Karl slowly opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling above him for several seconds before rubbing his face.
His head still hurt slightly, and the uncomfortable dryness in his throat immediately told him something had gone wrong last night.
Karl pushed himself upright and looked around, finding himself lying inside his own bedroom.
How did I get back here?
He climbed out of bed and entered the bathroom before splashing cold water across his face.
As the remaining drowsiness gradually disappeared, memories from the previous night finally returned.
The dinner had continued considerably longer than he remembered.
Leon had somehow convinced everyone to keep drinking, and Karl had joined him without thinking much about it.
Ten years of experience had apparently made him forget one rather important detail; his current body was still seventeen.
Karl stared at himself in the mirror for several seconds.
So even my alcohol tolerance returned with everything else.
He vaguely remembered arguing with Leon over something completely meaningless before the rest became unclear.
A knock suddenly came from the bedroom door.
"Young Master."
Karl immediately recognized the voice.
"Come in."
The door opened just as Karl finished drying his face, revealing Victor standing outside with his usual calm expression.
Victor looked at him for a moment. "Don’t you think you’re forgetting something, Young Master?"
Karl frowned slightly.
"Am I?"
Victor stared directly into his eyes.
"Did you already forget what Darius told you last night?"
Karl froze as the memories returned to him, before everyone separated for the night, Darius Vayne had told Karl, Leon and Mira to meet him at the Reed family’s beast holding facility the following morning.
He had refused to explain anything else and only told them to arrive early if they wanted their awakening gifts.
Karl immediately turned toward the clock and his expression changed.
"Shit."
They were already late, Karl threw the towel aside and hurried back toward the bathroom while Victor watched him disappear through the door.
A quiet sigh escaped the man’s mouth.
Less than twenty minutes later, a black car moved rapidly through the streets of Ardent City.
Karl sat in the passenger seat while Victor drove, having completed what was probably the fastest morning preparation of his entire life.
Fortunately, the Reed family’s beast holding facility was located near the outskirts rather than beyond the city walls.
The place was normally used by Reed family hunting groups to temporarily house monsters and beasts captured during wilderness expeditions before they were sold, trained or transferred elsewhere.
By the time Victor stopped outside the facility, Karl could already see several familiar figures waiting near the entrance.
Leon noticed him first.
"Damn, why are you so late? My patience is nearly over."
Karl stepped out of the car and looked at him. "Well, well, I’m here at least."
Mira stood beside Leon with her arms crossed, while Darius Vayne was waiting several steps ahead of them.
Karl glanced toward the large, reinforced building behind him. He already had a reasonable guess about what Darius intended to show them.
The man had mentioned bringing something back from the wilderness and there were not many reasons the head of the Reed family guards would ask three newly awakened professionals to meet him inside a beast holding facility.
Darius shook his head when Karl approached.
"Finally."
Karl gave him a slightly embarrassed smile. "Something happened last night."
Leon immediately laughed.
"Something? You passed out."
Karl ignored him.
Darius turned toward the facility. "Come inside."
The three followed him through the main entrance while Victor remained outside.
The interior resembled an enormous warehouse, although the reinforced walls and numerous sealed doors made its actual purpose obvious.
Occasionally, growls and other sounds could be heard from deeper inside, but Darius continued past the larger holding areas.
Eventually, he stopped before a smaller reinforced door near the back. "These three arrived only a few days ago."
Darius unlocked it and pushed the door open and both Leon and Mira leaned forward.
Three small tiger cubs were lying inside the enclosure.
Their fur was almost completely black, with faint grey markings running across their bodies and small white fangs already visible whenever they opened their mouths.
For several seconds, Leon simply stared and then he slowly looked toward Darius.
"These are the gifts?"
Darius gave a proud smile.
"A few days ago, I took several of the guards into the wilderness for a hunt. We ended up encountering a Black Fang Tiger and got into a fight with it."
He pointed toward the cubs. "After killing the beast, we found these three deeper inside its cave."
Mira immediately crouched slightly to get a better look at them. "So you brought them back?"
"Leaving cubs that young alone in the wilderness would have killed them anyway."
Darius folded his arms. "More importantly, these three seem to be mutated."
They are already considerably stronger than ordinary Black Fang Tiger cubs at the same age, so I thought they might make decent companions for the three of you."
A smile slowly appeared across Karl’s face.
He remembered this, in his previous life, this exact opportunity had existed, but Karl had barely paid attention to it.
His SSS-rank Sword Saint awakening had caused an even greater commotion.
Karl had spent the following days surrounded by academy representatives, Association officials and people trying to establish relationships with him.
Most of his remaining time had gone toward Seraphina.
When Darius eventually told him about the tiger cubs, Karl had treated the matter as something unimportant and only accepted one because everyone else had.
He never seriously attempted to form a proper bond with it.
Later, after Seraphina complained that the cub was filthy and kept causing trouble whenever she visited, Karl had even abandoned it.
At the time, he thought nothing of the decision, years later he learned exactly what he had thrown away.
Karl’s gaze returned to the three tiny beasts.
Imperial bloodlines.
All three Black Fang Tiger cubs possessed Imperial-grade bloodlines.
Beast bloodlines determined much of a monster’s natural potential, with the known ranks beginning at Mortal before progressing through Awakened, Noble, Royal and Imperial.
Anything reaching Imperial was already extraordinarily rare.
Above that were Sacred, Ancient and Mythic, while Divine and Primordial bloodlines existed almost entirely within legends.
Karl had encountered countless powerful beasts during his previous life, yet he had never personally seen anything possessing a Divine or Primordial bloodline.
Even Mythic bloodlines were almost unheard of, only one had ever been publicly confirmed throughout recorded Human Alliance history.
Asterion.
The contracted beast once belonging to the Ancient Human Emperor and later recognised as one of the guardian beasts of the entire Human Alliance.
Compared with something like that, Imperial might not sound particularly extraordinary.
In reality, an Imperial-bloodline beast was enough to make powerful families fight over it.
And three were currently rolling around on the floor in front of him.
I really threw away something like this because of Seraphina.
Karl almost wanted to slap his previous self, Leon had already entered the enclosure before anyone could stop him.
"This one looks good."
He crouched and picked up the largest cub beneath its front legs and the tiger immediately twisted around.
"Hey, calm—"
Its mouth snapped toward Leon’s hand, leon reacted instinctively and activated his armour just before the cub’s teeth reached him.
Clang!
The tiny fangs struck hard metal.
Leon stared at the tiger and the tiger stared back, then it tried biting him again.
Mira burst out laughing.
"It already hates you."
Leon frowned. "I picked it up for five seconds!"
"Apparently that was enough."
Darius walked forward and pulled the cub away from him.
"Don’t bully them like that."
Leon looked offended. "It attacked me!"
"You grabbed it without warning."
Darius placed the cub back on the ground.
"If you keep frightening them, you’ll have trouble establishing even the most basic contract."
Karl looked toward the three cubs.
Darius was right, beast contracts were not all the same and the relationship formed during the initial bonding could influence the beast for years afterward.
The simplest was a Dominion Contract.
The contractor suppressed the beast through force before establishing the contract regardless of whether it truly accepted them.
The beast would obey afterward, but obedience and loyalty were completely different things.
A Submission Contract was considerably better.
Instead of being completely forced, the beast willingly acknowledged the contractor as its master, creating a stronger connection and far less hostility between them.
Beyond that was the Covenant Contract, where neither side was considered master or servant.
Both voluntarily accepted the other as an equal partner, creating much deeper communication and combat synchronization.
The final type was something Karl had only encountered a few times throughout his previous life.
Soul Communion.
At that level, the connection extended directly between the souls of both parties. Attributes, vitality and senses could gradually be shared through the bond, and sufficiently synchronized partners could even exchange certain abilities.
Karl glanced toward Leon.
And this idiot is already trying his best to ruin his first impression.
The cub Leon had grabbed was still glaring at him from behind Darius’s leg.
Leon pointed toward it.
"Why is it looking at me like that?"
Mira laughed again. "Because it remembers you."
"You really think a tiger that small holds grudges?"
The cub growled.
Darius shook his head before looking toward the three of them. "Anyway, don’t try contracting them immediately."
Leon raised one eyebrow. "Why?"
"Because they barely know you."
Darius pointed toward the cubs.
"Take them with you first feed them, train with them and see whether they accept you naturally."
" If you can establish a willing bond, that will always be better than immediately forcing one."
Karl nodded slightly, that was exactly what he intended to do this time.
An Imperial-bloodline beast was already valuable enough but Karl had no intention of repeating his previous mistake and treating his cub like some disposable pet.
Darius reached into a storage ring and removed three small dark-red objects. Each resembled a thin stone tablet with several formations engraved across its surface.
He tossed one toward Karl, then gave the remaining two to Leon and Mira.
Karl caught his and immediately recognised it, a contract rune.
"These are Dominion Contract runes," Darius explained. "Keep them with you in case forming a willing contract doesn’t work."
Leon turned the rune over in his hand before looking toward the three cubs again.
Darius crossed his arms.
"But don’t waste them today, first choose which cub you want and try getting it to accept you properly."
Karl looked down at the rune inside his palm before shifting his gaze toward the three Black Fang Tiger cubs.