Weakest Beast Tamer Gets All SSS Dragons novel Chapter 365

The straw war ended when all three collapsed in laughter. For a moment, time seemed to rewind, as if Ren had never left the outskirts, as if he were still just one more among the district's children.

But quickly he felt bad again... No, worse.

Here in the outskirts, children grew up with modest expectations. Their basic beasts guaranteed them lives of manual labor, perhaps as miners or farmers if they were lucky. Military service would be their first and only contact with the developed part of the city.

In contrast, his academy classmates, mostly children of nobles and wealthy merchants, were being prepared for positions of power and influence. Even those who began with seemingly mediocre beasts, like Taro, Liu, and Min had been, had prospects these children couldn't imagine.

"Hey," Tao suddenly said, sitting up and pointing directly at Ren's head, pulling him from his thoughts. "You haven't told us what those glowing things in your hair are."

"Right," added Li, moving closer to get a better look. "They look like mushrooms."

The direct question took Ren by surprise. He had spent so much time among people who knew the general taxonomy that he had almost forgotten how strange it must appear to fresh eyes.

"They don't just look like mushrooms," he responded, running a hand through his hair where the small mushrooms pulsed softly. "They are mushrooms... It's my main beast."

The boys exchanged looks of confusion, their expressions almost mirror of each other.

"Your beast is...?" asked Tao, furrowing his brow so deeply his eyebrows nearly met.

"Surely you've heard about it." Ren smiled at their confusion, finding their bewilderment oddly refreshing. "My beast is a mushroom. Or more specifically, a spore."

The silence that followed was awkward. Tao and Li's faces transitioned from confusion to amazement, and finally to an expression of utter disbelief.

"A spore?" repeated Li, as if the word were incorrect or he had misheard. "You mean the...?"

"The weakest beast," Ren confirmed with a resigned smile. "Yes, exactly that one."

The admission carried none of the shame it once had, transformed by time and achievements into something approaching pride.

Tao shook his head vigorously, sending bits of straw flying. "But that can't be. Spores are the worst bad luck. A total failure. They only appear once every ten thousand invocations of the gray egg and..."

"And I was that one," Ren replied. The mushrooms in his hair pulsed slightly brighter.

"But..." Li looked alternately at Ren and the adults 'expanding' the storehouse, trying to reconcile this revelation with the stories of the prestigious academy. "With everything you just told us about your achievements and your super special school... It can't be that you have the most useless beast and still show off insignias, right?"

Ren shrugged, a gesture that carried both nonchalance and quiet confidence. "Let's see... Where should I begin?

My beast gives three 30% increases and..."

With a fluid movement, Ren extended his palm. A soft luminous flash appeared, and above his hand materialized a small figure: a mushroom barely six centimeters tall, with a bright cap and tiny but remarkably expressive eyes. The creature looked around with evident bad temper, especially when its gaze fell upon the children. Its tiny face scrunched into a scowl that seemed impossibly detailed for its size.

Tao and Li burst into laughter, the sound explosive after the moment of shocked silence.

"It's tiny!" exclaimed Tao between fits of laughter, clutching his sides. "I thought spores were gray, withered clouds, or at least that's what the horror stories of the unfortunate say... but yours isn't a cloud at all and even looks angry!"

"Look at its frowning face!" added Li, pointing at the small mushroom. "It looks like a grumpy baby!" His laughter doubled him over, shoulders shaking with mirth.

The mushroom, apparently offended by the mockery, puffed out its cheeks and its small cap as if holding its breath. The gesture only made the boys laugh harder, their faces reddening with the effort.

"He doesn't take it well when people laugh at him," Ren warned, though his own lips curved into a smile.

"Let us show you real beasts," declared Tao, standing up with exaggerated pride. He puffed out his chest and planted his feet wide. "Behold and be amazed!"

With a gesture similar to Ren's but notably less refined, Tao invoked his beast. A greenish light enveloped the air in front of him, materializing into a plant approximately fifty centimeters tall. The creature resembled a collection of vines organized around a central stem, with three small roots functioning as feet.

"A Weak Iron Seedling!" announced Tao with disproportionate pride. "Increases my vitality by 30%, everything else by 10%, and allows me to perceive and control plants a bit within ten meters!"

Not wanting to be outdone, Li performed his own invocation. The light emanating from his hands was a bit more intense, forming a similar figure but notably larger: a plant almost a meter tall, with thicker and more abundant vines, a robust stem, and roots that firmly gripped the ground.

"Common Bronze 1 Seedling!" proclaimed Li, inflating his chest. "Vitality increased by 60%, everything else by 20%, and I can sense and control plants up to fifteen meters!" His smug expression dared Ren to be impressed.

"Oh... Well, they're the plants everyone has. I've seen my parents' a thousand times, and they're mature so they're bigger than these, but... How did you manage to bring it to Bronze 1?" asked Ren, interested in something intrinsic to the situation.

The boys sighed upon seeing that Ren wasn't surprised in the slightest. He was right that they were very common though, and the new nomenclature was something he himself made…

"So it really is a spore?" asked Li, his voice dropping as if mentioning something taboo. "The 'weakest beast' from the horror legends?"

"Exactly," confirmed Ren. "But it's not as they portray it. I was lucky and discovered its true utility."

"What utility?" asked Tao, evidently skeptical. His crossed arms and raised eyebrow challenged Ren to convince him.

"Well, for starters, now at Bronze 2 it gives me 30% increases in Strength, Intelligence, and Vitality," explained Ren, keeping his tone matter-of-fact.

The children looked at each other before bursting into laughter again.

"That's still terrible!" exclaimed Li between laughs. "My plant gives me 60% in Vitality already at Bronze 1! When it reaches Bronze 2, it'll be 90% plus your 30% but in all aspects."

"Yes, the increases are terrible... And only in three categories," Ren pointed out. "But increases aren't the only good thing about my mushroom."

"What else can something so small do?" challenged Tao, his hands on his hips in a defiant pose.

In response, Ren activated a partial fusion. Then the light extended through his body, forming crystalline patterns that hardened into a translucent armor. He kept the glow to a minimum to avoid alerting distant patrols, but the effect was sufficient to leave his friends gaping in astonishment.

"Whoa," whispered Tao, approaching to examine the armor. "Your tiny mushroom does that?"

"Something like that... Let's say it's part of one of its abilities," confirmed Ren, flexing an arm to show how the armor moved with him. "Crystal protection, though the complete version of this power is much more impressive."

"There's a complete version?" asked Li, suddenly much more interested. The mockery had vanished from his voice.

Ren nodded, but didn't elaborate. His three-meter-tall hydra was already too large to invoke in this confined space, and the glow would be visible from afar.

"It's still tiny," insisted Tao. "But I guess it's cool that it can do that." The grudging admission was as close to approval as childhood pride would allow.

"So you're famous at your school for having the weakest beast and still kicking butt?" asked Li, summarizing the situation in his own way.

Ren smiled, deactivating the armor as the crystalline patterns receded back into his skin. "Something like that." The simple phrase carried the weight of a year's worth of struggles, victories, and transformations, a journey these children could scarcely imagine but might someday understand.