A change began to stir through the whole temple.
Nearly every child was steeped in joy at the moment they had waited for all their lives.
The mana they had absorbed unconsciously since early childhood, and the helplessness that had piled up like poison and pressed down on them, transformed into an ecstatic sensation of power.
Silver patterns were etched into the skin of the boy who had gained the Wind Eagle and his gaze sharpened like a hawk's, while the girl who had gained the Mystic Fox had her senses amplified explosively as red markings surfaced on her cheeks.
It was the mark of true Tamers: Beast Manifestation.
Each change was powerful, and each symbolized a new station.
......Except for Ren.
His Spore was now fated to become the brand that proved he stood at the very bottom.
'It can't get worse than this.'
Ren swallowed a bitter smile.
But he did not yet know that he was wrong.
The Spore simply...... melted.
It seeped into his skin without any spectacle at all, and for a while nothing happened.
Then, before long, small glowing mushrooms sprouted from his scalp.
Like luminous toadstools blooming among his hair.
In that instant, the laughter that had been held back filled the temple.
"Hey, that guy's starting to grow mold!"
"Hey, Partinder! Is that thing on your head...... a mushroom? Or are the gray hairs coming in already?"
"Be silent!"
Even the Ceremony Master's rebuke did not stop the mockery.
"Hey, watch out! That thing's spraying spores!"
"Don't go near him! You'll get mushrooms on your head too!"
As the children's mockery went on, the Ceremony Master salvaged his dignity with a forced cough.
"The Spore...... hm...... given enough time, it can reach its adult form. They say it may grow up to fifty centimeters and improve physical strength by 20%...... or so I am told."
But when those words ended, the laughter only grew louder.
Raising a Spore to its adult form was all but impossible.
It demanded astronomical resources and time, and even if one succeeded, the result was wretched beyond compare next to the abilities other Beasts displayed on their very first day.
Some of the children sneezed theatrically and shrieked, as though Ren were carrying a plague.
The dazzling transformations of the children around him threw his own misery into sharper relief.
Sharp claws, mystical marks, dazzling emblems of power.......
Against all that, what Ren had gained was nothing but a disgusting mushroom ornament sprouting from his head.
And last of all, Luna's transformation began.
As the contract with the Shadow Wolf was sealed, delicate patterns that seemed to dance along with the light were etched over her skin.
The silver marks set off her beauty all the more.
A supernatural radiance settled in her eyes, and her blue hair rippled like a river of night.
The power radiating from her was not only visible but vivid enough to grasp in a hand.
Her body overall was strengthened by a full 50%, her agility leapt to double, and she gained a talent for elemental magic besides.
In that moment, as if ashamed even of themselves, the mushrooms on Ren's head blinked faintly.
When Luna's awakening was over, the Ceremony Master proclaimed:
"In one week, you will begin your formal education. As set out in your contracts, a carriage will come to carry you to the academy, and after eight years there you will enter military service. Before that, you will have a short leave."
He paused, then spoke again.
"For today, all of you are to remain fused with your Beasts. This is a traditional rite meant to show respect for the sacred bond you have just formed."
And so the ceremony ended.
***
Only once he was outside the temple did Ren stop walking.
There, no more mocking stares, no contempt-laced whispers, no clumsy pity reached him.
He closed his eyes and breathed out, long and slow, the humiliation that had piled up deep inside him.
As the glowing mushrooms that had covered his hair vanished, a small gray lump revealed itself and floated up beside him.
'Respect? Tradition? Screw that.'
The Spore had been born from an egg his parents bought for one million crystals.
That money was everything a frugal life had amounted to, thirty years of his parents' labor and the sale of their house on top of it.
And all of it had collapsed into nothing because of his bad luck.
The road home felt longer and heavier than it ever had.
Each step erased the hopes and possibilities he had carried, painting them over in gray.
As the evening deepened the Spore grew fainter and fainter, yet it never left his side and followed him in silence.
The Spore was his new companion, the brand of his failure, and the being that had decided his fate.
***
The stone roads of the city center gave way at some point to muddy dirt tracks.
The farther Ren walked, the more the elegant buildings disappeared and shabby houses lined the way.
At last he arrived at a small hut on the outskirts, a building leaning slightly under the weight of the years.
This was his home.
......No, it was not even the family's house any longer.
This home, once theirs, had become the price paid for their son's future, turned into a space they had to pay monthly rent on.
Ren stopped in front of the door.
The smell of food leaking through the gap in the door set his stomach growling.
His parents were superb cooks.
That one talent was the only support that had held the family up through long years, despite their low grade.
The Beast his parents had contracted was an Iron-grade Common Plant grown to its adult form.
That it let them work even in the shabbiest kitchen in this city was a stroke of luck like a miracle.
Part of it was that the restaurant's owner was one of the rare people who did not discriminate by grade, but what made that goodwill possible was the undeniable skill of the two of them.
The scent of sweet root stew, Ren's favorite, mingled with the smell of freshly baked bread and pricked at his nose.
With his hand resting on the door handle, he stood there blankly for a while.
The Spore only drifted beside him, indifferent.
Through the window, in the kitchen, his mother was preparing food with the graceful movements she had honed over years, and his father was setting the last three candles neatly on the table.
They were poor, but they had laid out a small celebration feast for their son.
When Ren opened the door, his breath caught as though a lump had lodged in his throat.
"Ren!"
His mother turned before his father did.
Then both their eyes landed on the small gray Spore.
In that moment, Ren saw clearly the hope going out in them.
Even so, his mother wiped her hands on her apron and opened both arms.
"My son...... my little Tamer."
In that instant, the tears Ren had held down for hours finally broke loose.
"I'm sorry." he whispered as he stepped inside.
His voice was torn to shreds by sobbing.
"I'm so sorry. I'm sorry, I'm sorry......."
"Oh, my baby."
His mother pulled him tight against her.
"It's not your fault. It's not your fault at all."
"You and Dad spent everything...... you sold it all...... and I......."
His father came over.
His steps, worn out by a long day in the kitchen, were unusually heavy.
He knelt and laid a large hand on his son's small shoulder.
"Son, look at me."
Through tear-blurred eyes, Ren raised his head.
"Do you remember last year, when I burned all the bread?"
Ren nodded, not understanding why.
"And do you remember what we did then?"
"We...... cut it up and made croutons."
His father smiled faintly.
"That's right. Life doesn't always flow the way we expect it to. But that doesn't mean we can't make something fine out of what we have."
"But I...... the Spore......."
"It's a part of you now. And we love every part of you."
His mother continued at once.
"Child, you're our son. Whether the Beast you contracted is a Spore or a dragon...... it doesn't matter." his father added in a low voice as he pulled his son into his arms.
But there was no way it did not matter.
***
Their house was small and cramped, but it was full of love and the smell of the finest cooking on the outskirts.
But however hard he tried, Ren could not swallow his food.
His parents did their best even in this new situation.
Sweet root stew, freshly baked bread, and wild berries for dessert.
Three candles lit the table with a warm light, but that light was nothing like the ash-gray glow of the Spore.
"Eat a little something, baby. It's been a hard day, hasn't it?"
His mother held out a plate.
"I'm...... not hungry."
"Just one bite. Your mother simmered it for hours." his father put in, but not even the scent of his favorite dish could cover the bitterness of disappointment.
With tears welling, Ren rose from his seat.
"I'm sorry." he whispered quietly before running to his room.
The Spore clung to his side like a shadow of guilt.
"Ren! At least take some bread with you!"
The only answer to his mother's call was the sound of a door closing.
The three candles still burned, and the food set out with love remained on the table just as it was.
The parents met each other's eyes with weary faces.
The weight of worry pressed down on their shoulders.
"I said I'm not hungry......."
Ren's voice rang out from inside the room when his mother knocked with a tray in her hands.
In the darkness the boy was staring at the faint light given off by the pathetic companion he had been given.
One week.
In one week he would have to go to the academy.
And there he would have to endure the mockery and contempt that would pour down on him with his whole body.
Which meant that within one week he had to accept it.
The fact that his life, together with the worst Beast of all, was becoming exactly what everyone expected it to be.
......Gray, like the color of the Spore.
***
The small dining room.
The light of three candles lit the weary faces of the two of them.
Faces that had watched the moment their last hope turned into an ash-gray Spore.
The school contract lay on the table.
The moment it was signed, Ren would have to attend the 'Imperial Evolution Academy' for eight years.
A path of strengthening one's Beast, developing one's abilities, and growing into a true Tamer, at an academy that, while not the undisputed best, was called one of the best.
That had been the original plan.
"Sixty years." the husband murmured.
The two of them were already sixty.
The contracts they had formed with their Iron-grade Plants glowed faintly at their wrists.
Hands roughened by decades of kitchen work brushed trembling over the document.
"We sold everything for this. Everything."
To sign this contract they had poured in one million crystals, everything they had built over a lifetime of work.
When they were young they had no money to buy a secret training method that would evolve their Beasts.
So the Plants they raised had only reached their adult form, and the abilities they gained from that came to a 40% rise in vitality and a 20% rise in physical ability, no more.
Though even that was enough to keep working in a third-rate kitchen on the city's outskirts.
Thanks to the vitality bonus they looked as young as a couple in their forties, but luck had rarely visited their lives, and today was crueler still.