They sat at an available table in the tavern and ordered what they wanted to eat.
"So, Lucca, how's the academy going?" Ada asked.
"To be completely honest, morning classes are quite boring, but the afternoon ones are quite enjoyable," Lucca replied without much enthusiasm.
"But are you paying attention, at least?" she asked.
"the minimum!" he replied.
"Don't waste your opportunity. You're in the most prestigious academy of all. Once you finish, you'll have opportunities anywhere you go! You have an opportunity many would want!" Eva spoke with a serious tone.
"What do you mean by prestigious, and I'll have opportunities anywhere?"
"You don't know about this?" Ada asked, shocked.
"About what?" he inquired.
"Ladies, Lucca has spent the last 10 years training, so he doesn't know what the world is like outside of that! Let's explain it to him in a friendly way," William explained.
"After you complete the three years of the academy, you'll receive a document. With that document, you'll have to show it to the place where you want to go!" Ada explained.
'Is this sheet supposed to be some kind of diploma?' thought Lucca to himself.
Seeing that Lucca didn't understand much, Eva decided to give an example, "Basically, if you were to join the army, for instance, you'd have to show that document to the person recruiting new soldiers. And if you have the document from the capital's academy, it's a 100% chance of getting in!"
'So, does that mean I'm in a Harvard of this world?' thought Lucca to himself.
"I get it now! Thank you very much!" Lucca said with a smile. The conversation continued for quite some time until...
They finished their meal, and William said, "I'll take Lucca back to the academy! Will you wait for me, or are you leaving?" he asked the two women.
"There's no need for you to come with me; I can go alone!" Lucca replied.
"It's my duty as your bodyguard to ensure your safety! If not, your father will kill me!" William responded in a hurry.
"Okay, okay, I give up," Lucca gave up trying to convince William.
"We'll wait for you, right?" Eva asked Ada. Ada nodded.
Seeing the responses from the two, Lucca and William said their goodbyes and left the tavern and the capital's walls. William then said, "What do you need to give me?"
"That's why you insist on coming with me; I understand everything now!" Lucca replied.
"Of course, knowing you, you'd never give me something in front of others!" William revealed.
"What do you mean by that?" Lucca asked.
"From what I know about you, you only reveal what's necessary to others. That's why I doubted you'd give me anything in front of them, so I had to pull you out of there!"
"Indeed, that's just who I am!"
"I just hope it was worth delaying my fun for whatever you're giving me!"
"Maybe it was worth it!" he shrugged and pulled a book from the system, which looked a lot like a Mayan codex, with a wooden cover, but it was covered in a black shadow, with ribbons holding the two covers and several pages that clearly had many years of age.
"I can't believe it!" he said, surprised.
Ten years ago...
Lucca was lying in his room, messing with his system when he started looking at the shop's skills and asked Ori, 'What happens when I buy a skill? Does it just disappear?'
(No! It depends on the skill. It may have an evolution to that same skill, but of course, you'll need to spend tokens, and you can gift your tokens to your allies to get the skills for them!) Ori revealed.
'What do you mean?' Lucca said with his eyes wide open.
(First, you have to buy the skill, and then you'll see two options. One is if the skill has an upgrade, and the other is for a book coming from the system. Once a person reads it and understands it, they will gain the skill.)
'And what happens to that book after it's used?'
(It doesn't have information, so anything can happen!)
'So, Willian is going to be the test subject! he said with a smile.'
Back to the present...
"A skill book! How did you get this?" William said, astonished.
"I have my ways!"
"I get it, you still don't want to reveal!" he understood just from Lucca's speech.
"Not that I don't trust you; it's just that we're not in a very good place to talk about this!" Lucca said firmly.
"Okay, okay, I accept that answer!" And as soon as he finished the sentence, he turned his eyes back to the book.
William, seeing this, picked up the book and started reading, "Shadow Walker" he said aloud.
William looked at the skill Lucca had just given him and started reading the description out loud, "This skill only makes you invisible up to one rank above you and only works when you're not in combat." He finished reading and concluded, "Basically, this skill works up to rank 3. I don't know where you got this skill, but it's quite strong for an assassin. I don't know why you're giving this to me," William asked.
"The first reason is that you're a test subject; I want to know what will happen after you learn the skill. Another reason is that this skill can save you in complicated situations, and it's always good to know that we're not being seen by anyone!" Lucca said.
"What do you mean something might happen to me after I learn this?" he asked, concerned.
"I doubt anything will happen to you, but I'm not so sure about the book!" Lucca revealed, and then he thought to himself, 'Imagine having to spend 10K soul tokens each time I want someone from my group to learn this skill! It gives me shivers,' and he started to regret everything.