****(POV)

I hate and have always hated the weak.

For as long as I can remember.

The weak are sly schemers that will stop at nothing to progress in life.

I know that for a fact.

I used to be weak.

I hated that version of me.

Incomparable to the 4-star beast tamer that I am now.

I might only be considered a rank 3.5 but my creature truly is rank 4.

It simply is that reaching the next level is extremely hard.

That is why I am currently stuck.

Still, I remain worlds apart from the old me.

The one that could only lie and cheat to survive.

The one that led a day-to-day existence.

The one that would find suckers to get a bit of profit from.

I would try and buy people's trash and resell it.

Of course, inventing a great fictive backstory behind it.

Sometimes the wilder the lie the more people want to believe.

Of course, this used to belong to the previous lord!

There are even his initials and a remnant of his seal on it!

It is simply a little bit erased from the passage of time!

I would say stuff like that.

One time I bought a rock.

It wasn't even anything special, but it had a cool shape.

The experts had confirmed it too.

Nothing but useless junk.

Still, it made for some nice bait.

I bought it from a friend back then.

And by that, I mean forced him to give it to me.

I threatened to reveal the appraisal result of it being worthless.

Turns out that the appraisers screwed up.

The rock was no rock.

No, it was an egg.

The egg of a rank 4 monster at that.

When it hatched, I almost had a heart attack.

Still, I managed to keep my bearings.

Thus started my story.

I worked hard.

Sure contracting a powerful being gives power.

However, it forces one to keep up with its growth rate.

When it just hatched the lowly me was fine.

But the more time passed the faster I had to grow.

Otherwise, I would either die or have to let go of my pet.

Neither was acceptable to me.

I worked hard, harder, and the hardest.

I wanted to escape being a nobody.

I went from being despicable trash to the leading tamer.

At least at that one specific branch.

The taming guild itself is so huge it is unbelievable.

The whole system.

I got a glimpse of it and it scared me.

One day I would love to reach that point.

See the headquarter with my own eyes.

Perhaps even the true headquarter.

The one that isn't on this continent.

A man can dream.

The chances are slim.

Every day, I train.

Always in secret.

I want others to see my success.

But not the efforts I spend.

Otherwise, they would realize how ordinary I really am.

For that reason, I abhor geniuses like that Ice guy.

Maybe he trains in secret like me?

No.

He understands every taming technique at a glance.

That entitled prick.

All the things I struggle with…

Are as natural as breathing to him.

The worst is that he is younger than I am.

The only good thing is that he has yet to reach rank 4.

My time is ticking.

My number one position about to be taken away.

The worst is that it's not even because I'm being lazy.

Fuck.

I feel like no matter what I do it's not enough.

No, it's not a feeling.

It's reality.

The harsh and unfair reality.

Sometimes I simply wish I could kill him.

Wipe his annoying face off the earth realm.

The old me would have.

The current me is different.

Oh, but every day I do wish him a painful death.

One that wouldn't be related to me.

Otherwise, he would always remain my mental demon.

Forever the one I feared enough to terminate.

I can be defeated but I won't cower.

I'll keep fighting and working hard.

This is my conviction.

Lately, I've been in a bad mood.

There are undesirables in the guild.

Too many.

Weaklings that lack morals and strength.

That one that turned out to have no talent whatsoever.

We should have driven him away.

Yet Ice accepted him as his student just to spite me.

At least that's what most think

The same student that made a false report about a slime king later on.

Talk about dumb.

People as worthless as them claiming to have defeated a creature even I would struggle with.

There is such a thing as a lie too big to be believable.

What he did was a few notches above that even.

Then, there is that slime guy.

First, he tamed a slime.

A normal slime is so weak it won't bring anything to the guild.

There is a reason we don't bother with them.

Sure it is nice how he managed to tame one.

But it is mostly useless.

A war is about to begin.

All these guys are going to be dead weight.

Later, he tried to cheat during the pet evaluation exam.

One designed so it only tests the creature.

He tried to fight in its place like a retard.

He paid for it.

Sadly he survived.

I'm not sure of the specifics.

Still would have been nice if he could have kicked the bucket.

I tried to have them blacklisted but that Ice guy intervened.

Once again going against me.

That guy is the worst.

He is making my life so difficult.

Just because he can't wait to dethrone me.

There is no way I will give up that easily.

At least, at this very moment, I am the strongest tamer here.

That should count for something.

This place is in serious need of reform.

We need to start training tamers in warfare tactics.

We need organized battalions to launch coordinated attacks.

We need only to keep the strongest of elements.

This is the legacy I would like to leave this guild.

Of course, there are people working hard to pull us down.

*Knock knock*

At the door is the Ice dude.

Thinking about that asshole made him appear…

What is he, some kind of evil spirit?

Also, what does he want?