The taxi halted at the regal gates of Grand Tamer Academy (GTA), a place so vast it was often called a city within a city.
"Good luck, kid. Stay focused and don’t let women distract you." The taxi driver waved Jayden off as he kicked the engine.
Jayden watched the man drive off, with his egg cradled in his armpit, unsure whether to be irritated or amused. The taxi driver had talked the entire ride — loud, opinionated, and impossible to ignore.
"Who knows what that man has gone through?" Jayden whispered, but he had better worries now; the gate—the next step he would have to conquer was standing right before him. Whatever he does here would determine his position in the nation.
"There should be someone here to welcome the real grand tamer," Jayden bluffed, although he was a bit nervous.
"Don’t be so proud, you’re nothing without me!" Draco purred in his mind.
He took his luggage and walked through the towering black gates, left invitingly wide.
The academy was as large as 150 square kilometres, granting space for countless activities.
Just after the gates was the academy campus, organised like a ranking system itself.
The system here made the strong grow together and the weak crumble together.
Starting from the brick red and white building closest to the gates, followed a descending order of strength.
The buildings closest to the gate—a pair of them facing each other where Jayden walked past the centre—were inhabited by year five tamers. Fınd the newest release on novelFirｅ.net
Campus buildings had three floors: the highest floor was inhabited by A-rank potential tamers, the middle floor was inhabited by B and high-level C-rank tamers and the lowest floor was inhabited by the scums—plants and insects tamers.
The higher the potentials, the higher the benefits, and those with low potentials were seen as grass in the midst of trees—stepped on.
With Jayden’s four core dragon, he would be able to secure the senior student position throughout his academic session, but now he not only chose to but had to hide it since the MAGEO knew about the dragon’s existence.
Showing off his dragon will only make him a fugitive.
But damn, he was losing those crazy benefits, like representing the academy in tournaments and 70% off on purchasing crystals. It would have been much worse, but the school didn’t provide food; it wasn’t some daycare where children were served.
This was a welcome to reality. The most cruel reality for the weak and Jayden was wearing a no-beast status. What a pity, but when he finally shows off...
"I guess this is where I’ll call home for the next five years," Jayden muttered, looking at each corner in awe as he walked the straight part between the pair of campus buildings.
It was the opening of a new semester, so students stood at every corner, chatting and mingling with each other.
"From what I see in your memory, you have two siblings in this academy," Draco said in Jayden’s mind.
"Yeah, but why the hell are you looking into my memories?"
"Huu... just to understand you better, don’t think it the wrong way."
Jayden raised a brow. It was shocking to hear that from the dragon when he too hadn’t thought of it, but now he was going to do the same, once all the worries in his mind had settled.
Each step forward felt like he was on another planet entirely, seeing varieties of tamers, even down to a sea horse tamer.
But before he could interact, he made his way toward the reception building at the far end of the campus.
"Here we are," he whispered as he tapped the iron door with his knuckles.
"Come in," a refined female voice replied through a speaker, paired with a CCTV camera fixed above the door.
Jayden stepped in, taking deep breaths to cool his tension.
"Your beast code number?" a flat voice called from behind a desk. The woman’s face was hidden behind her computer screen.
"Tamer C457," Jayden replied confidently, stepping closer. He offered a polite greeting, though it went unnoticed—the receptionist’s eyes remained glued to her monitor.
"You’re Jayden Logan," she said finally, fingers tapping across the keyboard.
"Hm... Institutional fees: paid. SAT examinations: written. Beast... stone egg!?." She adjusted her glasses, eyes still locked on the screen.
Irrespective of the weird beast name, the emotionless woman ignored it and said, "What beast course do you wish to offer?"
Jayden paused for a second as if reidentifying his decisions.
The course choice wasn’t random; Jayden had mapped out his plans together with his yet unsolved puzzle. The MAGEO. And the best way to get the information he needed was to be close to the organisation. And apart from becoming a beast scientist, where, before he finishes his academic sections, which dragon signs would have started physically appearing, a seat at the presidential courtyards could be very handy.
"You seem to be really upset with this MAGEO stuff," Draco murmured.
"They lied to a whole nation, bro. And God help my dad and the president, they’re not part of this."
"Thumbprint here," the receptionist instructed, sliding a biometric scanner across the desk.
After thumbprinting, she pulled a sheet of paper from the printer and handed it to him. "Your hostel number and course information are here. Classes begin tomorrow. Thank you for choosing Grand Tamer Academy. Have a nice day."
"Thanks," Jayden said aloud, but in his mind, ’what the fuck...’ disgusted by the monotone way she dismissed him without even looking up. "Is that an AI?"
"She must’ve evolved into one after being buried in computers for who knows how many years," Draco scoffed.
Jayden giggled softly.
According to the block settings, the year-one hostels were the farthest from the gate and closest to the reception. Just as written in the paper that was handed to him, he approached the building on the right side, meant for males.
He knocked on the door labelled Room 24, then turned the handle. Attention immediately shifted to the door.
"Ohh great, the beastless genius is here," a boy muttered, lying on the middle tier of a bunk bed.
"Finally," another voice chimed from the lowest bunk tier, "our team strategist has arrived. Tell me, did your egg hatch?"
Jayden was short of words. Swallowing the formal greetings he had rehashed.
"Don’t tell me my own roommates are critics too." Jayden scanned the room.
It was almost empty, with just the 3-tier bunk bed on the left side and his roommates’ stock on the right side, close to a small refrigerator.
He rolled his luggage beside the others, then turned proudly to his roommates with the egg, or rather the stone disguise, tucked in his armpit.
"I’m still the egg man you both knew from the ceremony," Jayden smirked.
"And you’re proud," Ryan, the boy at the middle bunk hissed, "well, thanks to your beastless status, we’re ranked the lowest team with just fifteen potential points and guess what? It earned us the worst room on the block."
"But it’s not my fault my English score wasn’t recorded, well, not like I’m complaining, I’ve lived past that," Jayden said as he sat on the lowest bunk, close to Tyler, the boy with a Dodder vine beast.
Weak green plant vines protruded from his back and shoulders, evidence of his low rankings.
"It’s not anyone’s fault we’re in this room." Tyler smiled; acting like he had accepted his low-ranked plant beast as part of him.
There were twelve rooms in each of the year one blocks, and the higher the number, the better it was furnished. Rooms like number one or two had individual king beds for every student, even a wardrobe and other necessary equipment, but room 24 only got a bunk and a mini refrigerator.
Ryan hissed, his phone was held in landscape in his webbed frog-like fingers, actively dancing across the screen.
"Who told you not to study hard?" Ryan spat.
"I wanted to answer that, but I’ll first ask you why you’re in the same classes with a guy who didn’t study hard," Tyler taunted, looking at the bed above his head.
Ryan hissed, threw his phone into the bed and positioned himself for sleep. It was clear he had not yet accepted his glass frog beast. The frustration of living his life with a beast that maxed out at C-rank Tier 2 was surely bitter.
Jayden could feel the bitterness in them both, even though Tyler did his best to hide his behind a smile, but no matter how hard they worked, their potential points wouldn’t change, and neither would their room.
The potential points were an average of their beast’s maximum ranking. For Tyler, it was C-rank Tier 1, for Ryan, C-rank Tier 2, but the fact that Jayden’s egg couldn’t be contracted was what reduced their potential points.
The only hope of leaving this room was that Jayden’s egg would hatch anything. As long as it was contactable, it would surely increase their potential points.
’They’ll sure strangle me when they finally find out I have a dragon, but I’ll take things slow and steady. One day, eventually we’ll be in room 1.’
"Don’t worry guys. We’ll furnish this room to our taste," Jayden said. But he knew that did little to lift the self-loathing from their hearts.