Sunny left the arena. The crowd's whispers followed him. Doubt. Mockery. Disbelief. He ignored it all.
One hour. That's what he had. One hour to turn his level four Sky Gecko into something that could challenge a level thirty Beast.
Impossible by normal standards. But he wasn't normal. He had the Fusion System.
And he'd just realized something. Something the academy didn't think about. Something no one considered. The defeated Beasts.
Every entrance exam used dozens of wild Beasts. They fought. They bled. They lost. Then they were carried away to recover.
Where did they go? Sunny followed the academy staff. Keeping his distance. Staying in the shadows. His past life instincts kicked in. Silent movement. Patient observation.
The staff carried the unconscious Shadow Wolf through a side door. Behind the main arena. Away from the crowd.
Sunny waited thirty seconds. Then followed. The door led to a corridor. Stone walls. Dim lighting. He could hear sounds ahead.
He crept forward. The corridor opened into a massive room.
And Sunny stopped. His breath caught. Cages. Hundreds of them. Floor to ceiling. Wall to wall. Each one containing a Beast.
Some were small. Rats. Birds. Lizards. Others were larger. Wolves. Bears. Serpents.
All of them were injured. Bleeding. Exhausted from fights. All of them were wild. Untamed. Owned by no one.
[SCANNING AREA...]
[127 WILD BEASTS DETECTED]
[LEVEL RANGE: 2-8]
[STATUS: INJURED, WEAKENED]
One hundred twenty-seven Beasts!
Sunny's heart raced. His mind calculated.
Each Beast was weak. Level two to eight. Most were level three or four. Alone, they were worthless. Cannon fodder for entrance exams.
But together? With fusion? This wasn't a recovery room. This was a goldmine. A fusion farm.
He could tame them all. Fuse them. Create something powerful. The math was simple. Two level two Beasts fused into level three. Two level three into level five. Two level five into level eight.
Keep fusing. Keep climbing. Exponential growth.
From level four to level twenty. Maybe higher. All in one hour.
And no one would know. No one would see. They'd think he just had a hidden Beast the whole time.
But there was a problem. He only had three slots. He could only hold three Beasts at once.
Wait. No.
The system said he could tame Beasts. It didn't say he had to keep them in slots immediately.
What if he tamed them but didn't store them? What if he just... held them temporarily? Worth testing.
Sunny approached the first cage. Inside was a rat.
[SEWER RAT DETECTED]
[LEVEL: 2]
[STATUS: UNCONSCIOUS]
He reached through the bars. Touched it. Forced his mana into it.
[DING!]
[SEWER RAT TAMED]
[BEAST STORED IN TEMPORARY HOLDING]
[WARNING: TEMPORARY BEASTS WILL BE LOST IF NOT TRANSFERRED TO MAIN SLOTS WITHIN 24 HOURS]
Ten temporary slots. That changed everything.
Sunny smiled.
"System. Can I fuse Beasts in temporary holding?"
[YES]
[FUSION CAN BE PERFORMED WITH ANY COMBINATION OF MAIN OR TEMPORARY BEASTS]
Perfect.
He started moving. Cage to cage. Taming. Fast.
Most Beasts were unconscious. Easy targets. The conscious ones were too weak to resist. His mana overwhelmed them.
[DING!]
[STONE MOUSE TAMED]
[DING!]
[WIND SPARROW TAMED]
[DING!]
[MUD SNAKE TAMED]
Five minutes. Ten Beasts tamed.
The academy staff was in another room. He could hear them talking. Laughing. Taking a break. They had no idea.
Sunny kept going.
[DING!]
[FLAME BEETLE TAMED]
[DING!]
[ICE FROG TAMED]
Twenty Beasts. Thirty. Forty.
His mana depleted. He stopped. Breathed. Let it regenerate.
The Beasts in temporary holding didn't drain him. They just sat there. Waiting.
After two minutes, his mana refilled. He continued.
More cages. More Beasts. All weak. All broken. All his.
Some part of him felt bad. These creatures were suffering. But that part was small. Quiet. Easily ignored.
In his past life, he'd learned the truth. The world was cruel. Power mattered. Survival mattered. These Beasts would die anyway. Or be used in more exams. More suffering. At least this way, they'd serve a purpose. They'd make him stronger. And when he was strong, he could change things. Protect what mattered.
[DING!]
[SHADOW WOLF TAMED]
That was the one he'd fought. Still bleeding.
Fifty Beasts. Sixty. Seventy.
His temporary slots filled quickly.
[TEMPORARY SLOTS: 10/10]
Time to start fusing.
"System. Fuse Sewer Rat and Stone Mouse."
[DING!]
[FUSION INITIATED]
No light this time. The Beasts were in temporary holding. The fusion happened internally. Instant.
[FUSION COMPLETE!]
[NEW BEAST CREATED: ROCK RAT]
[LEVEL: 3]
[STORED IN TEMPORARY HOLDING]
One slot freed. He kept taming.
[DING!]
[BARK LIZARD TAMED]
[TEMPORARY SLOTS: 10/10]
"Fuse Wind Sparrow and Mud Snake."
[FUSION COMPLETE!]
[NEW BEAST CREATED: VENOM WING]
[LEVEL: 4]
He developed a rhythm. Tame ten. Fuse five pairs. Repeat. The temporary holding became a factory. Beasts going in. Stronger Beasts coming out.
Eighty Beasts tamed. Ninety. One hundred.
The room had so many. More than he'd thought. Cages stacked high. Hidden corners. Overflow from years of entrance exams.
Ten more minutes passed. Sunny worked non-stop. His hands moved automatically.
Taming. Fusing. Planning.
[FUSION COMPLETE!]
[NEW BEAST CREATED: STEEL VIPER]
[LEVEL: 8]
[FUSION COMPLETE]
[NEW BEAST CREATED: STORM BEETLE]
[LEVEL: 9]
The levels climbed. Slowly at first. Then faster.
Two level eight Beasts fused into level twelve. Two level twelve into level seventeen.
[FUSION COMPLETE!]
[NEW BEAST CREATED: CRIMSON FANG]
[LEVEL: 17]
Seventeen. Not enough. Level thirty was still far away.
But he had more Beasts. More materials.
Sunny kept working. The temporary slots cycled. Fill. Fuse. Fill. Fuse.
His mana drained completely. Multiple times.
Thirty minutes gone. Half his time used. But the results spoke for themselves.
He'd tamed one hundred twelve Beasts. Fused them down to eight. All between level fifteen and eighteen.
Now came the final stage. Fuse the eight into four. Then two. Then one.
"Fuse Crimson Fang and Steel Viper."
[FUSION COMPLETE!]
[NEW BEAST CREATED: BLOOD SERPENT]
[LEVEL: 20]
Twenty. Gold Rank threshold.
"Fuse Storm Beetle and Venom Wing."
[FUSION COMPLETE!]
[NEW BEAST CREATED: TEMPEST WASP]
[LEVEL: 19]
Close. So close.
He fused the remaining Beasts. Four became two.
[THUNDER BEAR - LEVEL: 21]
[FROST PANTHER - LEVEL: 20]
Two Beasts. Both level twenty. Both Gold Rank.
"Fuse Thunder Bear and Frost Panther."
[FUSION INITIATED]
[WARNING: HIGH-LEVEL FUSION DETECTED]
[CALCULATING COMPATIBILITY...]
[COMPATIBILITY: 87%]
[FUSION UNSTABLE - RARE EVOLUTION POSSIBLE]
[PROCEED? YES/NO]
Rare evolution. Sunny's breath caught. What did that mean?
No time to hesitate. "Yes."
[FUSION COMPLETE!]
[RARE EVOLUTION TRIGGERED]
[NEW BEAST CREATED: STORM APEX PREDATOR]
[LEVEL: 25]
[RARITY: RARE]
[ABILITIES: THUNDER STRIKE, FROST ARMOR, APEX ROAR, PREDATOR INSTINCT, ELEMENTAL FURY]
Twenty-five. Rare rarity. Multiple abilities.
[DING!]
[ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: RARE FUSION]
[REWARD: FUSION SYSTEM LEVEL 3]
[NEW FEATURE: CAN NOW FUSE UP TO 3 BEASTS AT ONCE!]
[REWARD: +5 ALL STATS]
Sunny exhaled. His entire body tingled. Power flowed through him. The stat boost.
He'd done it. In forty-five minutes, he'd gone from level four to level twenty-five.
But was it enough? Level twenty-five versus level thirty. Still a gap.
But he had one more option. The Sky Gecko. Level four. And the Void Wing. Level seven. He could fuse them with the Storm Apex Predator. Three-way fusion.
But should he? The Void Wing was shadow-type. Suspicious. If anyone saw it during the fusion...
Sunny checked the time. Fifteen minutes left. The staff could return any moment.
He made his decision. Risk it. Go all in.
"Transfer Storm Apex Predator to main slot."
[STORM APEX PREDATOR MOVED TO MAIN SLOT 1]
"Fuse Sky Gecko, Void Wing, and Storm Apex Predator."
[THREE-WAY FUSION INITIATED]
[CALCULATING...]
All three marks glowed. Green. Black. Blue. The light mixed. Swirled.
Then exploded.
The fusion took longer this time. The three Beasts materialized. Combined. Transformed.
Lightning. Shadows. Wings. Claws. Scales. Everything merged.
[DING!]
[LEGENDARY FUSION TRIGGERED]
[NEW BEAST CREATED: VOID STORM EMPEROR]
[LEVEL: 27]
[RARITY: LEGENDARY]