I blinked in confusion. Had I fallen asleep at my desk again? Must have. Under my hand I felt the wood texture. I lifted my head to look at my tablet.
I jolted as I read the article. Common beasts from school hatcheries. What?!
My head turned at the knock on my door. "Aldric are you awake?" Who was that? It was a kind male voice.
Aldrich was my name. He knew it. He was in my home. How? "Yeah!" I called back. The door opened and I felt my breath freeze in my lungs. It couldn't be.
The man had dark black hair and brown eyes. He turned to close the door before he refocused on me. "I wanted to talk to you before tomorrow. I won't take long I know you are studying for your first beast."
"Sure? What's up?" Was I dreaming.
He scratched the back of his neck with a sigh. "Look your mom and I... Even if you don't awaken your beast tamer talent tomorrow you should know how proud we are of you." What the hell is going on?
I nodded not sure what to say. "Even if you fail to awaken your talent tomorrow you still have two more chances. Or you could try for a different path. No matter what we are proud of you."
Again I nodded. He smiled knowingly. As if in understanding before leaving me alone. I turned my attention to my room. Beside my desk was a book case. I stood to look it over.
Types of Beasts. Beast Rankings. Growth Stages of Tamed Creatures. Tamer Skills. On and on it went. Looking at all those books was like being in the twilight zone.
My parents are alive. Books I had never seem before filled my shelves. I picked up one of the books, Tamer Ranks.
Everyone has the potential to be a Beast Tamer. However, the problem comes from Skills and Tamer Domain. As one can not unlock their first tamer skill until age of sixteen everyone receives the same basic training up to that point. Domains on the other hand vary from person to person. Some unlock their domain as a child.
As such Tamer Ranks range from F- to S+. The rank one is assigned upon skill awakening may change. In most cases the rank will grow as a Tamers Beasts do. For some they have no hope in the field. Tamers such as this have skills too low and a domain too small for any beast to agree to.
I closed the book and put it back on the shelf. I smiled. I had been isekaied! That was the only explanation!
My eyes darted to the clock on my desk. It was still early. Since I had no memories of this world I basically had to start from scratch. I picked up all the basic books I could see. Skills, ranks, types. Most of the books featured notations in my own hand writing. I needed as much information as possible by tomorrow. At least if I was understanding this correctly.
I used headphones at lunch to listen to audio teachings. Mom smiled at me as she was setting the table. Her shoulder length brown hair loose. It was her green eyes though. The same eyes that I had that made me smile back.
"What are you listening to?"
"Ways of increasing one's domain after awakening," I told her.
She raised her eye brows at Dad. "He gets that from me."
Dad chuckled with a sigh, "Of course dear."
Mom smacked him on the shoulder. "Certainly didn't get it from you! I do not know anyone else who slept that much during classes!" I found myself smiling. We ate as Mom and Dad spoke to eachother. They seemed to understand my need to last minute cram.
Although beside me were two siblings. Ones I knew nothing about. A little brother and a sister. Twins. They both seemed excited about what tomorrow would bring. They asked Mom and Dad all kinds of questions.
••••○○○○
I had stayed up until almost midnight studying. There was so much information. The twins woke me up in the morning. "Aldric! Wake up!" William yelled.
"Mama says to have breakfast before you leave for school!" Willow finished. I smiled and rolled out of bed.
"I'll be down after I change," I told them.
"Okay!" They called running from the room. School was the right word. One does not join an academy until they settle on a beast path.
Breakfast was quick and then I was off. My family waved while calling out best wishes. I was not the only one being sent off in such a manner.
Somethings were the same at least. Jackson bumped shoulders with me in excitement. He was a big teen. His blonde hair was chopped short while let his blue eyes catch the sun light. I wasn't ashamed to admit Jackson was a good looking guy. Never understood why admitting that another guy had good looks was considered gay. Stupid.
"You ready?" He asked. His smile revealed his slightly crooked teeth. We were both lower class. Our families fought to stay afloat as we lived pay check to pay check.
I nodded. "As I can be. You?"
He sighed, "As I can be. You got this in the bag. With your test scores there's no way you won't be able to bond with a beast."
"No way to know for sure. If I get an F ranked skill I might as well join mom and dad working." He nodded with a sad smile.
Becoming a beast tamer could save us from ruin. It varied though. Low rank Tamers tended to spend more credits raising their beast than they made.
I shook my head, "Positive thoughts man! We got this!"
Jack looked at me with a smirk spreading over his face. "That's right! Let's show those Nobles that Commers are strong too!" With that we headed into the classroom and took our seats.
The class quieted as our homeroom teacher entered. "As you all know today is your first chance at Awakening your Tamer Skill. We will make our way to the gymnasium where the ceremony will be taking place. Go to our classes section and wait for further instruction. I wish you all the best of luck. Let's move!" We all wanted to rush from the room but of course the teacher made us take it slow. To be patient.
We all took a seat on the floor. There were mats everywhere in a circle formation. Three people sat in the middle of the circle. They were speaking quietly to eachother as we settled on our mats.
There had to be over a thousand of us by the time everyone settled in. Finally one stood up. "Welcome students! I am Stephen Young, a Knight rank Tamer. I will be the one leading your awakening ceremony today.
Around the room an Array formation has been set. It will help guide your awakening. A hundred years ago every awakening could last for days! Today thanks to the creation of Formation Arrays it takes mere hours! Now awaken your skills! Some of you may even awaken a Tamer Talent!"
Tamer Talents... Those were rare. Everyone had a skill but a Talent was for a select lucky few. Little was known about Talents. They could show up at the awakening ceremony or on someone's death bed. Just like skills there were useful and useless Talents.
"You may all start! Close your eyes and awaken!"
My eyes closed as I focused my attention inward. It was dark and empty. Was I going to fail? I heard someone in the room gasp. Calm down. Focus. Who was I? What did I value? Did any of that matter?
I soon realized it did not as it happened.
{Skill: Growth (C+)}
{Unknown Energy Detected! Growth (C+) has Evolved into Bloodline Growth (S)}
I opened my eyes and smiled. I moved towards my homeroom teacher.
"Did you succeed?" He asked me. Off to the side was seven others from my class. They looked expectedly at me.
"I did!"
"What is your skill?" He asked tapping away at his tablet.
Telling him I had an S rank skill was probably a bad idea. Who knows how useful it will even be. "C+ Growth," I told him happily. His own smile broadened.
"That's a good skill! Why don't you join the others. The ceremony will be over soon." Jack was there too. Lei had a sour expression on his face when he looked at me. Lei was a Noble which basically made this a formality. Each person got 3 free chances to awaken but for someone with money they had as many chances as they could afford. In fact some Nobles paid to awaken their children early.
Jack slapped me on the back, "I got D rank attack boost. What about you?" It was fairly common for skills to be made public.
"C+ rank Growth," I said. Lei's face changed into a small smile.
"C rank is quite good for a commoner."
Our class representative came closer too. "With a skill like Growth you could follow the Training or Breeding paths pretty easily."
"Depends on the kind of Growth," one of Lei's underlings sneered. "What if his ability is for plants instead of Beasts?"
"Then he can specialize in plant type beasts," she said with a shrug.
A loud clap made us all turn back to the center of the room. "The ceremony is now over those of you who have failed this time may now return to your classrooms. Those who were successful wait here for further instruction."