In the center of Estoreas—
"Come get your spirit animal a treat to snack on!"
"50% off on shoes, with little to no defect at all!"
"Crab meat, fresh from Elgregreas! Crab meat—"
The capital center was filled with vendors selling people stuff, since it was ceremony time. It was a great way to sell items or food for spirit animals, since every spirit animal varied in what they liked.
"Mom." Lake shook her mom hands while pointing at a turkey vendor.
"What is it? We can't be late for the ceremony!"
"It's okay, Mom." Jaster patted his mom shoulder, hinting at her to go.
"Are you sure?!" Her mom was hesitant at first. She kept looking around.
Does she not trust her own kid?
"I'll go ahead first. You can catch up at the ceremony circle after you're done."
His mom was still not sure, but after a few shakes from Lake, she gave in.
"Okay, fine, but don't wander off, okay? Here." His mom gave him ten Bosan, which surprised him.
Bosan is the currency of Boundara. Each coin had a chain engraved in the middle and worked the same way a dollar would.
"Thanks." Jaster took the money and nodded his head. For some reason, it made his mother shocked, but after getting pulled by Lake, they waved each other goodbye.
"Finally." Jaster stored the coins in his pocket, sighing.
Back on Earth, Adam was never really close with anyone, including his own family. He always locked himself in his room, playing Soulbound all day.
Because for him, he preferred animals rather than humans. He hated humans. Even the thought of being around them exhausted him mentally.
"Okay, let's see…" Jaster squinted, trying to see the road ahead.
Then he saw the summoning stage, packed with people surrounding it.
"Bingo!"
He squeezed himself through the crowd, going to the front of the summoning altar.
A guy went up to the stage. He had a fancy mustache and a big top hat. The gentleman went in front of the altar and picked up the microphone.
"AHEM." He purposely made it loud to get the crowd's attention.
Everyone stopped talking and looked forward.
"Welcome, welcome, people of Boundara. I'm your host for today. You can call me Okramos. Or some people like to call me—Okra!"
The crowd burst into laughter, while Jaster remained unfazed.
"…That was such a dad joke…"
Jaster recognized Okramos. He was the spokesperson for this year's bond ceremony.
"HAHAHA! I hope I got all of your moods up today. Okay, enough with the chit-chat, and onto the main event. On this day, and on this year, I present to you… THE SPECTACULAR BOND CEREMONY!!"
A copious amount of confetti burst out from behind the stage and onto the crowd.
Everyone cheered at the man, while Okramos laughed loudly.
"We're all gathered here to give our respect to the young generation that'll become a working members of society for our nation, Starastan. We have a long list of kids to go through, so I'll be quick with you all, okay!"
Okramos turned the switch under the altar, and the thing jumped into the air. It expanded wider and bigger.
The altar dropped to the floor with a big smash, revealing an ancient dice board.
Jaster was stunned looking at the dice board. He had seen it multiple times through a screen, but it was a much different experience seeing it face to face.
The dice board had gold and amethyst engravings all around it, the gemstones shining brighter than ever.
"I'm sure you all know how this works, but in case someone still hasn't, I'll quickly explain it. This right here is an ancient artifact left by the Nomad Titan." Okramos tapped the board.
"And this—" Okramos took the plain white die in the middle of the board.
"Is what we call the Dice of Fate. The name that'll be drawn will walk up the stage and roll the die on this board. After that, the die will read the person who rolled it. Then the die will determine your spirit animal."
Okramos put the dice back gently. He grabbed a name from the pile of paper.
Jaster already knew who's the first person to be called up was.
"Troy Anderson!" It's the main character of course!
A guy with brown hair walked up the stage while wearing the academy uniform.
Neatly dressed, his hair formed a curtain, showing his handsome face.
"Hah… Adrien is more handsome in my opinion… NOT THAT I'M GAY!"
Okramos gave the dice to Troy. He gladly received it.
Now that Jaster thought about it, when we play as Troy in the game, the spirit animal that goes with him varies by a massive amount.
"I wonder what spirit animal Troy will be getting."
Troy took a deep breath and rolled the die on the board. The die, which was plain white with nothing on it, started to shift into different colors.
Red… cyan… brown… blue… indigo.
Every bounce of the die made the color change, and after a while, the die stopped on brown.
"Brown… a spirit animal with the stone affinity," Jaster muttered to himself.
Suddenly, Troy's chest began to pulse with brown light. Troy was shocked and stumbled back.
"Whoa, calm down there, son. The dice is just trying to figure out what kind of person you are!"
Okramos helped Troy get back on his feet.
"This feels weird," Troy said.
Then the pulse of light stopped, and a portal appeared behind them. A beam of light shot through the portal and into the sky.
The wind was harsh, but Jaster still wanted to see who Troy got as a spirit animal.
Then a baby brown horse jumped out of the portal and went straight to Troy, making both of them fall.
"A horse! Congratulations, Troy, you've got yourself a horse as your spirit animal."
Troy ignored Okramos talk while the horse licked his face.
"Hahaha… stop it, it tickles."
"A horse… must've been at least D-rank spirit animal. Main characters are always so lucky."
The majority of beginner spirit animals consisted mostly of E-rank to C-rank. If you were lucky, you could get a B-rank.
But those people were usually descendants of a clans, so for normal people like Jaster, E-rank was the norm.
After going through multiple people, the man called up another known name.
"Adrien Hearts!"
Jaster eyes shot up. He looked to see where Adrien was, and when he saw him, he did not disappoint.
Adrien had a nonchalant expression at all times, with his dark hair swept back and his red eyes looking sharp as ever.
The academy uniform was neatly dressed, giving him a fierce look.
"ADRIEN! I'M YOUR BIGGEST FAN!" a random girl shouted, but he blatantly ignored her.
"Now that I think about it… Adrien is kind of cringe, lol."
Adam was Adrien number one fan—well, number two, I guess, since he fought with someone online, both of them debating who got to keep the number one title.
You might think that because Adam favorite character was Adrien, he might be gay. But you're wrong.
Adam admired Adrien because he always wanted to be like him—quiet and introverted, but also feared by many people, despite Adrien not doing anything.
But unlike Adrien, Adam only had the quiet part of that personality. He was always bullied and teased by his classmates for being too quiet and unapproachable.
And Adam couldn't stand up for himself, as he was also a coward.
Now that Jaster was seeing Adrien, he might change his mind about wanting to be like him.
"Ah…" Okramos patted Adrien's back.
"A fellow Flameheart heir. Everyone is expecting big things from you, buddy. Make sure not to disappoint your clan."
Adrien was speechless after hearing the word disappoint. He broke his nonchalant demeanor.
"Tsk." He pushed Okramos hand away and grabbed the die.
"Oh, Adrien… I know your struggle." Jaster looked at him with pity.
He rolled the die quickly, and it landed on red.
The portal opened again, but unlike with Troy, Jaster wasn't really surprised, because he knew what Adrien spirit animal would be.
What came out of the portal was—
"A wyrmling."
The black-and-red baby dragon flew into the sky, soaring among the crowd. Everyone was shocked.
Many people took pictures while the wyrmling showed off in the air, doing a backflip.
After it was done, it flew straight toward Adrien and landed on his shoulder gracefully.
The crowd was silent, until a big clap erupted. Everyone cheered for Adrien, and so did Jaster.
Adrien gave a big smile and warmly looked at the dragon. "Thank you for coming, buddy," he whispered as the dragon whimpered.
After that big summon, Jaster was getting bored.
He'd been waiting for his turn and had been standing there for more than an hour.
"Where are Lake and Mom anyway?" Jaster looked around until he felt someone poke his back.
It was Lake, holding an apple candy in one hand and cotton candy in the other.
"Hello, brother! Here, for you." Lake handed him the apple, which Jaster confusingly accepted.
"Okay… where's Mom?"
Jaster's mom came running after Lake, her breath heavy and sweat dripping.
"Lake…" Her voice was shaking with exhaustion.
"Don't ever run away like that again, okay? Someone could kidnap you!" The mom pinched Lake's cheeks.
"Okay—okay, I won't!"
Jaster just rolled his eyes and took a bite of the apple. He had no time for stranger family bonding.
He just wanted to get his spirit animal and go to the academy—
"Jaster Barret!"
As if answering his thoughts, Okramos called out his name. Jaster smiled wickedly.
"Jaster, that's you! Go to the stage." His mom pushed him forward while Jaster reluctantly walked.
Only one thing was on his mind now.
Time to find my lifelong companion!