Otherworld Adventure

It was finally the day of the Academy's new semester announcement.

Cecil and Lucia were already on their way to the Arks Royal Academy's gate with their luggage. They had some new gear on them.

Strapped to Cecil's waist was the long sword that Radon had finished crafting for him. It was about 1.2 meters in length and the blade was about a foot wide near the hilt, but after a couple of centimeters down, the blade quickly shrunk to about four fingers in width until it reached the tip.

As requested by Cecil, Radon didn't make an overly flashy hilt and guard. It had a simple design and the guard was just straight and normal one. The wide part of the blade also acted as a pseudo-guard.

There were no ornaments or gems embedded on the hilt or guard, the only unique thing about it was the faint veins of light pulsing on the sword whenever Cecil put his hand on it.

They were the runes engraved onto the sword that helped made the sword function as not only a weapon, but also a wand or staff. Also the runes responded only to Cecil's and Lucia's unique mana signature.

The runes were also a sort of lock that made it possible for only Lucia or Cecil to draw the blade from its scabbard.

Cecil wanted to engrave runes that could act as an anti-theft mechanism, but he needed to research further into the proper runes that were required to make this mechanism. So for now, he could only settle with this.

Cecil was also wearing a pair of gauntlets on his arm. The chrome colored azure tinted gauntlets had a somewhat draconic design. It imitated the large overlapping scales on the forearms of land dragons and flying earth drakes.

Beside him, Lucia was also sporting a new look and equipment. She had her hair in a ponytail with a Silver ribbon tying it up. She had a katana and a kodachi strapped to the side and back of her waist.

Cecil thought that it really suited her, but the current Lucia was holding onto one of her tails and was constantly giggling.

"Instead of giggling like a creep, you could at least carry your own luggage..." Cecil said with a dull look in his eyes.

Lucia didn't seem to hear him since she was busy fiddling with the accessory on her neck and tails.

She then turned towards Cecil and said happily.

"What creep? A cute little girl like me giggling is in no way creepy! Instead people will think I'm cute, hehehe~"

"Jeez... what're you so happy about? They're only tail bands and a necklace! Tsk... maybe it was better if I didn't design any of these for you..."

"Hmph! Say that again! You'll be carrying my luggage for the rest of your life if you don't take that back!"

"Haaahh... it's not like it's gonna make a difference... at this rate I'll be carrying everything for you for the rest of my life regardless."

"Eh? W-w-w-wha-what are you saying?! Stupid Cel!"

Lucia had stopped in place when she yelled at Cecil. Cecil sighed and turned back while saying.

"Hurry up, Lulu... the place is gonna be jam packed again if we get there too late."

After saying his piece, Cecil continued walking forward carrying both his and Lucia's luggage.

"Idiot... these were the first things you ever gifted me..." Lucia mumbled quietly.

Cecil was too far away so naturally he didn't hear her mumbling. He just kept walking forward.

Lucia ran up to Cecil and hugged onto his arm while smiling and giggling happily. Cecil only took a glance at her and sighed.

The necklace and tail bands were accessories that Cecil designed at the last minute using a little bit of the adamantium that was leftover. He asked Radon to craft them for Lucia.

He designed the accessories with rune engravings that would further optimize Lucia's mana circulation in combat. The motive behind the accessories was typical of Cecil.

However, Lucia really treasured them because it was the first time Cecil had gifted her something that wasn't a weapon.

The necklace was in the shape of Lucia's tails, but instead of three there was nine tails in total that looked as if they were blooming out like a flower. Cecil remembered that Lucia's family technique would one day let her grow 9 tails in total if she was able to successfully train until the final stage of the technique.

So with that in mind, Cecil crafted the necklace in the shape of nine tails hoping that it would serve as motivation for Lucia in the future.

In the middle was a small topaz and on the surface of the topaz were small rune engravings that pulsed with a golden light.

The rune engravings that dotted the entire gem caused it to shine with a gold colored and it matched well with Lucia's golden colored eyes.

The tail bands were simple bands that wrapped around the middle of Lucia's tails. There were small rubies embedded on the bands.

It was said that rubies were gems that were naturally imbued with fire element mana in it. Since Lucia's favorite element was fire, Cecil had Radon embed the bands with rubies.

And for the hair tie, it was woven from adamantium that was melted and spun into thin threads. There were also runes engraved in it and there were small sapphires embedded on the ends.

As for himself, Cecil only asked Radon to craft him two armbands that would limit his mana output.

This way he wouldn't create any abnormal events when taking any practical exams when he was in the academy.

In particular, his body strengthening was off the charts when using Mana Burst. The arm bands he had Radon create were engraved with mana inhibition runes, an original of Cecil's. The runes on the bands would inhibit his mana circulation to the point where only half of the mana in his body would be activated when he used Mana Burst.

The engravings were hard to do, but he was already working on the engravings ever since he and Lucia left Forest Hill Town. The same went for Lucia's accessories. Cecil already had them planned out long before they got the adamantium.

It was godsend that they stumbled onto the adamantium in their dungeon run. If not, Cecil would have had to settle with orichalc.u.m or mithril. But if he used either one of those ores then Cecil's armband would be disposable and he would have to replace them once in a while.

Lucia's accessories would also have sub-par effects, but thanks to the adamantium everything worked out well in the end.

Permanent armbands and super high performance accessories! In the end, the materials used to craft equipment would always decide whether the equipment was trash or not.

You could have a master blacksmith crafting something for you, but even they wouldn't be able to create a legendary sword using just ordinary rocks, right?

With Lucia hugging onto his arm, Cecil arrived at the gate of the Arks Academy district.

Even when he thought that they came early, the place was packed full of people who were looking at the large bulletin near the gate.

There was also a spacious area on the side of the gate that was devoid of people, but there were all sorts of fancy carriages lined up there.

Cecil sighed in exasperation.

"Well, whatever..."

Cecil quickly activated his Mana Eyes as well as Mana Burst. He focused all the mana into his eyes to enhance his eye sight.

He looked towards the bulletin and saw the examinee numbers that were accepted into the academy. Cecil turned his eyes towards the top and started looking for their numbers from there.

Cecil smirked when he quickly found his and Lucia's numbers right at the top.

1. Examinee 1560 SF

2. Examinee 1561 SF

3. Examinee 1602 SF

4. Examinee 0002 SF

5. Examinee 0200 SF

6. Examinee 0001 SF

7. Examinee 0505 SF

8. Examinee 1091 SF

9. Examinee 2000 SF

10. Examinee 1234 S