"And what about Aster?"
The question came from Marcus, who had moved to stand beside his best friend. His lion cub, Luminos, sat at his feet, small but radiating protective light.
An uncomfortable silence fell over the throne room.
King Aldric's expression hardened. "The one without a contracted beast cannot participate in our training. Without the ability to fight alongside a beast, he cannot enter the Dungeon. Without entering the Dungeon, he cannot grow stronger." The king's tone was cold, dismissive. "He will be provided basic accommodations, but he cannot be trained as a hero."
"That's not fair," Marcus protested. "He didn't ask to be summoned here any more than the rest of us did."
"Fair?" The king's voice grew sharp. "We used priceless artifacts and sacrificed three Grand Mages to perform the Summoning. We expected heroes, and we received eighteen of them. The nineteenth..." He gestured vaguely at Aster. "Is an unfortunate anomaly."
"He's a person," Lily spoke up, her SS-rank giving her enough standing that the king couldn't simply dismiss her. "Not an anomaly."
"A person who cannot contribute to our war effort," the king countered. "We will not turn him out—we are not cruel. He will have shelter, food, and safety within the palace walls. But we cannot waste resources training someone who will never be able to fight."
The words hung in the air like a pronouncement of exile. Aster felt every eye on him again—pity from some, relief from others, disgust from a few. He wanted to argue, to protest, to demand they give him a chance.
But what could he say? The king was right. Without a contracted beast, he couldn't access the System. Without the System, he couldn't fight. Without fighting, he was useless.
"Now then," King Aldric said, clearly considering the matter closed. "The rest of you should examine your status screens more thoroughly. Tomorrow, your training begins in earnest. Grand Magus Selene will answer any questions you have about the System."
The students turned back to their status screens, tapping their marks again, reading through information with their beasts at their sides. Conversations broke out—excited discussions about skills, strategies, potential.
Aster stood alone in the midst of it all.
Finally, with trembling hands, he raised his right hand and double-tapped the faint 'F' on his skin.
A status screen appeared before him—translucent, blue, and utterly damning:
_________________________________________
Name: Aster
Talent: Limit Break
Rank: F
Level: 0/∞
Contracted Beasts: None
Skills: [Locked]
___________________________________________
Aster stared at the screen, his mind struggling to process what he was seeing.
No tier. Where everyone else had "Tier 7," his showed nothing, as if the System couldn't—or wouldn't—assign him one.
And his level cap... infinity? That couldn't be right. Everyone else was capped at 100 per tier, a clear and defined progression. But his showed an infinity symbol, stretching endlessly.
What did that even mean?
He looked for a talent description, something to explain what "Limit Break" actually did, but there was nothing. Just the name and rank, with no explanation of its function or purpose. It was as if the System itself didn't know what to do with him.
His heart pounded. This was wrong. Different. Should he tell someone? Show them this impossible status screen?
But even as the thought crossed his mind, he dismissed it. What would he say? That his broken status showed impossible values? They'd probably assume it was just another sign of how defective he was. Another reason to dismiss him as the mistake.
No. Whatever this meant, he'd keep it to himself. At least for now.
The screen was still painfully empty compared to what his classmates were seeing. No beast name. No beast rank. No beast skills. Just emptiness and the word "None" mocking him, accompanied by inexplicable values that made no sense.
Aster closed the status screen quickly, glancing around to make sure no one had been watching. Everyone was too absorbed in their own screens, their own beasts, their own excitement.
Good. His secret—whatever it meant—would remain his own.
Around him, his classmates planned their futures—talking about which monsters they'd hunt first, what skills they hoped to unlock, how quickly they could level up their beasts from E-rank to D-rank.
And Aster stood in the center of it all, marked with an 'F', powerless and alone, while the world moved on without him.
The next morning came with a harsh reality that Aster had tried not to think about during the sleepless night.
Dawn light filtered through his window, and with it came the sounds of his classmates gathering in the courtyard below. Their voices carried excitement, nervousness, anticipation—the emotions of people about to begin something significant.
Aster moved to the window and looked down, knowing what he'd see but unable to stop himself from looking anyway.
The training courtyard was enormous, easily the size of three football fields, with various sections marked out for different types of training. Obstacle courses, combat rings, archery ranges, and what looked like magical training circles that glowed with soft blue light.
And there were his classmates, assembled in a neat formation, transformed from the scared students of yesterday into something approaching warriors.
Derek stood at the front, naturally positioning himself as a leader, wearing crimson armor that seemed to pulse with internal heat. The metal plates were trimmed with gold, form-fitting and clearly expensive, designed to enhance rather than restrict movement.
At his side, Ignis—his flame wolf—had grown noticeably overnight. The beast was now the size of a large shepherd dog, its flames burning brighter, its eyes more intelligent.
Lily wore elegant robes of deep blue that shimmered like water in sunlight, reinforced with what appeared to be scale-like armor pieces at the shoulders and chest. The outfit managed to be both beautiful and practical, clearly crafted by master artisans.
Her serpent, Celeste, coiled around a specially designed staff—a weapon that doubled as a perch for her contracted beast. The serpent's scales had taken on an even more lustrous quality, reflecting rainbow patterns in the morning light.
Even the B-rank students had proper equipment. Sophie's gear was lighter, more suited to a healer, with green and pink accents matching her nature affinity. Claire wore form-fitting armor with purple and grey tones, designed for stealth and illusion magic.
Even Cole, their teacher, had been outfitted with golden-trimmed armor befitting an educator-warrior, with his eagle perched proudly beside him.
They looked like heroes. Like people who belonged in this world.
Then there was Aster.
A knock on his door broke his observation. He opened it to find a young palace servant—a girl perhaps sixteen or seventeen—holding a bundle of folded clothes. She wouldn't meet his eyes.
"Your... your clothing, sir," she said quietly, thrusting the bundle toward him. "For today."
Aster took it, noting how she immediately stepped back, as if proximity to him might be contagious. He didn't blame her. By now, word of the F-rank hero must have spread throughout the palace. The summoned hero who couldn't summon anything.
"Thank you," he said, but she was already hurrying away down the corridor.