302 Seconds and Years (2/2)

The human civilizations that other interstellar species usually interacted with, however, were the Class-6 factions; the 9 clans, 5 institutes and 41 nations who mastered Warp Drive. These were the ones developed enough for their people to privately own starships (spaceships capable of interstellar travel at warp speeds). The Estuarte Clan was one of the Nine.

The current rulers over the human factions, however, were the three Class-7 Factions; that is, the alliance known as the Human Ascendancy, consisting of the Io Republic, the Orion Empire and the Blue Star Conglomerate. There was a lot of boasting about how much effort the Conglomerate put into bringing these factions together into a peaceful mutual-defense pact and how it helped all humans greatly ever more…

To qualify for Class-7, a civilization needed to achieve controllable energy-to-matter conversion. The fact that there were three such factions among human powers was already amazing.

Yet there was yet one more human faction more amazing still. This one had achieved the venerable ability to harness the power of a star. This group was known as the Human Supremacy, but they were rarely even seen or heard of, and there were people who even debated whether or not they even existed. The Blue Star Conglomerate, however, had concrete evidence that they did in fact exist, as did the Dyson Sphere they used to harness their star's energy. This was humankind's only Class-8 civilization.

Information on Class-9 civilizations was restricted. The system only explained that the qualifier for it was the harnessing of Chaos Energy.

Wait. Didn't the Quarin already do that?

Not entirely, no. A waterwheel could turn with the help of flowing water, but it did not control the water itself. There was a big difference between a plant that could grow using sunlight, and a Dyson Sphere.

As for Class-10, even the theories on what it was or how it could be achieved were being debated academically.

What was most astonishing was that there had been traces of extremely advanced civilizations found that were already destroyed, remnants with power far beyond what the Class-8 Human Supremacy had shown publicly. Some scholars theorized those remnants could be from destroyed civilizations that would have qualified for Class-9, possibly being on the verge of reaching Class-10.

All this, Remian learned in a few hours and his head swam as he thought and pondered on what he'd learned.

***

On Mindy's side, the fight had only just begun.

”Get down!” she tugged Denise downward as a Spectre leapt for her throat. Mindy countered, stabbing it in the midriff and twisting her fire sword, pouring out as much fire through her sword as she could.

Joshu and Jans were back-to-back, having no space or time to shoot any more arrows. Joshu blocked one Spectre's attack with his bow. That bow broke instantly, but he followed it with an arrow in his hand, shoving it directly into the Spectre's throat. Behind him, Jans was staving off another Spectre with her own bow, having already broken its string, but still whacking the Spectre like a cane.

Wulfgar meanwhile was engaged in what seemed to be a tug-of-war with a Spectre having bitten on to his axe with its teeth.

As for the fifth Spectre… that one had already been killed. Tang Yin didn't hesitate; he went straight up to the Rift and started weaving magic.

Ten more seconds passed.

***

Over the next five hours, Remian started to study languages, particularly the ones used by the Human Ascendancy. These were the ones most recognized by all interstellar human factions. Most of them should already recognize the language the Conglomerate used, since they basically sold stuff to everybody, the same languge Remian was accustomed to, but there were enough exceptions that Remian decided it was best to learn at least a little bit of all three. Enough to recognize them, and greet or bid people farewell.

While Remian was studying languages, Xiao Yan was learning formations and arrays. That was what she'd been learning when they left her home world, and she figured she may as well continue.

To be frank, the formations and arrays she was learning from the Conglomerate was far, far more advanced than what she had learned back on her home world…