The next morning, I woke up to the smell of something burning. That was Dad's cooking. My new dad, I mean. His name was Thomas, a big guy with a bushy beard and arms like tree trunks. He was an ex-adventurer who'd settled down after, as Mom put it, "an unfortunate encounter with a goblin's pointy stick." He was a good dude, but his cooking skills were definitely F-rank.
I walked into the main room, which was a combination kitchen and living room. Dad was at the stove, scraping at a blackened lump in a pan that I think was supposed to be an egg.
"Morning, son!" he boomed, not turning around. "Big day! First day at the Tamer's Academy!"
I grunted and sat down at the rough wooden table. My mom placed a bowl of her much-better-looking porridge in front of me. "Eat up, Leo. You need your strength." She looked at me with those worried eyes again. The whole village had been whispering about my "dud" awakening yesterday.
"Don't you worry about him, dear," Dad said, plopping the charcoal-egg onto my plate. I stared at it. It stared back, a void of culinary despair. "So he didn't pull a dragon on his first try. So what? Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard! Right, son?"
I poked the egg. It was solid. "Right, Dad."
Honestly, I wasn't even mad about the trash pulls anymore. The initial shock had worn off, replaced by a familiar, stubborn fire. This was just like starting a new gacha game. You're weak, you have no resources, and the game throws garbage at you to test your resolve. Most people quit. But the ones who stick it out, the ones who learn the system and grind? They're the ones who end up on top.
This was my new game, and I'd be damned if I let it beat me.
The Tamer's Academy wasn't a huge, fancy castle like in some stories. It was basically a glorified barn on the edge of the village, with a big training field next to it. I walked in with the other kids from my awakening group. Everyone was excitedly showing off their new partners. The kid with the Wildcat was scratching it behind the ears, and it was purring like a chainsaw. The girl with the Wind Sparrow had it perched on her shoulder.
And me? I had nothing to show. My "beasts" were just icons on a screen only I could see.
Our instructor, a stern-looking man named Mr. Gable, clapped his hands for attention. "Welcome, new tamers. Your journey begins today. The bond between a tamer and their beast is sacred. It is a partnership built on trust, respect, and mutual growth. Your first lesson: Manifest your beast!"
A wave of quiet pops and shimmers filled the room as the other students summoned their partners into the physical world. The air was suddenly filled with small animals and magical critters.
Mr. Gable walked down the line, inspecting them. "Good... good... a fine specimen of a Stone Lizard..." He stopped in front of me. I was the only one standing alone.
"Mr. Miller," he said, his voice flat. "Is there a problem? Where is your beast?"
I took a deep breath. Okay, Leo. You're a gamer. You don't get embarrassed. You just use the tools you have.
"Manifest: Rock," I thought, focusing on the icon in my system.
A small, gray, perfectly ordinary rock fell out of thin air and landed on the dirt floor with a dull thud.
Silence.
A few kids snickered. Then a few more. Soon, the whole class was trying and failing to hold back laughter.
Mr. Gable just stared at the rock. He looked at me. He looked back at the rock. He looked like he was trying to figure out if this was some kind of elaborate prank.
"And... what does it do?" he asked, his voice strained.
"It, uh... it has potential," I said lamely.
"I see." He did not see.
The laughter got louder, led by a particularly obnoxious "Pfft!" from the corner. I glanced over. Of course. It was Akane Tanaka.
She stood there with her arms crossed, looking down her nose at me like I was something she'd scraped off her shoe. Her Moonlight Fox, a creature that looked like it was woven from silver threads and moonbeams, sat at her feet, looking just as smug as its owner.
"Potential?" she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "Potential to be a paperweight?"
Her little group of friends giggled.
My face felt hot. The pride of a gamer is a fragile thing. I could handle the trash pulls. I could handle the grind. But being openly mocked by some rich girl who was born with a silver-spoon beast? That stung.
"It's more than you think," I muttered, mostly to myself.
"What was that?" Akane challenged, taking a step forward.
"I said, it's more than you think!" I said, louder this time. I wasn't going to let her walk all over me. "Your fox is strong, sure. But you didn't earn it. You were just born with it. I'm starting from the bottom. I'm gonna work for my power. And when I'm stronger than you, it'll be because I earned it."
It was a pretty good speech, I thought. Very shonen-protagonist of me.
Akane just rolled her eyes. "Oh, please. You're starting from the bottom, alright. The bottom of a quarry. Don't talk to me about 'earning' anything until you can summon something that doesn't lose a fight to gravity."
She turned her back on me, dismissing me completely. The instructor, Mr. Gable, cleared his throat, looking like he'd rather be anywhere else. "Alright, that's enough. For your first assignment, you will take your beast into the training woods and practice forming a basic mana link. Mr. Miller... you can... practice lifting your rock. With your hands."
The class erupted in laughter again as they all filed out towards the woods. I was left alone in the barn, staring at my pet rock.
Humiliation burned in my gut. It was a hot, bitter feeling. I wanted to scream. I wanted to rage.
But then, I looked into the corner of my vision.
[New Quest Available!]
[Quest: A Gamer's Pride]
[Objective: Prove them wrong. Obtain a beast of at least C-Rank.]
[Reward: 50 Spirit Crystals]
[Failure Penalty: None. The shame is its own reward.]
Fifty spirit crystals. That was five pulls. Five more chances. Five steps closer to pity.
I clenched my fists. The shame and anger didn't disappear, but now they had a purpose. They were fuel.
"Okay," I whispered to the empty room. "Okay. Challenge accepted."
I looked down at the rock. It was still just a rock. Useless.
But then I looked at my system screen. I still had the Slimes. The Walking Mushrooms. And the grand prize, the Slightly Bigger Slime. They were all garbage. But they were my garbage.
And a true gamer can win with anything.
I picked up my rock, a crazy idea starting to form in my head. Akane and her fox were practicing in the woods. Maybe it was time to see what a little bit of trash-tier ingenuity could do.