AN: Hey everyone, this lazy author here → :D is happy to present you chapter 33, the first chapter of the academy arc. Enjoy.

PR by Zenla, the royal proofreader

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We were advancing on the road at a good pace. I was stretched out on the foldable bed on the cart, Kerrina was next to me, her head resting on my chest, while Muriem was driving. We were on our way toward Tristam City, and we would reach it within around 4 hours. It was the last day of a 5 days trip, the sun was still high in the sky. The weather was a little cloudy and a cold wind was blowing, however the cart was covered and we had a blanket while Muriem had a winter coat on and gloves. As for Komodo, the cold wasn't much trouble for him anymore.

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With the malchyte ore alone we had gathered more money than we planned, and at the end of the year we had saved a little more than 5 gold coins from hunting monsters and searching small ore deposits. During winter I was considering buying a good cart and a mule, but the idea was cast aside 2 months ago. While hunting, we encountered a young bear monster, 3m tall, powerfull, with thick fur and hide. His speed was almost on par with us, and his strengh was above.

Unfortunatly for him, we are not the kind to attack the body when we know the opponent is very resilient, and an opponent that only charge ahead is easy to counter. The girls distracted it, I trapped it with a pit, Komodo restrained him with his own charge and I used the opening to use a powerful flame wave on his head, burning his eyes and his lungs. I let Komodo eat his magic core, and shortly after he passed out.

We were worried but I held the girls away from him. I could feel the magic in him go wild, and I knew he was about to evolve. He was squirmming around as the magic was altering his body. He slowly grew through several hours, and got a lot thinner. When his condition stabilised, he was about 165cm tall and 5m long. His scales went from dark grey and black to dark brown and green with thin dark blue paterns. After waking up he ate the body of the bear monster and left nothing behind.

After ranking up he ate a lot and got stronger. We were all a little anxious because it was obvious he had become a lot stronger than before, and I doubted I would be able to defeat him if he got aggressive. Thankfuly he stayed the same obedient serran from before, but a little smarter. The best part was his new size and strenght. Serrans are predators that can track a prey on a long distance for a long time, they have great stamina, but this one was now strong enough to pull a heavy horse-drawn coach. He had become a great mount.

Since I got a really good mount I decided to get myself a nice cart to go with it. A custom made one. I had a cartwright from Lazaris make the main parts and deliver it to Argot. I added coil springs with schock absorbers inspired from modern techniques. They were still crudes but much more efficient than the leaf springs used in this world. It took me a month and half to make decent ones. They were hidden from view with leather cover, I didn't want anybody to rip the profit before me.

The foldable bed inside is inspired from the sofa beds from my previous world, the 2 padded seats of the cart can turn into a bed. We no longer need to carry tents while traveling, we could sleep in the cart. There is room under the seats for the backpacks. The steering mechanism is a little more advanced than the usual one made for carts and chariots, and there is also a harness under the cart for Komodo's tail, I didn't want it to be in the way when we had to change directions.

That custom cart was a good experiment for making higher quality means of transportation, though it did cost around 15 silver coins, almost 3 times the price of an ordinary cart. As I intend to travel around the world, I've often been thinking of how. I didn't want to solely rely on others, so I started thinking of making my own, transportation by land, sea, and maybe air in the future.

This cart is purely mechanical, I haven't been able to properly think about magical means of transportations as I didn't know enough about magic. That problem will be resolved shortly, I will be able to test more devices on the cart, and the succesful ones won't be hard to sell since the capital is full of traders and nobles. I may even be able to sell something to the royalty, but let's leave such thoughts for later.

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We left Argot on the 5th of Meldia so we could have a few days to spare at the capital before the entrance exams. The life in the capital will be different from the life in Argot. For me, who has been in several capitals in my previous life, both in developed countries and third world countries, it wouldn't be a problem, but for those 2 girls who spent all their lives in small villages it would be a bit overwhelming. They will have 5 days before and after the entrance exams to get used to it. I thought that more than that would get on their nerves, and right around exam time.

It was also to have time to check out the different properties available for rent. There are basically 3 types of houses one can rent: cottages, craftman houses, and merchant's houses. Of course, for just the 3 of us, a merchant house is out of question. But for one who is a disciple in both alchemy and blacksmithing, and who would test new products, a craftman's house wouldn't be a bad idea. The rent would be around 25 silver coins per year, but I would be able to conduct smithing and alchemy experiments in peace. I could also use the academy equipment, but I would lose the privacy and secrecy.

It was very important as I started several projects in alchemy during the last year. Soap is already wide-spread even in the most remote villages so I didn't bother with that. However I already made some low quality deodorant with sodium bicarbonate, some other kind of salt and perfume. I also started working on toothpaste as I know its principale ingredient is fluorine, the product used for oral hygien in this world is not the best as you could imagine. New cosmetics products improving hygiene would be terribly popular in the capital, the secrets of their making should be well kept.

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Shortly after noon, we reached the edge of a small plateau with a gentle slope leding downward, and from there we got a wonderful view of the place where the capital laid. In front of us was a great grassy plain with several fields and houses here and there, and in the middle of it was a big river. Tristam City was on a wide and elongated piece of land cutting the river in 2, a little like Manhattan in the middle of Hudson river, but bigger, and the city had started to expand on the other sides of the river. The river, with it's clear cyan colour, was named Animay, and was one of the 5 biggest rivers of Zanitras.

Even though it was surrounded by water, the city still had high white walls, and entry was posssible only through several larges bridges. At the center of the city, there was a small hill and on top was the royal palace. Around 5 km away from the city, on another small hill, we could barely make out a group of buildings surrounded by a wall, which was probably Lana Academy. It was halfway between the capital and a nearby forest. We slowly advanced toward the place where we would spend the next few years of our life.

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AN: The last 18 hours or so the quality of my internet connexion was between "not too bad" and "absolutely horrible". At worst it would take me as much as 15 min to have the traduction of 1 word with reverso or get the results of a search on google... So you can imagine my mood during that time. Almost made a laptop flip at some point, which would have been disastrous...

Now that I think about it, someone had commented before in a joking tone that Aenthar would become a running wizard :)… With the razorbaks and the underground monsters, he had become a running wizard :D