The walk back to Villa 11 was quiet.
Jin's chest still ached from the heavy punch he took in the final sparring match. Luna walked beside him, rubbing her bruised arms. The adrenaline from the tournament was completely gone. Only the deep, physical exhaustion remained.
They reached the heavy iron gate of the courtyard. Jin pushed it open.
The villa was usually empty when they returned from the dirt arenas. Today, the lights in the main hallway were on.
They walked inside. The smell of hot oil and salt filled the air.
Aunt Shara was sitting cross-legged on the soft couch in the center of the living area. She wore a loose, comfortable grey robe instead of her formal faculty uniform. She had a large wooden bowl resting in her lap, filled to the brim with heavily salted, fried potato chips.
She was staring intently at a smooth, flat piece of dark crystal resting on the low wooden table in front of her.
It was a projection stone.
Jin recognized the expensive artifact from the capital. It absorbed and stored visual data, projecting it outward into the air like a localized hologram. It was a luxury item used purely for entertainment. Right now, it was projecting a vibrant, fast-paced play about a tragic romance between a sword saint and a demon princess.
Shara tossed a handful of chips into her mouth. She crunched them loudly. She didn't look away from the glowing projection as Jin and Luna walked into the room.
"You smell like blood and dirty mud," Shara stated flatly. She reached into the bowl for more chips. "How did the baseline test go? What were your final rankings?"
Jin stopped walking. He dropped his canvas bag near the door.
"I reached the final match," Jin answered. His voice was completely neutral. "I lost to a Half-Step Core Formation student. Second place out of fifty in my combat block."
Luna shifted her weight nervously. "I reached the semi-finals," she said quietly. "I drew a bye in the second round, then lost to the same Half-Step student in the fourth round. Top four."
Shara finally pulled her eyes away from the glowing crystal. She looked at them. She looked at the dark purple bruises on Jin's jaw and the dirt ground into Luna's clothes.
She stopped chewing. She swallowed hard and nodded slowly.
"Good," Shara said. Her tone was completely serious. "That is acceptable data."
She leaned back into the soft cushions of the couch. A slow, terrifying smile spread across her face.
"If either of you had dropped out before the top ten," Shara continued, her voice dropping to a low, cold whisper, "I would have dragged you both down to the basement. I would have tied you to the stone pillars and locked you in the dark for the entire preparation week."
She let out a short, sharp laugh. "Hehehehaha. I do not tolerate weak investments living in my house."
Jin stared at her. He knew she was not joking. The threat was a literal statement of fact. She was a faculty member of the Genesis Zenith Academy. Brutality was standard operating procedure here.
"We require showers," Jin stated simply. He completely ignored the threat. He turned and walked down the hallway toward his room.
Luna quickly followed him, eager to escape the terrifying woman on the couch.
They ate dinner in silence later that evening. The food provided by the villa staff was heavily seasoned beast meat and thick root vegetables, designed to rapidly rebuild torn muscle fibers.
After dinner, Jin returned to his quiet bedroom.
He stripped off his ruined black uniform. He stood under the cold iron pipe in the washroom and scrubbed the dried dirt and dried blood off his skin. The cold water stung his deep bruises, but it cleared his head.
He dried off and put on clean grey sleep clothes.
He walked to the center of his hard mattress and sat down cross-legged. He closed his eyes.
The preparation week had begun. He had exactly seven days.
He started the violent Devourer breathing technique. The ambient Aether of the capital rushed into his lungs. He forced it down into his Foundation Level 9 core. The energy burned hot, repairing the internal damage caused by the heavy iron gauntlet. He pushed the pain aside and focused entirely on compressing the Aether, trying to force his body toward the absolute peak of Level 10.
The night passed in silent, focused meditation.
The next morning, the sun broke over the dark mountains surrounding the Academy.
Jin opened his eyes. He stopped his breathing technique. The dull ache in his chest was significantly reduced. The green medical paste and the dense Aether had done their jobs. He was highly functional again.
He got out of bed. He found Luna already waiting in the main hallway. She wore a clean black uniform. The bruises on her arms were fading to a light yellow.
"We need supplies," Jin told her. "The weapons in the arena are dull iron. We need live steel for the jungle."
He tied his heavy leather pouch to his belt. It was still filled with the mid-tier Aether cores he had looted from the bandit camp.
They left Villa 11 and walked through the sprawling Academy campus. They bypassed the grand faculty buildings and the large, pristine combat arenas. They headed toward the eastern edge of the grounds, near the high exterior walls.
They reached the student market.
It was a chaotic, crowded district. It did not look like the polished, wealthy storefronts of the Apex capital. It looked like a busy frontier bazaar.
The Academy did not provide everything for free. They provided the baseline. The rest was up to the students. The market was run entirely by older students—sophomores and juniors who did not come from massive wealth. They paid their tuition by selling their specialized skills.
The air was thick with the smell of hot sulfur, melting iron, and crushed herbs.
Small, cramped stalls lined the dirt streets. Jin analyzed the layout. It was highly efficient.
To the left, a muscular junior student hammered glowing red steel on a heavy iron anvil, shaping custom sword blades. To the right, a girl in a stained grey robe crushed dry roots in a stone mortar, boiling cheap, low-grade healing potions. Further down the row, a student carefully carved intricate, glowing blue runes into the side of a leather chest piece.
"Stay close," Jin ordered. "We are going to buy your catalyst. Then, we buy armor."
He stepped into the loud, busy crowd. The final phase of the hostile acquisition was beginning. They needed the right tools to secure the assets on the jungle planet.