The World inside me rumbled violently. It sloshed against the shell of my existence, pushing harder than ever, and I knew what that meant. It was on the verge of breaking apart.
My World was too small to inhabit the Soilback now that it had hatched. But where did that sudden change come from? A newborn was not supposed to require much more soul energy than the egg—especially not mere minutes after it was born.
As long as the ethernet was not full of liars and scammers, the Soilback shouldn’t have grown for another day or two. That would have been more than enough time to get used to each other and to strengthen the newly formed bond. Clearly, the Soilback was different from the norm—and that was bad. Really bad.
My soul energy couldn’t contain the Soilback now that it needed more. In fact, I lacked the energy to maintain both the bond and the World. If nothing changed in the next few minutes, I’d have to sever the bond or watch my World shatter.
The blood, sweat, and tears of the last few weeks had pushed my World to greater heights, yet it wasn’t enough. But I wasn’t lacking much. All it took was a minuscule amount of soul energy to meet the requirements.
If the Soilback required one soul energy unit as an egg, it required 1.1 units now. But I’d barely refined my World to fit the egg and a minuscule excess. Just a fraction separated failure from success.
All these weeks, the World within me had been bloated and far beyond its capacity, but it had been no problem since beast eggs do not strain the World as much as newborn beasts. That changed with the Soilback’s birth.
My heart raced, and the darkest thoughts flashed through my mind. I found myself in a downward spiral of uncertainty feasting on desperation—until the effect of soulshare triggered.
The connection flared, and a tidal wave of excitement and affection swallowed me as the tiny creature turned to look at me. It was still unstable on its legs but moved to the edge of the cushioned box where my hand was still resting. It hissed happily, stuck out its tongue, and licked my index finger. Then it bit into my finger and tried to pull it down.
Unable to resist the newborn’s twinkling eyes, I did everything it wanted. I lowered my hand to the bottom of the box and watched the tiny lizard climb my towering finger to crawl unsteadily into my palm.
Our bond flared again and grew firmer as the newborn lizard, barely long enough to cover my pinky, curled up in my palm.
It was really small, and it didn’t look strong enough. There was no way in the Rulers’ name that a lizard this small and weak could grow into a 3-Star Soilback, but I wasn’t disappointed. Even if Daniel was wrong, and it had mutated in a way that weakened its potential, I didn’t think I would be disappointed. The small Soilback was all I needed. It was my Soulkin.
And it made something within me shift.
Watching my Soulkin curled up in my palm, I felt like I was more than I had been mere minutes ago.
My World expanded again, providing just enough room to contain my new friend—to store it and to grow alongside it.
***
The tiny devil didn’t stay curled up for long. Tiny, black scales shifted as the Soilback scrambled onto its claws within minutes.
It looked at me and opened the floodgates to its emotions. To its hunger.
“You’re hungry?” I lifted my hand and smiled at the Soilback. The desire to pet my Soulkin was strong, but I was too afraid to hurt its tiny body.
But that didn’t stop me from inspecting the Soilback thoroughly—or from taking pictures to send to Daniel.
He was probably busy studying in Bert’s Beaster shop for the next few hours, but it felt wrong to keep the great news from him. Once the pictures were sent, I put my phone away and retrieved the tablet Daniel had loaned me. Studying on phones was possible, but my phone was too battered and outdated to support the information packages Daniel wanted me to study—including three volumes of Beastrology.
I opened the files but couldn’t search for records of Soilbacks, anomalies, and most likely mutations, as hunger permeated my mind, casting aside all thoughts of identifying the differences between normal Soilbacks and my little devil. It hissed and wiggled around, ignoring my grimaces as it tumbled over its own claws.
However, I quickly realized I had to be more careful when the Soulkin nearly fell from my palm. Maybe a regular 1-Star Wild would survive falling onto the desk, but this wasn’t the time or place to take risks.
I sat back down at the desk, resting the back of my right hand on it. Only when it was clear that the Soulkin wouldn’t kill itself accidentally did I retrieve one of the other boxes Daniel had prepared. This one, however, was for the Soilback.
I placed the tin box on the desk and opened it with my empty hand, only to find the inside filled with pebbles that resembled dirt. It had a strong, earthy scent, too.
“Is that dirt? No, that can’t be. Maybe it is a mixture of something—hey, don’t run away! You will hurt yourself!” I screeched as the Soilback jumped from my right palm. It landed swiftly on the desk, closed the distance to the tin box in no time, and commenced its first climb—or tried to, as its claws didn’t find a hold on the box’s surface.
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“Are you starving?” My head was throbbing from all the emotions and sensations bombarding me; it was impossible to separate anything, so I didn’t bother. Once the Soilback’s hunger was stilled, I could resume organizing the mess in my head. Probably.
I pulled a few earthy pebbles from the box and put them down beside the Soilback. It turned to the pebbles at once and began to devour them, with satisfaction and excitement replacing the flood of hunger.
“Good. Now stay there and let me inspect you.”
Inspecting the Soilback was much easier once it stopped resisting. Only its head moved as it devoured the earthy pebbles with gusto.
My fingers floated to the tablet, and I switched to the first of many market sections to look at the image of a mature Soilback—or how it should look.
While the last few weeks had been filled with constant training, which resembled torture, I studied as well. Sure, I didn’t have much energy left to study thoroughly or remember everything I’d read in the last few weeks, but I went through the sections revolving around the Soilbacks dozens of times. Every word of the pages filled with a Soilback’s habitat, dormant traits, strengths, weaknesses, and much more was etched into my mind, but my fingers trembled, and I was struggling to gather my thoughts.
I didn’t want to make a mistake here. I had to be certain.
My fingers moved swiftly across the screen to materialize a holographic screen beside the tablet. The last few weeks taught me a lot about the things I had been oblivious to, including ether devices such as Daniel’s tablet. Working with holographic screens was a lot easier than expected, so I used them regularly to take notes.
Tapping my chin as I read through the first three pages describing the Soilback, its habitat, and its appearance, I considered what to write down first.
[The newborn Soilback does not have muddy brown scales. It has matte, black scales that seem to seamlessly intertwine with one another. Its scales are even darker than the anomalous variants noted in the Beastrology. Furthermore, the newborn has bulges on its back—four in total, with two on each side. They don't appear to harm the newborn and don’t seem to be ulcers either. If anything, they seem to exist for a reason and seem symmetrically placed on its back when inspected from above. Regardless, it would be best to talk to Daniel about it.]
I scribbled on the holographic screen, nibbling on my lower lip. Since I was no Beaster with decades of experience, I could only note what I noticed. Therefore, I retrieved more earthen pebbles from the tin box when it looked like the newborn was about to finish the last.
[The Soilback hatched less than fifteen minutes ago but is already very hungry. It used the bond to share its immense hunger and devoured four of the brown pebbles with an earthen scent Daniel prepared—Kibble for earthen-attributed beasts? The Soilback’s hunger diminished slightly, but it will finish the four pieces of kibble at any moment. It moved on to the next four pieces that were retrieved preemptively, and will likely finish them as well.]
As I read through the notes, I edited them a little. I tweaked everything slightly to make sure it looked more professional. The result was a little bit better, but my inexperience shone through regardless, so I continued.
[The newborn requires more soul energy than initially anticipated. Nonetheless, the Soilback is not normal. It has vibrant eyes that shine brightly with intelligence, and the methods used to share its desires hint at superior intelligence compared to the norm. Regardless, the newborn is smaller than any other Soilback recorded in the Beastrology (volumes one to three). It barely reaches a length of one-third compared to the recorded newborn Soilback. It is weak and does not provide a significant enhancement in the Blessed’s strength, endurance, or vitality, even though the soulshare is solid. Yet it consumes as much soul energy—if not more.]
The last bit was probably the worst. If the Soilback didn’t start providing any benefits, I wouldn’t be able to grow stronger. In the worst case, it would occupy all the soul energy until it reached 3-Star.
That did not look like a major problem for the time being. If anything, generating enough soul energy to keep up with the Soilback’s growth seemed more likely, given how much that little devil devoured.
My eyes flicked to the Soilback, which was about to finish its eighth piece. I suppressed the worry rising within me and retrieved a ninth earthly pebble from the tin box, hoping the glutton would stop.
“Aren’t you eating way too much?”
The Soilback was either unable to hear me, or it was too happy to bother. Regardless, it jumped at the ninth pebble once it swallowed the other and continued the feast.
That was problematic. Daniel may have prepared enough food, but what if the Soilback continued to eat like this? What…if its hunger grew worse? Should I tell him about it? Daniel was certain to prepare more food for me, but how was I supposed to explain all of it to my parents?
Mom was still unaware of the things Daniel did for me, which was probably for the best, but if I kept asking for help, it would become increasingly difficult to hide the signs.
I was certain she would scold me for accepting Daniel’s gifts, and she would most definitely be afraid of repercussions from Daniel’s family. While Daniel had reassured me that everything was fine, there was no way to be certain about this.
At last, the Soilback stopped eating. It curled up where it was after finishing food twice its weight and fell asleep.
Storing the sleeping Soulkin into the World was no problem. I picked up the slumbering glutton, reached for the bond connecting us, and willed the World to do its mythics. Space around the Soulkin warped and it vanished, reappearing curled up and still asleep in my World.
“Good. That still works,” I muttered, sealing the tin box to put it away.
Next, my attention returned to the tablet and my notices. I expanded on them and searched for general information on gluttonous beasts. As it turned out, it wasn’t rare for juvenile beasts, especially newborn Soulkin, to eat a lot. The bond between Blessed and Soulkin stimulated the beast’s mind and potential, strengthening it in accordance with various factors such as the bond’s firmness, the compatibility between both parties, and many more.
Does that mean he will mature faster than a regular Soilback?
Many things would have to change if that was the case, but it didn’t sound too bad. Sure, it would be stressful and taxing on my body and World, but as long as the calculations weren’t wrong, I’d be fine. As long as I could strengthen our bond.
The corner of my mouth curled upward, and I reached for the World to watch the Soilback, while continuing to research.
The hours flew by and I waited patiently. My Soulkin was still asleep, but it had stirred twice already. It wouldn’t be long before it would be wide awake again. But as much as I’d wanted to play with the Soilback and spend time with it, I was waiting for something else—someone else.
Mom had left early in the morning before dawn to stay with Father for the final examination and to bring him back to the flat.
I continued waiting—patiently, or maybe impatiently—as the hours trickled by, feeling giddy at the thought of introducing the Soilback to my parents.