Then, with a sensation like ice spreading through his veins, he felt something burn onto the back of his hand. Not the warm, empowering sensation others had described—this was cold, almost painful.
When he looked down, a single letter glowed on his skin, fainter than all the others, barely visible: F
"No," Grand Magus Selene whispered, her face going pale. "That's... that's impossible."
But the magic circle beneath his feet didn't form.
Seconds passed. Then a minute. The court watched in growing confusion as nothing happened. No light, no summoning, no beast materializing from the ether.
The crystal pulsed weakly one more time, then went dark.
Nothing.
TALENT: LIMIT BREAKRANK: F
The words appeared above Aster's head, but unlike the bold, impressive displays of his classmates, these letters seemed dim, almost apologetic.
"Where is his contracted beast?" someone in the court asked.
Grand Magus Selene's face had gone ashen. Her hands trembled as she consulted the translucent screen that appeared before her, reading information that made her expression grow more horrified with each passing second.
"There is no beast," she finally said, her voice barely above a whisper. "The System... rejected the contract. It tried to form a bond, but..." She looked at Aster as if he were something broken, something wrong. "His talent compatibility is so low that the System cannot establish a connection with any creature. He cannot summon beasts. He cannot form contracts."
Silence.
Complete, devastating silence.
"What does that mean?" King Aldric demanded, his voice sharp with disbelief.
"It means he is powerless, Your Majesty," Selene said, and each word was like a nail in a coffin. "Without a contracted beast, he cannot access the System's gift. He cannot grow stronger, cannot level up, cannot gain abilities. He is..." She struggled to say it. "He is as weak as a human was before the Dungeon appeared. Before we received the gift."
"But he has a talent," the prince protested, gesturing at the words still hovering above Aster's head. "Limit Break. What does that do?"
Selene consulted her screen again, her expression growing more pitying. "Limit Break is an F Rank talent that hasn't appeared before and we can only know about it's usage by contracting with a Beast. But..." She looked at Aster with something approaching pity. "Without any beasts to contract... the talent is useless. Completely and utterly useless."
The crystal suddenly cracked, a hairline fracture spreading across its surface. Aster jerked his hand back as if burned. The 'F' on his hand remained, a permanent mark of his failure.
Murmurs spread through the court like wildfire.
"No contracted beast..." "Cannot use the System..." "Powerless..." "A complete failure..."
Derek's expression had shifted from triumph to open disgust. "So he's just... normal? Weak?"
"Weaker than normal," Troy said, his cynical voice cutting through. "Everyone in this world has at least one contracted beast. Even E-rank talents get something. He has nothing."
Lily's hand was over her mouth, her eyes wide with horror and pity. Marcus looked stricken, as if someone had punched him.
"This is a mistake," King Aldric said, though his voice lacked any real conviction. "The crystal must be damaged. We'll perform the ritual again—"
"The crystal reads true, Your Majesty," Selene said firmly. "I have never seen it err in fifty years of service. The crack appeared after the reading, not before. This is..." She gestured helplessly at Aster. "This is what the System judged him to be. F-rank. No contracted beasts. No power. No potential."
King Aldric's expression hardened, the earlier excitement draining from his face entirely. He looked at Aster not with the reverence he'd shown the other students, but with barely concealed contempt.
"Then the Summoning brought us eighteen heroes," the king said, his voice cold and final as he muttered to himself.
Around him, his classmates stood with their contracted beasts at their sides—magnificent creatures, even in juvenile form, that radiated power and potential. Derek with his flame wolf. Lily with her celestial serpent. Even the B-rank students had companions that showed promise.
And Aster stood alone.
No beast beside him. No power flowing through him. Just the faint 'F' glowing on the back of his hand, a permanent reminder of his worthlessness in this world.
His classmates stared—some with pity, some with horror, some with barely concealed relief that it wasn't them. Derek smirked. Rachel looked away, uncomfortable.
Aster's world—already shattered by being torn from his home—crumbled completely.
In his old world, he'd been everything. The prodigy. The perfect student. The one who excelled at everything.
In this one, he couldn't even summon a single beast.
He was nothing.
And the F-rank mark on his hand would make sure everyone knew it.
The throne room remained heavy with shock and whispered conversations. Aster stood frozen at the center of it all, the faint 'F' on his hand seeming to burn brighter with each pitying or disgusted glance thrown his way.
Around him, his classmates clustered with their newly summoned beasts, some comforting the creatures, others marveling at the bonds they could already feel forming.
King Aldric cleared his throat, drawing attention back to himself. If he was disappointed by Aster's failure, he was doing his best to move past it. "Now that you have all awakened your talents and received your first contracted beasts, it is time to understand the System more fully."
He gestured to Grand Magus Selene, who had composed herself after the shock of Aster's catastrophic awakening. She stepped forward, her expression professional despite the occasional glance she shot toward Aster—as if still trying to comprehend how such a failure was possible.
"The mark on your hand is not merely decorative," Selene explained. "It is your interface with the System itself. If you double-tap on the symbol, you will see your status—a comprehensive overview of your current capabilities and potential."
Excited murmurs rippled through the class. Derek was already raising his hand, tapping twice on the glowing 'S' mark. His eyes widened as a translucent blue screen materialized in the air before him, visible only to himself based on how his gaze focused on empty space that others couldn't see.
"I can see it," Derek breathed. "It's like a video game character sheet."
One by one, the other students followed suit. Lily tapped her 'SS' mark, Marcus his 'A', Sophie her 'B'. Even Cole, their teacher, activated his status screen with the practiced curiosity of an educator encountering something new.
The students began reading aloud, sharing their discoveries with growing excitement.
"It shows my name!" Evan exclaimed.
"And the talent name—Thunderlord!"
"There are levels!"
"My beast has its own stats too!"
Aster stood apart from the growing enthusiasm, his hand unconsciously covering the 'F' on his skin. He hadn't tried to activate it. What was the point? He had no beast to check stats on, no power to measure. Opening his status would only confirm what everyone already knew—that he was worthless.
"Let me see mine properly," Marcus said, his radiant lion cub sitting alertly at his feet. His eyes scanned the invisible screen before him. "Okay, so it shows:
Name: Marcus
Talent: Radiant Guardian
Tier: 7 | Level: 0/100
Contracted Beast: Luminos | Rank: E | Level: 0/100
Skills: [Locked]"