Alex was not happy at all. While on instinctual level he felt safe and comfortable, his intellect screamed in displeasure. He became an animal! A four legged mammal!

What a disgrace. Although being a spider was not any better, at least he knew it was because of the Tony’s curse.

‘How could this be?’ Alex asked himself for the hundredth time, ‘Are incarnations random? But it doesn’t sound right – otherwise there would be a ton of extremely intelligent pets all over the world, with ability to speak, sing and what not. No … I did something wrong!’

‘Could it be … could it really be that committing suicide leads to some kind of degradation? Or is it a punishment? No, that sounds like a religious nonsense. This is not a random computer simulation and there have to be some rules regulating it! If so – how one can evolve back? Humans are obviously higher level lifeforms than beasts, right? What exactly do I have to do?’

Alex wrecked his brains back and forth while living his poor pup life. While he couldn’t see or hear, his mother basically took care of all his daily needs. At first he thought it would be revolting to drink beast’s milk directly from the tit, but he got hungry really soon and, after trying, he found it tasted great.

Actually the fact that he was blind helped a lot. While he knew he was some kind of a four legged mammal, he didn’t need to see his kin. And that helped him to maintain his sanity. He figured he had a couple of siblings, but they were too weak and small to make trouble. In addition, their mother took meticulous care of them all, including Alex.

Thus, with no way out, Alex continued his careless days of sleeping and eating while fruitlessly trying to analyze the situation over and over again.

On the second week, when he finally gained the ability to see, Alex experienced the light shock of being demoted to a dog. It was not that emotionally disturbing, since he already had this hunch.

But few days later, when his hearing returned and he managed to sneak out of the room his mother and siblings were in, he was thrown into abyss of despair. Not only was he a dog and not only he didn’t recognize the language people spoke. He was born in some kind of medieval period when people haven’t discovered electricity, to not speak about cars or computers!

The head of the Sildren family was woken up early by his youngest, relentlessly pulling his arm and shouting, “Dad! Wake up! Let’s go! The sun is almost up!”

“Reino, even if we crawl backwards, we’ll be at the academy at noon. Why are you causing such a ruckus?” Father lazily stretched and replied, but was ruthlessly kicked out of the bed.

“You two go and let me sleep some more. I’m exhausted after washing Danilo’s things yesterday. We’ll meet later in the academy.” Satra, Gregoro’s wife and the mother of two – Danilo and Reino, pulled the thick blanket over her head and immediately fell asleep again.

The father-son duo nodded to each other and tiptoed out of the room. Today was the day Danilo, Reino’s eldest brother will become a third-year in the Beastmaster academy and was going to receive a gift – his first spiritbeast. Of course, it didn’t come as a surprise – every student after passing the exams at the end of their second year will receive one, but Danilo didn’t know exactly what beast he would get.

Already some months ago Gregoro promised his youngest son they would purchase Danilo’s first companion together. Obviously he wasn’t going to the market to blindly pick up a random thing. The bond between master and his first beast was too important, therefore Gregoro arranged a beautiful rank four horned leopard’s pup.

While every little child in the world dreamed to one day have their own spiritbeast like rank five fire-feather eagle or even a rank six rock mammoth, Danilo has learned in academy enough to understand the correct route of becoming a proper beastmaster. And after secretly checking his son’s notes, Gregoro knew what type of beast the boy wanted. Thus, even if it cost quite a bit, the family decided to fulfill his dream.

Reino, on the other hand, was only ten and could enter the academy only two years later. But since his big brother was getting his first beast today, he could take part in the process by gifting it to him.

At the door Gregoro checked himself and Reino again. They both were dressed in their best outfits – Gregoro wore his purple panther suit while Reino had his black leather boots and jacket on. Maybe they weren’t dressed as fancy as some aristocrats from the city, but they came from a long line of core hunters and more preferred practicality. Nevertheless they had to look tidy and clean, otherwise Satra would scold them with no end.

After making sure they were dressed satisfactory, Gregoro beckoned his youngest son and they quickly departed.

The last few days were warm and sunny and the roads were dry. Even on foot it didn’t take long for them to reach the gates of Lionsburg, the largest city in the region. Not only it was the oldest city in the Western steppes, it housed the largest educational facility in the country – the Beastmaster academy.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Because of that the largest spiritbeast trade also took place here. There were multiple marketplaces offering all kinds of beasts – from regular farm animals like cows and chickens, to high rank spirit beasts like snow lions and silver raptors.

Reino has tagged along to visit beast markets several times and now, just like always, he admired every spirit beast with wide eyes and open moth. Even before he learned to read a couple of years ago, his favorite book was ‘Encyclopedia on Spiritbeasts’ and lately father felt as if his son will soon become encyclopedia himself.

Gregoro even had to grab Reino by hand, but the boy still managed to point around with the free one commenting, “… that’s a rank three dragon toad, usually lives in the swamps far in the south east … and that’s a rank four milky hippo, basically a very rare and extremely expensive cow …”

“What did you say?!” An angry beast merchant, obviously the hippo’s owner, shouted in anger while the rest around him burst out in a loud laughter.

“Come on, don’t embarrass us!” Gregoro reprimanded his son while holding back laugh himself, “It is possible we’ll have to deal with these merchants in future.”

“Sorry, dad. I got too excited.” It was not the first time Reino had to apologize and won’t be the last.

Even though it was a bit embarrassing, Gregoro didn’t mind too much. He knew that the most important weapon of every successful beastmaster was knowledge. That was the reason their family didn’t hold back on funds, but sent their eldest son to the academy and intended to do the same with Reino in two years.

“We still have some time. Do you want something to eat?” Gregoro asked.

“Okay.” Reino semi-automatically replied while stretching his neck and looking around, “Where exactly will we buy Danilo’s leopard?”

“We already bought it from some old acquaintances of your grandfather and today we just need to pick it up.”Gregoro explained, “They have their place on the other side of the city.”

“They have their own marketplace?” Reino was surprised. Only the most influential people could own such large properties as marketplaces.

“No, no.” His father patted his head, “They live there and raise their spiritbeasts there as well. They are kind of a special couple, you’ll see. Just watch yourself and be polite. While the old man is fine, his wife sometimes can be easily irritable.”

After having a light breakfast at a nearby street stall father and son were on the way again. The city had woken up and the streets were full of carriages, pulled by more and less rare beasts. The pair even got to witness someone charging through on his rank five black-flame horse – apparently the man was some kind of a big shot in a hurry.

“You like it?” Gregoro asked seeing his son staring at the cloud of dust with large shining eyes.

“It’s amazing!” Reino exclaimed.

“Even though it looks beautiful and is incredibly expensive, not every beastmaster can handle a spiritbeast like that. The beasts from rank five and above … well, let’s say they are in another universe compared to the others. You will have to study hard and train well to become a beastmaster who can own a beast like that.” Gregoro explained with a smile on his face.

Maybe both of his sons were not the most talented people in the world, but they surely were hardworking – just like him and his father.

“Dad? Are you strong enough to have a rank five beast?” Reino asked.

“Hmm.” Gregoro thought for a bit and said, “I might. But I love my rank four silverstriped raptor. We have been through a lot and I don’t feel like taking another beast yet. But you, when you grow older and stronger – you can choose whatever beast you want to. We are superior beings after all.”

Gregoro’s attitude was basically a norm. The whole world lived and died with their spiritbeasts and people already had long forgotten when or how it began. What everyone knew was that the spiritbeasts were here to serve people and fight their battles.

Of course, in more reclusive parts of the world there were some very highly developed beasts who would never become slaves, but in the eyes of the humans those only were even more valuable.

A while later they arrived at the western outskirts of Lionsburg. In fact, the area here almost looked like the countryside and some estates looked more like farms.

Gregore brought his son into one of such estates. After guards let them in and the large gate closed behind them, a spectacular sight appeared in front of Reino’s eyes. Everywhere around them were tens and tens of cages, housing different types of beasts. While it smelled the same way it did in the busy marketplaces, he could hear myriad of beasts growling, snoring and howling.

The boy watched the scene in amazement when a middle aged person startled him, “Just don’t wander off, otherwise you might find yourself in paws of some bloodthirsty monster. Hahaha!”

“Iglesio, you won’t scare him.” Gregoro laughed along, “He probably knows more about these beasts than you do. I bet he could name every single one of them.”

“Hahaha! Gregoro Sildren! I’ll take that bet!” An old man dressed in a light leather armor leisurely approached them with a laugh. His face looked aged and full of wrinkles, but his stature was that of a thirty year old warrior, although he limped a bit.

“Okay!” Reino’s eyes lit up, “That one is yellow sandlash, rank three, that one …”

“Wait, wait!” The old man interrupted him, still smiling, “First, let’s talk the stakes. You know, I’m loosing my business time here even talking to you and I need an opportunity to get back at least some of it.”

“Gentlemen, this is my youngest son, Reino Sildren. Reino, this is Ugo. He is the friend of your grandfather I told you about. And this is Iglesio, his right hand man.” Gregoro made official introductions.

Iglesio politely nodded and turned to leave, but Ugo grew impatient, “Ye, ye. We already guessed. So, boy. How many beast cores can you bet?”

Reino furrowed his brows in confusion, but then politely smiled and said, “My apologies, Sir. I guess I can’t bet with you since I don’t have any money.”

He felt father patting his shoulder and knew he said the right thing.

But either the old man was bored or was a gambling addict and didn’t let it go so easily, “Don’t worry, money is not the only thing you can bet with. I could use a pair of additional hands around here, you know.”