The eastern wing of the Academy was quiet. The stone walls here were a dull grey. Jin, Luna, Rian, and Elin walked down the long corridor together. They checked the numbers carved above the doors. They found Room 104.
They pushed the wooden door open.
It was a standard lecture hall. It was much smaller than the massive geography room. It had simple wooden desks and chairs lined up in neat rows. There were no giant glowing holographic screens here. There was just a large, traditional black chalkboard at the front of the room.
The four of them walked to the middle row. They sat down together. Rian and Elin took the left desks. Jin and Luna took the right.
They waited. The room slowly filled up with other freshmen. Most of the students still looked completely exhausted from the dirt arena. They slumped in their chairs and rested their heads on the wooden desks.
A few minutes later, the door opened. The instructor walked in.
He did not look like the other teachers. Instructor Vane was sharp and cold. Instructor Thorne was a giant mountain of hard muscle. This new man was very different.
He was heavily built. He had a thick, round stomach and a wide face. He looked soft. He looked a little chubby. He wore a loose brown tunic that stretched tight across his belly.
But Jin watched the man closely. He did not let the fat fool him.
The man walked with completely silent footsteps. His heavy leather boots did not make a single sound on the wooden floor. He moved with perfect, terrifying balance. Underneath that layer of fat, his Foundation was incredibly dense.
The instructor walked to the front of the room. He picked up a piece of white chalk from a small tray.
"Welcome, freshmen," the man said. His voice was warm, loud, and cheerful. It filled the room easily. "I am Instructor Boras. I am your Basic Survival teacher. I am also your homeroom teacher for the first year. If you get into trouble, the guards will drag you to my office first."
He turned around and wrote his name on the chalkboard in large, looping letters.
"Survival is not just about swinging a sword," Boras said. He dusted the white chalk off his hands. "Instructor Thorne taught you how to build your muscles. I am here to teach you how to use your brain. And more importantly, I am here to teach you how to get paid."
Jin leaned forward slightly. He rested his arms on his desk. This was the exact kind of practical data he wanted.
"You will all go into the wild eventually," Boras continued. He started walking slowly up and down the aisles between the desks. "You will hunt beasts. But if you do not know what you are killing, you will waste your energy. If you destroy the valuable parts of a monster during the fight, you lose your Merit Points. If you lose your points, you starve."
Boras walked back to the chalkboard. He quickly drew a crude, thick outline of a large beast. It looked like a giant wolf with thick, jagged plates of armor on its back.
"This is a Steel-Spine Wolf," Boras said. He tapped the chalk against the board. "It is a common Foundation Level 3 beast. It travels in packs. It lives in the rocky canyons just outside the city walls. You will see them often."
He drew a large red circle around the wolf's thick back.
"The spine is coated in a natural iron alloy," Boras explained. "It is the most valuable material on the beast. The Academy blacksmiths pay very good money for it. If you panic and hit the wolf in the back with a heavy hammer, you shatter the iron. You destroy the profit completely."
Boras moved his chalk to the wolf's throat. He drew a small, precise blue 'X' right under the jawline.
"This is the weak point," Boras stated firmly. "There is a small gap in the armor plates right under the chin. You do not crush it. You pierce it. A clean dagger thrust upward into the brain kills it instantly. The iron spine stays perfectly intact. You carry the body back, and you get paid your full Merit Points."
Jin nodded slowly. It was simple logic. Protect the product during the extraction process.
Boras erased the wolf. He started drawing plants.
"Survival is also about the dirt," the chubby instructor said. "You will get hurt in the wild. You will get poisoned. You cannot always run back to the Academy hospital in time. You need to know the basic herbs."
He drew a plant with jagged, sharp leaves and a thick, round root.
"This is Blood-Weed," Boras said. "It grows in damp, dark caves. It likes the shade. The leaves are highly toxic. If you touch them with your bare skin, your hand will swell up and rot in three days."
He pointed to the thick root at the bottom of the drawing.
"But the root," Boras smiled, "is a natural coagulant. If you are bleeding to death from a monster bite, you carefully cut the root open. You squeeze the white juice directly into your open wound. It will stop the bleeding in ten seconds flat. It tastes like dirty mud, but it will save your life."
The lesson continued for a full hour.
Boras threw data at them rapidly. He named dozens of common outer-rim beasts. He listed their exact weak points, from the soft underbellies of rock-spiders to the eye-stalks of swamp lizards. He told them which fangs, claws, and cores were worth Merit Points.
He described the living traits of basic medical herbs. He told them where the plants grew, what kind of soil they liked, and exactly how to harvest them without poisoning themselves.
Jin wrote everything down. He pulled a blank notebook from his spatial pouch. His charcoal pencil moved fast across the paper. This was an inventory catalogue. It was a manual on how to harvest capital from the wild.
Luna also took careful notes. She did not plan on hunting giant wolves with a dagger. But she needed to know what the valuable herbs looked like. If she could find rare plants and use her space magic to store them safely, she could make her own money.
The large clock on the wall finally chimed loudly. The sound echoed through the room.
Instructor Boras dropped his chalk back into the small wooden tray.
"Class is dismissed," Boras announced cheerfully. He rubbed his round stomach. "Go get some rest. Tomorrow, we start practical field identification. I will bring dead things into the room. Do not be late for homeroom."
The students closed their notebooks. They stood up from the hard wooden chairs. They were incredibly exhausted. The first day of the Genesis Zenith Academy was finally over.
Jin put his pencil away. He slipped the notebook back into his grey spatial pouch.
He walked out of the classroom. Luna followed close behind him. Rian and Elin followed them into the busy hallway. The corridors were slightly less crowded now. The sun outside the high windows was already starting to set. The sky was turning a dark, bruised purple.
They stopped near the main exit of the eastern wing.
"Our dorms are in the southern block," Rian said. He pointed down a different, wider hallway. He looked tired but deeply relieved that the day was done. "I think I am going to sleep for twelve hours straight."
"Thank you for letting us sit with you at lunch," Elin added quietly. She adjusted the cheap cloth bandages on her hands.
"We meet in the morning," Jin said flatly. "Same seats in homeroom."
Rian nodded. "See you tomorrow, Jin. See you, Luna."
The boy and the girl turned around. They walked away, heading toward the massive, crowded common dormitories where thousands of freshmen slept in bunk beds.
Jin did not watch them leave. He turned toward the north side of the campus.
"Let's go," he told Luna.
They walked out of the academic building. The cool evening air hit their faces. It felt good after a day of sweat and dust. The massive golden dome covering the Academy glowed brightly against the darkening night sky.
They walked up the smooth stone path toward the faculty residential area. They left the noise of the student sectors far behind them. The air smelled clean and rich with lotus flowers again.
They reached the heavy iron gate of Villa 11. It opened silently to let them in. They walked across the quiet courtyard toward the main house.
The first day was a brutal physical and mental test. But they had survived. They had their manuals, they had their data, and they had a secure base to sleep in. It was time to return to Aunt Shara's house, buy the space core, and prepare for the night.