28 The Night Before
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"I'm home."
"Oh, welcome back."
Inside the Lang residence, Irvine had just arrived back at his house from the gym when he was greeted by his sister's figure passing by the hallway.
Althea continued to walk slowly towards the living room after the simple greeting.
As usual, Irvine's home was filled with the sounds of television and small chatters between both his parents that created a fitting liveliness of a Sunday evening.
Seeing this, Irvine quickly took off his shoes before going in to join his family in that same living room for some casual chats as well. An activity he'd gotten used to enjoy after returning to this past.
"Dad, mom."
"You're back, had any dinner yet?" His father, Edward, asked.
"Nope, figure I'll just scoop up whatever's still in the kitchen after this."
"You're going to go register tomorrow right? Want me to go with you?" His mother added on, offering her company after remembering today's date.
"Haha, it's alright mom. If you come, you'll have to go back alone since I'll also start living in the dorm starting tomorrow."
"Right, righ--"
"--Hm? ...Wait, you're living in the dorm!??" Judy suddenly turned her head at the revelation.
She was truly surprised. In her defense, she had somehow expected that her son would commute from home during his college study.
"...This is the first I've heard of it too." Althea also piled on from behind.
"All first years are required to live in the dormitories, I've told you about this." Irvine was speechless at his mother's and sister's reactions.
"Have you?? Really?"
"Hm..."
Two completely different replies resounded from both his front and back.
"But then, why would you choose to go to school in Zeta City if you're going to live in a dorm anyway? I thought one of the reasons is to save money because it's closer?" Althea followed through with another question.
"I AM saving money... It's a full-ride scholarship, the dorm's free too. Did you forget?"
"...Ah."
"O, oh, right." Althea's face was flushed red when she'd realized that she was forgetting the most important thing.
Just like her mother, she too had assumed that Irvine would be going to school from home after she'd found out his choice of college was still in Zeta City.
'I completely forgot...'
"Oh dear... Oh no! I'm not mentally prepared for this!" Just after Althea had turned silent, this time, it was her mother who was making some sort of commotion.
"..."
It seemed that only Edward in this whole house who had listened carefully to Irvine's explanation regarding his college plan previously.
He had already long expected his son to start living away from home starting tomorrow too. He just didn't expect that his own wife hadn't known about this.
'...So that's why she was strangely calm these past few days. I thought it was weird.'
However, he didn't plan to calm his wife down just yet in this situation and instead chose to watch Irvine calmed Judy down with a grin on his face as he pretended not to hear anything.
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"I'll come home often anyway, so it won't be much of a difference."
"Every week!?"
"...I'll come home sometimes, is what I mean." Irvine flinched and was forced to change his wordings at his mother's response.
How could a student athlete even afford to go home every week?
The average athletic scholarship students spent at least 20 hours a week on their sport subject. This fact had made them all that much busier when taking the regular classes into account.
And that number was even harsher for Battle Arena students. After all, they were competing in a sport with the highest amount of viewerships in any Stations including Olympus.
That was why most athletic scholarship students of Battle Arena usually chose a major with more lax schedules overall. In this case, both Liberal Arts and General Studies were always the 2 top choices for student athletes.
However, unlike the last time, Irvine had decided to go all-in in the ways he could improve himself this time around.
His chosen major for his college degree was the Exercise & Sport Science, which was a major he intended to actually learn from instead of simply passing and graduate in.
He knew that this decision would truly put him in a very busy schedule with both the academic and athletic, but Irvine felt that there's no time like the present if he wanted to exhaust himself with self-improvement.
The time when he was filled to the brim with youthful vitality was surely the best period to learn and exert himself.
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Taking some more time to persuade his mother to calm down, Irvine eventually fled himself to the dining room with the excuse of hunger and needing to pack for tomorrow.
He understood her feelings as a parent suddenly finding out that she needed to send away her first child the first thing tomorrow. But in this case, it was inevitable.
After he'd left the living room, he could see his father finally approaching his mother in an effort to console and encourage her, acting as the good mediator he was.
'...What great timing.' Truth be told, he was a little bit in awe at his father's ability as the head of the family.
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In the dining room.
Irvine was enjoying the set aside pasta and bacon after heating them up in the microwave for his dinner.
Just as he was about to eat, his sister, Althea, suddenly come in and approached him from the hallway. And judging by the tinge of red on her cheeks, she still hadn't gotten over her last misunderstanding together with Judy.
After becoming more open with her passion for Arena, Althea also became more emotionally expressive, though she still maintained her pokerface on for most of the time.
"So..."
"So?"
"H, how's today's training?"
"It's not bad. I've gotten more used in implementing [Blast] with my [Joint Break], It has become something more powerful than a simple stunning effect, though I still can't use it too much repeatedly."
The use of most metaphysical Abilities gained from Gene Mod would expend the user's mentality to a certain degree.
To put it in perspective, one would gradually feel their heads becoming heavier and heavier the more they used said Ability. It was similar to the feeling someone would have after finishing a full day of exams or hours of mental calculations.
Whoever it was, The Ability would mentally drain a person's stamina and focus with more usage of it.
Of course, just like most of everything else in the world, the capacity of how often someone could activate his/her Ability could be trained with how often they trained to utilize those Abilities in real life.
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"I've also came up with a new defensive technique, but that-- Well, let's just say my control of it is still not up to par yet." He reported his progress on his [Blast] Ability to Althea in full.
After Irvine's License Exam, he had spent some time every once in a while to teach his sister about all the different details relating to Battle Arena from a player's perspective, often using his own states and conditions as examples.
Through this process of teaching, he had pretty much gotten used to telling her his training progress alongside the other things he'd taught her.
With many references, Althea herself had also understood her brother's powers and skills a little more within the standards of college and pro circles. At least compared to how she'd been during the April exam.
She was proactively learning new things everyday.
When Irvine had just come back from his campus tour, he had shown her some videos of many different college Arena matches of the past year for her 'studying' materials.
And as they were currently still in the middle of the off-season. Althea took some time to watch the videos and had gotten herself somewhat hooked on it too.
Right now, she was even researching more about college Arena than her own brother.
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"And what did the scan show?" Althea asked about her brother's latest stats like his Muscle Strength.
"The scan... Oh! I forgot to scan today too."
"You haven't scanned yourself for weeks!"
"It doesn't matter much anyway, I've reached Stage-2 on May. Getting my 2nd Gene Enhancement together with my Gene Mod. It'll be a long way before I could even begin talking about Stage-3."
The stronger one's Muscle Strength get, the hardest it would be to increase it further. This became more apparent whenever a person goes through another Gene Enhancement.
"But aren't you curious?"
"I am, but I always forget these things during training." Irvine answered while scratching his head.
"Unlike when I was chasing after the license before, my focus right now is on how I can become a ready-to-dispatch player by the time the new season begins! Which means getting more proficient with my Ability."
"...But I'm curious."
"..."
"How about I send you the scan tomorrow after I've finished my registration and first day of introductions with the university's Arena team?"
"Mm, don't forget." Althea was finally satisfied with the answer, "Also, I forgot to ask but..."
"Yes?"
"Why did you choose that school?"
"What school, the university?"
*nod*
The school that Irvine had chosen was...
"One of the Top 16 regulars for the Silver Crown Tournament. Ravenville University and its team, the Ravenville Illusions." She clarified her brother's choice for the next 4 years of his college career.
The Silver Crown was the name of the largest inter-collegiate Battle Arena tournament, pitting all the Tier-1 colleges and universities within the 3 Sectors of Olympus against each other!
It was held in every even semester of the academic year between February and March, and was the highest honour a non-professional Arena player could get in this lifetime.
Ravenville University and its Arena team, the Ravenville Illusions was a strong powerhouse school even amongst all the Tier-1 colleges or universities.
They were a team who regularly attended the Silver Crown and stayed until the final main tournament reaching the Top 16 every single time in the last 10 years.
Ever since the tournament's establishment, Ravenville had even managed to get the Crown a number of times in the past, though never consecutively.
"It's not a bad choice no? Their achievements speak for themselves." Irvine replied to Althea's question straightforwardly.
"It's not, I'm just curious. Verdante College was also a school of the same calibre as Ravenville, and they're even more academically-inclined. And if we're talking about the one currently rising with the most momentum--"
"There's Eastern Zeta, yes. The past 3 years they've been rising their standings in Silver Crown, even reaching Top 32 last tournament. But Thea."
"It's not just about choosing the best possible team. For college Arena, you need to choose the strongest team that could also help yourself and your strong points shine."
"?"
"Have you seen their matches, these top universities in Zeta?"
"Yes... I've seen the videos online you've recommended."
"And what do you think?"
"Currently, I think the strongest one is... Um, Eastern Zeta?" Althea answered with no confidence in her own words.
'!'
'...She's got the sense alright. That's the future analyst of Zeta Androids for you.' Irvine was surprised his sister could gather that much with her still lacking knowledge.
"You're actually correct. With last year's roster, Eastern Zeta was probably the strongest. They just had bad luck with the draw."
"Oh!" Hearing her brother approved her analysis, she was feeling elated inside while still trying hard to maintain her pokerface outwardly.
"But what's your impressions of the 3 school's playing style?"
"Umm..."
"Verdante Windrider was very aggressive in their offense play, I think the Silverbacks was more balanced in this regard."
"What about Ravenville?"
"They're--" Althea was about to reply again as she tried to remember each match, but then something seemed to stuck in her throat.
"Eh? Hmm..."
"Can you remember the matches?"
"V, vaguely yes, but..."
"Haha, different right? Each of their matches." Irvine was amused at his sister's reaction.
"Yea... I think there were even 2 matches where they played a completely different tactics one after the other. If I think about it, their starters also changed frequently."
"Good memories." Irvine was happy with Althea's adept memorization of different matches,
"They're specialized in trick plays. If I have to say, they're probably the most versatile, and can apply themselves to many different opponents though they don't really excel at any one thing in an extraordinary way."
"Not excel at anything?" Althea asked with a little bit of disappointment.
"Haha, what're you thinking? Being a powerhouse, of course their standards are still very high. The team may not excel at any one type of tactics, but the players... You can say that they have too much individuality."
"Mm, I think I need to watch the videos again..."
A team's offense and defense levels could usually be glanced through their matches average scores between them and the opponents. This was also how Althea first based her evaluations on the Windrider and the Silverbacks.
But in this aspect, Ravenville Illusions' scores were all over the place depending on their enemies. That's why she couldn't remember much on how their matches had gone.
"Well, we can watch together in my room for a while. I'll show you some examples."
"...I thought you're supposed to pack after this?"
"Ah? I've finished packing two days ago." Irvine grinned slyly at her.
