"Will that be all, Maritess?" Lucius asked after picking up his broom, his rags, and three bags full of trash. It had been quite the demanding job to finish, especially on a pleasant Saturday morning, but he wasn't complaining. There was always something about cleaning that made him feel calm and relaxed. More in control. Balanced. Of course, with someone like Maritess around, that seemed less true, however.

"Yep. Nice work as always," the human girl that was about his age answered. She took a moment to look around her room, now spotless and squeaky clean. Certainly an improvement from what it was about an hour ago. "Say, when will you be coming by again? You do know you can visit me even if don't need my room cleaned, right?"

Lucius tilted his head. "Why would I come here without a quest to complete? I'm a Student Agent after all. That's what I do."

"Oh shush. You already know I throw a lot of parties, Lucius. You should come at least one time, I promise you won't regret it." For some reason, Maritess then bit her lips for a split second and eyed Lucius strangely, making him feel a tad uncomfortable. "Not too many Primus students wanna take the quest and help me clean my room, you know. None did it more than once but you."

"I can see why," Lucius said as he looked around the room with an appraising glance. Saying that it was bigger than his and Ardred's combined was an extreme understatement. Maritess's dorm had three bedrooms, a kitchen, two bathrooms, a small garden, and a pool. He could see why most Student Agents avoided her frequent cleaning quests in the Questgiver. Not only was her dorm room big, but she'd been hosting parties left and right that the other Student Agents couldn't even keep up with her demands the morning after.

"You see, I'm always willing to help an underclassman out. Maybe give you some tips while you're in the academy?" Maritess said before combing her fiery red hair over her shoulder, showing off her pale, slim neck with a smile. She also put a hand on her slender, curvy waist—bare skin showing over her scant, yet functional training clothes. She seemed to be more focused on him cleaning for the past hour than her morning exercises, however.

The girl was doing things all sorts of strange today, Lucius thought. He'd only been in her dorm three times this week, but Maritess, as outgoing as he heard she was, made it not so easy for him to do his work. After all, when it came to these kinds of quests, there usually weren't much talking or interacting, even. The cleaning quests he took this week were given by students who didn't seem as willing to associate with Student Agents as Maritess and they usually just watched him clean without any word.

"I'll consider your kind offer, Maritess." Lucius tried not to stumble with his words with the girl who was definitely acting weirder than she usually would around him. Was she still drunk from her party last night, perhaps?

"Ah, we already talked about this before, haven't we? Just call me Mary," Maritess replied with a playful smirk before eyeing Lucius's body up and down. "Gosh, you must be pretty tired, am I right? Oh, I know! Maybe I could give you a little massage just around the shoulders. I'm a pretty good—"

QUEST COMPLETED

[Clean Mary's Room] has been completed and removed from your Quest Log.

Rewards Received: [15] Gold

EXP Received: 10

LEVEL UP

You have leveled up. You are now Level 4 (↑1). You have gained [5] Triforce Points.

TP Available: 10

EXP: 0/370

"Oh look, the prompt came through," Lucius said hurriedly before backing away from the girl with a wry smile. "That should be it. Always a pleasure doing business with you, Mary."

"Aw, leaving already? You don't even stay for a meal or to hang out. Ever," Maritess said, her cheeks puffed up playfully before she continued, "One of these days, Lucius."

"Yeah. One of these days," Lucius repeated with an awkward laugh as he inched closer and closer to the front door, not stopping until he reached the doorknob with an inward sigh of relief.

"I'll be having another party next week. I'll be expecting you," Maritess said before putting a finger on her sultry lips and blowing Lucius a kiss goodbye.

The meaning of the gesture was lost on Lucius who simply smiled at her before shuffling his way smoothly out of the room, however, but the manner of how she did it was enough to give him ideas.

Walking down the hallway of the Secundus' upper-tier dormitories, Lucius sighed to himself. He already knew before taking the quest that Maritess was a notorious flirt, but never did he imagine that he would catch her fancy in the slightest.

Perhaps she's just like that with everyone she meets. Either way, what a hard-earned 20 gold from her as usual. Should I even come back next week?

There was just something about how Maritess behaved that made Lucius feel uneasy. If there's one type of person he disliked, it would most certainly be the unpredictable ones like her who seemed to exude charm, and for that, he blamed his puberty. It was just his luck that she also happened to be a girl—a certain demographic that he had little experience associating with growing up Askanar Castle. It also didn't help that Maritess was not at all like Tissette who made him think that guys and gals were just about the same. His first encounter with the playful girl about a week ago ever since he started doing quests made him realize that it wasn't the case at all.

"I still have a lot more to learn about people, it seems like," Lucius muttered, lamenting his inexperience while admiring the rest of the dormitory as he went along his way. Say what you would about Maritess, but she seemed to be living the life as a Secundus student. He could only guess just how hard she worked just to get where she was, and the thought of it was enough to offset the strange vibes she'd been giving him lately.

Well, just a little bit.

...

"Are you done with your quests for today?"

"Yeah. I've reached my quota and did one more for good measure. I've reached level 4 with that last one," Lucius replied while stretching his arms before moving on to his legs.

"Good." Elrond grinned. "You seem pretty driven, doing all of these quests this week. What's up?"

"The sky," Lucius said while pointing upwards in a joking manner in an attempt to change the topic. After all, he didn't know how the Elrond would react if he ever found out just why he was putting in the extra effort with the quests lately.

"Nice. Where did you learn that one? A children's joke book?" Elrond retorted with an unamused smirk. "Eh, do whatever you want. Just as long as you haven't been neglecting the Corpus training plan I gave you last week."

"No need to worry about that, Grandmaster El. My base Corpus is developing just fine," Lucius said before making a Declaration and revealing his stats to Elrond.

STATS

Name: Lucius

Race: Halfbreed [Boon Unavailable]

Vita: 100%

Aether: 26/26

Virtus

115

Triforce

Corpus - 15.3

Sensus - 73.7

Animus - 26 (↑5)

Epithets

•Unremarkable

Level 4 - (0/370)

Triforce Points Available: 10

"Hmm, about a three-point increase for your Corpus. Not bad," Elrond said, eyeing Lucius's stats before it faded away.

"That training plan of yours truly helped. There was only so much I could gain from basic training before it became too tedious and time-consuming to earn even just a tenth of a Corpus point," Lucius answered with an appreciative nod. Elrond's training plan, which mostly consisted of moderately intense compound exercises was perfect for a beginner like him. The elf wasn't the Grandmaster of an academy for nothing, as it turns out. He knew how to get results.

"So, is it punching again? I've practiced plenty on my own. I've even picked up some of the books you wanted me to read up on and practiced some kicks as well."

"Oh, did you now?" Elrond raised a brow before taking a stance. "Show me."

Lucius nodded before moving forward and facing Elrond with a determined look. All within a split second, his eyes turned sharp before letting a sharp, untelegraphed punch fly straight for Elrond's face. He didn't stop there, however, and he pressed the attack with three consecutive kicks to the elf's midsection which the latter easily blocked with nothing but mere slaps while making a half-grin, before following it up with another flurry of punches and kicks. At least somebody was entertained.

"Not bad, but..."

Lucius's eyes widened as soon Elrond caught his kick midair before flipping him nonchalantly onto the grass with a dull thud.

"Take it easy with the kicks. At your level, you'll lose power and precision if you don't time it perfectly or if you do it too often."

"Understood," Lucius said as he got up from the ground and patting down the dirt on his behind. He secretly hoped that could land even just a glancing blow anywhere Elrond's body with the combination attack he had planned for days specifically for this occasion, but just as he suspected, there was still much work for him to do hand-to-hand combat-wise.

"Well, a bit amateurish overall, but I think you already got the gist of it. That's quite an improvement from a kid who couldn't even punch if his life depended on it last week, don't you think?" Elrond laughed. "Just keep practicing and we'll brush up on it next week. I was thinking maybe we could do something a little different now in addition to training your physical combat abilities."

"Something different?" Lucius asked with a frown. "Like what?"

"You've learned a spell back in your first PCM class, right? Illuminate, was it?"

"Yes," Lucius said, eyeing Elrond with a pointed look. "I don't remember telling you this, though. You were watching me back then weren't you?"

"Only when you're around him," Elrond said cryptically, but he didn't care to elaborate any further. Instead, he continued, "What do you think about magic, Lucius?"

"I think it's wonderful," Lucius answered matter-of-factly. It was a no-brainer, through and through. "Not only that, but I think it's an essential thing to earn an understanding of if I want to become a true hero. After all, even most heroes who rely on physical combat have at least some degree of competence when it comes to spellcasting."

"Exactly," Elrond said. "This is why you need to learn how to incorporate spells into your combat repertoire. Besides, aren't you going for the Magic-hybrid Generalist build? All the more reason for you to learn as much about spellcasting as you can."

Lucius nodded, but kept his silence. He's liking where Elrond's lecture was headed so far.

"Now, how about showing me your Illuminate."

Breathing in, Lucius once again responded with a wordless nod before casting the only spell he knew how. "‹Illuminate›!"

A flowing cascade of light that seemed to be even brighter than the afternoon sun materialized right out of Lucius's palm. As the glare did not have any effect on him, the caster, Lucius watched Elrond's reaction carefully. He didn't hold back with his spellcasting at all and made sure to call upon the spell to the highest degree he could muster, burning off quite a lot of his Aether after only using it for a few seconds.

"That should be alright," Elrond said, seemingly unbothered by the light, but not after Lucius stopped casting. It was only for a moment, but the elf seemed to blink his eyes with a slight grimace. This was enough to put a well-hidden smile on Lucius's face.

"How was it?" Lucius asked in a tone that was a tad coyer than he would've liked.

"Pretty bright," Elrond admitted with a shrug. "Your understanding of the spell is as high as I expected thanks to your abnormally high base Sensus. I doubt most students your age would even come close to casting Illuminate with that degree of power," Elrond said, eyeing Lucius with much curiosity. "Don't get too cocky though. After all, it's just a lousy spell best used for utility at most. You're better off practicing another spell for combat."

"So, what then?" Lucius's ears perked up as he continued with a hopeful smile, "Are you going to give me a spellbook?"

"What? No," Elrond said with an incredulous look on his face. "Do you know how expensive those things are? Money doesn't grow on trees, you know."

Lucius recognized the saying, but wasn't delighted in the slightest. He just got his hopes up for nothing, after all. "Are you not the Grandmaster, Grandmaster El? What're several hundred gold pieces for someone like you?"

"Bah, nevermind all that. I'm just here to make sure you catch up with the other Primus students after all. Not to baby you. My code as the Grandmaster still stands," Elrond said, further dashing Lucius's hopes of stroking his generous side. "However, there is some other use for Illuminate. Something you can benefit off of while you still don't have any other spells."

Lucius shifted as he stood, thoroughly intrigued by Elrond's words."Well, what is it?"

"Repetition, young padawan," Elrond said, smiling. "It eventually leads to something good. After all, what else is repetition if not the mother of learning?"