The Institute awoke at 7:30 AM sharp with a symphony of slamming dorm doors and footsteps thundering down the staircase. The ones with lectures hastened to the halls, whilst those who's time table we're free began their daily training.
Isaac was the first of them all.
He stretched as sunlight entered his eyes, and he rolled off the bed to begin his new militaristic regimen.
Wake Up → Drink + Wash → Workout → Shower → Dip.
Oh my god… Knuckle push-ups are impossible…
He stared at his stagnant strength stat longingly.
I've never been one to care about my appearance; I only worked out to add force to my hooks. As long as I scored well and secured a good future, while having the ability to beat the shit out of them.
Who would even have the right to judge me?
This skinny body is so… so humiliating.
I wasn't even this skinny after being comatose.
At least, Isaac came prepared.
Isaac dropped to a wall-sit, internally thanking the unhinged gymcel on Earth, the walking Symbolism of one who'd trade GPA for gains. His cult-like devotion to 'bulking season' now served a higher, or perhaps lower, purpose in New EAA's narrative fiction.
Mechanical Tension = Hypertrophy.
Phew… 25 seconds don't feel so bad now…
7:45.
Alright…
First Year Noësical Theory: Way of the Wind, Beginner to Adept-Class, and
First Year Noësical Practical: Application of Noësis to combat and further…
.
.
.
The clock tower's eighth chime still sounded in the air as Isaac slid into his seat.
Right on cue, Archivist Orlan 'materialized' at the podium.
"Good morning, students. No wasting time. Before you embarrass yourselves today, do you recall yesterday's lesson on Noësis's fundamental axioms?"
A nervous titter rippled through the room.
Should I finally inject myself?
Yeah, why the fuck not… It's so screwed, so who gives a shit?
He raises his hand
"Isaac Mun, please."
"Noësis originates from exotic T⁰-Bosons formed during the electroweak phase transition, ~10⁻³⁶s post-Big Bang, which later mediated Thaumitonic-weak force interactions via SU(2)ₜ unification at~10⁻¹²s. Residual qₜ quarks in Wave Binders' ~1 ppm nuclei and Tau-9 neural receptors enable T⁰ Bose-Einstein condensation. Cosmic evidence includes CMB vortex patterns and neutron star irregular fluctuations."
"Short and sweet. Good answer. Work on your pronunciation."
Fuck… I said 'Einstein'... It's annoying; I need to call them by their derogatory names.
That tiny validation resonated more than any applause. A majority of the students seemed impressed, if not anxious, towards him. Even Xuě Xīlián, who was still next to Isaac, approved of him, not showing it due to the altercation that had happened the day prior.
Healing magic works on Cultivators even though they have more atomically structured physiques…
Good to know.
"Continuing off Isaac. We already know that Noësis is split into two forms of output. Out-Threading and In-Threading. I will not repeat what I explained yesterday, as I expect everyone to have at least lukewarm mastery over both, seeing as you were admitted."
Harsh…
"No. What this lecture is more focused on is the theoretical applications of this Noësis. An example: what if I were to produce a 'Dome' barrier composed of squares rather than triangles? Does anyone have any ideas?"
A Concordant, out of all people, raises his hand and speaks before being affirmed:
"Squares may be possible, but suicidal without approximately Grade-5 Synaptic Buffering."
Isaac leaned forward at the unknown information, fingers steepled against his pen.
"Triangular shields use three topological defects to pin BEC vortices at 120° intervals, with a minimal phase shift and maximum stability. Squares require four vortices at 90°, thereby making them less stable."
Orlan's eyebrow twitches.
"Forcing orthogonal Thaumiton-flow creates shear stress at the vertices. The 'Dome' would fracture at the corners unless you implant secondary vortices here—"
He sketches shimmering points mid-air with his fingers,
"—to absorb resonant feedback. But that requires splitting neural tunneling streams quad-directionally."
A cough or scoff from the back row, knowing already he's wrong.
"The result would be an exponentially higher eigenstate collapse risk where one misfired synapse during Out-Threading would turn a brain into topological confetti. So yes—"
"Are you confident? Tavish?"
"I think so?"
Don't remember anything much about this guy.
All I can get from | Media Literacy | is that he's a form of Hardwork > Talent ideology.
In sum:
Useless.
Still, it seems his theory is quite good.
However…
"Hah… Tavish… You're mistaking rules for limitations." The Archivist sighed.
He flicked a hand, leading to his Thaumitonic Zone, which expands in time spans lesser than Professor Aldrick's, lesser than the blink of an eye. Nobody caught it, but everybody saw its aftereffect. The air above the lectern rips open, a precise Out-Thread of his Thaumitons into every groove of the classroom, revealing a shimmering quadrilateral barrier on all flat surfaces, each cubicle face showing nested vortices.
"Triangles? Squares?" A snort. "It is primitive scaffolding for those who only think in textbooks. To properly Out-Threading, you have to be the one to weave defects, not count them."
With a twitch of his finger, the shield reconfigured into a fractal lattice—the 4th stage of the Koch snowflakes manifests.
"My personal theory: Stability isn't about angle count. It's about recursion where x: Σ → Σ0."
He stabs a finger at Tavish.
"Your 'quad-directional streams' fail because you forced Euclidean rigidity onto non-Abelian anyons. The solution is to embed synthetic torsion."
The barrier, now a cube, warps 90° angles, curling into hyperbolic arcs.
"By inducing chiral flux loops here, you create self-stabilizing manifolds with no synaptic buffering needed. All you need is a sufficient understanding of how malleable spacetime bleeds. I suggest that you practise this more often."
Even the scoffing student has gone pale as Tavish apologizes.
Isaac hides his chuckling mouth.
At least he's humble enough to accept it.
I'm sure if this were Old EAA, he would be throwing a nepo baby rage.
Orlan leans in, voice dropping to a whisper.
"Of course, the tradeoff is poetic. One miscalculation where the vortices unbind? Then your occipital lobe would quite literally be mailed to the other dimensions of space in seven pieces. Purely theoretical, but highly likely. "
"That's why you utilize a Phase Prediction Index."
He wrote on the board:
Πᵩ ≈ (Ω₍τ₉₎ / Γₜ) · 𝒲
Where:
Πᵩ = Phase Prediction Index
Ω₍τ₉₎ = anticipatory Tau-9 bio-current amplitude
Γₜ = Thaumitonic decoherence rate
𝒲 = topological winding number
Hmm…
A beat.
"You all have signed a waiver that states any fatal incidents may only be partially investigated by the Institute. Though this exemption clause is extremely unfair on your part. Is the fact that we are providing you this level of education and prestige a sufficient consideration? Extremely. Just know that previous failed students make excellent lab accidents and medical experiments. We will try our best to save you, of course… No promises… This class, Batch no.3, will test MY theory for their grades."
I see… I couldn't figure it out back when I was signing the papers due to a lack of information… Now knowing this, I can deduce the rest of the clauses of the contract that all the students signed, and what they mean for the future.
Good.
By all means, Archivist, let us construct your topological recursions.
Your theory versus my take on YOUR science.
We'll see which beats which…
"Now, let's really get to the meat of this class."