Chapter 4: Chapter 4 - Taming Hope They had dreamed of something better for Ren. But with a spore... "Eight years," the father sank into his chair. "Eight years watching others evolve their beasts while he... while our foolish investment takes away his hope for..." He didn't need to finish the sentence. A spore couldn't evolve its rank. There were no cultivation techniques to study, no improvement paths to explore, no secret techniques to buy. Many had already tried. Richer people with much more support. The only one who succeeded... Was labeled as the worst failure. A fortune spent for an almost useless gain, 20% strength. Since that day, the spore has been the symbol of failure. Ren would spend eight years learning things he could never apply, his surroundings a constant reminder of what he couldn't achieve. Eight years of mockery, being the school's laughingstock. Eight wasted years, because what could he learn about cultivation and evolution with a creature that couldn't even evolve? Sadness led the father to reminisce about the past, a past that Ren had illuminated... "Remember that day?" he asked suddenly, his gaze lost in the candle flames. "When I couldn't find the medicine demanded by the kingdom because it was depleted due to severe mana contamination from that year's horde, and I had to go out searching for a mana poisoning cure and also found that plant you ate... We thought we had been blessed." She nodded, taking his hand. How could she forget? They had been trying to have a child since their twenties. Almost three decades of broken hopes, watching their friends form families while they remained alone. They had lived a frugal life, pooling their resources to form a happy family, interested only in one thing they couldn't obtain no matter how much they accumulated. Almost a million, an incredible amount for citizens of their rank. They'd thought about using the money to "cure" their infertility but they were already so old... They had given up. But that trip to the outskirts... "The plant I found in the outskirts, mistaking it for that high-quality 100-year-old sweet root..." he continued. "When you ate it, I thought... I thought I had killed you. You were so pale, so cold..." "And a week later, I felt like I was twenty again," she smiled sadly. "And the following year we succeeded without trying..." "Our miracle." They fell silent, listening to the muffled sobs coming from Ren's room. Their little miracle, the child who had given them so much life and happiness when they had almost lost hope, now faced a cruel destiny. "It's as if the dragon gods were mocking us," she murmured. "They gave us a child when we were already too old, only to..." "To watch him suffer," he completed, squeezing her hand. The candles, almost spent, continued burning, their flames reflecting on the school contract on the table. In the adjacent room, their ten-year-old son cried silently, a small gray spore floating beside his pillow like a constant reminder of his fate. The feast they had prepared with so much love slowly cooled on the table, untouched, while two elderly parents wept for the cruel turn their life's miracle had taken. ♢♢♢♢ Ren lay on his bed, tears drying on his cheeks while rage gradually replaced sadness. The spore floated nearby, its weak gray glow only serving to enrage him more. Go to school like this? It was a cruel joke. He could already see the next eight years unfolding before him like an endless nightmare. While other children would learn to evolve their beasts, to awaken new powers, he would sit there, with a creature that couldn't even mature properly... Maybe it would be better to do what other unfortunate "rotting ones" did and... No! He couldn't, he loved his parents and they loved him too much too. He needed to find something to distract himself. He turned to the small bookshelf beside his bed, where he kept his favorite book, worn from countless readings: "The Second Contract of the Wandering King." His fingers traced the worn cover, following the image of a legendary warrior who had achieved the impossible. According to the story, the hero had found a mystical medicine deep in the forest, something that had allowed him to form a second contract with a beast. It was just a tale, of course, in all recorded history, only the current king and a dozen legendary warriors had managed to obtain a second creature contracted. And none of them would reveal the way to achieve it to the masses. But Ren was still a child, still naive. Ren looked through his window toward the dark forest stretching beyond the outskirts. The medicine from the story... What if...? But the thought died as quickly as it arose. His father, with his mature Iron-rank plant, had returned half-dead the only time he ventured there. And he had real advantages: A great 40% extra vitality, an adult's strength and speed increased by 20%, along with all his other attributes, a modest control over plants that allowed him to detect dangers and defend against some monsters, plus years of experience. And what did Ren have? A useless spore and a miserable 10% increase to his childish strength. He couldn't even lift the heavier flour sacks in the kitchen, how did he expect to survive in a forest full of monsters? The spore flickered weakly, as if sensing his desperation. "Why you?" he whispered bitterly toward the creature. "With such low chances... why did it have to be you?" Silence was his only answer. In the dining room, he could hear his parents talking in low voices, their voices laden with worry. He couldn't bear it anymore. He couldn't be the cause of their pain, the pathetic end to all their hopes and sacrifices. But he couldn't change anything either. Once the contract was formed, it was for life. The spore would be his companion until the day he died, a constant reminder of his failure. Unless... His eyes fixed again on the dark forest beyond his window. Even considering it was suicidal. The mana poisoning would kill him in less than 3 days with such a weak creature in his body. But as he thought about the school contract, about the years of torment awaiting him... What was worse? Dying while trying to change his destiny or living eight years as the school's laughingstock? His parents... Maybe he could make them happy too. Ren opened his worn book once more, his fingers tracing the illustrations of the Dragons. It was believed that all creatures could become dragons by finding the right path of cultivation. According to the book, the Wandering King found much information alongside his medicine... It wasn't just any medicine he wanted, it was in the heart of dragon territory, where mana flowed so densely it could be seen in the air.