Due to their stringent requirements, the Sacred Arts are typically practised by awakeners with fewer spirit veins, unlike spell casting, which requires simple to complex incarnations to cast spells.
To train the 'Mountain Snow Dragon Art' to great success, an awakener must possess an ice or wind attribute. To train it to its full potential, one must possess both.
It could still be mastered without any of these attributes, but it wouldn't be as powerful as when it's mastered by someone possessing these attributes.
Because I had been forced into selecting the Magical Swordsman Path, I was also given a sacred art that wasn't attuned to my attributes, stunting my growth.
I had also been forced to learn a basic wind spell, and perhaps out of pity for my circumstance, they had let me pick a spell of my choice to learn.
I picked a basic fire spell - fire spark.
Still, I never dared use the spell in public, only training it in secret to avoid eliciting their ire.
I only utilise my wind spell in public.
The only way I could make up for this setback was by training my body to the limit until I awakened my Aura.
Nonetheless, my combat ability as a Magical Swordsman was pathetic for a descendant of a noble clan. Due to this, I failed to obtain a suitable ranking on the entrance exam.
Forced to continue living this kind of life forever wasn't something I wanted to do.
I had to find a way out.
So, I decided to save up the pennies that I had received as allowances and wait until I joined the academy, far away from the perception of the Zahara Clan, to purchase a beast to forge a contract with.
If I had enough knowledge of spirits, spellcasting, and other magical arts, I would have awakened the Summoner or Mage Path.
The Beastmaster Path was the easiest to awaken because I could disguise my desire to learn more about it by reading books related to magical beasts.
Nonetheless, after the system emerged and my talent awoke, I was not in the slightest bit disappointed in my choice.
With this, I was more confident about standing on my own.
I moved on to the next.
[ Fire Spark - Basic Spell
Description: Shoots a small flame for basic attacks. ]
[ Wind Rush - Basic Spell
Description: Enhances movement speed with a gust of wind. ]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
◆ Tamed Beast:
┗ Swift-Horned Panther → [Cybernetic Swift-Horned Panther.]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Looking at the arrow pointing solely at the Cybernetic Panther Form and not at the Swift-Horned Panther, I clicked on it.
Suddenly, a low mechanical hum emerged from the Swift-Horned Panther's chest. Its pupils contracted into thin slits, and the veins beneath it pulsed with an eerie blue glow.
My eyes widened in disbelief at what was transpiring.
Metal plates erupted from beneath its stripped fur, fusing with its muscles and bones, showcasing a blue core that was the source of the eerie noise.
Its limbs twisted, transforming into a metallic alloy, with joints transforming into black alloy servos. The magical enchanted chains that had once bound its place cracked under the pressure of the astonishing transformation and fell to the ground.
I flinched back, swiftly distancing myself away from the Swift-Horned Panther.
A tamed beast wouldn't attack its owner, right?
Maybe I was being dramatic, but having to guess whether a cybernetic lifeform, which probably possesses more intelligence than an ordinary magical beast, would hold a grudge against me for updating its life support ticket without consent -or approach me peacefully like a typical contracted magical beast placed me on edge.
Nevertheless, I knew that I only had one choice - to see this through until the end unless I wanted to alert others about what I was doing.
I could only hope that the beast wouldn't attack me after its transformation.
The transformation continued.
Its claws extended into monomolecular blades. The protruding horn on its head transformed into a razor-edged metallic alloy, and sparks of electricity arched between them.
Its tails became segmented, shifting into a retractable energy whip. The sound of shifting metal filled the air as the beast's body twitched. Its organic form began to split apart, morphing into a cybernetic beast.
Soon, the beast's breathing had changed.
A controlled hiss sounding emerged from it.
The Panther, which could no longer be called a Swift-Horned Panther, rose from the floor with the help of its four transformed cybernetic limbs.
It gently limped up in the air, curiously observing the changes that had taken place on its body.
Every action was accompanied by a low mechanical hum that vibrated through the air deep within the Panther's chest.
Soon, the Panther halted its action and lifted its head towards me.
Looking at the cybernetic beast's slited blue-hued gaze fixated on me, I gulped.
"Do you want a treat?.... I can get some for you... A wrench or a bottle of waste oil? We can take a look at the trashcans together if you want," I said, my voice tinged with apprehension.
My body shivered as the Cybernetic Swift-Horned Panther suddenly approached me.
It arrived before me.
Then...
It lowered its head as though wanting a pat on the head.
I gathered my courage and stretched my right hand forward to gently rub its mechanical head.
It was cold. Cold and hard.
Surprisingly, the beast moved its head forward and gently shook it from side to side like a home-trained dog.
It was hard to believe that I had been afraid of such a beast some moments ago.
Suddenly, a blue holographic screen flashed before my eyes.
It was the Cybernetic Swift-Horned Panther status sheet.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ Name: ]
[ Race: Cybernetic Swift Horned Panther ]
◆ Mutated Talent: Cybernetic Lifeform (???)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
◆ Rank: Lesser Beast - Second Rank (0%)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
◆ Attributes: Wind (High), Lightning (Middle) Metal (Supreme)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
◆ [ Fusion Compatibility: 30% ]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
◆ Skills:
┗ Nano-Blade Claws (Beginner - 50%)
┗ Plasma Horn Charge (Beginner - 50%)
┗ Hyper Acceleration (Beginner - 50%)
◆ Special Skills:
┗ Wind Veil - Passive
┗ Predator's Instinct - Passive
┗ Thunder Dash - Active
┗ Auto-Repair- Passive
┗ Data Link Sync - Passive
┗ Optical Targeting System - Passive
┗ Cybernetic Integration - Active
┗ Overclock Mode - Active
┗ Mecha Shift Mode: Swift Horned Panther Jet - Active
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Calm down!