"Two days have almost passed. All candidates should have an artefact by now."

A group of individuals sat comfortably at a small dinner table, enjoying their delicacy. 

This dining hall was one of the few reserved for the highest authorities of the Missionary Church of Vanquish. It was a dining hall used to hold a small banquet for esteemed guests. Its lack of space, seating, and elegant decor was an affirmation of how privileged it was. Not even generals were usually allowed to partake here. 

However, the preceding five days are a special case because of the Pre-Soldier Exam.

As of this moment, they were enjoying their gourmet meals, watching the exam, making comments, and exchanging pleasantries. 

The large marble screen that hung on the wall near the dinner table was the main source of conversation. The screen showcased the views of the various candidates for the exam, and it periodically changed every few minutes. Due to the large number of participants, the screen was incapable of focusing its cast on a particular few. Thus, it was impossible to focus on the best future prospects that usually gave an entertaining show. 

Of course, this did not displease the viewers. After all, it was part of their duty to oversee them. In fact, the people present here all had great influence on the assessments of the candidates. 

"Indeed General Baseth. Though it's a shame that a surprising amount of candidates have already retired," General Maire lamented.

"Do you have a figure?" Crown Prince Kayle asked as he sipped on his glass of fine red wine.

"Your Royal Highness, out of the two hundred and forty-seven candidates . . . seventy-five have retired. Thus, there are a hundred and seventy-two left," General Zelgius reported.

Crown Prince Kayle’s brows quirked up slightly. “If we disregard those unfortunate thirty four children who were helpless but to retire due to their unlucky locations when teleported, I find it as pleasing news.” 

"You aren’t wrong Crown Prince and I have no misgivings. But with how things are right now, the children need to step up their game!" Apostle Wrau asserted. 

If it was 5 years prior, they would never do such a thing as put the children in such a situation without proper ensured surveillance of their safety. For the safety of the continent’s future, they had no choice but to be more stringent and cruel.  

"I'm a little disappointed. However, it was close to my expectations. After all, the circumstances and situations they're put in are arduous. In a realistic setting, without the proper experience, it is inevitable for such things to occur. Even unreliable notions such as luck could play a vital role in one's survival," a man disclosed.

Like Apostle Wrau, this man too wore the same vestment as him, but the holy embellishments and divine inscriptions on him were different in pattern. 

His name was Apostle Farden Gray, and was a man in his late forties. Unlike Apostle Wrau, he was much more slim, yet built in muscle likewise to Apostle Wrau. 

Known also as the ‘Pope’s Aid’, Apostle Farden was predominantly in charge of organising many large rites, and was the strongest preacher of the teachings of the Church. He ensured that all religious ceremonies are properly conducted with a great degree of piety. 

Although he rarely travels and conducts most of his duty inside the Head Church of Zetral as of now, his task was to oversee the Pre-Soldier Exam with Apostle Wrau and deepen relations with Cresuilge Kingdom officials. 

"Like that one candidate who came across the Green Razor Wing,” General Baseth said.

"It's a shame that we were unable to see the outcome of what happened to that boy. He was really unlucky to encounter such a beast from day one."

"Hahahahah, Marie. That boy will be fine without a doubt! He's one of a kind," Apostle Wrau said. The downcast mood was no longer present to the eye.  

"That boy was undeniably talented and coolheaded. However, if I remember correctly, his mana seed was dormant. He wouldn't be able to get that far even if he managed to escape," General Zelgius stated. 

"Dormant mana seed? At his age? What a pity, what a pity."

"Apostle Farden, you are interested in that boy?" Crown Prince Kayle questioned.

"In my eyes, that boy surpasses the two peers of his. I could tell from his calm attitude and his cautiousness that he is far above the others in the mindset of an ideal Vanquisher." On top of that, he has managed to learn concealment skills. How impressive, he thought.  

"Interesting.” Crown Prince Kayle raised his voice an octave. “I too thought along the same lines but was unable to appraise him that far. Though, I believe that his two close peers deserve equal in credit. Especially that boy with his spells. As we saw before, he was quite composed as he swiftly struck those Valimites."

I heard that Feeria child cussed quite vulgarly during that incident a few weeks ago, with one of our soldiers-in-training, Marie thought.

"That girl named Alexia Mae and boy named Hayate. Those two will probably be the top rankers for this Pre-Soldier Exam." General Zelgius brought up. 

"What does Apostle Wrau and Apostle Farden think of those two?" General Baseth asked curiously for their insight.

"Hmm . . . well they're certainly talented children and very skilled . . . I can't deny that," Apostle Wrau muttered.

"Then? . . . what is it they're lacking?

 Apostle Wrau was hesitant to speak.

"They lack discipline. As expected from internship students from Feeria and the rising prodigy of the Swamp, their arrogance is hindering their growth. Without diligently following the teachings of Caleyar, they are just a bunch of spoiled children," Apostle Farden grumbled with a huff.  

"Well in retrospect, their organisational structures and systems of government are very different from ours," Crown Prince Kayle commented, easing the tensions. 

"There are also those two, Li Jun and the son of the Commerce Apostle himself, Benito Carter," Marie mentioned. 

While the individuals continued to be immersed in their discussion, an unexpected scene panned into the spotlight.

*NNGH* *NNGH*

The sound of choking was heard next to General Marie. It appeared that General Baseth was choking on a glass of water he had just drunk. This scene had naturally attracted the attention of those present on the table.

"Are you alright Baseth? I know you're excited with all the food and chatter, but you gotta have some self-control," Apostle Wrau admonished.

*Cough* *Cough* *Cough*

General Baseth took the handkerchief offered by General Marie. "E-Excuse me for the disturbance. I simply couldn't maintain a straight face from everything I have been witnessing."

"Hmm? Was there an issue with what we were conversing about?"

"No no no, please look at the screen." He lowered his handkerchief away. 

When the group of highly notable status turned their heads to view the screen, they were startled. 

TING!

The room was hushed to a silence.

Amidst the silence rang the dropped silver utensils. 

 

***

 

Sitting peacefully on a rocky sunny slope was a bulky framed boy. 

His name was Rhaghav Babu and was an internship student originating from Gigan. Anyone would recognise his origin from taking a glance at his simple drab attire and the Gigan insignia carved at the chest. 

Haah. Haah.

Eyes closed, he slowly exerted his breaths slowly, in and out, tempering his body by consolidating and compressing the natural mana in the air onto the body. 

He was currently ‘resting’ for the time being as he had just managed to take down a beast by himself. While it may come out as absurd that he was training just after a harsh battle, this training practice in fact was not too much different from taking a genuine rest like a nap. 

The reason for this was because he was carefully meditating and not straining to temper himself at all, meaning what he was doing was very light exercises at the most. Yet, his actions were reaping overlooked benefits, forging his body by building up his stamina and endurance reservoir. It was effective considering this was after a battle. 

What is that noise I keep hearing? 

Unable to retain his state of mind no longer from his welled up curiosity, Rhaghav opened his eyes, his perked up ears signaled to him that the source of noise was coming from above. In a breath's time after looking, his state of mind had now entered a shocked state.

High in the air but much below the clouds, he saw what appeared to be a beast known as a Rhinearian Beetle. Its wings were flapping and beating so fast to the extent that the created wing vibrations were causing a great uproar of buzzing noise. And it was flying at speeds that would pique question to its huge size. 

Rhaghav, who was trying to figure out what was going on, suddenly let out a ‘Mmm!’

Spring, mating season! It must be a male making a mating call to attract a mate. That explains why it is moving like that. How admirable! But wait? I thought the male beetles would look to face another of the same gender and fight it out in front of the female to impress them? That’s strange. Should I go over?

If he went over, he would be able to maybe fight one of them and be able to collect a large abundance of mana. He deliberated for a moment before shaking his head. 

In the first place, this species of beetle were not only strong but were also able to fly. It would just flee if things were not going well for it. 

That was also the reason why most candidates who saw the scene were not bothering to approach it and simply watching the weird event take place from where they are.

Though the main reason for Rhaghav not acting on his thoughts was because he felt that would be wrong of him. 

I wish you good luck my brother. I hope your valiant efforts will find you a good wife. 

After giving three hefty slaps to his chest, he gave it one last look of admiration. The action unexpectedly caused him to slightly tilt his head.

He thought he saw a human-shaped figure on the back of the beast. The shape of the figure resembled a hoisted flag zestfully blowing in the wind. But it was too blurry and impossible to tell.

After a moment of thinking, the ‘truth’ came to his mind. 

You must be a lucky mutant. Your wife will certainly be happy! 

Misunderstanding the blurry shape as part of the beetle’s body, Rhaghav nodded his head as his lips curled to form a smile. 

He closed his eyes and went back to his meditation; the smile of his continuing to stay for a long time, listening to the Rhinearian Beetle’s fervent mating call. 

 

***

 

“You IMBECILE! DO YOU UNDERSTAND THAT THE MORE YOU WRIGGLE AND STRUGGLE, THE MORE IT WILL HURT! CALM DOWN ALREADY!”

In the sky, shouting in a voice as calm as he could to avoid alarming people that he was riding . . . correction, hanging off a Rhinearian Beetle was Dalis.

He was hanging off the beetle's back, tucking his arms and arm locking the tip of the beast’s thorax where its head was connected. His arms were tightly grasping the two ends of the tri-section staff, coiling the neck to lock the beast as if it was a collar. 

It had taken him so long for him to somehow manage to get himself in this position. Dalis figured that once he wrapped himself like this he will be able to have a firm grip on it so he won’t fall off, as well as be able to put this beast on a leash and make it obedient. 

However, he was far too naive: he had completely underestimated how frantic it was, and he had failed to recognise another factor known as stupidity. 

Instead of calming down and perhaps reasoning out him, as it should know by now that he could not really hurt it and an impasse would be reached, the beast turned overdrive and panickedly accelerated its flight speed by many times.

The speed before was like a butterfly fluttering quickly to its next flower, but as of now it was like a zooming jet. 

Because of the collar around its neck, the increased pressure had made it tighten to the point of suffocation. 

It was strangling itself!

Technically, this meant Dalis could wait for it to kill itself but  . . .

Falling from this height was certainly courting death. 

Thus, Dalis had no choice, whether he liked it or not, but to somehow calm it down.

Initially, he had a neutral-like compromise of an equal standing. Yet that did not work, so he switched his approach by trying to be nice and use calpufer herbs to somehow calm it down. 

However when that happened, it transformed to be more frenzy than ever. It actually thought that Dalis was trying to provoke it and terrorise it by using its favourite food. 

The end result of that was Dalis losing almost half of his supply of calpufer herbs to be dropped and lost in the forest. 

Indignant and having lost his patience, Dalis gave up, and he was now trying ways to terrorise it in hopes that it would be feared into obedience. 

Maintain your calm, maintain your calm. This beetle has long past the realm of being able to be reasoned with. I must find a way to terrorise it in a way that will make it submit.

The main issue was that his position prevented him from being able to do much at all. 

He tried steering the beast like a car by twisting the staff, without tightening the staff. 

The result was a fit of ‘maydays’ of which Dalis barely was able to avoid crash landing. If it wasn’t for his ‘piloting skills’, which he did not have, then he probably would have entered the ‘Bermuda’ part of the forest. Never to be seen anymore.

There was no way in hell he was going to try that again. 

Damn it! Do I really have no option, but for round 2 of landing? It’s like I’m ‘piloting’ an aircraft except it's a flying beast! An untamed wild idiotic beast! Untamed? Tamed?

Dalis furrowed his brows. Beast tamers . . . Domestication . . . ?

He continued swimming deeply into his thoughts. Particularly, words such as ‘terrorise’, ‘animal abuse’, and ‘domestication’ remained etched into his mind.

Unbeknownst to the world, this marked the very first step of the Odyssey of Dalis’s chapter of descending and becoming a renowned horrifying figure that would cause all beasts and animals to shiver under the mention of his name— 

—Tyrant Beast Overlord.