Beyond Beast Rank

A Life of Responsibility

If you do not pay three hundred credits within twenty four hours, your housing permit will end.

The words burned into my eyes as I stood under the dripping roof of our apartment building. Rain trickled down the back of my neck, freezing my skin, but the heat in my chest made me clench my fists until my nails bit into my palms. Three hundred credits. I had eight.

I pushed open the squeaky metal door of our third floor apartment. The smell of boiled broth filled the small hallway.

"Ethan?"

Lily came out of the kitchen, wiping her hands on an old towel. She was sixteen years old, with thin shoulders and eyes that were far too large for her pale face. Every time she breathed, a tiny wheeze rattled in her chest.

"You are soaked," Lily said, stepping forward to take my wet delivery jacket. "Put the bike keys down and sit near the heater. I made soup."

I forced a smile onto my face and sat on the worn wooden chair. "Did you take your medicine today?"

Lily stopped moving. She hung my jacket on the wall hook without looking back at me.

"The bottle was empty," Lily whispered. "You spent all your credit money last week buying the full bottle. I did not want to tell you."

My heart pounded against my ribs like a trapped bird. She needed those lung pills every single morning. Without them, her lungs filled with fluid whenever the rainy season hit Aether City.

"I will buy another bottle tomorrow," I said, keeping my voice firm. "Do not worry about the pills."

Lily sat across from me and pushed a warm bowl of soup toward my hands. "You work twelve hours every day, Ethan. You do not sleep. You do not buy new clothes. You give everything to me."

"That is my job," I said, picking up the spoon.

"You had another job three years ago," Lily said softly, pointing toward the wooden bookshelf in the corner. "You were supposed to be at the academy."

My eyes followed her finger to the small silver frame resting beside our old family books.

Inside the frame sat an official letter printed on thick gold paper. The top bore the shield of Aether City Beast Academy. Three years ago, when I turned seventeen, I stood in a line of five hundred teenagers inside the central testing arena. The testing orb glowed bright yellow when I touched it.

"Talent awakened," the tester had shouted across the hall. "Beast Identification."

For five seconds, I thought my life was changing. I thought I would finally get a beast, earn money, and move Lily out of the slum district.

Then the tester ran the deep scan.

Most identification talents could see a beast rank, its hidden elemental powers, and its evolution paths. Mine did not do that. When I looked at an earth bear, my talent told me its name, its weight, and its common species type. Things anyone could read in a five credit book at the market.

"Useless talent," the instructor had said, stamping a red mark across my file. "Rejection confirmed. Next student."

Rich kids with private tutors and expensive nutrient potions bought their way into private academies even with low talents. Their parents bought them rare eggs and high rank beast bonds before they turned fifteen. People like me, without money or connections, got thrown out to the street.

"They made a mistake," Lily said, her voice shaking with quiet anger. "You know more about beasts than anyone in our school. You spent years reading Father's old notebooks."

"Knowledge does not buy a beast egg, Lily," I said. "The city only cares about rank."

I stood up from the table and walked over to the bookshelf. Next to the rejection letter sat a small, leather bound notebook with faded gold initials on the cover. It belonged to our father before he and Mother disappeared into the wild zone five years ago.

The government declared them dead after six months of silence. They left us this small apartment, a stack of unpaid bills, and Father's notes on beast anatomy.

"Do you ever think about going back into the wild zones?" Lily asked quietly behind me. "Father always said the best tamers started by finding their own path."

"The wild zones are suicide for someone without a combat beast," I said, touching the worn leather cover of the notebook. "I am not leaving you alone."

"You are holding yourself back for me!" Lily shouted!

The sudden burst of emotion made her cough violently. She bent double over the table, clutching her chest as her face turned red.

I rushed over, grabbing a glass of water from the counter, and held it to her lips while patting her back gently. The wheezing sound in her chest grew louder, filling the quiet room with a terrifying strain.

"Breathe, Lily," I begged, holding her shoulders steady. "Just breathe."

It took three full minutes for her coughing to stop. She leaned against my arm, exhausted and sweating, her eyes filled with tears.

"I am sorry," she whispered, her voice barely a breath.

"Stop talking," I said softly, setting the glass down. "Rest now."

I helped her into the small bedroom and pulled the thick blanket over her shoulders. She closed her eyes within moments, worn out by the effort of breathing.

I walked back to the living room and picked up my father's notebook. Inside the back cover, a small map was folded into a tiny square. It showed the outer edge of the old industrial zone, just beyond the city wall, where illegal beast traders discarded broken cages and wild beast scrap.

My phone screen lit up on the table. A private delivery request popped up on the app screen.

The pickup location was deep inside the industrial district. The pay was two hundred and fifty credits. The drop off instructions had no name, no phone number, and only a single line of text.

Pick up the package at midnight, do not open the box, and deliver it to the river docks.

I looked back at Lily's bedroom door, hearing her irregular wheezing through the thin wood. If I took this job, I could buy her medicine tomorrow morning and pay most of the rent. If I refused, we would be on the street in twenty four hours.

I grabbed my helmet, slipped Father's notebook into my inner pocket, and opened the front door into the dark, rainy night.

A cold breeze swept up the stairwell, carrying the distant howl of a wild beast from beyond the city walls.