34 Drafted

"I wish you'd stop being so cryptic." John said with a sigh, "You've been dropping hints about Beast King's for months and I still have no idea how to become one."

"It's simple really." Mr. Carter said with a mischievous smile, "You have to become a Beast Cultivator."

"WHAT?!?!" John yelled in surprise. "But I'm already a Soul Cultivator!"

"So?" Mr. Carter said, "Your friend Steven is a Hybrid Cultivator, why can't you be one?"

"But..." John was going to explode saying it's impossible but stopped himself at the look of pure enjoyment on Mr. Carter's face. "You're fucking with me right?"

Laughing, Mr. Carter shook his head and held up his thumb and pointer finger about an inch apart from each other while he said, "Maybe a little."

"What's really going on?" John asked.

"I honestly have no idea how you become a Beast King, what I do know is that a group of students and teachers from the 6 clans and 3 countries will be joining us today. The advisers have been ordered to pick several of our best students to meet them."

"6 clans?" John asked in surprise.

"Yeah, you've probably never heard of them. They're the 6 main Beast Clans, Cats, Dogs, Rodents, Snakes, Reptiles, and Fish. The dragons are technically the ones with the most power in the Beast hierarchy but they stay out of all but the most important decision leaving the 6 main clans to run everything."

John nodded in understanding, "I've heard something about that before, but what about the 3 countries? I thought only the Confederation existed now."

"What they don't teach you in history class is that when the fall occurred several powerful groups escaped from the major countries. They congregated in the islands near them, but eventually realized they couldn't survive on their own and chose New Zealand to be the final bastion of Humanity. Survivors from Canada and the US had congregated in Cuba and created a new government called the United States of North America. The People's Republic of China still maintained their power. While the Russians had received the least amount of damage due to their Siberian climate and the lazy nature of most Ice Attribute Elemental Monsters."

"Survivors from Western Europe where sparse and usually chose to join the USNA, while survivors from Eastern Europe joined Russia. Most of Asia was decimated by the nuclear strikes China, India, and Pakistan resorted too. In the end, the ancient martial clans evacuated and created a new country. None of them had the strength to survive on their own at the time so it was decided to put aside differences and join together to create the Confederacy in New Zealand. To this day, the three countries exert an incredible amount of influence over the Confederacy."

By this point, John's entire worldview had been shattered. He'd been taught for as long as he could remember that the 4 guilds were the true powers of the Confederacy. That they held an inordinate level of control over the government and no one dared to cross them, yet now he was being told that they weren't even one of the 9 major powers! "What about the 4 guilds?" John couldn't help but ask.

Despite being a member of the Tamer's Guild, Mr. Carter waved his hand in dismissal as if they didn't matter. "They were created a little over a thousand years ago after the Civil War. They don't teach much about it in school anymore, but it was caused by a bunch of arrogant members of the 9 powers thinking they were better than everyone else and it nearly destroyed the Confederacy. In the end, the ancestor's got pissed off and killed everyone who'd caused the incident before creating the 4 guilds so the young people would have better things to do than fighting each other."

John started coughing in surprise, "The way you explained it, it's like they thought of the civil war where 10's of millions of people died as nothing more than a fight between bratty little kids!"

"That's exactly what they thought." Mr. Carter stopped John from asking anymore questions when he saw John open his mouth to speak, "That's enough history for the day, you'll learn about all of this as you grown stronger. I've chosen you join the group meeting with the newcomers, your job will be to show that despite not being from one of the 9 major powers you are no weaker than them."

"That sounds like SO much fun!" John said sarcastically, before groaning and asking "Why me?!?!"

"Because the 9 powers are sending some Elders to escort and protect the new students and teachers being assigned here. Among them, at least one is going to be a Beast King. If you're lucky, they might agree to teach you about it." Mr. Carter's smile turned a little evil as he continued, "Also, because it's tradition to force the top students from Gallandwell and the 9 powers to fight each other to the death!"

John turned pale when he heard that before glaring at Mr. Carter again as he realized... "You're fucking with me again!"

"Of course I am, it's just too much fun!" Mr. Carter said, "You do have to fight, just not to the death... hopefully."

By this point, John was beginning to think he would've been better off if he'd never spoken to Mr. Carter on the first day. Realizing his best policy was a complete lack of interaction with Mr. Carter from this point on, John unlocked the door to the room and marched out the door while Mr. Carter yelled, "Be ready to leave at noon!"

John left building 3 with a scowl on his face. The day had been going great, with John finally managing to break through to the 2nd Level of Body Refining only to have Mr. Carter approach him for the express purpose of fucking with him. He was about to put on his coat when he realized that it was slightly burnt and had several holes around the neck because of what Snakey had done earlier. "Just fucking great." He growled, using their bond to send Snakey a message to head home.

An hour later, John was sitting in the cafeteria nursing a cup of hot chocolate with a massive bandage covered in burn cream on his neck as he skipped class and stared at the table blankly. "I thought you had class this time of day." A voice said, and John turned to see Chris from the Maker's Club standing next to his table.

"I'm excused for the day." John said with a disgusted look on his face.

"Really? Me too." Chris said as he sat down on the other side of the table. "My adviser said to meet in front of the dorms at noon and to take the rest of the day to rest."

"Did he tell you why?" John asked.

"No, just that I was told participate in a special mission and to be ready to fight."

"You guys got roped into this too?" Steven asked as he sat down next to John with a smile on his face. It wasn't until he had taken a giant bite out of his breakfast burrito that he noticed John's gloomy mood and how confused Chris looked. "What, you aren't excited?"

"What's there to be excited about." John said as he went back to his hot chocolate. "I was just told I have to fight a bunch of spoiled arrogant assholes who've been training with the best resources and techniques in the world since they were born."

Steven snorted at that, "So? I'm one of those spoiled, arrogant assholes. Don't go in with too many preconceived notions, maybe you'll like them