"I'm genuinely disappointed in this system..." Anik mumbled while lying inside the mosquito net. We finally returned to Alik after seven days in the Ashrama. Thinking that hours are speeding by back at Satya made me feel weird. Losing that much time, which could have been allocated to training made me feel kind of restless.
"Hey, why don't we stay at the Ashrama and come here only for school?" Dweep asked, making us genuinely confused. He really got a point.
"Let's get fresh for now. Things back at Satya happened magically, but we have to take care of ourselves here. The contrast teaches us to be self sufficient and helps us to learn important skills required by anyone, man or woman." Saiyan said seriously.
I laughed out hearing that. "Saiyan seems to have found enlightenment on his way here. Chill out bro."
"I'm just deluding myself. Do you think I'm not frustrated being away from Ashrama? I was just trying to use sarcasm, which didn't come out properly I guess."
The wake up bell suddenly started ringing, just three minutes after we jumped back to Alik. My absorption vessels were now back in their places. But I'll have to take time changing the order when my next chakra awakens. While Muladhara chakra required me to be humble and self aware, the next one named Swadhisthana which is located just below my navel requires me to be calm, collected and emotionally stable to be awakened. Why do we only awaken one chakra at a time, in a single year? Can't we speed up the process?
The bell stopped ringing for a minute and again started. It kept repeating this format for a few times until we saw four of the mentors allocated to us at our door way. The time keeper was being snoozed every minute I guess.
We also came out of our mosquito nets and sat at the edge of our beds.
Saiyan's mentor patted his shoulder as he was nearest to the door and smiled at us.
"Thank God you four haven't lost all your lives. The ones who did will be sleeping for the next three hours until we can set things up and get ready. So let's keep you up to date on what we have to do from now on." he said while whispering.
"Good job everyone, for being alive. But this is the first time that sixth class students lost all their lives, so things will be a bit difficult. Usually students lose all three lives by ninth or tenth standard, since we only start delving into temple dungeons at the end of seventh. Some who had one or two lives left after the Vrata also lost their last ones trying to recover you guys from the Lokas. We didn't take the wardens' warnings seriously before, since there were no one forgotten by Satya Marta in the junior section, but we have to follow it properly from now on." Dweep's mentor whose name I didn't know yet added.
"Our batchmates who lost all their lives have to go on with their daily schedules, following the routine here, so we also have to act properly according to it, whether we like it or not. After finding ourselves this much lacking, I realize that all of us must be rearing to go back to the Ashrama for training, but there's nothing we can do." Saiyan's mentor again continued, as I glanced at Roop who was watching us intently. With a nod we greeted each other.
"But we don't know who among our batch are still a part of the Satya Marta." Anik mumbled.
"That's why, no talk of Satya is allowed in Alik. You never know who's listening so just control yourselves for the next seventeen hours. The wardens are now re allocating the Forgotten to different rooms so that they don't find you guys missing in the middle of the night. Make sure to lock your rooms while sleeping from now on. Incase of mishaps, Kalpa will try to take care of it using Maya like the forgotten who have been sent to a coma for the next three hours, but try not to increase her burdens. She already got a lot on her plate currently. In the worst case, the wardens will have to care of that, using Kala Jaadu for memory manipulation. We are also not ready for it..." Roop spoke up as he stood leaning against our wardrobes.
"What else is there?" Saiyan's mentor thought for a while, "Oh, there will be syllabus changes in the Ashrama I think. Ashwatthama is the only Immortal left at the Ashrama, with the others currently fighting Rahu. He'll manage all the standards from now on as a Principal. Since time in upper Lokas moves slower, it will be months until the war between Rahu and the Gods start properly. There might be more joint exercises between the standards, so we might be seeing each other more from now on."
I realised that the Vrata invasion had shifted the focus of the curriculum in Ashrama. We are going to get hardcore training from now on. Nice...
"Why do we need a year to awaken a new chakra? Can't we speed up the process?" I asked the seniors. "Did you all try to awaken it before starting your second year at the Gurukul? It should have been atleast 8 years back at the Ashrama right?"
"Chakra awakening usually takes a while. Even if you have cleared the requirements for the next one, Kalpa's vessels inside you take sometime to grow. It is like a regenerative organ, slowly growing... You take the excess and use it as a catalyst for awakening the new chakra." Roop explained. I need to sit with him for sometime and ask all my questions later. But something else was also bugging me...
"You should have lived for more than one year when you consider the time you've spent in both the Ashrama and the Gurukul. How come you all haven't aged a bit?" I asked getting stares from everyone.
"You didn't know this? Alik is a prime destination for giving birth. Most Manavas living in Satya Marta come to Alik for giving birth to their sons or daughters. Your biological clock follows the timeline of the Loka you were born in. So if a person born in Alik goes to Satya and starts living there, he'll live for a whole lot of years until his vessel degrades away. The soul is strained a bit, since it lives away from the source for much longer than intended, but as you level up, the separation between the soul and the elements, which is your body gets stronger too. Allowing you to slow down the erosional process." Anik's mentor explained with a little disappointment. Was the question too basic to ask?
Won't it be cool if one day I reach the lowest floor of Patala and get to train for tens of thousands of years? I might be eaten up by the gigantic serpents living there in an instant I guess. Remembering the huge body of Vritra sent a shiver down my spine. He's known in the myths to be a Water Hoarder, stealing away water from every other Loka and bringing a massive draught to the Universe. But he never used a water attack once. Was he even Vritra?
I broke off my train of thought and came back to the topic.
"What are your levels currently?" Anik's mentor asked, while wiping his glasses on his shirt. He had an average build and scruffy short hair. He also showed off a coin size mole on his neck which kept distracting me.
Saiyan's mentor was a bit muscular, with his calves and shin bulged. He had veins popping up on the upper part of his feet. Dweep's mentor on the other hand was the tallest in the room. I suddenly realised that the highlights we had in our hair had vanished. Is it because Kalpa's vessels are restricted from being used in Alik? Interesting. What about our bodies? It has definitely strengthened after levelling up. Does it retain its stats or revert back to the condition they were actually in?
Suddenly the rope that went through the middle of our room snapped, falling with our towels and clothes. Dweep was holding onto it with a guilty look in his face.
"Guess we have to be careful from now on, since we levelled up quite a bit." Anik said clicking his tongue at Dweep with a fake condescending look, "I'm at level 8 currently."
"7." Dweep mumbled.
"11." I continued the call mentioning only Kalpa's Status level.
"22." Saiyan said without hesitation.
"Whoa... Hands on experience is definitely better. If you exclude losing your lives part. We are only around 16 or 17. Once you reach 20, your vessels will be strong enough to awaken the next chakra. Since we don't get into fights that often to gain experience, it takes time to develop our vessels naturally, hence the one year like gap between the two awakenings." Saiyan's mentor explained.
Now things are starting to make sense. Once you have your basics down, and your skills practiced, you can level up much quicker at the temple dungeons. With only minor threats from the Asuras, the Rakshaks had no incentive to try hard before. There were only skirmishes whenever the Asuras breached into Marta. But things seem to be taking a turn for worse lately, with matters of the Seven and interference of Rahu. It makes sense why Rahu was this much powerful. Rahu and Ketu are actually parts of a single body like dullahan from western legends, the only Asura to have seen through the illusion of Lord Vishnu during Samudra Manthan and managed to drink Amrita. Well, things didn't turn out well for him. Or technically it did? His body was severed in two, but the Amrita kept him alive, and now his two parts gained separate consciousness who keep trying to swallow up the sun and the moon in vain, since they just come out of their severed oesophagus right after passing through the neck. Surya and Chandra were the ones who found his actual body sitting among the Gods trying to trick Lord Vishnu. They snitched on him, and now as a revenge, Rahu keeps trying to swallow their essence. After swallowing Amrita, Rahu and Ketu ascended to Bhuvar Loka breaking a divine barrier, and currently stay in the shadows of outer space coming out to eat up the sun and moon in regular intervals causing eclipses.
Nice story. The moral is never upsetting the people who are in power I guess?
The Asuras were promised an equal share for their hard work in bringing out the Amrita. But when they sat together with the Gods, to drink Amrita fairly, they were given premium rainbow water instead of real Amrita. Imagine the disappointment. Since they wouldn't know until they died to check the effects of Amrita, they were scammed. When Svar Bhanu, the actual body of Rahu and Ketu went and sat among Gods, the Amrita distributer Lord Vishnu, got angry and threw his Sudarshan Chakra cutting his body at the neck. There were indeed scamming and attempts to steal the Amrita going on behind the scenes, so no one can blame anyone accusing the other of starting troubles first. Hence the moral.
Ohh, the Devatas after getting powered up by Amrita, made sure to give the Asuras a demonstration of the life regenerating properties of premium rainbow water. Well you can guess it how it turned out.
I keep going off the rails these days. I have to start cultivating a calm and collected mind to awaken the Swadhisthana chakra. Maybe I can try levelling up Kalpa's status till 20 without giving anything to Panna... but she might also get angry. With lesser number of chakras, the rate at which I can create Kundalini within myself will be trivial. Once the storage and Prana runs out, I'll be technically out of commission until we reach a Shakti Rekha. And if purifying Shakti takes more time than usual, I'll be in a lot more disadvantage even while standing on a Rekha.
I can now make others use their Prana to produce Kundalini using Skill Share. But is there any way I can suck Prana or Kundalini out from them with my Tethers? Similar to absorbing Shakti into my body from a nearby Rekha? Woah, hold it there. It's a really immoral proposition. But interesting.
I'll have to run experiments, using fruits or vegetables first. Let's not tell anybody about this. For now.
"So yeah, to speed up the awakening process we'll need more levels. I'll be glad if they send us out to the dungeons from the beginning of the year only. With supervision ofcourse, but atleast we can grind our levels a bit instead of growing the vessels naturally." Dweep's tall mentor wished.
"Okay, so from now on, no more mention of Satya Marta. The other Gurukuls might have had some Forgotten students in the first few years so they might be used to this. But it will be a new experience for us. Let's try not to slip it up. Any mishaps will only add to their misery. That continuous feeling of knowing a word but not being able to pronounce it, is heart wrenching to be honest. If they ever hear things related to Satya, they might feel a lot of mental anguish. Please be careful." Anik's mentor said, turning around to open the door.
"Ask them to put a new pin in the wall for the rope, well, they'll need to do much more than that." Saiyan's mentor looked at the crater in the wall where the pin holding our rope was attached to. Dweep gave an embarrassed smile.
"The rope is quite important. You can play room volleyball using it as a net. We have intra Bhavana tournaments for a lot of silly things so start practicing now." Roop laughed and left the room with the other mentors.
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The prayer hall where I had my Synchronisation Ritual was quite empty, with the Forgotten students still sleeping. I made sure to say my thanks to Lord Garuda for putting up a remarkable fight against Vritra to defend us. I was truly grateful. Aditya had advised me to think which God I wanted to form a connection with, to later summon their incarnations like he did after giving it some thought. I have to think about compatibility, availability and the predisposition of a divine being while choosing one. Not anybody can form a connection with the Trinity unless they were direct Avatars. For others, some aren't probably even interested. Some are too busy with their own thing. Well you never know. I need to give it a careful thought later. The things is, I have turned myself to a blank slate currently after awakening the root chakra. I acknowledged it as a pseudo lowest point of my life, deluding myself that I can only go up from there. It changed a bit of my competitive personality, but maybe that bit is still hiding somewhere inside, deep within me. All the experiences from now on will slowly shape my personality and character in the future. The morals and teachings I have inherited from my family will only act as a guide from now on. But won't probably influence my choices in a massive way.
We listened to the chanting performed by the seniors and meditated after reading four excerpts from the Bhagavad Gita. Since the seniors started reading it from a week back, we missed a lot of chapters. Lord Krishna was now explaining Arjuna why he needed to fight his own family to uphold Dharma. Gita is fascinating. It tackles a lot of moral dilemmas and tries to provide solutions to it. We humans are bound to face similar drawbacks in our life and with an already established way of thinking, it might be easier for us to face the consequences of our choices. What's more interesting is that Lord Krishna employed the same trick as Panna when I visited her for the second time. Just before battle was breaking out between the two armies of Mahabharata, Krishna slowed down time and narrated all of Bhagavad Gita, answering Arjuna's questions as well as revealing his true identity all within the span of a few milliseconds. What not can the Avatars of Lord Vishnu do? So cool.
While meditating, I kept getting flashbacks of Vritra's final attack. When we were this close to getting obliterated. Thousands of phantom snakes that kept rushing towards us... I kept getting shivers. Then the images changed to the dead bodies back at Sutala's capital. My thoughts drifted off to the baby we rescued. If their biological clock followed their birth Loka, then wouldn't she grow much faster while living in Satya? Since weeks and months will be passing by back at Sutala while it will only be a few days at the Ashrama. These thoughts. Why won't they calm down??
I have to learn the yoga poses for awakening Swadhisthana. Keep practicing them until my thoughts get organised and in order. Under my total control. Another thing to add to my mental to do list.
There were still two hours left before the Forgotten woke up, when whispering started in the senior area aggressively. The lights were again switched on and the meditation time ended.
I understood why it was like that. Kalpa's status was now activated in front of us automatically.
It was red, giving off warning signals.
"Large Scale Asura Invasion in Satya" - It said.
"Calling back all personnel immediately for briefing."
We looked at each other as lightning tendrils showed up on our skin, forcibly making us jump through the dimensions again.
Can't we just catch a break for sometime?
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"We are back at the Ashrama after one hour. A day should have passed by now right?" Dweep commented as we found ourselves at the central Banyan. The sages were already standing around the tree. I wanted to go take a look at the baby we saved from Sutala, who was left with the caretakers of Kamadhenu's daughter. Did the caretaker appointed by Mahabali reach the Ashrama already?
The Ashrama kept getting crowded, as more and more students appeared from the white glowy dimensional cracks. The number was a lot lesser than before though. I have to check how many are left among us properly, sometime later.
Ashwatthama's voice suddenly appeared inside our minds as he stayed hidden within the tree.
"I'm talking to every Rakshak currently in the Ashrama. The eleventh and twelfth standard students have already embarked on their journey since the events required urgent attention. Once the first regiment reaches the three Temples, they can set up coordinates for us to open the portals. Now we can only wait for them. During that time I would like to brief you all on the situation we are facing currently." his voice stopped, as he took a deep breath.
"Tens of thousands of Asuras are now trying to invade three very important temples in Satya Marta. They contain powerful artifacts, which in the hands of Asuras will only bring about demise of our race. Kalpa has tasked us with the quest of stopping them from entering or destroying the temples at all costs. There's also some good news for us. Only Manavas are allowed into the dungeons. It is a law governed by the Trinity and can't be broken that easily by the Asuras. Kalpa has also promised one of Lord Vishwakarma's creations to everybody who kills more than a thousand Asuras, so the alumni are also joining the operation. We have decided on what the roles will be for each of the standards, so listen carefully." Ashwatthama was still continuing.
Lord Vishwakarma is known as the divine architect and craftsman in our mythologies. His creations range from designing the Vimanas, manufacturing Astras, to building magnificent cities in different Lokas. Possessing one of his weapons can make you a dozen times stronger than your peers who are at your level in terms of skills and chakras.
"So this is what we've decided." Ashwatthama started speaking again, "Twelfth and eleventh standard Yoddhas and Surakshaks will be at the front lines along with the alumni. After the war camps are set up their Dhanurdhars and Vaidyas will be acting as the commanders of the support teams incharge of long range bombardments and healing stations. Standards eight, nine and ten will also be at the battlefield, the ones with two or more lives will be allowed to be at the front lines until they lose one. It is important to get hands on experience now, since all you have been doing is taking out demonic monsters from Patala with mid level intelligence. It's time you face the intelligent Asuras and strengthen yourselves. That's it for the senior section. The lists have been created, allocating you to the temple and the supervisors you'll be working under. The sages from that section will also be there giving you practical guidance, so make the most out of this. Now coming to the junior section, seventh standard Rakshaks will be guiding the sixth and fifth class students into the beginner temple dungeons that they entered after the Vrata since we changed their curriculum a bit. Make sure to take care of your juniors. The details have been sent to the sages who will map the juniors to the seniors so follow their instructions... ohh, I see ... Oh Lord..." Ashwatthama suddenly got anxious. He must have gotten some report from the pilot force.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
"So there's a bad news for us. The Asuras employed some mass teleportation technique again, allowing them to capture the three Temples before we even reached the sites. The transportation Vimanas are under fire from the Asuran Dhanurdhars. The good thing is that the Asuras can't enter the Temples yet to claim the treasures, but we never know... They might have Manava helpers hiding among us. The Temple guardians have been slaughtered already, with rivers of blood flowing down the stairs of the sacred sites. It's gruesome. But, soon we'll be able to gain a vantage point where we can set up our camps. It will be a war of attrition from there on. We have to take back the Temples and send people inside to retrieve the treasures before the Asuras get to them." He related the new information to us.
It's weird. Why do we have to go inside and retrieve the treasures ultimately? Isn't our goal just to stop the Asuras from stealing them? But why did the Asuras suddenly decide to make this huge decision? It will not be favourable for them to be honest. How long can they keep up defending a place? Considering the limited food sources in Patala? If their biological clock follows that of Patala where time moves faster than Marta then in a few months they'll be decades of years old. Does it not matter to beings who have a divine ancestry? Why after all this time... and with this timing did the Asuras finally invade like this? Are the treasures more important than they seem? Do they have a hidden functionality, that requires us to retrieve them, instead of keeping it safe inside the temple as it is? Why are those artifacts inside the temples anyway? Shouldn't they be much safer in the upper Lokas where the Asuras can't enter easily? So many questions!!!
The head sage of our Ashrama section finally spoke up, "You'll have only one day to prepare before going into the dungeons. Experience the demonstrations that the sages will be providing today and take a class right after to memorize whatever you hear. You'll be given study materials later on. For now it will be enough. Oh and the seven teams... Sorry, it seems there are only six here right now. You will be given a choice to either join the battle field or delve into the beginner temple dungeon. You can decide among your team mates what you want to do. Let me know as soon as possible."
We had left the Ashrama at night and returned one day later, but somehow it was day time here. Am I missing something here? Or was the time dilation not properly calculated and everybody simply gave an intuitive estimate?
Thinking about it confused me more, but for now I calmed myself down, telling that I just didn't have enough information. I'll check it later.
But what about the six teams? What happened to the seventh team? How were they filling up missing members? Who'll even join them knowing that they'll only lose their lives being with one of the Seven?
As the crowd dispersed, our team stayed standing where we were.
I heard a sudden whisper from Ashwatthama again, but this time it was surely for me personally.
"I won't lock up your precious yet dangerous skills following Kalpa's orders. Keep your friends safe with them. Any skill is welcome right now, considering the circumstances, taboo or not. Don't overdo it though." His gentle and friendly voice calmed my mind from all the thoughts that were running about inside my mind.
"It'll hurt a bit, but I'll put a curse on you that will interfere with Kalpa's monitoring. As a side effect, you might be having really weird abstract thoughts whenever Kalpa tries to spy on you. But after a few times she might give up if she keeps seeing visions that don't make sense. Hopefully it helps you. Keep this as a secret between us. Am I clear?"
"Yes. Guru Ashwatthama."
"Ho, that was a pleasant addition. If you can endure the curse I'm placing on you, your Curse Resistance will be increasing gradually. If you want to acknowledge me as a Guru, try increasing the Curse Resistance to 20, because only after that you'll be able to endure the effects of the curse that Krishna placed on me. To receive my direct teachings that is the bare minimum. What do you say? I've been looking at you for a while, and you seem to be quite a principled character. You didn't think twice before revealing your skills to save your seniors, and I heard about what happened back in Sutala from Saiyan. I think you'll be a good disciple..."
My heart warmed up hearing his compliments, and also knowing that Saiyan had talked about me positively with Lord Ashwatthama.
"I'll try my best to raise my curse resistance. So wait a while for me." I said confidently. Being told good things directly to your face certainly raises your morale and confidence. I felt like a part of my previous self was slowly peeking from a corner of my mind. The part which was self assured and confident no matter what the situation was. I have to take the best things that I had and cultivate them properly. Throw away all the bad things after taking my learnings from them. Sometimes I feel like I have not made progress at all, sticking to my same old habits, but having that self introspection was definitely a step forward. Before, I had hurt so many people unknowingly, probably even bullying them. But I never thought about it from their side. Maybe it was nothing to me, but things I did was probably not welcome from their perspective. Otherwise so many people wouldn't have just straight up ignored and forgotten me, not even asking how I was doing after I stopped going to school for three months. My relationships were not the same after that. I am again falling into the hell hole of self doubt. Let's stop. I might not be looking at the bigger picture. Blaming them or myself is just an easy way out. If I truly want to clear this misunderstanding I need to go back and talk with them directly.
"Ohh, which among the seven is missing?" I asked Ashwatthama mentally.
"Kalpa's guardian." He answered as my stomach started getting a weird tug of Intuition. "She might be on a special mission given by Kalpa, as all the Rakshaks are usually teleported in and out of Alik by her."
"That's the case? I thought it were the sages that took care of the dimensional jumps." I asked clearing up my previous predispositions.
"We can teleport a dozen probably? Such a large scale dimensional jump can only be carried out by God class Divine beings. The Asuras must have a powerful Divine being by their side. Possibly Shukracharya. In the Lokas of Patala they get a lot more time to cultivate knowledge than us. No wonder they can come up with new techniques. Kalpa seems to be busy with something, so we had to use Vimanas to reach the three sites." Ashwatthama replied.
Kalpa is busy. Somi is on a special mission possibly. But my intuition... what can I even do? I have also deleted her contact...
"Is she replying through Kalpa Yaal? Somi?" I asked.
"She seems to be in an isolated space currently. The messages are not even reaching her judging from the single tick mark in the messages. She'll be safe. Kalpa will make sure to take care of her precious guardian, so don't worry." Ashwatthama consoled me, "I get why you're acting like this. I didn't mean to, but I have eyes all over the Ashrama with my Tethers. Guess I don't need to say more..." Ashwatthama gave a light hearted laugh.
My ears went red hearing his words. "Why didn't you use that surveillance strategy during the Vrata? Or were you having too much fun watching us?" I replied back with a hint of sarcasm.
"The Vrata incident was similar to this Three Temple incident. The Asuras just appeared out of nowhere. They luckily teleported at the boundary of the Ashrama which runs beyond the mountains so we were fortunate in that regard. Okay, it's been a long talk. I shouldn't allocate so much time to a specific person. I'll wait for you to complete the prerequisites then. Best of luck." the mind channel between us broke away right after that.
A few of my concerns were answered I guess? The main takeaway was my curse resistance. It will be a while before it...
"Arghhhh...." I almost cried out in pain. My eyes turned blurry as if I was looking into a Kaleidoscope. The changing geometrical shapes pulsing with vibrant colors kept transforming and dancing in front of me. I felt sturdy arms holding me up as I lost the strength in my legs. Suddenly the scene changed to a zoo I had once visited in my childhood. The lone white tiger there had drawn all my child like attention. It was now standing on two legs, the tail wrapped around his neck like a luxurious wool muffler. There were gym equipments kept at one side of its cage, where protein shakes were rolling about. What is this? I started laughing hysterically. How crazy can this get? I started consciously adding things into the absurd vision I was experiencing. Let's put a Lamborghini inside the cage too. It will be nice if the tiger can go in and rev the engine hard. Suddenly the vision shattered away like the effects in typical soap operas bringing me back to the Ashrama. My eyes and head were hurting quite a bit after the fiasco. My ribcages too, for laughing like that.
I opened up Panna's status and finally saw the number 1 after all this time. My Curse Resistance had increased and wasn't zero anymore.
The absurd visions are like a dream then. Whenever I get too conscious of it and try to modify as I wish, I'll be able to break the illusion. Now I was getting interested in curses. Aren't mind attacks kind of cool? Instead of learning Divine Missiles that usually Dhanurdhars use, shouldn't it be better to learn about curses from Ashwatthama? He must have researched about curses a lot trying to get rid of the one afflicting him. I'll try asking him later. But how many times does Kalpa need to spy on me to reach 20 stat in curse resistance?
"Are you okay? Did you lose your mind for some reason?" Saiyan whispered looking around. There were several people who were standing at the central Banyan with us, giving me weird stare downs. The other five teams from the chosen ones. To be honest, I wasn't interested in them. Saiyan was far ahead of them being level 22. If he can somehow awaken his second chakra he'll also be able to use his skills lessening our burden. In short, the other guys didn't even hold a candle to him.
No. Don't underestimate people you don't know. In the stories, things never turned out well for people who judged books simply by their covers. They might have some weird skills that might render me useless.
"I know Somi is missing, but you should collect your bearings." Saiyan warned, whispering while holding me up.
"Uhh, no this wasn't about her. I just found a way to increase one of my stats that have been crawling the x axis for a while." I remembered learning about plots for the admission exam. I wondered why this specific example came to my mind at this moment.
Saiyan gave a slight smile signifying that he got what I was saying and removed his support.
I also saw Soovam among the crowd. He's a member of a Seven's party confirming my theory.
"Did your idiot friend finally come back to his sense? From where did he get the gall to laugh like that under these circumstances?" one of the guy leaders mentioned with disdain.
Technically my actions were uncalled for.
"Sorry if that offended you. It happened suddenly and was out of my control." I explained myself trying not to escalate the situation further. If he's a sensible human being he won't stretch this matter.
He didn't say anything else and looked away from our direction.
"What do you think we should do then? We have already fought in the Lokas of Patala to survive long enough to be rescued. I think not choosing the easier option is the way to go." One of the female chosen one said.
I knew Ariya and Somi among the four females. One of the other two is named Shreya. The other one I had no info about. I have only seen her face, but have not mapped their names. Including the boys.
"But learning the basics of team based fighting is also important. We don't even know basic instructions that are used in wars. Or their formations. We melee fighters will only be sitting ducks without being of any help to the seniors." Soovam's team leader mentioned. He also had a point.
"Let's go to the battlefield for now. If we find out that we can't help in any way, then we can simply return." Ariya said with a convincing voice. But her annoying personality came up in my mind forcing me to not take her seriously.
"Let's decide among ourselves and put out six votes from the leaders of each team. It is an even number but hopefully we can come to a conclusion." Saiyan decided and gathered the three of us.
"Let's go." Anik said, "Just think about the different types of energy interpretations that we can see in our seniors. The form of our Kundalini often takes the shape of our dispositions. And rarely it is the same as the next person. Looking at others will definitely widen our horizons."
"What about you two?" Saiyan asked Dweep and me.
"I don't want to go to the battlefield." Dweep mumbled. "I hated these things from the very beginning. I also acted heinously back at Sutala last time. They just keep tormenting me everytime I close my eyes. But I had to keep going since I had no other choice being transferred to that Loka forcibly. But given a choice, I would like to avoid things like these..."
We weren't looking at Dweep properly. Having no idea what our friend was going through is unacceptable.
"I'm sorry." I said, "Technically it's only been hours since those events happened, but we should have asked how you were doing. If things are bothering you make sure to tell us like this. You did a great job letting us know. It's decided then, let's go to the temple dungeon instead."
"Anik?" Saiyan asked him for confirmation.
"Well, I don't mind. Dweep is an integral part of our team. He needs to be in top condition wherever we are. Demonic beasts that live inside the temple dungeons are okay I guess. But after witnessing the true form of Asuras, I also feel a little bit hesitant." Anik genuinely complimented Dweep bringing out a smile from him.
It was wholesome.
After five minutes the six leaders stood in a circle.
"Who's going to the battlefield?" Soovam's leader asked, raising his hand. Woah, wasn't he against that?
Ariya also had her hand raised along with two others. One of the two unknown girls and the guy who was looking at me with disdain before.
I didn't miss Ariya's surprised face which turned into frustration when she found out Saiyan didn't raise his hand.
The four went to meet the sages near the Banyan leaving our team and another one behind.
The girl leading the team strode up to us with a confident look, standing infront of Saiyan looking up at him.
"This is Shreya." Saiyan introduced her to us casually. "This is Anik, Dweep and Dhruva starting from the left."
Her eyes scanned us from top to bottom, all within a few seconds as she turned around to point at her teammates one by one.
"Aditi. Our Surakshak." she pointed at a tall and thin girl. She was even taller than Saiyan, who was in turn taller than all three of us. She just stood upright staring ahead into the horizon.
Aren't there too many people having names starting with A? Parents, get more creative. I'm going to get confused later!!
Next she pointed to a really cute girl, with curly hair that came down to her chin, parted on the right side. "Jhanvi. Dhanurdhar." Shreya said. She was small and cute like a doll. I looked away as our eyes met when she nodded after her name was called.
Finally a name with a different alphabet!!
The last girl Shreya pointed to was wearing glasses. She was around my height and had an unapproachable aura. "Hello. I'm Esha. Vaidya. Nice to meet you."
"I'm Saiyan." He started introducing himself. "Yoddha."
"I'm Dweep. Surakshak." he mumbled softly. Gosh, just before you were declaring bravely that you didn't want to go to the battlefield. And now your tongue is not moving.
"Anik. Dhanurdhar. Pleased to meet such elegant ladies."
Dweep looked at me with a little smile hearing Anik's introduction and I again lost it. Why does he keep doing this??
"Sorry about that." I cleared my throat regaining my composure, not looking at them fearing their judgemental faces, "I'm Dhruva. Vaidya."
Anik was giving me the stink eye for laughing at his supposedly cool introduction. He can be so goofy sometimes.
One of the sages came over to our side. "So you all decided to go to the temple dungeons instead. Okay, I'll allocate a team of Seventh graders for the two teams. You all are supposed to go in parties of twelve so stick together for now. I'll be back soon." he notified us and walked away.
It made sense. If one seventh grade team took care of two fifth grade teams, then the rest of the half can take care of the sixth graders.
We kept standing there awkwardly. Should someone start a conversation? I thought asking them about their Patala experience might trigger some trauma so I advised myself against doing that.
"How many can you shoot with only two points in Kundalini? Anik suddenly asked Jhanvi.
"More than forty. Never counted properly." Jhanvi answered confidently.
Didn't Anik count to about 30 last time? Can't remember properly.
"Woah, that's impressive. I can't shoot more than 30 currently." This was so different than the response I was expecting from Anik. Is he putting himself below to compliment her? That will only work negatively.
"Don't worry." I said instead, "If you keep practicing the technique you found out, you can break into the order of fifty."
"Really?" Jhanvi was now interested, "What did you find out? Will you mind telling me?"
Anik was looking at me for an explanation.
"Bro, that stretching technique. Did you forget?" I reminded him.
"But that was..." He started saying that it was my idea but I interrupted him playing my role as a wingman. Since he showed me courage by starting up a conversation, I made sure to support him in his endeavour.
"You can try showing her a demo. She'll get what you're trying to do. It might be a bit dangerous for us so you can go there and try it out." I said pointing them to a clearing a few meters away.
"Aren't you a bit too smooth?" Dweep whispered in my ears after the two walked away from us.
"You think so? Talking with the elder sisters gave me some ideas on how to carry out a conversation with them. It won't work like this everytime. By the way, you wanna talk with that talk Surakshak girl?" I suggested.
"No thanks. I already have my source of entertainment." He said glancing at Anik and Jhanvi with a smile.
"So you work as a healer or a battery in your team?" I suddenly heard Esha asking me from behind.
Was the unapproachable aura just an illusion? She was the only one who gave her introduction by herself.
"I kinda can do both. What about you?"
"For now I can cast Recovery a few times. It doesn't help with only 2 points of Kundalini. I need to grind till level 20 until I can finally be helpful to my teammates." Esha explained herself without being asked. Is she actually talkative?
Her specs kept distracting me. They kept sliding down her nose bridge, revealing her eyes from above the glasses. She kept repositioning them.
"Won't that be a problem during fights?" I asked.
"No, I usually remove them. My eyes can see the flow of Kundalini, so it is a bit helpful I guess." she gave a smug look.
"A trait?" I was surprised, "That's really cool. Does wearing your glasses deactivate the skill when you don't want to use it?"
"Yep, exactly." she smiled as I guessed correctly.
"If you can see the flow of Kundalini, it's better not to look at him. I'm warning you in advance. You'll be disgusted." Dweep was still having flashbacks of my Kundalini Tethers.
"Yeah, he's right. We'll be at the back of the party anyway, so just make sure to look ahead." I said with an embarrassed smile.
"You can't ask me to not look after making me curious like that." Esha complained in a friendly manner.
"It seems you guys are doing fine." Shreya noticed, as she arrived with Saiyan. They had been discussing things at a distance for some time.
"So we were planning basic strategies and roles for each of us. The Dhanurdhars need to..." Shreya was suddenly interrupted as a white dimensional crack appeared in front of us bringing in a team of four seventh graders.
There were two big sisters and two big brothers.
Did they mix and match to make sure all perspectives are taken care of?
The guy who seemed to be the leader introduced himself. He was shorter than Aditi but had a muscular body. He had a really thin moustache, which was almost imperceptible. He probably didn't come after combing his hair. Nor did we, on second thought.
"I'm Vihaan. A Surakshak. Leader of this makeshift team. We did this so that you guys don't feel uncomfortable having a different ratio among the genders."
He pointed to the fit guy standing beside him. He had crazy spiky hair, and dead eyes. Did he not sleep for days? "This is Laksh. Yoddha. Don't mind his face. He's quite gentle and patient."
"Hello, I'm Yashvi. Dhanurdhar. I'll take care of the cooking inside the dungeon. And yes, I can make dishes other than instant 2 minute noodles. So look forward to it."
We chuckled at her introduction.
"I'm Trisha." The other girl introduced herself.
We waited for a few seconds wondering whether she would say anything else but realised soon that she was done. We'll get to know each other slowly, so there no need to rush I guess. Do the dungeons also have a different time flow? I suddenly got curious.
"Do you guys want to take the introductory boring classes or just dive right into the dungeons?" Vihaan suddenly asked as we looked at each other.
"Will we get to learn more from that?" Aditi, the tall girl asked.
"Technically yes. We can give you a rundown on the things that are actually important. If you want to see the demonstrations while having no idea how they are working, you're welcome to join us tomorrow. In the dungeon, it will be about three days for a single one here. But if we go now, we can easily spend a week. You guys can decide what you want." Laksh mumbled, his voice having no energy at all. Goodluck to the Yoddhas to learn from such a guy. I cursed myself after remembering the seventh grader Vaidya too. Trisha didn't even give a proper introduction. How will she teach us things?
Should we join the introductory classes instead?
Trisha also seemed to be a bit distanced from her teammates. Is she upset for some reason?
"Let's go. What do you say?" Shreya asked Saiyan. She was standing a little too close to him, with their shoulders almost touching.
Saiyan turned once to take a look at our faces. Our expressions clearly told him we didn't mind.
"Okay, let's go right now then." Saiyan announced.
"Great choice!!" Vihaan smiled as he called the sage who came to talk with us before.
"Can you teleport us to the beginner dungeon? We will stay there for a week." Vihaan notified the sage.
"Okay. Be careful. Try not to lose lives." he said opening up a blue dimensional crack instead of a white one.
They can manage teleporting a dozen students easily, considering what I learnt a while ago.
"Okay, take a deep breath and follow us. I think you all are going to have fun inside." Yashvi smiled back at us before disappearing into the perpendicular eye shaped crack.
After the girls' team went inside, we followed Saiyan into the blue portal.