After leaving the disciplinary hall, Max returned to his dorm room, where Anna and Amara were waiting for him.
"All ready?" He asked.
"Yes. Let's go." Anaa nodded. Max looked at her in surprise because she didn't ask why he wanted to leave the academy, etc. A moment later, however, he realised Amara must have explained the reason to her.
He gave Amara a nod, which made the girl smile. He then led them toward the transportation area.
When they arrived at the transportation area, the three men that had tried to stop Max in the disciplinary hall blocked them.
"You really don't value your life, do you?" A cold light flashed in Max's eyes as he glared at them.
The three shuddered under his gaze, then one of them hurried to say, "W-We don't want to f-fight you. However, you aren't allowed to use transportation eagles."
Whoosh!
"What if I insist?" Max took a step forward, releasing his aura that he couldn't properly yet.
"If you don't want a few peak three-star mages to hunt you down, you shouldn't insist." One of the three gathered his courage and spoke up.
"Oh?" Max raised his brow. Although he had killed two three-star mages, one of which was a high-stage three-star mage even, he knew if he wasn't actually a match for one let alone a peak three-star mage.
Anna pulled his sleeve and said, "Little Max, let's go. With your current strength, we won't face much danger even if we go down through the mountain."
Although she didn't know what he had done that the academy wasn't allowing them transportation, she knew it wasn't worth offending it.
If she knew he had thoroughly offended the academy already, she wouldn't have such thoughts.
"Alright." Max nodded and walked toward the academy's exit.
Seeing him walking away without causing much trouble, the three disciplinary hall Elders sighed in relief.
As they walked toward the academy gate, Amara had a displeased expression on her beautiful face as she said,
"Master, we should've taught them a lesson and took that eagle. How dare they stop us? As for those peak three-star mages, you know they won't be able to catch up to us if I trans…"
Before she could say 'transform', Max interrupted her. "I know that, but did you forget where we are? Here, you can't do whatever you want. There will be a time when you won't have to hide, but it's not now."
He then glanced at the academy gate that was only half a mile away and muttered, "I'm sure they have something planned for me. Let's see what exactly it is."
'System, what's the price for a grade four offensive talisman?' He asked the system in his mind.
[The price differs according to their element and sub tier. The cheapest grade four talisman is priced at 500 SPs.]
'500 SPs?' Max raised his brows and then asked, "What's the price of the most expensive grade four offensive talisman?"
[It's 2000, host.]
'How come it's more expensive than a teleportation crystal?' Max asked, surprised.
Although the teleportation talisman wasn't assigned any grade, based on its usefulness, he guessed it should be graded as grade six or higher. But now, a grade four talisman was more expensive than it. This didn't make sense.
[It isn't, host. The actual price of the teleportation crystal is 5000 SPs. Host got them at a discounted price previously.]
'Discounted price? Then why don't you give me a discount now?'
[The system can't interfere with the shop function host.]
His brows furrowed at this and he asked, 'Why? Isn't it your part?'
In response came the infuriating answer.
[Host isn't qualified to know yet.]
'Fuck!' Max couldn't help but curse upon hearing this.
"What happened, little Max?" Anna asked when she saw his expression changing.
"No. It's nothing." Max smiled and then asked to the system, 'How powerful the talisman worth 500 SPs is?'
[Based on the current standards of this world, it should be enough to kill any early-stage four-star mage. Even the mid-stage mage would be injured if taken off guard.]
'Alright then. Be ready to buy at a moment's notice.' Max said. If there wasn't any need, he didn't want to spend his valuable SPs.
[Understood, host.]
…
A short while later, the trio reached the academy gates.
"Stay alert." Max warned them and then stepped out. Anna and Amara followed him.
Whoosh!
Suddenly, a wave of mana enveloped them and started dragging them away from the academy gates.
'System, hurry and buy two offensive and two defensive talismans quick.' Max hurriedly shouted in his mind.
[Ding! Purchase successful! The items have been added to the inventory.]
Wasting no time, he took out one of the defensive talismans and activated it.
Whoosh!
A wave of mana, several times stronger than the one that was forcibly bringing them away, enveloped him and destroyed the pulling mana.
Boom!
As soon as he regained the control over his body, he released his mana at full force and hurriedly conjured up two barriers around Anna and Amara.
Unfortunately, these barriers weren't strong enough to resist the hostile mana that was at the absolute peak of the three-star realm and had Earth elemental mana mixed in. So, they shattered within a second.
However, this spilt second was enough for Amara to come to her senses. Despite her master's warning just a moment ago, she fell into this trap and this made her anger erupt out like a volcano.
Boom!
Her blood-coloured energy burst forth from her body, and shattered the hostile mana into pieces. But because she was enraged, she couldn't control her bloodline energy completely and wisps of her black demonic energy started to seep into it.
'Fuck!' Max cursed when he saw this and hurriedly shouted, "Amara, stop!"
Hearing his call, she came to her senses and quickly retracted her energy.
Unfortunately, the enemy seemed to have noticed something unusual as a male voice sounded out:
"Hm? What was that ominous energy?"
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Following the voice, a middle-aged man in golden robes and a woman, who had violet hair and wore a violet dress, appeared in front of them.
The duo was none other than Jack Dalton's parents.
