Trying to hide himself, he cautiously scans his surroundings; he does not want anyone to discover him; after all, the shock from him awakening a Rank B skill is still there. Fortunately for him, the majority of the students are still waiting in front of the awakening stage.
As he gets closer to the gate, he becomes more nervous. He finally sees two figures and runs towards them before pulling them away.
The two figures were his friends in this world, Richard and Bryan. Their appearances are polar opposites of each other, but they had been friends since they were little children.
The two know their friend, and without hesitation, they use their striking appearance to hide him between them. Even though he is actually the strongest amongst them, he is also the most cautious.
"So what did the principal call you for?" After reaching a rather rowdy market, Richard asks him, clearly curious about the privilege of those who awakened a high-ranking skill.
"Did you see the principal's monster pet?" Bryan's mind is in a different thought.
Actually, after hearing the question, Richard forgot about it and was also curious if he had met the legendary pet of their city.
"Do you really think that a giant beast like the principal's Demon Ape would fit inside an office room?" He rolls his eyes at them.
The two awkwardly laughed after hearing his question; they quickly remembered some of the rumours regarding their principal's pet.
"Hmm, about why the principal called me, I will tell you tomorrow; no, in fact, I will show you tomorrow; get ready to have your minds blown!" He mysteriously smiles after saying this.
As they reach their home, they continue chatting about their skills and their plans for the future. All three of them stay in one apartment, and their rooms are not that far apart.
"Mom, I am home!" Just like his two friends, their parents did not manage to attend their awakening because their parents are busy working.
He sighs after realising that they left too early, meaning no one was home. In this world, he has two siblings, both girls; his older sister, who is now a high school student, has awakened a Rank E skill called Hawksight.
She is determined to join a mercenary and hopefully earn enough money to become a beastmaster. She is two years older than him, making it still possible for her to become a beastmaster.
Unfortunately, in this world, once you turn 21, you will lose the chance to become a Beastmaster. No one still knows the reason why, but throughout the years, no one beyond the age of twenty has managed to become a Beastmaster successfully.
'Now, according to the books that I had read, to use a skill, one just needs to focus inside himself.' Since there is nothing to do, he decided to familiarise himself with activating his skill.
It takes him a couple of tries before managing to enter a state of nothingness; it was harder for him than most people as he has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Even after training his mind for a decade, he still had a hard time entering this state.
'Wait! Is that what I think it is?! ' He is shocked to discover two objects inside his soul: a black hole and a stone glowing in different colours.
'What are these two doing inside of me!? ' He screams inwardly, causing him to snap out of his current state; he is too shocked to calm down.
Taking a deep breath, he decided to use his mantra that he invented himself to enter the state of nothingness once again.
He starts doing push-ups in order to drain himself of any excess energy and enter a state of clarity in between the exhaustion.
Once again inside his soul, he looks at the two objects, and seeing that they are not doing anything, he inwardly heaves a sigh of relief.
'Now just to find my spell.' He starts checking around the empty vast that is his soul. He finally finds a card lying silently. Without hesitation, he touches it, and instantly, it glows in a bright light.
Suddenly, the multicoloured rock flies towards the card, and the two fuse with each other. He was taken by surprise, causing him to once again snap out of his state.
Argh! He starts screaming in pain as an unbearable pain assaults his mind, causing him to writhe and then convulge. He feels something inside of him being ripped into shreds.
As the world turns black, he appears inside a dark void. He looks around and sees an orb flashing with multicoloured light. He is confused as to what it is, but because of his cautious nature, he does not touch it.
Unfortunately for him, after a couple of minutes, he finally cannot help himself; he is too bored not to do anything. His hyper-fixation on mysterious things will definitely be his death if this continues.
Name: Daniel Hall
Level: Iron Rank Level 4
Age: 16
Gender: Male
Skill: Identification? (Rank ???)
Ability: Devour, Evolution
Beasts: None
"This!! Is this my skill!? Why is the rank unknown, and what are these two abilities that I have!?" He instinctively knows that this is his skill, but he does not understand why he has another two abilities with him.
As the orb in his hands glows brighter, he is forced to wake up. He stands up, screaming and sweating.
Seeing three girls looking at him with concerned gazes, he realises that he has been unconscious for a considerable amount of time.
"Are you okay, Daniel?" His mom asks with concern. She heard from her daughter that she saw her big brother lying unconscious on the floor, sweating as his entire body convulges. She stated that she saw his veins throbbing all over his body.
"I am okay, mom." Heaving a sigh of relief, he decided to flex at them in order to dispel their worries, but as he did, he felt intense pain in his entire body, but he did not show it.
"Thank god, I do not want to lose you too." She hugs him, crying as she did. In this world, the majority of the people are barely able to survive, not because of the economy but because of the danger possessed by the beast monsters scattered throughout the entire world.
He has been helping his mother earn some money to help their family; in fact, he earns more than her and his deceased father; the bulk of the burden is still carried by his parents.
Unfortunately, during an invasion by a beast monster, his father died fighting against them; in fact, not only his father, but almost all able-bodied men died during the invasion.
Bryan's dad was also killed that day. Richard was lucky, but at the same time, his father is now bedridden with injuries that are slowly eating away at his health.
"Do not worry, mom, I promised father that I will bring you guys to greatness! We are going to live in the inner city! Believe me! I awakened a Rank B skill!" He proudly proclaimed.
Because of his memories in his former world, he does not rely on his parents to earn a living. Even though most of what he did to earn money in this world is frowned upon, he still managed to earn a small sum.
His parents start to rely on him more; in fact, this situation has become more evident after his father's death. His mother starts to rely on him both emotionally and economically.
His older sister would even mistakenly call him Dad from time to time, while his younger sister has started to call him Papa ever since she was rescued by him.
"A Rank B skill!" His older sister screams in shock; her mother was frozen in her feet. She cannot believe what she was hearing; she expected that even if he did not awaken a Rank E skill, he would at most awaken a Rank D skill.
"Besides, I have a great gift for big sister; go to my room later; this is my gift for you on your eighteenth birthday." He smiles mysteriously after saying this.
In this cramped apartment, there are only three rooms: one is the bathroom, the other is the living room, and lastly, a single room that his mother gave him after his father's death because she felt guilty that she was relying on him too much.
"That is cheating! What about me!? Why am I not invited!?" Her little sister clings to him, pouting as she complains loudly.
Their mother chuckles after hearing her complain. In this world infested with a unique type of energy, most people are actually handsome and beautiful, but this only applies to those who are quite healthy.
His mother and siblings look more beautiful than the people of the neighbourhood because of him; he had been giving all of them a special type of massage than he had created during his former life to please his superiors.
After they had their simple dinner, his little sister and mother decided to be the ones cleaning up, leaving both him and his older sister alone in his room.