"My Mom's going to kill me." To my horror, I found the symbol of a coiled snake on my left hand, right at the position where people get vaccinated.
Never thought that undressing myself before sitting to clear out my bowels could give me this much of a shock.
Tattoos are generally looked down upon in our society. Getting one typically means that you are going down a path of ruin. And once it catches the eye of a local neighborhood aunty, the news will spread like a forest fire powered by gasoline within their network: The Association of Middle-Aged-Gossip-Loving Voluntary News Reporters.
If your name somehow ends up on their hitlist, the only way left for you to live a peaceful life is to change localities and move to a new state altogether.
Jokes aside, while sitting on the seat, I carefully examined the mark.
It was drawn out of a pitch black ink with a slight shade of dark blue. Kudos to the artist though. But I somehow knew, that this wasn't just an ordinary sketch of a coiled snake. It somehow felt alive and menacing. There was also a triangular white space in its head just like that source of light in my dream. The only difference is that this snake had a single head.
It was the mark of a blessing. Like the one that senior in the Vimana had, who had invoked Garuda's incarnation to fight against Vritra.
Is this the reason they told me not to participate?
Is there a possibility of them losing their blessed candidate to other Gods who are more powerful than them? Can't I have two blessings at the same time?
Do I need to sleep again to get some answers? What is the use of this mark? Can I also summon that giant snake I saw in my dreams? Shit would be too cool, then.
But I knew things never went that easy for me.
Knowing my luck, that might actually be the final boss instead, that I need to defeat to unlock the capabilities of my mark.
Thus essentially forcing me to go around with a Blessing that I can't even use.
There's a reason why I'm being this paranoid. Blessings are a power that itself lies in a higher tier out of most Skills. It can't be easily obtained by Manavas. One has to either achieve something extraordinary to get that in return or become an errand boy for the God to pay for its price.
Judging by the number of my achievements till now, which is close to null, being an errand boy is undoubtedly written in my future.
My main concern right now is to keep this hidden. The shirts given to us are thankfully full-sleeved, so I just need to ensure that nobody can see me with my upper body exposed.
Things were going fine... Why did this complication even need to arise?
After freshening up, I went for breakfast, starting my day, only to find random people gawking at me from a distance.
"The video of our fight has been circulating in the Ashrama." Dweep mentioned while gobbling up his food beside me.
Anik had also been missing since yesterday. He didn't come back to our room at night either.
"That's expected. The seniors might already know about the trick I used, thinking that it's not a big deal. Anyone who can perceive Kundalini can neutralize my technique easily. I have to think of something to get rid of this drawback." I speculated. "Any ideas?"
"If you can unlock your heart chakra, which can manufacture Air elemental Kundalini, you might be able to mask its presence. But I've heard that it is one of the hardest ones to awaken." He suggested.
Yep, there are a lot of conditions to awaken that.
Somi is truly exceptional to have awakened her heart Chakra at the very beginning. Maybe she got help from her family regarding that... The seven families should have an enormous knowledge about these things.
My thoughts often keep going back to her. I shook my head in disappointment. And I used to think that I could control my feelings better than this.
She never returned, even after two weeks. What Charulata said about her family... If that's actually true, isn't she currently in grave danger? If she had died, she might have already resurrected here.
Considering that isn't the case, she might still be safe.
For a second, I missed her greatly. Talking with her sitting by that pool will always be one of my fondest memories here. Good things truly don't last a lifetime. Will I ever be able to see her again?
"What's wrong?" Dweep suddenly asked me, breaking my daydream.
"I never told you, did I?" I whispered, half wanting him to ask further. I wanted to get the weird feeling out of my chest somehow.
"If you didn't tell me till now, then there was probably a reason. I'm in no hurry, so take your time." He said and concentrated on his liquid jaggery, drawing lines across his plate.
Every bench in the dining hall was supposed to provide enough space for four people to sit. But there were only two of us here.
"I think we overdid a little. I only wanted the troublemakers to leave us alone, not everyone in the Ashrama." I confessed.
"You always manage to overdo things. Making medicines? Let's manufacture eighty of them. Control someone else's Kundalini Weapons? Okay, let's manipulate all of them... You need to put a limit to things knowing your current capabilities. Do you know how worried we became when you wouldn't stop bleeding from your pores after our fight with the invaders from Satya?" He said in one go, his voice trembling with emotions.
I realized he was scolding me.
"Sorry, I'll keep that in mind. Anik also told me about that. It feels good to have people worry like that about me. But also, when people around me are in danger, I can't help doing everything I can to turn the tables in our favor." I argued back, but with a gentler tone.
"I know that. It's my job to keep you guys safe. It's been frustrating not being able to perform my duty properly. I'll make sure to get that blessing, so that I can support you guys better." His eyes shone with determination.
I hope you do get that Blessing, Dweep. For the sake of both of us.
After breakfast, I joined my Skills 101 class, where the two guys kept glancing at me awkwardly.
Me being in an introductory course was probably unprecedented for them.
Sarvajnana seemed to have already watched our fight. He gave examples from it, saying what procedures must be taken care of before battling with a Kundalini-based skill user.
That helped quite a bit. It's only a matter of time until I meet people who are much more proficient at using Kundalini than I am. It will require me to expend some Kundalini, but a dissipated wave of energy can detect or even pre-activate traps placed by other users in a mechanism similar to bats.
Again, there are different ways of releasing that wave that can be developed, taking your own requirements in mind. He talked about some of them, too. But those seemed too high level for me right now.
Let's keep notes; they might be helpful later.
Next, he talked about the things Dweep could have done better.
"He wasted a lot of his energy summoning that jagged train of earth spikes. With practice, he can use his skill to create those spikes at specific strategic points." Sarvajnana suggested.
In the flowchart of skill development, it will be the augmentation or modification phase.
For some pre-loaded skills that we get from higher beings or from equipments, the modification phase might come after the repetition part.
Until Dweep repeats that skill enough times to understand its inner workings, he can't modify it to his liking.
During lunch, I opened my messages once to find Apsara, Archit, Laksh, Yashvi, Vihaan, and Esha's messages.
While the seniors were praising me, Esha's messages were strictly professional.
She's on a personal mission to recreate the 'fireworks' she had seen yesterday. She asked about the threads she had seen connecting me to the fireworks. Some details about the Akshara skill. Correlation between the commands implemented and the amount of energy required. After satisfying her curiosity, I moved on to Saiyan's empty message window, after saying thanks to my seniors.
"Where are you? What are you even doing?" I sent a message to Saiyan.
Everybody keeps saying that the seven are lucky, this and that... But it also feels like they are throwing away a lot for the sake of it, too. I wonder in what condition they currently are. Not seeing my teammates during mealtimes gave me a weird, lonely feeling.
I'm getting quite attached to these people, I understood with a smile.
A message from Archit, the prefect of our Gurukul, suddenly pinged, making me blink.
"Your level is still below 30, right?" He asked.
"Yeah, that is the case. Are you thinking of giving me some tips for fast leveling?"
"Great." He sent, "If you can help our Gurukul team a bit, then I can give you much more than simple tips."
"I'm interested. Go on." I smiled at the sudden arrival of an opportunity.
"Okay. So this Saturday, we have an inter-Gurukul junior section league. There are a few rules to the team-making process that keep balance. We were looking for a member under level 30 since most of us are around the 60s right now. The sum of levels cannot be greater than 55 times 7, where 7 is the number of students per team. Having six guys with levels around 58 to 63, we need someone of Max level 30. Otherwise, we'll need to participate with one less guy." He explained their situation. "Your video made my teammates interested. I can guarantee you that the experience will be awesome."
"This Saturday we also have a competition. Divyastra Utsaav. If you can provide me with something on par with a Blessing, I won't mind skipping that for you guys. I'm level 27 only and will probably be a prime candidate." I pitched myself.
"What?" His emotes were those of a shocked face, "Divyastra Utsaav? In fifth standard? I thought it happens at the end of eighth standard!! What is this discrimination against us? Aren't you guys getting too much of an advantage?" He complained in a joking manner. At least the accompanying emotes gave an impression like that.
"I think it's better to join the Utsaav instead. I'll try finding someone from the sixth standard, then. Those other Gurukuls call us nerds for bagging good ranks in Alik exams, so we have to show them that we got them beat in all aspects." His message was akin to an inspirational quote before some battle.
"Can you wait till tonight? I'll let you know by dinner. There's a high possibility that I might join you guys. You can look for a new person tomorrow." I asked for some time to confirm what to do, thinking Sarvajnana and Vishwajeet could give me sound advice.
"Okay. I'll be waiting." His final message for this session said.
"Who are you talking with?" Dweep asked, looking at me with curiosity.
"The prefect. He wants me to join some inter-Gurukul league during the Utsaav to compensate for their numbers. They want a guy under level 30. What is the lowest level of a sixth-standard guy?" I told him, asking for more context.
"Hmm, they should be around 40-45. Some can also be below 30, if things didn't work out well for them. If the Utsaav wasn't there, I would have been genuinely excited for you." He expressed a bit of disappointment because of the timings.
"I'm thinking of going to the league instead." I confessed.
Dweep didn't say anything to that. I guess he'll support me in whatever decision I take.
I have often seen that things always happen for a reason. If I got a Blessing already, and the one who gave me that pleaded me not to participate, I think I should comply just for once.
Even though I don't even know what my Blessing actually provides.
Should I start making some cute little healing Aksharas for my soon-to-be teammates? They can carry it around during the league and have almost 6 points worth of healing per Akshara. 2 points might be wasted to keep its form and maintain its functioning.
Wait... I can make some for my friends too. They'll get quite the help during the Utsaav.
Let's try to convert this healing Akshara to a new Skill, shall we?
Then I realized what the problem was. I needed to be there in person to activate the Akshara. Even if I make it for them, if they want to use it during the Utsaav, they'll require my intervention to start or stop healing.
But I won't be available during that time. What a dilemma. If my commands get more intricate, like 'whenever you find harm in the body you're attached to, start healing', it will take more Kundalini to apply that command than its healing worth. Imagine an 8-point Akshara with a 2-point healing capability.
I can try making some, but they will be technically useless.
After lunch, I went to find Sarvajnana to talk about the league. He enthusiastically told me all about it. Apparently, he makes sure to watch it every year. This year might become an exception because of our Utsaav.
"Blessings are important, but I think joining the Utsaav might be more beneficial for you. You can see how your seniors came up with new Skills and can broaden your thinking much earlier than the other students. The way things are going for your batch, opportunities like the Utsaav will keep coming." Sarvajnana was a die-hard Skill Nerd. Ofcourse he would suggest me to go for the league instead.
Next, I met up with Vishwajeet for my mental training. We did the tug of war with our wills, and I got destroyed as usual. But unlike before, when we tried it out once or twice, now the repetitions were in the order of fives or sixes.
The little nibbles of wholesome encouragement he would give at the end of our session always made me look forward to our next one.
"Join the league. Gaining an enlightenment instead of some borrowed power will be much more important at this stage. Do not go for the short-term benefits all the time. You will only regret making impulsive decisions later into the future. Remember that for every major decision you take in your life." He advised.
Without wasting time, I sent a message to Archit, accepting his invitation.
I hope he won't ask me to use Skill Transfer. If he's calling me for that, then I'll surely disappoint him. Let's tell him beforehand.
"For your information, Kalpa has blocked my Skill Transfer and Prana Conversion Skill. If you're asking me to join because of those, then I'm sorry." I added another message.
His reply came back within seconds, "We want you for the trap magic you used in the video. Among seven people, only five are allowed on the field at a time. Two are there as substitutes and outfield supports. They have a wide range of duties to take care of, too. The other support has shown interest in you. You can learn from him while helping him in preparing our fort." A few seconds later, another message rolled in.
"So look forward to it. I already have your roll number to facilitate the section transfer process. Be ready around the evenings at 6.30 pm every day from tomorrow on. We will bring you to our section for team practice. Don't be in a situation you don't want others to see during that time. I'll ask for an acknowledgment before the transfer."
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
"Got it. I hope I can be helpful to you guys."
"Don't worry, we'll make sure you're helpful enough." He sent with a winking emote that was sticking out its tongue.
"Done confirming?" Vishwajeet asked me with a hint of curiosity.
"Yep. They want me to join them from tomorrow at 6.30 pm." I answered, "It won't clash with our sessions, hopefully."
"I don't think I'll ever take a four-hour session, so you don't have to worry about that." He laughed, "I already have to take care of three children now. I'm going to lose my personal time like this... Varsha is coming here tomorrow. She'll have to start training from the very beginning, having lost all her experience from the resurrection." He informed me of news about Varsha.
"Wait. Our experiences don't get reduced from resurrection." I was perplexed, looking at him wide-eyed.
"That's because you only have three lives. To be resurrected more than three or four times, one has to pay a penalty. It gets harsher with more lives you are given at the beginning. You can't change it now. That is how Kalpa made the rules. There's no use for a Rakshak who already has a limited time to live, and will again use up resources from others to level up from zero." His voice got a bit dark.
He knows about how inconsequential the lives of Rakshaks are in their eyes. I'm currently just an item of entertainment for him. He'll probably stop coaching me the day he becomes bored.
"You have a tendency to assume the worst. If I have given my word, I'll make sure to help you reach a level that is satisfactory to me." He said as if he anticipated what I was thinking. "I only felt pity for the beings who are blind to the great potential you all have. Having limited time and lives drives you with a certain emotion that can't be seen in the beings of the upper Lokas. It is fascinating."
I could only smile at his eccentric description of us, Manavas. At least he's looking at one aspect of our lives. I'm grateful enough for that.
"See you tomorrow then. Dhruva, don't get so pessimistic. Things always happen for a reason. After five years, all your worries now, when you look back at them, will feel so insignificant that you'll laugh at your current self for even letting those minor things disturb you." As the day's encouragement, he let out these words.
--------------------------------------
"Welcome to the seventh standard section. No need to look around, other than the people, everything is totally the same." Archit and my future team members were standing in front of me after my transfer.
I dread these introductions. I'll again have to remember the names of five more people. Let's concentrate on their trapper for now.
The guy was named Jay.
He had a laid-back attitude with long, scrawny hands and fingers. But he was adequately groomed, down to his toes.
So people can still have drip while wearing Ashrama clothes...
We shared a firm handshake and moved into a green cube, four times the size of the purple cube I have usually been in, where we were supposed to train for the upcoming league.
In the team of seven, there were two Yoddhas, two Dhanurdhars, one Surakshak, and two Vaidyas.
Jay is a Dhanurdhar, and would usually stay off the field like me in most cases. A Dhanurdhar being a trapper, he certainly chose a weird direction.
"Jay will take care of you. Try to do what he asks of you, and I'm sure you'll learn a lot." The other members assured me and started training by themselves.
Their Vaidya was moving around with Archit, covering each other's backs, while the Surakshak and another Dhanurdhar paired up together. The last Yoddha used daggers and gave off the feeling of an assassin.
If I ever have to take the field, what kind of role will I need to play? Let's hope it doesn't come down to that.
"Let's start." Jay smiled and started drawing a castle's birdseye view in his notebook.
"The theme of this year is a siege. We have to enter a castle and take over the Chakra powering its facilities. All the while defending our own. We will be provided with Kusa Clones, ten in number, for the castle defense. While an arbitrary number of people can attack the enemy's base." He described.
"Where do you think we need to play a role here?" He asked, looking at me for an answer.
"I would have liked to say within the castle, but I think it's better to start putting the traps in the area that needs to be traversed before you can get to the base. Where most of the altercations are supposed to happen." I thought of giving an unconventional answer.
"But we are not allowed to go out into the field during the prepping stage." He debated, but his voice made it clear that he was thinking of an answer I needed to say. He was gradually guiding me in that direction.
"That's where I come in. Remote traps that can instead be distributed and activated by other people. My traps usually need my permission to activate or relocate. You must have a skill that allows us to put my active participation out of the picture." I said after thinking about it for a while.
He clapped his hand once. "This is what I like about the Rakshaks of our Gurukul." He smiled, showing his perfect teeth, "Most choose to go to other Gurukuls because they have a shallow bar for getting in. Saves a lot of time to work with people who are in the same frequency as me."
He went quiet for a while, probably gathering his thoughts. Then he closed his eyes briefly and nodded once before opening them.
"I developed a Skill some time back that I named Relinquish. The way it works is opposite to what we usually try to do while trying to gain control over the Kundalini that we release from our body. Using this Skill, I developed homing arrows because I became a Dhanurdhar even though I wasn't that good at shooting bows. I had only picked it up once or twice before coming here. Let me show you how it works." He stood up from his kneeling posture and summoned a yellow arrow and a small bead made out of his Kundalini from his dimensional box.
"Both of them require a good amount of energy, so I made them beforehand."
"I also do that. No worries." I laughed at his apologetic smile.
The bead slowly floated to the edge of the cube after which, the arrow glided and struck itself into the energy pearl making me clap twice. It's impressive if he came up with this long back.
"I was studying how the internet and the websites work a while back. Some madlad decided to write the books in Satya directly, since you can't bring any belongings from Alik here. From there, I got this idea." He chimed enthusiastically. He was not done yet.
"Even before the passwords you use to login, the whole connection process requires some kind of authentication process... To make sure that you're even logging in to the correct website. Once logged in, you can use the website's services as if they're your own. Are you getting where I'm going with this?" He asked, wanting me to complete his string of thoughts.
I had a brief idea of how things worked, but it was quite minimal. Even if I say anything, it might make me look like an idiot. Let's gather my thoughts and use the same analogy in our skills.
"Instead of writing the commands from 'our' perspective, we want to relinquish the services of our Akshara to others through an authentication process?" I speculated.
"Why the authentication process, though? You might be thinking. I had to implement that because of a bad experience where my Aksharas were caught by our enemies and used against us." His face went dark for a while.
It might be some traumatic event.
"How did you create the homing arrows, though? It might be helpful for my friends if I can implement it." I asked, wondering how long it would take me to learn some version of his Relinquish Skill.
"That's... I think it's better to make this your homework. Think about the authentication process and the cases of different commands. If you can come up with something more efficient than my method, then I'll reward you. Right now, I don't want to bind you within the rules I set while designing my Skill. Maybe you can come up with a better version, who knows?" He said it in a serious tone.
This is not a homework, I realized. It's a bloody test.
For the rest of my time in the seventh standard section, he taught me how to implement a password system. It was fascinating.
If you have problems, just try to solve it using more Kundalini. He made an energy bead with only 0.1 points. This authentication bead will be passed along with the trap-based blob of Kundalini that we call an Akshara. This blob will again have a command module, aka the services of the Akshara, and the main body that will modify itself according to the commands.
It's just a matter of knowing or not knowing. Should I also try implementing concepts from Alik into the energy systems of Satya?
If it's time, I will have enough of it. If one wants to get into the nitty gritty of calculations:
1 Alik day=24 Satya Days.
We stay here for 7 Alik hours. So, effective Satya days will be 1 Alik=7 Satya.
If we consider 70 days of vacations where we stay home and can't make dimensional jumps: 1 Alik year=((365-70)x7)÷365~5.6 Satya years.
So technically, our seventh-standard seniors are 11 years older than us mentally. If they joined the Gurukul at 12 years of age, then by 23, one is supposed to complete their college and enter the workforce.
Looking at it carefully, having enough time also makes people complacent. Under normal circumstances, one can only wonder what usual people living in Alik could have accomplished in 11 years.
After our session, I understood the parts I needed to Repeat and Modify to convert Relinquish into a skill. It will now be a matter of time.
With the help of the Quick Acquisition trait that Kalpa had granted me during the Synchronisation Ritual, I might be able to express it much faster.
"Tomorrow, you'll first create the 2-point command modules along with the 0.5-point authentication beads. I'll take care of the main bodies for the traps." He set the goal for tomorrow.
"Can the commands be properly defined with only two points of Kundalini?" I asked, wondering whether he thought I could make only 2 point beads at once. "I can continuously release up to eight points of Kundalini because of a special trait. You can ask more of me."
He went wide-eyed at my declaration and started asking the specifics of the trait.
"It's a homework for you." I smirked, "What do you think the trait needs to be, for making that possible?"
He playfully smacked my shoulder. "I'll think about it. The deadline is the same as yours. I should go meet my girlfriend now. She'll be angry if I let her eat dinner alone." He gave a victorious smile and stood up.
I didn't ask anything regarding his last statement to avoid bloating his ego further.
Five people on the other side were now resting, stretching out their legs and sweating profusely.
"We are done for today." I notified, pointing at Jay, who was leaving the green training space cube.
"Yeah. He always has to leave by 8.15 pm. Commitments brother, commitments..." The Surakshak smirked.
"You feel bad 'cause you got no one like that?" The other Dhanurdhar guy jabbed the Surakshak's ribcage.
"You know what happened last time. Don't remind me of those memories. I thought the worst thing one could say was Eww. Who knew I would be bombarded with a whole ass 500 words essay?"
The others shook their heads in disappointment and sympathy while holding back a slight smile. They were just trying to look good in front of him for now.
"You guys have already lived together for, like what, 11 years here and two years in Alik? It's like studying in college already. Do you guys keep studying here as usual, or just skip it and follow Alik's timeline?" I asked.
They looked at each other and burst out laughing.
"What?" I asked, scanning their faces.
"If you don't keep filtering Shakti and meditating for four out of these five years here, your vessels won't grow enough to awaken a new chakra by the start of your next standard. Soon, they'll start mandatory meditation sessions after you complete two courses. You won't get the time to do anything else. It can get extremely boring..." They explained.
Oh shit... So it was like this. No wonder things seemed out of place. If you keep looking into the darkness, within yourself, without gaining new knowledge, you will be where you are mentally. Is there nothing that can be done regarding this?
"But it gives you a lot of time to introspect. You can look back on your memories and correct your mistakes. Simulate or shadow practice your skills mentally... Come up with new skill designs using your imagination. Anything goes, as long as you can keep filtering in and out your energies in parallel."
It was good advice. If I can somehow manage to complete it all within two years instead of four, then I can get a lot more time to do other things. I needed to confirm something if I wanted to do that.
"Is the time of meditation bounded by the amount of Shakti that passes through the Rekha in our rooms?" I asked.
"Doing it in the arena is much better. But the potency again decreases when a lot of people gather there." Archit confirmed.
My little cave will be a golden treasure, then. My mind drifted off to thank Panna, but I immediately stopped myself.
"Archit. I think it's your turn to go now." The Assassin Yoddha suddenly announced, "She's almost here."
"Oh shit. Sorry guys, see you again tomorrow. Dhruva, thanks for coming here. Jay sent me your evaluation message. He's thrilled to have you onboard." He said and ran away.
"Have you got some tracking skill or something?" I asked the Assassin Yoddha.
"Yeah, it's a neat little trick I designed using radar and density principles. I got it after we were taught about sound waves in physical science at the end of sixth standard." He answered, his eyes shone with interest.
I'll ask him about it later. If I can learn about condensed concepts from my seniors, I can gain some knowledge beforehand, of things I'm supposed to learn in the future.
There is a whole lot of difference between just reading and memorizing the principles and applying them after necessary calculations.
I can get some knowledge by simply going through an encyclopedia. But it will just be a high-level view.
I need to think about the concepts and imagine scenarios with them to make sure I understand the rules of science even under different circumstances to be able to work with them.
"I'll go notify the sage responsible for sectional transfers. You want to stay here or go around and take a look?" The Assassin Yoddha asked.
"I have some people I want to meet. Can you schedule the transfer after twenty minutes?" I asked.
The Yoddha nodded and poofed away.
Tomorrow, I'll try to learn about their names. They are pretty chill. Will also send them friend requests in the meantime.
Let's send a message to Vihaan and Laksh. They were not from my Gurukul, otherwise knowing their skills, they probably would have been in my team. Then again, there might always be more impressive people than them.
Laksh and Vihaan both arrived to meet me right before my transfer.
Only Laksh was chosen out of the two to represent their Gurukul. Their team did not choose a single Surakshak for some reason.
Laksh again, being on a different team, didn't let out more information.
"We wanted to plan the celebratory feast at the end of this week, but it seems Saiyan and Shreya are both missing, just like during the final raid." I said nonchalantly.
Laksh snorted out loud. "That last part was uncalled for."
"It's fine. Let us know when they return." Vihaan also held back a smile, but his concern for them seemed genuine.
"It seems you guys had some arguments regarding that. Make sure not to let those go on for long. You'll be working together for many years, so it's better to keep things amicable among yourselves." Vihaan advised.
"Will stay in contact." I waved before flashing away and returning to my dorm, from where I had jumped.
"Whoa!!" Anik jumped back from his Asana like a surprised cat. He's become quite agile, it seems.
"Where were you all this time? How dare you leave us to fight alone against a four-man team?" I asked in a melodramatic tone.
"Did you really need me? I saw how you slaughtered those guys." He sighed.
"I would have sent you before me to take care of things. Your blooming arrows would have taken care of them easily." I debated.
But again, without the video, Jay wouldn't have gotten interested in me.
"My blooming arrows?" He suddenly raised his voice, "Don't make me feel worse than I'm already feeling. What part of my achievements was actually mine? I only have huge dreams and ambitions... I have nothing to show for it to prove I am even worthy of them."
I looked around for Dweep in our room. He wasn't here. Anik was wallowing in self-pity and drowning in an inferiority complex currently.
Maybe because he was comparing himself with me.
Anything I say right now will only worsen things. Or, I can approach it from a different direction. Showing sympathy will make him think I'm pitying him right now. I need to do something that's totally opposite.
"Then work hard for that Blessing. I was thinking of helping you guys by giving you all some Aksharas, but I'll exclude you from the list. The most I'll do is cheer you from wherever I am at that time." I said in a monotone. "Show us that you're strong enough by yourself."
"I'm planning on doing that only. Now, let me meditate in peace." He gave a brief smile before closing his eyes. Guess we are cool now?
"Best of luck." I said and left the room.
--------------------------------------
My curse activated while walking back for dinner. Since only the movements of my hands get reversed, I had to move forward both my left leg and left hand to achieve the desired effect of walking normally.
I had to mentally put my spoon down at a certain angle so that it moved up into my mouth instead.
"Why are you eating this slow?" Dweep laughed.
"Just a curse, don't worry." I sighed, "Anik has returned to room with an icky mood... How's your preparation going?"
"People already saw my skills back there. I'm not sure what to do yet. If I had some skill like those protruding spikes you activated on my shield back in Sutala while fighting those wolves... " He started thinking hard, narrowing his eyes.
"I'll think about it... There's still time." I patted his shoulder.
Suddenly, the wardens lined up like they do before announcing some news.
"For next week, we have prepared a separate dimension with low-level Rakshashas and monsters for the students who couldn't go on a dungeon crawl because of the invaders from Satya. For a whole week, you'll get to hunt and increase your level in that dimension." One of the wardens announced changing the mood in the dining hall.
"Unforeseen circumstances are bound to happen. But fighting among yourselves for that reason is unacceptable. We will try our best to keep things fair for everyone, so be patient and don't take things into your own hands." He continued the announcement.
It was a blatant lie. Things will never be fair as long as a biased Being sits above us as the administrator.
"From the week after that, we will implement a Siddhi system. Where you'll get to challenge higher-level Rakshaks to acquire Siddhi or achievement points. After collecting a certain amount of points, you can exchange it from Kalpa to get experience for leveling up. Keep giving your best; there will be lots of opportunities for you all to grow." A new warden mentioned, looking sideways at another.
"We have created a public leaderboard for that. I hope it will give you both the drive to reach higher and the inspiration to improve. You can only get better through competition. So choose your targets now and prepare accordingly. In that way, every one of you can develop explosively."
Only through competition, huh? It will always be like that... Set up elimination instead of selection exams. When there are so many people, neither the exam setters nor the takers have much choice.
Everyone around us started swiping their fingers mid-air, opening up the newly added leaderboard in their Status.
"Dhruva, we should have gone to the battlefield. I'm sorry." Dweep was mortified.
I realized what he was talking about as soon as the leaderboard appeared before me.
"Holyyy...."
I was ranked 14 in the fifth standard. But I didn't care about that; the more people above me, the better. What's surprising was Saiyan being 5th.
What happened in the last few days?
I realized most people in front of me were from the four teams who had gone to the battlefield surrounding the temples.
Shreya was ranked 11. Dweep, Anik, and Jhanvi were around the twenties.
"It's okay. We can only make decisions based on the conditions at that time. Looking back on it won't help at all." I tried to console him.
"I don't think they lost lives like us either..." He mumbled.
"It's fine bro. We can now get Siddhi from so many people. Look on the bright side."
"Yeah..."
He was the one who had said that he didn't want to fight sentient beings like the Asuras... After experiencing things in Sutala. He might be thinking that his stubbornness cost us experience and some lives.
I said what I thought was best, but the rest was up to him.
After dinner, I started my journey back to my cave to meditate and repeat the design of Relinquish. There were some ideas that can help Dweep, so I'm thinking of trying them out too. Also, I've got my homework on homing arrows. Lots of things to do...
Siddhi... That was an exciting concept. It will be fun to fight with people who have higher levels than me. I don't care, even if I lose against some of them. But seeing their skills and thinking up ways to counter them will surely make me stronger.
I'll also have to be careful of the people who'll challenge me... Shit, I'm getting too excited.
Let's build upon the concepts I learned today for my friends and my seventh-standard teammates.
Next week, when the other Rakshaks will be busy in their hunting dimension, I can build gadgets for myself that will give me some advantage for the event that will come next.
"Been a while, my murderer." I stopped hearing someone's call from behind. She's back I guess?
I turned around to find Varsha beaming at me. She was now flaunting our white Ashrama clothes, with her hair tied up and looking proper.
"So you're finally here."
"Hmm, Father finally let me go. He was in a terrible mood after we left Ashrama for 'some reason'." She said, giving me a look with narrow eyes and a smirk. She knew how her father collared me back then.
I could only smile awkwardly at that.
"You wanna show me around?" She asked.
"Nah, I'm busy right now. I'll ask one of my friends to do that. You see, I'm not allowed on that side." I pointed towards the west side of Ashrama.
The southwest part where the sword Arena is built is accessible to us, but there's a clear boundary along the upper edge of the facility.
"Wait, isn't Vishwajeet supposed to do that?" I asked, perplexed.
"That guy... He told me to find you instead. Apparently, it's his rehearsing time." She sighed.
Wow, he really pushed that onto me.
A few minutes later, Jhanvi and Esha arrived while discussing something.
"These two are your friends?" Varsha suddenly gave me a mischievous smile. "Good going." She whispered close to my ears.
Did losing her experience also revert her mentality to a child? Speaking of a child, I should visit the dairy once.
Learning Asuran culture from Varsha can be pretty beneficial though. Will keep it in my mind as a future objective.
I bade goodbyes to the three and made my way back to the cave to prepare for the upcoming trials.