Day 11 AFP 5:45 AM

Dale stood patiently at the end of a landing airstrip in Seward with Agni by his side. It was still dark outside, almost an hour before the scheduled reporting time when the Jumbo Transport Drone (JTD) would land here to pick him up and the rest of the team.

The JTD could accommodate over three dozen Tamers and over a hundred non-tamers taking refuge in a football stadium in Dallas. Moreover, it had enough armor on its body to survive attacks from Ice Bugs.

Dale arrived early because the cameraman who would be following him around the battlefield to make the recruitment video wanted to meet before the others came. The man wished to interview Dale alone and get his thoughts on the mission, what made him decide to join the Tamer Battalion, and why he thinks it's important for others to do so.

Dale needed some time to think about how he could answer that question without sounding like a tool for the UGP. But his mind kept wandering the more he asked himself that question as some of the reasoning behind his actions weren't things he liked to talk about in public.

Dale had once aimed at becoming a doctor to earn money and status to make his father happy while he was still around. But when his father passed away, the goal changed to wanting to help people struggling with loss and those who suffered from severe cases of anxiety.

It was not a field of medicine that received much attention as the damage was primarily invisible. However, the best medical students always chose to become specialized surgeons or experts in biotechnology, rewarded them with great pay and legendary recognition among society's elite.

Their fees were too much for the average person to afford, and they shied away from helping those who had trouble earning money for themselves and their family. Once in a while, they would do a good deed for free in front of the cameras to boost their image, but it would be rare to make it a habit in the long term.

At some point, Dale began to question if money and fame should be the reason why he wanted to be a Doctor in the first place. Most of his classmates came from privileged backgrounds, and they all turned on him when his father passed. They even tried to make him hand over his inheritance if he wished to still remain in their circle. This toxic behavior convinced Dale that he had no longer desired to be part of their world or what they considered as a successful career.

Dale had the luxury of living off his inheritance to finance his illegal practice to help the poor for a while, but he learned how difficult life could be when the bank accounts ran dry.

However, Dale never gave up hope that he would one day help people again without thinking about money. Fate somehow brought him to this point where he was about to be sponsored by the reigning powers to protect people from monsters and rally them to save others.

It was not the same as being a Doctor, but he now possessed a skill that let him heal all kinds of wounds in a few minutes as long as he had Agni and the Sun to power it up. Who needs a doctor when you have that kind of power. Sometimes Dale wondered if his most profound desires made the Monster App give Agni this ability or if it was just pure luck.

Either way, he had the power to heal the injured through his monster skills, and someone else was footing the expenses on his behalf. What more could he want? Especially now that humanity is threatened by a monster invasion that aims to take over this world.

Heroes willing to sacrifice their own comforts were needed now more than ever. What was the use of having fame and money when it won't stop a monster from devouring you and your loved ones?

Someone had to set an example to motivate others to join the fight. 

Even the Albino boy from Russia with a talking Dino requested Tamers to volunteer to help the non-Tamers in their free time.

When Dale first heard of Asher, he assumed no one would volunteer. But, to his surprise, Asher's Sanctuary was slowly gathering enough momentum that the UGP had to officially recognize it as the new Spiritual Support Wing of the Tamer Battalion, which operated independently from the typical chain of command.

Over two dozen Tamers followed Asher's example of serving those who needed a Tamer's service but could not compensate.

The apocalypse had reignited people's interest in believing in God or Gods again. This encouraged Asher and his followers to rebuild the old abandoned Church in Seward. Asher offered religious services for people who followed any of the world's main religions in that building.

It didn't matter to Asher if his followers belonged to Christianity or not. Instead, he preached every day to urge his followers to help those who could not help themselves and forgive past transgressions during this time of upheaval. This message resonated with those who didn't particularly care about which religion is right or wrong. They believed in his message and wanted to follow his example, even if it meant sacrificing their free time to do a bit of charity.

The population of Non-Tamers in Seward viewed Asher as a blessing. They went out of their way to make the Tamers who followed him feel like they belonged to the community and not the UGP.

This did not stop people from spreading rumors around the base that Asher intended to defect from the UGP at the first opportunity once he gathered enough followers. It made many Tamers hesitate to join Asher's sanctuary because it risked being associated with a cult-like group known as anti-U.G.P.

Dale didn't really care about the rumors spread about Asher and his movement. All that mattered was that they were helping the people ignored by the UGP. This was something Dale approved and wanted to help out in his own way.

He considered helping out at the sanctuary, but the Admiral and Soma always assigned him some mission or drill that did not give him much free time during the daylight.

At night, Dale was virtually useless when it came to monster skills, but that didn't stop him from meeting Asher to find out how to help the non-tamers without using monster skills.

To his surprise, quite a few Tamers and Non-Tamers required counseling on mental health care. But unfortunately, they had been traumatized by the losses they suffered in the apocalypse and had no one to turn to for help.

Dale planned to start volunteering his services after he completed the mission in Texas. It was about time he did something useful at night instead of locking himself away till daylight.

Dale believed his father would be happy with what he was doing with his skills rather than crying about what he had lost.

Suddenly, the stars that Dale was studying were hidden by stormy clouds that brought a wave of snow and freezing cold winds. Dale ordered Agni to shield him with her wings and power up her flames to shelter him from the cold and the winds.

Agni's flames controlled the air temperature around Dale as he watched the snowstorm wreak havoc on his surroundings. Now that he had nothing to stare at other than her flame feathers, Dale took another look at the new Tamer Battalion Uniform of his, which was tailored to be bigger than the slim fit versions the others received.

Dale's eyes focused on a medal on his chest awarded to him by the Admiral for rescuing the Pacific Fleet in Ressurection Bay. Though Dale was not part of the UGP at the time, their leaders didn't seem to care about that detail.

This medal is among the first awarded to Tamers for bravery and contributions in a major battle. He had been on other missions, but none were significant battles worthy of note to receive another medal.

The Admiral only sent him on those bombing-run missions to raise his monster skills to Master-Level and unlock the evolution manipulation ability. Dale got three of the five skills to Master-Level among those he possessed. Unfortunately, the Holy Flames and Flashbang were stuck at Beginner-level.

Since Dale acted as a long-range Dive Bomber in every battle, he hardly ever had a reason to use these two close-range skills on himself or on anyone around him. Furthermore, according to the Monster App, he needed to use them on Humans or Monsters in a real fight, so there was no way to level them up in a non-combat scenario.

This problem caused the Admiral, Mash, and Soma to worry about Dale's ability to evolve to the third form if he had no opportunity to use these skills in combat. Thus the Admiral tasked Soma to find a way to help Dale figure out a way to level those skills up without putting his life at risk against monsters as he was not suited to fight in close combat.

Soma informed Dale that the Support Wings of the Tamer Battalion had found a way to help him. Though it was not their intention to help him that led to this discovery.

Tamers in the support wings could not level up their skills because their chances of being deployed to the front lines against monsters were almost non-existent unless all combat-focused Tamers were wiped out.

This problem didn't bother the UGP leadership as they felt the combat tamers alone needed the battle experience rather than those whose skills could not be used in a fight. However, Soma and many others did not support this view. Instead, they felt that Support type Tamers could increase their powers or access new abilities if they had a method to evolve that did not risk their own lives.

They considered it ridiculous that the Monster App only rewarded Users whose monster skills were meant for combat and stunted those it gave support or non-combat skills.

The Heads of each support wing gathered together in the Admiral's conference room in his flagship two days ago to discuss what everyone knew about the Monster App to find a loophole to exploit.

When a User's monster partner hatched from an egg, the App refused to allow the newborn to battle another, citing cruelty.

Once the monster partners evolved to their second form, almost every Tamer made them fight only by activating their combat style, which meant Fusing with their monster, turning them into equipment, or transferring their skills to the Tamer.

There were reported cases of those who tried to make their partners fight real monsters from the pillars on their own. But unfortunately, every single report had the monster partner being killed and returning into the state of an egg.

This terrified many Tamers as they would be left defenseless in battles if their monster got killed. They would also have to hatch their monster eggs again and end up with a different monster from the one they had before.

Luckily the soul of the monster remained the same regardless of the new body it was reborn into. But, sadly, the monster partners suffered trauma and behaved erratically when forced to fight on their own again.

Though it gave all Tamers a chance to create a new monster, very few wanted to let their monsters die as they had grown too attached to allow any physical or mental harm to befall them.

Tamers from the Scientific Research Wing and Intelligence Gathering Wing decided to battle each other with only their monsters who had reached their second form. They wanted to test the Pocket Monster Trainer battle model and see if it yielded any positive results.

They agreed to not let their monsters kill their opponent and only go as far as making the other Tamer declare they submit. After one of the Tamer's participated in ten battles during their experiment, he noticed his Monster App unlocked the Duel Mode feature.

The App shared a digital guidebook on the rules of using this feature and a few warnings.

The new feature allows a Monster App User's partner to battle on its own against another and levels up skills based on the number of matches it won rather than the number of times it activated its skills in actual combat.

Instead of activating a skill fifty times in actual combat with a monster to level up from beginner to intermediate, winning fifty duels would achieve the same effect. Also, instead of leveling up one skill, every skill accessible to the monster partner would level up together.

The duel could be 1 vs. 1, 2 vs. 2, 3 vs. 3, 5 vs. 5, or sole survivor in a Battle Royale consisting of 10 or more participants. There was no time limit or boundaries where the fight had to occur. If a monster partner is killed during a duel, the Monster App will revive it to peak health after twenty-four hours.

During this recovery period, the Monster App could not be activated. Thus the Tamers were instructed to stop a duel when it was clear who was the victor instead of killing their opponent. If users initiate combat without activating the Duel Mode feature, their monsters will turn back into eggs after being killed.

Though this method of Dueling was time-consuming and demanded a certain number of accumulated victories to progress, it gave a safe pathway for those who wished to level up their monster skills without being deployed to the front lines.

This discovery had sent shockwaves through the UGP and members of the Tamer battalion support wings. It meant the Monster App had revealed a way to allow every Tamer to level up without putting their lives at risk. But, in addition, they know knew the Monster App had hidden features that needed experimentation to unlock.

Dale could use this Duel feature to level up his stunted skills and finally evolve to the third form if he dedicated a few days to grinding in the colosseum.

It wasn't a literal Colosseum, just a giant old Ice-Hockey stadium similar to the Bell Centre, which could hold an audience of around 20,000.

It would also be interesting to see how Agni fought in such a small place without direct access to the sun.

Around this time, the snowstorm ended to reveal the rising sun coming up from the East. 

"Did you have trouble sleeping since it's your big day?"

Dale heard a grizzled voice of an elderly man in his late sixties. He turned his head around to find the source.

Dale. "Are you... Travis the Tamer Cameraman?"

Travis. "What? I look too old to be a Tamer?"

Dale. "I haven't met one as old as you so far."

Travis. "Does it matter how old I am?"

Dale. "Will you be able to keep up with me while I fly?"

Travis. "Don't need to be fast. My monster is based on the Harpy Eagle. It has the skills to track your movements and zoom in on you from 200 meters away. Oh, and I can record everything in slow motion, so don't think you can do stuff I won't notice."

Dale. "Impressive! Do you have any offensive skills to protect yourself if we get targeted by Ice-Bugs?"

Travis. "Hmm, I have Lazer vision, if that counts. Should be able to keep them at bay if they find my real body."

Dale. "Your real body?"

Travis. "Ah, I forgot to mention that I can duplicate myself to confuse my opponents. Like a Mass Shadow clone Jutsu from Naruto, all of my shadow clones can record everything they see."

Dale. "That's a lot of camera angles for a single Tamer to control."

Travis. "Nah, they all work independently. That's why it's difficult for my opponents to know my real body. Plus, they are solid enough to take a few hits before they get destroyed."

Dale. "Everything you and they record gets loaded to your phone?"

Travis. "Actually, The Monster App temporarily saves everything I record. I just edit what I need and create a single video before transferring it to the gallery section on my phone."

Dale. "How did you end up with these kinds of skills?"

Travis. "Kid... aren't I supposed to be taking your interview? The sun is starting to rise, and I want to get that in the shot before it rises any further."

Dale. "Ah! Sorry, go ahead with the interview."