The First Legendary Beast Master

No Second Chances

Today was the day of the tenth annual elite recruitment drive, and every graduating student at Lithium Mine Middle School was gathered in the gymnasium, waiting for the elites to arrive with the medicine that would decide their fate.

The elites were the idols of the Golden Dragon nation, super humans with magical abilities that were born from the Divine Injection that the students were going to receive today.

None of the children of the miners had ever seen one before, unless you counted the Mayor, who gave speeches a few times a year, and the excitement of having them right here in their school had been all that the students could talk about for months.

So, one could imagine the disappointment they felt when it was not some famous idol, but a group of elites from the military that showed up to perform the injections.

But although these weren't the singers or movie stars that they all knew, it was no secret that these military elites were saviours that protected their nation against hostile armies and the ever present threat of magical beasts. The television in the café and the teachers at the school both told them so.

While they had never seen an elite in person, they had seen magical beasts, and quite often. There were earth mice hiding all over the mining town, and the farmers nearby had been raising monstrous boars for generations.

But until very recently, it was only the power of technology and the holy magic of the church's High Priests and Priestesses that could keep the wild beasts at bay.

However, when the more powerful monsters came, you hid, or you died.

That was the way of life for the humans of the Golden Dragon nation, and indeed, most of the humans of the world.

Karl fidgeted in his seat as he waited for the nurse to come and administer the serum shot.

Today was the biggest day of a young student's life, the day that they would be administered the Mana Awakening Serum, better known as the Divine Serum, and find out if they would gain the sort of abilities that could change their lives, or if they would be stuck as common workers in a lithium mining town for the rest of their lives.

This was also Karl's last day at the government run school before he either started working full-time, or with any luck, left this decrepit mining town. If he was compatible with the Serum, he would be off to the Golden Divine Academy tonight, and ready to train his new skills as a defender of the Golden Dragon Nation.

They had already sat through an hour of speeches by the Principal, reminding them of their duty to the nation, the glory of the Elites, and the importance of this chance that they were given. After all, they were just the children of common mine workers, dirt floor poor and unlikely to ever be anything else.

Karl closed his eyes as the nurse rolled the cart with an open briefcase on it next to him, and then a violent pain shot up his arm and the world briefly went blank. Agony spread to every cell in his body, like he was being torn apart from the inside, and blood clogged his lungs, leaving him drowning while sitting in the metal folding chair of his school's auditorium.

This was wrong, the shot was only supposed to hurt as the needle poked you, not like this. 

As his consciousness faded, Karl realized that he was likely to be the one in a hundred, the rare fatal reaction to the shot which sorted out the defenders of the nation from the common people.

But after a few seconds, his breathing cleared, the pain began to fade and his eyes fluttered open. A few seconds after that, Karl regained consciousness, with pain still coursing through every cell of his body. The nurse's deep crimson eyes, a side effect of her own Serum injection, were staring directly back at him, and a slight smile was on her face.

"There you are. I thought that we lost you there for a minute. It's a good sign, zero casualties at this stop always means there is a powerful one in the bunch." 

The woman moved back, and Karl took in the smartly pressed green military uniform, pencil skirt and heels. It was all familiar, but all wrong. Did he lose some of his memories after the injection? Or was there something wrong with his eyes? On second thought, there was definitely something wrong with his eyes, the world was still a little blurry when he didn't have someone to focus on.

He flinched as his head began to pound again and a new wave of pain wracked his body, but the military woman with the strange red eyes seemed unconcerned as she stepped to a chubby young girl near him and took a large needle full of a glowing golden liquid out of the briefcase on her cart. Without a word of warning, she jabbed it into the girl's arm, and the young girl directly fainted, then slowly recovered her composure.

A quick glance down at his hands showed Karl a familiar bronze tan, but the scars and peeling skin from a childhood spent working in the mines after class were mostly gone, replaced with a deep red mark that looked like three long claw marks running the length of his forearm.

As he silently stared at the marks on his arm, they became more pronounced, and more realistic, as if the flesh had just been torn open, but the skin was smooth and undamaged under his fingers.

After a few minutes, the sound of frightened children fell silent, and Karl looked up at the front of the room, where an officer in the formal military uniform was standing behind a podium, waiting patiently for the process to end.

The red-eyed woman joined him, along with the six men in doctor's coats, before he began to speak.

"Thank you all for your cooperation. This year's choosing trial has completed, and those of you without the mark may return to your classes as usual. 

But for the rest of you, congratulations. You have been chosen as the prodigies of the Golden Dragon Nation's new generation. The Blessed ones who will lead us to victory over our enemies, with the benefit of supernatural powers bestowed by the Divine Serum."

Soldiers poured into the room, twice as many as there were children, and Karl began to panic. His mind still hadn't quite grasped the fact that he was one of the fortunate ones yet, the children who were compatible with the artificially induced superpowers, the ones who would become mages, mighty warriors who could split a mountain apart, or even legendary healers that could even raise the dead.

At first, the children resisted the idea that they would be grabbed and taken away by soldiers, especially the ones that had failed the choosing. The problem was that they actually needed the help to walk after the injections. The situation was only making Karl more confused, but he didn't dare ask what was going on with his body, in case they determined that something had gone wrong with whatever the Serum did to the newly awakened elites and disposed of him.

Or worse, sent him back to work in the mines.

According to the lessons that they had been taught in class, he should be a mighty hero by now, not a below average sized teen boy wracked with pain and so weak that he couldn't get out of his chair.

"You look a little disoriented, kid. Just let us carry you, and you'll be right as rain after a few days sleep. Just don't forget to do the homework before we arrive." One of the soldiers who stepped up beside Karl instructed.

That was how he found himself carried into a luxurious train car and placed in a private room complete with its own desk and a call button on the wall that was marked with "Room Service".

Unfortunately for his plan to understand why this process was so painful, the moment that his head hit the pillow, Karl was asleep.

How long he was out, he had no idea, but when he finally awoke, there was a stack of papers on the desk, along with a small textbook waiting for him to read it.

[So, you've awakened your powers] was the title of the book, and the cartoonish cover made it clear that it was aimed at children.

Not that he was old, he would only be fourteen this year, but being the last in his class to hit puberty, his body was much younger looking than average. All he had going for him was a handsome face, and even that had gotten him beaten up a time or two. 

But now that he had the Divine Serum on his side, everything would change.

Slowly, he opened the textbook to see what was inside.

[So, you've awakened your powers. Congratulations, and welcome to the upper echelon of society, the elite five percent that have been found compatible with the awakening serum that will soon activate the latent magical powers in your bloodline, passed down from the time of our Nation's founding by the Immortal Golden Dragon itself.

Though you have all learned about it in class, there are a few things that you don't yet know. First, your powers won't fully awaken until you use the first skill related to your specialty. Just follow the guidelines in this text, and you will discover the primary awakening method for your abilities.

Once you have finished that most basic task, you can begin the homework assignment.]

Karl read the first page three times before he flipped the page. Next up was a listing of different marks that the awakened classes should have, and most of them seemed self-explanatory. Ice shards, fire, blades, shields, paws, bows, and even an ornate fan were all detailed with page numbers that would lead the students to their awakening methods.

But there was nothing that resembled claw marks.

So, instead he turned to the homework assignment, hoping for answers. But that was even more useless, it was all about the student's abilities. How strong they were, the description, activation times, speed, energy usage, side effects. In short, he couldn't fill it in at all.

All the marks seemed so obvious as to what sort of abilities they represented. Even the red aura around a pair of axes was clearly a berserker in Karl's mind, but the claw marks didn't make much sense.

There was a similar one with an animal paw that was some sort of druid shaman, but nothing that was as simple, but confusing as his. Was he supposed to be a punching bag for monsters? That didn't sound right at all, the book said that these marks represented superpowers.

But after a few hours, there still wasn't any clear answer as to what he was supposed to do. It was time to call for one of the soldiers and get some answers before the train reached its destination.

Into The Unknown

While Karl was trying to find a way to awaken his powers, the guards were making the rounds, checking which new students were already awake. Those with the most powerful bodies always woke up first, but it had only been half a day of travel, and they weren't expecting anything yet.

"Sir, there is one active room already. Room 12a, a boy named Karl, no family name recorded." The patrol guard reported back to his commander in the front of the train.

"What is his class? Have we seen him activate any skills yet?" The General asked.

"Nothing yet. He appears to have a nonstandard Class marking, three claw marks." The guard replied.

The General gestured for his assistants to go look for the details on this class, but even after a few minutes had passed, there was still no news.

Other markings in their records were close, but nothing exactly like that one was found.

"Well, then he will have to awaken on his own. I hope that the boy has good luck or thick skin, he's going to need it if he turns in a blank sheet for his assignment when he gets to the Academy."

It wasn't unheard of for a student to get the mark but fail to awaken their powers immediately, even if they followed the instructions. Some would have gotten a nonstandard starting skill, and some were just worthless at using the power that had been given to them.

The General even recalled a case where a child had awakened the Mage class, but didn't have enough mana to cast any spells until nearly the end of the first semester. In the end, that student had proven to be a dismal failure, and had run away during a school outing to live the life of a commoner without ever getting past the beginning of the first level of his training.

That was the fate of many of the students who never learned to awaken their skills. Either because they were completely unsuited to the abilities that they had received, or because they had a marking that no guidance could be issued for, like the three claw marks boy in room 12a.

The Divine Serum was a modern invention, created after extensive research of an astonishing archaeological find at a holy site under an ancient World Dragon Cathedral had detailed the inner workings of an ancient Divine Device known as the System Stones.

The device itself was broken, but an initially unidentifiable power within it remained. Using the stones as a guide, and after decades of study, the Serum had been created to attune humans to that power and give the Golden Dragon Nation a chance to overtake the military might of their neighbours and change the fate of their citizens.

What did it matter if the Ocean People had water Magic to guard their ships against the rockets and guns of the Golden Dragon fleet? Now, they had mages of their own. Even if the untamed monsters of the Beast Lands attacked, they had warriors and guardians with powerful skills that could cut down the most ferocious magical creatures with ease. 

That was the strategic value of the Divine Serum, and the reason that every student who was found to be compatible was taken in by the military and intensively trained in the duties and responsibilities that came with being a protector of the nation.

Life wasn't all military training and duty, though. If it were, there was an absolute certainty that the serum compatible and freshly empowered future guardians of the nation would rebel against authority and either turn traitor or stage a coup. So, they were treated as the legendary resources that they were, able to live in luxury all their lives on the condition that their power was enough to justify their salary.

Once they could pass all the tests that the Golden Divine Academy placed before them, they would even receive official titles from the church, and a collection of legal and social benefits to match. Society had always belonged to the rich and powerful, but now the phrase had taken on an entirely different meaning.

Karl was blissfully unaware of the topic of the observers' conversations, and while they were discussing the likelihood that he might not be able to awaken his powers in time to keep up with his classmates, Karl was preparing to ask the passing guards for advice.

"Sir? Pardon me, but my skill marking doesn't seem to be in the book. Could I be missing a page?" He asked as the uniformed guard passed by again.

"Not in the book, eh? Tough luck there, son. The book only covers the common markings, the ones that ninety percent of the new students get, but there are others possible. The injections are a mysterious divine force, and sometimes they give out results that nobody understands.

The best I can tell you is to try everything, and whatever feels right probably is. If you're lucky, you'll awaken some powers before your classes start.

Between me and you, you want to awaken those powers before you get to the Academy, the elite students are particular about the power rankings, and if you don't, you'll be starting school from the very bottom."

"Thanks. But have you ever seen a marking like this?" Karl asked curiously.

The Guard rolled up his sleeve and showed off the picture of a bear paw, the mark of a Druid, and according to the guide, a nature magic user with an affinity for animals.

"Since it's a little like mine, and seems to involve animals, perhaps try things related to either animals, or unarmed combat. There isn't much you can do to attune with nature on a busy train, but the windows open a little if you need some fresh air.

That's what I had to do, I couldn't awaken my powers without some attachment to nature. In fact, I didn't awaken them on the train at all, they woke up as soon as I touched the trees on the way to the Academy Gates." The guard explained.

"Thanks for the help." Karl called as the guard walked away. He didn't seem to be big on talking, or perhaps he just didn't want to get Karl's hopes up. But the advice gave him something to go on.

The Early Bird

Karl flopped on his bed and looked out the window, to see if there was any sort of hint as to what his powers were supposed to be. The guard had a point, and the claw marks definitely had to refer to some sort of animal. Humans didn't leave marks like that.

So, the first thing that he tried was focusing on adding claws to his hands. 

"Claw!" 

"Nope, yelling out skill names isn't going to do it. How do the other classes activate their skills?" Karl complained, unaware that the bored supervisors in the main car were watching through hidden cameras and laughing at his antics.

[Page 2, Magic Classes

Open the box of casting assistants under your bed using the thumb of your left hand, and extract the appropriate casting medium to begin attempting to activate your first spell.]

"This doesn't look like the sort of marking that a spell caster should have, next page."

[Page 3, Combat classes

Open the box of practice weapons under your bed with the index finger of your right hand and choose the most appropriate weapon for your desired skills.]

That sounded more likely, so Karl knelt on the ground in front of the bed and unlocked the upper drawer, where he found a collection of simple weapons, and even some more obscure ones, like throwing knives, single-handed crossbows, and some sort of axe on a chain that looked like it would be more dangerous to the user than anyone else.

He was, unfortunately, not yet among the physically gifted, so Karl picked a short sword from among the weapons while he cursed being the last in his class to enjoy the full benefits of puberty.

He had never actually held a sword before, but this one felt right, and Karl gave it a few tentative swings before trying for a more meaningful strike toward the door.

[Pet Skills Not Available. You must record a pet.]

Karl blinked slowly as he worked to process the idea that had come to him as if implanted in his mind.

It was a message directly into his thoughts, obviously from the effects of the marking, and now he somewhat knew what he needed to do. But how did he record a pet? It couldn't be as simple as just writing it down, could it? Or maybe he needed to do something to memorize it?

But first he would have to find some sort of animal. This was a shiny new military train, not the company houses at the mines, there weren't going to be any mice. If he had to touch the animal for the skill to activate, this could be much more difficult than he had been expecting.

The obvious choice would be to try writing something down, and to see if that worked. Maybe there would be a book in the spell casting equipment. 

The drawer of tools slid open, and Karl stared in amusement at the wide variety of strange items held inside. He had absolutely zero clue about how these were supposed to be used. Some of them didn't even look like they were anything special, like this silly snow globe with no base. 

What were they going to do with that? Sit and ponder their Orb? 

Karl picked the surprisingly heavy glass ball up in his hand, and suddenly, it lit up with a bright white light.

[Taming Space viewing is not available. Please Record A Pet.]

At first, the message that appeared in his thoughts made no sense, but after a few seconds of focus, Karl could feel the change. In his mind, a vast emptiness was forming, giving him a sense of eternal power beyond anything he had ever imagined.

"What about a Dragon? Can I have a Dragon?" Karl thought, trying to will one into existence in the taming space.

Nothing. Of course, it wasn't going to be that easy.

Karl was deep in thought when someone touching his arm brought his attention back to the present.

"Did you have any luck?" The patrolling guard asked, looking at the two open drawers, and the sword on the mattress.

"Yes and no. I get the feeling that the blade is the right choice, but I'm lacking something to activate the skill. None of the other weapons I looked at are really appealing, though." Karl sighed.

"Well, keep at it, you'll find something that works for you soon. If you've already got an idea, you're ahead of the others. Most of them are still asleep."

"That's something, at least. Maybe I can figure this out before we get to the Academy after all. I don't suppose there is a kitchen here? I always think better on a full stomach." Karl asked hopefully.

The guard smiled and gestured down the hall. "You woke up before the main kitchen for students was ready, but they won't complain if I lead you out of the room for a little something. You'll learn soon that the food at the Golden Divine Academy is somewhat special, compared to what you are used to.

The magical abilities that the elites use put a huge strain on the bodies of their users, and they need the energy of magical plants and beasts to recover quickly. 

Trust me, you're in for a treat this time."

They walked down the hall to another train car, past a half dozen rooms identical to the one Karl was in where other students from his class were sleeping soundly, and into an empty dining room, past which a kitchen could be seen. 

"Just grab what you want and set it by the grill, I'll get to you in a minute." The cook called from the freezer, not realizing that there was someone other than staff in the room.

Karl didn't mind though, it wasn't like this was some fancy restaurant, it was more of a common area for the staff to serve themselves, with an actual cook on duty so that those who shouldn't be allowed in a kitchen didn't starve.

Karl collected a pair of small steaks, a bowl of rice, a collection of assorted vegetables, anything that looked and smelled good. Then he noticed a small pile of oversized white eggs, and grabbed one to add it to the plate.

[Suitable Pet Target Found: hatching]

The egg directly vanished from his hand, leaving Karl staring at the food in confusion and wondering just how long it would take for a monster egg to hatch in a magical void in his mind. Would it even hatch? The thoughts said so, but they weren't giving him many details.

 A small straw nest slowly appeared in his mind, with a single large white egg inside. Over the course of the next few seconds, the Egg trembled, and then cracked open, shocking Karl into taking a step backward, though the sight was in his mind. 

He bumped into the guard, who thought he might be faint from hunger, and stabilized himself.

"Sorry about that." Karl mumbled, while the guard gestured to the cook and led Karl to a table.

"Don't worry about it. Everyone is a bit off for the first few days after they wake up. Especially some of the magic classes, the power can really scramble their brains. Just focus on solving those strange markings of yours, and you'll be fine in no time."

The cook looked their way from behind his grill. "Having a hard time with a nonstandard marking? That's a rough one. What does it look like?" 

"Three claw marks on the right forearm. Big ones as well, not one of those wimpy little marks like the nerd classes get." The guard laughed.

The cook smiled and turned his hand toward Karl, who didn't understand what they meant. They should be talking about a class marking, but with the dozens of visible tattoos, Karl had no idea which one might be the one they were referring to.

The cook tapped a small stick tattoo, and Karl realized that it was a mage type Class marking, a wand with sparkles at the end. It was on the top of his hand, and only a few centimetres long. If he hadn't seen it in the book, he would have never noticed it at all.

"There is a theory that the size of the tattoo has some relationship to the talent of the recipient, but I don't believe that's right at all. Unless it's not related to the mental compatibility, but just the ability itself. Have you got any clues about yours?" The line cook asked.

"I felt right with a short sword in my hand, and the marking seems to have something to do with animals, so perhaps I'm a hunter of some sort, or a park ranger with bad luck." Karl joked.

"Well, you'll find out once you get your first class skill to work. After that, you can just think the word [Status] and get an impression of how your magical abilities are growing. At least, that's how it is for Mages." The cook informed him.

Windspeed Hawk

While the cook got his meal ready, Karl closed his eyes and focused on what was happening in the strange spot in his mind. The result wasn't words, but a somewhat detailed impression of the status of the bird. He had to translate it himself, but the actual information was pretty basic.

[Beast Space Activated] 1 occupant

[Pet Number 1]

[Name] Windspeed Hawk

[Rank] Common

[Connection] Low

[Skills]

[Claw] [Rend] [Super Vision]

Karl felt an indescribable power flow into his body as the status was completed, and a second round of physical impressions came to him.

[Beast Master] Karl

[Rank] Common

[Bloodline] Human

[Skills] 

[Beast Skill] Super Vision

[Beast Attack Skill] Rend

That didn't quite mesh with the knowledge that he had from the booklet. Wasn't he supposed to get some sort of instinctive guideline on how to progress? Maybe a little something about how he was doing in his training of the skills?

"How does the power rating of the system work? Is there some sort of level, or grade, or something? How can we tell who has real power and who is like me, a newbie waiting on his skills?" He asked the two older men.

Older being a relative term, as they likely weren't much more than twenty themselves, but older than him and finished their time at the Academy.

"That's the fun part. You don't. Unless they directly tell you, or you have some special skill to sense energy fluctuations like some of the mages, you just have to go with your gut instinct or the public rankings.

The problem with the Rankings is that they're all subjective. You see, I'm a Wand Class Mage. I can use the Fire Element. If I was an Orb Class Mage, I could use two Elements at once, but that still doesn't tell you anything about my power. 

The important part is that I never made it past level one in my spell book, I just don't have the talent for it. But the Druid here, he describes his powers entirely differently."

The guard nodded. "I'm a level six mortal grade Druid. My grade has never changed, but I can use much more powerful nature magic than when I was starting school, and I can even transform into a bear.

Because everyone's internal measurements are so wildly different, we judge everyone on the same scale as magical beasts. From Common to Mythical in Rank based on what they can defeat in battle, or how effective their healing and support skills are compared to beasts at the same level.

So, while the cook is still considered to be in the Common Grade, I have made it one rank up to the Awakened Grade, and I can fight awakened Magical Beasts on my own. At least in limited numbers I can. But I was near the bottom of my class, all the way through. My skills are varied, I can heal, fight, transform into a bear, even help plants grow, but I can't do any of them worth a damn, so I'm stuck at the Awakened Grade."

Karl nodded, understanding the concept if not the actual power level. Sometimes focusing on too many things would lead to you never getting good at anything. There was a guy like that in his neighbourhood, a jack of all trades. He could fix your car, your sink or your fridge, but only the common issues. If it were really broken, he would refer you to someone else.

"I think that I follow the idea. How powerful were the top students of your class?" He asked.

"Have you heard of the Archmage Mia, that new idol spell caster? She was in our class, and she reached the Awakened Rank in the first year, by the end of the second, she could defeat Ascended beasts with ease, and by the time we graduated, she was already a Commander Grade Mage. 

Then only a few years after that, she got some super secret resource from a mission, and it pushed her to the Royal Rank. That's when everyone started calling her the Arch Mage, and the fame started to get to her head. She doesn't answer our messages anymore, but we can still proudly say we went to school with someone super famous."

Royal Grade monsters were a terrifying thought to Karl. Even one of them could level the mining town he grew up in without breaking a sweat. The strongest fighting force in town was likely the Mayor, a Commander Grade Warrior, and in Karl's opinion, he was getting too old to be picking fights with monsters. Plus, the town didn't have any sort of armed guard, other than the handful of police. 

If it came to a fight, the old Mayor would definitely not have a good time proving he still deserved his rank.

Karl sat in silence for a moment as he ate, then smiled at the two senior graduates in front of him. 

"I suppose that I should get back to my room and see what I can do about awakening some sort of skill, then. If not, we will all be shut out of the class idol's phone list in the future."

The cook laughed. "I like the way you think, a bit of motivation goes a long way when you're trying to find a reason to get through the most gruelling parts of your training."

Karl thought a lot about that as he walked back to his room. The hardest part of any task was seeing it through to the end. It was easy at the start when you were motivated, but somewhere in the middle it became a dreadfully dull grind, with no reward in sight and very little progress to be made.

That was when you would lose sight of the goal and start to slack. If you were lucky, you recovered from it, but if not, you would end up in trouble and behind schedule. Even the Mine Foreman had said the same thing to the students when he came to talk to them on career day.

Not that anyone truly listened to him, with the prospect of the divine injection coming up only days later. But the others, the ones who returned to class afterwards, would be thinking more about it every day.

Once the door to the room closed behind him, Karl stared out the window and tried a skill for himself.

[Super Vision] grants the Beast Tamer the sight of the contracted Windspeed Hawk.

The forests in the distance were suddenly crystal clear in his eyes, and everything in his peripheral vision became just as clear as what was right in front of him. A bit of movement caught his eye, and Karl noticed a Quill beast moving through the grassland over a kilometre away. 

It was incredible, and the world was so much more vivid, with colours that he didn't even have names for. As he recalled, not only could the Windspeed Hawk see into the Ultraviolet and Infrared spectrums, but they were also accomplished nocturnal hunters, with excellent night vision as well. 

While [Rend] was the much cooler combat skill, [Super Vision] was incredibly overpowered in Karl's estimation. Just being able to see where you were going at night would give him a great advantage over other students in the practical tests.

Maybe the written tests as well. He could easily read other papers from across the room without moving his head or looking straight at them. Cheating on a written exam would be simple, if he weren't already certain that none of the other students from the Mines were smart enough to cheat off.

Rend

With the issue of activating his very first powers settled, Karl could finally rest easy for a few seconds. That was all it took for him to see the homework assignment on the table and realize that there was still a lot for him to do before they reached the Academy.

'Alright, let's get this done in advance, and then I can relax.' His silent motivational speech had very little effect, but Karl sat down with a pen and the homework assignment in front of him.

Name, Karl. Age, Fourteen. Skill Name:

It only had one spot for a skill name, and that made him assume that it was normal for a newly awakened student to only have one skill. But which should he put in there? Beast Taming, Super Vision or Rend? This homework would be posted for the class, he was certain, so he didn't want to give away the extent of his abilities to the other students and become the target of other students' envy before he could defend himself. 

Plus, the contracted pet might be a magical beast, the Windspeed Hawk, but it was still a gosling, and wouldn't grow into its full power for months or even years. Wouldn't he just become a new target of bullying if he showed everyone a baby bird as his power?

Super Vision seemed like it was much cooler and more useful, but it wasn't a combat skill, and for the elite, combat strength was King. So, he went back to the bed and picked up the short sword again, determined to make [Rend] work.

Activating the skill was incredibly easy, a single thought lit up the blade with a dull red light, and when he swung it toward the portion of the wall that was marked [Testing Area], a crescent arc of destructive power was thrown out and absorbed by the high-tech alloy.

Drawing the blade through the air when using Rend was like mixing thick dough, he could barely move his arm, and the blade speed was slow, but the skill formed as the blade moved, so with a bit more training, it should be faster to activate.

Rend would definitely make him friends in class. With a bit more effort, it could slice a wide swathe through enemies, and allow him to target an entire group.

Karl hurried back over to the sheet and filled out the questions about his skill, including the restriction on movement speed when using the attack, which limited how fast it could be activated. If he thought about it, there might be a way around that if he was already moving when he activated the skill.

Wasn't that how Hawks hunted? They didn't rely on strength, they came in at high speed and took out their prey in a single strike. If he could determine how that skill was supposed to be used, his combat power would increase drastically.

But other than the skill, the questionnaire also asked about the user. Any headaches, feelings that you had forgotten something important, physical increases or decreases?

Karl tested himself, and other than the Super Vision, he had definitely also become a bit more flexible. Not by a lot, but it was clearly noticeable. 

In the end, he decided to leave that portion of the questionnaire marked with 'none'. If the agility increase improved in the future, he could blame it on something else from his training. After all, some of the elite were said to be true superhuman monsters, and some were just as frail and human as always, but with mind-boggling supernatural powers.

One of the idols had even sprained an ankle after stumbling to go on stage for a meet and greet event. That seemed like pretty conclusive proof that the injection's skill distribution system did not distribute physical enhancements in a fair and equal manner.

Once he was satisfied that the answers would be enough for the Academy to rate him fairly highly among his classmates, Karl carefully slid the paper into the envelope provided and placed it in the tray by the door.

That was everything that he was expected to do until they arrived at the Academy, but he couldn't help wanting to try out more and better ways to use the [Rend] skill.

What if he tried to be more like the Hawk? There should have been a clawed gauntlet among the equipment there, as well as a trident. Both would replicate the three claws of the mark on his arm, but the trident was a stabbing weapon, which didn't seem well suited to how the skill worked.

He opened the drawer again and put back the sword before taking out a pair of gauntlets with clawed tips on the fingers. As a weapon, they weren't too impressive, but they looked like they would work with the skill that he had.

They were a bit big on his hand, as Karl was slightly smaller than average, but after a few buckle adjustments, they fit well enough, and he tried the skill again. With his hand extended out in front of him, the way a Hawk would when swooping down on prey, he flexed his fingers, and four small streaks of red light tore through the air in front of him to hit the wall.

Each of them was much less impressive than the one created by the sword, but the speed was incredibly fast, and they would hit multiple areas on the target. Against lightly armoured targets, that seemed like the better path. The more attack blades they had to dodge or block, the better. 

Each time he used the skill, it seemed to drain some of his energy, and after only a few more swings, Karl could feel his arms getting weaker, and he had to sit down and catch his breath. This was going to become an issue very quickly while doing combat training. He had spent plenty of time in the gym, but he was trying to improve his physique, not build his stamina and endurance.

But that was what the school was for, all he had to do was focus on his training, and it would definitely work out in the end.

As Karl massaged his sore arms, the first of the other students were only just beginning to wake up and begin reading the guidebook. It wasn't much of a head start, but the first awakened elite of the batch was already determined.

Dropoff Site

"All new students, gather your preferred weapons, your school uniforms and wait for the notification to disembark. We are now five minutes from the Golden Divine Academy." The train's announcement declared just after breakfast on the morning of the second day after Karl woke up.

He packed the snacks he had obtained in advance from the train's kitchen into the provided backpack along with the spare uniforms and shoes, then put on the black metal clawed gauntlets and hung the short sword from a scabbard at his hip.

There was no rule saying you couldn't prefer more than one weapon, and the guards hadn't mentioned it when they saw him practising in the room that way, so it should be alright. 

The cook and the guard had both mentioned the walk into the Academy on the first day after he woke up, so the train wouldn't be stopping at the gates. This was probably some sort of test, either to see how the students would solve a problem or get along or some nonsense, Karl decided, but whatever the reason, he was packing a lunch.

As expected, the train came to a stop about a kilometre from the Academy, at the far end of a grassy field with a few well-maintained hedgerows along the way.

"This is your stop. The last bit is up to you. I will see you all in the Academy tomorrow after the train is cleaned and repaired." A slender man in a guard uniform announced.

The students mostly stood by their open doors with looks of confusion, but Karl walked out into the hallway and stepped down from the train to take his first breath of the clean country air.

Without all the dust from the mines, it smelled strangely like trees and flowers here, and he could feel the power of the Academy in the distance, like a tingle in his bones, warning him that it was something abnormal, something magical.

The first student out was like a beacon to the others, and slowly the new students started to leave the train, mostly still exhausted from practising their new skills and a lack of sleep, but the sun was directly overhead in the sky, and sleeping under the scorching morning sun wasn't going to be easy.

The slender man in the guard uniform stepped in front of them again once everyone was off the train, and raised his voice to address the crowd. 

"Welcome, everyone, to Golden Divine Academy. As a special welcoming gift to all of our new students, we have prepared the traditional walk across the grounds to the front gates for you. Every year, the new arrivals make this trip, entering the gates as Awakened elites to begin their new lives. 

Now it is your turn. But be warned, the grasslands look empty, but that isn't always the truth."

He wasn't lying. Karl could see that the train tracks circled the Academy at a distance of roughly a kilometre, passing through these grasslands, a large portion of forest, and even through a swampy bog around a river.

They must drop every group off at a different point, so they could watch them come into the academy. It seemed like a strange tradition, but when he looked out over the field using [Super Vision] he could tell that there was a huge population of Earth Rats, a Common Grade magical beast with incredible digging skills, and the ability to throw small stones using magic. 

They were mostly harmless, and Karl had dealt with them using a slingshot as a kid, but in large numbers, they could be a real menace.

In this case, it was likely to be a nuisance, just an 'amusing' prank by the seniors to watch the new kids get pelted with rocks as they ran to school.

[Mice, hungry.] A voice sounded in Karl's mind, coming from the space where his Windspeed Hawk was kept. 

It was incredibly insistent, and eager to taste the mice, so Karl stepped forward into the field to see what they would do to the students who tried to pass. He might have hunted them before, but that was with a slingshot and in the house where they couldn't use the earth to escape. 

Getting a clean kill shot here would be much more trouble, but he was fairly certain that he could do it with the speed of the [Rend] attacks. He just had to time them right.

Karl stepped forward into the grassland battlefield, against an unknown number of the weakest magical creatures, armed with a single untested combat skill and a baby bird as a pet. Not exactly the most glorious of first battles as an elite, but it would have to do.

The response to his invasion of their territory was immediate, and the ten centimetre long earth mice began to hurl small rocks at Karl, highlighting their position, and making the starving Hawk in his Beast Taming Space go insane with desire.

A flick of his fingers, and four sharp red energy arcs flew out into the battlefield, taking out one of the mice before it even knew there was a danger, and then the other hand took a second.

Super vision really was a remarkable skill for both eyesight and hand - eye coordination. His second attack hit a mouse as it was attempting to go underground to evade, and then his third reached its target as it tried to run.

Karl jogged forward and picked up the bodies, then moved them into the taming space for the Hawk to eat before continuing on toward the Academy under greatly reduced levels of attack from the earth mice, who had sensed the presence of a predator in their midst and began to target the other students.

Only a few brave ones would still throw rocks at Karl from a distance, all of which were easily swatted away with the armoured glove.

"That glove is such a cheat code here in the open field." A dark-haired girl with a wand in her hand complained from directly behind his back.

"You're a mage, a real magic user. Just blast them if they throw rocks at you." Karl reminded her after seeing the magical casting device.

"And pass out again in the middle of a field? I'm not sure if you're aware, but magic is hard. I can only cast like two or maybe three spells before I collapse from exhaustion." The girl complained.

That was what had happened to Karl the first day as well. But once he got a bit more used to it, the consumption seemed not to be as bad.

"Just stay behind me then, and undo your coat so you can hide your head. Earth Mice aren't smart, and they won't target your face if they can't see it."