The massive carrier ship lifted off the concrete pad of the Academy spaceport.
The heavy acceleration pushed Jin deep into his hard metal seat. The synthetic leather creaked under his weight. He kept his breathing slow and steady to manage the sudden pressure on his lungs. The entire hull of the ship vibrated violently as the thrusters burned millions of gallons of chemical fuel to break free of the planetary gravity well. A minute later, the artificial gravity engaged. The violent shaking smoothed out into a low and constant hum.
The journey to the jungle planet would take exactly eight hours.
A green light flashed above the heavy steel cabin door. The safety harnesses released automatically with a loud click. Students immediately stood up and stretched their cramped legs. The interior of the transport ship was purely utilitarian. There were no luxury accommodations. The walls were bare grey metal and the floor was covered in hard rubber grating.
Many of the freshmen crowded around the thick glass viewports lining the sides of the ship. They stared out into the deep void. Billions of stars packed the black space. The stars glowed like scattered white dust against an endless dark ceiling. It was the first time most of these students had ever left their home world. The sheer scale of the galaxy was overwhelming.
Jin did not join them at the glass. He stayed in his seat. He checked the leather straps on his spatial pouch to ensure they were secure. He ran his thumb over the flat pommel of his silver tier falchion. He preferred to focus on his immediate physical assets rather than the empty void outside.
Luna sat next to him. She looked out the window for a few minutes. She then turned her attention back to her new heavy iron chain sickle. She silently traced the metal links of the chain to check for any microscopic flaws in the forging process.
The geography instructor walked to the front of the cabin. He was a thin and older man with sharp grey eyes and a perfectly pressed black uniform. He held a solid metal rod in his right hand. He tapped the metal rod heavily against the steel bulkhead. The sharp sound easily cut through the low chatter of the freshmen.
"Look out those windows," the instructor ordered. He pointed his metal rod at the thick glass. "You see stars. You also see foreign territories. Our civilization is incredibly old. We use Aether to fuel our bodies and power our gene legacies. It is the foundation of our military strength. However, the energy was not always called Aether."
The students slowly turned away from the windows. They returned to their seats and listened.
"In ancient times, the energy was called Qi," the instructor explained. He slowly paced down the center aisle of the ship. "Humans cultivated it directly from the ambient air. They walked what they called a pure path. They did not merge their bodies with beast traits. They did not alter their basic DNA. They simply absorbed the natural energy of the universe to strengthen their flesh and their bones. It was a simple and highly effective system for thousands of years."
He stopped near the middle rows where Jin was sitting.
"A severe biological problem eventually emerged," the instructor said. "Evolution is a stubborn and highly reactive mechanism. After millions of years of constantly absorbing pure Qi, the human genome began to adapt. Our bodies developed a strict biological resistance to the energy. It acted exactly like a physical virus that the immune system finally learned to identify and block. Cultivation slowed down to a complete halt across the entire human territory. People could no longer break through their bottlenecks. The energy simply passed through their bodies without taking root. The human race hit a hard genetic ceiling. Our civilization began to stagnate and fracture."
Jin listened carefully to the lecture. The history made perfect logical sense. Biological systems naturally build tolerance to external stimuli over long periods of continuous exposure. A system cannot absorb infinite energy without fundamentally changing its own structure to handle the load.
"Our ancestors had to adapt or face total extinction," the instructor continued. His voice was completely flat and matter of fact. "So they began to experiment. They spliced human genes with mutated beasts. They forcefully altered our biological receptors to bypass the natural Qi resistance. They created the modern Aether system and the gene legacies we use today. We survived because we abandoned the pure path and fundamentally changed our own biology."
The instructor looked back out the thick glass window at the endless sea of stars.
"The galaxy is incredibly vast," he said quietly. "We are not the only intelligent life out there. Other solar systems in this galaxy are much older than ours. Some of their planetary environments completely prevented the biological resistance from forming. Those worlds still follow the ancient Qi path. Other worlds found entirely new and bizarre systems of power that we do not fully understand yet."
A boy in the front row raised his hand. He asked if the Apex Empire fought those other planets.
"Sometimes," the instructor answered flatly. "But warfare is expensive. We also study them. Our Academy does not stay blind to the rest of the universe. Information is a critical military asset. Every few years, the Genesis Zenith Academy selects the absolute strongest senior students from the upper years. We send them across the void to those distant worlds. They participate in extended exchange programs with the local academies on those planets."
The instructor looked back at the freshmen to ensure they understood the reality of the situation.
"They do not go there to make friends," the instructor stated firmly. "They go there to steal their techniques. They study their alien fighting styles and record their cultivation methods. They bring all of the gathered data back to the Apex Empire. That is exactly how our empire maintains its absolute military dominance over the surrounding star systems. We never stop adapting and we never stop taking what we need."
The instructor lowered his metal rod. The history lesson was officially over. He walked back to his designated seat at the front of the ship and strapped himself in.
The cabin grew quiet again.
Eight hours is a very long time to wait for a hunt. The initial excitement of space travel quickly faded into heavy and nervous boredom. The adrenaline dropped in their bloodstreams. Students slumped back in their hard metal seats. Many of them closed their eyes and took short naps to conserve their physical energy for the jungle.
Jin stayed awake for the entire journey. He sat completely still. He ran rigorous mental combat simulations in his head. He visualized his sword swings against various types of beast anatomy. He ran through Luna's spatial attack patterns. He calculated the exact distance her throwing knife could reach before the metal chain pulled taut. He measured his own stamina reserves. He systematically prepared his mind for absolute violence.
Luna also stayed awake. She kept her hands resting on her weapons. She monitored the ambient temperature of the cabin and adjusted her breathing to maintain a low and steady heart rate.
Time passed slowly. The low hum of the ship engines was a constant background noise. The air in the cabin grew slightly stale as the life support scrubbers worked to recycle the oxygen.
Eventually, the digital clock on the front cabin wall ticked down to the final minute.
The pitch of the ship engines suddenly changed. The low and steady hum dropped into a heavy and deep vibration. The vibration rattled the metal floorboards under their boots.
Jin opened his eyes. Luna sat up straight next to him.
All around the cabin, the sleeping students woke up. They rubbed their tired faces and tightly gripped the armrests of their seats. The green light above the door turned a solid and flashing red color. The ship automated voice announced that they were entering the final descent vector.
The heavy metal shutters over the front observation deck slid open with a loud mechanical clank.
A massive sphere hung in the dark space directly ahead of the transport ship. It was completely green and deep blue. It was covered in swirling and thick white storm clouds. There were no bright city lights on the dark side of the globe. There were no orbital stations floating above the atmosphere. It was completely wild and untouched by heavy industry.
It was the jungle moon of Xylos 4.
The ship shuddered violently as it hit the thick outer edge of the planetary atmosphere. The friction caused the metal hull to heat up rapidly. A dull orange glow washed over the thick glass viewports.
Jin unbuckled his heavy falchion and placed it across his knees. The theoretical portion of their education was over. The physical test was finally starting.