The canteen was massive and incredibly loud.
Jin and Luna stood in the long food line. The smell of roasted meat and heavy spices filled the air. Jin's stomach growled violently. His body was completely empty.
His legs still ached with every step, but the worst of the pain was gone. Instructor Thorne's brutal physical punishment had torn their muscles apart, but the universal breathing technique forced ambient Aether into the wounds. The tissue was already knitting back together.
Luna was doing much better. She did not need to lean on Jin's shoulder anymore. She limped forward on her own. She kept her head down, avoiding the eyes of the older students sitting at the tables.
They reached the front of the line.
A large wooden board hung above the serving counter. Words were burned deeply into the thick wood. It was the pricing menu for the canteen.
Jin read the board carefully.
The first line was written in large letters. Free meals for all freshmen.
But there was a condition carved right below it. The free meals only lasted for exactly three months. It was a strict grace period. The Academy gave new students exactly ninety days to figure out how to survive.
After three months, the free food stopped completely.
The board listed the regular prices. A simple meal cost 1 Merit Point. It was basic food. Bread, weak broth, and cheap root vegetables. It would keep a student from starving, but it would not help them grow stronger.
A super meal cost 10 Merit Points. This was the real food. It included high-tier beast meat, rare medicinal herbs, and pure water drawn from Aether springs. It fueled rapid physical recovery and boosted cultivation speed.
Jin understood the system perfectly. The Academy was a grinding wheel. You had three months to learn how to hunt beasts, complete missions, or win arena fights to earn Merit Points. If you failed to adapt, you would starve to death.
"Move along," a gruff worker said from behind the counter.
The worker shoved two wooden bowls across the metal table. It was the free freshman meal. It was just thick brown stew and a piece of hard crusty bread.
Jin picked up his bowl. Luna grabbed hers.
They walked away from the serving line. They found an empty wooden table near the back wall, far away from the laughing senior students.
They sat down on the hard benches.
Jin did not waste any time. He picked up his wooden spoon and started eating. The stew was bland and the meat was tough, but he did not care. Food was just fuel. He ate fast, forcing the calories down into his empty stomach. His healing muscles desperately needed the energy.
Luna sat across from him. She broke off a small piece of her hard bread.
But she was not eating. She just held the bread in her fingers.
She kept looking up at Jin, then quickly looking back down at her bowl. She shifted her weight on the wooden bench. She twisted her dirty fingers together. She was incredibly nervous. She was breathing fast.
Jin saw her moving out of the corner of his eye.
He did not stop chewing. He kept his eyes on his bowl.
"If you have something to say, say it," Jin said flatly. He swallowed a large bite of stew. "Do not sit there and shake."
Luna flinched slightly at his cold tone. She dropped the small piece of bread into her stew.
She took a deep breath. She needed a few minutes to gather her courage. She played with her fingers under the table. She was terrified to ask. She knew how cruel the world was. She knew people killed each other over a single low-tier stone.
"I... I looked at the Academy store," Luna said. Her voice was very quiet. She pointed to the dark metal Aether-band locked around her wrist.
Jin kept eating. He nodded once to show he was listening.
"I read my silver book," Luna continued. She hugged her arms across her chest. "The Space Element legacy is different from normal martial arts. I cannot just sit and breathe Aether from the air. The book says I need a catalyst to start."
"A space core," Jin said. He remembered reading her metal plaque in the library.
"Yes," Luna whispered. "I need a space-attribute beast core to absorb. It is the only way to awaken the spatial genes in my body. Once I absorb it, I can start practicing the movements. But..."
She stopped talking. She bit her lower lip.
"But you do not have one," Jin finished for her.
"Space beasts are incredibly rare," Luna explained quickly, her words rushing out. "They hide in the folds of the world. Hunters rarely catch them. I checked the digital store on my wristband. The quartermaster has one in stock."
She looked down at the wooden table. Her face turned slightly red with shame.
"I want a loan," Luna said. She squeezed her eyes shut. She forced the final words out before she lost her nerve. "I need thirty mid-tier Aether cores to buy it."
She waited for him to yell at her.
Thirty mid-tier Aether cores was a massive amount of money. To a normal family in the outer rim, it was an absolute fortune. It could buy a large house, weapons, and food for a decade. She was a useless mortal asking a prince for a fortune on her first day.
Jin did not yell. He did not laugh.
He stopped eating for a moment. He lowered his wooden spoon.
Thirty mid-tier cores.
He thought about the small, grey leather pouch tied securely to his belt under his black uniform.
Luna did not know what was inside that bag. She had run out of the red tent before Nyx emptied it. She did not see the massive piles of wealth Nyx stole.
The bandit boss had terrorized the main trade routes for years. He had robbed dozens of wealthy merchant caravans. He hoarded all the best loot for himself. When Nyx killed him, she took everything.
Jin had thousands of low-tier cores. He had hundreds of mid-tier cores. He had heavy bars of raw gold and bags of rare medical herbs.
To the rest of the students in the canteen, thirty mid-tier cores was a wall they could not climb. To Jin, it was absolutely nothing. He was already rich. The hostile takeover of the bandit camp had given him more capital than he could spend right now.
He looked at the girl sitting across from him.
She was weak now. But she had a Space Element legacy. If she mastered it, she could manipulate distance. She could teleport. She could create invisible storage pockets to hide weapons or supplies.
In a brutal, deadly world, a loyal ally who could control space was incredibly valuable. Giving her a small pile of rocks so she could start training was a very cheap price to pay for that kind of utility.
Jin picked his wooden spoon back up.
"Okay," Jin said simply.
Luna's head snapped up. Her blue eyes went wide. Her jaw dropped slightly.
"What?" she asked. She could not believe what she just heard.
"I said okay," Jin repeated. He scooped up another spoonful of stew. "It is a loan. You will pay me back when you start earning your own Merit Points. I will give you the cores when we get back to our room."
Luna stared at him. Tears welled up in her eyes. It was not fear this time. It was pure, overwhelming relief. She had a path forward. She was not going to be useless anymore.
"Thank you," Luna whispered. She wiped her eyes quickly. "I swear I will pay you back every single piece."
"Just eat your food," Jin said. "We have more classes today. If you pass out from hunger, the loan is canceled."
Luna nodded rapidly. She grabbed her piece of hard bread and started eating. She chewed fast, a small, genuine smile finally breaking through her nervous expression.
Jin kept eating his stew. He ignored the loud noise of the canteen around them. He had his manual. Luna had her catalyst. The foundation was set. They just needed to survive the rest of the day.