In a dark room, in an unknown place in the cosmos, Joseph opened his eyes. Those red eyes seemed to glow in the darkness, revealing an indescribable emotion.
[To sign a contract with your soulbeast, simply throw the Rest Ball on the ground and inject it with a drop of your blood. The soulbeast will recognize you as its owner.]
[This item cannot be exchanged; use it wisely.]
The system messages from that mysterious store continued to float before him, heightening his excitement.
He swallowed hard. He couldn't deny his nervousness, but he had to try. The chance to rise up... to take revenge... to get what was rightfully his was before his eyes.
This had to be his moment.
He got out of bed, and a spiritual contract glowed beneath him. It immediately disintegrated, indicating that he had successfully left the Dimension of the Echo.
He reviewed what the system said again before doing exactly as instructed.
He bit his finger until it bled and dripped a few drops of blood into the white ball waiting on the floor.
It was a common practice that he had been taught throughout his life. To sign a contract with a soulbeast, you must wait for them to recognize you by your blood. The soulbeast will ultimately judge whether your blood is worthy and decide whether or not to sign a soul contract with you.
This soul contract basically consists of joining souls. That of the soulbeast with that of the aspirant.
Therefore, this was just one of the most crucial parts of signing the contract.
Joseph felt his heart was about to burst. He stood frozen for several seconds that seemed like an eternity, when suddenly the white ball glowed.
The glare blinded him briefly, and suddenly, a tiger-like beast, white with purple stripes all over its body, roared in front of him. Although the room was fairly large, the sudden appearance of a creature over 2 meters long and wide made it seem small.
And the roar did not make him feel afraid; on the contrary, there was an excitement rising in his body, along with a feeling of familiarity. It was as if he... could make that roar too.
He let himself be carried away by that feeling and roared too. Both roars suddenly merged into one when a mark of three horizontal stripes appeared on Joseph's forehead, marking and signing before destiny a firm union.
Suddenly, a huge bolt of lightning struck from the sky as a massive rainstorm began to batter the world.
On one of the most prominent floating islands left over from the Clash of Worlds, history began to move again in extraordinary directions.
The game board, the clock of destiny, and the river of death seemed to fall into sync, simultaneously...
--
Back at the Interstellar Dragon Super Store, Zaid longed for dawn to come to close the store.
He had stipulated that, during the day, he would be in the real world, doing what he had to do. Taking care of his sister, going to school, running the store his parents had left him...
And during the night, he would be at the Super Store.
This was to match the schedules of the Dimension of the Echo of Lethargy, which has two Cycles: the Major Echo Cycle and the Minor Echo Cycle.
The Major Cycle is during the day, and the Minor Cycle is at night.
Considering that the vast majority of cultivators connected to this dimension during the Minor Cycle, it was more profitable for them.
The problem was that once he opened it, it had to remain open until the end of the Cycle in which he had decided to open it. So now he was tied to the end of the Minor Cycle.
After Joseph left, he sent a message to his sister not to wait for him. Luckily for him, he had left her food prepared since the morning, so she didn't need to move around much, other than with her wheelchair.
He didn't feel entirely comfortable with it, but after a year, he was used to it.
The hours passed. Two people entered after Joseph, but when they discovered how inconvenient it was to shop in this store, they left without further ado.
When the Minor Cycle ended, Zaid immediately closed the store.
He then crossed the store to the back doors and entered the real Super Store. From the outside, this place looked like a small store of a few square meters, but inside, it was practically a world unto itself.
A colorful landscape greeted him, which was just beginning to dawn at that moment. It was nothing like the darkened store behind it; it was as if he were in another dimension, which it possibly was.
Zaid didn't care about this; he had researched it thoroughly before, so he didn't need to go in. He simply sat on the floor to see the mission completed.
The previous system announcements congratulating him and others were still there.
[The rewards will be delivered immediately, as soon as you confirm that you are ready to receive them.]
[Do you confirm?]
[Yes.] [No.]
'Yes.'
[First Reward: Become a cultivator.]
| Choose wisely from the options for the soulbeast that will accompany you for the rest of your life.
| This choice is completely free.
Zaid smiled softly when a list of soulbeasts, with their respective images, appeared in front of him.
There were all kinds, including beast types such as tigers, wolves, lions, mammoths, spiders, wyverns, and even dragons.
There were also humanoid species, which were highly sought after for their ability to bond with the cultivator.
Flying soul beasts, indispensable for becoming a Sky Cultivator, something Zaid longed for in order to discover what really happened to his parents.
But he couldn't decide on any of them.
Thanks to the System and the Super Store Book, which explained how to cultivate the soul beasts and which ones had the greatest potential, he already had one in mind before completing the mission.
He quickly searched through the options, his heart sinking when he couldn't find it, until, among so many options, he saw a small image of something very small, green in color, that seemed to glow.
His eyes sparkled along with the glow of the little beast.
A sea sheep.
One of the most peculiar, small, and beautiful animals in the animal kingdom.
Since the collision of three planets destroyed the world, countless floating pieces of land remained from what was once the most advanced civilization in the galaxy. Since humanity was not exterminated, it could develop on each of these pieces of land, now called floating islands.
This resulted in humanity losing many of its oceans or having them scattered among the larger islands.
As a result, many of the most mythical marine species were lost in that explosion.
But among them, there was one that survived.
The sea sheep. It is so small that no one takes it into account, and because the natural habitat where they lived was lost, no one knows how to cultivate it or even where to find it.
But it exists in the Dimension of Echo, although even Zaid does not know where; he only knows of its existence from the Book of the Super Store. And it does not just exist. It has evolved into one of the most powerful Soul Beasts... if not the most powerful.
Because it has a fantastic ability: to bless the soul, even to divide it and form different souls.