Gacha Sovereign

The two didn't take too long to find the herbs and after finishing their business they went straight to the Silveria Inn. They rested for tonight and Alex informed Butler Ji what happened earlier. After hearing Alex's entire story, Butler Ji immediately went to the inn Alex mentioned to settle the matter.

Alex went to his room and cultivated right away. While in Alicia's room, the girl's face was getting redder. When she got back, she kept recalling all the embarrassing things she did today. Initially, she was worried sick when Alex didn't come back two days ago and she quickly decided to go here to see what had happened.

After she got to this town, she went to the hunter guild right away because she knew Alex wanted to dive the dungeon and he had to be a hunter to do it. Before she asked someone, she accidentally saw Alex in the hunter guild and she quickly felt relieved. 'What if Alex never came back? What if he dies?' she kept thinking these bad thoughts in her entire journey and her heart was in so much pain.

When she saw Alex, she was so glad the guy was alive and well. She unconsciously went to Alex and hugged him. Without noticing it, she also tackled him in front of everyone. She didn't want to let him go because she was afraid he would go if she released him that time.

Thinking all of these things not only made her feel embarrassed but also tired. She finally fell asleep since she also didn't get enough sleep these two days.

Tomorrow, all of them had decided they would come back to the Capital City. The journey took two days, but it went safely. After arriving at the city, Firia went back to her house so did Alicia. At first, Alicia asked Alex to come back together but he declined it. He told her that he wanted to see his teacher first. They parted ways after that and she didn't forget to send her greetings for the dean.

Alex came back to his room in the dormitory and cultivated. They arrived at the Capital City at night and Alex didn't want to bother his teacher this late. That was why he decided to rest in his room and he would visit the dean tomorrow instead.

When the morning arrived, Alex started his day quickly and went to the dean's workshop after getting ready.

"You brat, are you going to make me work to death here? Look at that pile of ingredients," the dean didn't ask anything about why Alex was two days late. Though he was relieved that Alex came back in safe and good condition.

"I'm...I'm sorry, Teacher. I will immediately refine them."

He refined many pills this month and he had manage to make 32 peak-grade blood and marrow pills, 20 peak-grade bone refining pills, 10 peak-grade blood replenishing pills, 15 peak-grade antidote pills, 11 peak-grade Qi gathering pills, and 5 peak-grade Qi replenishing pills.

Since this month was a vacation period so there were no classes. Alex then continued to refine from morning to night. If he exhausted his Mana, he simply rested for a while to replenish his Mana and started refining again. He was like a pill refining machine, even his teacher always reminded him to take a rest and enjoy his holiday. But Alex shook his head and refused to rest. He blamed himself because he spent too much time in the dungeon so things became a mess like this.

[Peak-grade Blood and Marrow Pill (100%)

Use: Washing the impurities in the body

Limit: 1]

[Peak-grade Bone Refining Pill(100%)

Use: Refine the bone in the body (Diamond)

Limit: 1]

[Peak-grade Blood Replenishing Pill (100%)

Use: Rush metabolism to produce blood

Limit: ->

[Peak-grade Rank 2 Antidote Pill (100%)

Use: Cure any poison from rank 2 monster

Limit: ->

[Peak-grade Qi Gathering Pill (100%)

Use: Helping the user to gather Qi around him (2H)

Limit: 10]

[Peak-grade Qi replenishing pill (100%)

Use: Replenish Qi

Limit: ->

On the last day of holiday, Alex wanted to try refining rank 2 body foundation pill since he already refined all the ingredients. 

He grabbed the ingredients he bought from Maka Town. He tried to refine the first set and he already bought around 30 sets of ingredients.

First time...Failed.

Second time...Failed.

Fifth time...Failed

Tenth time...Succeed.

He looked at the palm size pill and he was so surprised since this was the first time a pill turned into something like this. He tried to check it with the System.

[Body Foundation Pill (FAILED)

Use: Helping one to open the meridians in the body (Take with bath)

Limit: ->

"System, what is this ball size pill and it's said failed."

[The pill was oversize, Host]

"...." Alex pondered a bit, he then thought of something, "Do I have to split it into a few pills instead?"

Alex tried once again.

Eleventh time...Failed.

Fifteenth time...Failed.

At the eighteenth time, Alex almost succeeded and he saw the palm size ball was going to form its shape. Then, he used his Mana to split and he was finally able to split it into twenty pills.

Eighteenth time...Succeed.

Alex was overjoyed and he immediately checked with the System.

[Body Foundation Pill

Use: Helping one to open the meridians in the body (Take with bath)

Limit: 10]

This time, there was no 'failed' description in it. However, he noticed something.

"System, there is no grade for this pill?"

[Host will know later]

"But, you are my Sistem, you should be able to know why this happens. Am I right? I demand the answer from you now!"

[Host will know later]

"..." he was speechless to hear the same answer from the System, "Then, When is that 'later'?"

[After Host reaches Master Alchemist Realm]

"I just managed to reach rank 2 Alchemist, and you said I should reach MASTER ALCHEMIST to know about it? The one above rank 9 alchemist?" he angrily snapped.

[Host, what is the System name?]

"Good-Luck," he answered quickly.

[That's right Host, Good Luck]

"&$*%&*$" he just realized he was being played by his System.

[Love you too, Host]

He took a while to calm down because of this. After he calmed down, he just refined the rest of the ingredients. He managed to make another forty from it.

"Alex, it's already the last day of the holiday. Tomorrow the class will start, you should rest for today."

"Yes, Teacher, I will go back now," before he went back to his room, he turned to the dean, "Teacher, I want to learn a forging from you."

The dean was surprised with Alex's request and he responded, "Alright, just come by tomorrow. But don't make it hinder your alchemy practice."

"Alright, thank you, Teacher," Alex went back feeling satisfied.

When he got back to his room, Alicia was already in the room and she had such puffed cheeks. Alex was confused a bit on why she was like that.

"You didn't come back to the house this month," she complained.

"I'm sorry, Princess," Alex said.

"And you call me 'Princess' again? I told you to call me Alicia."

"Ugh...I'm sorry, Princess."

"Call me, Alicia," she demanded Alex to call her by name.

"I don't think I can do that, Princess. We are now in academy, not in Maka Town. In this academy, many nobles will see me disrespect you if I call you with your name," Alex explained.

"You...Hmph," she looked angrily at Alex, but it seemed that she couldn't persuade Alex in this case.

He looked at the princess who was now so angry at him on the bed. Alex sighed and shook his head. He just went to his sofa to rest a bit. He was now wondering which pill he needed to take. He decided to take a bone refining pill first.

He ate the pill but he didn't feel anything at first. Suddenly, there were cracks sound coming inside his body. Turned out, these were the sound of his bones cracking. There was only one word in his mind 'pain'.

"Aahhh!" Alex screamed in pain.

"Alex!" Alicia, who was so angry a moment ago, suddenly became worried. She never saw Alex in so much pain like this.

"Aahhh!"

Hearing Alex screamed once again, she got out of the bed and moved closer to Alex. She also heard the cracking sound from inside Alex's body. She became pale, "Alex! Alex!" tears start streaming from her eyes.

"Alex! You can call me anything. I won't mind it anymore. Don't be like this, don't punish yourself, please!" she thought that Alex was punishing himself because of the way he called Alicia.

"I...am...Fine...Aahh!...Prin....cess," Alex tried to explain while still in such great pain. After half an hour the pain started to subside, this half hour was hurt for him. It was not only Alex's body that went through such pain, Alicia's heart also hurt to see him like that.

Looking at Alex started to calm down, she said while crying, "Alex, I'm sorry. I won't demand you anymore. Just please, don't hurt yourself like this. I will agree with whatever you want to call me as long as you are well."

Alex moved away from where he was sitting, he knew this was only a misunderstanding. He tried to sweep her tears even though his body still hurt after refining his bone, "Thank you, Princess."

Eventually, he decided to clear the misunderstanding, if not she would feel guilty about this. "But I only take the bone refining pill. The pill refines my bones and I have to go through this process. Breaking and healing again and again to make the bone sturdier."

"And the reason you take the pill is because I was angry, am I right?" she asked timidly.

"No...I already decided to take this pill today. It has nothing to do with you but I'm sorry to make you worry so much."

"Eh...This is not because of me being angry at you?" she awkwardly said.

"No, Princess."

She froze and she thought 'So this is only my misunderstanding?' Alicia was embarrassed and unconsciously hit Alex on the chest with her full power.

"Garh...! My body still hurt," Alex collapsed with the Alicia fist. Though Alicia's punch was not that hard for him to take but his body still hurt all over due to the previous process.

"Hmph, serve you right. How dare you deceive me!" she angrily went back to her bed. Alex could only think, 'When did I even deceive you?'

He wanted to cry but no tears came out of his eyes.

After a while, he decided to take a blood and marrow pill. He sat on the sofa once again and ate the pill. The process took a few minutes and this time Alex didn't need to go through tremendous pain like before. But he suddenly smelled an unpleasant scent. He opened his eyes and looked at his body. His entire body became so black and the smell was even worse than cow's dung.

"Alex! What is this stinky smell?" Alicia immediately looked at Alex because of this smell, but she was surprised when she saw the 'black' Alex. However, the pungent smell was too much and she couldn't even stand it, "Alex, you stink!"

"I... I will go to the bathroom," he hurriedly ran off to the bathroom.

"Haha...Serve you right. How dare you deceive me!" she didn't know what happened to Alex, but she was happy to see Alex's misfortune.

Alex took a while to clean himself in the bathroom and in that time Alicia continued to spout many nonsense. After Alex went out of the bath, she was shocked and her jaw dropped to the ground. She couldn't believe what she saw, it was too magical for her.

The guy who came out from the bathroom was the 'new' Alex. He no longer had his previous skin color which looked pale and unhealthy. It was already replaced with pure white fresh skin. Before, Alex looked unattractive since she had this sunburned and unhealthy skin. But now he became a lot more handsome with his new fresh skin. Alex already transformed himself into a prince just like a worm that became a butterfly. He looked so charming with this new look and Alicia was sure all of the women in the entire kingdom would go crazy for him if they saw the 'new' Alex.

"Princess? Princess? Hello... Princess?" he tried to wake her up from her reverie but to no avail. He kept calling her for another few minutes and then Alicia snapped back to reality.

"Ah...Alex...What...Happened to you?" she stuttered. She still couldn't believe what just happened. Alex looked like an average warrior before he went to the bathroom, but now he became the charming prince.

"I just ate a pill to expel impurities within my body," Alex was still confused, he didn't know what had changed from his body.

"Where are the pills? Hurry up, take it!" she ordered like a tigress.

"I..." Alex was scared and he immediately went to grab his pills. He hurriedly gave the pills to Alicia and said, "These are blood and marrow pills, it will..."

She didn't care about Alex's explanation, she snatched the pill and ate it. She already forgot what happened with Alex after he took the pills. After a few minutes she became like Alex who was 'black and stinky'. Alex wished to have his smartphone to photograph her. Maybe he could blackmail her with it one day. Or maybe not, he thought that would be a terrible idea.

Alicia also realized she became like Alex and her body released a pungent smell. She immediately went to the bathroom to wash herself without saying anything. Alex could only scratch his cheek when he saw how Alicia was acting over these pills.