The orientation was long over and everyone had left the hall, still stunned by the Vice Chancellor's actions.
"Whuu, I've to train harder," Damien breathed deeply.
Even though he knew that he had reached the mid-level Enlightenment Realm and would be able to avoid expulsion, that didn't give him the chance to be complacent.
He was here to get strong enough to protect himself and his family.
The orientation today had made it clear to Damien that unless his life was in danger of death, the school wouldn't lift a finger to help him.
It was vastly different from what he had imagined.
He thought that at least, there would be some semblance of protection but for this, it was almost as if they were condoning anything as long as it wasn't murder.
Already, after the orientation, a document had been sent to his school comm which detailed the school rules, timetable, class arrangements and things which were necessary for him to acquire or do.
The difference between an awakened who had little or no training and one who attended a school or received training was techniques.
Every awakened made use of techniques but those who had mastered the techniques or were able to better utilize them had a higher chance of winning fights.
Based on the document sent to Damien, it was paramount that he acquired techniques for his Paths and Powers to boost his combat ability.
What Damien had seen on the DAUN net when he was experimenting were simply knock-offs or dumbed down versions of techniques.
Thus, if he wanted to be stronger, he had to buy techniques from the school's bursary.
Techniques were categorized into five.
Spirit Techniques
Soul Techniques
Body Techniques
Movement Techniques
Weapon Techniques
Movement and weapon techniques could be learnt and used by all with limited restrictions but Spirit, Soul and Body techniques could only be used by those who walked that path or paths.
Techniques were ranked from 1 star to 7 star.
Each star corresponded a realm as there were seven realms known, from Enlightenment to Planetary Realm.
Obviously, the school had no 6 or 7 star techniques but it had 1 to 5 star techniques with each increase in rank costing loads of CP.
Just because a technique was 1 or 2-star didn't mean it was useless to those of higher realms or inferior.
In the arsenal of a well-trained awakened, a 1-star technique could be as dangerous as a 4-star technique.
The reason some techniques were ranked higher than other was the difficulty in learning and also how much mana the technique drained.
1 and 2-star techniques were very easy to learn and master and put less strain on the mana capacity of an awakened.
Apart from techniques, another important thing which was needed were artifacts.
Magic artifacts were different from technologically fabricated things and they were created by Artifact Masters.
They boasted great magic capabilities, boosted people's powers and could even serve as protective talismans and weapons.
Sometimes, Artifacts could naturally form and be found in mysterious places and locations.
Such type of artifacts were known as Natural Artifacts and even rumors of the appearance of a Natural Artifact was enough to cause a widescale search!
There were very rare to locate and even harder to claim.
Thus, everyone had to make do with Artifact Masters.
Artifact Masters were also ranked from 1 star to 7 star.
Artifacts from 1 star to 5 star were all available in the school shop but they were even much more expensive than techniques.
Apart from techniques and artifacts, elixirs, potions and pills which had magical qualities were available too with temporary or permanent power boosts and many other boons.
Some pills or potions could increase one's physical power, give more focus and boost the power and techniques of Awakened!
Specially crafted by Pharmacy Masters also ranked from 1 star to 7 star, potions and crafted magic medicine was even more sought after than techniques and artifacts.
Fortunately, it was all available in the school but the problem was the cost was even more inflated than that of artifacts.
Damien sighed as he stared at all those zeros behind those numerals.
He was right.
His CP may currently be the highest among all the new students but he was still poor.
"It's going to take a shitload of CP to survive here," Damien muttered as he kept scrolling down through the list of techniques, artifacts and pills available in the school.
With his current financial capacity and current strength, he could only afford the cheapest 1 star techniques for now.
Forget about artifacts and pills because at the moment they were too expensive!
The lowest price for an artifact was 500 CP!
As for pills and elixirs? 900 CP!
Fricking expensive!
With such thoughts in mind, Damien controlled his emotions and looked at the current 1 star techniques he could afford.
He had quickly realized that exercise only would be a waste of his peak physique so Damien wanted to buy a 1-star body technique, a couple of cheap 1-star spirit techniques and maybe one 1-star soul technique he could use.
Of course, Damien decided to ask the thoughts of his two roommates to see what they would advise him to do.
"Get the 1-star body technique Karate. It's very cheap and will build a suitable foundation for someone like you.
After trying it out and earning a couple more CP then you can get other cheap 1-star body techniques like Muay Thai, Wing Chun, Taekwondo, Boxing and Kick boxing.
If you're able to master about three different 1-star body techniques, it would be easier for you to master higher ranked techniques which involve more force and power," Hank advised.
"Yeah. For the Spirit techniques, get about two or three 1-star spirit techniques for now then if you can, you get a soul technique too.
Almost no one buys them so they're kinda dirt cheap," Frank added.
So Damien decided.
He checked out the prices of techniques he wanted to buy.
[ SHOP]
1-star technique Boxing – 30 CP
1-star technique Muay Thai – 30 CP
1-star technique Karate – 20 CP
1-star technique Wing Chun – 25 CP
Damien took a cursory glance at the almost infinite list of 1-star body techniques and unhesitatingly settled on buying the 1-star Karate technique.
After that, he checked the 1-star spirit techniques for the Space and Psychic elements.
They were quite expensive so Damien could only settle for two Psychic element 1-star techniques.
For the space element, the prices were high profiled and Damien already had a grasp of them like Blink so he decided to hold off getting space element techniques for now.
He decided to take the mind needle technique and mind whip technique for the Psychic element.
Even though through experimentation, he could form mind needles, it's power and his control and understanding over it were shallow.
Besides, they were silent, unseen and lethal attacks which would form a main part of Damien's arsenal.
Anyone who dared to attack him was in for nasty shock.
The mind needle technique cost 30 CP and the mind whip technique cost him 35 CP.
Damien had spent 85 CP and he had only 95 CP left.
He decided to look through the soul techniques to see if he could get one which he could use.
Compared to the other techniques, soul techniques were very cheap and it wasn't surprising because people with Soul powers were rare.
At the bottom of the list, a fascinating technique caught Damien's eye.
It was called Soul Push and it could give him the ability to slap or push someone's soul outside the body temporarily.
What kind of strange ability was that?
As expected of soul techniques.
Very weird and mysterious.
Curious, Damien also added the Soul Push which was 30 CP to the techniques he had already bought.
After further thought, he decided to also buy the cheapest technique he had seen in the shop, a soul technique called Introspection.
It was only 10 CP!
Damien couldn't believe his eyes.
Based on its description, it could allow him to gaze at his true self and even see and sense flow of energy and mana in his body!
Perhaps, it would allow him to understand the mysterious soul power he had awoken.
Satisfied with his choices, he made an order for them and paid for it.
Now his CP was at a meager 55 CP.
It had diminished in an instant!
Pushing the loss of CP at the back of his mind, Damien went to the school shop to pick up the techniques he had bought.
The fat figure of Saunders was the one behind the counter.
"Damien huh? You're quite smart. You bought your techniques pretty early. You should have about 50 CP left right?" said Saunders.
Damien shuddered inwardly but gave a polite nod and smile to Saunders.
Why was this man so nosy?!
Saunders handed Damien five chips and said, "Here are your techniques. You just have to put it into your comm or any display device, watch the tutorial and learn the technique."
Damien nodded and quickly hurried away.
He was eager to see how the techniques looked like!