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


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.