Beast Taming: Start With A Dragon Legion

Chapter 12: The Challenge Hall

Marcus walked toward the challenge board, his eyes never leaving Knox.

The room went quiet.

Knox stayed still, but his body tightened as he cursed inwardly. He was not fully ready for a public ranked fight yet. Ignis stiffened on his shoulder, sensing Knox's tension through the bond.

Marcus stopped in front of the board and turned to face Knox directly with an intense look.

Then he laughed.

"Don't flatter yourself, Morales," Marcus said loudly. "I wouldn't waste an official challenge on a bottom-ranked lizard boy. Crawl higher first if you want to be worth crushing."

He turned back to the board and selected a name closer to his own rank.

The room relaxed slightly, and attention shifted away from Knox.

Knox exhaled slowly and forced his shoulders to loosen. Marcus had only been enjoying the reaction.

Before students could begin issuing challenges, Crane raised her hand.

"Before the challenges begin," Crane said, "activate your Academy Sigils."

Knox looked down at the mana-core badge clipped to his chest. Every student had been issued one after the suitability test, but most had ignored it until now.

Knox channeled a small amount of mana into the sigil.

It glowed dull green, and text appeared across its surface.

Academy Sigil Display:

Name: Knox Morales

Rank: 487

Access Bracket: Class C

Challenge Status: Available

Knox stared at it.

There was no hiding his rank or weakness from anyone now.

Around the room, other students activated their sigils. The badges glowed in different colors: gold, silver, blue, green, and grey.

Crane gestured toward the sigils. "The sigil color shows your current class-access bracket. Gold means Class S. Silver means Class A. Blue means Class B. Green means Class C. Grey means Class D."

She paused and her voice turned colder.

"Students below Rank 700 have red-flashing sigils. Those students are under expulsion warning. If they remain in the removal zone for seven days, they are expelled."

Knox looked around the room and saw several red-flashing sigils scattered among the crowd. The students wearing them looked tense and desperate.

Crane continued. "Every student may issue only one official challenge per day, and each student can only be forced to answer one valid challenge per day. After a fight, both summoner and beast enter recovery lock until the next challenge window. A student can only challenge within the allowed rank range."

Knox's jaw tightened.

The climb to Top 300 could not be rushed. Every challenge mattered because one wasted day could slow his progress.

"The new provisional students," Crane said, "were inserted into the existing first-year ranking board after the suitability test. That means some students who already held ranks were pushed downward overnight. Some lost access to better class brackets because of the new placements."

The room went completely silent.

Knox understood immediately. He had not just entered the rankings. He had displaced someone.

Crane looked across the room. "Class-access thresholds determine your training resources, mission permissions, instructor attention, and sponsor visibility. You are not officially sorted yet, but your current rank already decides what access you can use."

She gestured toward the projected board.

"Class S Access: Rank 1 through 50. Class A Access: Rank 51 through 150. Class B Access: Rank 151 through 300. Class C Access: Rank 301 through 500. Class D Access: Rank 501 through 700. Removal Zone: Rank 701 and below."

Knox stared at the numbers.

Rank 300 was not just about the bet anymore. It was the line between Class B and Class C. Between real resources and scraps.

And every rank he climbed would push someone else down.

Crane turned and walked toward the exit. "Follow me."

The students filed out of the classroom and into a wide stone corridor. Crane led them through two hallways before stopping in front of a massive set of double doors.

She pushed them open.

The First-Year Challenge Hall stretched out before them, enormous and filled with five separate arenas. Each arena was a circular stone platform surrounded by glowing runes and transparent barriers. Metal pillars stood at intervals around each ring, embedded with glowing mana cores.

Knox stared at the cores. They pulsed faintly with stored energy, feeding power into the barriers and arrays.

"Mana cores," Crane said, noticing the students' attention. "Crystallized mana organs harvested from mana beasts and monsters in beast zones. Low-grade cores power academy systems like lights, barriers, training dummies, challenge boards, and classroom arrays. Higher-grade cores power weapons, noble estates, city defenses, and war machines."

She gestured toward the arenas.

"Arena S. Arena A. Arena B. Arena C. Arena D. Each arena is tied to its corresponding class bracket. Hunters, soldiers, and academy graduates earn money by collecting and selling cores. Beast zones are not just battlefields. They are the foundation of the kingdom's economy."

Knox filed that information away. Missions, cores, combat, and survival were all connected.

Then he noticed the other students.

Older first-year students stood near the challenge boards, watching the provisional students enter. They were not part of the new batch. Their eyes moved across the crowd like predators searching for prey while reading the glowing Academy Sigils on each student's chest.

Some looked angry while others had calculating looks.

Knox's green sigil and grey lizard made him an obvious target.

One older student stopped and stared directly at Knox.

His sigil glowed grey.

Academy Sigil Display:

Name: Venn Rusk

Rank: 521

Access Bracket: Class D

Challenge Status: Available

Venn looked from Knox's green sigil to Ignis on his shoulder, then back to Knox's rank.

487.

Knox saw the recognition in Venn's eyes. This was a weak provisional student sitting inside Class C access with a rank he had not earned through combat.

An easy target.

Venn stepped forward and walked toward the challenge board. He placed his hand on the interface and selected Knox's name.

The board flared bright.

Challenge Issued:

Venn Rusk, Rank 521

vs.

Knox Morales, Rank 487

The hall reacted immediately.

"Someone challenged the lizard boy already?"

"That was fast."

Venn turned and looked at Knox. "You took a rank you never fought for, provisional. I'm taking it back."

Knox met his gaze calmly.

Venn was not challenging him for fun. Before the provisional ranks were inserted, Venn had been barely inside Class C. Now he had fallen to Rank 521, dropped into Class D access. If he beat Knox, he would take Rank 487 and return to Class C.

Knox understood the logic. But he could not afford sympathy.

He walked toward the board and placed his hand on the interface.

Challenge Accepted

The board updated.

Challenge Accepted

Arena Assigned: Arena C

Match Queue: Next

Students began following immediately, eager to watch.

Marcus laughed. "Arena C might become Arena D for you after this, Morales."

Noah watched quietly from the back.

Serena said nothing, but her Light Spirit Fox raised its head, its pale eyes focused on Knox.

Knox walked toward Arena C, Ignis still perched on his shoulder.

The challenge board displayed Venn's beast information.

Beast: Needle-Horn Goat

Rank: Common

Attribute: Earth

Students laughed when they saw the beast's name, but Venn looked confident.

Knox recognized the beast type from his time researching beasts when he first arrived in this world. The Needle-Horn Goat was known for its explosive straight-line charge and a horn strong enough to crack stone at Level 1.

But Knox's fear faded.

He had just spent an entire day learning how to counter beasts that moved in straight lines.

The Swift-Horn Rabbits had taught him. The goat was stronger and more dangerous, but the principle was the same: a burst of speed was useless if the path was predictable.

Knox stepped onto the stone platform of Arena C. The barrier runes glowed brighter, and a transparent wall rose around the arena.

An assistant instructor stood at the control station, ready to monitor the fight and stop it if necessary.

Venn summoned his Needle-Horn Goat.

The beast appeared in its low-form, stocky and muscular with short grey fur and a spiral horn glowing dull yellow. Its hooves scraped against the stone, leaving small sparks.

Ignis hopped down from Knox's shoulder.

The crowd laughed at the size difference. The goat was twice Ignis's size, built like a battering ram.

Knox did not react.

He watched the goat line itself up, lowering its horn toward Ignis.

Venn grinned. "This won't take long."

Knox looked at Venn, then at the goat, then back at Venn.

For the first time since the challenge was issued, Knox's lips curved into a faint smile.

He crouched slightly and rested his hand on his knee, his posture relaxed. His fingers drummed once against his leg, a slow, deliberate rhythm.

Ignis mirrored his calm, settling into a low crouch, his ember-orange eyes locked on the goat.

Venn had chosen him because he looked weak.

Knox's smile widened just a fraction.

Too bad for him.