As they made their way to class, Lucas began to think that maybe it was time to expand his network.
He had been sticking around Lydia Astrolome because she was in the same class as him as well as having a quest related to her but he now thought that maybe he should begin to expand his horizons.
Lucas knew he couldn't rely solely on his friendship with Lydia and Marie for his survival strategy.
The game world contained dozens of important characters, each with their own roles to play in the coming war against the Legion.
The more relationships he built, the more resources, information, and allies he'd have when the invasion began.
So in his head, he began listing the most important characters he could remember from the game that he might be able to find and get close to at the academy:
The first was of course Cynthia Archibald.
She was the daughter of the kingdom's most influential military commander and an fire magic prodigy who would later become one of the most powerful mages in the resistance against the Legion.
Another one was Charlotte Nabados.
A quiet girl from a minor noble family who had an extraordinary talent in defensive magic.
If nothing had changed she would be currently overlooked by most people due to her reserved personality.
Then there were Thomas and Anastasia Medillin.
A pair of twin siblings from a merchant family with excellent sword and spear skills along with connections throughout the continental trading networks.
During the war, they had managed supply lines and coordinated resource distribution between kingdoms. Their family's wealth and logistics expertise would be very important.
Along with them was William Sonoma. A commoner student with exceptional talent in earth magic and engineering who after having a falling out with his parents would change his last name to Tarsel.
He was destined to be the inventor of the Dragon Core technique, though that wouldn't happen for several years.
Fales Dark was also there. He was the son of a minor duke with a talent for information gathering and espionage.
In the later stages of the game, he became either a powerful ally or a dangerous enemy depending on player choices.
Eric Yaltin was very important as well. He was a scholarship student from the eastern territories with incredible potential in combat magic.
In the game, he had become one of the most effective Legion-killers, specializing in taking down their elite units.
And then there was Raymond James.
He was what Lucas liked to call a Named Character, which to Lucas meant a character who wasn't really that important to the story but was given a name in the game anyway.
Which was probably just a way for the devs to make the world feel fleshed out.
Raymond barely appeared in the main storyline but he did have one very important thing about him: his father owned James Alchemical Supplies, which would become the primary supplier of military-grade potions after the Legion invasion began.
Most players ignored Raymond, thinking he was just a unimportant character.
But Lucas remembered a particular side quest that would happen in the future that would change how the endgame progressed if it wasn't done and Raymond was very important for this quest.
When the Legion launched their full-scale invasion, they targeted key supply lines and infrastructure.
Raymond's father would be killed by Legion infiltrators unless the player stepped in to save him.
If the father survived, James Alchemical Supplies would keep selling potions at sensible prices during the war.
But if he died, Raymond would have to take over the business, and because of his grief and inexperience he would drive the prices up by 300%, which made healing potions and other potions basically unaffordable and the late game became way harder.
The quest was very easy to miss because it required keeping up a friendship with Raymond in the 3 arcs before the invasion begins.
Most players focused on the main characters because of the limited time, so Raymond's father usually died, causing a major resource shortage that made the late game much harder, especially on the first playthrough.
Lucas chose to approach Raymond first because he was a minor character.
If whatever was messing with the timeline turned out to be a whoever then sticking too close to the main characters would catch their attention.
Also, It would be good practice for Lucas's social skills before trying to befriend tougher targets.
Therefore, Raymond was the best option.
The problem now was that Lucas had no idea which class Raymond was in or where to find him.
"Hey Lydia," Lucas said casually as they walked down the stone corridor toward their classroom, "do you happen to know a student named Raymond James?"
Lydia glanced at him curiously. "Raymond James? The name sounds vaguely familiar, but I can't place him. Why do you ask?"
Lucas had an answer ready for this.
"I think our families might do business together or something. My dad brought up the James name the other day, something about alchemy stuff, and I figured I should probably say hi if there's a James kid here."
"Oh yeah, that makes sense," Lydia nodded. "You rich kids and your connections. I don't really keep track of students outside our class. You could ask Marie though. She basically knows everyone in the older grades."
Asking Marie would be way too obvious,Lucas thought. I need to be more sneaky about this.
"Actually, maybe I could just ask around at lunch," Lucas said. "Do you know what classes the second years are in? I think I heard something about them switching things up this year."
"The second years? Well, there's Class S through Class D, same as us first years. Though I heard they did some kind of special testing thing last month that mixed everyone up." Lydia said.
"Special testing?"
"Something about figuring out who's good at what. Marie mentioned it, apparently some kids got bumped up to fast-track classes for alchemy, magical engineering, or combat stuff." Lydia said.
Jackpot, Lucas grinned to himself.
This was exactly what he needed to know. If Raymond was messing around with alchemy, he'd probably be in one of these special classes.
"Huh, interesting. Do you know where these classes happen? I bet they'd need different rooms than the normal ones."
"I think the alchemy kids use the labs in the east wing," Lydia said.
"And the magical engineering people work in those workshops behind the library. Why do you care so much about finding this Raymond guy? Is your family business thing really that big a deal?"