As Mike sat down to grab food he was a little disappointed to see that the food they had served was very similar to what he would have found back on Earth. It tasted somewhat different to what he was used to but not enough for him to have guessed it was food from a different planet.
There were a few tables in the common area to eat, not enough for anyone to get their own table but enough that they could spread out to only a few at each table. The tone of the room was icy though, no one was speaking to each other, rather they were eyeing off the people around them as if they were competition. In a way they were, not all of them would be able to make it to the final day and even if they did there was a chance they wouldn’t even be selected to make it into The Academy.
He got this was a competition, but in his mind working together would also help them get through the next 7 days at the very least. At his table there was three other people, two girls and a guy that hadn’t spoken a word and looked to be contemplating life. Rather than sit in silence while he ate he figured he would try to start up a conversation and see if he could, at the very least, get their names.
“This whole thing is kind of intense, right?” He spoke to everyone at the table, breaking some of them out of their thoughts. “I’m Mike by the way. What are your names?”
“Tess. Its nice to meet you, Mike.” The girl sitting directly across from him called Tess was the only one that spoke. When he waited for the other two to speak they just sat in silence and didn’t bother looking his way.
“Nice to meet you too Tess. Do you know why everyone is so….standoffish?” His question elicited a soft laugh from Tess which sounded almost mocking.
“Why wouldn’t they be. You know as much as the rest of us, only those of us who make it to the end and show they are better than everyone else here are going to have a chance on making it into The Academy. You don’t make friends with the competition.”
“I get that, but wouldn’t it make more sense to at least work together a little bit, at least at first. There are three classes about to start and you can only go to one of them. Wouldn’t it make sense to form a group of three and split up and share information after?” It was the smartest approach to what was about to occur, it would reap the most rewards for everyone, including him.
“That would only work if you trusted the other people you joined with. Its easy enough to lie about what went on in your class to the rest of the group. People will do anything to get to the top, I know I will.” Tess gave him the on of the most predatory smiles he had ever seen, immediately putting him on edge and making him want to leave the table. Rather than show any unease he politely smiled back to her.
“I guess you are right. I forget sometimes how cut throat people can be.” He had seen people like this before, he couldn’t avoid them when you were in competitive sports. He mostly ignored these people though and stayed out of their way. It was one of the main reasons he focused on running, he could do it alone, get lost in the feeling and not have to worry about some asshole purposely sabotaging him out of spite.
Looking around the room he got the impression that everyone here was the kind of person that would happily step on someone else’s back to get closer to the top. It had been made pretty clear to them from the beginning what it would take to succeed in The Academy try outs. Those that knew they wouldn’t be able to make it didn’t even bother coming here, it took a certain type of person to be able to volunteer to be pushed to one’s limits, get broken, and then push further.
Neither he nor Tess spoke again after that, instead he thought over which choice to make for the next class. He was tempted to pick the physical and combat class but given he had been training his body his entire life across many different sports and activities he decided that, missing this class would be okay, he could make it up later on, or so he hoped.
That left the knowledge class and the Spirit class. Both of these would be the most important for him as he knew nothing about either of them. He knew he was going to need to study, something he was decently good at, but knowing nothing about what he would have to learn and having a limited time to actually grasp completely new information and concepts was daunting. If he had a book or information to study off it would make it easier.
Spirit though was what he felt was going to be the most important for him in the long run. His skill was centred around Spirit, as was a whole portion of the Overview. In his mind that made it an important part of everyday life on this planet.
“Five minutes until you should head off to one of the classes if you choose to go to any.” Mike was broken from his thoughts when he heard Jack speak across the common area.
He had already finished eating, now full but not overstuffed. Picking up his plate and cutlery he moved to put it on an area that looked to be meant for all of the dirty dishes. After a moments hesitation he walked over to Jack who was standing alone near the exit and watching over the group.
“Hi Mr Larns, my name is Mike. Its nice to meet you.” He held out his hand for a handshake but realised people on this planet might not even do handshakes. Feeling awkward about it he was about to pull his hand back but before he could jack took it and gave it a shake.
“Call me Jack.” The relief he felt having not made a fool of himself was palatable. Jack gave a tight squeeze that was on the edge of hurting before letting go.
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“The Headmaster said that you could help us out and we could ask you questions?”
“That he did. Do you have a question? Something you need? I wont tell you which class to choose to go to.” The look jack gave him was a cross between curiosity and amusement. He seemed like he wanted to know what someone would want from him before even the first class had started but also seemed willing to play along.
“The class with Owl. We were told it would cover a lot of different topics, ones I am guessing everyone that comes to The Academy would already know all about and would be common knowledge on your world, right?” His question was leading, he planned, if possible, to approach this class the same way he did all of his other classes at uni. Collect the materials on the subjects, study the materials as much as possible, test himself on them until he knew the answers to all the questions he could think of.
“I don’t know everything that Owl will go through, but that would be a good assumption to make. Why do you ask?” Mike smiled at Jack when he got the answer he had been hoping for.
“Would it be possible to get some material, either books, notes, papers, anything like that on the things that are common knowledge of this world? Stuff that I would be able to study in my own time?”
Unlike the Headmaster, Jack didn’t bother hiding his emotions or thoughts. His facial expressions clearly displayed what he was thinking. The first thing Mike saw was shock at the request, that quickly shifted to something like joy and then he looked like he was holding back a laugh.
“I can see what I can do for you. By the time the classes are done today I will let you know. If you don’t mind me asking, based off of your request, I take it you won’t be going to Owl’s class. So where will you go?” That Jack was willing to see what he could provide was better than he had expected. He had expected something along the lines of ask Owl in her class or a straight up no.
“I was tossing up between going to Owl or Wraith’s class. But if you can get me the materials, I will be going to Wraith’s class to learn more about Spirit.”
“Not going to test your strength with Sonar? That’s interesting….but getting ahead in Spirit is what I would do in your position. Not that I am telling you to go to that class.” Jack gave him a wink before turning away from looking directly at him. “Okay everybody, five minutes is up, your free to head to wherever you want to go. Good luck, you are going to need it.”
Mike didn’t hesitate to leave the common room and go to the classroom that the Spirit class would be held in. It took all of 30 seconds to the door he needed. As it was already open he walked straight in, the first to arrive as he was the first to leave the common room as he was standing next to the exit when talking to Jack.
The room was large enough to easily fit 100 people, it was set out like any other lecture theatre he had been in, including a large stage at the front. Wraith was already there and waiting.
“Aren’t you eager.” Looking down at a tablet in her hand she smiled before looking back up. “Michael Winset. I am glad you chose to come to my class. Take a seat, anywhere you feel most comfortable.”
“Thanks Instructor Wraith. I usually go by Mike though, if that’s okay?” He moved to the front row, right in front of the middle of the stage so he would be close and be able to take everything in.
“Mike it is. I will update our record for you so you won’t need to keep correcting everyone. We will give it another minute or so and see how many more show, then we shall get straight into it.”
The minute passed quickly, only 3 more people came into the classroom and each of them were greeted by name by Wraith. They each took seats within the first few rows, no one sitting too close to each other, but close enough that they would all be able to easily see and hear what Wraith said and did.
Wraith closed the door to the room once the minute was up and came back to the centre of the room where she looked over the four of them one by one.
“You have all chosen to come here to learn about Spirit. What I want to know is why. Suskia, why don’t you start us off. Why did you choose this class?”
“Because the Overview has a section on Spirit.” Saskia didn’t even hesitate to answer. She was confident and direct.
“Does anyone have a different answer?” Wraith looked at the remainder of the class and everyone shook their heads, when she got to Mike she raised an eyebrow at him, waiting to see if he would say something more.
“I also joined because of my skill.”
“Wonderful! Then let us start the lesson. Spirit is one of the most important things that not only yourselves but everyone on this planet focuses on. Spirit directly relates to a person’s skill. No one can use their skill without first unlocking their first Spirit gate. As your skill is powered by the Spirit in your body. To better explain to you what Spirit is, think of it as magic, or the thing that powers magic. The more Spirit you have the more you can use your skill.
But Spirit gates alone are not a determining factor of one’s skill. As you would have all seen on your Overview, you have Control, Attunement and Density. But what does that mean? Spirit Control is your ability to control the Spirit within you, including how much or how little is used to power your skill. Think of this as the equivalent of a tap. With no control you only have the option of on and off. You either have your Spirit gushing into your skill with everything you have in your body or you can’t use your skill at all. With higher control, you can determine how much of your Spirit reserves you use to power your skill.
Spirit Attunement is the direct correlation between how your body can handle Spirit. If you were to push through 10 Spirit gates all at once from having none of them open and having no Attunement then your body would degenerate at an incredible speed and you would die because you have not attuned your body to Spirit. The higher the Attunement, the better, as it means you can open more Spirit gates without risking your life in the process.
Finally, Spirit Density, this one is more straight forward. It is the power behind your Spirit. The higher the density, the more powerful your skill can be activated with less Spirit being used. It is the muscle, the stronger the muscle the more force behind the punch.
But it is not as simple as training to get these to 100% and then you don’t have to train these attributes any longer. Let’s say you have unlocked your first gate, you have trained all of the three sub attributes to 100%. Then you unlock your second gate. Your sub attributes do not stay at 100%, you now have more Spirit with the unlocking of your second gate, thus you now need to retain you sub attributes. It is depending on the gate and the person, but it is common for your sub attributes to drop around 50 to 75% with a new gate being unlocked.
And therein lies the eternal struggle in growing stronger. With every new gate you unlock you gain the opportunity to grow stronger, the more gates you have open the harder it is to train your sub attributes, if any of your sub attributes get too low you waste away and die or simply explode from the lack of control. In the case of Density your Spirit is so week that you can’t even activate your skill properly. Any questions so far?”