Beast-Tamer: Limitless Evolution

Not Afraid Of Borrowing

"That's an interesting-looking egg," Ellie said curiously as she walked out of the warehouse with Osho, her eyes glued to the egg in his hands.

"Speak for yourself." Osho was eyeing her egg as well, and it looked like a vaguely oval-shaped piece of amethyst. Beast eggs truly came in all shapes and sizes.

All the students were chatting with each other and checking each other's eggs out. Some people seemed satisfied with what they chose, some were doubtful, while others were dispirited. The last group consisted of people who couldn't find an egg with good compatibility, so they had to settle for something less.

The students gathered up as they had before they entered the warehouse and the teacher looked them over before saying.

"There were no mishaps. Good. It would have been a shame to send some of you home because you did something stupid." Hardly anyone reacted to her words.

"You all know the process to hatch an egg and tame the beast inside. You will have tomorrow off to get acquainted with your beast. You will come to school the day after tomorrow to have its potential properly gauged. That is all, for now, You are dismissed." Immediately she said that everyone started to disperse, no doubt eager to hatch their new beasts.

Ellie was about to leave as well, but Osho tapped her shoulder.

"Hm?" She looked at him curiously and he blinked.

"I want to cash out that favor." He said concisely and her eyes widened slightly before her expression became teasing.

"Ooooh? The proud Osho asking a girl for money?" She teased and he just stared at her blankly.

It wasn't an exaggeration to call him broke, and while it hurt his pride to ask a girl for money, he wasn't so proud to put off his plans. Besides, she was his friend, so it didn't pinch him as much.

When she saw he did not react, she pouted.

"You're no fun." She said and lightly punched his shoulder. Then she smiled.

"I'll send you the money soon, don't worry." As soon as she said that, a black sedan suddenly pulled up and a man stepped out. It was a single person, but Osho got chills just from looking at him. Moreover, he didn't have his beast with him.

He felt the man's gaze on him and Osho felt the pressure mount. Despite that though, he didn't let anything show on his face and just smiled at Ellie.

"Oof, gotta go. See you later?" She held her egg close to her chest and waved at him before running off. Soon, she was in the car and it drove off.

Osho sighed and looked at the egg in his hands. With a shrug, he booked a taxi and waited, and not long later, he was riding back home.

The ride was quiet which Osho was thankful for. He wouldn't say he was an introvert, but he certainly wasn't the person to initiate a conversation without a cause. So the driver being quiet was welcome.

Soon, Osho reached his destination and paid the driver before looking towards his apartment building.

It was... rundown to say the least.

The building loomed like an ancient relic, lost and forgotten. The concrete pathway leading to its entrance was worn and cracked, similar to the faded paint on the building's walls.

Lights either flickered ominously or were so dim they might as well have not been there. In short, the place wasn't what one would call luxurious.

To Osho though, this was home.

He sighed and walked inside. Similar to the outside, the inside had seen better days. The floors creaked with every step, worn from a long time of human traffic. The walls were covered in graffiti, some impressive, but all obnoxious.

The air was stale and some parts of the wall had mold growing on them where water leaked.

However. Osho paid no attention to any of these things and simply went up the stairs. The tiles that made them up were cracked in multiple places, and he had to walk up in a specific order to avoid tripping.

When he reached the third floor, he stopped ascending and walked to a room that had the number 9 on it, and like everything else in the building, it looked old and worn out. But strangely maintained.

Osho got his keys out and unlocked it before slipping in and locking the door behind him. He turned on the lights to reveal a small but neat one-person apartment.

There wasn't a lot, admittedly. A small TV and a single sofa, a two-person dining table, and a similarly small kitchen and fridge.

Osho went to his bedroom which had a single-person bed, a small closet, a bathroom, and a desk. It wasn't a lot, but everything was well-kept and neat.

He exhaled and sat on the bed and placed the egg next to him. He stared at it for a few seconds, then his eyes started to wander.

If anyone saw this, they'd think he had suddenly gotten lost in thought, but that was wrong.

Osho was quite familiar with novels in his past life, and the trope of reincarnation with some sort of golden finger was something he knew all too well.

As such, he wasn't too surprised when he discovered his. However, it wasn't some sort of broken system he'd seen countless times before and was something he spent a while experimenting with before he figured out what it did.

He laid on his back and let his thoughts wander.

In this world, there was a concept known as beast evolution. The simplest way to describe it would be to say that it's the process of elevating the upper limit of a beast's potential.

Every beast had a set potential from the start, but evolution made it possible to change this. There was an issue with this concept, however.

The issue was that evolving a beast was a horrible investment. In the same way, one couldn't guarantee two strong beast parents would produce all-powerful beast children, it was the same way one couldn't truly determine what was needed to evolve a beast.

All beasts were different, and finding two beasts with the exact same nature was close to impossible. That's why evolving beasts was seen as a foolish venture. First of all, the manpower and money required to make it happen was astronomical, even if the beast being evolved was relatively weak.

Then there was the issue of finding out how to evolve the beast. The world was filled with all sorts of rare materials after Mana descended upon the world, so it wasn't that resources were lacking, it's just that knowing how to use what was strenuous and frustrating.

One needed to figure out what materials and resources worked well, and then one needed to figure out how to make these resources interact with each other effectively. So that meant finding certain ratios, temperatures, and so on.

They had to do this and fine-tune it to perfection before they succeeded in evolving a beast. However, as stated previously, all beasts were different, so even if one successfully found a way to evolve a beast, the method would be unique to that singular beast, as trying the same method on another beast, no matter how similar it was whether in nature or race, would result in failure as in the end, every beast was different on a fundamental level.

In short, evolving beasts was a horrible investment and considered to be a fool's errand. And while it was still a thing funded by the world government, it wasn't seen in high regard due to its abysmal success rate and the insane prices they needed for everything.

This is where Osho's golden finger came into play.

That's because it allowed him to figure out the things he needed to evolve a beast, down to how he needed to make use of the resources and how to prepare them.

This is why Osho wasn't worried about the potential his beast had because he could simply raise it.

However, there was a fatal flaw in his plan. Money.

Osho was broke if that wasn't made obvious enough. He was surviving off menial tasks and the small allowance the government granted him due to his orphan status.

One could argue that he could use his knowledge from his previous life to gain an advantage here. After all, if everything was the same except for beasts, then things like stocks and betting should be viable, right?

That would be wrong. Beasts were an integral part of this world. So much so that things like the stock exchange were completely different as opposed to how they were on earth, so they were unreliable.

As such, Osho was forced to do all sorts of small jobs here and there. Luckily, he did something similar in his past life for the same reason, so he had a few skills that aided him here and there. Though once again, with how beasts were a part of everything and could aid people in all sorts of ways, menial labor wasn't something most people needed, so he still struggled quite a bit.

However, now things would be different.

His phone buzzed and he picked it up to see a transfer of 40,000 Credits. This was the new world currency that had a similar value to the British pound from the past.

After the transfer, he saw a text from Ellie.

[Favor has been repaid :-).] Osho smiled and sent a text back.

[Thanks.] He knew such a short response would set the girl off, so he put his phone on silent and turned it off.

He carefully carried the egg and placed it on his desk, then he wrapped a blanket around it and put a pillow under it.

He took a shower and hopped into his bed. Tomorrow was going to be a busy day, and he intended to get as much rest as possible.