SSS-Ranked Evolution: Worlds Unbound-Chapter 109: don’t buy

Ren wakes up to the bright sun beaming through his almost shredded window blinds and realises that today was his birthday. He was finally 18! And just as he expected, nothing happened, he wasn’t awakening anything. He was so happy that he would continue to have his life but when he went out to check on his mum, he could see her in their small garden, looking very sad. She had so many wrinkles now and her snow-white hair was a mess.

"Mum?" he called out to her, startling her from her thoughts. Upon looking at his face, she realised what a fine man her son had become. Jet black hair, beautiful amber eyes, quite a height and a fit physique. Who wouldn’t want to jump on him the instant they laid eyes on him?

"Ren..." it took her a moment, her lips parted before the words came out, "happy birthday son. I..." sadness was drowning her being, "there isn’t much at home, I was just thinking of what we would make for your special day." he could see the tears in her eyes and Ren walked over to embrace her in a big hug, "I want to give you everything but i...i...just can’t." she sobbed into him, her own failure weighing on him.

"You have already given me everything mother." he pulled her back to wipe the tears from her eyes. He hated it when his mother said such horrible things about herself, "this is what I have always wanted. A normal life with you..." he still remembered his past life, no family, having a family was what he always wanted, he didn’t care if they were poor, "I will kill something for us to eat for dinner. I don’t know if Sister will come but...it will be enough just being with you." he brought more tears to his mother’s eyes as she hugged the life out of him.

The world was ruled by magic and sword and people with special talent awakened different ranks of different classes. The lowest Rank being F and the highest being SSS, the strongest variation of the S rank. Many talents included warriors, hunters, mages, and the rarest of them all, beast tamers.

There were not many beast tamers. Out of a thousand youths that awakened, only 5 awakened beast taming abilities, and they were all S ranked. The empire, knowing the power of the mystical beasts that roamed the lands, immediately took these tamers and groomed them to serve the empire. They harvested rare mythical beasts and used them in wars against the enemy troops.

Ren awakening nothing was a trump card to him escaping the crazy life of those who did. To everyone, he was deemed worthless and he wouldn’t have it any other way.

He had taken his hunting knife and some equipment and went into the forest to hunt for his birthday meal. His sister was the one that taught him how to hunt, and it had become his guilty pleasure. He planned on catching something big and after a while of waiting, he was able to catch a wild pig. It was so big that they would only eat a portion of its meat and sell the rest so they could have money for other things.

As he prepared to carry the injured animal, he heard a low hiss. Turning around, his eyes searching for where the sound had come from, he met with the piercing gaze of a serpent that was hidden in the bushes.

Ren’s heart pounded as the snake reared back, its mouth opening to reveal long, dripping fangs that told him he was going to be snake food if he didn’t move fast enough.

"Oh crap." he muttered, taking a step back in defence, and also at the same time, initiating the battle.

The snake lunged.

Ren barely managed to dodge, stumbling to the side and raising his knife. He swung wildly, the blade nicking the snake’s side. It hissed in fury, coiling back for another strike. Adrenaline surged through him as he tightened his grip on the knife, his hands slick with sweat.

"Stay back!" he shouted but was it possible that a hungry snake would listen to him?

The snake didn’t listen to him. It lunged again, faster this time. Ren ducked, rolling to the ground and slashing upward with his knife. The blade sank into the snake’s side, and it let out a horrible screech that didn’t sound like any snake he’d ever heard. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

The snake recoiled, its body writhing in pain. Ren scrambled to his feet, panting. He could feel his legs shaking, his mind racing. He was just an ordinary guy. Why was this happening?

But then something strange happened.

The snake stopped moving and stared at him, its eyes glowing faintly. A golden light began to seep from its body, swirling in the air like smoke. Ren froze as the light moved toward him, wrapping around him in a warm, pulsing glow.

"What... what is this?" he whispered, shielding his face from the glow that became brighter as the seconds passed.

The light flowed into his hand, and suddenly, a faint symbol appeared on the snake’s forehead—a glowing glyph, intricate and alive. Ren could feel something shift inside him, like a string being pulled taut. The snake hissed softly, lowering its head as if in submission.

Before Ren could process what was happening, the snake slithered off into the shadows, disappearing as quickly as it had appeared.

Ren stood there, trembling, his knife dangling loosely in his hand. The forest was quiet again, but the air felt heavier, charged with something he didn’t understand.

"What the hell was that? Did I just...awaken?" he muttered, looking down at his hands, unsure of what had just happened. He began to fret and a burning sensation in his chest hit him like a wave, taking off his loose shirt, he was greeted with a taming glyph that glowed an eerie golden light. Ren had seen these glyphs before despite them being extremely rare, and now his worst nightmare was coming true.

"I awakened beast taming?! Oh crap!"

Chapter 2: Beast Taming In Action.

The empire Ren was born in was the Tzen empire, and it was the strongest in all the lands. There were many empires, both big and small but none could compare to the Tzen empire, ruled by the infamous Duke Alpheus. The duke was known for his inability to express empathy and had brought the empire from weak to deliberating strength. He never took no for an answer and everything he wanted, he took with force, even if it was handed gently to him. The empire’s military strength was almost divine, they housed only the finest and those who weren’t strong enough would eventually be killed by one force or the other.

The Tzen empire was created by four of the strongest provinces. Gidor, Lufenia, Hyashi and Doga. Recently Lufenia was chosen as the capital of the empire since they consistently awakened high ranked individuals that were absorbed into the Tzen Empire.

Ren resided in Gidor, in one of the smaller towns with his mother. The province was very fond of leaving the less privileged to suffer and no one in the town liked the empire or the rulers. Now in the tiny space of his mother’s house, Ren was having an existential crisis. In the small bathing space, with a pale of water and a straw sponge, he tried to scrub his taming glyph off his chest, causing blisters to form on his skin. He hissed and cursed, but there was no way his destiny was going to be rubbed off his soap and water.

"Dammit! I’m ruined!" He screamed to the universe before he thought of the fox

"Can you unawaken an awakening?" this time, she laughed, her eyes following her movement. She opened them slowly to reveal jaded pearls, the essence of her magic fluttering around in them, they had always told him she had mesmerising eyes, he was just seeing that.

"No you can’t Ren. But why do you ask? Did you awaken?" her eyes glittered with more magic and Ren was slowly getting hypnotized until she realized and tried to tone down her excitement so she wouldn’t accidentally cast a spell on him, "what did you awaken? I can sense a strange power coming from you." her voice became softer, lower so no one would hear what he was about to say.

"Well.... I...it’s... Be—" screams erupted from the market, and it prompted Irina and Ren to cut short their meeting and go check it out. People were running in the opposite direction of them and when they got there, there was a wolf wrecking havoc.

It’s dark purple fur shimmered unnaturally, arcs of electricity sparking across its body. Its glowing yellow eyes burned with primal fury, and its growl rumbled like distant thunder. The wolf roared, snapping its jaws at anyone too slow to run. A child tripped nearby, her small form trembling as the beast locked eyes on her.