Chapter 4 - Chains and Entropy

"As you are all aware," the Principal continued. "The course registrations will begin today at 5 pm. Be sure to check all the elective options before making your choices—we offer dozens of courses even just for you freshmen, and you may need to think about how your Paths will synergize if you want to make it big early. You may want to do that because this semester, we will be doing something different, and you may want to make it big early.
"This year, The Coalition of Sol has decided to partner with academies outside our system to let our students have more experience for the Planetary Clash tournament at the end of the year. Every academy on Sol will have a sister academy outside the Solar System, and I am proud to announce that we will be organizing events, joint exams, trips, training camps, and exchange programs with the Academy of Epsilon Paramount.

"We aim to create the absolute best students to win the Planetary Clash and send them to the Collision of the Stars tournament. As you remember, last year, for the first time in MANC's history, we were able to send a team to CotS. Although your seniors did their best and gave us a magnificent show in Tau Ceti, they were still eliminated before even reaching the quarter-finals."

Principal Kartal gave a dramatic pause, and the room erupted into supportive cheers.

"I think our previous third-years deserve a bit more noise, don't they?"

Claps and whistles echoed in the Theatron, creating an amazing harmony of cheers with the perfect acoustics of the room.

I leaned towards Tyler, who was also cheering along with others, as the Principal continued boasting about their success in the tournament. "Hey, wasn't humanity under attack by these creatures out of a cosmic horror story? These sound like they put more importance into… sports events?"

"Yeah, man. CotS is like Galaxy-wide Olympics. You should look up some videos. Crazy stuff."

"Yeah, but weren't we on the brink of destruction?" The charred landscape of Earth appeared in my mind. "Earth mostly destroyed?"

Tyler shrugged. "Guess we made a comeback. We have dozens of colonies now throughout the galaxy, so Empyreans just have more to deal with. The attacks are more sparse."

So, Garcia was full of shit when he said 'Do you know what's at stake here?' Son of a bitch.

"Our strategy before," the Princical carried on, "had always been to win the CotS's tournaments for third and fourth years. Juniors and seniors have the skillsets close to that of a real pathwalker, so these two tournaments are the most prestigious in the Collision. That being said, they also have the most competition for the same reason. This year, however, with the budget we got thanks to participating in CotS, we will also be focusing on the freshmen and sophomores, and we are keen about taking the trophy home this year."

The orientation continued with the same "showbiz" vibe—instead of giving us information about our new academic life, the Principal bragged about MANC's previous achievements and shared his hopes for future tournaments. A few useful information were scattered here and there in his speech, but ultimately, this could have just been an email.

Still, I had no regrets about attending the orientation, even after getting humiliated by Matias Garcia. I had made a new friend, after all, and right now, we were strolling casually towards the dorms with Tyler, the sun casting its fierce afternoon beams on us.

"Y'know," Tyler said, "We have to do something about that body of yours."

"Yeah. Matias lifted me as if I'm a baby."

"Man, you still on about that? Forget that bastard. I'm just saying it to make your life easier, and not just your academy life. I was like you once, y'know? Thin as a mosquito's leg. I can guarantee you, your life quality will increase ten, hell, hundredfold if you put some muscles."

I pushed my brain to its limits to imagine a slim version of Tyler, but I came empty-handed. "Were you a bodybuilder in the simulation?"

"Yeah? No? Well, I wasn't like a bodybuilder bodybuilder. Never been in a competition. I was a professional wrestler, though. The one people like to label as 'fake.' Never had a good push because the promotion never saw me as a star. So I put on some thirty kilograms of muscle, and only then I got some recognition. Even went to Japan. But…"

Tyler's voice trailed off, his eyebrows loosening.

"But..?"

He put on a smile and gently punched my shoulder. "Let's just say that Veritas claimed me soon after. Nevermind about that, where we going?"

We had arrived in a vast park near the dorms, where students from all years sat on the grass, played volleyball without a net, and simply conversed among themselves. Five buildings of the dorms, dark grey residences with black tinted windows rose behind the treeline.

"Uhh, to the dorms? The course registration starts in a few hours."

Tyler smacked me again. "We still have the time. Come, I'll show you around the campus."

And thus was I adopted by the extroverted spirit of Tyler.

***

Tyler kept his promise and showed me around the campus, explaining the important locations from Shopping Square to the Training Center, and even forced me to eat two portions of fried chicken, claiming that my body needed protein. I was glad that I didn't order the spicy option, as I would definitely dress the table with the contents of my stomach.

He promised to create a healthy diet and a workout program for me and with my belly feeling like a heavy bag of rocks, we separated in front of the dorms. I made my way into the Faculty of Mind's dormitory building, thinking how lucky I was to be friends with such a nice guy.

I started to run as I saw the elevator doors in the lobby closing and put my hand inside the opening just in time.

I froze for a second as I saw Daisy standing alone in the elevator, her hands folded over the skirt of her dress, golden hair cascading gracefully down her back. Just for a second, though, as I stepped inside without hesitation. The sweetness of her perfume filled the elevator, though due to the small space, it smelled too heavy and made me breathe from my mouth. Now that she was next to me, I realized that even with her white high-heels, I stood slightly taller than her.

"Which floor?" she asked, not even making eye contact.

"Sixth."

She pressed the button and an uncomfortable silence engulfed the space, only broken by the gentle hum of the elevator. I looked at the panel, and the fifth-floor button was also lit. So her room's one floor below me.

I cleared my throat, wishing to make the atmosphere less awkward. "Didn't know you were also from the Faculty of Mind."

"Huh?" She made eye contact for the first time, her eyebrows slightly raising as she realized who I was. "Oh, the Twig."

I let out a confident snort. "Kayra," I corrected her and extended my hand. "Nice to meet you."

She glanced at my bony hands as if she had just seen a cockroach.

"Daisy," she said, refusing my handshake. The elevator beeped and she left, her sudden movement filling my nose with her overly-sweet perfume.

Fucking rich people.

I had tried to strike up a conversation in the hopes that maybe, despite her cocky comments earlier, she had a good heart and she was just being arrogant because Matias was around.

I was wrong, and I had made everything even more awkward now.

Oh well, I thought, I tried to be the bigger person. If she doesn't want to be friendly, that's on her.

I stepped out, and a big cargo box waited for me in front of my room, sent by MANC. I took it and opened it in my living room.

A slick, digital wristwatch that basically functioned as a computer with its ability to open a wide hologram screen occupied the box along with a laptop as thin as paper.

I spent half an hour trying to understand how they worked, and grasped most of it, though writing on these paper-thin keyboards of the hologram and the laptop was just too uncomfortable for my brain wired to 2024.

As soon as the clock hit 5 pm, I began my course registration process on the laptop, checking every single course and reading their descriptions in detail.

I had to take three mandatory classes that the academy decided for me: Melee Combat I, Introduction to Mental Paths, and a weapon course of my choosing; along with three electives.

The electives all had stat requirements, so nearly all of the electives from other faculties were out of the question due to my poor stats. My intelligence score wasn't enough for most electives from even my own faculty, and I only had a few options to choose from.

In the end, I finalized my electives. "Ranged Combat I" from the Faculty of Battle Arts caught my eye and was my first choice since I had no way of fighting in melee with a body like this. Besides, this was also a mandatory course in later semesters, so no requirements were needed if you wanted to take it early.

The second one, I revolved around "Mind Invasion and Enervation" and "Mind Shielding and Psychic Barriers."

Both sounded interesting—the Enervation course encompassed debuffs, where you infiltrated your opponent's mind to weaken them both mentally and physically. Mind Shielding, obvious from its name, dealt with the exact opposite of that and allowed you to defend against such attacks, along with some other minor psychic effects.

Concluding that if I learned how to attack, I could learn how to defend more effectively when I took that class in a later semester, I chose Mind Invasion and Enervation. Sure, I could choose both but I didn't want to focus on a single branch and bore myself for several months.

Another reason why I didn't take both at the same time was my third elective—Entropy and Its Practical Applications, offered by the Faculty of Spirituality. It requiring only 9 vigor (which I barely had) surprised me, and I took it to shake things up a bit.

Faculty of Spirituality focused on anything regarding nature—the courses ranged everywhere between healing and shapeshifting, but also… entropy. Entropy and Its Practical Applications, as an introductory course, taught students how to manipulate entropy to their advantage.

I searched on the internet to find out that powerful pathwalkers who specialized in entropy could make people age 100 years with a single touch, reverse the entropy to de-age them back and use thermodynamics to their advantage to achieve so many different results.

The sky was the limit for entropy, as you could almost apply it anywhere in the universe.

Never before had I clicked on something so fast, fearing that the quota would become full. Fortunately, it didn't, and I was surprised to see that only a dozen people chose it when the quota allowed up to 60 people.

MANC's system also showed you the anonymous comments of the students who took the class before, and it didn't take too long for me to understand why this course was not popular.

>Withdrew it as soon as I could, lmao
>Don't take this class, its so f*** hard
>Dropped it on my second week, never been happier.
>If your vigor isn't like, 30, don't even think about taking this class.
>The teacher was really sweet, but the course is just too hard (╥﹏╥) (╥﹏╥)
>I had 18 vigor, and even I had a hard time in this. Professor Waters is really helpful tho

Apparently, this course had such a notorious reputation that nobody wanted to take it in the past, which was precisely why the required vigor score was so low—the teacher had to lower the requirement to be able to have enough students.

I smiled. Let's see if what they say is true.

Thus, I chose my electives for the rest of the semester, except for the weapon course.

Faculty of Battle Arts offered dozens of weapon courses, from rifles and pistols to swords and bows. Looking at the quotas, to no one's surprise, swords, bows, axes and rifles stood as the most popular choices.

My first choice for the mandatory weapon course was the pistol course, since it required the minimum strength to be carried. Any weapons like rifles, swords, spears, or basically anything heavier than a kilogram, as I decided, was a no-go.

But then I thought, what can they even teach me in a pistol class?

I had used pistols in a shooting range in my previous life, and I already knew at least the basics of how they worked, so I had every confidence in myself to teach myself to be better at shooting. Unlike weapons like bows, pistols did not require too much knowledge and complex abilities—it was just practice.

What drew my attention, however, was a class at the bottom of the list, titled "chain."

No other words occupied its page—no academic name like "Introduction to Chains", no descriptions, no instructor name, nothing.

Just the word "chain" with its first letter not even capitalized.

Is this an error in the system? Like a leftover from someone testing how to create a course page?

I checked the comments from the previous years.

-No courses were offered in the Spring 2103 semester.

>Who the f*** thought chains could be used as weapons? These things are so stupid and impractical.

-No courses were offered in the Spring 2102 semester.

>The jackass professor told me to give up on being a pathwalker and forced me to drop the course. How is this bastard still allowed to give this class???

-No courses were offered in the Spring 2101 semester.

>Instructor didnt come to classes for 3 weeks and I had to drop the class

-No courses were offered in the Spring 2100 semester.
-No courses were offered in the Fall 2099 semester.

>The instructor beat the s*** out of me with a chain in the first class and told me to kill myself
>The professor beat someone and never came to the class rest of the semester

-No courses were offered in the Fall 2098 semester.

Wow. Just… Wow.

Aside from my piqued curiosity about this professor, a thought immediately popped into my mind. Chains were heavier than most of the weapons listed, but it gave me an advantage. An advantage that no other student could get from this type of weapon.

With a thought, a window popped up.

[Path of Suffering:

Type: Mental
Grade: F+

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

The more your body is in physical pain, the stronger you will be. Depending on your pain level, your Willpower score will be added to your STR and DEX.
Pain level - Meager: Nothing
Pain level - Moderate: Nothing
Pain level - High: +(WILL)/10
Pain level - Agony: +(WILL)/5]

A sinister smile crept across my face as I thought about the various ways I could wield the chains to inflict pain upon myself.

Let's see what type of guy this chain professor is.