Even with his transaction completed, Alexander didn't rest upon leaving the blacksmiths' association. On the contrary, he pushed his body a bit more and began clearing the beginner dungeons of Iron Hammer City to gain more growth points and free attribute points.

  It took Alexander less time than he expected to go through all the beginner dungeons. This wasn’t due to overwhelming power, but simply because he could only clear 3 of them.

  The others were unavailable because they were in respawn time or were already occupied by other adventurers.

  Frustrated at not being able to make the most of his free afternoon, Alexander went to bed to rest and adjust his plans.

  After readjusting his plan, Alexander finally went to sleep. But he didn't need to sleep as much as the others to recover, because his recovery rate was much higher than theirs.

  His recovery rate was so high that he still managed to wake up in time to eat the dinner offered by the Guild and pick up Ocean, who was under Diana's care.

  With nothing to do after eating, Alexander returned to his room to review his plans and practice his |Energy Control| and |Great Mana Control| skills, as he did whenever he had the opportunity.

  Although this was energy training, it still brought him other benefits, such as increasing Alexander's resistance to sleep and mental fatigue.

  The benefits of this training weren't limited to "tangible" gains. It also provided him with better quality sleep, because spending his energy to train prevented him from sleeping with his body full of it.

  After practicing a lot with his skills, Alexander began to feel sleepy. But just as he was thinking about stopping to go to bed, he felt his skill was about to level up.

  With this new boost in his spirits, Alexander forced himself to stay awake and practiced until his skill increased in level.

  Ding!

  [|Energy Control| evolved to |Great Energy Control|]

  Ding!

  [You acquired the proficiency skill |Energy Modulation|]

  *[|Energy Modulation|: Enables materializing and/or firing one's own energy outside the body by giving it a characteristic. Capacity: 20 energy. Cost: MP. But the amount depends on how the skill is used.]*

  Satisfied with himself for the fruits of his efforts, Alexander relaxed and went to sleep. After all, celebrating small victories is also important.

  After a good night's sleep, Alexander and Ocean returned to their best condition and began to prepare.

  When the others appeared at the meeting point, they had already been there for some time.

  While waiting for the others, Alexander took the opportunity to test his |Energy Modulation| skill and was happy with the result.

  Ever since he saw Jason launching energy strikes, he had always wanted to be able to do the same.

  While Alexander was lost in his reveries, his companions arrived one by one.

  As soon as everyone arrived, Stella brought him back to reality: "Alexander?!"

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  "Huh? Oh, yes. Good morning to you all," replied Alexander, before recomposing himself and presenting his idea.

  "I've formulated a plan of action. Since I have no interest in leading this group, and even less in receiving illogical orders, I believe we should make the most important decisions through voting," explained Alexander.

  "I agree," said Mark, surprising everyone.

  Mark's quick acceptance made everything progress very quickly, and soon they began "voting" on the important points of the action plan.

  However, all this was just a tactic by Alexander to give them some sense of control, so he could get his objectives accepted faster.

  "The last point, which is not subject to voting, is that each person chooses their own place to sleep," said Alexander.

  "We're relatively close to Stellar Forest, but this should also be the last city before it. You must decide if you're going to camp in the forest or not," explained Alexander. "I myself will sleep there, as I find it more practical."

  This point caught his "ordinary" companions by surprise.

  Although it was normal for adventurers to sleep outdoors with their team, if necessary to complete a mission, their team was made up of students.

  Camping in the forest, especially with people outside the family and of the opposite sex, wasn't a suitable and much less familiar scenario for them.

  After considering their options, Stella asked: "Is this really necessary? Can't we just go into the forest, hunt some creature, and return to the academy?"

  Alexander just shrugged. "Of course that's possible. You just need to not worry about losing the event in a shameful way… or dying."

  "I don't know about the others, but your brother's team certainly has enough power to hunt a creature at the beginning of the 2nd evolution," he assured, since Jason hadn't been at a disadvantage against him, an almost 2nd evolution creature.

  "The key point of this event isn't having great combat power, it's having good balance," he explained. "Any team that tries to complete it carelessly, especially being in Stellar Forest, is courting death."

  Alexander gave them time to assimilate his words, but what he got in return were faces filled with enormous doubt.

  Not knowing what else to do with these people with no sense of survival, Alexander slowly explained:

  1st: "Your horses will be practically useless in the denser parts of the forest. Unless you want to collide with the trees and/or have them throw you off by breaking one of their legs on the uneven terrain."

  2nd: "Forget any hunts you've done with your families before, because this time you won't have anyone to protect you. This is their territory, not yours."

  3rd: "Everything, and absolutely everything, you do may attract creatures to attack us. Therefore, always be on guard."

  4th: "Even the outermost part of Stellar Forest can contain creatures that will make any escape attempt impossible for you, so don't kill the creatures unless it's absolutely necessary. Their blood may attract predators stronger than them."

  The members of Alexander's group only realized the true dimension of the dilemma the academy imposed to test the team's determination and adaptability when Alexander listed some of the difficulties.

  "Wait a moment. What do you mean by 'will make any escape attempt impossible for YOU'?" asked Mark.

  "Yes. You," said Alexander, without a hint of emotion. "I should be able to survive. At least I'll survive longer than you."

  "Having said that, it's good to put on record that I don’t intend to abandon you without good reason," informed Alexander. However, any weight his words lifted from their shoulders returned twofold when he added: "But you must always remember that if any creature at the peak of the 2nd evolution or above appears, Ocean won't need to be faster than it, just faster than you."

  The atmosphere in the group became heavy after those last words. To make matters worse, they couldn't find words to condemn Alexander for having said upfront he would do the obvious.

  This way of speaking is questionable in any team, as it inspires panic, fear, and desertion, but Alexander wasn't concerned about the consequences of his words, because he didn't expect much from the others.

  From the beginning, he wanted to do everything alone, because being in a team would restrict part of his power.

  To his dismay, no one gave up. They just became gloomier and went to prepare.

  While they were preparing, Alexander, already ready, cleared the remaining beginner dungeons.

  During the dungeon clears, Alexander used |Energy Modulation| to launch energy attacks. But performing such a feat satisfactorily proved to be quite challenging.

  Launching energy attacks similar to Hadouken or Kamehameha was still beyond his reach.

  The most Alexander managed to do was turn close-combat skills like |Thrust| and |Sweep| into ranged attacks.

  This would be a possibility of great help if the energy-form attack didn't only have about 75% of the skill's power and also weakened gradually when moving more than 2m from where it was launched.

  When Alexander returned to meet with his group, he took them to an {Intermediate Dungeon} so they could become more familiar with the power of creatures in their 2nd evolution, as they had "voted."

  Little did they know that this was just a convenient way for Alexander to use them to clear dungeons in the short time he had.

  Alexander just didn't expect to fail so miserably in estimating the human factor.

  Everything he thought could be bad ended up being even worse.

  If someone saw his team and had to describe it in a single word, the word would undoubtedly be disharmony.