This Beast-Tamer is a Little Strange

Kain, much to the disappointment of the crowd, did not immediately begin awakening more people.

Instead, the square gradually emptied as word spread that there would be a delay. Groans, mutters, and barely concealed frustration rippled through the ordinary civilians who had been lingering far too close for people supposedly focused on rebuilding. Even some beast tamers looked reluctant to leave, clearly hoping to be present when the next awakening occurred.

The 9-star fort lord did not object, already assuming that it’d be difficult for Kain to go immediately from high-intensity battle to suddenly awakening hundreds of people.

In fact, he had already made arrangements.

Two figures soon joined Kain at his side—one male, one female—both radiating the restrained pressure of high-level existences.

The first was Liang Wenhao, a broad-shouldered man with a stern face and hair bound tightly at the nape of his neck. The 8 stars on his chest indicated that he was an eight-star beast tamer, his presence was steady and immovable, the sort that inspired confidence simply by standing still.

Beside him stood Shen Yulan, a sharp-eyed seven-star tamer whose movements were light and carried grace like she seemed to move with the wind. Her expression remained calm, but nothing about her gaze suggested softness.

They had been assigned to Kain directly.

And they took that assignment seriously.

“Whatever you require,” Liang Wenhao said without hesitation. “The fort’s resources are at your disposal.”

Kain nodded once. “Then I’d like to see what resources you guys have at your disposal.”

Before awakening more people, he needed to replenish Pangea.

The energy in the blood rain, following the death of an 8-star tamer, had only barely stabilized the planet—enough to prevent total collapse, but nowhere near enough to allow recovery. If he wanted Pangea to heal, to grow, to sustain the creatures he was now summoning in greater numbers, he would need a far larger influx of source energy.

Fortunately, the fort had a vault.

Access was granted without argument.

The interior was sealed behind multiple formations, each layered atop the next with obsessive care. Shelves and pedestals lined the chamber, holding relics, cores, crystalline objects, and sealed containers whose purposes Kain could not immediately identify.

But he didn’t need to.

Source energy was unmistakable.

His hand brushed across the first object—a dense, amber-colored core mounted on a metal stand that he sensed contained Source energy.

It crumbled into dust.

Liang Wenhao stiffened. Shen Yulan’s eyes widened.

The second artifact met the same fate. Then the third.

Kain moved methodically, draining each object he sensed carried rich reserves of source energy. Of course, he did not keep it for himself. Nor did he convert it into System Source Points for himself.

Every last trace was funnelled directly into Pangea.

The planet drank greedily.

After draining pretty much every object in storage that would be of use, he felt that Pangea was restored to maybe 30% of its original reserves. Collapse had stopped completely and given enough time, the concentration of energy on the planet would recover.

Around the time he exited the vault, Kain also felt the faint tug of exhaustion—and the subtle pull signalling the end of Aurem’s summoning.

The golden dragon vanished not long after.

Roughly six hours, Kain estimated. Not too long—but not fleeting either.

Once matters in the vault were concluded, Kain made another request to find Serena and the boy she’d carried along to escape the heart of the Abyssal siege.

It didn’t take long.

Serena was escorted to a private chamber, her expression tight with worry. Behind her, several staff members carefully carried a stretcher bearing an unconscious figure.

The still unnamed boy that had been possessed by the Abyssal Demigod.

Kain summoned Queen at once.

Green light and a breeze that seemed to wash away all exhaustion and refresh the mind came with her. She went beside the boy without hesitation, antennae glowing as she assessed his condition.

The fort’s head healer soon joined her—an eight-star beast tamer whose contracts were all specialized in healing. Two of them were used to also monitor the child: a translucent green Verdant Glass Serpent, with a massive jewel in its forehead and whose scales pulsed with regenerative light, and a softly glowing Luminal Heart Moth, its wings scattering gentle waves of soothing energy.

Together, they worked.

The boy’s internal systems had been devastated. Pathways shattered. Circuits warped. The aftermath of abyssal possession was written into every layer of his body.

What they could heal, they did.

What they couldn’t… they stabilized.

Physically, there was nothing much left wrong with him after these top healing talents worked together.

But he still had no signs of waking.

The 8-star healer nearby, a middle-aged man with grey-green hair, frowned slightly. “The damage is deeper,” he said at last. “His soul endured trauma. Severe trauma.”

Kain exhaled slowly, knowing the reason.

Bea had allowed his soul to escape his possessed body—barely. Extracting and stabilizing a soul was never harmless, even with source energy and Bea’s abilities working in tandem. The process had been crude. Effective, but crude.

After all, neither of them specialized in matter of the soul.

“What he needs now is time,” the healer continued. “His soul must heal naturally.”

After a brief hesitation, he then added, “There is also… something else.”

Kain looked up.

“His body has begun forming a structure I’d never seen before,” he said. “Similar to the Elemental Space of us beast tamers,” the equivalent of what some countries in the Eastern Continent, particularly those in the North, called the star space. “…but different. It resembles a fractured constellation suspended in liquid light, anchored to his core.”

Likely a byproduct of the possession. But it was unknown whether it was good or bad.

Kain filed the info away.

Once the boy was stable, Kain summoned Vauleth for treatment as well. Chewy and his newest contract—the Chrono Archivolt, whom Kain had decided to nickname Archie—were utterly spent. Aegis required extensive repairs, which Kain expedited the process of using high-grade ore taken from the vault as well.

Only Bea remained unaccounted for.

He could sense her.

But she was… diffuse. Ethereal. Present everywhere around him, yet nowhere he could pinpoint. Not fully in his mind. Not fully in his star space.

Strange.

But safe. That he could sense at least.

And Kain had a feeling that whatever state she was in now was not necessarily a bad thing.

Once everything that could be handled was handled, Kain and Serena returned to the square.

Chairs were brought out by some other fort staff. Tattoo equipment prepared along with ink using the recipe Kain had provided.

After much discussion, they had decided that awakenings would continue today—publicly.

Painful as the process was, it inspired emotions stronger than fear.

Hope. Ambition.

The square was crowded again. Far more crowded than the nearby rebuilding efforts required.

‘Haa…how many soldiers does it take to change a light bulb?’ Kain thought with amusement, while thinking of a common type of joke from his past life.

Rebuilding crews were tripping over one another, not from a lack of organization, but from an excess of bodies. Three ordinary men took turns hammering the same iron spike into a single cracked beam, each striking once before stepping back to “rest,” their eyes inevitably drifting toward the center of the square where the chairs had been set up. Nearby, a woman pretended to haul stones in a slow circuit that somehow always brought her past the same vantage point.

No one said it aloud.

But everyone knew why they were there.

All of them were hoping that they may catch the eye of the ‘esteemed Kain’ to become the next one awakened.

But when a small group was escorted forward, that hope was dashed as murmurs rippled through the onlookers.

All those in this group, despite being unawakened, had combat experience. After all, since the miner awakened a contract suitable for finding ores, it became obvious that the contract summoned was closely related to the summoner. Since what the fort lacked most right now were combat personelle, those unawakened with combat experience were prioritized in the hoped that they’d summon offensive creatures.

All of them, despite varying sex and age, had the exact same expression.

Nervous. Excited.

Kain worked quickly, Serena working alongside him with practiced efficiency as they etched the arrays. At the same time, Kain quietly coached Liang Wenhao, Shen Yulan, and several others—explaining the important points to watch out for, the process, the risks, the tolerances.

They would need to learn.

After all, he and Serena couldn’t possibly awaken these thousands of people alone.