1. Reincarnation

Unified Stellar Year 1244, in the farthest edge of the Great Wind Cosmic Field, Milky Way Galaxy, Earth.

While holding a device, looking at it with a mix of confusion, disbelief and excitement in his eyes, Grey once again slapped himself to check if everything was real, or if he is dreaming.

He seems to transmigrate into the future.

He was once a very normal person, of course with exception to his self-proclaimed "extremely handsome" appearance. While he's on the way home from a party due to the promotion of his colleague, an extremely bright light coming from the sky seems to begin approaching him, and when he realizes what it was, it was already too late.

HE WAS HIT BY A METEOR!

Grey just stood there for a while, smiling wryly as he lamented for his tragic death, when a deep, loud voice called him.

"GREY, GET YOUR ASS OUT HERE KID!"

Startled by the seemingly angry voice, he rushed out of his room downstairs only to meet two pairs of wolf-like eyes staring at him. The man himself is a behemoth standing at 6'9, with thick, pure black hair, ruby crimson, sharp eyes, bearing an indescribably deep intelligence, valiant looking face and a muscular build. Scouring his head for the memories of his predecessor, he panicked as the man gradually get closer to him, only for the man to carry him in his arms, laughing loudly as he spoke.

"We'll go out of town for a while, we will enjoy the nature in our surroundings and bond as a father and son."

"Father…" Grey said as he finally remembered who the man was.

Arthur Dragonbane. A famous person, terrifying leader and a gifted war veteran, and most importantly, a great father that not only take care, but also teaches his child to be at the very least a true, if not a great man. There was this one time where the man was threatened to do something scrupulous by his higher ups, which resulted in that superior being delegated from his post, even removed in the military, later being branded as a trash who only use others for their own purpose. There was also a rumor surrounding him that whenever someone was to challenge him into a spar or a fight, they would definitely turn to be a new leaf, leaving with a smile in their black-eyed face while their muscles twitching, only God knew what kind of horrendous things did they experienced in the hands of the man. Many other things are related to him that is often awe inspiring, sometimes terrifying, but definitely always something worth remembering.

"What is it kid?" Arthur looked at his son with a tinge of confusion.

"Uhmm… won't we need to prepare things we need to bring for the trip? like necessities and such."

The father just stared at his son with a knowing gaze and said, "A real man needs no preparation; we will go there right away HAHAHAHA!!!"

After a few minutes idle chat here and there, Grey was once again in his own room, observing his current appearance. A body of a five-year-old kid, with a face still carrying baby fats, a decent height for his age, thick, jet-black hair with some having silver tips, ruby crimson eyes and an aquiline nose.

'Indeed, very handsome, I'll give it a 12/10' he thought in his mind as he points towards his own reflection in the mirror.

"Get ready son, we will leave in a few minutes" interrupted his father as Grey appreciates his current appearance.

Outside.

White, high reaching spires of building with metallic luster all over the place, clean surroundings decorated by heaps of people here and there, some rushing toward their work, some talking with each civilian were using holographic devices to do things, service robots loitering around, and last but not least, intelligent species other than human interacting with others, while some just enjoying the city life. On the road, vehicles are seemingly 'gliding' off the ground. This is more than a thousand years beyond the age 2000's of earth, so some changes are ought to take place.

Soon after, the duo reached the city border, and Grey was surprised by what he saw; A towering black wall reaching nearly hundred meters in height, with the top of it armed with massive, futuristic weapons, something akin to a railgun in his previous life.

Reaching a checkpoint, his father flashed a card into one of the personnel checking their vehicle, which elicit a look of awe and respect from the personnel.

Clack… clack… clack…

Along with the overwhelming sounds from the symphony of gears and chattering, as well as shouting of the personnels here and there, a humongous gate of about twenty meters in height gradually opens itself, revealing to Grey the world outside which is beyond expectation.

Vast field of greens reaching up to where the eyes can see, along the way, plethora of weird looking beasts either playing along with each other or hunting other beasts, humans trying to tame such beasts, and other humans training their tamed beasts.

Looking at his son staring at the activities outside with an expression of sheer fascination, as well as excitement, curiosity and amazement, Arthur began telling Grey about the outside, something that would become very useful in the near future.

"With the development in our world rapidly progressing, huge numbers of mysteries for the ancestors of humanity are gradually unravelling themselves, creating answers for the questions as well as providing new questions to work on to in order to improve. That includes not just highly advance technology that allows us to establish contact with beings from other star systems or even other galaxies, it also includes the introduction of astral energy into the world." The father cited with obvious mastery, almost as if those lines in the history books are hammered into him by someone.

Arthur pauses for a while, amazed by the attentiveness shown by Grey to the topic. "As for what the astral energy is, they say that this is the essence emitted by a star throughout its entire life cycle, a pure energy that not only provide fuel for multitudes of machines, but also allows us to empower ourselves, giving us access to higher level of strength, rights to enter contract with beasts, longevity, or even immortality further down the line."

Grey's eyes lit up. 'Cultivation!!' he shouts in his mind. Face with the same kind of situation, what kind of man wouldn't? Isn't it every man who once read a cultivation novel's dream is to cover the skies with one hand, maybe tearing it asunder, travel unhindered by anyone else, and reach the so-called peak? Just the notion alone of the overwhelming strength that one can gain through practice is enough to make his blood boil.

Arthur continued "While the practice of absorbing astral energy causes our cultivation to rise, it is only suitable for the beginning part of it. Us practitioners takes the path of either taming, or contracting a beast in order to further our path"

This rose multiple question from Grey in which he got the answer in a moment.

"Entry into a contract is a mutually beneficial thing towards the two parties, the beasts gaining intelligence borrowed from the host it is in contract to, while the host borrows from the other party their innately powerful sense to further increase their control over surrounding astral energy, causing one's cultivation speed to improve. Hence also why contracts are usually between an equal."

"Although, there are some special cases such as beasts being suppressed by a powerful party in order to enter a contract to a weaker host, and vice versa. Well, you will understand further as long as you decided to embark on your own adventure."

Grey then looked at his father, anticipation burning in his eyes, "Then, are we going to find a beast I can tame."

His father stared at him for a couple of seconds, then he started laughing, almost hysterically. "No, I'm going to train you, and if you're lucky, then YOU might find a beast that you can tame YOURSELF". Arthur continues laughing. The laugh goes for about half an hour, enough time for them to reach their destination.

With huge trees with diameter nearing 10 meters, a forest come into sight. Continuing the ride, Grey eventually realizes that the area they are in is quite a unique environment, the leaves of those trees interlapping in such a way that it only allows little to no sunlight reaching its surface. While that is the case, the forest is still brightly lit due to the bioluminescent moss climbing the trees, as well as surrounding stones, it is also observable in the surroundings that there are fireflies emitting a blue light, further increasing the magical ambience the place bring. While Grey took in everything, amazed, numbers of howls reverberating from the depth of the forest, which was interrupted by Arthur speaking.

"I see you kid is quite amazed hence I will give you a general idea about the place. This is the Azure Breeze Forest, surrounding our city from the north all the way to the south through the east, divided into 7 levels namely the outskirts, first to fifth layer, and then the core. Young students from our city's academies oftentimes goes in the outskirt area to train themselves, while experienced hunters ventured to the first to fifth area in order to earn, as for the core" Arthur smiles eerily before he continues speaking.

"We are currently in the core area."

Grey's hell training began.