It was the last day of the exam. Felix had already moved to a different location. His travels allowed him to witness the destruction caused by the dragon as there were mangled trees and multiple footprints of different monsters.

‘Hey, dragon.’

‘What human?’

‘What would be a good fusion between you and another monster?’

‘Hmm… Another dragon?’

‘So where am I supposed to find another dragon?’

‘Hmph, that's your problem to deal with.’

‘Ok… Then what’s the chance of you being able to beat it?’

The dragon took a wild to respond, almost as if it was calculating its chances.

‘Maybe 5% on a good day.’

Hearing its answer, Felix almost wanted to curse. 5% on a good day? WTF! Not only would he have to find a dragon by himself, he would have to gamble on the chances of the dragon being able to win with such a low probability.

‘Damn it. Why are you so weak? I thought you were strong.’

‘I am strong, human.’ The dragon angrily snapped back.

‘It’s just that, without my dragon’s heart and scales the chances of me being able to match an adult dragon is almost null. The dragon’s heart gives a dragon terrifying magical prowess and regeneration while dragon scales are its ultimate defense. Having a 5% chance of victory is already high.’

Hearing its words, Felix almost agreed. It was already proof of its strength that he had a 5% chance of victory but, at the same time, he couldn’t blindly believe it. Dragons are arrogant and like to brag a lot. What if he’s just talking out of his ass?

‘Ok, whatever you say. But we’ll scrap the plan of finding a dragon to fight, I have an idea but I don’t know if you’ll like it.’

‘Spit it out, human.’

‘I’m thinking instead of finding one monster for you to perfectly fuse with, we can do it like a chain, integrating different monsters into your body one at a time. Of course, that would mean your body will have to be able to handle the fusion between different monsters, but I think there’s a high chance we can succeed. Considering that you’re a skeleton, it’s like adding different things onto a blueprint instead of an already completed product.’

‘Hmm, that's a good idea, but there’s one thing that needs to be established human.’

‘What?’

‘I can’t look ugly! If I look ugly, then I can’t have a beautiful harem.’

Felix could only help but curse the superficial nature of this dragon. What was the point of being handsome but weak? Are you going to make the enemy punch you harder because of your beautiful face? Not only that, you’re a dragon! Why do you even care about that, you’re already ugly anyways. Felix couldn’t understand the aesthetics of dragons.

Silently mocking it in his head, Felix just nodded his head with a blank look on his face.

While he was lazing around in the second and improved tunnel, something was happening that was completely out of his control.

…

“Max.”

Julius stood in front of Felix’s grandfather. This time he had a mission from the government. He didn’t want to be dragged into this mess, but considering that he was the referee. Of course, the first person that they would reach out to was him.

“What Julius.”

Julius sighed as he explained what needed to be done.

“Because you cut off the connection for your grandson, causing outrage among the nation. The Western Government is requesting that I guide him to the foreigner. I can’t teleport him, as originally planned as that would make the government look petty. So, they want me to guide him to fight Katsuro. We can’t lose face because of a foreigner.”

Felix’s grandfather just nodded, giving his consent. This was his goal anyway and he had no reason to object.

…

Felix who was taking a nap inside the cave was awoken by a voice inside his head.

He couldn’t help but wonder if he would become schizophrenic. With the many voices inside his head, he could only wonder how Monster Tamers dealt with this situation. What if the voice of multiple monsters kept bothering their master? That sounded like a pain to deal with.

‘Felix Goldenfield, I am Julius, because of your actions. We are requesting that you fight and beat the foreigner, Katsuro. Failure to comply will result in your disqualification from the exam.’

Hearing his words caused Felix to raise one of his eyebrows. As he calmly mocked back.

‘Oooh, disqualification, I am very scared by the mere thought of it.’

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‘Your grandfather also said he will show you some father love that you have been missing out on if you don’t do it.’

As if expecting him to not take him seriously. Julius added a more serious threat this time. Sighing he asked him in annoyance.

‘So where is he? Do you expect me to be able to find him in this forest by myself? Not to mention the amount of time left.’

‘You don’t need to worry about that. I will guide you to your target. You simply need to defeat him.’

‘Isn’t that cheating?’ Felix questioned with a hint of curiosity. He knew that they wouldn’t play fair since they already asked him, but he was still shocked by their lack of shame.

‘Yes, but it’s not like it is the first time that it has happened. It happens not only in the Western Continent but the other continents too.’

‘So are you going to follow orders or not?’

‘Yes. But, you have to give me some information about my target.’ Felix begrudgingly agreed after they concluded.

Crawling out of the tunnel, Felix headed north. Instead of traveling on foot. Felix wanted to test the new ability given to him by the dragon. Although it was a temporary contract that would only become permanent after he fulfilled the dragon’s conditions, that didn’t mean he couldn’t use the ability that it gave him.

A popping noise came from the back of Felix’s body as he roared in agony.

Bones popped out from his back. A pair of dragon wings sprouted from his back. It was white and made out of bones. The wing span was about 2 meters each as it was covered in his blood.

Felix panted heavily. What kind of masochist ability was this? Do I have to hurt myself to use it?

Ignoring the pain that was shocking his body. He tried to get adjusted to his new pair of wings. Although he didn’t like the fact that it caused him a lot of pain, it was still domineering. Not to mention, who wouldn’t want to be able to fly? Wasn’t it a human’s dream to be able to freely fly in the sky unbound?

Appreciating his new pair of wings, Felix jumped into the air as he prepared to fly! Unfortunately, the wings didn’t just give him the magical ability to instantly fly as his face planted on the dirt. Taking his head off the ground, Felix then had to spend the next 30 minutes falling and face-planting before he could use his wings.

‘What a bothersome ability.’

Felix thought, as his hair flowed through the air. Although he called it bothersome, he still liked this feeling. Feeling the rush of wind breathing on his face, he couldn’t help but relax. As he flew through the air. Looking at the earth that was shrinking under his feet, he couldn’t help but feel a sense of power that he had never felt before. It was completely different from when he first contracted his first monster. Being able to fly gave him the thought that he had complete control over his fate.

Although he was immersed in his feelings he still remembered that he had a mission to do. As his body nimbly cut through the clouds, he followed the direction given to him by Julius.

It was only after countless hours of turns and directions did he finally found his target. Katsuro was cooking some meat on a campfire. Allowing the cackling of the fire to perfectly cook the meat. Unlike Felix who couldn’t even cook meat properly, Katsuro did it with such ease and elegance it made Felix envy him.

“Hey! Can I have some?”

Felix shouted from afar while waving his hand at him. Completely grabbing Katsuro’s attention. His dirty robes still didn’t hide the fact that he looked handsome. He already had noticed that someone was approaching him, but he wasn’t surprised. He has faced many challenges, and he has always come out on top.

It’s just that this time was different, his opponent had no plans of concealing himself and walked towards him with such calmness. He couldn’t help but be confused.

‘Is he stupid or does he have some sort of plan?’

His eyes were glued onto Felix’s approaching figure. He observed everything about his target: average-looking, wearing a casual T-shirt and black shorts. Everything about him was ordinary, but he gave off a unique sense of temperament. Although he didn’t know what it was, his vigilance was raised by several degrees.

“Hello? Can you hear me? Can I have some of that food?”

Felix shouted from afar. As he was getting closer and closer to Katsuro, he abruptly stopped walking. Katsuro had already summoned his monsters. A red wooden mask and a ghost general on his steed.

The general’s figure was flickering in and out of its existence. It was there for one moment and gone in the next. It was an elusive creature, almost ghastly. It wore a blue samurai’s armor and its face was covered in a heavy fog. All that was shown was the pair of yellow eyes that shined through the fog. Not only that it held a spear with a banner on it. The banner had an unknown symbol but it looked like a lotus.

“Why did you stop? Didn’t you want some food?”

Katsuro mocked him. As he looked at him even more vigilantly, even with his monsters summoned he still couldn’t stop the unease he felt.

Seeing how vigilant Katsuro was acting. Felix couldn’t help but flash a radiant smile. It was a smile born from fakeness. He wasn’t happy or sunny at all, but he still kept up with his play.

“Yes, but can you toss it over to me?”

“Huh, you’re requesting but you want me to bring it forward to you on a silver platter? Who do you think I am?”

Hearing his taunting voice, Felix still smiled.

‘Idiot, why would I get close to you? The further I am from you, the better!’

‘Anyways it's about time.’

With that, Felix immediately sprinted. But instead of sprinting towards Katsuro, he ran as far as he could from him! As rows of crimson ants burrowed from the ground beneath Katsuro. Katsuro became shocked. This was the unease he had been feeling the entire time.

Although he didn’t know why his opponent was running away he still managed to gather his composure. However, it didn’t take long for his composure to be broken.

“Corpse Explosion!”

The bodies of the ants were bloating heavily. Katsuro looked at them in absolute horror. He couldn’t count how many ants were burrowing out, but he still knew that the numbers were unimaginable. Not only that, he felt a looming sense of doom approaching.

This was the reason why Felix acted as bait. So he could get his ants to dig underground and stealthily approach Katsuro. Of course, since the plan worked. He had to get away unless he got caught in the explosion too.

“Boom!”

Flowers of red bloomed under the night stars, painting a beautiful scenery. Although the flowers blooming were just the explosions of countless ants self-destructing. Felix was running away from the explosion, not because he was scared but because cool guys don’t look at explosions. That was the reason he assured himself of it anyway.