Climbing the Tower with Multidimensional Avatars - Chapter 142

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Episode 142. Galaxy Martial God Hall – Collateral Line (3)

After dutifully attending afternoon classes, I was summoned to the Club Room for a private meeting with Teacher Kim Do-hwa.
The Staff Room was crowded with teachers, and students who hadn’t yet left school might wander into the Classroom, so we came to the Club Room—which had become my safe house.
“Do you have anything to say about the Exchange Event?”
At my question, Teacher Kim Do-hwa looked slightly startled and asked in return.
“Have you heard something?”
“No. It’s just that from the timing of what you said, it seems you have something you’d like to discuss regarding the Exchange Event.”
“…Honestly, when I talk with you, I can’t tell if I’m speaking with a student or a fellow teacher. Well, it’s nice not having to beat around the bush.”
Teacher Kim Do-hwa seemed to have given up treating me as a student.
“I called you in separately because there are two things I wanted to mention, at least.”
When I gestured for her to go ahead, she let out a soft laugh and spoke.
“First, since this is an Exchange Event involving other schools, there are some Collateral Line elders among the family’s senior members who’ve always wanted to approach Cheon So-yeon but had no opportunity to do so, and they’re practically chomping at the bit.”
“So there might be people trying to force a connection?”
“I, the Vice Principal, and the Principal will do our best to prevent that, but given that incidents have occurred during past senior exchange events, I wanted to give you a heads-up. You’ll be able to handle things more flexibly if you’re aware.”
Teacher Kim Do-hwa, being the homeroom teacher for both me and Cheon So-yeon, had heard accounts of the “attempted Cheon So-yeon abduction incident” that happened in second year.
It wasn’t a genuine abduction because it was determined that there had been no actual intent to kidnap.
Still, since it won’t step outside the bounds of a school event, it can be sufficiently managed at the Principal’s level.
The Principal’s power isn’t strong because of his position, but because the Family Head watches closely.
No matter how formidable the powers boasted by the family’s old guard, if they ignore the Family Head’s counsel and try to steamroll the Principal, they’ll have to set aside their vaunted authority.
“That’s a lot of trust to live up to.”
“You know perfectly well you don’t think that at all.”
Teacher Kim Do-hwa, smiling softly, moved to the next matter.
“Second, while this is an Exchange Event that the family has decided upon and we can’t avoid, the Direct Line and Collateral Line have never had particularly good relations.”
Naturally, since the arm bends inward, the Collateral Line could only receive less family-level support than the Direct Line.
From the Collateral Line’s perspective, they were part of the same family yet faced discrimination, so it was only natural they’d view it with resentment.
“The relationship is hostile enough to escalate even at the elementary school level?”
Still, at the elementary school level, there shouldn’t be much difference, should there?
The real disparity probably wouldn’t emerge until middle school.
Even then, the gap wasn’t that severe.
The Cheon Family was wealthy enough to pour substantial funds into supporting not only the Collateral Line but also the children of vassal families.
Upper-tier Collateral members received less support than upper-tier Direct members, but more than mid-tier Direct members would.
If the disparity had been extreme, there would be no Collateral Line members among the family’s elders.
They wouldn’t have grown strong enough to claim a position among the senior ranks without the family’s support from childhood.
“The lower grades aren’t a real problem, but the children preparing to enter middle school are a bit more sensitive. Of course, they’re still elementary students, so it’s not a major issue… but the atmosphere is a bit much, you know?”
“So the Collateral Line side is developing a sense of rivalry.”
“On the flip side, the Direct Line has a bit of a superiority complex.”
It was an unremarkable story. Yet at the same time, it was an extremely realistic problem.
When people belonged to a group, they naturally wanted to establish dominance.
Age didn’t change that psychology. If anything, it could be even more blatant.
“So if a fight breaks out, do you break it up?”
“I’d appreciate that, but I’m not hoping for anything that dramatic. I’d just like you to keep an eye on the atmosphere when teachers aren’t around and text me immediately if something goes wrong.”
In other words, she was asking me to be an informant.
Thinking about it, from Teacher Kim Do-hwa’s perspective, there was no better tool than me.
I hung around Cheon So-yeon and maintained top-tier grades, so if trouble arose, I’d likely be caught up in it and would know immediately if something happened.
On top of that, I had a broader perspective than small children and thought like an adult, so I cooperated readily.
“Understood. I don’t like trouble either.”
“Thanks. This year’s Exchange Event should pass quietly.”
At my response, Teacher Kim Do-hwa exhaled a sigh of slight relief.
It seemed incidents happened every year, apparently.
Since they were cultivating martial artists, the kids were hot-blooded—that was the problem.

* * *

I rose at dawn and eagerly swung my sword.
Normally, upon waking in the morning I would cultivate Internal Energy to activate my body, but since my Dantian still bore a Restriction, I’d replaced Internal Power training with Swordsmanship training.
As I trained with the sword, I felt keenly: a martial artist’s foundation is the body—first and last.
Unlike my lanky Tower incarnation’s body, as I swung the sword with my reincarnation incarnation’s body, the power infused in the blade was far more formidable.
The Tower avatar’s average physical stats are 15, with magical power at 30.
The Reincarnation avatar’s average physical stats are 35, with magical power at 15. Physical body and magical power were exact opposites.
Still, I once thought that since the Tower avatar could use twice the magical power of the Reincarnation avatar, perhaps they could produce roughly similar destructive force.
But that was clearly my miscalculation.
At minimum, the Tower avatar’s martial arts were at least three times weaker than the Reincarnation avatar’s.
Three times was the bare minimum—at full strength, the gap might reach five times.
It wasn’t for nothing that Siu and Teacher Kim Do-hwa said that for martial artists, the body matters more than Internal Power.
That said, the Tower avatar wasn’t so weak as to be no match for the Reincarnation avatar.
The comparison applied only to ‘martial arts,’ and in terms of overall combat strength, the Astral Body allowed magic to not just compensate for martial arts’ shortcomings but even create a synergistic effect.
I didn’t defeat the Lizardman King with the Tower avatar’s body for nothing.
I once considered creating an Astral Body with the Reincarnation avatar’s body as well, but decided the Reincarnation avatar should focus solely on martial arts.
If I could use magic with that body, I might neglect martial arts.
Besides, I could already use magic sufficiently as things stood, so I didn’t feel the need.
“Young Master, it’s getting close to school time. You should bathe and have breakfast.”
At Siu’s words, I stopped swinging my sword diligently, gathered my Internal Power, and sheathed the blade.
“When do you think I’ll be able to lift the Internal Power Seal?”
At my question, Siu smiled as if to say it was still far off and answered.
“At the very least, your pure body must reach peak condition. At your current rate of growth, you should be able to completely lift the seal just before adulthood.”
Just before adulthood would be around third year of high school.
I had about nine years left.
Suddenly glancing at the clock, I saw the time was later than usual.
“I’ll be late for school.”
I didn’t think much of arriving late to school while training, but Cheon So-yeon, being naturally conscientious, couldn’t bear to be tardy.
“You were particularly focused today, and since today is the day of the Exchange Event with the Collateral Line, arriving late is acceptable, so I didn’t disturb you.”
“Oh, was that today?”
Living the same day over and over, my sense of time often grew muddled.
Because of that, I often prepared for school even on Saturday mornings.
I bathed leisurely, had breakfast, and then headed to school with Cheon So-yeon.

* * *

After arriving at Class 1, fourth year, we immediately boarded a bus heading to the school where the Exchange Event would take place.
“…What was the name of the school we’re going to again?”
At Cheon Gong-hu’s timid voice from behind me, Cheon Ga-ryeong, sitting beside him, answered as if exasperated.
“The teacher said it was Cheon Young Elementary School yesterday.”
The Direct Line numbered perhaps a hundred and some per grade, so they could be gathered in a single school, but the Collateral Line’s numbers were enormous, which is why there were many schools for them.
This made sense because the Direct Line’s criterion was the Family Head, but the Collateral Line’s criterion was all blood relatives belonging to the family.
Fundamentally, the Cheon Family Clan treated all descendants of the Middle Founder Ancestor, the Divine Warrior Cheon Yu, as kindred.
The era when the Divine Warrior was actively engaged was approximately the 28th century.
In terms of birth year, he was born in the 26th century, in the year 2595, making him a figure born roughly 2400 years ago.
Even a Family Head over six hundred years old has tens of thousands of descendants born each year—imagine how many the Divine Warrior’s descendants number in a single year.
And the terrifying part is that the Divine Warrior is still alive.
By my reckoning, it was as if Jesus—or rather, even Buddha—were still walking the earth.
This was cosmic horror itself.
Naturally, Collateral Line-exclusive schools existed throughout the entire star system controlled by the Cheon Family Clan.
The school we exchanged with was one where the children and descendants of Elders from the Collateral Line attended, using the same academy grounds as the Direct Line school.
There were so many of these Elders that there were three schools for their children. The schools participating in the Exchange Event rotated each year, using each other’s grounds as the exchange venue. Even within the same academy grounds, it was far enough that we had to take a bus rather than walk.
“Hey, now that you mention it, why is he acting like that?”
I noticed Cheon Ha-sung, sitting by the window in the adjacent row, looking deathly pale, and asked Cheon Bu-hyeon, who sat in front of me.
Cheon Bu-hyeon was my classmate whom I got along with best after Cheon Ga-ryeong and Cheon Gong-hu, both from the same club.
Looking at Cheon Bu-hyeon’s talent and diligence, it seemed highly likely he’d be in the same school and class throughout elementary, middle, and high school.
Actually, by upper elementary school, it could be considered settled.
A step behind in first year was easy to catch up to, but a step behind in fourth year was difficult to overcome.
Even now it might still be possible, but later on it would become impossible.
“The other day, the dormitory supervisor suddenly called for a full inspection. Back then, they found food way past its expiration date in the refrigerator, and the cleaning condition exceeded mere sloppiness into outright neglect, so he got hit with a ton of demerits and has been looking gloomy ever since.”
Dormitory residents had a Merit and Demerit Point System—if merit points were high at the end of each semester, they could use a private room and enjoyed various conveniences within the dormitory.
Conversely, if merit points were low or demerit points were high, they had to use a double or triple and quadruple shared room.
Merit points were usually given if performance in the Ranking Tournament was good at the end of the academic year or if the supervisor found cause to praise them, while demerits were given for breaking dormitory rules or wrongdoing.
Cheon Ha-sung consistently maintained second place in the rankings and had kept a private room since enrollment.
I remembered that only a handful of students per grade used private rooms.
“You’re falling apart just because you got moved to a two-person room?”
“Two-person? You should be in a four-person room at this rate. I’ve only managed to smooth things over with your grades—otherwise, you’d know you’ve racked up quite a few demerits over the past three years.”
For the record, all rooms—whether single or four-person—were identical in size.
A two-person room was comfortable enough; three people made it cramped.
Four people had to live practically on top of each other.
There was a reason the school maintained four-person rooms even though it was wealthy enough to provide everyone with a single room.
“Wait, how bad was the room’s condition?”
“I wouldn’t know—she’s in a single room. Single rooms are on a different floor.”
“Doesn’t the Point Mall sell demerit deletion vouchers?”
If the Point Mall was the carrot, demerits were the stick. There was a way to soften the blow with the carrot.
“Yeah, but it costs 500,000 points to erase a single demerit. You throw your points around whenever you earn them—you really think you could afford something like that?”
Points in the Point Mall had a one-to-one ratio with currency.
500,000 won to erase one demerit—clearly they were telling you not to even think about buying your way out of trouble.
With 500,000 won, you could buy a decent television or a basic computer.
Thinking about it this way, I was grateful to be a day student.
Of course, since I had points from Riven, I would have used them without hesitation in that kind of situation.
“Hey! Quiet! I’m already anxious!”
At my exchange with Cheon Bu-hyeon, Cheon Ha-sung burst out in frustration.

(To be continued in the next episode)

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————