Chapter 48: Stop Friendly Fire

News about Rocky's dominant performance as a fighter spread like wildfire throughout the university once the lecture came to an end.

Tales of his heroics became exaggerated to the extreme and just like the game of Chinese whisper, it became utterly ridiculous by the time it changed a few ears.

'Cunning like Shakuni'

'Dominant like Ravan'

Became the adjectives that students used to describe Rocky's performance as the fact that the champion of Gemini was stronger than the champion of Poseidon became the day's headlines with every student being made aware of the results within an hour.

On the bright side, Rocky was viewed as a fearsome guy and nobody tried to pick on him. However, on the worse side, the spotlight on him seemed to have gotten even brighter, increasing the expectations resting on his shoulders.

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Rocky reunited with Buhara and Erin once his class ended and the three of them headed off to have lunch together at the mess.

Without Rocky having to say anything, the two already had heard about all the juicy details of his fight, as both seemed extremely psyched by the results.

"Puny human is a formidable fighter? Buhara is impressed" said Buhara as he slapped Rocky on the back with joy.

"Sir Rocky, I always had full faith in you, there is no way a strong and stable headed individual like you can't win a fight" Erin said, as if Rocky did not know any better, he would assume Erin was trying to lick his boots, but it was just how he talked.

" Thanks guys" Rocky said as he served his plate with the food on the day's menu and found a spot to sit.

The cuisine served at the university was way different when compared to Earth and the items on the menu were dishes that he had never seen or heard of.

Yet he took a bit of everything to try, as he did not wish to write anything off without trying.

After sitting down, Rocky eyed his plate with a mixture of curiosity and apprehension.

The alien cuisine was a riot of colors and textures that seemed completely unfamiliar to the culinary practices of Earth.

Among the dishes was a pulsating gelatinous cube that shimmered with a rainbow sheen, emitting a mild, enticing aroma reminiscent of freshly cut grass mixed with tropical fruits.

Beside it lay a serving of what appeared to be crispy tendrils, coated in a dust that sparkled under the mess hall's lights.

While the final section of his plate was occupied by a small, steaming mound of grains that seemed to subtly change colors, from deep blues to vibrant reds, as if alive and responding to his gaze.

Buhara, noticing Rocky's hesitation, encouraged him with a hearty laugh, "Eat, puny human! Buhara's favorite is the shimmer cube. Makes mind feel... zingy!"

"The course will be graded on practical activities as well as attendance, with there being only two grades for my class.

Pass or Fail" he said as from the very first day he made the objective of the course extremely clear.

" Millions of climbers die in the tower every year. Millions dying before they even reach floor 21, because of the most stupid reasons" Principal Liam said as he began pacing around the stage tearing off strands off his beard.

" Some don't prepare enough supplies for a floor raid. Die of thirst or because they ate an unidentified fruit.... Basically the idiots dying an idiots death" said Liam with audible anger in his voice.

"Some die because they are oversmart. They try to do oversmart things such as explore trails that are unexplored, looking for secrets nobody has ever tried to discover.

Getting killed in the process...

These sort of people I call the Fools, who die a foolish death"

"Some die because of nefarious forces.

The only safe floor on the tower where killing is banned is floor zero, but everywhere else you can be robbed, killed, raped, enslaved, bought, sold, kidnapped....

Pretty much anything can happen, and for many people, anything does happen, which is why we build a team at the university and focus on team exercises as research shows that groups of 3 or more are 70% less likely to be attacked by nefarious forces" Said principal Liam as he seemed to be very proud of how the university conducted their teaching.

" But the maximum number of people die because of enmity.

Bounties, scores to settle, family feuds.

This sort of petty hate crime is the number one reason why people lose lives between floor one to twenty which are the non-god floors where no godly bases have been made.

Unfortunately, it's also the number one reason why students from our university die.

So I'll tell you all, the same thing I told all my previous students.

Don't kill your classmates! Please....." he said as he made an earnest request to everyone to heed his words.

" However, if you do commit that crime of killing a classmate.

Then know this..... regardless of who you are. Or where you hide. This mad principal will hunt you down and make you one of his ghosts" principal Liam said, as he unleashed all the thousands of ghosts under his command into the grand hall, that were once students just like them, but dared to kill another student because of enmity inside the tower.

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/// A/N - This bonus chapter is sponsored by patron Allcat_Gaming, please thank him in the comments for the same ///