Chapter 2: Preparing for College
It was the lunch break. This was the time when the noise in the classroom was at it's peak due to a cacophony of sounds. Studying at this time was nearly impossible unless you listen to some music to drown out the noise or buy those overpriced noise cancelling ear-plugs. Alex was choosing the first option with his legs spread out on his table, a book in his lap and a headphone covering his ears which was blasting at maximum volume possible.
That would have been enough normally, but for Alex, a person who recently awakened to his previous life memories, it was anything but easy to concentrate on the book on his lap. Why? Well I don't know. It may be due to a group of boys at one corner surrounding two people who were playing something which resembled chess. Only that the chessboard like thing was floating in the air and the pieces on it seemed to be alive. And mind you not alive like robots or little pieces of machinery, but really alive. Or it may be due to a group of girls surrounding another girl who had a ethereal purple color cat with sparks on it's body floating around it. Alex used to live on Earth, just like you and I. But the scene he was seeing definitely, could not be found on Earth. Because he no longer was on earth. This was Gran city on a planet called Manlore which was in god knows where.
The planet's location was in some star system in some galaxy. But to Alex, this information was not at all useful to know his current location relative to Earth. Though he was bored with his mediocre life, there was still his family and friends back there. Alex never considered himself a sentimental person, but he has been missing them tremendously since he transmigrated here due to the fear of never being able to see them again.
Alex lived a pretty mediocre life on Earth until at the age of 25, he passed away in his sleep with his death still a mystery. That should have been the end. But on the sixteenth birthday of the Alex of this world, he suddenly remembered all that happened in his previous life. He was still not sure if he transmigrated and the souls merged or that the life from the planet called earth was really his previous life... all he knew was that he had two sets of memories and they both seemed like his own. But Alex always felt as if he was a person from Earth rather than a person from this world. This could have been due to the age difference of the two lives, which caused one portion of memories to exert significantly more influence on his personality than the other or it could simply be that he had occupied the body of this poor boy called Alex and inherited his memories. Alex sub-consciously leaned towards the previous theory. The consequences of the later was not something he wanted to consider.
Possessing the new set of memories as if they were his own, Alex still had problems adjusting to this phenomenon at the beginning. Why? Obviously because as cliché as it sounds, he was transported to a fantastical alternate universe or timeline or some other distant planet, he had no idea which. This discovery did not let him sleep properly at night for the last couple of days since his birthday. Having lived a very boring life previously, initially there was excitement, then there was curiosity, then came the wariness... The multitude of emotions almost drowned him. Magic, cultivation, witchcraft, whatever you want to call it was something entirely new for both the Alex despite it being present in his current everyday life. As it was on his sixteenth birthday only, that Alex finally awakened his soul spirit, talent or whatever you want to call it.
"Hey Alex! We will be hanging out with Leo and the bunch after school. Will you be coming?"
A green haired boy shook Alex's shoulders and pulled him out from his book. Alex looked up to find a tall bulky boy with a height of more than 6 feet and bulging muscles looking at him with a smile. His hair was wavy and neatly swept to the side in contrast to his square face which looked a bit crude. But his green hair still gave him an air of nobility not seen commonly on Earth. Of course, the guy did not have any special background and this was due to the nature of how genes would carry some of the characteristics of the abilities of you and your ancestors on this planet and would be reflected physically. His name was Larry and he just turned 17 a month ago.
Alex pulled the headphones down to his neck. The music was still blasting through the speakers of the headphones and now it could be faintly heard outside.
"Sorry. Come again."
Larry shook his head with a smile.
"I said that me, Ruth and Sarah will be hanging out with Leo and his group after the school. Will you be coming? Lucy will be there too, you know."
Larry took the seat next to Alex and elbowed him with a smirk while sneaking a glance to the book he was reading. The book was titled "A preliminary study on the characteristics of Spiritual Energy" and wasn't a book that a high school boy would normally read. It was generally in the college curriculum.
"Sorry, but I will pass. I have to finish this book."
Alex replied in an indifferent tone while his eyes veered back towards his book. Larry pouted at Alex's reply.
"Come on. The holidays are starting from tomorrow for the college exams preparation. Today is the last day. Also, why are you studying so hard? You are already the top scorer in our city, do you want to skip another grade in University too? "
Alex shook his head on hearing Larry. On this world too, Alex was quite smart and had skipped a grade. Hence he was a year younger than most of the other students in the class but was still the city wide top scorer in the previous city-wide mock exams . Of course this caused a small problem...
"Don't pout. You would scare even the ghosts away with that expression. And you know too, that I just awakened my soul spirit. I have only these two months to prepare. And besides, all the Spirit Universities put more emphasis on the development and abilities of the soul spirit than theoretical college entrance examination scores."
Alex didn't even look at Larry and replied in a strict tone. Soul spirits were one of the popular ways to gain abilities and magical powers on this planet. Of course there were other ways too like martial arts, body cultivation, spiritual energy cultivation and so on. But soul spirit being something innate to the soul allowed the person to also pursue other paths without much conflict and hence was much more popular as an entry path in this part of the universe.
Education was still considered important here and researchers were as valued here as on planet Earth. But in a world where individual power can rival collective power, gaining power either literally or metaphorically was much more important and considered a much brighter path than just pursuing plain education. Also, researchers were no longer the same and they also used various magical powers obtained through various paths to aid them and hence a normal researcher would always be at a disadvantage against such people. As a result, all the top universities also had a metaphysical section as part of their entry requirements and examination. Among these universities, spirit universities which focused on soul spirits and spiritual energy cultivation were considered the cream of the crop.
Soul spirits and spiritual energy cultivation are quite similar due to the fact that they both use spiritual energy to develop and empower their paths. The difference between them is that spiritual energy cultivation center around something called spiritual roots while soul spirit cultivation rely on, obviously the soul spirit. The spiritual roots are unique ethereal formation of acupoints and meridians and are fixed at birth and rely heavily on genetics. They have grades and variations among them, which can lead to some cultivators being significantly stronger than others or some cultivators being significantly weaker than others. Some may also not possess any due to disabled or damaged acupoints and meridians and artificial spiritual roots are generally weaker.
Soul spirits on the other hand are outward manifestation of the potential and properties of the soul and are generally random with the exception of a special group of soul spirits which can be inherited. Soul spirits also have bad soul spirits and good soul spirits but there existed only a rough grading system for them. But in contrast with spiritual energy cultivation path, a person with a weaker soul spirit may still become quite sufficiently capable by developing the soul spirit in the right direction and complimenting it with the right spells, techniques or other resources. Both have their own unique set of advantages and disadvantages. Thankfully a new path may be pursued after the cultivation in a particular path reaches a stage where it has transformed into a core. But people generally developed their soul spirits first as spiritual energy cultivation was generally quite a bit slower than soul spirit cultivation considering similar talent and resource levels. But on the other hand they have more all round development than soul spirit development if considered separately.
Unfortunately Alex skipped a grade and soul spirits can only be awakened after 16 causing him a significant disadvantage while sitting for the university entrance exams. He had one year less than others to develop his soul spirit and considering he had just roused his soul spirit, that was a significant time gap. It wasn't that he couldn't have obtained and consumed the awakening serum and performed the ritual earlier, but that would have negatively affected his soul spirit.
"But they also lower the requirements , don't they?"
Larry questioned while rubbing his non-existent beard.
"They lower the requirements but it's not proportional to the time I am losing and in some ways it can be considered that the requirements are more difficult if you want to enter before the general age of examination. That's why I am finishing all the theory as soon as possible, so that I can focus on practicing and improving my soul spirit in the coming days."
Larry nodded on hearing Alex's words. Alex had skipped a grade last year. At that time, most of the senior year students were turning 16 and Alex was just turning 15. People were beginning to awaken their soul spirits and having their first taste of power. At that time, Alex being a year younger, with no powers to speak of and being a favorite of the teachers was the target of many bullies. But during that period, Larry, Ruth and Sarah suddenly approached Alex. They were people who had strong abilities but were a bit weaker in academics than others. They belonged at the top of the hierarchy of the school and had formed somewhat of a school gang. They worked out a deal in which they protected Alex from the bullies while Alex helped them with their academics and homework. Of course, the arrangement seemed like another form of bullying, but they managed to hit it off and became good friends much to the dismay of other students. Since then, no one ever dared to provoke Alex.
"But isn't what you reading part of the university curriculum."
"Well contrary to the popular beliefs that the all the syllabus is contained in the school curriculum, the harder parts of the theory exams come from these books which are not part of the school curriculum. I can't be like a certain someone who is planning to just barely make it through theory exams and depend on the metaphysical scores, right?"
Alex leered at Larry who could only give an awkward laugh while rubbing his head. Ignoring him Alex looked back towards his book, but Larry suddenly changes his expression to a mischievous one and poked Alex on his ribs.
"Well then, that's that I guess. But are you sure you don't want to come? I did mention that your old flame Lucy will be there, right?"
Larry gave a smirk to Alex to which he could only roll his eyes. Alex's dominant personality was of from the Earth but he still had the memories of this lifetime and they even felt as if they had merged with him. So, though there was a sense of distance with others for him, others could not easily detect that. Like with Larry, Alex currently thought of him as just an acquaintance albeit a closer one and not a friend as previously. But he was still able to maintain a conversation with him as if they were friends, because he knew how Alex treated him from his memories. It was as if he was acting but he was also not acting.
"You should know by now that I am long over her."
Lucy was an insignificant character from Alex's past. They were neighbors and were of the same age. They were also previously classmates. Lucy being the cheerful and bubbly girl she was, attracted Alex's attention which resulted him to confess to her when he was just 14. But Lucy apparently didn't think much of the stoic Alex and ruthlessly turned him down. Alex decided that he no longer wanted to be around her and directly skipped a grade and topped the citywide mock theoretical exams, surprising quite a few as city wide mock tests are held only in the senior year. Alex had topped the class before this and the teachers knew he was intelligent but they didn't know he was that intelligent. This resulted his standing to increase in the teachers' eyes by quite a few places and as a direct consequence quite a number of recommendation letters fell into his lap as well.
"Who knows? Somewhere deep inside, the embers from that old flame may still be smoldering."
Larry spoke while still elbowing Alex on his ribs. Alex narrowed his eyes at Larry while tearing his gaze off from the book.
"You poke me one more time and I swear you can forget about borrowing my notes. You also better find an excuse for Ruth and Sarah as well as to why they won't be receiving them either."
Larry was instantly covered in cold sweat and hastily dropped the idea while Alex kept reading his book. Soon after, a musical tone could be heard in the class signaling the end of the break.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
anonrexx
anonrexx The next chapter would be a bit like filler as I would be introducing some characters and their backgrounds.
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