After receiving his room key from the front desk, Leon located his designated chamber and swiped the card to enter.
The contract room was small, measuring only about ten square meters, with a circular magic array roughly three meters in diameter engraved into the center of the floor.
Six stable mana crystals were embedded directly into the surrounding walls, casting a soft, clear white light across the room.
Leon took a deep breath, placed the pet crystal right in the center of the magic array, pressed his hands against the activation runes, and slowly funneled his mental energy into the system.
The magic array flared to life.
Intricate, mysterious silver inscriptions rose from the floor, wrapping around the pet crystal like living serpents.
The runes grew increasingly radiant, filling the small room with a brilliant silvery-white glow.
Before long, a distinct mental tether snapped into place, linking his consciousness directly to the creature.
The Skeleton Soldier vanished from the containment crystal in a flash of light, reappearing safely inside Leon’s internal Beast Space.
Upon transitioning into a Beast Tamer, a specialized pocket dimension naturally manifests within the professional’s body.
Beast Tamers can house their monsters inside this space and summon them instantly anywhere within the radius of their mental perception.
Other professions were forced to rely strictly on external crystal storage, which severely limited their deployment speed and operational range.
Leon focused his consciousness inward and pulled up the Skeleton Soldier’s primary attribute panel.
Summon: Skeleton Soldier (Level 1 – Tier 1)Quality: White Common, Low GradeStrength: 10Defense: 5Spirit: 5Agility: 5Skills: NoneEquipment: NoneCombat Power: 50 This stat sheet was an absolute disaster.
Aside from its slightly elevated strength, every single value sat well below the baseline average.
Even a common wild goblin possessed better combat metrics.
However, Leon didn’t care in the slightest.
He took a slow, deep breath, closed his eyes, and commanded in his mind: “System, load the Roronoa Zoro template onto the Skeleton Soldier.” There was no audible response, but an invisible, tempestuous torrent of raw power suddenly surged from his core, pouring straight into the fragile undead frame resting in his inner space.
Leon snapped his eyes open as an astonishing transmutation overtook the Skeleton Soldier.
First came a blinding, blood-red aura that violently erupted from every single bone in the skeleton’s body.
The light rapidly intensified, completely flooding the inner Beast Space as a terrifying, primordial pressure began to brew.
Boom!
Within Leon’s mental perception, a tempest of emerald green aura, violently laced with arcs of black and red lightning, exploded from the skeleton and swept across the entire dimension.
“That’s…
Conqueror’s Haki!” Leon exclaimed internally, his eyes widening in shock.
Having read One Piece in his past life, he knew exactly what this ability signified.
It was the choice of a chosen few—a supreme spiritual aura capable of dominating enemies without lifting a finger, and a force that could be infused into strikes to multiply attack power exponentially.
The violent pressure and crackling black-red lightning raged for nearly a full minute before gradually receding, compressing down until it was entirely reabsorbed into the skeleton’s framework.
Leon held his breath, locking his focus back onto the center of his Beast Space.
The Skeleton Soldier had undergone a complete physical overhaul.
Its original height of 1.7 meters had surged to a towering, well-proportioned 1.85 meters.
Its bony frame was no longer brittle and frail; instead, it looked dense, heavy, and packed with condensed kinetic power.
A crop of short green hair now topped the skull, and a deep green samurai robe draped over its skeletal torso, the hem rustling softly despite the absence of wind.
Three distinct katanas hung securely from the sash at its waist.
Most striking of all were the empty eye sockets.
The faint, listless blue soul flames of the low-level undead had vanished entirely, replaced by two burning, crimson flares.
Those red eye-fires blazed with absolute wildness, an untamed spirit, and an insatiable intent to battle.
It stood perfectly straight, no longer resembling a mindless thrall, but radiating the undeniable presence of a grand master swordsman.
Leon’s consciousness trembled slightly as he commanded the interface to generate the updated data panel.
The translucent screen materialized, and the new metrics made him gasp.
Summon: ZoroLevel: Level 1 (Tier 1)Quality: Red Mythic, High GradeStrength: 3,000Defense: 2,000Spirit: 2,500Agility: 2,500Skills: Armament Haki, Observation Haki, Conqueror’s Haki, Three-Sword Style, Lion’s Song, Dragon Twister, Life Return, Purgatory Onigiri, Ultra-Tiger Hunt, Great Three Thousand Worlds, Flying Dragon Blaze, Asura: One Nine Flashes.Equipment: Wado Ichimonji, Enma, Sandai Kitetsu.Wado Ichimonji (Mythic – Growth): Indestructible and bound to the summon.
Grants a baseline of 30% armor penetration, scaling up to a maximum of 90% based on the Beastmaster’s overall Tier.Enma (Mythic – Growth): Indestructible and bound to the summon.
Grants a baseline of 30% life-steal, scaling up to a maximum of 90% based on the Beastmaster’s overall Tier.Sandai Kitetsu (Mythic – Growth): Indestructible and bound to the summon.
Grants a baseline of an additional 30% critical hit rate, scaling up to a maximum of 90% based on the Beastmaster’s overall Tier.Combat Power: 55,000 Leon stared blankly at the absurdly overpowered control panel, his cognitive gears grinding to a halt.
Thousands of points in baseline attributes at level one!
Red Mythic High Grade quality!
A legendary arsenal of combat skills!
Mythic-tier growth weapons!
A total combat power rating of 55,000!
With these raw numbers alone, his summon could easily stroll into a Level 15 high-tier dungeon and clear it blindfolded, let alone breeze through a mandatory beginner’s trial instance.
This crossed the line from being exceptionally strong straight into the realm of being completely broken.
“I’m not even pretending to play fair anymore,” Leon muttered to himself, a slow grin spreading across his face.
“I am straight-up cheating.” Once he finally regained his composure, he noticed the “Unnamed” slot at the top of the interface.
He thought for a moment before finalizing it.
“Your name will remain Zoro.” [System Notification: Naming successful.] The placeholder text on the screen instantly shifted to read: Zoro.
Almost simultaneously, the crimson flames within the skeleton’s sockets flickered brightly.
Zoro slowly raised his head.
Though a bare skull was incapable of human facial expressions, Leon could feel a structural shift in the creature’s presence.
The hollow, mindless chill of the undead had dissolved completely, replaced by a sharp, unyielding, and terrifyingly sharp martial aura.
Zoro reached out, resting a skeletal hand naturally against the hilt of the katana at his left hip.
The motion was incredibly fluid and precise, completely devoid of the clunky stiffness from before.
The three blades vibrated in their sheaths, emitting a low, resonant hum that signaled their compliance with their master’s will.
Now, all that was left was to wait for tomorrow’s performance.
Leon had already made up his mind: he was going to activate a livestream during his trial run.
Hide his strength?
Screw that.
The Beast Tamer profession was notorious for being a massive money sink.
While he had bypassed the initial financial hurdle of buying a rare-grade base beast, the subsequent costs for evolution materials, attribute potions, and gear enhancements would require an astronomical amount of capital.
He needed to showcase his absolute value to the world right out of the gate so corporations, universities, and top-tier guilds would scramble to invest their fortunes in him.
Garden Apartments, Leon’s Residence.
Claire stopped directly in front of Room 702.
Leon was the sole resident occupying this entire floor.
Her long, silver-white hair caught the dim corridor light, throwing off a cool, metallic sheen as her icy blue eyes locked onto the familiar dark brown wooden door.
She raised her hand, rapping her knuckles lightly against the surface.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
Three soft, deliberate impacts echoed clearly down the silent hallway.
There was no answer.
Claire’s brow knit together slightly.
The signature cowlick atop her head snapped straight up from her silver hair, swaying slowly from side to side in mild annoyance.
Thump!
Thump!
Thump!
She knocked again, putting significantly more force into her knuckles this time, creating a heavy, hollow echo against the wood.
Still, absolute silence greeted her from the other side.
Claire’s facial expression remained an unreadable mask of ice, but the temperature within her blue pupils seemed to plunge a few degrees lower.
She reached into her uniform pocket and pulled out a house key.
She slid it smoothly into the keyhole and turned it.
Click.
It wasn’t the fluid, familiar sound of a deadbolt sliding back.
It was the harsh, mechanical resistance of a cylinder locking up due to a mismatch.
Claire paused for a fraction of a second.
She extracted the key, lined it up carefully, inserted it once more, and turned it with deliberate pressure.
Scrape.
Click.
The jarring sound of mismatched metal grinding inside the lock cylinder was exceptionally loud in the corridor.
It didn’t fit.
The lock had been entirely replaced.
Claire narrowed her eyes, the ambient air around her instantly turning heavy and oppressive.
She withdrew her key, her icy gaze boring into the grain patterns of the wooden door panel, as if her vision could pierce right through the solid material to see what Leon was doing inside.
The cowlick on top of her head began to whip back and forth with terrifying violence.
Exhale— She let out a long, slow breath, taking half a step backward.
She raised her right hand, her five slender fingers slowly curling inward into a tight, solid fist.