Nikolas tried to dismiss the monkey before leaving. He whispered the command, waved his hand to make it vanish, and even squeezed his eyes shut to imagine it gone. Yet the Monkey King remained.
'He can't be dismissed?!' Nikolas cursed inwardly, feeling the weight of time ticking away. 'No matter.'
"Let's go. We don't have time," he said, already turning toward the exit without waiting for a response.
"What makes you think I, the Monkey King, will follow—wait, where are you going?" the beast began to protest, but seeing Nikolas leave without explanation, it quickly followed after him.
The two hurried through the academy corridors. Nikolas cursed under his breath as the monkey deliberately took wrong turns, nearly stumbling into faculty members. Yet somehow, they managed to stay out of sight.
Or so he thought.
As they rounded the final corner toward the exit, Nikolas bumped into another student.
"Ow!" she exclaimed, stumbling back a few steps.
She had dark navy hair and deep blue eyes, her neatly pressed academy uniform was decorated with emblems and recognitions Nikolas didn't recognize. Her frown deepened as her eyes shifted between Nikolas and his beast.
"You know you're not allowed to have a beast out in the academy corridors, right?"
"Y-yeah," Nikolas lied.
"Well?" she replied swiftly, as if expecting immediate action.
'Is she waiting for me to dismiss him?'
They stood in silence for a moment, her expectant gaze fixed on Nikolas, until the Monkey King broke the stalemate.
"Didn't you say we had to leave before someone saw us? Why are you talking to this monkey?"
The girl shot Nikolas a questioning look.
"Sorry, we have uhh… things to do!" he said quickly, dragging the monkey along toward the exit.
"I told you, you're not allowed to have your beast in the corridor—" she began, but Nikolas and his companion were already gone, vanishing out of the entrance door.
She frowned slightly.
"Who did he call a monkey?" she muttered under her breath.
"Can you not stay quiet for five minutes?" Nikolas asked once they were safely outside the academy grounds.
The Monkey King simply shrugged, his attention stolen by the brick buildings surrounding them, which he studied as if he had never seen anything like them. This wasn't unusual; most beasts came from different worlds and realms. While many were less intelligent and unable to speak, a rare few, like the Monkey King, possessed such capabilities.
Nikolas let out a long sigh. At least they had gotten away.
Only now did he finally have a moment to process what had happened.
He had done it, he had summoned a beast.
This was the moment he had dreamt of for so long, though it hadn't unfolded exactly as he'd imagined. His beast was a monkey, and to make matters worse, he couldn't control it. Still, it seemed the Monkey King was content to stay by his side, at least for now.
Before long, the pair arrived at a small house located in the city's outskirts.
"I'm home," Nikolas called as he entered.
"You're back," his sister, Mina, replied, peeking around the corner to greet him. Her eyes widened the moment they landed on his companion. "Is that—?"
"Yeah, I summoned a beast."
"Congratulations!" Mina beamed. "I knew you could do it!"
Nikolas scratched the back of his head, remembering his two previous failed attempts.
His sister then leaned toward the Monkey King. "What's his name?"
Before Nikolas could answer, the monkey spoke for itself. "I am no other than the Monkey King," it declared proudly.
Mina's eyes widened in surprise, but she quickly cooed, "It can talk, how cute!" and pinched the monkey's cheeks as if he were a small child.
The Monkey King tried to protest, but only muffled mumbles came out of his mouth.
"He must be hungry. Come, we have bananas," she said, leading the once-proud self proclaimed king by the hand into the kitchen.
Nikolas stared after them with a perplexed expression as the overly prideful beast obediently followed his sister.
Later that evening…
"Niko, does that mean you're gonna enter a Beginner Space Trial tomorrow?" Mina asked.
Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday the military hosted beginner space trials where there would only be weak magic beasts. Perfect for novice beast tamers to hone their skills.
Nikolas lingered for a moment, the trials, even beginner ones were ideally taken in a group, joining alone wasn't something anyone would recommend, especially not for a total beginner.
His gaze then shifted to monkey king who, for some reason, was sleeping. He never heard of a beast needing to sleep but he didnt dwell on that. Instead, a flicker of curiosity burned within him.
"Yeah" he suddenly replied.
'We'll see how strong a Legendary Beast really is' he thought to himself.
Tomorrow came fast.
Outside the Trial building was bustling with students and civilians.
Countless groups gathered outside, some looking to join an already formed group and others trying to recruit people to join them.
A very few even tried to pay some stronger tamers to help them inside and in most cases it worked.
As he neared closer he noticed a couple of familiar figures he had seen during his summoning ceremony.
"Hey isnt it that outskirt rat who failed to summon a beast?"
"Is that a monkey walking beside him?"
"Well, at least we know who's gonna have a bottom score"
"Bottom score? He'd be lucky to make it out alive"
Nikolas ignored the whispers.
Every beast inside the Space Trial had a special marker implanted in them which was used by government to track each tamer's points at the end of the trial.
Helping new tamers hone their skills is only a part of the reason why the government has invested so much into the space trials, the most important reason is talent. They watched each trial closely, looking for someone worth keeping an eye on.
"Why are all these monkeys so noisy?" The monkey king muttered under his breath, looking around all the people around them.
Nikolas couldn't help but smirk slightly at the comment.
They moved through the building's entrance and toward the beginner space trial area.
There in the far edge of the vast room stood a gate made of pale white light.
They paused for a mere moment before stepping through.
The moment they passed the threshold, their surroundings shifted in an instant.
The buildings artificial light was replaced by a burning sun above, the concrete walls turned into an endless forest.
There was nobody around them, which made sense. Although all beginner trails took place in the same space dimension, only those who entered the gate at the same time would arrive in same place. Everyone else, just like the magical beasts put inside by the military would be scattered around.
Nikolas took a glance at the old mechanical watch on his wrist.
09:13 AM
Beginner Space Trials were open from 09:00 to 13:00, but everyone who entered had a time limit of two hours.
Although it might seem like a lot of time, considering the vast size of the space dimension it really wasn't. Some people, though it would be considered extremely unlucky can walk a whole trail without finding a single magical beast.
If he wanted to make best out of his time here, they had to get moving.
Luckily, it didn't seem like this was going to be one of those boring trails.
A sudden crack echoed through the forest and a moment later, a massive boar like creature rushed from the cover of the trees.
[Infernal Boar]
[Rank: Elite First Stage]
[Tier: Three]
[Strength: 62]
[Agility: 29]
[Vitality: 49]
[Spirit: 55]
[Skills: Infernal Tusks]
Its tusks burned with infernal fire, leaving a thick trace of black smoke behind its steps.
Nikolas opened his mouth to speak but before he could even utter a single command toward the monkey king, the beast already moved.
Or at least, Nikolas believed he did.
One moment, the monkey stood beside him, the next, it stood above the boar-like beast, staring down at its lifeless body.
Nikolas eyes widened.
The monkey king killed the Elite magical beast with a single strike of his staff.
"Too weak" monkey king said shaking his head in disappointment, "can we fight something stronger?"
Suddenly, a wave of light particles swayed gently around the monkey king, before coalesing into his chest area and disappearing completely.
Nikolas wasted not a moment, realising what that meant.
[Monkey King]
[True Rank: Divine (Limited)]
[Current Rank: Legendary First Stage]
[Tier: Two]
[Strength: 132]
[Agility: 123]
[Vitality: 89]
[Spirit: 81]
[Attributes: Seven Layers of Immortality, Heavenbreaker Will]
[Skills: Staff of Storms, Stone Skin, Nimbus Step, Ruyi Form (Locked)]
Seeing the Monkey Kings status window only confirmed it, he had leveled up to tier two.