"When you arrive in Satya Marta, I hope you get your answers." Anik said, "We might have to research thoroughly if we want to know which words are not allowed to be talked outside, making a list and finding patterns among them. Usually from what I have seen, important names are not allowed to be talked about."

Saiyan came back to room after 45 minutes looking exhausted. Anik and Dweep looked curious but did not bother him. He changed from traditional to casual wear by keeping the half pant as it was and wearing a round necked on top. Lying down on his bed just like us he scanned our expressive faces.

With a sigh, he let us know that he will be given some special training in the Ashrama and won't be taking normal classes like us. That a message arrived from the other six gurukuls with a mention of the same golden light which appeared on their side too. One person from each of the seven gurukuls have been chosen for some reason. Since it had never happened in the Ashrama's recorded history, the sages were quite anxious that things might get tougher from now on.

How much of it was a coincidence? Why did it have to happen when our batch got admitted?

"Do you know anything about a golden light that appeared during the synchronisation rituals? Also, I didn't know that there were six more Gurukuls like ours. I tried to keep my poker face when I heard it because it might be a known fact." I texted Panna.

"Yeah there are six more, so seven in total. All named after the Saptarishis, the seven celestial yogis of the sky."she answered. "About the golden light, I keep finding mentions of it in the Kalpa Yaal but the amount of clearance I have for the information is more or less equivalent to the ones who are asking questions about it over there. So yeah, for more information you need to level me up."

The Saptarishis are a group of immensely powerful entities in our myths. Each one of them referred to a star in the Big Dipper constellation. I don't have all their names memorized but they were the source of all morals and laws of the world. A single scolding from them would afflict even the Gods with terrifying curses.

So each of the Gurukuls were named after them. I thought, trying to extract more information from whatever stories I had heard before. Our Gurukul was named after Rishi Vishwamitra, who was the Guru of Lord Rama and Lord Lakshmana, sons of one of the most powerful emperor of Marta, King Dasharatha. Lord Rama learnt all about wielding divine missiles and weapons from Rishi Vishwamitra, who wanted to prepare Rama for his inevitable battle against the symbol of arrogance, Ravana, all of which is recounted in the epic of Ramayana. The other Rishis all had their own stories and played a huge role into the shaping of our Puranas.

"I can't wait to meet the students from other Gurukuls." Anik said suddenly, his acne was actually getting lighter on a closer inspection. While my body didn't have any noticeable changes, I felt like my senses were a bit more sharp. When I focused enough I could hear the insects that were buzzing around the light bulbs in the corridor. Kalpa's sap is quite impressive. I wondered in which form was it currently inside my body. Was it swimming incessantly in my blood stream? Or made nodules in different areas? Or made a new network like the blood vessels in our body but with sap flowing through it? What if something happens and it comes up in a lab test? Will the doctors start experimenting on me? I need to increase my ailment resistance as much as possible I guess. Also the curse resistance. Every story in our myths starts with a random curse inflicted by a sage on either a God or a King, who might have done something really negligible, but had still managed to offend the sage. A set of events would then follow afterwards, that will change the course of the Puranas forever. With 0 resistance if someone stronger than me, which is almost everybody at this point, simply told me to jump off a building I would probably do that seven times over.

I need to get an idea on how to increase the resistances. Do they increase simply by allocating stat points that we get after levelling up? Or do I need to get exposed to low amounts that won't kill me but prove to be enough for building up an immunity?

A bell suddenly rang out and continued for more than five minutes marking the end of our discussions.

What I understood from our discussions was that we would be given a trial of various skills that will be demonstrated by the gurus in Ashrama and we can decide whose lessons to opt for. We all went for dinner after that where there was a simple egg dish and over boiled white rice with some vegetables and milk on the side. It was such a far cry from what I have been eating back home that I had to struggle forcing the food down my throat. I probably won't grow properly if I keep eating like this, i thought, gulping down a glass of milk, which helped me swallow the leftovers getting stored up in my mouth cavity. The milk had a different flavor from what I had back home though. It was thicker with a hint of some indescribable smell, which I assure you wasn't helping it taste better. People have already made groups based on their rooms and were sitting together in every bench. Suddenly a thought crossed my mind. Wasn't Anik a long range damage dealer? Thinking in terms of games I have played or have seen streamers play, usually a party has a close range and a long range damage dealer, a tank and a support or a healer.

"What weapons do you use?" I whispered to Saiyan.

"Usually a Talwar." He replied. It is a single handed curved sword that is quite flexible and light in weight. So he must be a close ranged dealer. I can already imagine Dweep to be the tank considering his weight training and bulky figure. The last position is a support. Considering the skills I got from the green status screen it looked like I was a healer. Well, you can learn anything they say while binding us to these roles. How do they even know my disposition? They placed us into our rooms before the synchronisation ritual happened right?

I decided to not worry about this as I had already come to a dead end. It was fascinating though. As if they already know our futures.

We rinsed our mouth, brushed our teeth and set up the mosquito nets. I took a last minute potty break to make sure I didn't wake up feeling the pressure in the middle of my sleep. Will it even be a sleep? Do I dream of the Ashrama and control an avatar in that dimension or do I physically get transported to Satya Marta?

Our mentors came once to make sure everything was ready before switching off our lights at 10.30 pm.

"Ohh, the pills!!" I suddenly remembered.

Saiyan came out of his bed to give each of us one pill from his wardrobe. Apparently his hyperactive brain finds it difficult to sleep as small sounds put him into alert mode.

We all took the pills at the same time counting till one from three. After a few seconds of silence Saiyan's bed lit up. A network of neon white tendrils covered his body, glowing brightly in the dark. It started from the legs, travelling up to his head and suddenly poof! He disappeared. I laughed out loud. This wasn't what I was expecting at all. Dweep soon followed leaving me and Anik in the room.

"Finally, I'll be where I'm supposed to be!" Anik slowly whispered and disappeared in a flash of lightning.

"What will we do for only seven hours there?" I asked myself feeling my eyes getting heavy. The sap is so multi purpose. Almost everything that happened, occurred by the courtesy of Kalpa's sap. What other secrets does it hold? Everything will be answered in a few moments. In a flash of lightning which manifested over my closed eyelids, I felt my body floating for a millisecond, going through jelly for the next minute and instantly felt gravity as grass touched my feet.

I opened my eyes to a cloudy ash gray sky. I remembered the weather of a hill station I had visited in the north of my state a few years ago where even the clouds would come inside the hotel rooms once you opened the windows. I stood up to find myself in a familiar place. A beautiful green meadow surrounded by snow-capped mountains. A twin waterfall in the distance and a huge Banyan tree in the middle of the clearing. The huts which I thought were primitive, surpassed my imagination with their majestic size. I found myself wearing the traditional clothing that I wore during the ritual. Panicking, I checked to make sure whether my pants were still inside. Okay, thank God, it's definitely there.

So I am finally here. Taking in the cool and refreshing air with a long and deep breath I looked towards where my fellow batch mates were gathering. I scanned through the crowd, found my roommates and joined them at once.

"Was I late?" I asked Saiyan.

"Yeah, late by five or six minutes, I think." He noted.

"Wait, I was only late by around fifteen seconds, I'm sure."

"Oh, you probably didn't know, but a day here is an hour outside." He stated like it was no big deal. "Be patient and keep learning." He added. "There is always enough time here."

Well well, so I'll have to spend a week here. Wonderful.

Finally being free of Maya's bindings, I wanted to start asking him questions when a series of gasps suddenly erupted everywhere around us. While we stood on the right of the Banyan tree, the space opposite ours and at a stone's throw distance, slowly got riddled with innumerable cracks big enough to each hold a person. Hundreds of young girls also wearing white traditional clothes materialised and got surprised finding us crowded infront of their spawn points.

"Wait!!! You guys knew about this??" Dweep suddenly asked us with a shocked face. I'm sure I too had the same expression on my face.

Saiyan: "Yeah, I did..."

Me: "I didn't!!"

Anik: "That's why I said I can't wait to arrive here." He said with a knowing smirk on his lips.