“Playing is fine, but I don’t want to see anyone getting injured,” I declared at the unlikely duo of overzealous beasts. “You will be in trouble if someone gets injured!”
Aureus was trying to calm me down through a wave of emotions and memories, but I just glared at the Earthheart. There would be consequences if they played too roughly.
Unbothered, Aureus flapped his two pairs of wings independently, trying to leap high into the air to take the Aceraspis by surprise, but failed. The Earthheart crashed into Acer, who was ready and waiting.
A brawl ensued, and they wrestled on wet grass, ignoring the beasts and Blessed looking their way.
“Acer is actually listening,” Sophie muttered under her breath.
I could hardly hide my own surprise, seeing how submissive Acer was, and I felt heat rise to my cheeks when Sophie’s eyes locked on me.
“I know Mr. Briggs said you don’t have to start working right away, but I need your help.” Bright, emerald, puppy-like eyes tore through my defense with ease. “Please…I need this to work out. I will pay you with coins. Or do you want credits? I can teach you my Arts and Styles as well. Maybe you want some resources. Anything works. Just help me…”
Sophie’s voice grew more desperate as words flowed out of her in streams. Unable to resist, I shared my experiences with her, told her what Nathaniel suspected about my World, and so forth. It may have been foolish to reveal my cards just like that, but I was not a fan of secrets and lies. I doubted I ever would.
“So…what are your ways, Adam?” she inquired after a bombardment of questions and answers turned into a somewhat pleasant conversation.
Ways?
“I don’t think I have a special ‘way’ or anything. There’s no scheming or bad ulterior motives behind my actions. At least, that’s what I want to say.” I shrugged when Sophie threw me an ‘are you serious, dude?’ look. “Even if I bound Aureus to my World to gain access to the ether, which could be seen as an ulterior intent, I never considered him as a tool for power. He is my friend, my family, and I treat him as such.”
Everyone had certain intents when they bound a beast, and I was no different. My second Soulkin was picked with the intent to enhance my physique. That didn’t mean I would force the beast into doing things it didn’t want just because I’d have the upper hand in our relationship.
Honestly, it was basic stuff. At least, I thought so.
“Be patient, try to understand your Soulkin, and apply your understanding to come up with training regimens that are both fun and draining. The Aceraspis seems to like combat, so you may as well spar with it. I don’t know enough about that species, but it may accept you as its alpha, master, leader, or whatever Aceraspis have if you show it that you’re worthy.”
Sophie didn’t look too convinced, but I used the better part of an hour to push her into giving it a try. She had nothing to lose, so Sophie spent the next few hours trying to feel out the bond. She read the Aceraspis’ emotions, caught random fragments of memories, and deciphered them with me. I didn’t think I was much of a help, but Sophie thought differently. She transferred 100 coins into my account at the end of the day.
“Thank you!” Sophie was glowing. “You said your rankings are rather low, didn’t you? If you write a training report, I’ll sign it off. Depending on the Grand Camp’s algorithm and Acer’s future achievements, your ranking should increase quite a bit.”
That was actually good to know, so I focused on the training report right after a sumptuous dinner made up of a dozen not-quite-cheap dishes.
Meeting Nathaniel Briggs and Sophie Gardener had been interesting, to say the least. Honestly, the entire day had been more than a little special, from the morning hunt to the successful start of my first proper job as a Blessed. Even better, Sophie wanted to see me for another training session, promising to give me even more coins if my ‘method’ worked.
I played a little with Acer, and my World resonated once more with the Soulkin. It didn’t do much, but Sophie could have sworn that her bond with Acer grew firmer, no matter how minuscule the improvement had been. One way or another, Sophie was convinced I was some sort of Tamer, and she wanted to spend as much time with me, ‘Until the vultures find out about your talents and devour you,’ she’d hissed under her breath when I dismissed her concerns.
Anyway, I finished the report within the hour and forwarded it to Sophie. She changed the report, although she called it ‘improvements required to highlight your superiority,’ describing the nature of Aceraspis, how much she and Nathaniel Briggs had struggled, and how my service had been required to complete the bond. Her modifications sounded grossly exaggerated, but I trusted the process and submitted the report through the official channels.
“What now?” I mused when nothing happened after a few minutes. No, it wasn’t that nothing happened. I received my first payment from the Beastarium.
[60 Camp Coins have been transferred to your account.]
I didn’t even have to check in, or out for that matter, to get paid. The old man took care of everything.
How exactly does that work, though? Does the network locate me through my ID to write down my attendance when I step in and outside the Beastarium? I cocked my head to the side. My ID is connected to the Grand Camp’s network, so that could be it. Should I sleep at the Beastarium to make a quick buck?
I shook my head. The authorities would definitely notice that. Furthermore, it didn’t feel right to exploit Nathaniel’s generosity.
Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.
Benefits!
“You’re right about that, Aureus. He did allow me to study and to train in the Beastarium when I have the time to spare.”
Aureus had a good point. I could enter the Beastarium early in the morning to take care of all necessities, play with a few Soulkins, help all those who needed my help, and spend the rest of the day training and studying. As long as I was on stand-by, ready to help out, nobody should have a problem with that.
“I got it!” I mused, not even realizing as the corner of my lips curled upward.
It wasn’t too late yet, but I was exhausted from the excitement of the day. However, there was something I couldn’t afford to forget: My World.
I pushed all thoughts of the exciting days that were bound to come and focused on my workout. My World hummed, and so did the two bonds as I finished up, dead-tired. Yet, as always, I turned to refining my World, barely noticing the subtle movements within it.
A shit-eating grin formed on my lips as I forced my way through the fourth volume of the Blastor Refinery technique, my attention nearly slipping when I locked onto the beast egg. At last, after two weeks of silence, it trembled.
A pulse of life flowed through the bond, and I embraced the feeling tightly.
I can’t wait to see you.
There was no need to rush, but I was more than prepared. Since I had to feed Aureus with high-quality dishes rather than potent serums, the Earthheart wasn’t growing as quickly as it used to. Therefore, with two weeks of tireless refinements, I had more than enough empty space in my World to welcome our little brawler.
Unfortunately, he was not ready just yet.
Patience is the way, I told myself before falling asleep.
***
I wasn’t greeted by an unfamiliar face, which I’d dreamed about, and that was fine as well. A pull on my bond with the beast egg confirmed that I hadn’t been hallucinating the night before, yet that was all it did. There were no signs indicating the beast’s hatching date. As unfortunate as it was, I was a busy man with an exciting job.
The Beastarium was only a thirty-minute jog from the dorms—twenty after I channeled ether through my body to play with the enhancing attributes of ether. I played a little bit with the Earthen Aspect, trying to figure out how to control the surrounding soil with greater precision. The Earthheart had no problem with that—surprise, surprise—and he made it a sacred mission to show off.
Aureus taught me a lot through our shared memories, but I was not nearly half as proficient with the elemental trait as him. In fact, my range of control was barely one-fourth, and the sturdiness of my structures was still lackluster, for lack of a better word.
I arrived at the Beastarium with the first rays of sunshine and got to work, using the manual Nathaniel had sent me on my watch. Going through the list of chores I had to complete by the end of the day.
It took me longer than expected to finish the chores—four hours to be precise—but I was confident I would be faster next time. Aureus wanted to help too, so I might as well be done with most of my work in two hours. Anyway, the Beastarium was once more filled with roaming Soulkins while their Blessed were busy doing other things.
Even though I didn’t like being separated from Aureus, I knew how suffocating a Blessed’s inner World could be. Aureus highlighted how lonely the World was when I was too busy studying or doing other things that required full concentration. Bringing your Soulkin to the Beastarium for a small fee returned a semblance of freedom to them, allowing them to be beasts again—except for the danger of the wilderness and the bloodlust of other beasts.
The Beastarium was freedom, but it was also peaceful, even if there was trouble now and then.
Nathaniel visited me twice on the first day, asking numerous questions until Sophie returned with Acer and a friend, dragging a small, unwilling humanoid beast through the Beastarium. Sophie and her uncertain friend needed my help, and I was more than happy to give it, though I would have preferred studying a little bit. Working on my Ether Gates or traits would have been great too, but I had a job to do. And that day, I nearly got killed by a grumpy Goblin.
As it turned out, my job was a little dangerous—more dangerous than I expected after my first few hours in the Beastarium, but about as dangerous as one would expect from a large patch of land filled with strong-willed Awakened and Evolved beasts.
The days trickled by and the first week of the Grand Camp ended. I nearly lost my life no less than five times. Once, I was nearly burned to cinders by a Blazing Salamander’s fire breath, then a hawk released electrified feathers at me. Just a day before the first week ended, I was nearly charged to death by a Thrashtan Rhinozerus, a deadly beast weighing more than six tons, and so forth.
They didn’t mean ill, but I was still unsure how to tame Soulkins without touching them. On the good side, we finally confirmed that my World made it considerably easier to suppress a Soulkin’s bloodlust. That did not necessarily make it easier to tame them, let alone fix their trauma, but my helping hand and the methods I was forced to come up with in the last few days had been increasingly helpful.
Most of my day was spent in the Beastarium, in a once-isolated space where dozens of Soulkins gathered every day nowadays, rather than the training halls or the Blooming Expanse, and I was generously rewarded—courtesy of all the tips and training reports I’d submitted.
I rose to my feet early in the morning of the second week in the Grand Camp, feeling excited. Classes were about to start, and I was as ready as I could have been. A message on my watch confirmed that much.
[Monthly stipend has been distributed. 153 Camp Coins have been transferred to your account.]
A smile bloomed on my face. While Wesley and my other roommates—even Sophie, her friend, and Daniel—would certainly receive more coins than I did, I was more than satisfied with my monthly stipend. It was a perfect display of my achievements—my growth.
Name: Adam Savier
Blessed: Adept
Soulkins: 2
Affiliations: Grand Camp
– Ranking.
District – #797
Grand Camp – #9,479
Retinue – #484
– Rank Benefits: 153 Coins/month
Camp Coins: 1125
Energized by how much I’d improved in a matter of seven days, I leaped to my feet, only to slump back down on my bed when my World shook.
Is that…?
My eyes snapped closed and the World unraveled before my eyes, revealing a small, unsuspecting mass covered in vibrant golden streaks forming a web pattern.
A screech, weak but defiant, rang through my World as something slashed its way through the insides of the egg’s casing.
The beast had awoken—my second Soulkin was on its way!