The first week for the first-years swiftly concluded without any issues. All the first years had familiarised themselves with their facilities, curriculum, and the rules and regulations.
Most of the students had also begun to cultivate their earnest efforts to increase their level and skill proficiency.
There was no need to wait for the instructors to teach them how to cultivate, as the process came to hunters almost instinctively.
Combat lessons could also be learned using the virtual reality pods. While not all students had private VR pods, those who did took full advantage of them to learn ahead.
To those who didn't, the combat systems had VR pods they could use during the day.
...….
It was the beginning of a new week, and all the students were already in class, waiting for their instructors to arrive and commence the lessons.
Alex and his friends took their usual front-row seats. As if by some unspoken agreement, everyone sat in the same places as the week before.
Of course, Alex still received attention from time to time. However, due to his lack of activities and secluded nature, interest in him was rapidly diminishing.
Even then, there was a bit of tension in the classroom, and everyone could tell where it was coming from.
Among all the students in the class, Zen Henjok was the only one who occasionally glanced in Alex's direction.
The One-Horned's facial expression conveyed to the others that he was still harbouring a grudge against Alex. Was it unreasonable of him? Yes, but that was his and Alexander's affair.
"Good morning." The instructor walked into the class, and everyone got up, responding to his greetings before sitting back down. "Take your attendance, and we will begin shortly."
Following the same procedure they did the last time, they linked their watches to their desk once it came online.
Once he confirmed the presence of everyone in the classroom, Instructor Horvey nodded before facing the entire class.
"I believe everyone has had the opportunity to go through the curriculum and rules." The students nodded, making him nod as well. "Good.... All questions that were input into the class's private network have been answered.
"From what you read in the curriculum, I'd be handling your combat lessons and the biology of awakeners.
"And I know you have a preliminary understanding of human biology, and although hunters are also humans, they have a few modifications to their cells that make them different and grant them the abilities they have."
The instructor made a gesture, causing the display to appear before everyone, accompanied by a diagram showing the parts of the human body.
"Before I go into explaining, can anyone tell me what changed in humans after the universal calamity hit our universe?"
Once the question was raised, multiple hands went up, including Alex and his friends. As basic knowledge was taught in middle school, the students had no problem recalling it.
"Yes, you there," Instructor Horvey pointed to a girl sitting at his far left, in the middle section of the desk columns.
"The prolonged exposure to the magical energy over time introduced new organelles and tissue structures within the human body." The girl explained. "These changes took a long time before they became stable enough to cause the first humans to awaken their skills."
"Excellent. As she said, the changes introduced by this new energy, called mana, caused mutations in the cells of humans. New energy pathways were created, including circulatory pathways and tissues.
"These changes are, in fact, only a physical manifestation of the changes that happened at the genetic level."
He made another gesture that caused the large display to zoom into a cell of the diagram, highlighting its important organelles.
Everyone concentrated on what was being taught and demonstrated, and there was no need to take notes as their assistive AI made all the necessary notes for them.
Alex, in particular, was keenly focused on what was being taught, as his biology was slightly different from that of other people, especially in the category of mana channels.
"While I say genetic-level changes, and in fact it is, the actual reason for this change in humans to be able to utilise mana and skills was the birth of a 24th pair of chromosomes."
Once again, the image changed to show the new chromosome added to the already existing ones. "To better accommodate the presence of this new chromosome, the other chromosomes had to make room for it.
"The new organelles introduced, cells and tissues required existing ones to make changes in their sequences."
The discovery of these changes at the time was a marvel, and it took humanity less than a decade to decode them.
The conclusion reached was that, to enable a person to wield the power they possessed, their cells needed to mature to a certain stage, or they risked crippling themselves.
"Now, let's look at the actual organelle that, in addition to the mitochondria, acted as the main storage organelle for mana..." After a moment of pause, he stated.
"The manitorium."
As the lesson progressed, the students appreciated all the changes that nature imparted to them, providing humans with the strength to combat the void creatures that threatened their existence in their universe.
Two hours later, the instructor was concluding the first lesson.
"Any questions?" He asked, looking around.
A hand came from the front row, and it was none other than Alexander.
"Go ahead."
"The manitoria functions as storage organs can draw mana directly from, directing them through our mana channels…" he said, and the instructor nodded for him to continue.
His preamble made the rest of the class curious about what he wanted to ask; after all, Alex was simply stating the obvious.
"Is it possible for the stored mana to be used solely for infusing cells, rather than guiding the mana into the mana channels?"
His question caused almost everyone to look at him oddly. If mana wasn't flowing into the channels, what else was it meant to do, and how would a person demonstrate their ability if mana is not directed into the channels for use?
The instructor, however, did not think his question was weird. To him, Alexander was the weird one, and if he was asking such a question, then it must be something he had noticed about himself.
After considering his question from every possible angle, he devised the best response he could.
"Well, mana also functions to strengthen our body cells; that is why we are physically stronger and faster." He said.
"But for a hunter to manifest their ability, mana has to flow through the mana channels. And this goes both ways, as we will look at in the coming weeks…"
"But..." The instructor wasn't done. "If mana doesn't flow through the channels, cultivating would also be impossible." Although the instructor answered the question, it was an answer meant for everyone else.
When cultivating, mana had to travel through the mana channels from the surroundings into the manitoria. The same was true when one used their given ability.
Alexander could still utilise his abilities, but mana wasn't being channelled from the manitoria; that was not the case for him.
It was as though the energy originated from an unknown source.