The tournament ended then and there, I was declared the winner. I ended up getting Rank B along with the mage, Johnson and Barbos were ranked C. We were escorted to our new lodgings, as official mercenaries . The mage sat at a table, with Barbos, Johnson and I.

Light blue hair, dark blue eyes. He was cold. Literally cold. Being near him was like standing next to an ice sculpture. When I asked for his name, he replied “Cyrek.”

“Good name. Good name. Who the hell named me Johnson? That’s a stuuuupid name.” Johnson was drunk.

“My lord, Johnson is the finest name of all the names in the land.” Barbos was also drunk.

“No, Johnson is a stupid ass name.” I snorted. I drank too, but only had a light buzz.

“But we almost have the same name!” Johnson was offended and retorted back.

“I know, whoever named me John Star was a dumbass.”

“That was yourself.” reminded the voice in my head.

Cyrek had a shy smile. He was clearly a quiet type.

“Go one, drink more, drink.” We all urged him on. “The best way to bond with others is to get drunk!” Barbos slurred. Barbos had a sad life, it seemed.

He drank some more. The food served was excellent, and the entire hall was in a great mood. All passing members of the test. Some came up to me and congratulated me, asking for my name. I grimaced everytime I told them it was “John Star”. That was a big mistake

Cyrek eventually reached inebriation.

“When I was young, I dreamt of soaring through the sky, on wings of ice. My soul has always been taken by flight. One day, I am going to ssoar.” He seemed to be a philosopher when drunk, and he also seemed to get drunk quite easily.

“He who conquers others is strong, he who conquers himself is mighty. I finally understand, ahhhh, I must repent to the families of those three I killed. “ Cyrek was an introspective sort.

“Just send them some money, they’ll be fine.” I suggested.

“Damn, that's cold, John, that's cold.” scolded Johnson, “Old cyrek, my boy,” He wrapped his arm around cyrek, seemingly completely forgetting the life and death fight they had just hours ago. “First, we need to get you a woman.”

“Aye.” Barbos drunkeely nodded

“Yes, that's not a bad idea.” I nodded, “Let's find you a nice woman, why don't you settle down already?.”

“No, no. You guys all saw the scars on me. I can't be with someone. I am a lone beast, destined to wander alone.”

“Hahaha, just let old john bleed on you. I swear it works! He's a magic man. Wait, are you a mage?! I hate mages. Except for Cyrek. He's a good mage.” Johnson was babbling again.

“Aye.” said barbos, again.

I flung some blood at Cyrek, who freaked out. He had a disgusted expression as he glared at me.

“I can't believe you've done this.” he said, feeling betrayed. As he wiped the blood off himself, he thought it was a cruel prank until barbos ripped his shirt off, revealing a finely sculpted body.

“Oh, dman cyrek, you don't need any help.”

“You’re welcome, boyo. Now go get some.”

“Aye.”

Cyrek actually left with a group of women. Goddamn mages, I swear. Barbos went and picked up some guy to take to his room, revealing to nobody's surprise that he was actually gay.

Johnson went and talked to the receptionist, it seems they were hitting it off.

Suddenly, the boys abandoned me. So it was like this, huh.

“I'm sorry, little star…” Hearing Big Star's consolation made my heart hurt. I was a Blood colored metal man with a tail, fingers that became swords, and a pair of wings I revealed to everyone earlier. There were people with fake wings out there, so I still wasn’t completely outed. Still though, I was much more of a beast than a human.

People assumed this was done for intimidation purposes. They just saw me as a mysterious figure with incredible ‘augmentations’.

The blood healing was hard to explain, however. A few people saw it happen, so began spreading a rumor that I had magical blood. Luckily, rumors were just rumors, and most of the people that saw it were drunk.

Late into the night, I got even more drunk with some randoms. These were some wild people. One got up, and started singing a song. A Bard with a talent for improv.

“Oh this is the Ballad of John Star,

Who once shot his blood from afar,

Healing a poor man’s every scar.

This is the new era we hail.

Where the mightiest has an metal tail

If you are struck, to the sea you shall sail.

He is more beast than man,

Carrying broad wings like a leviathan,

Stand taller and mightier than a Titan,

This is the Ballad of John Star

Who else could ever be nearly as spectacular?!”

My room was a level above the rest, on the top floor with the rest of the B-rank. Rank A mercenaries all lived where they pleased. I summoned Au-ha and asked, apparently, there were less than 100 in the world. There was an unknown number of rank S members, whose identities were all confidential.

On the other side of the spectrum, where those wanted by the government. Criminals that ranged from serial killers to Syndicate leaders, all holding a certain degree of strength. It was the job of mercenaries to capture these powerful criminals, or kill beasts that still threaten the land. The police dealt with ordinary human criminals, while mercenaries dealt with everything else.

I was to handle one mission of my level or above each month. After enough time, or enough reputation, I would be upgraded to the A-rank.

That night, I slept in a massive room, on a large bed. I dreamt again, this time I was once more the Star-ape. When I first took a bite of that starlit apple, my entire body and mind evolved completely. From a simple beast to a king with the power of stars.

I lived a life hundreds of thousands of years long. I made a kingdom, and expanded it to encompass the entire world. One world, unified. A population that had almost expanded to the stars, reaching the other worlds. They too would be mine, I thought.

When that damn tree stopped producing the fruit, I knew it marked the end.

The next morning, I found Sergio, who was surprisingly an A ranker. As a B-ranker, I had the right to formally request a teacher who was a rank above. I didn’t, though, and just went to his house.

Can you imagine my surprise when some beautiful blonde bombshell described herself as his wife? She invited me in to eat. There were even kids there.

Truly an enigma. A riddle wrapped in a mystery. I ate breakfast with Sergio, and he offered to teach me. I accepted.

“Now, Johnny, I can teach you the basics of martial arts. First there are grapples, come, let me show you.”

“No grapples, please.”

“Booo, Johnny, listen to your teacher.” he pouted.

“I don't like grabbing people, it's a phobia.” I made something up, and he went on to teach me basic boxing, which consisted entirely of throwing punches, dodging using minimal movements, and keeping up an equally offensive defense. I put my arms up, hunching over, hopping on my feet. It was fun.

I think I had a talent for boxing.

He presented quite a few different forms of martial arts, from judo to krav maga. I ended up adapting a lot of kicks, with a few knee and elbow strikes from other styles, with the base being a boxer's stance. It was closest in style to muay thai

After training with Sergio for the day, I met up with the boys for drinks and dinner. Cryek was now far too cocky after I healed him.

“Haha, maybe brother John can find a woman one day who can look beyond the surface.” he tapped my metal coating.

“Don’t make me stab you.” I warned

Johnson was absolutely ecstatic. “I asked her out, and she accepted, her name Is Mia. And the rank A swordsman accepted to teach me even though I'm rank C! Hahahahah, these are good times indeed. Here's to good friends, good women, and good teachers. Aye, I'm too blessed.”

“Aye,” Barbos was drunk again, “I too met a nice mate, and have found a teacher in the axe, Aye.”

“Well, I got a strange bald man to teach me Muay Thai and Boxing, so I think I'm winning here.” I scoffed.

The next few weeks passed like this. Training in Martial arts, meeting up for drinks and dinner late at night, and dreaming of various beasts.

I dreamt I was a golden wolf, an alpha with a vast flock. An ape whose fingers became swords. I dreamt of iron hawks flying in the sky, and Iron snakes slithering down beneath. I dreamt I was a harpy, who was thrown into a portal, landing in a dreadful world of blood, later slain by a glowing ape.

My martial skills improved greatly, and Sergio would provide expensive training robots, with nanomachines he had special access to. At first I would spar with him, then him and a robot. Two robots, three, four, five. I was no master, but no longer could I be called an amateur.

Eventually, came the time for a mission to be done. It had to be B rank or Above. I checked the list of missions available. They all seemed the same, either dealing with a beast, a criminal, or criminal group.

I looked at the A rank beasts. Of which many were not metallic. To my surprise, there existed other elements in this world. Mainly the elements of Magnetism, and electricity.

Two caught my attention,

One was a group of three-eyed Lightning ravens. Weirdly mutated beasts that were highly intelligent, and could shoot beams of electricity out of a third eye. A very tempting power, I lacked range at the moment.

The other was a single Magnetic field. It was like a loose cloud of particles with a charged magnetic core. It could manipulate objects at will. The big problem is that there was only one. I would have to bring a core back to confirm completion of the mission. I'm told they were also very valuable for a variety of manufacturing processes.

I went to Cyrek, and presented him with the idea of taking this mission together. You could take missions in groups, as long as they were all the same rank. He accepted.

Interestingly enough, both the ravens and the magnetic field were in the Low East. A largely unpopulated geographical superpower. It had one large city, and massive areas of beast-controlled land. This was kept for a purpose, as the beasts served as valuable resources. These resources were enough to make the Low East powerful enough to contend with the other two major Nations.

A flying aircraft came to pick us up. It was automated in flight. It would only take a few hours to travel around the globe with the speed of this thing. We arrived at the destination within the hour.