelled.

Maybe she messed with someone with a more powerful background and the magic university had to send her away?

Whatever, he wasn’t really interested in mingling with other students.

He was going there to learn more about magic and this world!