Alex was quite surprised when he heard that.
Hadn't the God said that Alex should spend more time in the wilderness? As far as Alex could recall, the God had said that Alex should remain in the wilderness for about two years.
Had Alex progressed that quickly?
Alex's ego wanted to accept that reasoning, but he refused to underestimate a God.
The God probably wanted Alex to gain even more experience in combat.
However, Alex honestly didn't want to spend even more time in the wilderness.
He wanted to live among humans again!
"How can I get to this academy?" Alex asked.
"Go towards the eastern end of the garden. You will find a service entrance there. That entrance is for the keepers and the gardeners, and it has a couple of guards stationed there. When you leave the garden, you will quickly find a bigger village. Ask around for directions to Warrior's Paradise. That's a city, and when you get there, it will be easy to find the academy," Duke Whirlwind said as he took out a piece of paper and a pen.
Then, Duke Whirlwind started scribbling on the piece of paper and put his thumb on the bottom of the paper.
A second later, he gave Alex the piece of paper.
"Show that to the guards at the service entrance. The guards will confiscate it and destroy it according to protocol, so don't be worried. You can leave after that," Duke Whirlwind said.
Alex looked at the paper.
Scribbles.
Alex couldn't discern anything on the paper, and he started to panic a bit.
'Wait, so I can understand and speak the language of this world, but I can't read it? Do I actually have to learn to read again?!' Alex thought.
Duke Whirlwind looked at Alex's face in confusion, but he chuckled a bit later.
"It's written in code," Duke Whirlwind said. "You can't read it."
"Oh!" Alex shouted in relief.
After releasing a sigh, Alex bowed politely to Duke Whirlwind. "Thank you for your kindness, sir. Also, I am sorry for the damage I have done to your garden while living here. When I have money, I will repay everything."
Duke Whirlwind waved dismissively. "You can't eat and kill enough to do any form of damage to my garden. Additionally, you said you exchanged food for the Earth Fruit Hedgehog's fruits. That's usually the job of the keepers of this area. After all, the Earth Fruit Hedgehog needs to expend a lot of Mana to create its Mana Source. In a way, you actually worked for me."
"You don't need to repay me for anything," Duke Whirlwind said.
"Thank you, sir," Alex said.
However, he now felt even guiltier.
Sure, the duke might not care about the small things, but Alex had also taken the Ice Mana Source. Additionally, without Alex, the Old Ice Octopus would still be alive.
'I'll find out the cost of a Pure Ice Mana Source in the future and repay the duke according to its market value,' Alex thought.
"Then, I will see you in the future, Shang," Duke Whirlwind said. "I visit the academy occasionally. I'm certain we will see each other again."
Alex bowed again. "Yes, and thank you again for your kindness. It means a lot to me, and I won't forget it. I'm looking forward to seeing you again!"
Duke Whirlwind nodded and started on reciting another spell.
It was that very long spell from earlier again.
After a couple of seconds, Duke Whirlwind flew away from Alex and vanished into the mountains.
Alex looked at the sky for a while, just imagining how it would be like to fly.
Would he ever be able to fly?
Would he ever reach such a level of power?
He wasn't sure.
Then, Alex looked at the piece of paper in his right hand.
"This is my ticket to human society," he said to himself.
'The God has really placed me at the perfect location. I remember that he said that there was one human in the world that reached the Fourth Realm, and Duke Whirlwind said that the most powerful physical fighter of the world was in his territory.'
'They are probably talking about the same person.'
Alex looked towards the east.
'I wonder what kind of person that man is. Why did he create an academy? Is it a way to make money to fuel his own desire for more power? Is it a way to amass a loyal following of powerful people? Is it to disseminate his knowledge of becoming more powerful via a physical path to more people?'
'Is he old? Is he young?'
Alex thought about this person for a while. After all, this person represented the current peak of the physical path.
Eventually, Alex left and traveled to the east.
It only took him about an hour to find the place Duke Whirlwind had been talking about.
Between the mountains, Alex saw a high but narrow gate. It was barely three meters wide but over 30 meters high. However, it perfectly filled out the gap in the mountains.
"Halt!"
A voice came from the top of the gate, and Alex looked up.
Alex saw three people with drawn bows pointed at him.
Alex became a bit nervous, but he was pretty sure that Duke Whirlwind hadn't directed him to a death trap.
"Who are you?! Why are you here?!" one of the guards shouted from a distance.
Alex slowly extended his arm into the air to show the note.
"Duke Whirlwind has told me to come here! I just talked to him an hour ago, and he told me that I could leave via this service entrance!" Alex shouted.
The guards squinted their eyes and looked at the note.
A normal human wouldn't be able to read such a tiny note from a distance of 200 meters, but these guards weren't normal humans.
The guards talked amongst themselves for a couple of seconds.
pᴀɴdᴀ nᴏveʟ "Approach the gate at a normal pace! Don't go for your sword, or you will be riddled with holes!" one of the guards shouted.
"Okay!" Alex shouted back.
Then, Alex walked forward, his hands still in the air.
"Halt!"
Alex stopped.
He was now about 30 meters away from the gate.
Suddenly, one of the soldiers jumped down from the top of the gate.
The soldier fell for a couple of seconds until he hit the ground with a loud impact.
Then, the soldier stood up like nothing had happened.
Alex was quite impressed.
'30 meters are quite an impressive height. I can survive such a fall, but I would need to land correctly with my legs. Still, I would at least feel a bit uncomfortable.'
Alex knew what he was talking about. In a sense, Alex was the supreme authority when it came to jumping and falling from high places.
Alex was pretty sure that the guy in front of him had a more powerful body than him.
Alex could see the guard now. The guard wore simple metal armor, and he carried a sword and a shield with him.
His equipment didn't really look special, but Alex wouldn't underestimate a soldier.
Alex was very good at fighting against beasts, but he hadn't fought another human in this world yet.
Alex had fought humans in his past life, but that was in MMA matches.
Fighting with a weapon was very different.
"Don't make any sudden moves!" the guard ordered as he walked closer.
"I only want to exit," Alex said.
The guard came closer.
"Lower your arm and hand me the note," the guard ordered.
Alex did just that, and the guard took the note.
The guard brought the note to the gate.
A tiny panel moved to the side, showing a pair of eyes with glasses on them.
The guard held the note to the pair of eyes.
The glasses started to shine in complex runes, and the eyes passed over the note.
After that, the guard and the person behind the gate talked for a bit.
Some seconds later, the guard took out a piece of flint from the side of his armor and rubbed it firmly on his metal glove.
The note quickly started catching fire and completely burned away in two seconds.
This was obviously special paper.
Then, the guard turned around and looked at Alex.
"Name!" he ordered.
"Shang," Alex answered.
"Full name!"
"Just Shang!"
The guard turned to the gate again.
"Open the gate. He can pass," he said.
The atmosphere relaxed as all the tension vanished.
The guard turned around as the gate behind him slowly lifted.
"Welcome to Green Wind County!"