The next morning...
Steve stirred in his sleep. He felt something warm and soft on his arm. He opened his eyes to look at what the source of softness was. Upon opening his eyes, he could not believe what he saw that he immediately shut his eyes close. After a few seconds, he opened his eyes again. He knew he wasn't dreaming, after all, he was a Half-step Immortal God, and there was no way he wouldn't be able to tell if he was in a dream or not, despite his extremely young age.
Steve looked at the beautiful girl in front of him. She was sleeping peacefully with a smile on her face, and she was hugging his right arm with both of her arms. An image flashed through Steve's mind. It was brief, but Steve had caught most of the image. In that image, there was a girl in front of him. But before Steve could think more about the image, Icy woke up and opened her eyes.
"Good morning," said Icy, letting go of Steve's right arm. She spoke as if everything was completely normal and that she had not just been hugging Steve's arm in her sleep.
"Good morning," said Steve subconsciously.
Icy then turned into a ball of white light that went back to her monster card in Steve's pocket. Steve was still looking at the place that Icy had been sleeping, shocked.
Steve decided to push all his questions to the back of his mind and go to class first. He also didn't forget to release the system from the confined space.
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Classroom 6-A...
"Good morning, class," said Mr. Blackwood. "Today will be another fun and exciting day!" Mr. Blackwood started to talk about yesterday's solo battles and the 2 vs 2 team battle that would take place.
Steve, who was listening to Mr. Blackwood explaining the 2 vs 2 battles, was interrupted by the system.
[Lord! There's an emergency!]
[I'm really sorry, my lord! But it's really an emergency!]
The ball of light in Steve's head trembled. [Of course, of course. My lord, do you remember the portals that have bought the monsters to this world?]
[It's not only that. The reopening of the portals will strengthen the monsters and will cause great danger for the humans of this world and may even lead to the total extinction of the humans. This was why I was sent here to train the most powerful monster tamer, it was to train a human to become strong enough to lead the human race in a fight against the monsters and save them from extinction.
[The portals have strengthened the monsters much faster than calculated. As of now, many monster tamers are getting killed by the monsters due to their unexpected increase in strength and numbers. 2 more qualities of monsters above divine quality have appeared in this world, namely nirvana quality and soaring quality. Currently, monster tamers are theoretically able to go against nirvana quality, but their monsters are not strong enough. However, they have no chance against monsters of soaring quality. The limit on monster tamers has also loosened. They are now able to become stage 10 monster tamers, but currently, no one has reached that stage. Also, many defenses have fallen and monster territories have expanded due to the unexpected attacks by the monsters.]
Steve interrupted the system.
[You see, my lord, the humans are completely unprepared for the monsters, and if things continue to go the way they are now, human civilization will be heavily damaged and the human species in this world, including your current family, might even cease to exist.]
[Yes, of course, my lord. The emergency is that a nirvana quality monster has been detected about 15 kilometers away from a group of monster tamers. They are walking towards each other, and according to my calculations, they have about a 95% chance of encountering each other. One of the monsters tamers in the group is your eldest brother, George, who is only a stage 6 monster tamer. They have completely no chance of surviving a conflict with the nirvana quality monsters.]
Steve stood up and interrupted Mr. Blackwood. "Mr. Blackwood, I have something to do and would like to go away for some time. I don't know when I will be back, but I most likely won't be back for today."
"5 school credits for early dismissal," said Mr. Blackwood.
Steve nodded and hurriedly left the classroom.
Seeing this, Mr. Blackwood then took out a computer, opened it, and deducted 5 school credits from Steve. Then he continued to explain for class.
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When Steve arrived at the location of the Black Vipers squad, the monster tamers were talking with a young girl who seemed to be the owner of a white python. The girl was the nirvana quality monster that the system had informed Steve about. It looked completely like a human that no one would believe that she was actually a monster.
[Uhhh...]
Suddenly, Icy popped out of her monster card.
"What is it, Icy?" asked Steve.
"Master, I need to speak to that girl in private," said Icy.
"Then go and speak to her. But you need to convince that girl and the other monster tamers first," said Steve.
"I understand, master," said Icy. She walked towards the girl.
Upon seeing Icy walking towards her, a flash of surprise zipped through her eyes. It was only for an instant and no one seemed to have noticed it. Icy, seeing that the girl recognized her, signalled the girl to follow her and then turned around and walked away.
The girl told the members of the Black Vipers squad that her friend was here and that she needed to leave. The Black Vipers squad members nodded and said goobye to the girl and went on their way. The girl followed Icy to another place in the forest. Once Icy was sure that no one was near and could hear them, Icy turned around to face the girl.
The girl spoke first. "Why are you here?"
"Don't ask me something you know the answer to," said Icy.
----------
After a while, Icy came back with the girl and walked over to Steve. "Master, I am done. Also, she would like to become your monster card."
Steve was surprised since monsters usually had to be killed to be turned into monster cards. "She wants to be my monster card? Does she not want to live?"
"Actually, monsters can turn themselves into monster cards to serve a monster tamer if they wish. This is why they're called monster tamers and not monster catchers. It's because the origin of monster taming is actual monster taming. The monsters who turned themselves to monster cards to serve a monster tamer cannot betray their owner and they will not choose to even if they could.
"However, it is really hard to get a monster submit to a monster tamer willingly, which is why many monster tamers turned to killing monsters before turning them into monster cards. Over time, monster tamers no longer actually tried to tame monsters, causing the actual monster taming to be forgotton and become monster catching instead, even though they were still called monster tamers."
"So that's why," said Steve.
"Yes," said Icy. "Master, do you accept her becoming one of your monster cards?"
"Sure," said Steve.
The girl nodded and turned into a ball of white light. Then, the ball of white light slowly turned into the shape of a card. The card then flew to Steve's hand. Steve looked at the card for a few moments, a bit bewildered, and then put it away. He then looked at Icy.
"Icy, since you actually know all of this, did you turn yourself to a monster card willingly?" asked Steve.
"Yes," said Icy.
"Who was your originally owner?" asked Steve.
Icy hesitated. "My original owner was-"
Steve cut Icy off since he could see Icy's hesitation. "If you don't want to tell me, it's fine."
"No, there's nothing to hide," said Icy. "It's-"
Steve cut Icy off again. "You don't have to say it, Icy. It's fine. I don't want to know who the owner was."
"Thank you, master," said Icy. She then returned to her monster card.