Like the internet on Earth, there was a seperate network within the tower called the 'Climber Net'.
The amount of floors you have climbed in the tower, determined how many chat rooms you had access to, however, since Rocky was only a floor 0 student right now, he could only access the general chat of the Climber Net.
It was extremely cluttered, hard to make sense of and sort of useless, as Rocky knew that unless he ascended a few floors and became a part of more refined chat groups, the tower net chat was going to be worthless.
The only reason he kept checking it however, was because the tower communication device given to him by Pope Cole was his only contact to Earth and Earthlings.
If a monster outbreak started on Earth, he would not even find out about it unless he was active on the tower net and subscribed to the Earth chat group, where information about Earth and Earth's guilds was updated.
As of now, no monster outbreaks had occurred and hence Rocky could continue with his student life in peace.
************
( The next day )
On the second day of classes, Rocky had the lectures 'Swordsmanship' and 'Power Dynamics and the history of the tower'. With the latter being the first lecture of the day.
Being the second mandatory subject offered in the university, the importance of the subject was immense and it was rumored that the professor explaining this subject was an extremely well respected scholar.
Just like survival class, the lecture about power dynamics of the tower was also held in the grand hall, however, the atmosphere of the class was definitely less suffocating than when Principal Liam held one.
There was something about the mad principal that demanded absolute obedience, however, Professor Feynord did not have such a stifling aura, as he seemed to be a knowledgeable and kind man.
"Good morning children. Today is our first lecture together, so let me take a moment to introduce myself and the subject and why it's a mandatory subject for you all-"
"Basically, climbing the tower is not a straightforward affair once you reach floor 21.
From floor 21, every tower floor is like a world of its own with the path to climbing forward being through one of three ways.
You can either ask for a quest from the floor administrator to advance.
You can either defeat the floor boss in combat.
Or
You can forcefully take over the entire floor, becoming the new floor master" Professor Feynord said in a soft voice.
"The terms floor administrator, floor master and floor boss are not to be confused with one another.
A floor administrator is a tower assigned deity, someone not under the influence of the gods who gives challenges/ quests to climbers, completing which allows the climber to move a floor above.
All floors within the tower from 1-80 have floor administrators, with most of them being small pixie fairies, but there are some other species too.
For non-combattants/ craftsmen. Completing quests is the best way to climb the tower and the floor administrators are your best friends" Professor Feynord explained, as Rocky listened intently to his lecture.
" A floor boss! Is a monster. It's like the end of level boss that needs to be defeated to ascend to the next floor and defeating a floor boss is usually how combatants climb the tower.
Floor bosses are usually very strong and defeating them is not an easy task at all with a very real threat of losing one's life if things go south.
So never approach a floor boss fight casually" Professor Feynord warned as his eyes swept across the room.
"Finally, a floor master is someone who has claimed the floor and its immense resources for himself/ his organization.
Like I said, each floor is like a world of its own, so every floor has some unique resources, some unique monster life that's only available on that particular floor and hence the floor masters are beings who control these resources and monsters.
Capturing a floor is like ascending to the heavens, as a full blown floor raid is a fight between the forces of the floor master and the forces of the challenger, where the floor master can call upon every single monster of the world to take part in the fight, making it next to impossible for one to capture a floor without possessing significant backing.
As of today, there is not a single floor which is claimed by independent forces. The floors are either unclaimed or claimed by forces of tower gods, the only beings who can assert control over a floor.
For you to survive in the tower, you must learn about which floors are controlled by which organizations and how they can make your life difficult if you are not aligned with them.
This holds especially true for our In-house champions Rocky and Sophia, as while Olympus controls floor 21, Gemini Controls floor 40" Professor Feynord said as all eyes turned towards Rocky and Sophia, who understood the sheer importance of the words spoken by their teacher better than anyone.
" While technically a floor master can't outright stop a climber from ascending to the next stage-
With their control over the monsters on the floor, they surely can make the life of any climber they dislike difficult as the difficulty of ascending can become many times harder or easier depending on how the floor master views you.
It's unfortunate, but the reality of being a climber is that unless you become strong enough, you have to play power politics very carefully as your future will quite literally be determined by who favors you and who does not.
This subject is taught to you all so that you can understand these subtle power plays and while I cannot save the champion of Gemini from the ire of Olympus or vice versa, I can at least help the rest of you understand which gods you cannot dare offend and what would be the consequences of your actions" Professor Feynord said as he threw and apologetic look towards Rocky and Sophia before continuing with his lecture.
In his very first lecture, he covered very important parts such as which floors were important for alchemy unions, which floors were important for ores and how if one wished to be a craftsman they needed unrestricted access to these floors to further develop themselves.
He briefly touched upon the topic of which gods disliked which gods and which gods were allies with which gods as although he did not go in-depth, he tried to give a brief introduction to the power balance within the tower as for the first time since leaving school, Rocky felt like he was sitting in a proper theoretical lecture that hurt his brains.
Thankfully, he was sitting beside Buhara, who was banging his head on the desk 20 minutes into the lecture as his brain had shot a fuse from all the difficulty theory.
It was because of his constant fiddling and weird antics that Rocky was able to survive the lecture with ease, while Erin seemed to be laser focused on the studies and seemed to follow every word that the professor said.
"That's it for today students, let's continue two days from now when our next lecture is scheduled" Professor Feynord eventually said, as the two hours allocated to him for teaching came to an end.
It was at this moment that the rest of the class rushed outside to take a breather, while Rocky walked towards the professor as he had a curious question in his mind.
" Agh, Rocky! My boy- how can I help you?" The professor asked as Rocky approached him, as Rocky felt a little surprised as to how he knew his name and face although they were technically meeting for the first time ever.
"Professor, in your lecture you said to beware of Shakuni, that of all the gods in the tower, he's the one who you would never prefer offending even in your dreams... may I ask why you think so?" Rocky asked curiously, as Feynord chuckled.
"Why else but because fate itself dances on his palms…. If your patron god has planned something, nobody can disrupt his scheme" Feynord replied honestly as Rocky frowned at his response.
"With all due respect professor, I don't think any god can be omnipotent can they? I mean, plans of gods go wrong all the time don't they?" Rocky asked, as he could not digest the professor's belief of Shakuni being almighty, afterall, Shakuni never intended for him to be his champion, but here he was.
" Well, that's debatable. I don't think you are wrong as gods indeed have their plans fail time and time again. However, Shakuni is a weird one if you study history.
He will often lose a battle to win the war as the larger picture never emerges until he wishes to unveil it.
He's called Shakuni the terrifying in ancient books, but his initial title was Shakuni the undefeated.
The only being to climb floor 0 to floor 90 without ever losing a battle.
I'd say, if something doesn't seem to be going his way, then it's most likely a part of his plan, that's what I make of him" Feynord replied as Rocky was left with a lot of conflicted feelings by his answers.
Was his sister's kidnapping all a part of Shakuni's grand scheme?
Was he really the second choice as Gemini's champion?
Did he even have a free will? Or was he only dancing to the rhythm of the gods and their system?
Just what did the future hold for him?
These were questions that gnawed his mind once Professor Feynord projected absolute trust in Shakuni.