A guttural roar, hot and heavy, ripped through the town square.
"It's a Mountain Drake!" a terrified voice shrieked outside.
Shadow peered out the window. The beast was a juvenile, B-Rank Sentinel. Its scales were like granite, its breath smelled of sulfur, and it was surrounded by dozens of lesser D-Rank Razorbacks. The town defenses had collapsed completely.
The air shimmered. To everyone else, the Aether was invisible, but in Shadow's mind, it violently snapped into a vibrant, pulsing grid, overlaid with objective data.
The divine blessing, the Void Seal granted by Xylos, activated, and a glowing, translucent interface snapped into existence: The Void Ledger.
Void Ledger | Metric | Value | | :--- | :--- | | Protagonist | Shadow (F-Rank Public) | | Compact Tier | I - Initiate | | Compact Slots | 0/1 (Required for Tier II: 3 Slots) | | Void Fragments | 0 | | Aether Reserves | 15/100 (Critically Low) |
Fifteen Aether. Not even enough to sustain an F-Rank creature for ten minutes. But enough for one, decisive action, Shadow calculated. He needed to eliminate the threat without expending his precious, hidden Void Fragments, which were reserved only for advancing his Compact Tier.
He targeted the massive Drake. It was already covered in smoking wounds from a failed Guild ambush further north.
Shadow activated his tactical system:
The Commander's Codex (Tier I Appraisal) | Metric | Value | | :--- | :--- | | Target | Mountain Drake (B-Rank Sentinel) | | Might | 1,800 | | Speed | 950 | | Aether | 1,400 | | Health | 10% (CRITICAL) | | Current Status | Enraged, Exhausted, Highly Vulnerable. | | Taming Likelihood (Via Void Seal) | HIGH (98%) | | Reason | Critical HP, spirit submission achieved. Requires full Aether Reserves. |
Ninety-eight percent is a guaranteed bond. Shadow spotted the town's highest-ranking active Summoner, a panicked C-Rank named Borin, trying to crawl away from the beast's shadow.
Shadow reached inside his tunic and pulled out his Signature Summon: The Void Relic, Rell. It was nothing more than a pathetic, chipped fragment of calcified bone—the very symbol of his father's "failed F-Rank lineage" and Shadow's constant humiliation.
"Rell, standby. Taming protocol active."