[Level up]
[Level up]
God class beings sure do give a lot of exp, I thought as the calculation and rewards for it took some time to arrive on the green status. I got these messages after Ashwatthama was done with everything and had already retreated into the Banyan. That meant my cute little bird had got a successful hit. Creating a massive horde of Kundalini Akshara animals and controlling them all the time can be a good gameplan for the future. Should I go in this direction?
A momentary thought crossed my mind that I also needed to check Kalpa's status screen too...but Panna had more priority in my mind for now. I can always do that later. Even if I get good skills now, they won't be useful without a shred of Kundalini left in my body. In future, things will be much better when I have more awakened chakras.
"I'll also have twice the amount of Kundalini than other Rakshaks thanks to Panna. So a horde controller is not just an impossible dream."
"What a genius." Panna interjected with a hint of sarcasm.
As the sages divided into four groups for each themselves, my body filled up with Kundalini when the Vaidyas among them started radiating energy, distributing it to everyone in the Ashrama like nuclear reactors. I reached out my distribution vessels responsible for Kundalini circulation nearer to my skin and sucked fresh internal energy into my body, bypassing the Shakti filtration process, just like I was doing to the seniors a few moments ago. So this is how it feels to absorb someone else's Internal energy.
Get better, get better... the energy I was absorbing seemed to pulse with powerful yet gentle intentions. I wonder what my patients felt when I did the same for them.
I felt a weird sensation in my sap vessels. The distribution channels felt like they were magnetized, allured by the presence of powerful Kundalini right outside the skin. Even my little finger regenerated from the sages' recovery magic.
"What was that sarcasm for? It was the first time you did that. Good to see you learning complex aspects of human sociability." I praised her instead .
"It will happen far into the future so no need to get excited about it right now. Keep training like you've been doing." she replied, giving me a mental image of pouting. Seeing her sulking, I felt like she was upset because I underestimated her or something.
As more and more students recovered from the doors of death, the Vaidyas among the sages joined the fight creating an intrepid network of colorful webs connecting all the sages together. It was truly a festival, hundred times crazier than Diwali. The vibrations from the footsteps of Asuras were overwhelmed by the shockwaves from the explosion of the divine missiles. Their Kundalini took up the attributes of their originator chakras and bombarded the swarm of monsters with various elements. Balls of fire, huge waves of water, tornadoes that slowly turned to water sprouts or fire devils that pulled in Danavas and Nagas together, obliterating them, appeared all around us. The green foothills became desolate from the aftermath, turning the once paradise-like-place to a barren wasteland reminiscent of my dreams of Patala Loka. Even after the sages started the assault, the Asuras just didn't seem to diminish in numbers. How many times will they keep resurrecting until they are finally sent to oblivion?
"Panna, no time to waste. Let's grind levels as much as we can!!"
I again sat up straight over the Shakti Rekha and started kneading earthworms with reinforced Kundalini cloaks fitted with Tethers. So each animal had a total of four essences, body plus a tether for commanding their movements, armament plus its tether for keeping it spiralling, necessary for piercing Armor of the the Asuras.
I realised that I had gotten much faster. I was so curious to open up both my statuses and give it a long and detailed look, but if I start that now, I won't be able to make my Akshara animals. Spending will power to not get distracted, I kept creating drill-head earthworms and releasing them underground. This time, my Prana was already low, so all I had was my self-filtered and sages' shared Kundalini. I kept feeling the tethering die out as the earthworms succeeded in their missions. Some were still alive after getting squashed once and moved on to a different target before finally meeting their demise. I was so proud of my little children. The swarm of Asuras finally started dying out, as I felt someone sitting beside me.
It was my mentor senior, Roop. He was missing his right hand and shoulder. But the wound had closed up leaving a mass of flesh good enough to hold the blood and organs within as well as keep away infections from outside. The sages will probably treat him and other amputees directly. It will be horrifying for the parents to find their children meeting up with them during visitations with missing body parts.
I still couldn't forget how my sap vessels reached out by themselves to the Kundalini provided by the sages. Are they treating the Kundalini with various conditions to have an effect like that? My sap vessels themselves established a connection between the missing little finger and my auxiliary chakra, regenerating it. If I can solve the problem regarding controlling the sap vessels in other people's bodies then I might also be able to regenerate their body parts someday.
What I also realised from the events today was that, whatever I did during the healing fiasco was not extraordinary. People were only forbidden to resort to that method as they might lose their lives. When the sages come to know about it, they might also seal my Prana to Kundalini conversion ability resulting in a huge loss for me. The only thing which I had better than others was the high conversion factor since I had repeated the process multiple times over the last few days.
"Don't worry, the sages won't be able to manipulate the green status that you have because of me. They have been given the authority to only handle the blue status of Kalpa. Since you have used the conversion after drinking the Amrita, you'll also get a conversion skill in the blue status. It can be used as a decoy for the real skill by getting sealed instead of the one which I provide."
I focused on Roop while my hands kept working without rest. He was looking at them intently.
"It was quite tough this time, wasn't it?" he said as a conversation starter.
"This was my first time though. I won't hope for it to get any worse. The seven chosen people for who knows what, Kalpa growing stronger being a concern for the Asuras, which made them act in this manner. There seems to be so much going on behind the scenes that we have no idea about. I just came here because my grandmother wanted me to. And I thought I would just live a normal highschool life like I did in my previous school. Despite everything, I have been trying to keep my mind stable and logical, trying to find meaning out of all the non sensical things happening around me, trying to adapt and improvise with whatever skills I was already equipped with. I was helped in a great manner by some wonderful people. But all the people around me made up their minds and goals in life in a different manner than me. It was always based on 'this'. " I spread out my hands conveying I was talking about everything 'here'. "For me, I have just been thinking like: I'll complete my school, go to college, get some degree and a job. Put time in my hobbies or things I will probably want to do in future. After seeing all these, my best option is to die thrice and forget about everything, if I wanted to just give up and stay ignorant. But since I have already witnessed these, I don't think I can go back anymore to my plain old life. I'll need to rethink what I want to do with my life from scratch."
Roop listened to me venting, quietly, and waited for me to finish.
"You probably weren't aware that I was healed by you today. You sat there exuding such confidence and tenacity for one moment and then cried out for food in the other. I was watching you from just a few feet away, wondering what kind of an expression to give. I wanted to laugh, but my pain kept me gritting my teeth. When a Naga sliced off my right side I thought I was done for, until a few other batchmates carried me away, saying "Don't worry, the Generator will take care of you." I was overwhelmed, by the amount of trust they had in you, and to be saved by someone who I was meant to protect. I was frustrated, jealous, ashamed and depressed. Despite all those feelings, I want to thank you and ask for your forgiveness. I am grateful to you for showing me how insignificant I was. Like you have to rethink what you want in life, I'll also need to find out what my strengths and weaknesses are. Be an overall better person who will not disappoint the people that will be depending on me again."
I stayed quiet at his honest confession. To come out and say all these things to someone you haven't even known for a week, required a massive amount of courage. It was like he was making an oath for himself, by keeping me as his witness at the lowest point of his life till now, to use all these emotions as fuel to propel himself towards a future where he is a much better person than today.
"I'll look forward to you covering my back in future. Let's both of us do our best till then." I answered in a diplomatic manner trying not to sound condescending in any way after carefully choosing my words. Any 'you can do it' phrases might have an opposite effect right now.
"Take this." Roop said and handed me an earring. "Wear it in Satya Marta. Make sure to heal yourself afterwards before the visitations. Your parents might be shocked otherwise. It increases Shakti to Kundalini conversion by five percent. Use it well."
As I watched him walking away, I confirmed to Panna whether I could see other people's status windows or not.
"We are almost level 5 now, if the difference in levels is not much then it is possible to intercept their connection to Kalpa and copy the information out. But considering the talk you had right now, it is better to wait and give him some time. Let's do this status hacking as less as possible until I get stronger. Kalpa can easily find out the common element being you, in all the interceptions since she also has her sap inside your body." Panna suggested, leaving me amused.
D: " You once had said that one day you would like to understand and communicate complex emotions borne by humans. You have infact become much more humane and empathetic than most of us. Thanks for not allowing it, as I might have felt guilty later. I will keep working hard, but sometimes little successes give a feeling of superiority over everybody else. Thoughts like that only tend to destroy one from inside. The last thing I want is being arrogant and losing my life in a situation where I have underestimated my opponent."
P: "One more thing to add to my list of 'what to stop you from doing' I guess. If you ever grow arrogant like Ravana, I'll cut you down as Rama. Not literally though, I can't imagine losing you, I'll just give you some harsh punishment so that you can reflect on your wrong doings later."
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She's getting too good at conversations, I thought as I felt butterflies in my stomach. It was such a wholesome feeling that threatened to melt my insides, making me wonder if this is how people felt when they play with really cute babies. What does a father feel when their child calls out to them for the first time? Or when they wrap their little fingers around yours when you try to touch their cheeks. Was it a feeling similar to this?
Should I make 'becoming an awesome father' one of the goals in life for now? But I believe there are a lot of conditions to fulfill before that, so let's just keep it at the back of my mind. I don't know what Panna considers me to be. Probably just a human who she's bonded to? Who are her parents? Pollination happens within the same plant and between different plants of the same grove. Who planted her? Where in the Lokas is she? She was totally filled with mysteries. How will she even remember who planted her as a seed? Did she even have a consciousness at that point?
Maybe she herself didn't know. But does she want to know? If she ever asks for help, where am I supposed to start? Where do I even look?
After two and half hours of creating earthworms and exhausting all my Kundalini, a level up notification came up before me as one of the sages bombed the last wave of retreating Asuras. They kept up their assault even after their leader was annihilated. As if they were commanded to keep attacking, reducing the lives of Rakshaks as much as possible, regardless of how many lives they lost on their end. Is the Patala Loka actually how Ahara said it was? With nothing to eat, or grow, do people resort to cannibalism as a final option?
What would happen one day if the prisoners in a jail were denied any food? They might endure for one or two days, then what after that?
Who are usually the criminals currently in our jails? Ofcourse there are some truly heinous beings, but there are also people who were either deceived, were a product of their environment where options were limited, who resorted to stealing to probably feed their hungry family. There are so many stories for everyone of us in this world. Do we just categorise them like good and evil? Weren't they doing what they thought suited them at that particular point of time? What determines which option a person will choose when provided with various ones, both moral and immoral?
Why do they hate Kalpa this much? Is there something going on we don't know? Or is it something the authorities know, but not us? Why were the Asuras so hell bent on destroying our batch of Rakshaks? Yeah, because we got seven chosen ones, chosen for something, that endangers the Asuras quite a bit.
I brought the earring gifted by Roop closer to my ear. In a sharp pain it poked a hole in my ear lobe and stayed there. I can now filter Kundalini a bit faster.
The final group of the retreating Asuras disappeared beyond the edge of the mountains as half hearted cheers came out from different parts of the Ashrama. People were just happy that this torture had finally ended. It was just quantity and quantity without using any proper battle strategies. Again, why can the Asuras just go in and out of the Ashrama like that? It doesn't make sense. Why don't we have a proper security system like the Agni Barrier working for 24 hours? Maybe the sages have a good surveillance network over the area. Who knows?
The seniors supported each other, some carrying injured on their backs, some carried others in princess style, some placed their friends on their shoulders like a sack of rice, some were carried on stretchers and some went side by side with arms over their shoulders as support. Many of them recognised me and waved goodbyes. It gave me such a deep impression. The genuine gratitude you get back when you help someone in a life or death situation was quite addicting. But I have seen enough cases of people trying to help and getting used without getting any appreciation. In future there will be cases where I might have to choose whom to save. I'm not conceited to say that I will be able to save everyone. My people. Who are they? When will I know who they will be? What if someone I decide not to save was supposed to be someone really close to me in the near future?
First, I need to plan my life putting the divine aspects of the world into the picture and looking at it anew.
Next, I need to decide on a set of conditions and find people who checks out all of them, with whom I will slowly build a relationship and ultimately can trust in the future. Powerful? Loyal? Someone with a drive to become better? Someone empathetic and pure hearted? Which qualities should I look for in my companions? Is it a correct way to go about? Looking for people with special features and befriending them? I'll keep socialising as I have been doing, with these things at the backseat. If someone arrives forcing me to apply the brakes, these items from the back will automatically get flung towards the front. I'll think about it then. Now that my mind feels sorted, after all these enigmatic conversations with different people, let's open up our status windows. I was getting excited to see what changes have been made. First it was Panna's turn:
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STATUS from [Panna]
Name: Dhruva
Species: Human
Age: 12
Trait: Fabrication (Auxiliary)
Class: Guardian of [Panna] (Auxiliary)
Level: 5
HP: 300->400
Attack: 17->29
Defense: 8->13
Crit chance: 0.02->0.07
Crit damage: 0.1->0.15
Stat points: 25 (Use!!)
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STATS(Auxiliary)
Strength: 10
Stamina: 8->9
Agility: 6
Dexterity: 34->37
Intelligence: 22->23
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Shakti(divine energy): 8
Kundalini(internal energy): 4
Prana(life energy): 16->17 (1)
Prana to Kundalini Conversion: 2.5->2.8
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Curse resistance: 0
Enchantment resistance: 2->3
Poison resistance: 0
Ailment resistance: 6
Mental resistance: 8->10
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SKILLS(Auxiliary)
Passives:
Reasoning: LvL 3
Intuition: LvL 2
Visualization: LvL 4
Space Comprehension: LvL 1->2
Chitram: LvL 6
Chanting: LvL 2
Concentration: LvL 5
Mental Fortitude: LvL 2
Parallel Processing: LvL 1->2
Kundalini Conductivity: LvL 2->3
Kundalini Tethering: LvL 3->4
Shakti To Kundalini Conversion: 0.57->(0.63+0.05)
Active:
Field of protection: LvL 3->5
One with nature: LvL 1
Recovery: LvL 3->5
Wood Flesh: LvL 2
Bonk: LvL 2
Akshara: LvL 3->5
Kundalini Cloaking: LvL 2
_______________________________________________
Some changes were expected and some weren't. Let's go one by one over them.
It seems we will be given 20 points of health every level. My attack has increased 2+(2 times the number of level ups). The extra 2 can be coming from learning the Kundalini spiralling with the tethering. Def increased by one point per level. The crit chance and crit damage might be increasing randomly. Stats with probabilities are the worst to be honest. Let's not waste time there. They are just bonus damage happening once in a blue moon. Since I have 25 stat points for allocation, it means we're awarded 5 points per level. I tried increasing points of the resistances once again just to make sure, but it was all in vain. The energy stats are also constant. Let's hoard them for now on. I don't wanna regret later like I did while playing that medieval lizard killing game on my brother's desktop. I had saved my game over his and got grounded from touching his things for two months. I'll use on stamina if I need to run away, put it on strength if I needed to fight... whichever comes first among them, the list will follow this format. Prana capacity has again increased, by one point only, but will now give 2.8 Kundalini extra, awesome. But I also need to be careful as I only have 1 Prana point left in my body until I eat something nutritious. Coming to passives, controlling the Aksharas over the map has increased my space Comprehension. Parallel Processing, Tethering and Conductivity increasing also makes sense since I used multiple skills continuously. Base value of Shakti to Kundalini conversion has increased 6 points, with an extra 5 percent because of the earrings. In Active skills, the ones I used most, Recovery, Field of Protection and Akshara have all increased to level 5. Akshara had a massive development because of the pointers I got from the senior. I need to thank him personally later. Does he even go to the same Gurukul as us?
Night had already fallen by the time the seniors went back to their Ashrama sections through space cracks. They still look cool no matter how many times I see it. I need to understand how those teleportation or travel cracks work. Can I also generate one? Right now it seems they are created by the sages who decide the destination and set it up.
So many "We'll meet again" or "Stay safe" wishes warmed my heart. Apsara didi also came to say her goodbyes before leaving, reminding me once more to look for her if I needed any help.
"You keep telling me that, but I don't even know how to contact people from other parts of the Ashrama." I complained.
"Ohh!! Wait. What's your roll number?" she asked poking into the empty air.
"Are you curious about her status window?" Panna teased me.
"Ofcourse I'm, but let's not peek." I mental messaged her, receiving a chuckle as a reply.
"I sent you a friend request, you'll find it on that 'friends' icon in the top right, inside 'pending requests' suboptions. This is my private userID. Don't share with anybody, okay? I'll have to create a new one if it gets leaked again. Take a look at it later. Bye!!" she did whatever she wanted and went on her way as she joined her other two friends. One of her two friends said something as Apsara and the other one stopped and stared at her for a few seconds. Then they started dragging her by the hand towards me. After a brief struggle the poor girl freed herself and disappeared into the crack. The two who were left behind, shared a hearty laugh, waved and also disappeared.
Just a few moments before, the whole campus was bustling with the screams of terror and death. And now a deathly silence fell over it.
The sages asked us to go to the dining hall which was the first building that was restored among all the others. They stayed back and started using water attributed Kundalini to clean the area. Another group used earth Kundalini to slowly build back the dorms. The space outside the dining hall was filled with chants and hymns as the air vibrated with powerful Kundalini that was being used to create miracles right now.
The next thing on my agenda will be learning these hymns. I also wanted to do cool stuffs like these, how awesome will it be to erect buildings within an hour!! Our team sat together in the same bench silently and kept devouring the fruits.
"So Saiyan, just to make things clear, let us know beforehand, if you can peek at our status windows or not. Usually chosen people get some special privileges like that." I said while chewing a bunch of grapes together. I usually like to peel them and savor them slowly but now I needed the juice. Lots of it.
"I can, but not until you bring it up infront of you." he answered honestly.
Me: "Accept my prayers Lord Yudhisthira, hero of truth."
A: "Accept our prayers!"
D: "Accept our prayers, oh lord!!"
"You guys..." Saiyan couldn't even retort and shoved two lychees in his mouth.
"Have you guys shared your status details with each other?" I whispered to him.
"No, none of us showed theirs. They also make sure not to open it up somewhere in public. I would suggest checking it when you're alone too, if you aren't keen on showing others your abilities." he suggested.
"Thanks for the tip." I gave him a thumbs up. "What's your level?" I asked the forbidden question after a while.
I saw him pondering whether to tell me or not. After a few seconds, he decided and said, "Twelve. I currently have the highest level. There's a ranking inside the Banyan tree where Lord Ashwatthama monitors us from. It normally shows the top three." he waited a bit, maybe for my next question. We stared at each other for a few seconds as he sighed rolling his eyes. Seeing me not asking anything, he added, "She's almost at level 10 but couldn't successfully convert it. It seemed that she didn't take it too well considering the kind of pride she has. You're welcome."
"That was not cool. Thanks for not saying it loud though." I whispered, seeing him smiling with the satisfaction of getting back at me.
This guy remembers jokes and even gets back at you.
"I need a different thanks though." He said, adamant on not ending the conversation yet.
"Okay, okay. Thanks for your kind information good sir!" I was the one to fold first.
"Since you thanked me so wonderfully, let me give you another bit of information." he was still not ending it. Dweep and Anik might be getting curious now.
"Last I saw her entering the southern forest alone." he said staring at me. "So how long are you gonna stuff your mouth here? Go!"
"Bro, have you been stalking her?" I asked as I got up from the table.
"Gotta do what needs to be done for a friend." he said, smugness overflowing from his face, looking like this was probably his greatest achievement today even after considering everything that had transpired today.