No bowing. Handshakes are fine, but should I speak first?

Buried deep in his thoughts, Lucius followed Tissette closely behind as they made their way to Ardred's dorm room.

"You okay?" Tissette said after taking a quick look at Lucius. "You look like you're about to hurl."

It's alright. I'm alright. I have been preparing for this for the past three days, haven't I?

Straightfaced, Lucius replied, "Yeah. Everything's cool, Tiz."

"Oh, hey! What was that? Who are you and what have you done with Lucius?" Tissette said before slapping Lucius on the shoulder.

"Ow."

"Glad to see you're ack-milatin' fine here. Alavaria's great isn't it?"

"Acclimating. And yes, it is. The Hall of Tomes are leagues better than the one where I come from."

"H-Hall of—wait, the library? Does it really have to be your priority?" Tissette sighed before she continued with a wide, endearing smile, "Anyways, that's great! Glad to see that you're enjoying yourself!"

Lucius thought about the new things that he experienced and achieved so far. He smiled absently. "I really am. Thank you for bringing me here, Tiz."

Tissette chuckled. "No problemo, Lucy!"

"Hey, wait. I don't think I like that nickname—"

"Tiz, there you are!"

Lucius looked behind and saw Mort who was struggling to keep a bunch of food items and drinks pushed up against his chest.

"Mort? Haven't you guys already started?"

"We couldn't. Ardred ate all the snacks before we got there so I had to go get some. Could you help me with these?"

"Sure." Tissette walked over and helped Mort carry the snacks.

"Oh hey, new guy. You uh, you coming with?"

"Hey, Mort." Lucius nodded before throwing Tissette a deadpan look. "Yes. Apparently, I am."

Mort shifted uncomfortably and leaned over to whisper something to Tissette, much to Lucius's confusion.

Did I say something wrong?

"Oh, it'll be fine. Lucy's no tattletale, y'know. Remember what he did for me when Master Katherine busted into our party?"

Mort appeared thoughtful for a while, then shrugged. "Eh, I agree. You're alright, new guy."

"What's the matter?"

"Well, this rule's not on the academy's rulebook yet since it's recently made, but it's now forbidden to watch lightbox shows in groups after six in the noon ever since a crowd of students went crazy and had a brawl after watching the 101st World Duel Rites Tournament about a month ago. Didn't Tiz tell you all that before inviting you?"

"No. No, she didn't," Lucius said as he looked at Tissette, sighing as he had no choice but to follow the girl who already walked away, leaving him and Mort behind with a bounce on her step.

...

Tissette swung the door open and entered the door with a laugh, startling everyone inside and even Lucius who was standing right behind her.

"We're here!"

"Awesome. Let's hurry up and—" Ardred stopped at the middle of his words and looked at Lucius with a smile. "Hey, man! So, Tiz finally got you, huh."

A bit surprised that the attention of the entire group immediately shifted to him, Lucius smiled wryly and said, "Yeah. She got me."

Surprisingly enough, Althea was the only one who got up from the couch and approached Lucius. "Hello again," she said with a blank expression on her face.

"Hi," Lucius replied with a curt nod. He tried making eye contact with the girl, but he quickly found out that such a daunting feat was impossible. She wasn't even looking his way.

Althea, with her eyes on the ground, nodded back before sitting back down on the couch in front of the lightbox without another word.

"Wait, where's Orlen?" Tissette said, looking around the room with a frown on her face.

"He's not a fan of this show, remember? He said he'd rather train than watch it. Plus, I think he got upset that he lost to me in rock paper scissors again. He's been wanting to watch horror stuff for months now."

"Maybe lose on purpose against him next time, Ardy? It's kinda weird not havin' him here, y'know."

Ardred laughed. "I'm not a prophet, Tiz. It's rock paper scissors!"

"It just isn't fair. You get to pick more shows in watch night than all of us combined," Mort grumbled as he too sat on the couch.

"Hey, you know the rules. You win, you get to pick the show," Ardred shrugged with a smug smirk on his face. "Just go with it, man. I'm the boss of watch night right now."

Mort's eyes narrowed into slits. "And I really wanna punch you in the face right now."

"Try it."

Lucius exchanged a look with Tissette. After seeing a wry, apologetic smile on her face, he sighed and sat between Ardred and Mort, silencing them both at once.

"We should start now."

Everyone in the room turned to Althea who now had a frown on her face, seemingly impatient with Ardred and Mort's antics.

"Yeah, I think we better. Mort, could you put the Record Stone in the lightbox?"

"Why don't you do it?"

"I'll do it." Before another argument between the two could erupt, Lucius stood up and immediately volunteered.

"Uh, sure. The stone's in the cabinet under the lightbox."

Lucius walked over to the lightbox and opened the cabinet right under it, only to be surprised after seeing what was inside—a collection of smooth, glowing rectangular rocks in a variety of colors with hundreds, no, thousands of tiny, intersecting inscriptions.

Hmm. This is a lot of Record Stones. Aren't they supposed to be expensive?

"Which one of these?"

"The one called 'The Last Prince'. I just had an episode added to it yesterday so it should be somewhere around the top."

Lucius's brow raised as he looked for the show's Record Stone among the pile. His search didn't take long, however, as he immediately found what he was looking for. A Record Stone with a parchment wrapped around it where its title: The Last Prince, was aptly written.

Lucius's eyes almost sparkled as he lined up the Record Stone outside the small, similarly rectangular slot beneath the lightbox.

Time to see what these 'lightboxes' and what the Outworlders call 'Inscription Engineering' can do.

"Oh, wait Lucy. Do you know how to—"

Lucius, oblivious to Tissette's words, inserted the Record Stone inside the lightbox without a hitch before getting back to his seat—ready to be amused.

"Wow, I didn't know you knew how to operate a lightbox already."

"I read up on it."

Lucius smirked inwardly. After reading every page of the book: Latest Lightbox Models: User Manual, how could he not know something as simple as inserting a Record Stone inside a lightbox? He hummed in his head, a bit proud of himself for changing from someone who thought that there were people inside the lightbox when he first saw it to actually knowing how it worked.

Mort shifted in his seat. "Read up on it? New guy, for the past three days, have you just been—"

"Shh," Althea's said, her eyes glinting as she looked at the screen, seemingly enamored. "It's starting."

"Oops. My bad, Alty," Tissette said, scratching her head before going completely silent altogether.

Lucius, however, paid no heed to what was happening around him after the last time he spoke, as his attention was focused solely on the wondrous lightbox in front of him that started to churn out moving, lifelike images.

Before him was the culmination of hundreds of years of Inscription Engineering development—a concept derived and altered from a realm he only knew was called Earth.

Brilliant. Those Outworlders truly are something, aren't they?

The night continued as all five of them were completely sucked into the soundless, yet visually engaging story of The Last Prince, with only the sounds of crackling chips and popcorn sounding out once in a while.

...

On his way back to his own dorm room, Lucius revisited the memory of watching his first show on a lightbox.

What a great story. Although, I can see why someone of nobility like Orlen didn't like seeing it. It must be related to the depiction of the main character—a noble—having it easier than his peers. Come to think of it, aren't I a prince? Where's my help?

Lucius chuckled inwardly before opening the door to his room and entering tip-toed so as to not wake the snoring Gilly up. He then sat down facing his desk and took a moment to compose himself and realign his thoughts before nodding slowly—his excitement almost impossible to contain.

Alright. I've been waiting for this. «Revelare».

STATS

Name: Lucius

Race: Halfbreed [Boon Unavailable]

Vita: 100%

Aether: 16/16

Virtus

102.2

Triforce

Corpus - 12.7

Sensus - 73.5

Animus - 16 (↑5)

Epithets

•Unremarkable

Level 2 - (15/20)

Triforce Points Available: 5

Lucius grinned before taking out the Bestowment Crystal underneath his tunic.

Good. Now, «Use [Bestowment Crystal]»

The crystal atop his palm vanished with a flash of light.

Item Usage Complete

A consumable item: Bestowment Crystal [x1] has been used.

Triforce Points increased: 10 (↑5)

Lucius's grin couldn't help but widen. Just like that, ten whole points are ready to be distributed in whatever aspect of the Triforce he wanted. The only question was, however: Where exactly should he allocate them?

To be proficient in magic, both the Animus and the Sensus should be raised. I could really use some improvement in my Corpus right now. But then again, my base Sensus is already pretty high. Perhaps I'd benefit more if I train to increase my Corpus first and increase my Animus for now. That way I have more leeway when casting spells. Tsk. What to do, what to do...

Momentarily stumped, Lucius mulled over his options carefully. As he read in the book: 'Version 2.0 Progression Guide Volume 1', deciding on what kind of 'build' one should go with could be more important than the act of grinding out levels itself, as the items that allowed an individual to reallocate their Triforce Points were extremely rare, and training could only raise all three Triforce stats up to 270 points; 90 points each for the Sensus, Animus, and the Corpus, while the default for each if left untrained are 10 points at most, which, combined with the trainable 270 points, added up to exactly 300 base Triforce Points.

Considering the 'level cap' was 100, Lucius, like every single being in Elyssia, was limited to receiving 500 Triforce Points through the Leveling System once he maxed out his level. He rubbed his chin, still deep in thought. To someone like him who aspired to be a hero, finding out the best way to spend those 500 Triforce Points that he could get from leveling up could very well may be the most important thing that he must decide on as early as possible.

Should I walk the path of magic or the body? Perhaps both? It is undeniable that they each have their unique advantages, but should take the risk of spreading myself too thin?

Not only that, but Lucius had to consider that the higher his Corpus became, the harder it would be to raise them through training. This technicality was also the reason why most academies are encouraging their students to raise their Corpus by doing physical training first before allocating any Triforce Points to raise them.

The way I see it... «Revelare».

Base Triforce

Corpus: 12.7/100

Sensus: 73.5/100

Animus: 11/90

Lucius grimaced.

That's it. If I want to be as efficient with this as I can be, I still have a lot of training to do. The problem is that I have no access to any means of training my Animus just yet...

Lucius took his time to think before sighing. He finally made up his mind.

With my Sensus stat being the highest, there's only one logical thing to do in this situation. «Allocate TP».

Triforce Point Allocation

You have [10] Triforce Points ready for allocation.

Put all of it on my Animus.

Stats Up

Animus has increased by [10] points through TP Allocation.

Updated stats:

Animus: 26 (↑10)

Aether: 16/26 (↑10)

Virtus: 112.2 (↑10)

Lucius smirked as he felt a small, yet sudden surge of aether within him. As he looked at his clenched hands, he figured that it was a feeling he could get definitely get addicted to.

This must be how magi feel all the time. How fascinating.

...

Before going to bed, Lucius got down to the floor and did some push-ups while contemplating his decision.

*huff *huff *huff

The 'build' he decided to aim for was the one that would allow him to be physically stronger than the most powerful mage, and to be more magically proficient than the physically gifted warrior with a slight inclination to the latter.

A Magic-Specialist Hybrid, just as the obscure, yet highly informative guide insisted it should be called. He didn't know why but Outworlder who wrote it seemed fixated on using the strangest terms.

A build that allocates a ratio of 1:2:2 to my Corpus, Sensus, and Animus respectively should be fine once I stabilize all three to acceptable values. Although, I should probably go for 2:0:3 after this. My goal for now is to not fall too far behind my peers, after all.

...

Stats Up

Corpus has increased by [0.1] through training.

Updated stats:

Corpus: 12.8 (↑0.1)

Virtus: 112.3 (↑0.1)

After thirty minutes of light physical training, Lucius washed himself in the bathroom before finally climbing silently to his bunk and laying on his bed—his mind already occupied by the day ahead of him.

Hmm. My Practical and Combat Magic class is tomorrow. Finally. My first lesson in spellcasting. It's about time I learned magic!