"It has a been a boring four years. Congratulations everyone. You have passed the blacksmith course. All that is left is the graduation trip, after that we will say good bye."

It was a long four years and like he said, it is boring. For the first two years we were a free labour force to generate money for the academy. It did help us and it was good practice too. I guess its the only way they can get the funds to continue functioning.

They did start us off slow and gradually increasing the difficulty by asking to make a single piece first, then making a standard quality next, and finally asking us to make a bulk order by the end of the school year. It somehow functions well despite the intense smell of a money making scheme.

"Chatterbox, where are we going for the graduation trip? Didn't they contact your family for business?"
"My parents won't tell me. My grade is not that good this school year. I know that I got the academy to be in business with my family but I never thought my family would use it to spy on my studies."
"You redeemed yourself from the first year vacation at the very least."

To be honest, the one who reports how he does to his parents it me. I gain some cash every time I report so it is one of my stable income while studying. The school won't really care enough to supervise a single student just because of one business partner. The school does have connections to a lot of people and its affiliated with the government here.

"I heard we are going to central connecting island. The whole graduating class is going so we will go 50 students at a time."
"50 students? That is one large crowd."
"Ah, don't worry. We will be escorted by 30 combat students. Ten of them will be from the lower year level but each group of 50 will be supervised by 3 teaches so there shouldn't be that much danger. Just in case, don't get separated from the group."

I want to go there but the presence of the hero's son. They won't be looking for me anymore but because of what happened, I have a bad image of that family.

The central island brings a lot of items and materials unavailable here in this continent so going there would definitely overweight my worry but I need to prepare an exit strategy in case things turn bad.

"Do we need to bring anything? or can we even bring anything? I'll feel safer if I can bring more guards, if possible."
"I want to bring some weapons and my armour too. Now that I think about it, I'll buy some bombs from bomb alchemist. Do you want some too?"
"Weapons are possible, you can even bring your tools if you want but I don't think they will allow guards. Sorry chatterbox, 3 bombs for me please and a smoke bomb, brill."
"Ugh, that's too bad. In that case, I'll take 5 bombs and a smoke bomb too."

The central island is the common ground for all the races as of now so everyone gets along on the surface, a shallow surface. However, since it is a common ground, no one rules it and no one can impose their own law. It is basically a lawless land where everyone is trying to take advantage of everyone.

I have never been there and I don't know anyone who personally went there but tales from the tavern and bars paint a pretty bad picture about the place. If what I hear is true, the only thing preventing war is that no one can pass the guardians set by the chuunibyou hero. Of course he is also the one who tasked his descendants to ambush new heroes and collect the blessed leather set, so I don't know how credible the guardians set by that delusional idiot.

"Why are we going to the central island anyway? I would have liked to go to the capital."
"You go there every vacation with your family. Don't you get tired of it?"
"That is when we go to business so I have limited time to look around. We only stay a day and if I want to go somewhere I have to take my siblings and guards. I can never go to where I want."
"I actually don't mind going to the capital too but I hear there is an arena at the central connecting island. I want to experience fighting the other races."
"The central island sounds like a good place to find exotic food but I don't know if the danger is worth it. It also seems like a good place to scout out the weapons and armour of other races."

I just hope it isn't hero burger and the like. I do miss soda but I can do without it. I just want the different weapons of each race so I can prepare when I make them in the future, especially when I get reborn again into a different race. I need to be prepared for the different scenario that might come up.

"So how much for the bombs? I don't have much, I already spent this years 'friends' money."
"10 silver for a normal one and 5 silver for smoke bombs."
"Don't call it 'friends' money!! Also, stop taking money from my parents!"
"So are you going to buy chatterbox?"
"I will, of course! I can just ask my parents for some protection money for the trip."
"It got more expensive this time. Any chance you can ask him for some discount?"
"We have a purely experiment only relationship. Business is a different matter."

His bombs got so much better too that it has become challenging to dodge. He is more stealthy too that I have to always be on high guard during the appointed time.

"Also, if he priced it then it should be well worth the price. He never bothers with money since he's from a rich family, he just wants to make bombs. Don't worry, I can guarantee the effectiveness based on our daily experiments."
"It's still too pricey for me so just 2 bombs and a smokescreen for me."
"Then I will take 8 bombs and 3 smoke bombs. It never hurts to have too many after all. Among the three of us, I need all the life saving measures I can get."
"That is because you didn't bother learning how to fight."
"Brill never learned too and he can still take care of himself. I can also do just fine if I have my gadgets. We are part of those who use our brains, we can make do without fighting."
"Brill has the body strength and stamina to defend himself. It is a shame that he doesn't show interest in combat but if necessary he can defend himself. You however, only knows how to throw things at someone isn't the same. If your trick won't work then that is it, at least you should have the stamina to run away."
"You only say that because you can't find a closer sparring partner."
"Of course that it. I have to travel all the way to the army grounds to train! I also have to present a visitors pass every time I go there! To get a visitors pass, I have to go to the office and fill out a form. I have to go through so much just so I can spar every day!"

Yikes! I would have given up after a year of doing that. That takes so much time, so much work and so much people I have to talk to. Why can't the school give a free pass if he does this every day? Well, I guess they do need to be this strict for an army training camp. Even if they are only students at the academy, they are still officially part of the army.

"Ok, I'll go order the bombs now. Victor, find out who will be in the army escort guarding our group. Chatterbox, find out which teacher and which classes will be with us. For supplies and other personal stuff, we each care for our own."
"Alright, I'll drop by the office. I still need to deliver the invoice from my parents so it works out fine."
"It should come up later after our daily combat. I'll find out if we got a troublemaker."

That seems reliable, its a good thing I helped them through class until now. Among the 12 classmates that passed, I can guarantee that I chose the right friends to hang out with. I hope they will show their usefulness in the future too.

Ugh, I hate going to bomb alchemist to order things. He always work in some kind of agreement for our daily experiments. I do get a very nice discount but now I have to be wary of any night attacks. I did limit the explosion to be on the tiny side but it would still be annoying. There is only a couple of weeks until I say goodbye to this academy so I can put up with this much nuisance. At least I earn a silver coin for every failed night attack.

We had a very rough start but considering the result, it was worth it. I got a bunch of money, developed my sense of danger and improved my evasion. He rapidly advanced his bomb, trap and ambush skills, albeit losing money and getting beaten up if my mood is bad. I do get splashed with dirt, mud and leaves from time to time but most of the rough parts is mostly his so it works very well for me.

Oh bright starry sky, my only comfort in a world without television and electronic games. I wonder how much time I can gaze upon you until that bomb alchemist interrupts me.

Since I need to defend against that I should save some mana. I guess I won't be training my mana much today. It's getting harder and harder to waste mana every night. I can't find the book of [Master Element Mastery] anywhere, especially here in the dwarf continent where magic isn't really that well practiced. I mean I do understand since the earth mana is too dense for any other element to be effective against the monsters here and they have resistance against earth magic. Its basically useless here other than portable water, portable cooling, and portable fire.

To drain my mana, I have to keep [Holy Magic] the whole day while boosting it to the limits during the night. Thank goodness I learned how to keep myself from shining like a fog lamp, otherwise not only will I not see the starry sky, I would be a walking flash bang throughout the day. 

*bzzt*

Tch, to think it's an annoying mosquito type bomb. I hope this won't keep me up all night. Its hard to sleep with a buzzing mosquito around. For now I should test how strong the explosion and how mobile it is.

[Wind]

I'll just encapsulate it with wind while creating a chaotic current inside it. I will make it go against the wind and see how it behaves. hmm, actually.

[Wind]

I'll add a strong wind capsule on the outer layer and a weak one inside. This will let me see how strong of an explosive it is. If I feel that the power isn't that strong then I will just sleep it through while keeping a strong holy magic reinforcement. Even if I did get hurt, it will heal if I keep the reinforcement magic.

*boom*

Wow, it really broke through the two barrier. This is his definition of tiny, huh. Well, it really isn't that much compared to the usual stuff but I still need to defend against this. That is one of ten, nine more and I can sleep peacefully. For now I'll take a short nap until the next one comes.

Too bad that I haven't unlocked the 'armour of the gods', otherwise I have another secret weapon. I don't know how far I am but just to be sure, I won't activate it until I can unlock the sealed item in the 'Elder lich king's promise'. 5 million mana is too much of a goal just to use a 500k mana item but I can't afford the penalty. I don't want to test whether or not it would devour my soul if my mana isn't enough.