(Thena POV )
The forest breathed.
Not metaphorically.
It inhaled.
The moment Thena crossed the threshold, roots tightened beneath her boots and leaves shuddered overhead. Life-aspected mana saturated the air so densely it brushed against her sage-green scales like warm water. Every step sent ripples through the ground, as if the land itself were adjusting to her presence.
It's alive, she realized.
And it knows I am too.
Genesis Wild Academy — Mortal Branch — was not a structure.
It was an ecosystem.
Trees arched together into living gates. Massive beasts slept openly in sunlit clearings, their slow breaths rising like hills. Flowers bloomed, withered, and rebloomed in minutes, releasing glowing spores that clung to skin and fabric alike.
And everything—
everything—
was watching her.
Thena rolled her shoulders, wings flexing instinctively before she folded them tight. Her horns curved back elegantly from her temples, smooth and ridged like polished jade, faint veins of light pulsing beneath the surface. Unlike Azreal's stillness or Saldo's grounded weight, her body carried restless vitality—growth waiting to happen.
A chime rippled through the forest.
Not sound—resonance.
Students emerged from the undergrowth, gathering in a massive natural clearing where grass glowed faintly beneath their feet. At its center stood a barefoot woman wrapped in living vines, eyes glowing gold-green with predatory calm.
"Welcome," she said, her voice carried effortlessly by roots and wind, "to Genesis Wild Academy."
The forest quieted.
"I am Headwarden Lysara."
Power settled behind the name—not crushing, but absolute.
"You survived entry," Lysara continued. "That means the land has not rejected you."
Several students relaxed.
That was a mistake.
"Do not misunderstand," Lysara said pleasantly. "Genesis does not protect its students. It tests compatibility."
The ground rippled at her gesture. Vines surged upward, forming platforms where instructors waited—beast tamers with scarred hands, druids with antlers growing from their skulls, monster biologists carrying bloodstained tools openly.
"We do not teach domination," Lysara said. "We teach coexistence."
Her gaze sharpened.
"Those who attempt control without understanding will be eaten."
A nervous laugh broke the tension.
A vine snapped up, coiling around the student's ankle. A massive plant-beast lunged from the undergrowth and bit down, severing the limb in a spray of blood.
The scream echoed.
No one intervened.
"The land makes examples faster than I do," Lysara said calmly.
Thena swallowed.
Her soul stirred.
Status.
[STATUS WINDOW — THENA]
Race: Draconic (Hybrid)
Age: 15
Realm: Mortal
Class: Beast Tamer (Mortal Grade)
Class Progress: 9%
Traits:
Severance of Organic Matter (Suppressed)
→ Absolute authority over the division, separation, and disassembly of living structures
→ Warning: Trait bypasses regenerative laws
→ Current Status: Locked by Existential Constraint
Primary Energies:
Mana
Life-Aspected Spiritual Energy
Secondary Energies:
Creation Authority (Sealed)
Chaos (Dormant)
Skills:
Symbiotic Link (Lv. 1)
Verdant Manifestation (Lv. 1)
Thena's eyes lingered on the skills.
Symbiotic Link pulsed faintly.
She reached inward—and felt it immediately.
Not control.
Connection.
Symbiotic Link (Lv. 1)
Allows the user to form a mutual bond with a living creature.
Neither party dominates the other. Growth, pain, and power are partially shared.
Failure to maintain balance results in bond collapse—or predation.
So that's the rule, Thena thought.
No masters. Only partners.
Her attention shifted to the second skill.
Verdant Manifestation (Lv. 1)
Allows the user to temporarily manifest plant-based biological constructs using life-aspected mana.
Constructs are living, reactive, and capable of adaptation.
Overuse may result in uncontrolled growth.
As if responding to her curiosity, a thin vine coiled briefly around her wrist—warm, gentle—before sinking back into the soil.
The forest approved.
Her trait, however, remained dim.
[Warning: Trait Suppression Active]
[Reason: Host lacks sufficient restraint]
Thena exhaled slowly.
Fair.
Across the clearing, a group of students attempted to force a contract onto a snarling beast. The sigil flared violently.
The creature mutated.
Bone warped. Muscle doubled. Eyes split.
It tore through three students before instructors put it down.
Lysara did not flinch.
"Creation without consent leads to monstrosity," she said. "Remember that."
Thena nodded silently.
Azreal's academy breaks bodies, she thought.
This one breaks arrogance.
A living sigil bloomed overhead—formed of vines, spores, and shifting silhouettes.
DISCIPLINE SELECTION — GENESIS WILD (MORTAL BRANCH)
Core Paths (Choose Two):
Beast Taming & Symbiotic Contracts
Monster Ecology & Evolution
Life-Aspected Mana Control
Regenerative Biology
Supplementary Studies (Choose Two):
Survival & Territorial Law
Mental Synchronization
Alchemy — Living Reagents
Inter-System Energy Theory
Thena smiled faintly.
Understanding first.
Creation later.
She made her selections.
[Class Selection Confirmed]
[Trait Compatibility: High]
[Future Evolution Path: Concealed]
Somewhere deep within her soul, something ancient shifted.
Not awakened.
Waiting.
Across realms, through the unbreakable bond she shared with her brothers, Thena felt it—
Azreal's pain.
Saldo's restraint.
Don't rush, she sent gently.
We're growing the right way.
The forest exhaled.
Above Genesis Wild, unseen by mortal eyes, cosmic thrones observed quietly.
And between life, death, and balance—
the Era of Chaos learned how creation begins.