"Alright students, welcome to your first lecture. Let's have a wonderful semester ahead."
Zen saw a small cute girl in her 30s walking with a notebook. Although didn't have the seductive aura, she still looked cute. She wore a long skirt with a green top showing her C sized tits.
It was the first official day for the Zen and Co.
"Settle down fast, we will start the lecture in a minute."
The professor put her stuff on the desk and fired up her tab. Instantly the front walls started sliding sideways and a humongous screen came out in front. Dr. Lucia Valentino. This was the name that was written in the bold letters. Zen assumed that she was a prominent figure in the federation because she was emanating elegance which Zen had never seen in his life.
After the class quieten down, Lucia swept the classroom with her eyes. Every student had either a laptop or a tablet on their table. Well, everyone except Zen and Anna. You see, Zen always loved writing stuff down on a paper with a pen. He was a type of guy who loved buying hard copies of the books despite everything being available for free on the internet. Anna previously preferred tablets and laptops but when she was forced by Zen to use notebook once, she herself enjoyed the process of writing.
"Let's begin. Good morning everyone." She spoke in an elegant and melodious way, "I am Lucia Valentino. You can directly call me by my name or use professor or doctor. I am from Italy, where I was a biotech researcher working on making the bloodline transfusion less painful. Now, I am with federation working on the area of efficiency increment."
Lucia forwarded her database profile to the students, "I have sent a brief introduction to my work to you guys. Anyone wanting to work with me is welcome to contact me." She paused and then started again, "In this class, I will be introducing you all to the world of mutation and the universe. We will learn about the major worlds and dimensions we know of as well as the species we are aware of. I would like to point out that what we will be studying here is not at all exhaustive. We are not even a quarter way of discovering the universe."
This was something that most of the students know. Although the things around them sounds magical with AI and extremely advanced transportation system using quantum technology, these things were nothing in the eyes of the species around the universe. The things that Earthlings called technologically advanced were nothing but scraps "donated" by other humans or reverse engineering the outdated junks in the universe.
"So let's start with the mutation and bloodlines. As you all know, humans are one of the lowest standing species in the universe. The reason behind this is, that we don't have any characteristics that could help us strengthen our foothold. Even among humans, we humans of the Earth are probably stand around middle. Most of the technologies we use were kindly donated to us by government of the 'Lacnecia galaxy', which is one the most advanced galaxies of humans."
She then tapped her tablet a bit and a new page was put on view on the front display. The page had 6 columns each having an image along with some text on it.
"First of all, whenever someone gains a mutation through a bloodline, they will acquire the power of the element that bloodline contains. The six primary elements are fire, water, wind, earth, light and darkness. Along with this, there are countless more elements which are exceedingly rare. These include lightening, space, plants, ice, and others. These elements are very rare and obtaining them costs a lot of luck along with money."
"The mutation progression is divided into outer rings, inner rings, core rings, direct rings and central rings. Each of these divisions are further divided into 9 parts. Although, we have only theorized the central rings. The highest mutation any human ever reached is 4th direct ring. He is called Regar and he is a resident of a human galaxy far away. We don't have any idea if cultivation is even possible above this criteria or this is the limit for humans."
She stopped the display and looked at the students. Seeing everyone noting down with concentration properly, she nodded with satisfaction and asked, "Is there any question?"
"... Who is currently the highest mutant on earth?" A student asked.
"The currently highest mutant who holds the title of strongest human is General Nakiri Abiyoe. She is the highest army officer in the Federal Mutant Army. She is a 3rd core ring human."
"Doesn't that mean that we are only one level behind the strongest human?" Another student ask with anticipation.
"That's not true. After reaching higher inner rings. Advancing even a single sub ring takes decades of work."
Zen up until now was listening silently. After hearing this, he raised his hand.
"Can we only acquire a single element? And what's the 'optimal' process for advancing?"
"You don't even know this and you want to be an elite student? Go back to the slums where you belong." The boy who challenged Zen and Anna snorted.
"One more unnecessary word from you and I will impose fine on you Mr. Pearson."
'Pearson huh, I guess that's why he is so agitated about yesterday's incident.'
It was no secret that Pearson and Maxwell families were allies. Given both held high positions in academics, they constantly helped each other to ensure that other families don't get ahead in research and academic positions.
"To answer your question, Mr. Ashford, one can acquire multiple elements. But each element is only added after advancing to the next level. What I mean is, let's say you are a water user in your outer ring, you can add a second element when you advance to inner ring. Of course your element compatibility and compatibility among the elements play a role too."
'Hmm so what she means is, let's say I have high compatibility with both fire and water. I cannot choose water as my outer ring and fire as my inner as both the elements are not compatible with each other. In that case it might be a better option to continue with a more potent fire bloodline while advancing.' Zen immediately made a systematic understanding in his mind.
"As for the answer to your second question, I would first like everyone to stop writing and concentrate completely on the display."
She then started tinkering with her tablet until a new screen came out on the display.