How Generous!
'S-Seriously...' Osho felt his mouth go dry.
As he watched the crystal slowly fill up with a silver light, the word 'Master' echoed in his mind.
He briefly thought back to a story he read online some while back.
Apparently, a few years ago, a wild beast at the Master rank beast engaged a Bastion-Class Citadel. Records say that the Citadel contained about 7 Elite-ranked beast tamers, and dozens of Expert ranks.
The Beast eviscerated the city and everyone in it with a single attack.
Osho had a feeling that there was more to it than that, but still...
'Gale has the potential to destroy a Citadel.' The thought was jarring, and Osho was both extremely excited and slightly mortified.
He had no idea what potential Gale would have had if he hadn't evolved him, but knowing that he gave his beast the capacity to reach a point where destroying cities containing millions of people was possible... he didn't know if he should have felt proud or concerned.
Suddenly, a hand fell on his shoulder, snapping him out of his stupor.
Hi looked to the side and saw Mrs Jane looking at him with an intense gaze. It was also then that he noticed how quiet the rest of the class was. Everyone was looking at him with unmasked shock, yet no one made a sound. It was as though Osho had become a bonafide Master in their eyes, and feared making noise would anger him and cause him to lash out.
Obviously, that was an irrational thought, but in a world where beasts and Beast Tamers ran supreme, most people were well-versed in things related to beasts, so most people had a good idea of just how terrifying a Master could be.
So the knowledge that someone who could reach that stage in the future walked among them, scared them.
There wasn't any room for envy or indignation. In that short instant, Osho had already become an untouchable existence to them.
The only one who didn't seem as affected was Ellie, who had the biggest grin on her face.
"Osho." Mrs Jane said slowly and Osho stared at her with wide eyes, he felt like he was in trouble.
However, after a few seconds, a beautiful smile graced her lips, and Osho was momentarily stunned. He'd never seen her smile so brightly, and it was like watching the sunrise as her beauty nearly overwhelmed him.
"Congratulations." That was all she said, and then Ellie saw that as the right moment to start clapping. It was slow, but gradually, it gained speed, and it gained numbers.
Before he knew it, the class was giving him a standing ovation, and Osho felt like he was dreaming. What just happened?
***
Mrs Jane took a breath before knocking on the door to the Principal's office.
A few seconds later, an aged but warm voice called her in.
Jane stepped inside and closed the door behind her. Her previous stern demeanor faded to reveal a more amiable and welcoming expression.
She stood straight and looked at the figure behind the desk in front of her.
The man was old. He seemed to be in his sixties, though she knew he was older than that by a sizeable margin. Despite his age, he had a strong posture and well-built muscles, but he didn't look like a bodybuilder either.
There was a warm and hospitable smile on his face and his eyes twinkled with wisdom and a bit of mischief. His name was Timothy Bright, the Principal and founder of the Bright Spark Academy.
"Principal." Mrs Jane greeted meekly and gave a short bow. Timothy waved his hand and scoffed.
"Girl, I've told you more than a few times to quit it with the formalities, especially when it's just the two of us." He seemed to be reprimanding her, but his voice was fond and soft.
Jane just stared at him and he sighed.
"Fine, whatever. So what is it this time? I'm assuming it's quite important considering that you came here yourself." Timothy decided to get straight to the point and Jane took a breath.
"It's about two of my students who recently hatched their beasts. We just finished the potential detection test and the results were... well, see for yourself." Mrs Jane dropped two files on Timothy's table and he couldn't help but be impressed.
"Efficient as always, the tests should have ended half an hour ago, but you've already printed out comprehensive files on the students you're talking about." Timothy praised and Jane's expression didn't change, but a dust of pink colored her cheeks at the praise.
'For her to do this, these two must have done something special.' Timothy mused as he opened the first file. When he saw Ellie's face, he hummed.
Then he glossed through her information. Due to her position as the only child of the Hemsworth family, he tended to pay special attention to her. After all, not only was her father one of the richest people in the Citadel, he also sponsored their school. Though Timothy made sure to not give her preferential treatment, which her father liked just fine.
As such, he basically skipped to the end of the file which had the results of her tests and his pupils shrunk slightly when he saw the word 'Elite' printed out in bold red.
"... I see." That was all he said, but the faint smile on his face grew wider, and he sat up slightly as his interest was piqued fully.
"This is certainly quite the development." He mumbled and read the result several times as if making sure what he was seeing was real, then he put the file down and sighed.
"That's quite exciting, I will admit." However, he noticed that Jane was staring intently at the second file and Timothy raised a brow.
'Wellz she brought two for a reason, the second result must be reasonably impressive.' He thought and picked up the second file and opened it.
'Oh? It's the orphan boy, Osho. Interesting.' Timothy rubbed his chin. He made sure to memorize as many names as he could for his students, and Osho was the only orphan in his school. After all, even though Bright Spark Academy was falling off a little, it was still among the most prestigious schools in their Citadel, so getting in wasn't simple. Yet the boy managed to stay in due to a scholarship and sheer defiance.
He read the file, properly this time, though admittedly there wasn't a lot of information on Osho. His background had little to no information and his parent's whereabouts were a mystery, though it was likely that they were dead.
He continued to read until he reached the result of the test, and Timothy froze. He hadn't even read the word yet, but that clear silver color was something he'd recognize anywhere.
Master
Timothy exhaled and read the result again, and it was the same. Then he sighed, and then he laughed.
"Haha! Jane, please tell me this isn't some elaborate joke?" He asked and Jane simply shook her head.
Timothy rubbed a hand across his face and stared at the result incredulously. He couldn't help but let his composure slip a bit. While he always had hopes of having a powerful beast tamer start out from his school, he didn't think it would actually happen at any point.
The greatest tamer their school had produced was standing in front of him, as Jane was an Expert-ranked beast tamer, yet not only had Ellie surpassed her in potential, Osho had surpassed even her!
"... How many people know about this?" After regaining his composure, Timothy asked solemnly.
"Besides the students that were in the class, it's just me and you, but I doubt we'll be able to keep it that way for long," Jane said evenly and Timothy nodded, not surprised by the news.
He stared at the files for a few more seconds and then made a decision.
"Alright then. Transfer a sum of 100,000 credits to Osho and half of that to Ellie, as well as a large supply of high quality beast food. Also give them a mid-level bond strengthening manual and a Mana circulation technique manual of similar grade. Lastly, give them unrestricted access to the staff training room." As he listed out the benefits the two had gotten, Jane was a bit surprised, but such surprise didn't last long, and she quickly felt like it was only natural for such a level of investment. After all, they both surpassed even her in terms of potential, so she felt like it was only natural.
"It will be done." She said dutifully and stepped out of the office.
"Phew, and I thought I had done enough exciting things." Timothy grinned as he leaned back into his chair.
***
Class ended early for the seniors. The moment the last person had been tested, they were given the go-ahead and they all left their class and went home.
Osho felt like he was in a trance the whole way home, and it was only when he reached his apartment did he snap out of his trance.
"... Heh." A small grin appeared on his face as he lay on his back on his bed. Gale hopped on his chest and looked down at him with curious eyes and Osho chuckled before reached up to stroke the bird between its wings causing it to release that familiar satisfied trill.
As he stroked, his mind wandered.
'With this, my path is a bit more clear.' He thought.
'Still, this will bring its fair share of issues. I doubt the 'secret' of Gale's potential will be kept under wraps for long, so I should expect my popularity to rise in the coming days. That will lead to good and bad things, though I'm inclined to believe there will be more Nad than good things.' He mused.
'Moreover, if the news is spread that I have the potential to become a Master, and I go through with my plan to evolve Gale again before the college entrance exam, then if they test his potential again there will be some suspicions.' He hummed.
'There's also my safety. This might be a stretch, but it's possible there could be someone out there who won't be very happy with the news of my test result and might try to harm me. That or someone from some secret organization might want to forcefully recruit me. Though that's my novel knowledge from earth speaking.' He sighed and sat up while carefully carrying Gale in his arms.
"Let's get you fed." He mumbled and Gale sensed his intentions through their bond, causing the bird to chirp happily at the prospect of food.
As Osho carried him to the kitchen and poured him a bowl of food, he continued to muse.
'That said, I still intend on getting into the best Academy possible. So I'll evolve Gale regardless, it's not like anyone will be able to tell his potential until that day, and when that happens, I'd be under protection.' He pondered as he started to fix up his lunch. Osho didn't have a lot of options when it came to ingredients, but his cooking skills were simply exquisite.
As a result, he put together an extremely appetizing looking plate of Spaghetti and began to eat.
'Then there's Ellie. I intend for us to enter the best college together and for that to happen, Sugil needs to have better potential than currently, so I'm inclined to evolve her. But how can I do it without seeming suspicious...?' He pondered as he ate his food.
At some point, Gale finished his food and went to perch on Osho's shoulder.
'Hm, yeah that should work.' He nodded to himself and picked up his phone to ask Ellie for something, but he saw she already sent him a text, or an image to be more specific.
She had changed into her house wear which consisted on a simple sleeveless top and shorts, and she had taken the image from above, giving Osho quite the view, and around her neck was Sugil who was staring at the camera with fascination.
Osho 'analyzed' his friend's youthful figure for a bit before sending a simple thumbs up emoji. Then he looked at Sugil and focused.
When he did, just like with Gale, transparent ribbons appeared in the air, leading to a certain direction. However, these ribbons were purple instead of grey like with Gale.
Osho sighed and rubbed his temples. At some point when he discovered his ability,.he realized that if he focused on a beast long enough, he could make the ribbons materialize, but it cost some mental energy, so he couldn't sustain it.
Still, he was quite satisfied, as what he did just now was an experiment to see if it worked on pictures as well, and it seemed like it did.
He quickly stopped though as the strain was considerable, though the moment he stopped, his phone buzzed and he checked to see if he had gotten a text back from Ellie, but he was surprised and then stunned when he saw that it was a credit notification of 150,000 Credits.
That's when the message from Ellie came, as well as one from his teacher Mrs Jane, but he read Ellie's text first.
[They said they were giving us some money, but I don't really need it, so I told them to give you mine. Enjoy~]