THE ACADEMY
7TH OCTOBER 10 NEW UNIVERSE ERA
4:30
MIKE
Classes were done for the day, and while it's been sort of exciting, it's also been exhausting. There were a lot of subjects to cover and if I had to describe it, I would say the subjects were divided into three forms or rather two. The first being the normal subjects most kids learn in elementary school. Subjects like mathematics, history and social sciences, while those other group of subjects includes things like weapons mastery, energy mastery, magic, martial arts and command class. The third form which I'm not so sure off dealt with a lot of technical subjects, like mechanical engineering, alchemy, rune study, wards, arrays etc. All in all our days would be very busy.
Today however I was going to start training my soul beasts, I've previously made extensive research a few years ago on how to train and raise beasts, back when the idea of joining the taming league appealed to me. Looks like it was not all for waste.
The process of training any sort of beast is not as simple as it might seem, you can't just walk around battling people and leveling up and expect everything would turn out okay. It was a little bit more complicated than that, and any missteps would have dire consequences for both the trainer and his beast. Which was why; while Max and Lily fixed the island and tried to get a roof over our heads, since according to the dean we had to fix the place up ourselves, as punishment for snooping when we shouldn't have.
Anyway while they tried to fix the place up, I would be training my soul beasts, and probably also giving them a name, or learning if they already had one. But first things first, I had to properly catalog and understand what I was dealing with. There are a variety of beasts, but their separated into different categories of race, species, and type. As far as races goes, both my beasts are soul beasts, creatures of dead with access to the living world either through a spell, or a medium, and in this case the medium is me.
Max's beasts work with similar rules since they're spirit beasts as opposed to my soul beasts. Max's beast are summoned from alternate dimensions and then bound to him, growing stronger from their battles and from nourishment of Max's energies. The soul beasts work the same way with the express difference of them being made or born solely from death.
To be able to properly train them both, I had to consider the characteristics of their race, species and type, and type in one way or another translates into class or at least the sorts of positions on a battlefield the beast can handle. Soul beasts are not really good with physical attacks, but they have a certain resistance to physical attacks due to them being for the most part...souls. What they do thrive in though, is special attacks of a more supernatural nature. Other beasts might spit fire or water, but soul beasts excel with intangible attacks that go after mental and spiritual perception. In other words, they kill without leaving a scratch on a being. But since soul beasts are rare and their trainers equally so, there's not much to draw upon but just my instincts alone.
But when I really think about it, the wail lion cub worked best as a support, he has one active attack skill, while the other skill {AMPLIFY} Was packed with so much potential it scared the heck out of me. Speaking of skills, I had to look through it's description again.
(RANK I ACTIVE SKILL : AMPLIFY : Draw On The Power Of The Soul To Amplify The Intensity And Power Of Any Personal Skill By 10% For 10 Seconds. Intensity, Power, And Range Of Skill Increases With Every Rank.)
(RANK I ACTIVE SKILL: WAIL: Release A Piercing Scream That Causes Sound And Minor Soul Damage With The Radius Of 10 Meters. At A Low Rank This Skill Doesn't Differentiate Between Friend Or Foe. Intensity, Power, Range And Accuracy Increases With Every Rank.)
His active skills were what really mattered to me, his passive skills (SOUL BODY) and (SOUND MASTERY) were pretty self explanatory, and at the moment there was no need to focus on them. (AMPLIFY) at a higher rank would not just increase the power of an ability, but it would also be able to increase his physical abilities, making him faster, and stronger than is expected of a soul beast without a physical body. But the most attractive thing about this skill is the fact that, at a higher rank; he would be able to use it on other people or soul beasts. Serving as good support for me, my warband and any other beast that falls under my control.
And with that conclusion, I think I would focus his training on his speed, energy expenditure, and the utilization of his skills. A little bit of strength training might help, but in the long run it would be best to focus on his current strengths. Besides he's just a cub now, I'm sure the issues about his strength would take care of itself as he grows older. And without further ado, I christen him or rather I would name him Zion.
• NAME: ZION
• RACE: SOUL BEAST/ WAIL LION CUB (+)
• RANK: G / LEVEL 0 (70%)
• STR 10/ AGI 10/ PHY 10/ ENE 20/
PASSIVE SKILLS:
• SOUL BODY (RANK I) LEVEL 1
• SOUND MASTERY (RANK I) LEVEL 1
ACTIVE SKILLS:
• WAIL (RANK I) LEVEL 1
• AMPLIFY (RANK I) LEVEL 1
I summoned him out of his soul space, and crouched down as I brought my face closer to his. He had bright yellow eyes, and the greyish white coat synonymous with Wail lions of course the green spirals on his body could not be forgotten too. Once he grows older his fur would change color to a milk white color, while the mane he grows would be pure silver or white with streaks of green or golden yellow. I stretched out my hand and placed it on his head, smiling as he purred in satisfaction.
"Your name is Zion from here on out. I have no idea what your previous life was like, and I'm sure you don't remember either. But this is a new start for you, and me, so I promise to protect you, and to help get strong so that what happened to you before, won't happen again. Now it's time to meet our next partner."
One of the premise of being a beast trainer of any sorts, is the ability to store or rather house your beasts within your body. Summoner like Max don't have to do so as their beasts exist in a separate dimension, however there's always a constant connection between Summoner and their contracted beasts. For me, I have to house my own beasts within my soul, and yes it's quite dangerous, but it keeps them safe, and they can grow stronger from being nourished by my soul energy. And in my case it's really important, because my eyes are constantly in a state of flux, absorbing and discarding soul energy from my soul and from the world.
There's always an excess of it to handle, which was why most of the time, my eyes hurt. But now that I had soul beasts, and they both reside within my soul, their absorption of soul energy heavily manages what my eyes can take or put in, and it's made my life a lot more easier.
Now I just have to make sure my soul beasts grow stronger as I do, and maybe even get a few more once my soul space is strong or large enough to accommodate any more. At level 2, both Zion and Stella are enough for me, and even then the space is crammed in between the two. Speaking of Stella it's time to call her out.
A black and white summoning circle lit up in front of me, very different from the blue and green display that showed whenever I summoned Zion. This was the first time I was summoning her ever since I got her out of the void, so I really had no idea what she looked like. But apart from knowing that her name was Stella, I was also faced with the dilemma of how to approach her parents and tell them that their daughter was now a monster, a monster that's bound to serve me until either one of our deaths. The very thought gave me a headache to be honest.
The first thing I saw was a really pale and small hand stretching put of the circle, and soon enough a head filled with luscious shoulder length black hair, with a quarter of it in front of her face being white, they served as bangs that covers her pitch black eyes with one white ring on it. She was wearing a maid dress, with white frills, shiny black shoes, and white band like tattoos white black highlights spread allover her body. And then finally from behind her there was a glossy looking black tentacle with a white tip, and it was coming right out of the middle of her back.
"Master, thank you for saving me. I will serve to the best of my ability, what would you have me do?"
The only thing I could say at this point was.
"Ummm Hi?"