The Astral Academy's Grand Hall had never been more silent.
Three thousand students, faculty members, and distinguished guests held their breath as golden light swirled around the summoning platform. At its center stood Sylas Ashford, the academy's most promising student, his silver hair gleaming under the ceremonial crystals that floated overhead.
"Ladies and gentlemen," announced Headmaster Voss, his voice magically amplified across the massive hall, "we witness the Awakening of our top graduate. Sylas Ashford—perfect theoretical scores, unprecedented mana capacity readings, and bloodline traces of the legendary Ashford Beast Masters."
Murmurs of excitement rippled through the crowd. In the VIP section, representatives from the Five Great Beast Guilds leaned forward in their seats. Marriage proposals had already been drafted by three noble houses. Even the Royal Beast Academy had sent their recruitment officer.
Sylas felt the weight of their expectations like a mountain on his shoulders. At eighteen, he had spent his entire life preparing for this moment. Every meditation session, every beast anatomy lesson, every theoretical examination had led to this—his Awakening Ceremony, where his soul would resonate with a magical creature and bind their fates together forever.
The golden light intensified, and Sylas felt something stirring in the depths of his consciousness. This was it. His beast was responding to the call.
*Please,* he thought, *let it be worthy of everyone's expectations.*
"The resonance is building!" called out Professor Kaine, monitoring the magical readings. "Mana signature is... extraordinary! I've never seen readings this high from an awakening student!"
The crowd erupted in whispers. Even the Guild representatives were taking notes.
The light reached its peak, brilliant enough to blind, and then—
*Pop.*
Like a soap bubble bursting, the light vanished.
Sitting on the platform, looking utterly confused, was a small orange tabby cat.
The silence that followed was deafening.
The cat—clearly just an ordinary house cat—began grooming its paw, completely oblivious to the three thousand pairs of eyes staring at it in shock.
"That's... that's impossible," stammered Professor Kaine, frantically checking his equipment. "The readings were off the charts! There must be some mistake—"
"Analysis crystal, activate," commanded Headmaster Voss, his voice tight with controlled panic.
A blue crystal descended from the ceiling, casting scanning light over both Sylas and the cat. Magical text appeared in the air for all to see:
CONTRACTED BEAST: Common House Cat
RANK: F
ABILITIES: None
POTENTIAL: Minimal
CLASSIFICATION: Non-Combat Pet
The silence shattered like glass.
"F-Rank? The prodigy contracted an F-Rank?"
"It's not even a magical beast!"
"Those readings must have been equipment malfunction!"
"The Ashford bloodline produced... *that*?"
Sylas stood frozen on the platform, watching his entire world crumble in real time. The Guild representatives were already packing their papers. The noble families were whispering among themselves, shaking their heads. Even his classmates, people he'd studied with for years, were looking at him with expressions ranging from pity to disgust.
The cat—apparently named Whiskers according to the instinctive knowledge that came with the contract—finally noticed the attention and mewed softly.
That single, ordinary sound somehow made everything worse.
"I... I don't understand," Sylas whispered, his voice barely audible. "The readings..."
"Sometimes the equipment malfunctions, Mr. Ashford," Headmaster Voss said, though his tone had shifted from ceremonial grandeur to barely concealed disappointment. "These things happen. You're still welcome to complete your basic education here, of course, though I'm afraid your scholarship will need to be... reevaluated."
Translation: revoked.
As the crowd began to disperse, their excited chatter replaced by disappointed murmurs, Sylas knelt down and picked up Whiskers. The cat purred contentedly in his arms, completely unaware that she had just destroyed his future.
"Don't worry about it too much, Sylas," came a voice behind him. He turned to see Marcus Brightflame, his former study partner, approaching with his freshly contracted B-Rank Fire Wolf. "I mean, not everyone can be a Beast Master. Maybe you can find work as a Beast Feeder or something."
The condescension in Marcus's voice was like a dagger to the heart. This was someone who used to ask Sylas for help with theoretical magic.
"Yeah," Sylas replied quietly, clutching Whiskers closer. "Maybe."
As the hall emptied around him, Sylas remained on the platform, holding his F-Rank cat and wondering how everything had gone so impossibly wrong.
He had no way of knowing that in six months' time, when he was working at a beast supply shop just to afford food, he would touch a strange crystalline artifact and hear words that would change everything:
[Infinite Evolution System Activated]
[Welcome, Host]
[Analysis Complete: Your F-Rank Beast possesses a Divine-Class Bloodline]
[Beginning Infinite Evolution Protocol...]
But that was still six months of humiliation away.
For now, there was only the fall.
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[Author's Note]: Welcome to Sylas's journey from rock bottom to the peak of power. This is just the beginning of an infinite evolution...