Sunny's eyes snapped open.
Pain.
His entire body screamed as he gasped for air. His lungs burned. His head pounded like someone had split it open with an axe.
But he was alive.
"Where...?"
He pushed himself up from the cold stone floor. His hands were different. Smaller. Younger. He looked down at his body and froze.
This wasn't his body. Or rather, it was. But twenty years younger.
"No way."
Memories flooded his mind. Two sets of memories. One from his old life.. betrayed, stabbed in the back by his own guild members, left to die in that dungeon. The other from this body. A teenager named Sunny Vale. Orphan. Weakling. Trash.
This world was called Eternia. A world where people tamed monsters called Beasts and fought in wars.
And he'd read about it. Before his death, he'd been obsessed with web novels. This world was exactly like one of those stories. He knew what was coming. The wars. The beast tides. The rise of the Beast Kings.
In his past life, he'd trusted people. Relied on his guild. That trust had gotten him killed. His best friend Marcus had driven the knife into his back personally, smiling as he did it.
"Never again."
Sunny clenched his fists. This was a second chance. A do-over. And he wouldn't waste it being soft.
He stood up, testing his legs. He was in a small room. Broken furniture. Cracked walls. The memories told him this was his "home"—an abandoned building in the slums of Krane City.
Perfect. No one would care if he disappeared. No one would ask questions.
[DING!]
A blue screen materialized in front of his face.
[SYSTEM INITIALIZATION COMPLETE]
[WELCOME, HOST]
[YOU HAVE BEEN GRANTED THE FUSION SYSTEM!]
Sunny's heart raced. A system. Just like in the novels.
He quickly read through the messages.
[FUSION SYSTEM]
[ABILITY: FUSE ANY TWO BEASTS TO CREATE A STRONGER BEAST!]
[CURRENT LEVEL: 1]
[RESTRICTIONS: CAN ONLY FUSE BEASTS YOU HAVE TAMED]
[SLOTS AVAILABLE: 0/2]
His mind raced. In Eternia, most people could only tame one or two Beasts in their entire lifetime. The strong ones had three or four. Legendary Beast Tamers had five.
But with fusion, he could combine weak Beasts into strong ones. Quality over quantity.
"Show me my status."
[DING!]
[STATUS]
NAME: Sunny Vale
AGE: 16
LEVEL: 1
STRENGTH: 3
AGILITY: 4
INTELLIGENCE: 7
VITALITY: 3
MANA: 10
TITLE: None
BEASTS TAMED: 0
Sunny walked to the broken window and looked out. The sun was setting over Krane City. In the distance, he could see the massive walls that protected the city from the Wilderness—the monster-infested wasteland outside.
According to his memories, the Taming Ceremony was in three days. Every sixteen-year-old would go to the Taming Grounds and try to bond with their first Beast.
Most failed.
Those who succeeded usually got weak Beasts. Slimes. Rats. Small birds.
But Sunny knew something others didn't. He'd read the novels. He knew the hidden locations. The secret dungeons. The overlooked treasures.
And he knew exactly where to find his first Beast.
"The sewers."
Everyone avoided the sewers. They stank. They were dangerous. Full of disease and weak monsters. But beneath the sewers was something else. An old dungeon.
Inside that dungeon was a Beast that no one wanted. A parasite-type called a Void Leech. Disgusting. Weak. Useless.
Except it had one ability.
[MANA DRAIN]
In the right hands, that ability was devastating.
Sunny grabbed a rusty knife from the floor. It was all he had. He tested the weight. Garbage, but it would do.
He wasn't going to wait three days. He wasn't going to follow the rules. The strong made the rules. The weak followed them. And he was done being weak.
The sewers were exactly as disgusting as he remembered from his past life. Eternia might have been a magical world, but it still had plumbing problems.
Sunny waded through the muck, holding his breath. The knife was in his right hand. His left hand traced the wall, feeling for the marking.
There. A small symbol carved into the stone. Three circles overlapping. The mark of the Old Kingdom.
He pressed it.
The wall groaned and shifted. A hidden passage opened, revealing stairs leading down into darkness.
[HIDDEN DUNGEON DISCOVERED!]
[WARNING: DUNGEON LEVEL UNKNOWN]
[RECOMMENDED LEVEL: 15+]
Sunny smiled. Fifteen. He was level one. Perfect.
He descended into the dark.
The air grew colder with each step. His breath misted in front of him. The walls were covered in strange runes that glowed faintly blue.
At the bottom of the stairs was a chamber. Small. Circular. In the center was a pool of black liquid.
And in that pool was the Void Leech.
It looked like a slug the size of a dog. Black. Slimy. Six red eyes glowing in the darkness. It sensed him immediately and let out a wet hissing sound.
[VOID LEECH DETECTED!]
[LEVEL: 12]
[DANGER: MODERATE]
Twelve levels higher.
Sunny stepped forward. The Void Leech lunged. Fast. Faster than he expected.
But Sunny had been a guild leader in his past life. He'd fought in dungeons for twenty years. His body was young and weak, but his instincts were sharp.
He sidestepped. The Leech sailed past him and slammed into the wall. Before it could recover, Sunny drove the rusty knife down.
The blade pierced the creature's body. Black blood sprayed.
The Leech thrashed. Its mouth opened, revealing rows of needle teeth. It latched onto his arm.
Pain exploded through him. He could feel his mana draining.
But Sunny didn't panic. He'd felt worse. He grabbed the creature's body with his free hand and squeezed.
"You're mine now."
He activated his knowledge from the memories. Beast taming required mana. You had to force your mana into the creature's core and bind it to your will.
But the Leech was draining his mana. No problem. He'd use that.
Sunny let his mana flow freely into the Leech's bite. The creature drank greedily. More. More. Its body swelled.
And then he reversed the flow.
The Leech's eyes widened. It tried to let go, but Sunny held it tight. His mana flooded its core, overwhelming it, crushing its will.
[DING!]
[VOID LEECH TAMED]
[BEAST ADDED TO SYSTEM]
[SLOTS AVAILABLE: 1/2]
The Leech went limp. It fell from his arm and landed on the ground. A moment later, it began to shrink. Its form condensed into a small black mark on Sunny's forearm.
[CONGRATULATIONS!]
[FIRST BEAST TAMED]
[REWARD: +5 INTELLIGENCE, +10 MANA]
Sunny exhaled. His arm throbbed where the Leech had bitten him, but he ignored the pain.
He looked at the mark on his arm. A small spiral pattern. Black against his skin.
"Good. Now I need one more."
The system required two Beasts to fuse. One wasn't enough.
But finding a second Beast would be easy. The sewers were full of monsters. Sunny turned and headed back up the stairs.