Jan 10, 1884
Once Lucas returned home he began to get ready. He changed into nicer clothes than what he preferred but since James was returning for dinner he wanted to keep a good impression. He had sent word to Liz earlier and she should be arriving before James. Sasha and Troy had left the house in a hurry. They still weren't big on Nobles with Lucas and Liz being the only exceptions. After he was finished getting ready he was bored since none of the servants would let him help. Something about it being disgraceful so he was in his room laying on his bed. Before he realized it he had fallen asleep.
He awoke to find Liz staring at his face stroking his hair. "Um hey Liz. Oh shoot the dinner Is James here I didn't miss it did I?" In a moment of brief panic he shot up and in the process managed to knock LIz on her back so he proceeded to panic over that. "I'm so sorry Liz here let me help you up".
"Lucas stop and breathe, you didn't miss the dinner James canceled but he stopped buy my place earlier to let me know and to send his apologies something about the business back home came up." with that Lucas felt like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders "Thank goodness, Thank you Liz."
She just nodded and smiled "Come it would be a shame for all that food to go to waste"'
AT the mention of food Lucas stomach growled as if responding to Liz. Liz looked at him and raised her eyebrows surprised from the sudden noise. So nodding his head he helped Liz up and the couple made their way to the dining room. Once they ate dinner they went to the lounge area across the entry room.
Lucas sat on the sofa while Liz sat next to him with her head on her shoulder. "Hey Lucas, why are you here, why am I here?" Confused, Lucas looked at Liz so she explained "Your league's above all the first years heck if you wanted too you could be bumped up to a third year if not just to only take the Final exam.
Other than the schools own ranking rules and tradition we both know all the history of our country as well as anything they could teach us here. Even if we didn't know a few things we could hire a tutor."
Lucas thought over it for a while and began "I don't really know. To bring honor to my name would be the primary reason. Don't get me wrong I'm sure there's really no need for me to be here but it just feels right being here right now at this place it doesn't seem right to be anywhere else not yet. The only other place I could imagine being would have to be on the battlefield."
Liz smiled almost sadly "So why not leave and start our lives together.I'm not a fighter. Don't misunderstand, I still enjoy the thrill of my wolf form but I don't have any wish to learn the beast form. I understand war is necessary but I'd rather leave it to people like you, Troy, and Sasha. I know my father would let me drop out and leave as well as pay the fee for that."
Lucas smiled at the thought of them truly being together "You know we can't do that I owe my father at least this much for everything He's done. But I'll make a deal with you If I'm undefeated at all including the rankers tournament I'll agree to leave. I'll take it as proof that I'm too advanced for this school but if I lose I'll stay for the three years. Now i won't ask you to stay in school. If you want we'll marry after our first year and you can move here with me if I'm still attending this school next year. I promise I won't forfeit any matches either. So how does that sound?"
Liz was quiet for a moment then said "You can forfeit matches if you're seriously injured and we can still marry this year either way other than that I'm happy with it".
Lucas smiled brightly. He was honestly fine with either option but wanted to be sure he didn't miss out on learning new skills or other ways to further improve his fighting.
The year flew by with Lucas remaining undefeated he even set a school record for it. He now 153 wins with 0 losses and 1 Tie. In school he learned many things such as how a fighter's strength could be separated into 8 tiers the same way Mages were. Beginner which was Tier one. From there it went : Novice, Intermediate, Adept, Advanced, Master, Grand Master, and Demi-God which was the eight and final tier. No one in history had managed to break through the rank of Demi-God. With each tier requiring a break through of a fighter's core.
A core was what was used to use Aura which on the lower tiers was just for slightly enhancing your strength but at the higher tires it made you capable of impossible feats such as cutting a mountain in half. This was done by the last king who was of the 7th tier.
With each breakthrough they were able to use more aura as well as getting a purer aura. Also with each tier a fighter's stats were tripled. While the lower tiers could be close but as their strengths increased so did the gap. (Example: 1st-1 2nd-3 3rd-9 4th-27, 5th-81, 6th-243, 7th-729, 8th-2187) This wasn't just for a fighters strength it also went for all of their other stats as well. Which included their Vitality, Stamina, Agility, Strength, Constitution.
A month after school started he finally understood enough to Learn his beast form. This happened after he entered the 5th tier. He hadn't known it but he was already in the 4th tier at the start of school he hadn't even realized he had broken through three times before even starting. The normal civilians of the country were around the 2nd to 3rd tier. The best he and his teachers could figure he didn't notice due to a seamless breakthrough.
Like his wolf it was also all silver. He discovered that his sword adapted to his beast form and grew to match his increased size. Which was a nice surprise. His beast form was the same height as his wolf form (now a whopping 8 feet tall) but that was only one of the few similarities. He had increased mobility and could now wear battle armor as well the fact that his claws were much sharper, able to pierce through some of the better sets of armors. His body constitution increased, becoming much harder and was supposed to even be magic resistant as well. Although he hadn't had a chance to test that one yet. His already monstrous strength was now absurd along with his high vitality and even higher stamina. Lucas, Troy, and Sasha tested that out in a bit of an extreme way which nearly gave Gregory a heart attack from all the blood.
He also learned that he retained his beast form's increased strength, vitality and stamina in his wolf form as well as a portion of it in his base form roughly about half. (Example Base form:50 Beast form:100 Wolf form:100) Although he wasn't able to put it to the best use in his wolf form it did make him run faster though. Troy was the second first year to learn his beast form while Sasha was the 5th to. There was a week left of school and of all the kids in his grade only about 200 of them were able to learn it.
The school had even taken in some exchange students from the Magus College which to the joy of many had come up with magic devices to test their power levels. However, the joy quickly left when Lucas' strength kept increasing and was ranked 1st in the school; eventually he just stopped going. His score was still a good bit over everyone else's in the school. Him and Troy even convinced Gregory to use it (with a good bit of booze involved of course.) Gregory's score was insane but wasn't put on the board due to him not being a student. Lucas even learned that Gregory was a 6th tier fighter.
The mage's took a special interest in Lucas since his power levels were an anomaly. So he agreed to continue going to test his power level as long as they kept his score off the board and kept it secret. Him and Liz had moved things up to the next stage in secret of course as he didn't want to dishonor her.