Morning started like it always did. Rain on the windows, too light to really matter but loud enough to be annoying. Han Seojin sat near the back wall of the gym, hoodie up, hands in his pockets, earbuds in but not playing anything. Everyone else was buzzing.
Today was Bonding Day.
A national holiday, basically. The one day every student looked forward to more than graduation. You went in, stood before the Bestia Crystal, and came out with your first contracted monster. It was supposed to be the start of your real life. The system always said that.
[Initiating First Bonding Ceremony.]
[Welcome to the BestiaCore.]
He'd heard it before. Four times, in fact. That was the maximum number of attempts allowed under the youth program. This was his final shot.
"Okay, Class A3, line up," barked Instructor Seo. "IDs ready, BestiaCore visible, let's go. Don't forget to smile for the cameras if you get something above C-rank."
They lined up fast. People were practically bouncing in place.
The first girl, Jin Heeyeon, stepped forward. Pale pink hair, perfect skin, and a nervous smile. Her fingers trembled as she placed them on the Summoning Crystal.
Light exploded around her in soft blue waves. Then a shape. Then a howl.
A shimmering white wolf spirit materialized and padded gently up to her. It circled her once, then sat at her feet and licked her hand.
Heeyeon started crying. Actual tears.
"Oh my god," she whispered, and the wolf just wagged its tail.
"Textbook affinity," murmured one of the guild scouts in the back. "She's got a natural channel. Wolf spirit's a rare starter."
"Gonna get poached by Blue Moon before the day's over," someone else added.
The rest of the class burst into applause. Phones were out, pics were being taken. Heeyeon covered her face and laughed through her sobs.
"Congratulations," said the teacher, pinning a badge to her lapel. "You're officially bonded."
Seojin didn't clap. He didn't move. He didn't hate her or anything. It just wasn't for him. Never had been. He just watched. One eye on the wolf. The other on the ground.
Kid after kid went up. A scaled ferret, a flame-beaked hawk, a two-tailed cat made of glass. Some got nothing flashy, but even an F-rank bond was better than nothing. The important thing was that the system recognized you. That you were someone.
"Han Seojin."
The name snapped out like a blade. It cut the room into silence. Even the scouts looked up.
He stood. Didn't say a word. Just walked.
One foot in front of the other. Just like always.
He stepped into the circle. Stared at the crystal.
The technician cleared his throat. "Please place your hand on the crystal, and focus."
Seojin reached out.
The crystal pulsed. Once. Then flickered. Then…
Dead.
Not a spark. Not a flicker. Just silence.
The technician stared at it, tapped a few buttons, then frowned and leaned closer.
"Try again," he said, quieter now.
Seojin did. Nothing.
The screen above flickered on. The display was public. Everyone could see it.
[No bond formed.]
[Compatibility: 0.00%]
There was a cough in the back. Someone whispered, "Still cursed, huh?"
Instructor Seo sighed. He looked like he was trying to feel bad but just didn't have the energy for it anymore.
"Thank you for trying, Seojin. You may step back."
Seojin stepped off the platform. Nobody looked at him. Not directly. It was almost worse than the stares.
He walked back to his seat. Didn't sit. Just grabbed his bag and left.
No one stopped him.
The cafeteria was loud.
Not a mean kind of loud, just… full. Alive. It echoed with laughter and excited yelling and the occasional shriek when someone's pet did something funny.
A two-headed lizard chased a meatball off a plate and got tangled in a kid's hoodie.
A scaled hyena pup sat obediently by its owner's feet, tail thumping like a drumroll.
"Bro, mine just unlocked a tracking ability this morning," one kid bragged, leaning back with his feet on the chair next to him. "It's D-rank but still, I get quest notifications now. It's real."
Another one responded without even looking up from his Core, "You think that's cool, my cat just evolved. She talks now. In full sentences."
"I thought that was a myth."
"Nope. It's creepy as hell. She asked me to kill a rat in the dorm and then called me 'her little blade.' I think she's going to eat me in my sleep."
Seojin sat alone at a far table near the vending machines. He had rice, some mystery meat, and a bottle of lukewarm peach soda.
His tray had a crack in it. His chopsticks were the disposable kind, uneven and splintered.
He didn't say a word.
"He's just cursed," someone said at the next table over. Not even whispering. "You know, bad karma or something."
"That's what my mom said," another replied. "His family had some accident, right? Maybe he's, like, marked or whatever."
"Still shows up every time though. That's persistence, I guess."
"More like desperation."
Seojin didn't react. Just chewed. Slowly.
A shadow fell across his tray.
It was Mr. Lim, his dungeon tactics teacher. Mid-thirties, half-bald, smelled like burnt coffee.
"Seojin," he said, placing a paper on the table. "Graded your latest theory module. Clean work. Impressive, honestly."
Seojin blinked. "Thanks."
"You get it better than most. If you ever… get a bond, you'll make a solid support unit."
Seojin looked up. Smiled a little.
"If the gods ever decide they like me, I'll let you know."
Mr. Lim winced, like he'd walked into that one himself. "Keep working. Sometimes late bloomers—"
"Yeah. I've heard."
The teacher nodded, then walked off without finishing the thought.
Seojin stared at the grade. 95. Neat handwriting. Red check marks.
It didn't matter.
He ate the rest of his meal in silence.
The rain had stopped by the time Seojin left the building. The sky stayed gray, like it was still deciding whether or not to cry.
He cut through the alley behind the academy instead of taking the street. Fewer people. Fewer eyes. A dead phone in his pocket, a crumpled theory paper in his bag, and a silent BestiaCore that never said anything worth hearing.
He didn't head home right away. There was no one waiting for him anyway. His mom worked double shifts, his sister stayed in her room, and his dad had been gone long enough that his voice was starting to blur in memory. All he'd hear if he went home now was the click of a stove and a hallway that creaked far too much.
Instead, he wandered.
Construction zones were spreading in this part of the city. The council was expanding containment barriers again, pushing the residential walls further to keep up with the growing number of rifts. New tech. More survey drones. Magisteel pylons being drilled into the ground every block.
There were signs everywhere, posted in bold white:
WARNING: UNSTABLE BREACH SITE. ACCESS FOR LICENSED PERSONNEL ONLY.
But no one really watched these places, not like anything ever happened anyways.
Seojin ducked under the tape. Just for a shortcut. He wasn't trying to break rules or do anything stupid. He just wanted to move through the world without being noticed, the way a shadow does.
The ground was uneven, gravel loose beneath his sneakers. He kept his head down, steps soft. The hum of generators throbbed in the distance, powering the unstable rift core housed in a temporary scaffold of glowing sigil pylons.
He didn't even see the breach point.
One step. Just one. The earth gave way like it had never been solid to begin with.
His body dropped straight down. No time to scream, not even a moment to brace. Air ripped past his ears. The world blurred into a funnel of gray and blue.
Then came impact.
It wasn't as hard as he expected. The floor felt like stone, but not cold. It pulsed slightly under him, like the surface of something half-alive. His shoulder throbbed where he landed. His back ached. Something warm dripped from his elbow.
He groaned, tried to sit up. The air was thick, dust hung in slow, lazy spirals like underwater silt, and it was far too quiet.
He glanced at his BestiaCore, the display was a mess of flickering static.
No signal.
No dungeon classification.
None of the usual announcements or alarms.
Just nothing.
This clearly wasn't a normal dungeon rift.
He pulled himself to his feet and looked around.
The chamber was wide, circular, maybe twenty meters across, with walls carved out of obsidian-veined stone. Strange markings looped along the ceiling and floors, symbols that didn't match any language he knew though it reminded him of the runes he saw in old books.
At the far end stood a statue.
Not just a statue.
A wolf.
It was massive — easily five meters tall — with chains wrapped around its legs, neck, and torso. The jaws were open slightly, as if caught in the middle of a frozen snarl. Its eyes were closed, carved with meticulous precision, and every inch of its stone fur looked like it could move.
Seojin stared at it.
There was no plaque. No display. No portal back. Just the wolf and the dark.
He stepped closer.
He didn't know why. Curiosity, maybe. Or something deeper, more primal. The air around the statue felt heavier, charged like storm clouds. It pushed down on him with each step, yet he kept walking.
When he stood beneath its jaw, he reached up.
His fingers brushed one of its fangs. Smooth. Cold. Sharp.
It pricked his finger. Just a nick. Just enough.
One drop of blood fell.
The fang absorbed it.
Then everything stopped.
The chains snapped. Not all at once, but one by one, ringing out like screams of breaking metal. Dust and sparks flew from the wolf's limbs. The chamber shuddered. Symbols along the walls began to glow.
He stumbled back as the eyes of the statue opened.
They weren't eyes. Not really.
They were voids.
Endless.
A voice filled the room, not from a mouth, but from everywhere. Not a sound, but a presence that became sound the second it touched his ears.
"Who dares..."
The voice was deep. Rough. Not growled, but etched into the air.
"...to bind me?"
Seojin's knees buckled. He fell. His chest constricted. It was like being caught under a tidal wave, held under the surface, with the pressure building and building.
"You are not him, yet you reek of his power."
The statue moved.
Not all of it. Just the head.
It turned.
Looked at him.
The chains finished breaking. Dust swirled around its limbs. The body shifted — stone becoming sinew, fur, flesh. The transformation was not smooth. It was violent, like reality didn't want to accept it.
The wolf stood.
And it roared.
Seojin covered his ears, but the sound wasn't in his ears. It was inside his skull. Inside his bones.
"I will not return to that prison! I will not be tricked again! You wear the shell of prey, but I see his power in your core!"
The wolf lunged.
Seojin reacted without thinking.
He screamed — not out loud, but through instinct.
"Submit!"
His BestiaCore flashed. For the first time in his life, the damn thing listened.
The air warped. Symbols lit up.
The wolf froze. Mid-air.
Its body trembled against an unseen force, its limbs locked in place.
"Impossible! A command... from prey?"
A pause. Then a chuckle.
Low. Dangerous. Amused.
"You have the power of those keepers. Clever little whelp."
The light in Seojin's Core grew brighter.
A new screen blinked into view.
[You have formed a contract with: FENRIR, THE DEVOURER OF WORLDS.]
[Role: Bringer of the Apocalypse]
[New Quest Added.]
The chamber dimmed. The symbols along the walls faded.
Fenrir sat, his gaze still locked on Seojin.
"You are not Odin. This is not Asgard."
"Then what is this world, child?"
"Where have you brought me?"
Seojin didn't have an answer.
His heart was still racing.
His hands were shaking.
And Fenrir's eyes were still glowing in the dark.