Chapter 2: Novice Beast Master

The next morning the remaining fifty kids aged 15 and below are lined up in the same training ground they fought in yesterday.

" You all have been baptised by blood yesterday, earning your first kill, and that makes you all an official member of the Shadow Hall " Garu said as he stands in front of everyone with his hands behind his back and the domineering Steel Fang Tiger beside him.

The kids are silently listening to what he was saying because they were scared that the beast might attack them.

" You all have learned various knowledge about killing and survival and even trained using weapons, but there is another weapon you will need if you want to survive as an assassin and that is a battle Beast," Garu said with a smile on his face as he looks towards his Steel Fang Tiger.

The kids marvel at the Steel Fang Tiger.

" So from today onwards you will study about battle beasts and meditate to become a novice beast master along with your usual training " Garu added.

After announcing that they will have additional training the kids are dismissed and are given two books each one is big and thick while the other is smaller and has fewer pages.

After coming back to their rooms Damian and his roommates started to read their books, despite being orphans they all have learned how to read so they can immediately start their new task.

The big and thick book with a brown leather cover is a book recording various battle beasts from low to high class, while the smaller book contains a meditation technique called grey spirit meditation.

Damian went to one corner of the room to read, after the death matches the other day there are now six kids sharing the room while the other four died, the room is now more spacious, Damian and his roommates all went to find comfortable places inside the room and they all read in silence.

Damian first opened the big book containing information about various battle beasts, seeing Garu's Steel Fang Tiger made him curious about other Battle Beasts.

He opened the book and read a few paragraphs of the introduction and from the introduction he learned about the different classes and tiers that Battle Beasts have. There are five classes of battle beasts such as low class, middle class, high class, superior class, and legend class battle beasts but the book in his hands only contains information on battle beasts from low class to high class. A battle beasts class represents the growth rate of their strength and potential, while Tiers represent the current strength of the Battle Beast, 12 tiers represent a battle beats strength with tier 1 being the weakest and tier 12 being the strongest, and in between tiers there are three levels such as low level, middle level and high level, so the strength of two beasts can vary despite having the same tier, a high level tier 1 battle beast is stronger than a middle level tier 1 battle beast, other than tiers a battle beasts class can affect their current strength too, a high class high level tier 1 battle beast is stronger than middle class high level tier 1 battle beast, despite having the same tier and level the battle beast with higher class will be stronger. And the class of the battle also represents their limitation a low-class battle beast can usually reach tier 3, the middle class can reach tier 6, a high class can reach tier 8, a superior class can reach tier 10, and a legendary class battle beast can reach tier 12.

After reading the introduction Damian gained an understanding of the strength of Battle Beast he continued reading the book until it was time to have dinner, one of Garu's underlings went to their room to bring in their dinner, it was stale bread and some vegetables and a glass of water for each of them, the six of them ate in silence after eating dinner the other kids in his room started to prepare to sleep while Damian palms to continue reading but this time he will be reading the meditation book. The book has a grey-colored cover, he opened the book and the first few pages contain information about beast masters, people who make a bond with battle beasts are called Beast Masters, beast masters have six levels, novice beast master, intermediate beast master, beast master lord, beast master monarch, beast master king, beast master emperor. Damian and the other kids' target is to become a novice beast master to be able to bond with a Battle beast, and similar to the battle beasts class the levels of the beast master have sub-levels as well such as low, middle, and high levels.

After learning about the levels of beast masters the next pages of the book contains directions on how to meditate and some pointers, Damian is now sitting on the wooden floor in a lotus position as the book instructed and he then begins his meditation, as he fell deeper in his meditation his mind is getting clearer and his body lighter, after a few minutes he opened his eyes, he cannot focus anymore and has to stop his meditation, it is said in the book that when one woke up from meditation state one must stop to let his mental strength and body rest, despite just meditating for ten minutes it is extremely texting on the mind and body, now that he is feeling the side effects of meditation Damian does not dare to continue meditating, he decided to do it again tomorrow.

...

Inside one of the rooms on the second floor, Garu is writing something on a piece of paper, he rolled it out and puts it inside the small pocket attached to the leg of a pigeon after closing the pocket the pigeon flew away.

" I wonder who will be able to become a novice beast master in a month " Garu said in wonder as he stared at the silhouette of the pigeon in the night sky.

Garu didn't say the time limit of a month earlier when he distributed the books.

...

Morning came and there is no shocking announcement this time, Damian and the other kids went on their own ways to train and study, this kind of peace and quiet lasted for a month. Now Damian and the other kids are now standing in front of Garu again. It's been a month since the last time that they are called for an announcement.

" It has been a month since you guys have started meditating, today we will be assessing your progress," Garu said, his underling walking forward with a crystal ball in his hand.

" This is a spirit-testing crystal used to measure the spiritual energy a person has gathered through meditation, the spirit-testing crystal will glow upon contact with spiritual energy " Garu said. "Form a line and place your hand over the crystal one by one "

The first kid on the line placed his hand over the crystal and it showed no reaction, Garu stared at the kid and the kid felt shivers, he quickly stepped back scared that Garu might do something to him.

The next kid to touch the crystal is the same as the first one, after a few .ore kids failed to make the crystal glow it is now Kayla's turn he is one of the five kids alongside Damian that is chosen by Garu to represent the Miller City Shadow Hall.

Layla walked closer to the crystal ball she then placed her hand over it, Garu's face showed delight when the crystal ball produced a faint light.

"Low-level novice beast master " Garu announced.

The other kids cried in surprise that some ok be their age or even younger than them has become a beast masters.

Layla has a huge smile on her face although she rarely shows emotion and is labelled as a cold beauty by the other kids.

" Good job kid" Garu complimented

After hearing a few more praises Layla went back with a straight face she was back to being the cold beauty.

The next kid after Kayak failed to make the crystal glow, the same as the next one and the next one.

A few more failed attempts and Garu is now sitting and is starting to get annoyed.

Then it is time for one of Damian's roommates the boy who complained his name is Gen he confidently placed his hand and it made the crystal glow.

Garu immediately stood up.

" Hahahaha good job boy " Garu is now delighted again.

The next to go after Gen is another one of his roommates the girl who complained along with Gen the morning they were woken up early and are forced to kill others, her name is Lany.

She went and placed her hand on the crystal and it also faintly glowed, now Garu's smile is about to rip his mouth.

Gen and Lany both have the same result as Layla, a low-level novice beast master.

After Lany, three more kids successfully made the crystal glow and they all are low-level novice beast masters.

Then the next kids all failed, now there are only four kids left, Damian, Gerald, Dante, and Kane.

Looking at the last four to be assessed Garu smiled because he already knows that the last four have become a novice beast master, but he does not know their level.

Gerald is the first to go and he made the crystal glow and which shows that he is only a low-level novice. His result made Garu slightly disappointed.

Dante is next and the glow that the crystal produced when he touched it is much brighter than the others. It made Garu almost jump.

" A middle-level novice beast master, he quite the talented kid hahahahaha " Garu laughed loudly.

The other kids are shocked, being a low-level novice is enough to surprise them and now someone has reached the middle level, they all understand what this means, Dante is talented and will most likely be favoured. Dante smiled and went back he didn't show much emotion but deep inside he is extremely happy.

The next to be assessed is Kane, he didn't show any emotion when Dante is revealed to have reached the middle level.

He placed his hand over the crystal and it immediately lights up but this time it is even brighter than Dante's.

" Hahahahahahahahahahahaha High-level novice beast master! Hahahahahha " Garu laughed way harder than before he went towards Kane and pat him on his shoulder.

" You will definitely make our Shadow Hall flourish and reach a greater status hahahahahaha " Garu can't stop laughing and smiling. While Dante angrily stared at Kane's back, he felt like he was robbed of being the favoured kid and receiving privileges.

After a few more praises from Garu Kane went back he looked at the other kids arrogantly but the other kids can't do anything about it since most of them didn't even reach a low-level novice beast master.

Damian walked towards the crystal and it seems like the others didn't care about him even Garu seems to not care, he cannot be more shocked since he already know that Damian is a novice already.

Damian placed his hand over the crystal ball and it glowed, at first it is just the same glow as a middle-level novice but after a few seconds, the light grew brighter and reach the same glow as Kane's.