Another grueling day of intense physical training was ahead of Lucius, but he wasn't all too concerned about it. As he ran along the track amongst the other students, his eyes drifted occasionally towards Dario and his cronies who were running far ahead of the class. He noted that the rowdy bunch was acting just as incorrigible as they usually were, and their frequent jeers weren't particularly focused on him, Tissette, and the others any more than the norm.

That's odd. Does he not know yet?

Lucius's ears drooped as he sunk deeper into his thoughts. Could he give his current situation the benefit of the doubt? A part of him was relieved that Dario seemed to haven't caught on yet, but a much bigger part of him remained skeptical. Even if Dario wasn't aware of his dealings with Maritess yet, he would, eventually.

If something wrong can happen, it will. I mustn't get complacent.

He would've cursed himself again for falling into such an incomprehensible predicament, but then it was out of his hands. After all, how could he have known that the dumb brute was attracted to Maritess?

This strange occurrence only reinforced Lucius's belief that he needed to make up for one thing that he lacked as soon as he could, and that was information. If only he'd known about the rumor about Maritess and Dario beforehand then he wouldn't have touched Maritess's quests at all. Not a chance, especially with what he'd already planned for Dario.

I shall play it by the ear for now. No need to get panicked over nothing. I just have to make sure I stay away from him until the Labyrinth Dive just in case. He won't come after me again during class because of my deterrent, after all.

Lucius took a subtle glance towards Aidan who was leading the class—his deterrent—from afar before running a bit faster as soon as he heard Katherine barking orders from the sidelines. He was starting to trail far behind the class to his dismay yet again, and far, far behind from someone like Aidan and his ilk who breezed through the track so effortlessly that he looked as if he still hadn't even broken a sweat despite after several hours of training having already passed.

Lucius had heard a lot about Aidan. How he was found by Tissette several kilometers out of the city's borders with three aberrants dead beside him. How he beat Dario and became the First Seat of the Shining Congregation in his first month in the academy. How he gained enough credit and appraise from the Masters that he was occasionally permitted to go out and do quests and slay aberrants outside the academy despite being only a Primus student.

Every single tale that Lucius heard about Aidan preceded him, and he recognized the boy as a monster in some sense of the word. Better yet, a talented monster. Someone that he, even with his prior doubts, acknowledged as the most powerful student among them.

Lucius grinned inwardly. It was no wonder Tissette was quite smitten with the boy, though unfortunately for her and everyone else, they'd have to get in line. This fact almost made him feel bad for his friend, although he argued that it was her fault for having a crush on someone too sought after by other students. Her competition was fierce, and all he could do for her was bid her good luck.

If only I was at his level, then I wouldn't have to be as prudent with my actions like this. Amazing. And he's only around my age as well. I wonder how much he'd trained prior to joining the academy?

Despite his admiration, however, Lucius remained grounded with his observations. His purpose at the moment wasn't to be as strong as Aidan, but rather by being better than what he'd once was every single day. Power, in his eyes, wasn't something attained by simply wishing, but by striving. Not also by comparing himself to others, but by working to get better than the old version of himself continuously down the road. In a sense, he didn't consider Aidan as some sort of abstract goal, but instead only as a driving force to urge him to catch up as fast as he could.

"Hey new guy, you good? You're a lap behind, just so you know."

Much to Lucius's surprise, Mort came out sprinting out of nowhere from behind before tapping him on the back lightly while looking at him with a worried gaze.

"You forgot to mention that it's an improvement though. Don't you remember how far behind he was last week? Back then it was three, but now it's just one," Ardred said, popping in out of nowhere as well from Lucius's other side and putting a hand over his shoulder as he ran. "Stop messing with him, man. Give him credit too."

"I'm not messing with him, you idiot. I'm just worried he'd get yelled at by Master Katherine again—"

"What in the hell are you three twerps doing? Less chattering and more running or it's a hundred more pushups for the three of you!"

"Oh, damn it Mort you jinxed us! Eh, we'll catch you later, Lucius," Ardred said before charging ahead with a full sprint.

"You ass, wait up!" Mort looked at Lucius before catching up to Ardred. "The idiot's acting like a jackass as usual, but I still think you better pick the pace up, man. You remember what she makes students who finish last do, don't you?"

"All too well." Lucius smiled wryly before Mort finally left him behind with a nod. He'd been part of the said party who'd been making it last for the past few PCC class, but then again, what could he do about it? Even with his ardent self-training for the past month, he was still among the few students who had the lowest Corpus stat out of the entire class, after all.

Well, for a time, at least. He didn't plan on letting it stay that way for long, although he did think that the additional training Katherine made him and the other underachievers do was actually more helpful than not, so much so that he didn't understand why the others wanted to avoid it so much, though he guessed that it might be because of their overinflated Corpus stat, which made them gain very little from the additional training. Well, it was their loss, not his.

On that note, despite having just about enough energy to finish beyond the last ten students, Lucius decided to hold back his pace. The final part of training concluded with Lucius finishing second to last. This was, of course, all according to his plan.

"A hundred pushups for you again, Lucius."

"Understood, Master Katherine," Lucius said with a tired, yet still-sunny smirk on his face before dropping to the ground and doing a hundred. He believed that every last spurt of hard work was worth it and paid dividends, and that is exactly why he fell in love with training.

Stats Up

Corpus has increased by [1] point through training.

Updated stats:

Corpus: 19.8 (↑1)

Virtus: 126 (↑1)

"Ah, progression. I really might get addicted to this," Lucius whispered absently as his eyes shone upon seeing the prompt. It was as glorious as always.

Katherine, much to his surprise, somehow heard his words from quite a distance away and ambiguously said, "Oh? Looks like I've got myself a masochist here," much to the confusion of the other students.

"Now, you're all dismissed! And clean yourselves up, you all stink like hell!"

...

The class concluded fairly satisfactorily for everyone. Some were sprawled around the grass track nearby, while the large majority of the students were starting to walk back to their respective dorms.

Lucius didn't leave the training grounds just yet, though. Instead, he decided to stay with Tissette and the others. He didn't like to admit it, but he'd been feeling a lot more lonely nowadays after Gilly had left. Of course, he hadn't told Tissette about it. He didn't want her feeling bad more than she already was.

Tissette walked over towards Lucius with another one of her usual, fanged winning smiles and said, "Hey, you're doin' pretty well now Lucy. You actually finished the track within the time limit! Master Kathy still gave you a rough punishment though. You okay?"

"Yes. My entire body hurts but it's a small price to pay for raising my Corpus," Lucius said while rubbing his arms with a slight wince. The little bit of pain was, indeed, a minuscule consequence for seeing a stats-up prompt. He'd take the tradeoff every time if given the chance.

"That's the right attitude to have, Lucy! Keep it up!" Tissette exclaimed, putting a hand over Lucius's shoulder with a carefree chuckle. "It's good that you still consistently gain stat upgrades from this class though. I rarely get them now that my base Corpus is fairly high."

"Do you mind?" Lucius eyed Tissette before slipping away. He was interested in what she just revealed though. The fact that her corpus was so high that it seldom improved by doing the standard physical training in PCC class was mind-boggling. Just how high was her Corpus already anyway?

"Oh, and by the way, we're gonna have another watch night later. Wanna come with?" Tissette said, cutting Lucius off of his musings. "Orlen finally won rock-paper-scissors earlier and he wanted us to watch some horror flick that just came out. So, you in?"

"Perhaps," Lucius answered with a facade of hesitance, though he was certain that he'd come along. After all, he had nothing left to do besides some light reading and physical training anyway. Spamming Illuminate, he found, was something he can do anywhere given that he'd just cover the light with something, like his hand. It would most probably look strange doing it in public, yes, but he didn't mind. Training his spellcasting always comes first, no matter where he was or what he's doing concurrently in his free time. A hundred percent efficiency, just like he discussed with Elrond.

"Good! We'll see you later then!" Tissette said all giddy-like as she clapped her hands once before walking away, still with a smile on her face. " Don't forget about it, alright?"

Lucius grinned as he waved back, but before leaving the training grounds shortly after Tissette walked away, he spotted Amelia eyeing him from nearby. Curious, he walked over to her and asked, "What?"

"Nothing," Amelia answered with a straight face, seemingly unbothered that she'd been caught. "I was just watching you just in case—"

"What are you doing?"

Lucius looked back. It was Tissette who he didn't even notice returned right behind him, frowning as she looked at Amelia.

"Tissette. It's been some time."

"It has," Tissette replied, looking gloomier than Lucius had ever seen her. "What are you talking to my friend for?"

"Nothing in particular," Amelia answered noncommittally, though the slight incline on her lips told Lucius that she was probably disappointed with the response she got from Tissette. "I just wanted to talk to the new kid."

"Oh." Tissette then stared at Lucius, looking flustered as she continued, "Carry on then."

Tissette was about to leave when Amelia blurted out, "I was just trying to help him, you know."

"Help him?" Tissette blurted out of nowhere as she turned around, her face rigid and eyes narrowed. "Like you helped me."

"Don't be like that, Tiz. Didn't we used to—"

"Just don't," Tissette turned around, her face tired and somber as she looked down. "Just...I'll see you later, Lucius.

Lucius, for the most part, kept his reactions to a minimum as he observed the interaction between the two girls. Clearly, there was something going on with them, or at least, something did in the past.

With Tissette now gone, Lucius turned to Amelia and asked, "What was that about?"

"A long story, I'm afraid. Something you don't need to know," Amelia said with a blank face, though the half-lidded eyes beneath her plain, round glasses showed some degree of sadness and regret as she watched Tissette walk away.

"Understandable," Lucius replied with a respectful nod. Despite how badly he wanted to know whatever happened between the two in the past, it was none of his business. By doing so, he followed a common rule of etiquette regarding private matters, as he read from a book he'd read recently: When to Shut Up - Social Cues for Dummies.

"Good. I'll be going now," Amelia said as she finally rose from her seat and walking away, but not before turning back and looking at Lucius as she said, "As I've said before, don't let your guard down. That's all."

Lucius nodded. For him, keeping his guard up at all times went without saying, even without his current situation gnawing at him. He didn't need to be reminded of it. What caught his interest wasn't the girl's warning though. It was the answer as to why she would even take some time off of her day, which he assumed was also full due to her being a Student Agent like him, just to remind him that.

Just who was she and why was she helping him? And more importantly, what was her connection with Tissette?