As he left the adventurers' guild, Kenji hailed a carriage and told the driver to take him directly to where he would be taking his trial.
He was excited!
Today, he was going to become something more than a famous local chef—he was going to become an adventurer!
Kenji was so eager that he wished the carriage would arrive in no more than ten seconds.
As he sat at the back of the carriage, waiting to arrive, he brought out a red stone from his spatial ring.
The stone was red like fire, with occasional glimpses of hot yellow, giving it a warm feel.
"You never cease to amaze me, you little thing," Kenji whispered to the rock, playing with it, making it dance around his fingers.
He had gotten this red stone from the king's treasury while taking gold into the spatial ring. The king had told him that it wasn't something he needed, nor was it important to him, so he had given Kenji permission to take it.
After staying in the old town for a few more days, Kenji went around asking about the stone, and many told him that it was the beast core of a C-rank fire bird—an incredibly precious item.
Kenji smiled at them, for he knew that the king had called it useless while the commoners saw it as valuable. He could clearly see the gap between commoners and nobles in this world—it was huge!
Some even tried to buy the fire bird beast core from him, but Kenji would never sell it. He felt like there was more to this rock than met the eye.
Besides, he loved playing with it and felt like it was the only toy he could fidget with from time to time.
Bump!
"We're here!" the carriage driver announced, getting down to check his wheel, which had hit a hard rock.
"Oh, great!" Kenji exclaimed as he jumped out of the carriage in haste.
As he got down, he took in the breathtaking sight of the green grass and the blue sky. He handed the driver his payment and told him he could head back to town.
Without any complaints, the driver did as Kenji said and immediately drove away.
"Now, let's get picking!" he exclaimed happily as he began collecting all the lion dandelions he could find.
After a few minutes, Kenji's face dropped. "I haven't even reached half the bag, and this job is already so boring!" he muttered in annoyance, plucking another flower from the earth.
As he stood up and stretched his arms, he spotted a rabbit hidden in the grass. With a light snicker, he slowly approached it. When he reached a satisfactory distance, he outstretched his hand into the air, facing his palm toward the rabbit's forehead.
A white, holy-looking magic circle appeared, floating atop his palm, while another formed above the little rabbit, which continued munching on the grass, unaware of its fate.
"Tame!" Kenji said, closing his eyes as the magic circle above the rabbit embedded itself into the small creature, slowly bringing it under his control.
And in less than a second, the creature was fully tamed, only listening to the commands of a certain someone named Makoto Kenji.
"Now, go call your friends and start plucking these lion dandelions. Place them in this sack," Kenji instructed.
As if it understood him, the rabbit ran back and disappeared into a burrow in the ground.
Moments later, it returned with over thirty of its friends, seemingly having won them over, as they obediently began gathering flowers.
Within minutes, the dandelion field was swarmed with rabbits working tirelessly.
Kenji sat under a tree, continuing to fidget with the red stone as he watched the rabbits complete his task.
He wished he could take them all, but he couldn't—he could only tame one creature at a time.
Leaning back against the tree's bark, he let the cool afternoon breeze lull him to sleep.
---
ROOOARRR!!!
Kenji jolted awake, eyes wide as the sound of a beast's roar echoed across the field.
He got up, rubbing his eyes, as an alarmed look washed over his face. "What the hell was that?" he muttered.
His gaze darted across the field—and he froze.
It was a rabbit.
But not a regular rabbit.
It stood over ten feet tall, its menacing blood-red eyes glaring at him, sharp fangs bared—fangs that looked capable of piercing through the toughest of substances.
Kenji swallowed hard.
This was the mother of these rabbits—the mother of the one he had tamed with a temporary taming contract!
"Sh*t," he cursed under his breath, stepping back as sweat dripped from his forehead.
Just then, something tugged at his trousers. He looked down, stunned to see the little rabbit he had tamed earlier.
It was tugging on him, as if to show him that the job was done—the bag was now filled with lion dandelions.
A fresh wave of panic washed over Kenji. The mother rabbit had spotted its child at his feet.
With bloodshot eyes and bared fangs, the giant rabbit lunged at him.
Kenji turned to flee—but it was too late.
The mother rabbit was terrifyingly fast. In an instant, it appeared before him, its breath heavy with rage.
"Gulp! Hey, Miss Rabbit, I-I didn't mean to turn your kids into slaves… They were just trying to h-help me, so I… I allowed them?" Kenji stammered, hoping the mother rabbit would understand.
She didn't.
With a deafening roar, she lunged. Her massive claws slashed down, slicing into his head.
Blood splattered.
She ravaged him.
Bones cracked. Skin tore. Flesh shredded.
She gouged out one of his eyes. The pain was unbearable.
Kenji became a mangled mess of human flesh. As darkness consumed him, only one thought crossed his mind.
"I'm sorry."
Sorry that he wouldn't be able to return as promised. Sorry for the broken dreams. Sorry that he hadn't proven himself to the world.
He wanted to be noticed. To be known. But now, all his dreams crumbled into nothingness.
As his life force faded and his vision blurred, the red stone he had carried all this time began to glow.
Floating off the ground, it drifted toward his lifeless body, pulsing with an ethereal light.