Far from the gleaming towers of the city, dangerously close to the wildlands lay the Scrapyards. A city built from the scraps which the rich see as useless, basically a dump site for the rich.
The Scrapyard was where those deemed useless by society lived. Here you could find people with low soul power and those poor enough not to afford living in the cities.
In an isolated corner of the Scrapyard lay a bunker quietly like the others found in this place, absolutely rundown.
*Whirl*
In the rundown bunker, the whirling sound of an electric screwdriver could be heard intermittently.
Light from an electric lamp barely illuminated the bunker revealing a young white haired boy sitting at a table and tinkering with something.
"Squeak" A small, rusty mouse-like creature with exposed gears and probably malfunctioning parts squeaked next to the white haired boy.
"Don't worry Rusty, you brother will be online in a few seconds" the boy spoke to the mouse as if he could understand it.
On the table lay a small mechanical looking moth with frayed wings. This was his latest find in the scrap yard, a place where failed forged beasts or other trash is discarded.
"Squeak" the mouse replied, somehow sounding excited.
"I'm excited too Rusty" the boy smiled.
This boy was Reid, formerly Reid Fletcher. He was the third son of Fletcher family.
Growing up, a lot of expectations were placed on young Reid. Since his older brothers were Taming geniuses, this raised the expectations his father placed on him.
Reid went through grueling hours of training just to meet the expectations placed on him and for a few years, his father was proud of his progress but everything came crashing down when Reid turned 15.
At the age of 15, every child's soul power is to be measured. This determines how much of a prodigy one was.
Reid was confident in getting a high enough soul power since his dad and two brothers had abnormally high ones. His world came crashing down on him when the results came out showing he had a pitifully low amount of soul power.
According to the results, Reid could only bond with iron tier forged beasts which were the lowest rank of forged beasts.
Reid faced his family, hoping to gain some kind of support from them but he was left horrified when his eyes met his dad's. The previous proud look previously in them was nowhere to be found, only destain.
Since he became a disgrace to the Fletcher family name, he was disowned and left with nothing and nowhere to go.
Left with only one option, Reid moved to the Scrapyard since it technically belonged to no one, he just had to find a good enough bunker to live in and that's exactly what he did.
Ever since he arrived at the Scrapyards two years ago, his routine only involved savaging things from the scrap yard (let's simply call it a dump) and fixing them, if they're forged beasts which was rare, or exchanging them for food to the merchant who usually passes there to go to the city.
Today was one of Reid's lucky days. He found his second forged beast, a small moth, and although it was basically scrap at this point if there's anyone who could fix them in the Scrapyard, it was Reid.
Thanks to the classes he took when he was younger, fixing these discarded forged beasts was pretty easy for him.
A couple of tinkering later, the soft hum of the moth powering up was heard.
"There we go, hello little guy" Reid smiled in satisfaction seeing the forged beasts come alive.
It raised its head to look at Reid be curious, Its compound eyes meeting his blue ones. It then started looking around curiously.
"Squeak, squeak" Rusty greeted when the moth's eyes landed on it. Excited to see a potential new member of the family.
"I'm Reid and that's Rusty" He introduced himself to the moth before asking"Do you want to bond with me?"
The moth looked a bit hesitant at the request. Bonding was a way for tamers to tame forged beasts which usually does not require their permission since they were thought to be no different from machines, concluding that they lacked feelings.
Reid discovered otherwise when he first discovered Rusty. After fixing it, he observed that without its permission, he couldn't tame it.
At first, he blamed his low soul power but remembered that he could bond with iron tier forged beasts and Rusty was even lower. A week after, after him and Rusty bonded a bit, he finally tamed it. Although this raises a lot of questions, he couldn't be bothered with them right now.
"Squeak" Rusty tried assuring the hesitant moth which worked. The moth flew to Reid's opened palm and rested on it.
Taming the beast was pretty easy. Once the beast is activated, the Forgemaster undergoes a synchronization ritual, where they establish a soul and mental link with the beast. This involves the beast recognizing the Forgemaster's emotions and intentions through the neural connection.
In simpler terms, Reid will be connected to the beast after it scans his neutral signature through the code tattoo on his wrist which was directly connected to his brain and somehow to his soul.
The process ended as soon as it started, only indicated by the small glow that briefly enveloped Reid and the moth.
Reid knew it was successful because he could clearly understand the moth's intention now.
"Now, let's think of a name for you" he said making the moth beat its wings in excitement.
"How about Nyx?" He suggested "since you're black in colour with white dots that reminds me of the night, I think that's a good name"
The moth's excitement was shown by the beating of its wings.
"Squeak" Rusty's approving squeak sounded, informing Reid that he was also satisfied with the name.
"Now, let's see what you can do" He said and tapped on the old but high tech looking watch on his wrist.
This was another one of his finds in the dump. He didn't sell this because it was pretty useful. This was the watch used by Tamers, it scans your neural tattoo to display the tamer's forged beasts status.
A hologram-like screen popped up showing the details of Nyx.
[Forged beast:
Name: Nyx
Tamer: Reid
Rank: Lower than iron tier
------Skills-------
Void: The moth can momentarily disappear and reappear in a different location a meter around it.
Smoke screen: Creates a smoke cloud that it can use to hide.]
I was a bit disappointed, since I was expecting at least one attack skill, but it only for a moment though I was lucky enough to get this much.
I pulled up Rusty's status for the first time in a while.
[
Forged beast:
Name: Rusty
Tamer: Reid
Rank: Lower than iron tier
------Skills-------
Flicker: a skill which allows it to teleportation within a small range.
Delayed Reaction: Slows down opponents within a short radius for five seconds, making them appear sluggish or delayed in their actions.
]
'Rusty's second skill would've been really great if the time was longer but I can only take what I could get' Reid thought.
"Welcome to the family Nyx" He said with a smile, dismissing the screen.
After excitedly mentally replying to Reid, Nyx disappeared with Rusty–probably to go play which Reid didn't mind. He had something else to work on.
He took his scrap bag from under the table, placed his hand inside and took it out to reveal a rusty metal box. This was the second item he got from the dump.
"Now let's see what you're holding" He said, putting the box on his work table.