Morning light filtered weak and grey through William’s single window, and he woke to find the small guardian still curled against his side, one dark eye cracking open the instant he stirred. His shoulder had stiffened overnight into a dull, constant ache, but the sharp agony of the day before had faded into something manageable, and for the first time since the Tower, his mind felt clear enough to actually think.
’Stat points. Skill points. A Taming Realm I haven’t even looked inside yet.’ He sat up carefully, back against the wall, and called the window forward with a thought. ’Time to figure out what I actually have to work with.’
[Free Stat Points: 8]
[Skill Points: 3]
He stared at the allocation prompt for a long moment, uncertain where to begin. Seven years of training had taught him plenty about the theory of hunter growth, stat distribution, skill investment, the careful math that separated hunters who climbed steadily from those who stalled out and died on floors they had no business attempting. None of that theory had ever applied to him directly, not when his own stats had crept upward at a Common grade tamer’s glacial pace no matter how hard he pushed.
’Vitality and Spirit are already high. Mana too.’ He turned the numbers over in his mind. ’Strength and Agility are what’s dragging me down if I ever need to fight without Cerberus at my side.’
He funneled four points into Strength, three into Agility, and the last point into Vitality, watching the numbers shift in real time, his frame already feeling subtly different, steadier, as though the changes had settled into his muscles the instant he confirmed them.
Strength: 32
Agility: 38
Vitality: 43
The skill points proved trickier. He had no new active skills waiting to be unlocked, nothing obvious to spend them on beyond deepening his understanding of what he already possessed. On a whim, more curious than certain it would do anything at all, he focused his full attention on Tame itself, willing the system to show him more than the bare name it had offered so far.
The response came immediately, unfolding before his eyes in far greater detail than anything he’d seen the previous day.
[Tame (Mythical)]
[The core ability of the Mythical Taming System. Allows the user to form a binding contract with any living being, artifact, skill, or environmental force whose will is weaker than the user’s own at the moment of the attempt. Success is calculated from three factors: Dominance, the raw gap in strength and spirit between user and target; Weakness, the target’s current physical and mental condition relative to its baseline; and Resonance, an intangible affinity that increases when the target’s nature aligns with the user’s own history, intent, or circumstances. Targets that are willing require no resistance calculation. Targets that are unwilling may resist based on their own will stat, and failed attempts carry backlash proportional to the gap between user and target. There is no theoretical ceiling on what may be tamed. There is only the ceiling of the user’s own growth.]
William read it twice, something cold settling into his chest at the final line. ’No ceiling. Not on what I can tame. Only on how strong I become.’ He thought of gods and relics and things he couldn’t yet imagine, all of it theoretically within reach if he simply grew strong enough to reach for it.
He turned his focus next to the Taming Realm, curious what three skill points invested in understanding might reveal about the strange pocket dimension he hadn’t yet dared to look inside.
[Taming Realm (Lv.1)]
[A private dimensional space accessible only to the user, where tamed entities may be stored, rested, or trained outside of the physical world. Currently holds 3 slots. Time within the Realm passes at the same rate as the outside world unless specific conditions are met to alter it. Entities stored within recover from injury and exhaustion at an accelerated rate compared to the physical world. Capacity increases through Realm-specific growth, achieved by strengthening the bond with tamed entities or through rare Realm Expansion items.]
’Accelerated recovery.’ William glanced down at the small guardian, still watching him with quiet, patient eyes. ’Reyes needed that kind of place yesterday, not a field medic’s rushed bandage.’ He filed the thought away, uncertain yet how the Realm might apply to anyone besides his own tamed entities, but curious enough to explore it properly once his shoulder stopped throbbing every time he moved wrong.
He spent his remaining focus on Doppelganger and Hellfire Manipulation, watching their bios deepen the same way Tame’s had, details filling in that hadn’t been visible the night before, subtle notes on stamina costs and recovery windows that would matter enormously the first time he tried using either skill in a real fight rather than a desperate hollow in the mud.
Satisfied for now, William let the personal windows fade and turned his curiosity outward instead, toward the broader structure of the world he’d apparently been living inside without ever fully understanding it. Seven years as a Common grade tamer had taught him the basics every child learned before their first Awakening ceremony, but he’d never had reason to study the deeper mechanics of rank and classification the way hunters bound for real careers did.
[Hunter Ranks]
[F-Rank through SSS-Rank, determined by combat power, Tower floor progress, and verified contributions. Rank is independent of Talent grade; a Common grade Talent may still climb through disciplined growth, though such cases are exceedingly rare above C-Rank. SS-Rank and above are tracked individually by the Global Hunter Association and represent fewer than two hundred living hunters worldwide.]
[Monster Classification]
[Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, Legendary, Mythical, mirroring Talent grades in structure though calculated independently through combat data, magical density, and Tower depth of origin. A separate, rarer classification exists above standard grading: Special Ascension. These are monsters that have exceeded their base classification through unique circumstance, prolonged survival, rare mutation, or exposure to forces beyond normal Tower ecology. The first recognized tier of Special Ascension is Guardian Class, monsters bound to specific floors or structures who have grown beyond their origin grade through centuries of accumulated strength, kills, or unknown external influence. Guardian Class monsters are exceptionally rare outside of Tower floor bosses and are never found roaming freely under normal conditions.]
William stopped on that last line, rereading it slowly. ’Never found roaming freely under normal conditions.’ He thought of the crater in the marsh, the scorched reeds, Cerberus dragged seven floors from wherever it belonged and left to die in a place it should never have been able to reach. ’Someone or something did this on purpose. Or something happened that broke the rules badly enough to displace a Guardian Class boss without anyone noticing until it was already loose.’
He pushed the thought aside for later, not ready yet to chase an answer he had no way of finding, and continued reading through the Codex’s remaining entries, absorbing details on standard weapon classifications, artifact grading, and the Global Hunter Association’s ranking boards where the world’s strongest hunters were tracked and celebrated like living legends.
[Global Ranking]
[The Association maintains a top one hundred listing of SS-Rank and above hunters, updated quarterly based on verified Tower achievements, kill records, and territorial contributions. Rankings below the top one hundred are tracked regionally rather than globally. Entry into global standing typically requires SS-Rank or the possession of Legendary or Mythical grade Talent with corresponding combat achievement to match.]
’Mythical grade.’ William glanced down at his own status window, still faintly disbelieving the words printed there. ’I already have half of what that entry requires. I just don’t have anything close to the achievement to match it yet.’
The small guardian beside him shifted, sensing something in his stillness, and pressed its small warm body more firmly against his leg, a wordless comfort offered without being asked. William reached down and scratched gently behind one ear, mind still turning over everything the Codex had revealed.
’Guardian Class.’ He looked down at the sleepy, puppy sized creature currently more interested in his hand than in the weight of its own classification. ’I tamed something that’s already exceeded its own grade once. If Special Ascension exists at all, what does that mean for how far something like Cerberus could still grow?’
Outside his window, Ashvale City was waking into its usual grey morning bustle, utterly unaware that somewhere in its fourth district, a boy the world had written off as worthless was quietly assembling the first pieces of a power the Awakened Era had no framework ready to contain.