A moody-looking youth with a frail, almost weathered body lay down next to a campfire housing some roasting meat. His gaze was weary, looking over his shoulder and checking the surroundings here and there, as if he was worried that somebody or something might sneak up on him.
Nevertheless, his hand didn't loosen the dagger holding the roasting meat on its end, probably for his own protection in case anything did attack.
After a few moments, the meat seemed all but done, and the frail young man swiftly lifted the dagger up to his face, chomping down on the meat with a ferocity matching even the wildest of beasts.
Nick's face was full of glee as he chowed down on the succulent meat, practically on the verge of tears.
"I'll never get used to this!"
Of course, Nick was only a food enthusiast. As someone who had grown up poor, coming to this place was almost a heaven-sent for someone like him — who never had the chance to try out delicious meat growing up, only ever surviving on cheap nutrient solutions.
But this wasn't the real highlight of his day, though; no, that would be the small, slightly glowing spherical ball of rock sitting next to him under the crackling light of the campfire.
Finished with his food, Nick looked down at it with fiery greed and swallowed the thing whole.
It was about the size of his thumbnail, so it wasn't too tough to swallow.
But the flavour or toughness of the small rock wasn't of any concern to Nick.
Instead, it was the enchanting voice that had just whispered in his ear, though that was only an illusion — the voice could only be heard by him.
[Mundane White Ox Beast core consumed. 16 Mundane Soul Points gained.]
Satisfied with the results of his kill, Nick pulled up a string of data in his mind.
[Name: Nick Balls.
Rank: Altered.
Soul Ability: Vitaldrain
Evolution Requirement: 500 Soul Points.
Soul Seeds: 67/500
Soul Seed Distribution: 67 Mundane
Beast Armament: — ]
'Damn, I still haven't gotten used to this thing showing me my name every damn time!'
Nick looked a little peeved, only there was nobody around to notice it.
But of course! He would be angry with such a humiliating name like that; his father must have been the world's best practical joker in order to have him inherit such an abominable last name.
Luckily, his mother seemed to have gained some sense by the time they had their second child, Nick's younger sister, as she wisely decided for her to inherit her own maiden name.
However, after Nick's mother and father died some years ago, when both he and his little sister were just young children, he decided to keep his name regardless of how humiliating it might be, to keep a part of his father with him in spirit.
And following in his steps, his sister decided to do the same with their mother's name.
***
Over fifty years ago, on what seemed like an ordinary day in the Federation, the human race faced a rather rude awakening. On this day, all interplanetary teleporters stopped working, making interplanetary and interstellar travel much less convenient since humanity had to resort to using interstellar ships to now travel between them, as they did back in the colonisation era.
Of course, this was only a minor inconvenience compared to the real problem that lay at hand.
It wasn't just that the teleporters had shut off and could never be turned on again; it was just that they somehow… teleported people to another place, another realm entirely.
A world that had never even been theorised, let alone considered possible to travel to. In this world, any modern scientific equipment lost its functionality, making guns, ships, vehicles, or any weapon or bomb created by humanity utterly and entirely useless in this place.
This made combating the horrid and terrifying creatures that lived in the other world extremely hard and difficult to overcome, since they could only use primitive weaponry like swords, spears, daggers, bows, etc.
However, this was where the biggest surprise and boon to all of humanity had been discovered in this place, coined the Beast Domain.
When a person killed a beast inhabiting the Beast Domain, a voice would whisper in their ear, and a string of data about themselves would appear inside their mind. With this, the people quickly realised that they could strengthen themselves way beyond what was previously considered physically possible.
Over the next fifty years of development since, the era had quickly shifted from the Age of Space Exploration to the Age of Beast Domain Exploration.
Their goal had shifted from conquering space to conquering the Beast Domain!
…Though this proved to be a much more difficult task than they had expected.
***
Ever since he had stepped into this place three weeks prior, Nick felt like he was simultaneously on cloud nine and teetering on the edge of death every day he spent in the Beast Domain.
As he had only just reached sixteen years of age, he met the requirements to enter the Beast Domain and start his own journey through evolution, which every human in the Federation had the right to do upon reaching sixteen years.
This wasn't because of a law prohibiting minors from entering but from a mysterious force of the Beast Domain itself rejecting anybody under the age of 16 from entering.
…Otherwise, who knew if the Federation would have followed the same rules, or…
None of this had anything to do with Nick, as he personally couldn't care what went through the minds of people much more powerful than himself — as long as their actions didn't directly affect him or his sister, of course.
All that he cared about was making enough money from this place to earn enough of a living to support both himself and his younger sister, who had just entered middle school.
Although, as a relatively healthy sixteen-year-old who had only just graduated high school, he also had his own dreams and aspirations!
Which young male teenager wouldn't want to gain a terrifyingly powerful ability and dominate their enemies, after all?
Nick knew for sure that he would have.
Not that Nick had any enemies, yet.
But those dreams all quickly came crashing down the moment he entered the Beast Domain and heard the whisper of the Beast Domain, along with the strings of data depicting his own abilities.
Specifically, his Soul ability.
Rated at a measly Mundane ranking, the lowest it could get, Nick was downtrodden, to say the least.
But there were no useless abilities, right?
Right??
Unfortunately, Nick wanted to give whoever said this a piece of his mind, as his Soul Ability was useless.