Chapter 3: Infinite Growth
Towering ruins of a former city greeted Terrence as he stepped out of the Fringe.
The massive steel walls of Suran City shrank into the background behind him.
Up ahead lay an abandoned wasteland—a scarred urban graveyard filled with collapsed concrete, scattered skeletal remains, and the lingering copper scent of old blood.
This was the old sector of Suran City.
Decades ago, a catastrophic rift overflow triggered an unstoppable monster wave that wiped this entire zone off the map.
It was during that brutal massacre that humanity first discovered the affinity ranks of the Beast Taming Talent, giving rise to the revered status of awakened tamers.
Yet, that same arrogance brought about the city’s downfall.
The authorities had foolishly assumed that tamers with high affinity could easily control and defeat wild monsters of equivalent rank. They were dead wrong. The disaster forced surviving humans to write the Beast Taming Code—a strict set of laws governing every citizen.
"This land holds a long history of oppression and ignorance," Terrence muttered under his breath as he searched for a place to rest.
He walked past hollowed-out storefronts until he found a heavy metal door covered in rust and grit.
Pushing it open, he stepped inside an abandoned warehouse. Dust motes danced in the pale moonlight filtering through cracked skylights.
It was quiet, hidden, and structurally sound.
Terrence slid down a concrete pillar and sat on the cold floor, finally letting out a long breath.
"If this city hadn’t fallen back then," he said to the empty room, "maybe someone like me, who had zero affinity, wouldn’t have been treated like absolute garbage by society."
He shook his head, clearing his mind of useless regrets.
"Now, it’s time to understand the Beast Sanctuary."
Terrence rested his hand on the head of the Shadow Hound sitting beside him. Its smooth, dense black fur felt soft yet surprisingly firm against his skin.
He focused his mind, and the golden UI window expanded before his eyes.
[Beast Sanctuary]
[A home for listed beasts. A confirmed listed beast can be nurtured inside the sanctuary. Each listed beast requires five nourishments per day depending on their rank.]
"What does this really mean?" Terrence wondered aloud.
Testing the waters, he tapped the screen. A small purple rift materialized in the air next to the golden window, swirling like a mini galaxy.
[Please select a listed beast.]
As soon as the prompt appeared, his Shadow Hound began to glow with a faint violet light.
Terrence reached out and touched the hound’s shoulder. Instantly, the beast dissolved into streaks of shadow, flowing directly into the purple rift.
A small, detailed icon of the hound appeared hovering above the portal.
"So that’s how you recall them," Terrence noted.
The screen refreshed with new details.
[Beast Sanctuary]
[You are nourishing 1x listed beast.]
[S-Rank Mutated Iron Shadow Hound]
[Feed it with C-Rank Beast Core (0/5)]
[Next mutation or rank: 0%]
[Do you want to upgrade S-Rank Mutated Iron Shadow Hound?]
The glowing text of the system interface reflected in Terrence’s wide trembling eyes.
Thump. Thump.
He could actually hear his own pulse hammering in his ears.
A sudden, scorching rush of adrenaline flooded his veins, making his fingertips tingle with unfiltered excitement.
’I can grow my beast... infinitely?’ Terrence thought, his breath catching squarely in his throat as he stared at the floating words in absolute disbelief.
’That’s impossible. S-Rank is supposed to be the absolute, unbreakable ceiling for tamed beasts in this world. But this... this system is telling me I can take a mythical S-Rank creature and push it even further?’
His mind raced, struggling to process the sheer gravity of what he was reading.
In the entire blood-soaked history of Suran City, an S-Rank beast wasn’t just rare—it was a walking legend.
It was the kind of world-ending power wielded exclusively by untouchable imperial powerhouses and sovereign kings.
Yet here he was. Terrence Lee. The talentless, humiliated outcast thrown into the dirt... casually holding the key to limitless, god-like evolution in the palm of his hand.
A low, breathless laugh escaped his lips. The sheer dopamine rush was intoxicating, making his head spin with the possibilities.
He clenched his fists, feeling the phantom weight of the power he now commanded. But he knew he couldn’t afford to lose his mind to the high just yet. He needed a clear, calculating head for what was coming next.
Forcing himself to take a long deep breath, Terrence dragged a hand down his face.
Letting the overwhelming thrill settle deep into his bones, he leaned the back of his head against the cold, rough concrete of the pillar and finally allowed his eyes to flutter shut.
The next morning, bright sunlight cut through the dusty warehouse. Terrence woke up fully energized and hungry to test the limits of his new talent.
"If I want to evolve the hound, I need beast cores. Which means I need a rift."
He left the warehouse and began scanning the ruins of the old sector.
It didn’t take long. As he passed a collapsed supermarket three blocks away, he noticed a heavy spatial turbulence twisting the air.
A deep red vortex spun above the broken glass entrance. It was a C-Rank dungeon rift.
"Talk about luck," Terrence grinned.
He checked his system menu. The Beast Sanctuary screen remained unchanged, confirming that he needed to harvest five C-Rank monster cores to feed his hound.
He walked up to the glowing vortex. His stomach rumbled loudly from hunger, but he ignored it. It was still tolerable.
The spatial pressure near the red rift pulled at his clothes, trying to suck him in.
The country’s laws stated standing this close to an active rift without registering was a severe crime.
A bitter smile touched his lips. "Guess this officially makes me a lawbreaker."
[The Host and the Starter Beast Unit, Mutated Iron Shadow Hound, share a soul connection. A slight immunity to volatile mana has been applied.]
Terrence gazed at the notification, and a faint smile touched his lips.
Crazy enough for his first time, Terrence stepped directly into the red portal without a hint of hesitation.
A dazzling flash of light exploded in his vision, swirling with colors. His stomach dropped as if he were free-falling from a skyscraper. A second later, his boots hit solid stone.
He stood in the courtyard of a ruin of stone and bricks castle surrounded by dense fog.
Terrence immediately summoned his pet. The purple rift opened, and the Mutated Iron Shadow Hound stepped out, its dark metallic fur glistening under the simulated dungeon sunlight.
Deep caution weighed heavily on his mind. Terrence knew he needed the Shadow Hound on constant alert for sudden, unseen attacks.
One second of carelessness in a place like this, and a dormant beast could wipe him out of existence in the blink of an eye.
Terrence took careful, deliberate steps as he navigated through the thick, suffocating fog. Walking was difficult; every stride was fraught with tension as he picked his way through the obscure path.
Reaching out, his hand brushed against a wall. The surface was rough and aged, its deep grooves showing years of decay and moisture exposure. The density of the mist felt completely unnatural here—or maybe his senses were just playing tricks on him out of sheer paranoia.
The silence was so absolute that Terrence could hear the steady rhythm of his own breathing.
This was his very first time in a real dungeon rift. Even the comforting presence of an S-Rank beast by his side wasn’t enough to completely calm his nerves.
Controlling his breathing, terrified that a loud exhale might attract unwanted attention, he pressed forward, using the stone and brick wall as his blind guide. Beside him, the Shadow Hound moved like a ghost, completely silent.
Moments later, the wall abruptly ended. Terrence rounded the sharp corner and finally spotted the exit.
’That wasn’t too bad,’ Terrence thought, a subtle sense of relief washing over him as he began planning his next move.
He stepped out from what appeared to be the interior of a ruined castle into a world of deep, dense foliage. Towering trees surrounded the area—some common enough for him to recognize, while others looked utterly bizarre and mutated.
Despite the strange flora, he felt a wave of relief.
The fog had cleared, and being able to see his surroundings meant he was relatively safe. If he had sent the Shadow Hound ahead to scout while trapped in that fog, he felt he could have died at any second.
He turned toward his Shadow Hound, his gaze thoughtful. After a second of silent deliberation, he issued his command.
"Look for beasts."
Terrence closed his eyes and let out a quiet sigh. He didn’t have the luxury or the suicidal urge to recklessly trek through unfamiliar foliage.
Even with a terrifying creature by his side, he knew that real combat experience and proper knowledge meant the difference between life and death. The Fringe was a rare exception since it was far less dangerous than a common rift.
Exploring the ancient castle structure sounded tempting, but after his close calls in the Fringe, he refused to take unnecessary risks.
"Hunt everything in sight," Terrence ordered, his tone cold and decisive. "Bring me their cores."
The hound let out a low, throat-rattling bark and blurred into a streak of black lightning.
For the next two hours, the dungeon turned into a silent slaughterhouse. Though Terrence couldn’t see the carnage through the thick trees, the agonizing shrieks of dying beasts echoed constantly through the air.
D-Rank skeletal warriors and C-Rank stone gargoyles prowled around the castle perimeter, but none of them could even track the Shadow Hound’s terrifying speed. The hound tore through them effortlessly, crushing stone and bone alike with its iron jaws. The massive power gap between average monsters and an S-Rank beast was absolute.
A short while later, Terrence casually walked behind his beast, which was carrying a load of sparkling beast cores on its back. Beast cores were notoriously rare drops; out of dozens of slain monsters, most simply dissolved into worthless ash.
Terrence felt secure in his current position. With clear sightlines, he could spot and dodge any stray threats while the Shadow Hound systematically cleared the castle perimeter and hunted down the dungeon boss.
By the time the dungeon boss fell, Terrence had gathered six sparkling C-Rank Beast Cores.
Just as he slipped the final core into his pocket, a brilliant golden notification screen flashed directly in front of his vision, overriding the dungeon scenery.
[Mission Triggered!]
[You have been granted 100x A-Rank Guard Slimes. You must sell all of them.]
[Duration: None]
[Reward: S-Rank Vampire Butler]
Terrence’s eyes widened, a sharp spark of excitement igniting in his chest.
A hundred A-Rank beasts granted for free? And the final reward was an S-Rank Vampire Butler?
"A mission with no time limit that drops an entire army of elite beasts straight into my hands to sell," Terrence said, a genuine, cold smile spreading across his face. "This system is absolutely insane."
He accepted the mission immediately and walked toward the glowing exit portal. Part of him hesitated, wanting to explore the cleared dungeon now that the threat was gone, but he knew the rift would collapse soon with the boss dead.
With a heavy exhale, he stepped through the light and returned to the real world.
He didn’t even get a second to process his return. The moment he emerged back into the ruined city streets, a crimson distress flare shot high into the sky just a few blocks away, painting the overcast clouds with thick, dark smoke.
At the exact same time, a heavy, suffocating pressure washed over the area. A powerful wild beast was clearly ambushing whoever fired that flare.
Terrence looked at the rising pillar of smoke without a single trace of fear. He opened his system interface, eyeing the new icon containing one hundred glowing A-Rank Guard Slimes waiting in his inventory.
"Well," Terrence smirked, turning his steps directly toward the smoke. "Should I test out these Guard Slimes?