I did tease the harem list as of current chapter in the previous poll, and aside from that, the majority of you are looking to be for Altina in favor as well.
Here is a more concise list of the harem:
Fiancé Candidates:
Klaudia von Auslese
Alfin Reise Arnor
Elie MacDowell
Aurelia le Guin
Harem members:
Emma Millstein
Angelica Rogner
Ennea
Currently harem members up for consideration: Estelle, Renne, Tio, Fie
Both Kloe and Emma know about Naoto's Western Zemuria Unification plan, though this plan likely won't bear fruit for quite some time. The Fiancé candidates may seem more reasonable after having this plan in mind.
Aka, the Rufus Route, but instead of brute forcing it, it's the romancing route instead, haha.
Naoto also has the servant system now, more details will come for that. As of now, he has four servants, one which he hadn't come across in years, so it will be interesting to see when the two will cross paths again (and no the person I'm referring to here is not Sherryl)
As always, Giliath demands your power stones!
*
"That didn't take long, did it?", I asked, still seeing Laura and Klaus still in the plaza at the bottom of the city.
As I approached the plaza again, I could see the inn off to the right, with a Septian Church further in the distance. To add to that, there was an Orbal Shop. Before departing for St. Ursula, the girls and I did splurge and had our share of fun in rolling the remaining quartz and weapons boxes. Apart from being escorted by the military to the hospital, a few other soldiers remained behind, and started moving the pieces of equipment that we rolled back down into the treasury.
These soldiers were confused seeing piles of weapons and armor, but seeing that it was the royal family that was in charge of this, the soldiers knew not to question where the crown prince suddenly got an influx of items. They could only do as they were ordered, carrying the goods back into the treasury room. As for the orbments though, we safekept them.
To our surprise, we found that aside from the Master Quartz function, those who had their own combat orbments could still slot in the Quartz rewarded by the gamer system.
Slots were an entire subject of its own when speaking of orbments. I now had many different kinds of Quartz stored in my Inventory. Since the Enigma I and II had yet to be released to the public, most were still using first or second generation combat orbments. One would be considered lucky or influential to have a third generation combat orbment.
The main difference between the first and second generation was an additional slot. The first generation could slot only six Quartz into their combat orbment. With the second generation, the number of Quartz people could use was seven. It increased by one, allowing people more utility in combat. As for the third generation, the number of slots were kept the same but its technology advanced further, allowing one to equip more advanced Quartz.
Eventually, Quartz evolved to the point of receiving a rarity system. From the Quartz we received, it appeared that there is a mixture of Quartz that provide both a flat rate and a percentage rate of stats. Others also allow certain Arts to be used. While I do like the Line system, having Arts tied to Quartz which also impacted one's stats made customization that much more plausible. So yes, that is right. Even if we slot Quartz in, we learned that the combat orbments do not allow defaulted arts to be casted. They are tied to specific quartz, which was a big change from Cold Steel I onward.
But despite not having such a system, it was nice to see that the Quartz we received provided both flat rate and percentage boosts, instead of just flat rates. My specialized combat orbment was now the first of the fifth generation, to which won't appear on public markets for another few years at least. I was able to test out some Quartz in my Inventory along with Tama here while we crossed the wilderness that lead to Ebel Lake, but I will definitely have to find some time to properly build my combat orbment at some point. This was real life, so I couldn't utilize certain mechanics that were available in the game, such as dodging.
It was very easy later on to build characters to dodge every single attack, but to my benefit, the Quartz that I rolled to where one would boost evasion, actually boosted my Speed stat instead. The focal points appeared to mostly improve STR, DEF, ATS, ADF, SPD, and INT, with the latter boosting my EP pool to allow more arts and spells.
However, while my combat orbment may be integrated with my gamer system, I still see that as external strength. I could very well easily overpower the likes of Ace with such differences in stats compared to my own raw stats if I were to fight him again with having my new Enigma II. I did not want that to be my main strength. There were plenty of highly capable people who could roam the continent without being heavily reliant on orbments.
And coming here in Legram, one of those highly capable people was now within reach.
Laura's father, the acting head of the second most widely known school of swordsmanship in Erebonia, the Arseid School, Victor Arseid.
He was definitely among the top five strongest here in Erebonia, with another head of a different school of swordsmanship being stronger than he is, the Thunder God, Matteus Vander.
I had a personal goal in coming to Legram first, before making my way eventually to Heimdallr to seek out the Vander School. I wanted to continue building my foundations, learning the Arseid style first.
Yet at the time, Laura had no idea she was about to get a fellow disciple to train alongside her, considering that with Laura's current appearance, no doubt she was a part of her father's current curriculum.
With that thought concluded, I could only see Klaus smile politely back my way, also showing interest in his eyes as he observed the silvery-white fox still in my embrace.
"It looks like you were able to take care of your business pretty quickly, Your Excellency. I took this time to send a message to Master. He is expecting you.", Klaus said, giving me another bow as he greeted me again.
"Excellent. Let us be on our way then.", I happily said with a nod of my head. Laura only looked at me with interest in her eyes as she saw me arrive beside her.
"Are you some noble that Father knows or something?", Laura said while we began to walk up the hill. As we began to climb, I saw the statues of the Eisenritter pass on our left with Ebel Lake in the distance. Since the weather was mostly clear now, Lohengrin Castle proudly stood in its place, watching over the lake.
To the right we passed by the Inn and the Septian Church I previously saw. I could also see an equipment and orbal shop as well. I could probably fine tune my Enigma II without worry then.
After Laura asked that, I looked at her, only to signal with my finger, pointing it up into the sky which distracted Laura.
"I told you, didn't I? I'm extremely high up on the ladder, in terms of position, anyways. Even higher than Sir Victor.", I said, revealing a light grin.
"You seem to be around my age though...", Laura said, sporting a small frown. "I'm still getting used to this whole noble situation. It's already hard enough for having other students at the dojo view me.", Laura said. As she said that, I couldn't help but place my hand on her shoulder a bit.
"That's just something you'll get used to. You still have yet to debut into high society, right?", I asked with interest.
"Yes. That's something I'd like to avoid if possible. I can't even begin to think what it'd be like to mingle myself with those kinds of people...", Laura uttered, feeling a bit defeated as she answered me.
"Haha, well I can at least tell the Arseid family seems pretty laid back, which is what I like. After all, I plan to improve my swordsmanship here for the time being.", I replied, taking my hand off her shoulder. Laura's eyes lit up the moment I said that.
"Really? You hold interest in becoming a student of the Arseid dojo?", Laura asked.
"I do. That is partly why I am seeking Sir Victor. Though unlike other houses, my own domain is quite lacking, to say the least. I do not hold much influence, despite being in higher rank than he is. I have not seen Sir Victor ever since the signing of His Majesty.", I said, musing to myself as I answered Laura.
It was true, I haven't seen the other houses in person since the signing of the newest emperor of Erebonia. That was several years ago. I'm thirteen now, so I am very much looking forward to meeting Victor again.
*
Many people forget Laura is a noble o.o