Cloud City was loud. It was a massive assault on the senses.
Jin and Nyx walked down the main dirt street. The ground was heavily packed with ash, crushed bone, and garbage. Torches burned brightly outside dozens of crude stone buildings. The light cast long, dancing shadows across the chaotic crowd.
Mercenaries drank from heavy wooden mugs right in the middle of the street. Unlicensed merchants yelled loudly, selling stolen weapons and glowing beast cores from wooden carts. The smell of cheap alcohol, roasting meat, and unwashed bodies was overwhelming.
Jin kept his head down. He pulled the collar of his torn silk shirt up slightly.
Nobody looked at him twice. The scribe at the gate was right. He looked exactly like a street beggar. In a city full of heavily armed killers and desperate scavengers, a dirty, exhausted boy was completely invisible. It was the perfect camouflage.
"We need a room," Jin whispered. He walked close to Nyx's dark cloak.
"I am scanning the local establishments," Nyx replied in his mind. "We need a place that is secure but cheap. We do not want to attract the attention of the local guild enforcers."
They walked past three massive taverns. The music inside was loud. Men were actively fighting in the dirt outside the doors. Blood splattered across the dusty street. Nyx ignored them.
She finally stopped in front of a narrow, two-story building built from grey stone and dark wood. A rusted metal sign hung above the door. It had a crude painting of a broken sword.
"This one," Nyx said.
They walked inside. The inn was dark and smelled like stale smoke. A few patrons sat at wooden tables in the corners, keeping to themselves. A large, heavy-set woman stood behind a thick wooden counter. She had a cybernetic metal arm that hummed quietly.
Nyx approached the counter.
"A room for the night," Nyx said. Her real voice was flat and cold. "And two bowls of hot food."
The large woman looked at Nyx's cracked obsidian visor. She looked at Jin's torn clothes. She crossed her thick arms.
"Two low-tier cores for the night," the woman demanded. "Food is extra. Pay up front. I don't run a charity."
Nyx reached into a hidden pocket inside her cloak. She did not pull out a glowing Aether core. She pulled out a large, pitch-black scale. It was the size of a dinner plate. She had quietly harvested it from the giant python back in the jungle.
She placed the heavy black scale on the wooden counter. It clattered loudly.
The woman's eyes widened. She recognized high-quality beast material immediately. A scale from a ten-foot jungle python was worth five low-tier cores easily. The armor-smiths in the city would pay a premium for it.
The woman quickly snatched the scale off the counter. She shoved it into her deep apron pocket.
"Room number four," the woman said. Her tone was suddenly much more polite. She tossed a heavy iron key onto the wood. "Top of the stairs. I will send a boy up with hot stew and bread."
Nyx took the key. She walked toward the narrow wooden stairs at the back of the room. Jin followed her.
Room number four was tiny. It was just a square stone box. There was no window. There was a single, small candle burning on a wooden stool. A narrow bed with a thin straw mattress sat against the far wall. The air was stale, but the heavy wooden door had a thick iron deadbolt.
Nyx locked the door. She slid the heavy bolt into place.
Jin walked over to the bed. He sat down slowly. The straw mattress crunched loudly under his weight. It was hard. It was scratchy. It smelled like old dust.
To Jin, it felt like the most luxurious king-sized bed in the universe.
He let out a long, heavy breath. He was finally inside four solid walls. There were no giant snakes. There were no falling spaceships. There was no First Prince with an army of assassins. He was just a tired man in a cheap motel room.
A few minutes later, someone knocked softly on the door. Nyx opened it just an inch. A young boy handed her a wooden tray. She took it and locked the door again.
She placed the tray on the small stool next to the candle.
There were two deep wooden bowls filled with thick, brown stew. Steam rose from the hot liquid. Next to the bowls sat a large loaf of dark, crusty bread.
"Eat," Nyx commanded.
Jin did not hesitate. He grabbed a bowl. He did not have a spoon. He just lifted the bowl to his face and drank the hot stew directly.
It was incredible. It was heavily salted and filled with chunks of tough root vegetables and unidentified meat. It burned his tongue, but he did not care. He tore a massive chunk of the dark bread off the loaf and shoved it into his mouth. He chewed rapidly. He ate the entire bowl in less than two minutes.
He looked at the second bowl.
"Take it," Nyx said in his mind. She stood in the corner of the small room, blending perfectly into the shadows. "I do not require mortal food. I sustain myself on ambient Aether."
Jin grabbed the second bowl. He ate it just as fast.
When the hot food hit his stomach, his body finally shut down completely. The intense fatigue of the jungle trek crushed him. He lay back on the scratchy straw mattress. He did not even take off his muddy boots.
He closed his eyes. The last thing he saw was Nyx standing perfectly still in the dark corner, her cracked visor facing the locked door. He fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.
Jin woke up.
He did not open his eyes immediately. He performed a slow, internal corporate audit of his body.
He wiggled his toes. He flexed his fingers. He took a deep breath. His lungs expanded fully without pain. He carefully engaged the muscles in his lower back.
It felt stiff. It felt like he had lifted heavy boxes for twelve hours straight. But the blinding, hot fire was completely gone. The Iron-Blood Root had done its job. The torn tissue was repaired. His Foundation Level 4 density held his spine firmly in place.
He opened his eyes. The small candle had burned out. The room was pitch black.
"Good morning, My Prince," Nyx's telepathic voice echoed quietly.
"Morning," Jin grunted. He sat up. His joints popped.
"The sun has been up for an hour," Nyx reported. "The city market is active. We need to move. A stationary target is an easy target."
Jin stood up. He walked over to a small, rusted metal basin in the corner. It was filled with cold, murky water. He splashed the water on his face. He rubbed the dried dirt and sweat out of his eyes. He tried to comb his tangled hair back with his fingers. It did not help much. He still looked like a beggar.
"We need supplies," Jin said. "I need clothes that don't scream 'ruined royal silk'. We need canteens for water. But first, we need data."
On Earth, Jin never started a new logistics project without a map. He needed to know where his warehouses were. He needed to know the shipping lanes. Right now, he was blind. He knew he was on the Zenith planet, but he had no idea where the Academy was located.
"We need to find an information broker or a cartographer," Jin said. "We need a map of this continent."
"Understood," Nyx said. She unlocked the heavy iron bolt on the door.
They left the inn. They stepped back out into the bright, hot sunlight of Cloud City.
The morning crowd was different from the night crowd. It was more business-focused. Blacksmiths hammered loudly on glowing metal anvils. Merchants shouted prices for bulk grain and dried monster meat. Hunters organized into large squads, preparing to head out the main gates into the jungle.
Jin walked through the chaotic market. He kept his eyes on the ground, playing his role perfectly. But his corporate brain was working fast. He analyzed the flow of commerce. He watched where the mercenaries bought their gear.
They spent an hour wandering through the dirty, crowded alleys.
Finally, they found it.
It was a small, dusty shop tucked away at the end of a narrow side street. The wooden sign above the door was faded and chipped. It read: The Dusty Compass.
Jin and Nyx walked inside.
The shop was crammed full of junk. Tall wooden shelves bowed under the weight of old leather scrolls, broken navigation compasses, and strange, glowing orbital globes. The air smelled like old paper, dried ink, and strong tobacco.
An old man sat behind a cluttered wooden desk. He was completely bald. The top half of his skull was replaced by a smooth, dark metal dome. Several thin wire cables ran from the metal dome down into his thick collar. He was a low-level data-splicer.
The old man did not look up from the large piece of cured beast leather he was drawing on.
"If you want to sell stolen imperial survey gear, go to the black market," the old man rasped. His voice sounded like dry gravel. "I only deal in verified cartography."
Nyx walked up to the desk. She placed another large, black python scale on the wood.
The old man stopped drawing. His biological eye widened slightly. He looked at the high-quality scale, then he looked up at Nyx's dark, cracked visor.
"I need a complete topographical map of this continent," Nyx said flatly. "I need all major settlements, trade routes, and geographical hazards marked clearly."
The old man did not argue. He snatched the black scale off the desk. He stood up. He walked over to a tall wooden cabinet in the corner. He unlocked a heavy padlock with a small key. He pulled out a large, rolled-up piece of thick, pale leather.
He walked back and slammed the roll onto the desk. He unrolled it and pinned the corners down with heavy brass compasses.
"The Zenith Central Continent," the old man said proudly. "Accurate up to last month. It shows all guild outposts, major rivers, and the exact borders of the Academy's neutral zone."
Jin stepped forward. He leaned over the desk. He looked at the map.
It was beautiful. The lines were drawn with perfect, mechanical precision. The topography was highly detailed.
Jin's logistics brain engaged immediately. He scanned the massive landmass. He started looking for data points.
"Where are we?" Jin asked, pointing to the map.
The old man tapped a dirty fingernail on a small, crude drawing of a walled fortress located near the southern edge of the continent.
"Right here," the old man said. "Cloud City. On the edge of the Southern Rot-Jungle."
Jin found their starting point. Now he needed the destination.
He scanned his eyes upward, moving north across the map. He crossed over drawn mountain ranges, massive blue rivers, and wide, empty plains. Finally, near the very center of the continent, he found it.
It was a massive circular symbol. The words Genesis Zenith Academy were written in elegant, flowing script.
Jin measured the distance with his eyes. He calculated the scale printed at the bottom of the map.
The distance was massive. It was thousands of miles.
He looked at the routes between Cloud City and the Academy. There was no straight, easy road. The terrain was brutal. But more importantly, there were waypoints.
He traced his finger along a thick, dotted line that represented a major trade route. Between Cloud City and Zenith City, there were three large, distinct markings.
"What are these?" Jin asked. He pointed at the three large circles along the path.
"Major guild hubs," the old man answered. He sounded annoyed, like he was teaching a child. "You can't cross the continent in one trip unless you have a military dropship. You have to travel from city to city. Resupply. Hide from the nightly Aether-storms."
Jin studied the names.
The first city on the route was called Iron-Spire.
The second city was called Crimson-Rock.
The third city, right on the border of the Academy's neutral zone, was called Silver-Gate.
Three cities. Three massive logistical hurdles.
If they were on Earth, Jin would just book a direct flight. Here, he had to cross thousands of miles of hostile territory on foot. He had to sneak a wanted royal prince through three heavily guarded mercenary hubs.
Jin stared at the map. The sheer scale of the journey was intimidating. But it was no longer impossible. It was no longer a blind stumble through the dark.
It was a concrete plan. It was a route.
"We will take the map," Nyx said. She rolled the thick leather up quickly. She tied it tight with a leather cord and slung it over her shoulder.
They turned around and walked out of the dusty shop.
They stepped back out into the bright sunlight. Jin felt a strange, new sense of purpose settle in his chest. He was not just running away anymore. He had a destination.
"Three cities," Jin said quietly to Nyx as they walked down the crowded street. "It's a long walk."
"Yes," Nyx replied in his mind. "But we have a path. Now, we just need to survive it."