Roommates

"What's your name dawg?" asked one of the red haired boys.

Damien was finally inside his new home and he was now talking with his new roommates. It didn't take nuclear physics to know that these two red haired kids were identical twins.

They had the same red hair, spotted similar stylish crew cuts, had nearly the same height and a very similar face.

An unawakened person would find identifying which brother was which very difficult but already, Damien sharp eye had picked up certain subtle features. 

One brother was much more buff than the other, their heights weren't the same but similar with the one who wasn't buff being the taller one.

Both were dressed casually. 

The buff one wore a white T-shirt, olive cargo pants and fancy white sneakers. A silver chain hanging around the neck finished this casual outfit off.

The taller one sported a similar white shirt as his brother, khaki cargo pants, same white sneakers and a similar silver chain.

If not for the different color of cargo pants they wore, it would be very tricky to tell which brother was which.

Naturally, Damien didn't have that problem.

There was one problem though.

They looked like real talkers.

The moment Damien heard the slang he knew he was going to be in for an earful.

"I'm Damien, Damien Walker. It's a pleasure to meet you," Damien replied.

"You one of the Westside homies ain't ya?"  asked the buff twin.

"If Westside means western sector then yes," Damien answered.

"Figured as much. Y'all Westside people are always the early birds. Makes those o' us from the middle sector and even other sectors look like lazy folks," remarked the tall one.

"You're from the middle sector?" Damien asked.

"Yeah. I'm Frank Weber and this is my brother Hank," the tall dude answered.

"It's a pleasure to meet you," Damien replied and shook their hands.

While shaking his hand, Hank squeezed Damien's hand a little to test him but Damien didn't wince or show any sign of pain.

"That's some solid hands you got there. You walking the Body path?" Hank asked.

Thank goodness he dropped those slangs, Damien thought inwardly.

"Actually I walk all three paths," Damien replied sheepishly.

"Dude wtf!" Hank exclaimed in shock.

His brother was similarly shocked too.

Damien rolled his eyes inwardly. Sometimes the reaction people made when he told them his powers were comical.

"Now that's what we call a true genius unlike half-assed punks like you," Hank added, gloating at his brother.

"Hey! Don't forget who owns your lazy ass," Frank retorted.

"For real though Damien, you really awoke in all three paths?" asked Frank.

"Yeah. Space and Psychic elements, a soul rune and a body physique," Damien replied.

"That's overpowered bro! For me I've the Meteor element and my doofus of a brother is a typical muscle brain," Frank remarked.

"Hey! Don't look down on my Giant transformation!" Hank complained.

Damien nodded appreciatively.

The brothers had really powerful powers!

Frank's element wasn't one of the main elements like earth and water, nor was it a Variant like Leaf and Blizzard elements. Rather, it was in a special class of its own; Mutant!

Elements which were unique and were a fusion of two or more elements and or variants were called Mutant elements.

Some Mutant elements even had other mutants coming together with other variants and normal elements to form them!

They had mutated as a result of the combination of many elements to create wondrous effects.

An example of a mutant element was Poison!

It was a combination of the Toxic variant, Plant element, Wind element, Water element, Dark element and Corrosion variant!

Thus, its lethality was unparalleled.

The Poison element was the power of one of the Nine planetary realm experts, Lady Nefertiti!

Stories of how dangerous and destructive her element was made many fear her, even other Planetary realm experts.

Her Poison power was so potent that she could kill you or make you sick without you noticing a thing!

She wasn't the only person with a mutant element.

There were many others with mutant elements and Frank was one of them!

It would only be a matter of time before he got really famous and powerful.

For Hank, he too had the Giant transformation power!

Amongst those who walked the body path, some of the most favored powers were those relating to body transformation.

Collectively, they were called shapeshifters or body transformers!

Some could take on the form of various beasts, some could shrink or increase their height and weight and some could even have elemental bodies!

The boons that those with shapeshifting powers had were many.

For someone like Hank who had Giant transformation, abilities like super strength, super senses, impervious skin, extreme pain threshold and many others would all be his!

If he even got stronger or got to higher realms, he would even be able to shake off some elemental attacks!

Both brothers were talents in their own right.

"That's overpowered too," Damien commented.

"Don't flatter us. It's not as overpowered as yours. You're literally a potential one-man-army walking!" Hank snorted.

They all laughed.

Even though they were seniors, Damien found it really easy to get along with them. They weren't snobbish nor did they bully him. They saw him as an equal.

Damien knew he would enjoy his stay here.

"Which year are you both in?" Damien asked.

"Second year," Frank replied.

"How's it like?" Damien asked.

Frank scratched his hair in thought and replied.

"Well, it's not bad. Let's just say things keep getting tougher though. For you and your mates, they'll probably increase your workload and woes and let certain things slide."

"Certain things like bullying and extortion?" Damien asked.

"Yeah," Hank replied.

"You got a little taste of it today, didn't you?" Frank asked Damien.

Damien nodded in reply.

"Did your batch go through same?" Damien also asked.

"Yeah. It wasn't that frequent though. Some few cases of extortion and a little pushing here and there. It's like some sort of tradition. Don't worry, once you get properly acquainted with the school it will all stop," Hank replied.

"So when you arrived then, those in third year extorted 10CP from you on the first day?" Damien asked.

Frank and Hank exchanged weird glances.

"Hell no!" they replied simultaneously.

"Y'all got ripped off big, Damien. Our time, they took only 3CP," Frank added, shaking his head in pity.

Damien nodded in understanding.

He wasn't surprised to say the least.

"What is CP though?" Damien asked.

"It's the currency of the school. Same applies to all awakened schools. It stands for Contribution Points," answered Hank.

"Contribution points?" echoed Damien.

"Yeah. You know, it's in place to prevent rich kids from using their money to get their way in school. Thus, every resource and facility will solely be obtained through merits and contributions.

  Apart from a few exceptions like housing, everything in the school is bought with CP. 

Mana stones, artifacts, even gyms, training areas and other important buildings charge CP.

It's the currency here.

You can never have enough CP," Frank explained.

"Exactly. Last I heard, 1 CP is equivalent 1,000 credits," Hank added.

Damien's eyes went wide in shock.

"1,000 credits!?" Damien exclaimed.

"I kid you not," Frank replied.

Didn't this mean that the 10 CP taken by the extorters was equivalent to 10,000 credits?

They had been scammed out of 10,000 credits?!

Wtf! 

Damien's mind was reeling in shock.

Then didn't this also mean that the remaining 180 credits Damien had was also 180,000 credits!?

That was a lot of money!

Damien then remembered that Frank and Hank had told him that all the things in the school ran on CP. It was the currency of the school.

As fantastic as 180 CP seemed, Damien realized it was actually a very small sum.

If Damien wanted to have the absolute best of everything in the school for his training, then he had to have thousands of CPs! 

"How do I make CPs?" Damien asked the duo.

"Teachers can award them, you can also get it by completing missions, defeating other students, making the Ranking Lists, making achievements… yep that's mostly it," Frank replied.

"Ranking Lists? What's that?" Damien inquired.

"It's basically a Ranking list for students, top 100 in each year," replied Hank.

"Yeah. That will be the cause for most of the fights and duels. Those who are at the top of the list are publicly acknowledged to be the strongest for their year.

For the strongest third year, they'd be regarded as the strongest student in the school," Frank added.

Damien nodded as he digested this information.

If he wanted to make CPs, conflict was inevitable.

"So who's the strongest second year student?" Damien asked.

A reverent look entered the eyes of the two brothers.

"Liu Shandian!" Frank declared solemnly.

"Liu Shandian… is he from the Eastern sector?" Damien asked.

They both nodded.

"Yeah. He's the strongest second year in the Imperial Institute. Hell, he's even stronger than some third year students!

Mostly when students come newly, they are in the early or mid-stages of the Enlightenment Realm.

Liu Shandian was at the peak stage of the Enlightenment Realm!

When we were promoted to the second year, He's been able to rapidly reach mid-level of the Advanced Realm.

Most of the other second year students are either at the peak stage of the Enlightenment realm and the others are at the early stage of the Advanced Realm.

None of us are his match," Frank explained.

"Well Noah's catching up to him. I heard he entered the mid-level of the Advanced Realm last week. Maybe he might be able to dethrone him," Hank said.

"I won't bet on that. Thunder king Liu is too strong," Frank replied shaking his head.

Both brothers sighed.

"But you too aren't that bad at all. You're also geniuses!" Damien encouraged.

"Mm… I guess someone like Frank can't complain too much. He's ranked 6th! Poor little me is ranked 8th," Hank said with a sad face which wasn't very convincing.

Frank chortled with laughter. "Pfft! Who would pity you? You and I are in the top ten. The others will strangle you if they find you complaining."

Damien watched the two bantering brothers.

They were in the top 10 rankings and were pretending to be sad?

This world was truly unfair!