Good news came for Rocky in the form that both his friends Taylor and Adam underwent their first awakenings on their birthday week itself.
From their entire batch, it was only the three of them and a nerdy girl named Layla who underwent first awakening around their birthdays as the rest were either waiting to turn 18 or had not undergone awakening at least in their first few months of turning 18.
While technically one could still undergo awakening between ages 18-21, the longer it took for one to awaken the lesser their potential generally was and such talents were mostly undesirable to major guilds.
It was around this time that children began to realize that not everyone was created equal as the power dynamics began subtly shifting for the first time in their life.
Uptil now, everyone wore a uniform, everyone received the same education, everyone played the same games together and were more or less friendly with one another, however, all that was going to change starting now.
The climbers would go onto join the tower, join the climber university and become warrior's or craftsmen while the non-climbers would be forced to prepare for rigorous entrance exams and a difficult job market, which would on average pay 1/10th of what a level10 climber would earn a year.
While the climbers would go on to improve their physical strength, their appearance, their lifespan.
Drive fancy cars, date beautiful women/men…. The non-climbers would live a normal life and cower every time the year of death came around praying that their heroes and saviors managed to fend off the monster tide.
Jealousy, disbelief, desperation…. This was the first time that the young adults had to feel these emotions as intensely as they did and it drove them crazy.
While Rocky, Taylor and Adam laughed and giggled about their upcoming climber life, the rest could only grit their teeth and secretly search on the internet about shady ways to forcefully undergo awakening, following unproven superstitions and drinking unlicensed medicine in hope of having a life that was never meant for them.
Not all humans were born equal. This was a tough concept to swallow for most, however, in this world where the tower existed.
Only the Climbers were the first class citizens.
While non-climbers were second rate, and the fact that this distinction was not made at birth, but rather after individuals matured and had hope of becoming climbers, made this process even more painful and cruel than it should have ideally been.
Just like that, soon the final exam season rolled around and Rocky, alongside both his friends, managed to pass out with flying colors.
All three having received their no objection certificates from the school, they could now enter the tower and join a climber academy after officially registering with the climber association.
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( Graduation night, Amelia's house )
For Rocky, his graduation day coincided with the last and final day of his 90 day hard challenge as after receiving the result and going out for lunch with his best friends, Rocky returned home to complete his last workout routine as he observed a massive difference between his last workout session as compared to his first.
On his last day, Rocky could complete all ten sets of his exercises with relative ease as he needed hardly 60 minutes to complete the full workout routine that once took him half a day to complete.
His 5 mile running time had dropped down to just over 20 minutes and his lung capacity became better than ever.
He had gained a lot of knowledge about the tower, its history and the various factions within it, including a thorough understanding of which factions controlled what floors and which gods were friendly with which gods.
His Me Tube channel had grown to 22 million subscribers in just 90 days and he was currently riding a wave of explosive growth and adding hundreds of thousands of subscribers to his channel everyday.
Overall, it all felt like a dream to Rocky, however, he could not enjoy it in peace as the absence of his sister kept pricking him constantly.
Since him graduating also meant that he would soon be moving out of Amelia's apartment, after completing his workout and drinking his refreshment potion, Rocky decided to do something grand for Amelia as a thankyou gesture.
Instead of getting hammered on booze like the rest of his class for his graduation party, Rocky hand cooked dinner for Amelia, ordered her expensive gifts from the money that he received from his MeTube channel and decorated the house as best as he could with flowers and candles.
It was almost like a date, although it was not-
Despite how it looked, Rocky only wanted to make a nice gesture which was why he did all that he could to convey his heartfelt gratitude.
Later at night, as Amelia returned from work, she was surprised and thrilled to see what Rocky had planned for her, as watching the beautifully decorated dinner table and the young and handsome Rocky waiting for her in a suit, she could not help but chuckle and blush as she graciously accepted his arrangement.
Although the food that Rocky cooked was not really that good, Amelia felt really moved by his effort as just for one evening she dropped her stern attitude and laughed and enjoyed alongside Rocky, celebrating his graduation.
During dinner, for the first time in her life Amelia wondered if she had an actual boyfriend, would she be treated to such special evenings more often?
She questioned whether she was missing out on the quality of life and it's little joys because she was basically married to her work? However, she quickly shrug these thoughts off as she knew that while a relationship had its highs, the lows lasted longer and were worse and that she did not need such drama in her life.
"So, when are you planning to move out? Also what university are you planning to enroll into?" Amelia asked, once their dinner was complete and the two washed the dishes.
"Hopefully the day after tomorrow, I'm going to register myself as a climber tomorrow at the association and move onto enrolling into a climber university at floor zero, while the new session is yet to begin" Rocky replied as Amelia nodded her head and approved of Rocky's plan.
If Rocky was fast, he could still enroll before the next university session commenced and complete his introductory training to become a climber.
"I'll miss you, kid. You're a problem child, but a good child.
Although I might not show it, I'm quite fond of you and should you run into any trouble, you can always count on Aunt Amelia to help you out.
Since the guildmaster has promised you a letter of recommendation, you can rest assured that any B grade university will accept you, even if you have the worst evaluation at the association.
With a half decent talent you can enroll into an A grade university, however, if you wish to aim for the top four universities, you will need to have more than just the guild master's recommendation letter to make the cut.
My suggestion will be to go for the university for nourishment of young talents as your first choice…..
The best warrior's are always once who have been mentored by that crazy principal" Amelia said as she conveyed her true emotions in the most formal way possible as Rocky smiled and gave her a tight hug, taking her by surprise.
For a second, Amelia was stunned, but she then smiled and returned Rocky's embrace feeling warmth in her heart.
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/// A/N - Bonus chapter 1/5.
I'll try to complete the bonus series by tomorrow or day after by latest. ///