Julia nodded with a serious expression after hearing what her uncle said.
Yes, she was desperate to go out there and search for Alex, but what would be the point of that if she was insensitive to the dangers the outer universe presented?
She needed all the experience she could get and not the one from a virtual reality world.
Zol nodded in satisfaction looking at the serious expressions of the young adults before him.
'Their inability to accept Alex's disappearance as his death has been what drove them to achieve the strength they have today.
'I hate to see what happens to them should they ever lose their hope in finding Alex.
'Wherever that boy is, he better be alive for the sake of Julia.' Zol thought in silence.
"For your first hunt, you'll be going to the Delva system," Zol said, looking at their confused expressions. "Don't worry, James will explain everything to you on the way."
He added and then turned around. "James is going to be the leader of your team; you should listen to him." Zol added while glancing at Julia.
Understanding what he meant, Julia looked away like she had no idea what her uncle was talking about.
Soon, Hunter Zol left the kids and James appeared behind the trio. He was already in his suit of armour; a blend of black with blue streaks representing lightning tendrils.
"You hear what Lord Zol said, come on."
James gestured for the kids to follow him as they made their way past the hallway towards another section of the mansion.
This section was where the Knight family kept all their weapons, armour and whatever they needed for their hunts.
"I understand that you all have your armour and good ones too." James spoke while walking ahead of the group. "But there are a few things I want to add to your armour before we set off."
The group arrived before the entrance to the armoury as James came to stand right before the large mechanical doors that emitted a light that scanned James for identification.
Then the doors slid open as the interior of the armoury was exposed to them. Ross and Henry who had never been to this part of the Knight mansion had to pick their jaws from the floor.
"Amazing…"
Henry muttered in a daze as he followed behind Ross and Julia. The armoury was impressive in every way as it beat what his family had, and they were just as rich!
'No, they are definitely richer.'
Henry had the accept the hard truths as this had become a sort of routine for him.
Walking past the various shelves of lined-up armour, weapons and other gears, James led the group to another part of the armoury they kept the suit upgrade kits.
James then turned around and faced the kids with crossed arms.
"You guys may be Class D hunters and that's impressive for your age. But you still haven't awakened the ability of flight yet.
"To make up for that, your suits would have to be upgraded to include space flight."
James explained and then gestured towards the benches to his right.
"Place your suits on that bench and I'll take care of the rest."
Sometime later, James finished with the suit upgrades and had the kids put them on before guiding them towards the private teleportation device of the Knight family and directly bringing them to the Beta Orbital Ring.
This Orbital Ring was responsible for housing all the spacecraft of the hunters on the planet. Some were privately owned while others were for hire.
The group moved towards the spaceship docks as their suits made heavy thuds with every step they took.
However, this was a normal sight as not many people spared them a glance that was too long to seem inappropriate.
"You guys already know the classes of spaceships we have," James said and they nodded. "Good, but for our mission and number, we'll be using a small class spaceship."
Normally, only colossal spaceships have hyperdrives for hyperjumps, but as a rich and powerful family, they can put one in a small-class spaceship.
Hyperdrives were an expensive piece of technology to make and with how powerful they were, it would be a waste to put them on small spaceships.
Just as James had explained, the ships on the outer rigs of the Orbital Ring were all colossal class spaceships with the exception of a few that were medium class and small class.
James led them to a particularly sleek and aerodynamically designed spaceship the size of a normal cargo plane.
Standing by the ship was the captain who would be responsible for operating the ship with his crew.
"Meet Captain Smart. He will be our pilot and probably the one who will carry out on subsequent missions."
James introduced the middle-aged man who was clearly a Class C awakened from what the kids could tell.
"Hello," The trio gave a polite bow to the captain who received it with a smile.
"Please," The captain gestured for his passengers to get on board as he directed them towards the observation deck.
The walls of the spaceship had a silvery-grey colour and each section of the ship was separated by automatic doors designed to allow changes in atmospherics in each section without compromising the other areas.
They were designed that way as a safety measure in the unlikely event that if there was a breach in one area, access to the other areas would be closed off to mitigate the damage.
Finishing his ceremonial duty, the captain returned to the bridge to start their hyperjump to the set location.
Inside the observation deck, Ross, Julia and Henry say around a circular table facing a transparent glass wall that gave them a view of the outside and also doubled as a projection screen for briefings.
"Alright, I'll brief you on your mission while the captain takes us to our destination. It shouldn't take more than 10 minutes to get there."
James stood before the kids and made a gesture that brought up a holographic interface, dimming the view from the glass and showing the trio a star system that had a red star with several planets in its orbit.