"Alden!"
"Alden!"
Alden slowly opened his eyes. He lay in a bed. A beautiful woman with long blonde hair and dark circles under her eyes stood over him. The exhaustion apparent on her.
"Alden!" She shouted loudly, hugging Alden.
Alden blinked blankly a few times.
'What's going on?' He questioned internally. 'Who is she? Why is she hugging me? Where am I?'
"Alden, why did you just not put up with it?!" The woman shouted angrily as tears streamed down her eyes. "I was so worried about you!"
'What is she talking about?'
"I want to be alone for a while," Those were the first words that came to Alden's mind. He needed time alone, time to think and come to himself.
The woman stood up and hesitantly looked at him for a few seconds. "Alright, I will leave." She nodded, wiping the tears with the back of her hand. "But, please, don't do anything stupid."
The woman left the room, leaving Alden alone with his thoughts.
"Where am I?" Alden looked around himself.
He lay in bed stuck close to the wall. A poster of an aqua-blue dragon and a man on top of the dragon hung on the wall to his left. The man was too small compared to the dragon, so Alden could not distinguish his features.
On the opposite wall was a window. Daylight entered the room, indicating it was still day outside.
Before the window was a study table with a table calendar on it.
A feet from Alden was a double-winged wardrobe, with one wing being entirely glass.
Alden stood from the bed and walked to the wardrobe, looking himself in the mirror.
"Who am I?" He questioned, looking at his reflection in the mirror.
The reflection was of a young adolescent boy with short black hair stopping just above his eyebrows. He had a small nose and a well-defined jawline. There was no doubt that Alden was handsome.
But being handsome or not made no difference for Alden now. He could not remember anything. He felt lost.
He walked away from the mirror and walked to the study table. He picked the table calendar, In hopes of it helping him remember something.
The calendar was for August. All the dates were crossed out, except the 31st, which was circled in red.
Alden dropped the calendar and fell to his knees. "Where am I? Who am I? I can't remember anything." Tears welled in his eyes.
[Binding the host with the system]
"Wha..."
Before Alden could react to the strange bluish screen that appeared before his eyes, he felt a head-splitting headache.
"Aghhh!" He held his head with both hands as his whole body twitched in pain.
[The host has experienced a memory loss. Reverting the lost memories back to the host]
Suddenly, a large number of memories started pouring into his mind, making him feel like someone was splitting his head open. But despite the pain, he felt it. Those were not unknown memories. Those were his memories.
"Gasp! Gasp!" In a few minutes, the pain disappeared as suddenly as it appeared, and Alden lay on the ground, gasping for air.
'I finally remember it all.' He raised and sat on the ground with a smile on his face. 'My name is Alden Garsia and I live on the Monster Star.'
The Monster Star was not the best planet. More than seventy percent of the planet was covered in forest. And the humans on the Monster Star were not at the top of the food chain.
Quite the opposite, one could argue that the humans on the Monster Star were at the bottom of the food chain. They battle every day to survive, and protect their limited living space.
In the forests live strong beasts. And the only ones who can battle the beasts are the Beast Tamers.
The planet is large, and humans have only explored a tiny portion of it. But being the geniuses they are, the humans knew there must be even stronger monsters deeper into the forests. Monsters strong enough that even the strongest Beast Tamers of humanity can't face.
Thus, with this on mind, the humans worked on getting off the planet, into space.
A strong team of Beast Tamers set on a journey through space with a battleship in search of a habitable planet. But in the end, the only thing they found was trouble.
They were annihilated, and thanks to them, the Voiders, an alien race, discovered the coordinates of the Monster Star. And now, not only does the humanity have to defend against the beasts from the forests, but they are also at war with the Voiders.
However, at the moment, Alden did not let the harsh reality of the planet he lived on hit him too hard. He was just happy to have his memories back. The feeling of not knowing anything and just blankly exist was terrible.
'I remember seeing some sort of screen in front of my eyes before I experienced that terrible headache?' Alden tried to remember the last moments before the headache.
[The system successfully bonded with the host]
Just as Alden thought about it, a bluish window appeared before his eyes again.
"What's this?"
Alden stood up and walked to the bed while the bluish window hovered before his eyes.
[Status Window]
[Name: Alden Garsia]
[Realm: 0-star warrior]
[Body Strength: 0-star warrior]
[Mental Strength: 0-star warrior]
[Beast Pet: None]
[Skills: None]
"Is this like those old games my father showed me? Is this my status window?" Alden questioned. "It has to be it.
The Beast Tamers are categorized into those categories they call realms and the weakest realm is a 1-star warrior, while the strongest is a 9-star warrior. Since I am an ordinary human, this must be correct. I am a 0-star warrior.
The other information is also correct. I do not have skills or a beast pet. But this is my first time seeing mental strength. What is this?"
Knock! Knock!
Alden wanted to explore the status window more, but a knock at the door interrupted him.
"Alden, are you okay?" The voice of the woman sounded from the other side of the door. Her voice carried a hint of sadness. "They have come here to take you."
'Crap!' Alden jumped on his feet. He picked the table calendar from the ground and looked at it again. 'I forgot today is the day I am supposed to go to the Beast Tamer Academy.'
"I am coming, Mom!" Alden said back, disheartened and with a slight glimpse of fear.
'What am I getting all fired up for?' He thought, the previous energy vanished from him. Like something had sucked it out of him. 'I am going from one hell to a worse hell.' He walked to the wardrobe.
'But I pity my mom the most. She almost lost her son to bullying.' Alden clenched his fists in anger. 'Those rich kids, they went too far. Just because I come from a poor household, they bullied me in school. And because they were rich, there were no consequences for them.
They do not have a limit to their bullying. Just because I tried to put up a fight, those bastards almost killed me yesterday!' Alden gritted his teeth in anger. 'I swear If I ever become powerful, I will pay them back.'
Alden opened his wardrobe. Inside the wardrobe, there were no clothes. There was only one large black bag. He had packed all his clothes into the bag a few days ago.
He was sixteen, and today he will go to the Beast Tamer Academy.
When one hits 16 years of age, he is required to go to the Beast Tamer Academy for four years.
This whole system was implemented by the military, so when finishing the academy, even If one did not have talent and did not became a beast tamer like the ninety percent of the humans did not have, they could still have knowledge regarding the beast taming world.
It was thanks to this system that the hidden gems from some ordinary housholds could be discovered. This system helped the human civilization survive and defend their living space till now. But there are also massive loopholes in this system.
And Alden had experienced those loopholes firsthand. And that was the oppression of the weak and the privileges of the powerful. This system was the survival of the fittest. But in this system, there was no chance for those ordinary citizens to rise to a high position in power.
At first glance, everyone has equal chances and opportunity to become powerful, as everyone are sent to the Beast Tamer Academy. However, to become a beast tamer one needs resources. One also needs money. And most importantly, one needs to have a talent. Not everyone that goes to the academy ends up becoming a beast tamer.
Ninety percent of the citizens, though went to the academy, are ordinary humans. Alden's parents as well. The beast tamers were a rare existence.
Still, there were some talented children coming from ordinary households, but at the end, there was no place for those coming from ordinary households In this system.
In this system, only those chosen by the military can rise to the top. Or those coming from powerful beast-tamer families. If ordinary, talented citizen refuses to join the military, or some other powerful force, they will be cut off.
Alden did not like this and knew that coming from the ordinary household he was coming from, he would face great difficulties at the Beast Tamer Academy. He just hoped he would be able to put up with the bullying and not try to stand up for himself like the last time.
'My life of hell is starting from today.' Alden thought. He did swear to pay back the bullies, but he knew that was only wishful thinking.
He took the bag and walked to the door of the room. He opened the door and took a step out of the room. He turned behind one more time to look at his room.
'I hope when I return, it will be the same.' He thought as he closed the door behind himself. 'If I even manage to return.'
His house was a small one-story house. So, walking out of his room, he was immediately in the living room.
In the living room, his mother stood side by side with his father. They were talking with a person wearing military clothes.
"Please take good care of my son." Alden's mother bowed to the person.
As he walked to them, Alden clenched his fists. He did not want to see his mother bow, not in front of the bastards from the military. She was bowing in vain. The military did not care if a few ordinary children got killed by the rich kids or those from the beast-tamer families.
Alden's mother and father saw him and the military person off to the door.
In front of their house, a large two-story bus waited.
The military person took Alden's bag and placed it in the luggage area.
As for Alden, he looked at his mother and father one last time. He received a warm smile from them and then entered the bus.
Having entered the bus, he looked around, searching if any of his old classmates were there. Well, he did not search for his classmates as he had not been close with any of his classmates. He was a loner at school. And no, he was not a loner because he was socially awkward, but because no one dared to approach him thanks to the bullies.
Having not seen any of the rich kids who used to bully him, Alden let out a sigh of relief. He knew he would be subject to bullying in the Beast Tamer Academy, so he wanted to at least peacefully travel there.
He wanted to go to the second floor of the bus, but he did not want to risk it lest some of his bullies were there.
"Move! Why are you standing here, blocking the way?" The military person who put his bag in the luggage area entered the bus and shouted.
Alden quickly moved out of the way and sat at the closest empty seat. It was a double seat, but luckily, no one sat there, so he had the whole seat all for himself. He sat by the window, wanting to see out of the window as they traveled.
A few minutes passed, and after the military personnel made sure everyone was on the bus, the driver started the bus, and Alden was on his way to the Beast Tamer Academy.