The next morning, the sun broke over the dark mountain.
Jin walked down the white stone path. His muscles ached deep near the bone. The Devourer body technique from last night was brutal. Every step sent a dull throb through his legs. But his Foundation Level 4 core felt different. It felt heavy. The dense Aether he pulled in had actually stayed inside him.
Luna walked beside him. She held her silver book tight against her chest.
"I read the first three chapters," Luna said quietly. She kept her eyes on the ground as other students rushed past them. "I know the breathing pattern. But I cannot actually start the technique. I need a space beast core. A real one."
"I know," Jin said. "We will go to the market later today. I will buy you one."
"They are very expensive," Luna warned.
"I have money," Jin replied simply.
They reached a massive, square building made of grey stone. It was the academic hall. The first lesson on their schedule was geography.
Jin pushed the heavy wooden doors open. They walked into the classroom.
It was not a small room. It was a large, tiered lecture hall. Rows of polished wooden desks stepped down toward a large open space at the front. The room was already half full.
Jin stopped near the top row and looked down at the crowd. The Dean's speech from yesterday echoed in his head. The Dean said everyone was equal inside the Academy. The Dean said backgrounds did not matter.
It was a complete lie.
The divide was obvious just by looking at the seats. The children of noble families and wealthy merchants sat in the very front rows. They wore custom silk uniforms. They leaned back in their chairs, laughing and talking loudly.
The poor students, the scavengers, and the commoners were gathered at the very back of the hall. Most of them did not even sit down. They stood against the back wall, keeping their heads down.
Equality did not exist here. Equality only meant equal physical strength. And the gap in strength was massive.
Jin focused his senses. He looked at a loud, arrogant boy sitting in the front row. The boy's aura was thick and visible, wrapping around his skin like a heavy blanket. The boy was already at Foundation Level 8. His rich family had fed him pure Aether crystals since he was a baby.
Jin looked at a poor student standing near the back wall. The boy was thin and shaking. His aura was barely a flicker. Foundation Level 2.
Luna was completely blank. She had not even stepped onto the ladder yet. Jin was at Level 4. They were completely outclassed by the front row.
"We sit at the back," Jin ordered.
He did not want to sit in the front. The front row was a trap. If you sit in the front, you cannot see who is behind you. If you sit in the back, you can watch the entire room.
They found two empty wooden chairs in the top corner. They sat down and waited.
Five minutes later, a loud chime rang through the hall. The last few students hurried inside and found seats. The heavy wooden doors shut with a loud thud.
The room went quiet.
A woman walked in through a side door at the bottom of the room. She wore a tight, dark red uniform. She was beautiful, but she did not look kind. Her face was sharp. Her posture was completely rigid. She walked to the center of the floor with heavy, precise steps.
She stood behind the large black stone desk at the front. She did not smile. She did not welcome them.
"My name is Instructor Vane," she said. Her voice was cold and sharp. It carried easily to the top row.
She looked up at the tiered seats. Her eyes swept over the rich kids in the front and the poor kids in the back.
"This is geography," she continued. "Many of you sitting in the front rows already know the shape of our world. Your expensive private tutors taught you the maps. You think this class is a waste of time."
A few of the noble children smirked.
"But many of you standing in the back do not know anything," Instructor Vane said bluntly. "You grew up in the dirt. You look up at the sky and do not understand what you see. I will explain the shape of our solar system once. I expect everyone to listen. Because if you do not know where the borders are, you will wander into the wrong territory and die."
She tapped her finger on the smooth black stone of her desk.
The air behind her shimmered. A massive, glowing picture appeared on the wall. It was a huge holographic screen.
In the center of the dark screen, a giant yellow ball of fire burned brightly.
"This is our yellow sun," Instructor Vane said. She pointed at the glowing image. "It is one of the biggest stars in this sector of the universe. To give you an idea of the scale, its diameter is exactly sixteen million, ninety-two thousand, six hundred and ninety-three kilometers."
She paused, letting the number sink in.
"For those of you who use the old imperial measurements," she added, "that is ten million miles wide. It is a massive furnace of pure, raw energy."
The picture on the holographic screen zoomed out.
Small, colored spheres appeared around the giant yellow sun. They were locked in wide, circular orbits. Some were close to the fire. Some were far away in the dark.
"Our solar system contains twenty-eight planets," Instructor Vane explained. "We live on the central belt. But we are not alone in this system."
She pointed to the first four planets. They were incredibly close to the massive yellow sun. The holograms showed them glowing bright red and orange.
"The first four planets are completely uninhabited by humans," she said. "The heat from the sun is too intense. The oceans on those worlds are made of boiling magma. The air is toxic ash. If a human ship lands there, the metal melts and the crew burns to dust in seconds."
She stepped away from the desk and paced across the floor.
"But those planets are not dead," she warned. "Extreme environments breed extreme life. Those four burning worlds are inhabited by elemental lifeforms. Lava Golems the size of mountains walk through the fire. Pure fire elemental spirits float in the ash storms. They are born directly from the heat and the Aether."
The rich kids in the front row stopped smirking. They leaned forward, listening closely.
Instructor Vane pointed to the far edge of the glowing screen.
She pointed to the last four planets in the system. They were tiny, dark blue dots. They were incredibly far away from the yellow sun.
"The last four planets at the edge of our system are the exact opposite," she said. Her voice dropped slightly. "They receive almost no light. They are completely frozen. The surface temperature is cold enough to shatter steel. Humans cannot live there either."
She tapped the desk again. The holographic screen zoomed in on one of the dark blue planets. It showed massive, jagged spikes of solid ice rising into a black sky.
"Those frozen worlds are ruled by ice-type elemental beings," Instructor Vane said. "Frost beasts that sleep in glaciers. Ice spirits that hunt in the dark. They hate the heat, and they hate the light."
Jin stared at the glowing map. He understood why a combat academy taught geography.
This was not a class about drawing maps. This was a class about the food chain.
The Academy was not just preparing them to fight other humans. The Genesis Zenith Academy was training them to hunt across the entire solar system. If a student wanted a fire legacy, they had to know where the fire spirits lived. If Luna wanted to understand the universe, she had to know the layout of the hunting grounds.
"We sit in the middle," Instructor Vane said, pulling the map back to the center planets. "We are balanced between the fire and the ice. But balance does not mean safety."
She turned to face the tiered seats again.
"Open your notebooks," she commanded. "We will now discuss the orbital paths and the exact threat levels of the inner fire worlds. Pay attention. This information will save your life when you take your first off-world mission."
Jin reached into his spatial pouch. He pulled out a blank book and a charcoal pencil. He did not take his eyes off the massive glowing sun on the wall. He started to write.