The Martial Unity

BZZZT

When she exited her cabin again, she was much more presentable. She wore her Martial attire, themed in amber, the same color as her eyes. Rather than being woven from powerful esoteric substances that were soft yet immensely durable, the Martial attire she wore was a spandex suit of sorts, made with powerful energy distribution technology that allowed it to withstand the tremendous intensities of Martial battles of the Upper Realms.

Her short golden hair was simply combed, and that alone was enough, given that her hair strands reflected light like they were woven from some glowing golden exotic. It was proof of her heritage, though in this day and age, it could be mimicked, and was hardly a giveaway. She walked to the cockpit of the cabin, transmitting a request for entry to the automated system from her neural inlay.

VMMM

The door opened, unveiling several individuals gathered at the cockpit of the frigate. Before them were countless buttons, switches, dials, and steering sticks, highlighting the sheer complexity of piloting even a simple frigate like the one she was on.

The pilots turned towards her with a friendly expression, one of whom was an older man in his early thirties, wearing the crisp space-pilot attire that all pilots working for Bradt Distribution Services were required to wear. The other was a younger lady several years older than her, nodding at her with acknowledgment.

Next to them in one of the spare seats was a familiar figure: a young man with silver hair and sharp green eyes, with a built, but lean frame. His green irises lit up when he saw her. “Ria, you’re awake now.”

Her expression softened as a small smile emerged on her face. “Runark.”

Her closest childhood friend. They had practically grown up together and had been inseparable from a young age, since their fathers were best friends and they had been born just a year apart.

“Did you have a good sleep?” he smiled at her eagerly. “Good enough, well, as good as you can manage with those damn gravitational micro-tides,” she muttered. “More importantly, how much time do we have left until we get to Arima III?”

The older man pulled up a hologram of the frigate’s trajectory. It featured a straight line between two star systems, displaying the frigate at the very end of the journey, almost overlapping with the destination marked [Arima III]. “Just a few minutes left,” the male pilot replied. “We will also note your feedback regarding the gravitational micro-tides and report it to HQ. Bradt Distribution Services always aims to please, and it is regretful that we have been unable to provide you with a stellar experience… is what I’m supposed to say according to my training, but…”

He smiled at her apologetically. “The reality is, until Interstellara figures out how to patch the gravitational micro-tide problem, I’m afraid you pathwalkers are just going to have to take it.”

“It’s fine,” she heaved a deep breath. “I’m used to it. It’s something I can handle.”

“We should purchase one of those space dampeners at Arima III,” Runark offered with concern. “I’ve heard they dampen space activity quite well.”

“Those are prohibited aboard FTL frigates, young man,” the other pilot warned him. “They can be absolutely catastrophic to any passengers traveling through the stars. Warp drives are as delicate as they are powerful.”

“It’s fine, Runark,” she smiled at him appreciatively. “I can take it.”

He grimaced lightly, bringing himself to nod. She lightly huffed internally at his reaction. Although he had never told her, she could tell he had a massive crush on her and had had one for a very long time. It was flattering, but also awkward, because she had always thought of him as an older brother, as family.

Yet, she also understood how much effort he had put in order to be with her there that day. The reality was that they had discovered a massive gulf in their talent and abilities. She was, to put it mildly, a cosmic anomaly.

She was eighteen years old, and she was already a Martial Master. Of course, part of it was the drastic explosion in technology in the past thirteen years that had occurred with the privatization of the stars, leading to tremendous waves of innovation in the face of nearly infinite opportunity.

Martial growth technologies were astronomically superior to what they were in the eras prior, and the secrets to engineered breakthroughs in Martial Art and in other Paths had finally been harnessed in technology that could be mass-produced. Simulation technology, artificial intelligence-guided growth, and even neural inlays, biological micro-computers made from human glial cells and neurons implanted in one’s brain to enhance their cognitive capacities, had all led to a massive explosion in Martial Artists across all realms.

Martial Apprentice was something that anybody could be guaranteed to become as long as they decided to do so before the age of eighteen. The Body Evolution Process had grown astronomically superior since then, had shed all of its risks and the pain that came with it. Martial Hearts could be activated, engineered breakthrough technology developed by the Martialist, an immortal sage, and even Martial Minds could be accelerated by neural inlays that made creating systems of thought orders of magnitude easier than they ever were.

The number of Martial Artists per capita had exploded, and the age at which one hit each Realm had also greatly fallen. The average new Martial Master was in their thirties, something that was unthinkable in the past.

And yet, even by those standards, she was in a world by herself.

She had broken through to the Master Realm at the age of sixteen. It was, in fact, one of the conditions that her parents had set for her being able to set out by herself into the cosmos as a freelancer pathwalker who worked at the frontiers of human civilization.

Of course, not even they had expected that she would achieve this even before she finished going through puberty. In comparison, Runark was ordinary.