7: Info-Dumping On The Teacher

Zoology Faculty, Lab Class

"Yesterday, all of you succeeded in dissecting the oral parts of the Rubber Roach. But if you want me to be more realistic, you stumbled even before you could get to the real dissection. I hope that in today's session, some of you will manage to separate the digestive system properly. For your convenience, I'll display the method again!"

Mir, alongside his peers, watched with rapt attention as the rubbery carapace of the bug was cut open, slimy fluids were cleaned for clarity, scalpel descended unhesitantly where it was needed, and finally, the finger-thick digestive system got stretched outside the corpse. It was still perfectly attached to the throat and the excretion system at its two ends.

Back at their desk, he watched Nifiya follow the steps cautiously while he handed her the tools, washed away the slime inside, and offered instructions whenever he deemed it necessary.

"Stop saying so many unnecessary stuff! I don't need to know the mutated biomolecular link structure to separate the sclerites!" She growled at one point, eventually growing annoyed by his comments.

"I understand that you studied last night. There is no need to show it off!"

"What are you planning to do when the Professor asks that question? Stare at me for support like yesterday?" Mir retorted.

"It's your job to answer the theoretical questions. I can handle practical questions related to the dissection just fine."

"When did we agree on this significant division of labor? You chose to lead the dissection because you're only good at that."

Nifiya looked up from the tray with a sour expression. His barbed reply had hit a sore spot. Before she could snap back, they both noticed the professor making his way to their desk.

"Oh! You've managed to separate the thoracic sclerites. Not bad! But you've also damaged the tissue below the third and fourth plates. If the incision ran a few millimeters deeper, the head of the digestive system might have been cut."

Nifiya laughed awkwardly as she promised they'd be more careful. Much to her relief, the professor turned to look at Mir as he decided to ask theoretical questions.

"Can you recite the social structure of-"

"They are much different from regular roaches in terms of social behavior. The Rubber Roaches live in nests consisting of around a hundred individuals. Through their developed senses for viral infection, they can identify the roach with the highest mutation potential. The 'quorum' takes this roach as their king, or queen. Who gets to mate with the queen is decided by a similar voting method by the quorum. The king may mate with any female roach. However, the loyalty towards the royal lineage among roaches is not absolute.

"Those with lower levels of mutation generally are unable to adapt to the lifestyle and mating cycles of the highly mutated roaches. These roaches gradually get wiped out, leaving behind crossbreed descendants that tend to have higher levels of viral infection, thus becoming more prone to go through mutation during one of their instar phases.

"It has been calculated that if confined within a single ordinary cockroach nest where at the beginning, only two mutated Rubber Roaches are mating with the rest, the entire nest's population shall end up mutated or highly infected by twelve to fourteen generations."

The words came flooding out of his mouth. He didn't even need to pause and think. The information had been grounded deep in his memory.

Professor Corwin calmly wiped off a drop of spit that had landed on his lab coat while he was blabbering like a machine.

"Very neatly summarized, albeit a bit lacking in some details. Could you answer why this roach has a Soulslot Consumption of One unit only?"

Mir nodded confidently.

"The viral infection of the Rubber Roach eventually manifests into a dual mutation, affecting it both physically and spiritually. However, it is a low-level creature to begin with, having an ancient, underdeveloped lineage. In the evolution standard chart, a highly mutated member of the Rubber Roach subspecies can reach the score of 14 percent at best. This limits the level of enhancement their spiritual consciousness receives from the mutation, thus making their Soul or Spiritual Consciousness far less powerful than humans, who usually have 80% - 110% score in the evolution standard.

"The Soulslot Consumption Scale is a comparative formula. As a human's spiritual consciousness is considered the major standard, an ordinary Rubber Roach which has a score of 10% can only occupy one-tenth of the capacity of a human with a 100% score.

"Generally, few mutated creatures have a lower score than the Rubber Roach. So the 10% mark is taken as 1 unit of Soulslot Consumption, and according to this formula, a mutant human at the first Transcendent tier generally has 8-11 units of reserve."

Mir took even less time with this answer. The Soulslot aspect of mutation was an interesting topic in itself. Every student in this class had spent years researching it, reading about it, and dreaming of what Soulbeasts they could acquire to fill up their Soulslot when they reached the first Transcendent tier after mutating.

"Good answer. It looks like my counseling yesterday was of some effect! I must say, this is an unexpected surprise!" Professor Corwin beamed at him, cracking a rare smile.

Mir didn't manage to return a smile in time because he was too dumbfounded by the professor's assumption that his counseling had motivated him to study. Did this guy really think he had done something significant yesterday?

"...Thank you, professor," he said, letting the misunderstanding stand unchallenged.

As the bell rang to signal the end of the class, Mir headed to the Chemistry Lab for his next class behind the rest of his classmates.

Outside the Chemistry faculty, all of them found their teacher talking animatedly to a tall old man in a Church Uniform.

"Oh, fuck! He really had the balls to invite a priest from his Church into the classroom? Does the Principal know?" A student near Mir whispered in a mortified tone.

Preaching one's faith inside educational institutions was strictly prohibited. Even in these times where godly figures were spoken of as something real instead of a mere belief, this principle was widely established across most of the Federal Nations under the United Empire.

Their Chemistry teacher, Professor Zula was a recently converted member of the Church of Sunbreaker, one of the twelve cosmic architects. His enthusiasm was truly overwhelming, and now that enthusiasm was about to get him fired.

As the crowd reached the two men, they stopped the discussion and turned to survey the students, their white teeth revealed in wide smiles.

"Principal Juno has permitted the Church of the Lord to promote its valuable employment opportunities to the young talents of this nation," said the priest jovially.

"After our brief demonstration, I'm sure many of the talented students here shall see our church as a potential source to develop an illustrious career! To make things a bit more exciting, we have facilitated a short quizzing session for you, dear children. The winner will be rewarded with a one-time individual license to explore a Green-grade Sacred Ground!"