Under the pale, bright moon, within a dense forest,
I thought my life would end after I died.
It didn't.
Instead, I woke in a body other than my own, in a bizarre world - like a safe point loaded with a modded character.
A world filled with mythical beasts that covered the skies, their power enough to shake continents - the filaments to shudder. A place where monsters reigned supreme, and mortals awakened divine paths to stand a chance.
I was reborn. Not just as anyone. But as the bastard son of the most powerful noble houses.
The Zahara Clan.
It was a significant starting point.
Even if I didn't like it…
I didn't have a choice either!
"Growl!!"
The Panther before me let out a fierce grunt. Its fur was blue and black striped, and a single horn jutting from its skull.
Magical enchanted chains glowing with an eerie crimson light wrapped around its body.
The Panther was bonded inside a rapidly spinning contract circle.
My only shot at becoming a beastmaster.
Thousands of years ago, Earth shattered. Rifts opened across the sky, spilling monstrous creatures into our world. The legendary mana surged into existence, terraforming the planet and reshaping humanity.
People awakened supernatural abilities through something called a 'Path.'
Paths were roadmaps to power, split into three core classes:
—Hunter: Assassin, Ranger, Trickster.
—Warrior: Fighter, Berserker, Magical Swordsman.
—Magus: Beastmaster, Summoner, Mage.
It was like selecting a class in a game. Except this wasn't a game.
To awaken a path, you needed Spirit Veins - mystical channels that allowed mana flow. Only one in a thousand had them, and even fewer could awaken them.
The higher the number of Spirit Vein, the higher the number of Paths opened to them. Those who successfully awakened Spirit veins and selected a path were known as Awakeners.
Awakened humans built clans. Clans built nations.
And the Zahara Clan? They rule the Beastmaster Path.
And I was their stain, whom they wanted to get rid of.
The magic circle flared.
I grabbed the knife beside me and sliced my hand.
It stung! Pain surged through my hand as blood welled up.
As an awakened human, I possessed enhanced healing, but the pain of mercilessly slicing my palm open remained.
I let the blood drip onto the beast and the circle and chanted the rites.
The Panther thrashed and snarled, but the chains held him in place.
The magical circle under the beast was a medium used by low-level beastmasters to contract a magical beast.
Soon, a second magic circle emerged above the chained Panther and spun rapidly until it shattered, disintegrating and falling upon the beast. Golden shards of light crashed into the Panther's chest, and green shards of light into mine.
Suddenly, an inexplicable feeling washed over me, and a strange connection was formed between me and the magical beast.
A bond.
It had worked.
I had formed my first contract.
"Hahaha! I did it!" my voice cracked. After everything I had endured, I had finally awakened a powerful Path.
The beast's growling slowed. It whispered, pleading for freedom from its bondage.
How could I be so sure?
Because I could sense fragments of its emotions.
The glowing magic circle dimmed.
Then -
Ding!
A blue screen hovered before me.
[ Initialising system… ]
I froze.
Sixteen years.
I had done everything - ritual, fights, trying to awaken a system - but I was unsuccessful.
Yet, I wasn't one to give up hope easily, so I waited until my awakening ceremony. I thought that the day I awakened my Spirit Veins would be the day I would activate a system if I had any.
However, it was all for nought.
It was as a result of the awakening ceremony that my life spiralled into the mess it is now.
Who could have guessed that a group of pompous, self-important nobles, each wielding mythical predators at their beck and call, would make life unbearable for a bastard heir in their midst?
I did!
But I had hoped that they at least possessed the human consciousness to show pity.
I was very…very wrong!
Now, out of nowhere -
[ Cybernetic Evolution System Activated.]
[ Note: Talent, and Core Functions are currently in [SEMI-SEALED] status. Functions will unlock progressively based on host performance and growth. ]
[ System successfully linked. ]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ Name: Ezekiel Zahara ]
[ Race: Human ]
[ Age: 19 ]
◆ Talent: Cybernetic Evolution (Semi-sealed)
┗ Path Traits: Beast Cybernetic Enhancement, Fusion Synchronisation.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
◇ Primary Path: Beastmaster Path
┗ Path Traits: Beast Affinity, Beastmaster's Contract.
┗ Rank: First Rank (0%)
◇ Secondary Path: Magical Swordsman Path
┗ Path Traits: Blade Synchronisation.
┗ Rank: First Rank (66%)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
◆ Attributes:
┗ Fire: High-Tier
┗ Earth: Mid-Tier
┗ Metal: Supreme-Tier
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
◆ Skills:
┗ Overclocked Mode - Active
┗ Aura Mastery: Apprentice (9%)
┗ Weapon Mastery - Sword: Apprentice(35%)
◆ Sacred Arts:
┗ Mountain Snow Dragon Art - Sky Grade - Beginner (20%)
◆ Spells:
┗ Fire Spark - Basic Spell (30%)
┗ Wind Rush - Basic Spell (66%)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
◆ Tamed Beast:
┗ Swift-Horned Panther → [Cybernetic Swift-Horned Panther Form]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
I stared at the status panel before me dumbly.
Two Paths!
My previous path, the Magical Swordsman Path, which my family had made me choose to hide my existence, or, in their own words, a dirty smudge on a flawless jewel, from the rest of the world, was now my secondary path.
Meanwhile, the Beastmaster Path had now become my primary path.
It was not advisable for humans to choose two paths.
Those with fewer Spirit Veins would strain under such pressure, unable to bear the brunt of two Paths. For those with abundant spirit veins, it was like pouring water and oil through the same pipe.
There will be no adverse side effects initially, but as time passes, they will slowly accumulate until they can no longer flow through the pipe.
The pipe would need to be exchanged; each awakener possessed one body in their lifetime. Both sides become crippled, unable to escape the brunt of bearing two paths.
In the worst case -
Death.
Moreover, awakening a second Path was more painful. It wasn't worth the cost.
So, no one was greedy enough to desire to awaken two Path runes.
Despite this, I had awakened a second path effortlessly!
I stretched my right hand forward and circulated my mana.
Instantly, a rune taking the shape of a mysterious, fearsome beast appeared on my hand.
The Beastmaster Rune.