March quickly flew by as the school years continued, with the routine of going to school, then going to meditate, and then back home.
Unfortunately for Alex, Meiya stopped training him just as the month ended, citing that there was nothing else she could teach him.
He had learned every single possible sword style he could, with all the other ones blocked off from him due to having no Qi.
As she best put it, he had reached the peak of what a person with a sword could do.
Still, he continued going over to their house and offered to cook for them just to watch Meiya and Luqing train alongside each other.
When he saw them fighting with their full-blown strength for the first time, Alex quickly realized they were just playing with him.
Or at least holding back extremely hard as their battles were flat-out Qi bombardment against each other.
But unlike the Qi he used, most of their Qi weren't invisible.
Instead, there was a clear color launching at each other, almost like mages throwing spells at each other in the distance.
The only difference to a mage was the speed, as he couldn't tell how fast the two were going at their running speed.
At the same time, Alex finally learned the cultivator has their defensive tool, with their inner Qi barriers appearing when something hits them.
Of course, Meiya didn't use any of the Qi techniques mentioned, as only Luqing was forced to use her Qi to the fullest to fight back.
When the two finished fighting one day, Alex curiously asked why they had not used any of these abilities in the competition back in Regina.
The logical explanation he was given was, "They simply don't have any Qi in the competition."
It made Alex even more curious as he went over to Sarah one night and asked her about it.
He soon realized Sarah's creation ability wasn't as strong as it looked, as it couldn't replicate what a cultivator could do.
At the same time, his brain quickly realized how stupid he was to think that a mage could replicate another system of energy.
Besides that, the only other thing that happened in March was the house renovation.
Since all three of the houses were neck and neck, Katherine had gone out of her way to demolish the fences around all three houses.
Then, she added a hallway to connect them, cutting the walking distance from twenty steps to just five steps.
Other than connecting the house, she quickly demolished most parts of the house on the left and rebuilt it into several bedrooms for guests.
With all three of their yards connected, they now had a massive, empty grass field that had nothing.
To all three kids' surprise, Katherine flat-out brought an entire training station and installed it in the empty backyard.
From gym equipment all the way to individual meditation rooms, there was almost everything a mage needed.
All Alex could think of was... "Man, being a duchess really does give a lot of money."
Although their houses were now connected, it also meant Alex was back to cooking breakfast early in the morning for all five of them.
Fortunately, Katherine eventually realized the burnout Alex felt and eventually stopped him from cooking breakfast.
The duty eventually fell back into her hands, and Luqing occasionally cooked when Katherine didn't wake up in time.
With April less than a week away, an upcoming spring break was approaching.
"Hm? I was just thinking about what Miss Amy taught us in class today... What were you guys saying again?"
"We were just talking about going on a camping trip for the spring break. We're just deciding where to go."
"I don't mind going anywhere."
Alex quickly gave up his opportunity to talk and shifted his attention to finishing dinner first.
"How about we go to Thalorim?" Sophia suggested.
"Not again. We have been going there every weekend." Mary complained, looking a little bored from the endless meditations.
"We can't go to Thalorim again for the next few months... Spring is usually where the tree stores its energy."
Sophia immediately looked a little disappointed hearing Katherine's answer, but Mary looked a little relieved.
"How about just somewhere fun? Spring break is supposed to be a break, right?" Meiya chimed in.
"Yeah, spring break is supposed to be a break, not work!" Mary quickly voiced her support.
Seeing Sophia's wish to continue advancing her mage level being shut down, Katherine's next word ended the debate.
"Then we'll just go somewhere fun... Luqing, do you have any ideas?" Katherine asked as the table's attention turned towards her.
Luqing quickly shook her head before saying the same thing as Alex, giving up her vote.
"Kate, you know where to go the best. How about you give us some options to vote on?" Meiya suggested.
"Hmm... Okay, I can think of five different places that can be pretty fun."
With a snap of a finger, a map and a red dot suddenly appeared on the wall.
"We can go to Thalorim again, but we will climb the mountain to arrive at the well-known dungeon instead."
Katherine murmured as she pointed up North on the map with the red dots.
"What's a dungeon?" Meiya curiously asked.
"It's like where monsters and treasure will appear naturally in a place... Like slimes and most undead creatures."
Meiya slowly nodded, but Mary quickly showed her objection as she didn't want to go somewhere that cold.
"Can we actually go somewhere that's like real spring?" Mary complained.
"Okay, okay. The next place is towards the west side of the capital... Right here in Amberdune."
"Isn't that a desert?" Sophia murmured as she remembered the textbook mentioning it once.
"Yes, it is mostly desert, but there are oases in the deserts that give life to the wide deserts.
I remember I went there when I was at level 3. It was a pretty fun journey for the spring break."
"But it's going to be so hot... That doesn't feel like spring at all." Mary complained.
"Fine, how about Ironpeak in the south? It's just as warm as the capital, and it has a ton of dungeons we can explore.
Most of them are also super beginner-friendly, like the one I brought you guys last time."
Mary didn't complain this time, but Sophia quickly remembered something about it in the textbook.