Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. The alarm continued beeping. But to a certain someone it sounded like thunder in his ears. Arthur begrudgingly got out of bed and stopped the alarm while still feeling groggy. He hated the alarm at this particular moment, because it woke him up form a very sweet dream.
Arthur was an almighty Linker, hunting powerful beasts for their extremely precious cores and saving nearby cities in the process.
"He is a hero!.. God bless our savior!..." The shouts of grateful people from his dream were still ringing in his ears as he slowly sobered up.
And as he did he remembered something really important. Today is the day that he is 15 years old, today is his fifteenth birthday, which means he finally will get a chance to fulfill his deepest desire, he will get a shot at becoming a Linker!
A wide grin couldn't help but appear on his face as he hurriedly took a shower and got dressed. It was 10 in the morning already, and he has to get to the center of adventurers of his city by 11.
Thankfully, the orphanage was close by, so it will only take him half an hour on foot to get there.
Yes, Arthur has no parents. He was told that they died in a beast raid when he was very young, maybe 1 or 2 years old, but no other details were disclosed to him, nor to anyone else that he knew for that mater.
But he didn't mind that at all, he didn't remember his parents, so he didn't have a reason to be upset about their deaths. It's a cruel world, he knew that better than anyone else. He was always bullied by those stronger than him, but what could he do? Maybe in the ancient world, it was different, like he read on the public internet, but in this era, the strong set the rules. And nothing can change that. To avoid being bullied he had to get stronger.
And the only way to do that is to become a Linker. Although not everyone can become a Linker, everyone can give it a shot once they reach the age of fifteen. That is because the soul matures enough to endure a soul-link by the age of fifteen. But one can only try once in their life, that is because after rejection of the soul-link the soul becomes unable to establish it ever again.
The chances of becoming a Linker are about one in a hundred, so there is quite a lot of low realm Linkers in his city, which population reaches almost fifty thousand people.
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As Arthur reached the center of adventurers, he saw a small line of fifteen year old looking kids waiting to enter the building with sparkling eyes, full of expectations. Although most of them will be sorely disappointed by the end of the day, some of the lucky ones will become Linkers in the initial stage of the first realm.
Arthur hoped to be one of them.
As he entered the building he saw a very luxurious yet secure looking door, which belonged to the room where they were being lead to by a receptionist that was responsible for supervising the soul-link process.
She was a young lady, who looked to be around 20 years old and had an ideal figure. But that was not what attracted Arthur's eye, What got his eyes fixated on her was a small crystal stone on the back of her hand, it was blue in color. that was a sign that she was a Linker. That crystal was the soul crystal of her soul-beast and a representation of its nature. There were various colored and shaped crystals and they were almost indestructible. But the only common thing that was shared was the placement of these crystals. it was always on the back of the hand.
Seeing that her crystal was blue, Arthur assumed that her soul-beast must be associated with ice and he was right on the spot. Although no one knew, but her soul-beast was an Ice sparrow.
When he and the others entered the luxurious looking door, Arthur saw an altar which was elevated a bit from the ground and on it was a linking stone. This stone helps open up a soul-link between a soon to be Linker and a beast.
Around the room were various cages with small beasts, they looked to be newborn beasts. These are the beasts that they will be trying to get a soul-link with.
"Listen closely everyone" the receptionist said in her angel- like voice. "This is the trial that you have to face in order to become a Linker. You have to try and feel a connection with a beast and select it to be your soul-beast partner. Pick carefully, you only have 1 shot for this" She smirked and gestured everyone to start their trial.
Everyone immediately scattered throughout the room in search of a beast that they felt would be their soul-beast. Arthur went to the back of the room aswell, there were various beasts there, but none of them attracted his attention. As he was about to leave, he froze for a second.
He felt a bite on his leg and looked down. There was a strange little snake that bit him. It had crimson red scales and had an intricate looking pattern on its head. What shocked Arthur the most was that the snake turned into a beam of crimson red energy and swiftly entered his body, through the wound that it created by biting Arthur.
At this point Arthur was scared shitless and ran back to the place where the receptionist sat, but by the time he got to her, his vision got blurry and he fainted.