Chapter 1: Spirit Awakening Ceremony

Year 23,583, Duskfield City.

It was early in the morning.

The morning breeze brushed against the trees in the park, evoking a light rustle from the green leaves. Light from the rising sun cascaded through, casting shadows on the adjacent buildings.

Amongst the shadows, a row of windows greeted the light that managed to evade the leaves.

Rays of light peeked into one of the windows, illuminating a white, furry creature that was sprawled out on the floor.

"Cat, wake up, I'm leaving soon," A voice sounded, awakening the slumbering creature. It opened its lazy eyes and turned to glance at the source of the voice.

In the tiny apartment, a teenage boy stood facing a mirror, fixing his appearance.

With practiced motions, he swiftly tied his black hair backward, reaching slightly below his shoulders.

After finding his reflection satisfactory, he turned his black eyes towards the cat, which had already started its stretching routine.

"I'll be back in the afternoon. I've left out some food for you."

"Meow~" The cat's lazy cry sounded in response.

The boy looked at the cat, wondering as always if it really understood him.

As a Rank-0 Spirit Beast, its intelligence was insufficient to understand concepts such as language.

Pushing these thoughts to the back of his mind, the boy glanced at the hololink on his wrist.

It was 6:13 AM.

‘I'm a little early; the Spirit Awakening Ceremony starts at eight. It shouldn't take me more than an hour to reach the Spirit Tamer Association.’

The boy mused while opening the sole window in the apartment before making his way towards the door.

As he walked past the entryway, he picked up an ID card from atop the shoe cabinet.

The words "Steel Lion Martial Arts Gym" were printed on the card, followed by the name "Ain Weisman." He had placed it there last night as a reminder.

Ain placed the ID card into his pocket and left the apartment.

His apartment was on the third floor of this eighteen-floor building.

Despite being a low-income housing complex, the building and its facilities were well-maintained.

That being the case, the flaws here were also apparent. This building was designed with economic use of space in mind. Another way to put it would be that everything was cramped.

With the rows of buildings and little to no space between them, some poor souls would never see sunlight in their apartments.

The only saving grace would be the large park adjacent to the buildings, which was the result of city regulations.

As spirit tamers would put it, this was a nest of "mortals," at least the poor ones amongst them.

As an orphan, Ain's relief funds and his job could only afford him an apartment here.

Ain made his way down to the ground floor with swift movements.

"Good morning, Mr. Rudy." As he passed by the front entrance, he greeted the elderly security guard.

"Ah, Ain, good morning. It's the day of the Spirit Awakening Ceremony again. Good luck to you. I hope you can awaken your innate talent successfully.”

The elderly security guard, Mr. Rudy, greeted Ain amicably.

Ain had made a habit of greeting Mr. Rudy whenever he saw him, as the latter was his source of local gossip.

After a brief conversation, Ain swiftly left the building and departed on a hoverbus from a nearby station.

The journey this morning was slightly longer than his usual route.

As the hoverbus made periodic stops, it soon reached its maximum occupancy.

Most of the occupants were students like Ain, whose destination was also the Spirit Tamer Association.

Staring out of the window, various sceneries and landscapes passed by Ain's vision.

There were large parks, tall buildings, hills, and even artificial lakes dotting the land.

As Ain neared his destination, he noticed an obvious shift in the infrastructure below.

The size had begun to increase by several magnitudes; the buildings had become sporadic, the construction materials radiated a robust vibe, and their architectural style had become arbitrary and colorful, giving off a vastly different impression from the orderly, well-planned, and monotonous neighborhood Ain had just left behind.

He stared at all this with a hint of ambition in his eyes. He was not surprised by the sight before him, but rather fascinated by the world he would soon be stepping into.

Many would say the sight before him was the true Duskfield City.

Ain was aware of the reason for this drastic change.

Spirit Tamers!

And today's Spirit Awakening Ceremony was the annual event that presented all the graduating students with an opportunity to become one.

Ain's goal, like many others, was to awaken successfully and embark on the path of a spirit tamer.

To be accurate, rather than a goal, it was more of an obsession for Ain. He couldn't imagine taking another path in life, nor had he stopped to ever consider it.

As the hoverbus approached its next destination, Ain quickly collected his thoughts and prepared to disembark.

The station was in the vicinity of the Spirit Tamer Association. A large crowd of students would arrive with every hoverbus that landed.

The landing pads were constantly at full capacity, resulting in a wait time for the arriving hoverbuses.

As his hoverbus floated near the station, Ain could see a large structure nearby. In fact, it was so large that Ain couldn't see its entirety anymore due to his current proximity.

Numerous smaller buildings surrounded it like satellites.

The buildings all shared a common color scheme, consisting primarily of white, with hints of gray, blue, and the occasional yellow.

These were the colors of the Spirit Tamer Association.

And this entire building complex was the headquarters of the Spirit Tamer Association.

Looking closer, the construction materials for these buildings held a resemblance to stones as well as metals. Ain couldn't be sure about their exact nature, but to be used by the Spirit Tamer Association to construct their facilities, they couldn't be anything ordinary.

The Spirit Tamer Association was a government agency that oversaw all the spirit tamers in the Dawnstar Federation. It was no surprise to witness such a grand sight here.

As the passengers aboard the hoverbus discussed the awakening ceremony and the association HQ in their sights, the hoverbus received the green light for landing.

After finally disembarking, Ain followed the crowd towards the Spirit Tamer Association.

As he walked on the paved pathway, Ain keenly listened in on the surrounding conversations, trying to glean any useful information. It was a habit he had developed due to his mentor's teachings.

"I'm excited and nervous at the same time."

"I hope I can awaken successfully; my family is depending on me to make it rich."

"Hehe, my brother attended the ceremony two years ago. He taught me the Awakening Scripture ahead of time. I'll definitely awaken my innate talent."

"What's the use of that? The Awakening Scripture is no secret. Everyone who's older than us has learned it before."

"Yeah, it's said that if you're talented, you'll awaken even if you only learn the Awakening Scripture during the ceremony. If you're untalented, it won't help no matter how long you've studied it."

"Hmph, you're all ignorant. If you've learned the Awakening Scripture already, it's definitely fake. The awakening crystal directly instills the Awakening Scripture into our minds. And as soon as you leave its vicinity, you'll immediately forget it. You've definitely…"

As he listened in, Ain's attention was drawn to that last scornful comment. He was aware of the Awakening Scripture as well, but his mentor had never suggested learning it beforehand. He turned to look at the young boy who was still speaking.

His apparel and attitude all pointed to his affluent background. If there were spirit tamers in his family, it would be reasonable for the boy to be privy to this information. After all, information pertaining to spirit tamers was rare. At least, it was for most people with their 1-star access to Cyberspace.

The spirit awakening was the only path for humans to obtain power.

At the start of the Technological Era 23,583 years ago, Sovereign Auto Augustus founded the Dawnstar Federation. He decreed mandatory education, as well as mandatory awakening ceremonies for children of age.

With the requisition of all awakening crystals in the Dawnstar Archipelago, the Spirit Tamer Association was established and designated to conduct the Spirit Awakening Ceremony as one of its solemn duties.

Any entity found to have been in possession of an awakening crystal and conducting unauthorized awakening ceremonies was guilty of treason.

Thus, even members of powerful families and factions would have to lower their heads and stand amongst the commoners for the Spirit Awakening Ceremony.

Looking ahead, Ain could finally see his destination.

A heavily guarded, dome-shaped venue appeared in his vision. It was one of the buildings surrounding the Spirit Tamer Association's main tower. Uniformed sentries with fierce auras surrounded the vicinity, dampening the conversations.

Spirit pets with similarly fierce auras followed behind, scrutinizing the passersby.

‘These are without a doubt spirit tamers. And their ranks must not be low either.’ Ain thought to himself as his gaze passed over the spirit tamers and their pets.

From the rigorous security, it was obvious how much significance the Spirit Tamer Association placed on this ceremony.

Upon approaching the massive metal entrance, Ain received instructions from the uniformed officials and successfully entered the venue after multiple inspections.