A change in requirements

The heavy sounds of punches hitting the sandbag abruptly stopped before a young boy drenched in perspiration and exhaustion dragged his body out of the training room. His body was lean, yet muscular and his eyes contained a hint of a rebellious attitude within them. Even though he had completely exhausted himself, he still wanted to go on practicing, but unfortunately he had reached his physical limit.

Resting in the locker room and drinking some hydrating sports drink to replenish himself, the young boy named Max blinked his eyes to allow the augmented reality news feed appear within his vision. The news was full of information about a recent conflict that had taken place on the south pole of their planet Lasandra. Two extremely powerful warriors on the planet had reached a state of conflict over the discovery of a particular treasure and the conflict had turned physical, causing a lot of casualties. Both were wanted for crimes now and their posters had already appeared as pop ups in Max's visual feed for the third time today.

He ignored that news and instead found another article that piqued his interest. It was a notification about the incoming university applications process. Using his mental gesture to click on the notification, Max read the news broadcast which explained that the Federation's admissions bureau is planning to increase the requirements for minimum qualification in the next academic year. This made Max frown in frustration.

"The Admissions Bureau is considering raising the minimum physical requirement for prospective students from 4 physical points to 10 physical points for the Federal level Martial Academies." The article declared which partially stunned Max. He'd worked as hard as he could to improve his physical constitution and just barely crossed four points a week ago. That value had been the standard that the academies had long set for the students, but now it seemed like the entry requirements had more than doubled! The score of 10 was the boundary of a person aiming to become an official warrior.

Taking a look at the comments of the article truly showed the shock and horror of other students like himself. The comments were filled with abuses and curses at the author of the article for spreading fake news. However, Max had a sinking feeling emerge in his chest that the news might be true, because this news source was a very credible one. He switched from news feed to student forums that helped prepare for these university level admissions and saw that a lot of insiders were discussing the same thing.

"Looks like the Federations chosen have decided to come out in the open."

"Why are these aristocrats competing for our chances at the federal academies?"

"I consumed so many genetic supplements to force my body to reach 4 points. 10 points would be impossible for me! I need a refund!"

"There will be a lot of protests against this."

Max sighed and shut down the augmented reality function before walking out of the training center of his school. He could see a somber look on students entering and leaving the campus - clearly the news had already gone viral across the federation.

Lasandra was just a tiny insignificant colony planet at the empty edges of the galactic rim within the human federation. Facilities on this colony were mediocre at best and Max wasn't particularly well off, either. He sustained on government subsidies and a school excellence scholarship financed his education and training. Growing up as a kid becoming a warrior and roaming the stars had always been a dream of his. Every day he saw the corvettes leaving Lasandra's Space Port from the window of his tiny shack in the shantytown and a fervent desire to be able to do the same had fortified itself within his mind.

By dedicatedly practicing the Federation's standard physical training system and following every step of the Fundamental Tactics, Max had worked hard in his high school years and managed to achieve a physical score of 4.1. Inside his tiny apartment, he quietly stood in the little empty space he had created for himself, took the practice wooden sword and slowly practiced the same five sword stances again and again. Only when he was completely exhausted and couldn't move a muscle anymore did he give up.

Unlike more wealthier kids at school who might be able to afford some genetic supplements to improve their prospects, such means were beyond the budgetary constrains of Max. After resting for a bit following his second bout of practice, he freshened up before heading downstairs to the simple store across the street where he worked part time.

On noticing Max's appearance, the rickety old man gave him a limpid smile, urging him to enter the store. "Back for today's shift, young man?" He limped back to the corner of the shop to sit down and rest, while Max nodded and took his place, organizing the cabinets and cleaning them carefully before picking up a book to read. The book was a biography of an old archaeologist. The store was an old trinkets shop that had all kinds of ancient rusty items and books as well as some jars of bizarre looking materials that Max hadn't seen before. They were the old man's collection of items he'd amassed during his long life.

Few people visited the store often, though a couple of people would occasionally appear wanting to pawn stuff off or look for hidden treasures within the old man's supplies. Max had asked the old man many times why he had set up such an obscure shop in the middle of a shanty and his reply had always been the same. He didn't have energy to set one up far from his house. Initially MAx had believed his excuse, but the more he had managed to go through the old man's book collection, the more he felt that this old man must have had the life of a traveler.

The most valuable of the books in the man's collection, in Max's opinion were the hand written notes of travel journeys, documenting terrains of various planets, the kind of creatures who lived in them and details about herbs and poisons that would be extremely difficult to find even in the school's library.