The morning started off like it always did, with rain tapping against the windows, too light to really matter but loud enough to be annoying. Han Seojin sat near the back wall of the gym, hoodie up, hands in his pockets, earbuds in but not playing anything. Everyone else was buzzing around him, and none of it touched him at all.Today was Bonding Day. A national holiday, basically. The one day every student looked forward to more than graduation. You went in, stood before the Bestia Crystal, and came out with your first contracted monster. It was supposed to be the start of your real life. The system always said that.[Initiating First Bonding Ceremony.] [Welcome to the BestiaCore.]He'd heard it before. Four times, in fact. That was the maximum number of attempts allowed under the youth program, which meant this was his final shot, and everyone in the room knew it whether they said it out loud or not."Okay, Class A3, line up," barked Instructor Seo. "IDs ready, BestiaCore visible, l

The ceiling split with a roar of grinding stone and magic backlash, and real sunlight spilled through the cracks above as the dungeon unraveled layer by layer into ruin. Fenrir didn't wait for it to finish collapsing. He leapt toward the sky like he belonged there, chunks of floating rubble spiraling past them, glowing faintly with residual dungeon energy as debris twisted downward in slow arcs on the rising wind while the seal between realms broke apart for good.Seojin squinted against the light, one arm up to shield his face, cold air blasting past them as they soared higher. Far below he could make out the scaffolding of the construction site, broken ground littered with magi-steel pylons and blinking hazard lights."There are people down there," he muttered, eyes widening.Fenrir didn't respond right away. His whole body tensed, and then he spoke, voice low and resonant."Learned this one from the frost giants. Arrogant things, but they knew how to survive a fall."A rune flared b

Evening settled over Seoul like cooling metal. Neon blinked through the twilight, traffic roared and pulsed along the avenues, and the sidewalks filled with tired workers and the occasional glowing eyes of stray beasts perched on rooftops above them.Han Seojin walked with his hands in his pockets, and his thoughts turned down low, legs aching, stomach twisting from hunger he'd been ignoring since school. It had been hours since he'd crawled out of that collapsed dungeon, hours since he'd been scanned and questioned and handed a folded check for his trouble, and none of it had left him time to actually eat.He spotted a small diner tucked between a shuttered arcade and a laundromat, warm light spilling out through its front window onto the wet pavement. It looked plain enough, worn booths and a chalkboard menu, but it smelled like something real was cooking, and that was enough to pull him through the door.A bell above the frame jingled as he stepped inside, and a waitress waved him t

Seojin woke before his alarm. Not jolted, not groggy, just there, eyes open to the faint blue of early morning threading through the blinds.The apartment was still, just the hum of the fridge and the occasional thump of a pipe somewhere in the walls. He sat up, dragged the blanket off his legs, and pulled his uniform down off the hook by the door, freshly ironed the way his mother always left it.From the rug near his closet, a familiar grumble stirred. Fenrir stretched lazily, his smaller form barely as tall as a beagle but somehow still regal about it, golden eyes cracking open into slits."Why are you up so early?" Fenrir said, voice rasping through Seojin's head."I have school today.""The prison of fear and boredom, you say, why would you ever willingly go there?"Seojin huffed out something close to a laugh and reached for his bag, then paused when his fingers brushed the guild card still sitting on his desk from the night before. He picked it up, turning it over once, and on a

The truck's engine rumbled low, a steady hum vibrating through the metal floor. Crates and boxes shifted with every turn, wooden edges scraping faintly against each other. Seojin sat cross legged in the back, shoulder pressed against a crate marked with the Obsidian Fang emblem, the air warm and thick with the smell of oil and dust, narrow windows letting in slivers of fading sunlight. Across from him, Yuna sprawled on her back with one leg kicked up on a crate, Pyra perched on her shoulder, ember lit feathers casting a soft flickering glow across the truck's interior.Seojin's fingers traced the edge of his guild jacket, the fabric still feeling foreign on his shoulders. He wasn't used to any of it yet, not the jacket, not the guild, not the weight of Fenrir's presence sitting quiet in his chest. The last few days had blurred together into one long collision of impossible moments, a dungeon boss, the Five, and now this, rattling down some unfamiliar road while Yuna acted like it was j